Canadians are clearly obsessed with Facebook. Toronto has become the first city in North America to break the one million user mark and about half of all online Canadians have joined the social network.
Digital Journal – There is something about Facebook. A new survey by ZINC Research and its partner Dufferin Research shows more than one million Torontonians are now on Facebook. Even scarier: About half of all Canadians who have Internet access are on Facebook. That is almost double the rate of only three months ago.
“2007 is the year that Facebook took Canada by storm,” said Brian F. Singh, Managing Director of ZINC Research, in a news release. “In just over one year, there are now over seven million subscribers. This is phenomenal growth, and there is no indication that this is slowing down soon. Canadians love the Facebook platform for its simplicity and ability to connect with and stay in contact with friends and family. They also appear to accept that this is the site for social networking.”
According to Facebook, the site has more than 59 million active users, with an average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007. The site says it grows an average of 3 per cent per week. Facebook is also the No. 1 photo sharing application on the Web (comScore) and Canada has the most Facebook users outside of the United States.
ZINC Research focuses on tracking interest in social networks from Canadians. The group says out of those Canadians who are active on a social network, Facebook accounts for more than three-quarters of all memberships and members are more likely to be 18- to 34-years-old, and female.
“With our world becoming increasingly wired, Facebook appears to be bridging the gap with our online and real lives,” said Singh. “We see people who have connected with people from their past and, given how mobile we have become, being able to stay in contact friends and family from across the country and around the world – all via this easy to use and engaging platform.”
A whopping 93 per cent of respondents said they were aware of Facebook (even if they were not a member of the site), and Canadians spend a mean average of 5.7 hours per week on the site.
Competitor MySpace had an 88 per cent rate of awareness.
It’s important to note this survey was carried out in an online poll from Nov. 19-23 and Dec. 14-19 with 1,200 Canadians. As ZINC Research explains: “The sample is census representative by region, gender and age. Based on global tracking, approximately 70 per cent of Canadians have access to the Internet, and this methodology is considered representative of the Canadian population.”
