12 Social Media Networks You Didn’t Know About

By: Kareem El-Nagdy

Social Media has always been about the game of numbers, be it followers or fans, users or subscribers. And because we all like numbers here are some for you: There are about 7.1 billion people on the planet, only of which 39% (2.77 billion) are Internet users and around 62.4% (1.73 billion) of those use social media at least once a month, according to eMarketer.

Social Media Networks You Probably Know About

Facebook [1 billion+ users]; Twitter [600 million+ users]; Google+ [500 million+ users]; Linkedin [200 million+ users]; hi5 [80 million+ users]; Flickr [32 million+ users]; MySpace [30 million+ users]; Foursquare [20 million+ users]; StumbleUpon [20 million+ users]; SoundCloud [10 million+ users]

Are there any other social media networks out there? Yes.

Way more than you think. Here’s another number for you: There are over 150 social media networks with over 150,000 (which is a big number) of users out there.

What Might These Be?

1) Qzone [600 million+ users]

Catering mainly to Mainland China, Qzone is the 7th largest website worldwide (according to their Alexa rank) and 2nd largest social media network in terms of users, offering them their own “zone” that they can accessorize with different backgrounds, colors and widgets and where they can share blog posts, keep diaries and listen to music. Qzone is not a free service for the most part; users need to purchase different packages to utilize the social network at it’s fullest. And many Gulf countries won’t allow you to even browse to their site.

2) Sina Weibo [502 million+ users]

Similar to Twitter, Sina Weibo is a Chinese micro-blogging social network with over 100 million messages posted daily catering mainly to Mainland China. It started in August 2009 and grew to become the 35th largest website in terms of traffic and the 5th largest social media network worldwide.

3) Habbo [268 million+ users]

Aimed at teenagers, Habbo is a Finnish virtual world social media network with users in 150 countries worldwide. Users can join different communities and share and chat over the network.

4) Renren [160 million+ users]

The Chinese Facebook; literally meaning “Everyone’s Website” is popular amongst Chinese college students and is the 9th largest social media network worldwide, offering similar functions such as those of Facebook. Launched in 2005, it followed a very similar pattern to the Facebook growth ladder, making the service available to students through their university email IDs at first before opening its gates to the public.

5) VKontake [125 million+ users]

Another Facebook copy cat, VKontake is the 2nd largest social media network in Europe after Facebook.  Launched in Russia, by late 2006 it grew massively overtaking its competitor Odnoklassniki (#11 on this list)  in the social media space to become Russia’s largest social media network.

6) Tagged [100 million+ users]

Founded in 2004, Tagged is a social discovery network allowing its users to browse other user profiles near them. It also allows its users to play games, share toys, gifts and “pets”. It has a very interesting growth factor since the network has been used in many southern Asian countries for dating purposes since it’s available through their mobile app.

7) Orkut [100 million+ users]

Owned by Google and named after its creator Orkut Büyükkökten, this netork provides a good connection tool for friends and colleagues to stay in touch or even meet new friends. It is unpopular in most western countries but is highly used by users in Brazil (60% of user base), India (30% of user base) and Japan (8% of user base).

The website is actually operated by Google Brazil due to the high user base there. Some Arab countries have blocked the website deeming it inappropriate.

8) Netlog [95 million+ users]

Similar to Qzone, Netlog allows users to create their own web page and share blog posts, music and videos on it. Formerly known as Facebox and BingBox, it was founded in Belgium mid 2003 and has grown over the past 10 years to reach just under a 100 million users.

9) MyLife [51 million+ users]

Formerly known as Reunion.com, MyLife offers one place for social aggregation from email accounts and other social networks. 11 years strong, the social network allows you to search for users, find out who’s searching for you and connect with other users.

10) douban [47 million+ users]

Another huge Chinese social media platform, douban is a review and recommendation network for movies, books, music and activities in China. Unlike its competitors Renren, they are open to registered and unregistered users and has served as a place for Chinese critics and authors to connect with their followers and fans.

11) Odnoklassniki [45 million+ users]

Russia’s second largest social network after Vkontake (VK), Odnoklassniki provides a social network for classmates and friends. Launched in 2006, it offers members seven years of age and above to make an account and connect with their friends, family and colleagues.

