ComScore recently did a research, which found that among 40 individual countries reported by comScore, Russia has the world’s most engaged social networking audience, with the average online Russian spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per month.

Brazil ranked close behind Russia at 6.3 hours, followed by Canada (5.6 hours), Puerto Rico (5.3 hours) and Spain (5.3 hours). The US ranked at #9  in terms of social network engagement, with an average of 4.2 average hours and 477 pages consumed per visitor.

I was surprised at once, because I thought that the Asian countries will definitely top the ranking. But neither China, Korea, or Japan is even showing up in this top-20 list. So I looked closely and found out that this data/research doesn’t include the internet Cafe or mobile web browsing…

This is really a good example of showing how mis-leading a social networking research could be. In my opinion, this research totaly ingored the big social networking factor - how it’s being social networked. In other words, in what way people are socializing. Without Internet Cafe data, China of course will not show up; without mobile web browsing, Japan, Korea, South Africa or China will probably not show up. Because that’s how people in those countries socialize. If you cut their main social networking platform, there is no way to understand how they are engaged.

Here is the list of the top 20 countries from ComScore research:

Tags: Australia, Canada, china, ComScore, mobile, Puerto Rico, Russia, Social network service, social networking, Spain

Here is my weekly wrap up around the online market research and trends:

February’s top 50 web properties: Romance, Taxes & Hulu from comScore

• This is really lovely and encouraging (especially in the economy like now): “Valentine’s Day was a key driver of online activity in February;
• What’s surprising to me is: Hulu, the online video joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp., surged 55% to 7.8 million unique visitors in February
• Traffic to tax sites surges as tax season continues
• Bargain hunters seek budget travel deals

Up and Downs of Big Brands

• according to CoreBrand, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson have maintained the #1 and #2 spots on a list of top companies with the most “Brand Power” in the US
• JApple continues to grow its corporate brand and now ranks at #91, up from #119 in 2007 and #128 in 2005
• Credit card company brands are improving: Visa is now #23, up from #36 in 2007 and #44 in 2005; MasterCard is #31, up from #44 in 2007 and #57 in 2005, and American Express is #11, up from #13 in 2007 and #16 in 2005
• Starbucks had a notable loss as it dropped from #10 in 2007 to #14 in 2008
• PepsiCo has been dropping at an alarming rate and has gone from #4 in 2005 to #11 in 2007 and to #18 in 2008
• General Electric is losing steam, dropping from #12 in 2005 to #17 in 2007 to #24 place in 2008
• Procter & Gamble has dropped steadily from #31 in 2005 to #39 in 2008
• General Motors has fallen steadily from #30 in 2005 to #41 in 2008
• The full report can be downloaded as PDF

Hitwise: online search queries get wordier

Generations Online in 2009 Report from Pew Internet

No surprise: social is the main activity that young generation are living with online

Tags: American Express, Coca-Cola, ComScore, Hulu, internet trends, market intelligence, market trends, NBC, NBC Universal, Procter & Gamble, Valentine's Day