Twitter, LinkedIn not tops in U.S.

LONDON -- The United States is home to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. It's natural to believe the three social media sites are dominated by Americans.

Toss that idea out the window now.

A new study by comScore Media Matrix reveals that the Dutch social networking market grows strongly because Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are extending their respective footprints in The Netherlands.

“The social networking market in the Netherlands is really quite unique and full of interesting storylines,” said Mike Read of comScore Europe. “It is one of the few markets remaining where a local social networking player [Hyves] continues to lead Facebook, but that lead is becoming increasingly tenuous."

The Netherlands has the highest Internet penetration worldwide for two of the other key global social networking sites -- Twitter and Linkedin. "The Netherlands is in many ways a nexus of global social networking behavior,” Read said.

In fact, the U.S. ranks third for the percentage of penetration of LinkedIn during March, comScore said.

Using comScore's study, the U.S. didn't make it to the top 10 for Twitter users.