12) Viadeo [35 million+ users]

The second largest social network for professionals after Linkedin. Viadeo was launched in France in 2004 and has acquired several professional networks over time, including Chinese  Tianji.com and Spanish ICNet. Viadeo lets members maintain a list of business partners, allowing them to stay in touch, use or help each other to find a job, or create business opportunities.

New Ericsson report: Smartphones change cities

• 18 examples of the role ICT plays in terms of consumers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with city life
• In cities, people are most satisfied with the availability of shopping, restaurants, and leisure facilities, whereas areas inducing dissatisfaction include child/elderly care, communication with authorities, and traffic
• Smartphone owners who evaluated service concepts for these areas believe that in three years, market availability will be five times what it is today, turning all tested concepts into mass-market services
• Consumers see such services as primarily driven by the relevant industry, making it important for the ICT industry to bridge the gap

In a new Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) ConsumerLab report, smartphone users in major cities around the world were asked about their interest in, and the potential development of, 18 new services relating to important aspects of city life.

The study asked smartphone users to evaluate new service concepts related to the areas of city life they are most satisfied with – the availability of shopping, restaurants, and leisure facilities. Examples of new services include: social restaurant guides, a digital real-time trainer, situational shopping recommenders, mobile menus and table reservations, and same-day goods delivery.

Delving into these new concept services, the study asked if a restaurant ingredient checker service was of interest: while eight percent of respondents think the service is available today, 61 percent expect it to be a normal service available within three years.

The study also covers areas that users expressed most dissatisfaction with, namely child/elderly care, communication with authorities, and traffic. New service concepts here include, social care networks enabling easy communication with family members via any device, a contextual mobile city service that provides location-based information from local authorities, and a minimal day-travel scheduler that optimizes a user’s calendar to minimize need for travel.

Respondents also indicated that they are looking for better services and improved communication from authorities via their smartphones. Alongside this, between 10 and 15 percent of young couples and parents think a range of ICT-enabled care services are available in their cities now, while 64-68 percent believe they will be widely available in three years.

Michael Björn, Head of Research at Ericsson ConsumerLab, said: “Mass demand for new ICT services can change city life, beyond what we recognize, in just three years. Smartphone services related to shopping, eating out and finding entertainment can drastically improve people’s satisfaction with life in cities. Smartphone services can also alleviate dissatisfaction, and expectations are high on the market to make these services available.”

Björn continued: “The results of this study show that consumers welcome innovation in many areas of their everyday experiences in the city.”

Traffic is the number one source of dissatisfaction in cities, and 47 percent of smartphone owners in the survey expressed interest in a personal navigator that provides the best travel information for all modes of indoor and outdoor transport, from walking to driving.

Almost half (47 percent) of smartphone owners predict that mobile operators will be instrumental in bringing this particular service to their pockets, although generally they see the relevant industry taking the lead.

The study was conducted online in São Paolo, Beijing, New York, London and Tokyo, and gathered responses from 7,500 smartphone users. The study is representative of 40 million citizens.

Candy Crush: Why Is Everyone Obsessed With It?

Candy Crush Saga: The game that is driving everyone insane!

Let’s be honest, when it comes to games, this shouldn’t be on the top of the list. But for some reason it is an awful addiction, an obsession that does nothing more than drain your battery and your energy.

This “Bejeweled” knockoff game starts off as something fun to do, up until you reach level 29, and then everything gets crazy. Not only are you playing it over and over again to prove to yourself that you can do it, but then you start sending annoying Facebook invites for an extra life, and right there is exactly where you start losing your Facebook friends.

So why is everyone obsessed? Because it’s fun and entertaining? No. Because it caters to our ever exceedingly short attention spans? Not even. Because it functions like any good drug dealer, luring you in with free, quick boosts of time wasting, feel good euphoria only to start charging you (in money or Facebook invites) right when you’re hooked and pining for more lives like a Tramadol addict looking to score.

Genius.

BlackBerry calls off sale, will replace CEO

(Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd is abandoning a plan to sell itself, the major thrust of the rescue campaign crafted by the smartphone company's board, and said on Monday its chief executive will resign.

