/Sonico loses ground in Argentina and Chile

Sonico loses ground in Argentina and Chile

sonicoOnce upon a time, Sonico was the largest social network in Argentina and Chile and the second one in huge countries as Brazil and Mexico. Nowadays it is almost non existant in most of Latin America and is not even one of the two largest social networks in its home country Argentina. So what happened?

These are the data of the largest social networks in Argentina:
In 2008:
1. Sonico: 35.5% reach
2. Facebook: 5.2%
3. MySpace: 4.6%
4. Hi5: 4.4%

In 2011:
1. Facebook: 88%
2. Fotolog: 16%
3. Twitter: 13%
4. Sonico: 8%
5. Badoo: 6%

And in Chile:
In 2008:
1. Sonico: 36.9%
2. Facebook: 13.2%
3. MySpace: 6.5%
4. Hi5: 5.5%

In 2011:
1. Facebook: 89%
2. Fotolog: 19%
3. Twitter: 13%
4. Linkedin: 5.3%
5. Badoo: 5.2%
6. Sonico: 5%

This is what might have happened:
– Fotolog, a Flickr-like site created in Argentina, grew really fast in 2008 thru an agreement with press group Clarin.

– Facebook grew really fast, first in Chile and later in Argentina. Actually, I remember Mark Zuckerberg explaining that it had become the first country in the world in which they had reached a 50% penetration. That was back in 2009.

– Latin America is not a real market. Rodrigo Tejeiro’s social network tried to be a common social network for these countries, instead of focusing on a single one.

– Sonico has not specialized in any area nor age. That means it is not attractive for youngsters (who use Fotolog), professionals (who use Linkedin), news junkies (who use Twitter) nor dating maniacs (who use Badoo). For general users, Facebook seems to be the one and only option.