Social Media in Estonia: the Winner is Orkut!

According to a study realized by the Estonian division of GfK Custom Research Baltic the (half) global phenomenon of Facebook did not manage to hit Estonia enough to claim the role of leader in social media since Estonian still prefer to do their e-networking elsewhere.

Confirming a bizarre exception that sees Google ruling in some specific markets with his not-too-successful social network, Orkut seems to be by far the most used by local population since 26 per cent of the respondents to the survey admitted using it at least once a month.

The second place goes instead to the 100% Estonian invention Rate.ee (16%), a site created by Andrei Korobeinik as an university project and which success allowed the creation of several other market specific similar sites controlled from Rate cool office in Parnu mnt.

Numbers go slightly down when it gets about Facebook – 12% – and drop significantly when mentioning Twitter and Myspace, used respectively by 6 and 5 per cent of Estonians.

The core group of users seems made by people in the 15-25yo range even if by admission of the head of the Estonian division of GfK Custom Research Baltic Mauri Sööt himself, Estonians make an important use of social networking platforms also for professional communication.

“The way how the members of the society communicate between themselves and with the State institution affects the society. E-banking, e-voting, use of e-services, reading news over the internet – all these means for official and unofficial internet communications have thus far demonstrated a clear growth trend,” he remarked.