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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
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| Facebook or Google: which website rules the world? | Facebook or Google: which website rules the world? |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| We have reached the age of internet empires with just a handful of websites dominating internet traffic across the globe. | We have reached the age of internet empires with just a handful of websites dominating internet traffic across the globe. |
| Stefano de Sabbata and Dr Mark Graham from the Oxford Internet Institute have tried to show this with a map visualising each country's most popular website using a design that pays homage to the Age of Empires video game series. | Stefano de Sabbata and Dr Mark Graham from the Oxford Internet Institute have tried to show this with a map visualising each country's most popular website using a design that pays homage to the Age of Empires video game series. |
| You can click on the map below to zoom in and see the countries in detail. There is a key showing the websites featured at the bottom left of the map. | You can click on the map below to zoom in and see the countries in detail. There is a key showing the websites featured at the bottom left of the map. |
| The researchers explain their methodology on their Information Geographies blog: | The researchers explain their methodology on their Information Geographies blog: |
| The map uses freely available data retrieved from Alexa on August 12th, 2013. The company has provided website analytics since 1996. Alexa collects data from millions of internet users using one of over 25,000 different browser extensions, and the data used for this visualization were calculated "using a combination of the estimated average daily unique visitors to a site and the estimated number of pageviews on that site from users in that country over the past month". | The map uses freely available data retrieved from Alexa on August 12th, 2013. The company has provided website analytics since 1996. Alexa collects data from millions of internet users using one of over 25,000 different browser extensions, and the data used for this visualization were calculated "using a combination of the estimated average daily unique visitors to a site and the estimated number of pageviews on that site from users in that country over the past month". |
| The data are visualised as a choropleth map, where the colour indicates each country's most visited website. Starting from the evident dominance of two companies (Google and Facebook), whose colours (red and blue, respectively) cover most of the map, we styled the illustration as an old colonial map, and named it after the computer game series Age of Empires. | The data are visualised as a choropleth map, where the colour indicates each country's most visited website. Starting from the evident dominance of two companies (Google and Facebook), whose colours (red and blue, respectively) cover most of the map, we styled the illustration as an old colonial map, and named it after the computer game series Age of Empires. |
| The age of internet empires | The age of internet empires |
| So Google and Facebook rule most of the world except Asia where local providers have managed to maintain their domination of the market. | So Google and Facebook rule most of the world except Asia where local providers have managed to maintain their domination of the market. |
| The researchers point out that Google is the most visited website in the majority of European, North American and Oceanian countries while Facebook dominates in the Middle East, North Africa and most Spanish-speaking countries in South America. | The researchers point out that Google is the most visited website in the majority of European, North American and Oceanian countries while Facebook dominates in the Middle East, North Africa and most Spanish-speaking countries in South America. |
| The once dominant Yahoo! maintains a stronghold in Japan, where it is branded Yahoo Japan! (as a joint venture with Japanese company SoftBank) and also in Taiwan. | The once dominant Yahoo! maintains a stronghold in Japan, where it is branded Yahoo Japan! (as a joint venture with Japanese company SoftBank) and also in Taiwan. |
| Unfortunately there are some countries missing from the map, as the researchers explain: | Unfortunately there are some countries missing from the map, as the researchers explain: |
| Alexa does not provide much information about countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, most countries that have a significant Internet population are covered. Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, and South Africa fall within the sphere of Google's empire, whereas Ghana, Senegal, and Sudan have been subsumed within Facebook's dominion. | Alexa does not provide much information about countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, most countries that have a significant Internet population are covered. Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, and South Africa fall within the sphere of Google's empire, whereas Ghana, Senegal, and Sudan have been subsumed within Facebook's dominion. |
| Size is not everything | Size is not everything |
| The countries where Google is dominant contain half of the internet's whole population, with over one billion users. | |
| Although the locations it dominates contain more landmass, Facebook loses out to Chinese search engine Baidu when it comes to total internet population. | Although the locations it dominates contain more landmass, Facebook loses out to Chinese search engine Baidu when it comes to total internet population. |
| To illustrate this discrepancy Sabbata and Graham have also displayed the data on a map where countries are sized by internet population. | To illustrate this discrepancy Sabbata and Graham have also displayed the data on a map where countries are sized by internet population. |
| Find out more | Find out more |
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