By Julian Steinforth, Expedition PR
According to a ComScore report, 46.4 million people are accessing social media services via their PC in Germany. With a population of over 81 million people, half of the country is regularly online. 17.3 million Germans are checking in on social networks daily for news . Half of those (8.4 million) are using their Smartphone to go online to read blogs or communicate via Twitter, Facebook and other social media services.
This month, eMarketer published a report stating that Germany is the top social networking spot in Western Europe, edging out the U.K. The social media usage numbers in Germany are expected to increase further over the next years.
In the U.S. the most popular social networks are Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Google+. In Germany Facebook and Google+ are also among the top social networks, with Facebook dominating the market. However, there are also few other networks that are worth mentioning. One of them is Xing, a social network for business professionals that is comparable to LinkedIn.
XING says that more than 14 million members worldwide use its platform to boost their business, job, and career. Of those 14 million users, over 6.7 million are based in German-speaking countries. Xing was established in 2003 under the name openBC by Lars Hinrichs. The company changed its name to Xing in July 2006 to prepare for its stock market launch in December of the same year. With the acquisition of amiando, an online ticket seller, in 2010 Xing could simplify the ticket ordering for events on their platform. This year’s acquisition of the social recruiting service kumunu further enhances Xing’s recruiting functionalities. By continuously expanding its capabilities, Xing became a leading social network for business networking, business events and recruiting in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. A recent ComScore on Germany stated that Germans spend almost twice as much time on Xing (14.7 minutes) than on LinkedIn (7.9 minutes).
When Xing is a popular network for business, what do Germans use for their personal life? Like people in the U.S., do Germans turn to Yelp for recommendations on restaurants, bars, and hairdressers?
They don’t. Most people in Germany don t even know Yelp, yet. According to Statistica.com only 0.80% would use Yelp in 2013 to find restaurants, bars and other locations in Germany. However, Germany’s most popular point of sale (POS) app Qype merged with Yelp last October. So maybe Germans will also start “reaching for the stars” in the future.
Last but not least. When talking about what social network services are popular in Germany, the real-time messaging service Whats App can not be left out. The app that allows the sharing of messages, pictures and video via messaging on your phone for free, is the third most popular app in Germany, based on research by ComScore.