The current state of social networking: Winners and losers [Infographic]

Social networking has been the “in thing” since 2006 when the rest of the world discovered Facebook. The social networking giant is without a doubt king of the social networking royal court with more than 600-million users. This royal court also consists of other social networks some you might not have heard.

It appears social networking peaked in 2009 and dropped slightly in 2010. Usage in 2011 has been steady with more users flocking to Tumblr, Chinese microblogging site Weibo, Reddit, Stumbleupon and LinkedIn. At the same time it is unsurprising to note that MySpace and Hi5 usage have declined.

Plaxo is the network for the over 65s. Facebook is more popular amongst women while Digg is favoured by men. LinkedIn is the social network the “richest” users, however it is outranked by China’s Renren in terms of well-educated users who have graduate degrees.

Social media agency, Ignite Social Media, created an interesting infographic (below) highlighting the current state of social networking. The data provided in the infographic is the sum of analysis of 54 social networks around the world.

Some of the social networks featured in the infographic are not as well known worldwide but are popular in certain geographical areas.