by Adam Ostrow



Do you see the glass as half full or half empty? It’s an important question to ask yourself in diving into a report from Synovate (republished by eMarketer this morning) showing that 58% of adults worldwide don’t know “what social networking is.”

The survey of more than 13,000 people in 17 developed nations also asked if users were losing interest in social networks. According to the report, 36% said “yes,” with interest fading fastest in Japan, Slovakia, and Canada, with 45% of US users supposedly losing their appetite for social networking.

Yikes. But now for the good news. The report polled only users 18-65 in age, leaving out the teenagers that make up much of the current audience for social networks – especially the world’s two largest – Facebook and MySpace. Further, considering 58% of respondents have no idea what social networking is, the optimist says that there is still a huge untapped market.

Further, looking at penetration in individual countries where social networking usage is perceived as high – like the US and UK – less than 30% of those with regular access to the Internet are using a social networking site. Looking at other developing parts of the world like Brazil, Russia, and Mexico, penetration sits at less than 10%, indicating a potentially huge opportunity for Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, and local competitors to expand.