South Africa’s Johannesburg was among the 25 cities around the world that Facebook used to find the most popular social landmarks — using the social network’s check-in data. According to the data, Monte Casino, a mall and casino in the northern parts of the city, is the most visited place.
The method used by Facebook was to aggregate all the check-ins made on Facebook or by third-party apps using the Facebook API anonymously. Airports, train stations, bus stations, and all other transportation hubs were excluded from the exercise.
The Data for the social landmarks by each city was then aggregated across all check-ins since August 2010 — the month in which Facebook check-ins launched — and ranked accordingly, to determine the top social landmarks.
Facebook noted that malls and outdoor shopping areas were the most popular venues visited by its users.
Monte Casino further enhances the finding by Facebook that shopping is popular among its users by being the place most checked into.
This trend is continued worldwide with places such as Times Square (New York, USA), Crown Casino (Melbourne, Australia) and Shopping Morumbi (Sao Paolo, Brasil) being among the visited placed in their respective cities.
Johannesburg’s Gold Reef City, an amusement park, also features in the list.
The data revealed the following insights on the number one ranked places across the 25 cities:
- Seven are sport stadia and arenas
- Six are public areas like parks
- Two are concert arenas
- Two are amusement parks
- Two are shopping centers and malls
Also not surprising is that cities with warmer climates had more check-ins at outdoor areas whilst the opposite was true for cities with colder climates.
It would be quite interesting should Facebook decide to generate revenue by sharing such data with software developers and marketers as it would enhance both their applications and marketing efforts.
