I've been interested in things international a lot longer than I've been blogging international topics (just look up careers in international affairs). At work, that translates into tracking down companies globally; it's one way my research is different. So when somebody takes a good look at social media patterns beyond the US, I'm usually interested.
Global view
- Trendstream created a great source in Global Web Index, which is based on an ongoing survey across 26 national markets. The full research is subscriber-only, but the site offers free summary data on 16 countries.
- Paul Butler's visualization of Facebook friendships gives a global view of Facebook connections. (Dec 2010)
- Vincenzo Cosenza's world map of social networks (shown above) gives a different kind of high-level summary. December 2012 update
- Global Publics Embrace Social Networking, Pew Global Attitudes Project (Dec 2010)
- Global Social Media Usage and the Language Factor, Lionbridge (2010)
- Social media around the world 2011, InSites Consulting (Sep 2011)
Regional view
- Asia Pacific Social Media Report (highlights), Nielsen (Jul 2010)
- European Social Media Trends, Trendstream (Sep 2010)
- Social Media in Latin America (PDF), Synthesio (Feb 2011)
- 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review, comScore (Feb 2011)
- Social, Digital and Mobile in Asia, We Are Social (Dec 2011)
Country-level view
- Australia
Yellow Social Media Report (PDF), AIMIA (May 2012) - Bhutan
Social, Digital and Mobile in Bhutan, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - Brazil
Top Social Networking Sites in Brazil, comScore (Aug 2010)
Usage and behavioral habits of Brazilian internet users in social media , E.Life (Mar 2011) - Cambodia
Social, Digital and Mobile in Cambodia, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - China
Chinese Consumer Report 2010, Roland Berger/CIC (Jul 2010)
Social Media and Censorship in China (PDF), Synthesio (Mar 2011)
An Overview of the Evolution of Chinese Social Media, CIC (Mar 2011)
The Social Media Landscape in China, CIC (May 2011)
The Voice of Luxury: Social Media and Luxury Brands in China, CIC/GroupM (Aug 2011) - France
Echo v.2, Scanblog (Nov 2010) - Germany
Social Media Governance 2010, Fink & Fuchs (via Attentio) (Sep 2010) - India
Overview of Leading Indian Social Media (PDF), Open Source Center (Dec 2010)
Social, Digital and Mobile in India, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - Indonesia
Social, Digital and Mobile in Indonesia, We Are Social (Dec 2011)
- Iran
Mapping Iran's Online Public, Berkman Center for Internet & Society (Apr 2008) - Italy
Analisi del ruolo dei Blog nell’informazione di attualita, Liquida/Human Highway (via Vincenzo Cosenza) (Nov 2010) - Japan
Social, Digital and Mobile in Japan, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - Laos
Social, Digital and Mobile in Laos, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - Nepal
Social, Digital and Mobile in Nepal, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - South Africa
South African Social Media Landscape 2011, Fuseware/World Wide Worx (Oct 2011) - Taiwan
Social, Digital and Mobile in Taiwan, We Are Social (Dec 2011) - Vietnam
Social, Digital and Mobile in Vietnam, We Are Social (Dec 2011)
Some lists are more incomplete than others. What sources of regional or country-level information on social media usage have you found?
Thanks for mentioning the GlobalWebIndex!
Have a look at our trends for 2011 as well
http://www.slideshare.net/Tomtrendstream/welcome-to-social-entertainment-annual-report-2011