Facebook is the only social network in Armenia to influence the public and political process in the country. This is on Facebook where many processes originate, said Laura Baghdasaryan, Head of Region Research Center, at the international conference 'Social Networks in the Public Life,' Wednesday.
She said that the number of Facebook users as of November 2013 reached 560,000 people in Armenia, which means that the network is quite popular in the country. According to a recent public opinion poll, 2/3 of users have registered on Facebook 2-3 years ago, the remaining are relatively novice users. The polled citizens said they use Facebook to exchange information, communicate and make advertising campaigns. Baghdasaryan recalled that the Movement "Let's Pay 100 drams" was created on Facebook and then went to the streets to protest against increasing transport fare.
The expert said that political figures have been recently actively promoting their ideas on Facebook. Virtual wars were held on Facebook during and after elections in the country. People also voice the problems with human rights, army problems and other issues on social media. She said that 69% of the polled said they are active users, another 27% called themselves as passive users. Another 5% of the respondents said they use the social network depending on the situation. Nevertheless, all them spend 2-3 hours a day on Facebook.
Region Research Center polled 150 people, including public figures and political figures, media representatives, cultural workers, representatives of the education and business sectors, as well as ordinary citizens. 45% of the total respondents were users of other social networks; another 66% are still users of Odnoklassniki.ru and VKontakte.ru.