Universal McCann Study Brings It Home

I have been pouring over the extensive social media landscape study from our sister agency Universal McCann. The study is in its third wave and has data from 17,000 active Internet users across 29 countries. WOW! The document is like a data geek's candy jar! 

The study shows a ton of interesting developments in social media and raises an equal number of questions as it answers. For instance, 

• Orkut was created by a Turkish guy in California. How come it's so huge in Brazil? 
  
• Do smaller populations have an advantage over larger ones, in terms of adopting new technologies? Is that part of the answer as to why blogging is almost ubiquitous in South Korea and Netherlands takes a leadership role in online video viewing? 
• What's going on in the Philippines and Hungary? They are ahead of every other country when it comes to creating social network profiles.
• When is Facebook launching its Turkish version? The country boasts the highest Facebook penetration in Europe and Asia.  
• We all know great cameras come from Japan and they have a high incidence of smart phones. So, how come the Japanese are the least likely to upload photos to photo sharing sites? Do the Japanese have privacy concerns?
• And mainly, if the Web is global, how come there are some many country-specific variances among active Internet users?

We need the country experts to interpret some of the data. The Universal McCann study brings forth many connections between culture and technology. The results certainly make one think about how Web trends catch on and skip across borders.