Social networking Web sites continue to dominate Taiwan’s top 100 online sites, with Facebook taking the No. 1 spot, an annual survey by a local magazine showed.
Among the sites on Business Next’s list, 27 percent were social networking Web sites, including four of the top 10.
The ranking was calculated based on four indices for the last six months of last year, including average ranking on Alexa.com, which ranks global Web sites, unique visitors, duration per visit and average monthly duration.
Facebook has demonstrated that it sees Asia as its key future market. It opened an office in Hong Kong early last month, and has also introduced more applications, such as Facebook Places and Deals that allow users to “check-in” to businesses and utilize discounts and coupons in Asia.
The influence of social networking has prompted Taiwan’s political leaders to create a Web presence as well. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) launched his official Facebook page on Jan. 28, following in the footsteps of a number of Democratic Progressive Party officials.
As for Taiwan’s home-grown Web sites, Wretch.cc, a site for blogs, photo and video sharing, came in at No. 2, while Gamer.com.tw, a social networking site for gaming, and Eyny.com, a discussion forum, placed No. 6 and No. 8 respectively.
The number of Internet users has steadily increased by 1 percent annually since 2006, the survey showed. However, social networking sites demonstrated the most dramatic growth among users. In 2009, only 25.4 percent of users were on social networking Web sites, but that increased to 63 percent last year.
The Institute for Information Industry said that as of September last year, there were 10.7 million Internet users in Taiwan.
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