Facebook (48%) was the leading option in Q2 2012 for social logins among online users who opted to use a social network identity to speed up registration on sites across the web, according to July 2012 data from Janrain. Another 30% preferred to use their Google accounts for login, followed by Twitter (9%), Yahoo (8%), WindowsLive (3%) and others (including LinkedIn and Pinterest) at 3%. Facebook continues to enjoy a upward trend that dates back 8 consecutive quarters to 23% share in Q1 2010, most recently up 3% points from 45% in Q1 2012.
Still, Google has maintained a strong showing of nearly one-third of the market, at 30% in Q2 2012, down just slightly from Q1’s 31%. In Q2, Yahoo ceded its third ranking – held since the data was first measured in Q4 2009 – to Twitter.
Facebook Preferred In Music; More Challenged In Retail
Facebook leads other social logins across such industry verticals as media, retail, entertainment and gaming, and music-related sites. Its popularity is especially pronounced on music sites, with two-thirds share of social login, versus second-place Google at 14% and Twitter at 12%.
The gap is far narrower on retail sites, where a majority of shoppers prefer to register and/or checkout using an identity other than Facebook. About 48% prefer Facebook, while about 32% prefer Google, 7% Yahoo, and 3% Twitter. Another 7% prefers some other provider. Janrain suggests that Google’s popularity on retail sites is a reflection of users’ trust in it as a secure provider of their online identity.
Mobile Apps Favor Facebook, Google
In mobile application logins, Facebook (52%) and Google (27%) lead in popularity, followed by Twitter (13%) and Yahoo (7%). These trends closely mimic desktop web preferences, except for a proportionally larger share of users preferring Twitter as their portable identity of choice on mobile apps. In terms of movement from Q1, Facebook’s share grew 3% points to a majority, while Google also grew 2% points. Both saw increases at the expense of Yahoo (-2% points) the aggregate of others (-2% points), and Twitter (-1% point).
Twitter Still Growing as Sharing Destination
The Janrain report also examines quarterly trends in sharing of content from the web to social networks. Facebook was the top sharing destination in Q2 2012, with 53% of shares, while Twitter was in second spot, at 41%. Facebook’s share dropped 1% point from Q4 2011, while Twitter’s grew 2% points.
Facebook is also the top sharing platform, according to July 2012 analysis from Shareaholic, which looked at sharing trends in June 2012.
About the Data: Janrain analyzed the social login and social sharing preferences for online users across the 365,000 websites that use Janrain Engage.