Unable to get a buyout offer for the company finalized after a strategic review that lasted more than two months, BlackBerry said it will instead raise about $1 billion from its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings, and other institutional investors.

The moves pushed BlackBerry shares sharply lower. They were down almost 13 percent at $6.77 late on Monday morning on the Nasdaq.

"Now we're back to the downward spiral," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "They've got $1 billion more cash that buys them time. The drumbeat of negativity is likely to continue."

BlackBerry grew from a small technology startup into a multibillion-dollar company by pioneering on-the-go email. But it has lost much of its market share to Apple Inc's iPhone and devices that run Google Inc's Android software.

BlackBerry said Chief Executive Thorsten Heins will leave in about two weeks, as soon as the Fairfax-led private placement of convertible debentures closes. His interim successor will be John Chen, the former CEO of Sybase, a database software company that SAP AG acquired in 2010.

Chen stressed his experience as a turnaround artist in an interview with Reuters, where he also said he has no interest in shutting down BlackBerry's handset business.

Chen will also be BlackBerry's new executive chairman. He joined private equity group Silver Lake as senior adviser a year ago, but he said his involvement with BlackBerry has nothing to do with his ties to Silver Lake.

"Fairfax's investment will buy the company some time, which it badly needs, but the company needs a new strategy more than ever," said Jan Dawson, Ovum's chief telecoms analyst, noting that communication on the strategy must start "very soon".

FAIRFAX STILL ON BOARD

Fairfax has agreed to buy $250 million of the seven-year subordinated debentures, which will be convertible into common shares at $10 each. The private placement could eventually increase the number of BlackBerry shares by as much as 20 percent.

BlackBerry did not name the other institutional investors participating in the deal, but Chen said Silver Lake is not one of them.

"I know we have enough ingredients to build a long-term sustainable business," he told Reuters. "I have done this before and seen the same movie before."

BlackBerry had been talking with a number of companies, including Cisco Systems Inc, Google, SAP, Lenovo Group Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, LG Electronics Inc and Intel Corp about selling parts or all of itself, Reuters reported previously.

But the only public offer came from Fairfax, which announced a tentative $9-a-share bid in late September. Reuters said on Friday that Fairfax was struggling to fund the $4.7 billion bid.

Moody's said in September that that transaction would hurt Fairfax's credit profile because it would convert a public equity investment into a private structure.

The current deal is structured to give Fairfax and the other investors flexibility as the financing is in the form of convertible debentures.

The investors have an option to buy up to an additional $250 million worth of debentures within 30 days following closing.

(Additional reporting by Sinead Carew, Alastair Sharp and John Tilak; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Gerald E. McCormick, Lisa Von Ahn and Peter Galloway)

The Globe Summit Returns to Riyadh for A Week of World’s Gastronomic Best

The most anticipated gastronomic event in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - The Globe Summit Series, returns in November with an extraordinary line-up of gastronomic activities that will delight food connoisseurs and fine dining enthusiasts.   The second series of the Globe Summit will take place from 8th to 12th November in the international award-winning The Globe Restaurant atop at Riyadh’s leading luxury hotel, Al Faisaliah Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel.    The five-day extravaganza of world class fine dining will deliver a series of lunches, exquisite three-course dinners, and a spectacular Gala Dinner created by Michelin-starred chef Martin Burge. The Briton, who brings his extensive experience in Michelin-starred restaurants in UK to Riyadh, will also conduct a series of pastry demonstrations.    “There is no doubt that The Globe Summit is one of the most popular gourmet events in the Kingdom, and after the overwhelming response to the first series in September, we are delighted to be hosting the second series this month,” said Alex Pichel, Managing Director of Riyadh’s Rosewood Hotels. “We look forward to welcoming both our longstanding and loyal patrons to savour a taste of the world’s most cutting-edge and creative culinary compositions.”    Recognising the popularity of The Globe Summit Series, the most renowned brands in the Kingdom have partnered with Al Faisaliah Hotel to support the gastronomic event. Partners include: Andalusia Gourmet, Qatar Airways, Sony, Al Jazirah Newspaper and Eye of Riyadh.     The Globe Summit Series, a series of exclusive gastronomic events takes place over a 14 month period and is hosted by a number of the world’s most celebrated Grand Chefs.     For more information and reservations guests are invited to contact the Al Faisaliah Hotel Reservations Centre on +966 11 273 2222.

