2012全球社交网络排名：当Facebook遇上QQ空间和新浪微博

Three well-known brands appear in the top three positions. With an estimated brand value of 29.115 bn $,Facebook clearly leads the ranking, followed by YouTube at 18.099 bn $and Twitter at 13.309 bn $. It is not only the high number of visitors that makes these brands so strong, but also their high level of global awareness and the remarkable user statistics of the platforms. For instance, Facebook has 845 million users; this means that roughly every eighth inhabitant of the planet is registered on the biggest social network.
在这次的排名中，全球知名的社交网络品牌Facebook、YouTube和Twitter占据前三位。Facebook以290亿美元的预计品牌价值高踞榜首，紧跟其后的是180亿美元的YouTube和133亿美元的Twitter。使得这些社交媒体品牌实力如此雄厚的不只是惊人的访问者数量，还有它们高度的全球认知度和庞大的平台用户数据。例如，Facebook有8.45亿用户，这就意味着大约全球8个人中，就有1人在这个最大的社交网络上注册过。

In addition to the many brands from the USA, there are also some "exotic" social media brands emerging in the ranking, such as the Chinese platform Qzone in fourth position Sina Weibo in fifth position and the two Facebook imitations VKontakte from Russia and Renren from China at positions 11 and 12. These and other social media brands in China and Russia have benefited from a strong increase in the number of Internet users and from the exponentially increasing diffusion rate of the platforms.
除了美国的这些知名品牌，此次的排名中也有很多“外来”社交媒体品牌的身影。中国的QQ空间排名第四位，新浪微博排名第五位。与Facebook类似的两个社交网络，俄罗斯最大的社交网站VKontakte和中国的人人网分列11和12名。这些还有榜单上其他来自中国和俄罗斯的社交媒体品牌，很大程度上得益于互联网用户的大幅增加，以及成倍增长的平台扩散速度。

The strength and value of social media brands
社交媒体品牌的实力和价值

The market capitalizations of social networks are often many times higher than their turnovers or their balance sheet totals. This means that investors' purchase decisions not only include future expectations but also the intangible assets of the social networks, whereas brand value represents a considerable part of these assets. For"ordinary" brands (e.g., consumer goods brands), brand value is created as soon as consumers are willing to pay a price premium solely because of the brand of a specific product or service.
社交网络的市值通常要高出它们的交易额和资产负债总数很多倍。这也就意味着，投资者在做出购买决定时，考虑的不仅仅是对未来收益的期许，还有对社交网络无形资产的肯定，社交媒体的品牌价值就从很大程度上代表着这些无形资产。对于消费品品牌这样的“普通”品牌来说，一旦消费者因为品牌的特定产品或服务愿意出超额价格购买商品，那该品牌的价值就能立即实现。

However, it is not necessarily the users of social networks that are the customers in this case, but also the companies that place paid ads on the platforms and benefit from user information. As a consequence, company and brand value is created only when the social networks and their information can be used commercially. In other words, the higher the awareness and the diffusion rate of social media brands and the trust they generate, the stronger and more valuable they are.
然而社交网络却不同。对于社交媒体来说，消费者不仅仅有用户，还有在平台上放置付费广告并从用户信息中获益的公司。因此，只有当社交网络和信息用于商业用途时，社交媒体的品牌价值才能实现。换句话说，社交媒体的全球认知度越高，品牌和产生的信任感扩散速度越快，该品牌的实力就越强大越有价值。