Reading the crystal ball: Economic sciences face credibility crisis

Ever since the outbreak of the global economic and financial crisis in 2008, economists around the world have been facing the stern question of why they haven't been able to warn politicians and the public alike of the doom unfolding.

In the absence of any satisfactory answer, some economists such as Frank Riedel have begun to question the model on which economic science bases its assumptions and predictions.

Current economic models were failing reality, the director of the Center for Mathematical Economics in Bielefeld, wrote in his latest book titled 'Blaming the Economists.' The message of his clear-cut analysis of the crisis is economic predictions lack any scientific foundations.

Using Germany as an example, Riedel told DW that it was impossible to take the individual behavior of all of the country's about 40 million households and 2 million businesses into account, when making predictions about the future. Therefore, economists would resort to a representative model household and a model business for the undertaking. Using this as a vehicle, he said, was perhaps sufficient to take a philosophical look at economics, but completely inappropriate to calculate, for example, future economic growth.

The myth of ‘homo economicus'

At the centre of current economic models was the assumption that the decisions of all economic players were based on rational behavior, Riedel said. If humans were acting like ‘homo economicus' as this type of ideal human being is denoted in economic science, stock markets would never crash, he added.

Moreover, financial markets were generally ignored in most mathematical and statistical equations on grounds that economists didn't consider them important for the real economy.

'If models ignore financial markets, they are unable to predict a financial crisis, which, in turn, will have an unpredictable effect on economic growth,' Riedel told DW.

Current economic developments were a striking example of how uncertainty about the banking sector and a lack of trust massively affected the flow of credit and investment, and subsequently growth in the labor and goods markets.

Figures don't count

The Professor of Economics also said he considered economic growth figures that give a number behind the decimal point as completely meaningless.

'Even the figure in front of the decimal isn't worth much,' he said, adding that most economic forecasts often provide only a range of probability into which growth would fall.

'German economic growth next year is forecast to come in between 0.6 percent and 3 percent, which is an estimate that isn't exactly helpful,' he said.

Speaking in a similar vein is German economist and mutual fund manager Max Otte. In his book 'The Crash is coming' - published in 2006 - he predicted the outbreak of the global financial crisis.

Since World War Two, the dogma of mathematics and a scholastic approach had gained supremacy in economic science, he told DW.

'This will only change if economists pay more attention to sociological aspects and adopt a more holistic approach to society,' Otte said.

However, this school of thought, which was known as political economics, was largely ignored, showing that the entire scientific branch was heading down the wrong way.

'Economists still presume that the market will correct everything. But there is not a single market, there are many markets that work differently,' he said and added that modern-day economists had yet to pay respect to this, if they were to re-establish credibility in them.

Beijing to bid for 2022 Winter Olympics: state media

Beijing, which hosted the 2008 Olympics, will bid to hold the 2022 Winter Games, state-run media said Tuesday.

China's Olympic Committee has 'in the name of Beijing city, applied to the International Olympic Committee' (IOC) to host the Games, the official Xinhua news agency said on a verified social media account.

The application says that ice sports would be held in Beijing, while snow events would take place in the city of Zhangjiakou, in the neighbouring province of Hebei, Xinhua reported.

Zhangjiakou is about 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Beijing, and driving between them currently takes around five hours. Work will begin this year on a high-speed rail link that will cut the journey time to around 40 minutes, Xinhua said.

Other candidate cities for the 2022 Winter Games are Germany's Munich, the Norwegian capital Oslo, Almaty in Kazakhstan, Poland's Krakow, Ukraine's Lviv and Sweden's Oestersund.

China has not previously hosted the Winter Olympics, but the 2008 Summer Games marked a key event in Beijing's emergence on the world stage, although it saw controversy over the country's human rights record.

The 2022 Winter Games will be awarded by the IOC in Kuala Lumpur in July 2015.

Oslo is the strongest candidate to host the event, the president of the International Ski Federation (FIS) said in an interview in September.