Social networking site tops in London, Toronto

The social networking Web site, which began in a dorm room at Harvard University in 2004 for students, says it has more than 41 million active users. Its impressive growth has made it an Internet and social phenomenon.

According to media reports, Toronto was top of the Facebook world as late as the end of June, but London surged ahead over the summer.

Facebook said it does not keep statistics on networks, but a look through the regional areas in the top three countries -- the United States, Canada and Great Britain -- shows that London had 1,159,185 users, while Toronto was a close second with 836,605.

Experts agree that it's hard to explain why certain social communities take off and others don't, but speculate on possible factors.

"Historically speaking, the harsher the climate and the more dispersed the population, the more telecommunication has had a major influence in shaping the culture," said Mark Federman, a researcher at the University of Toronto.

"There has always been a greater per capita early adoption of communication technologies in Canada compared to the USA and a similar situation exists in Northern Europe," he added in an email interview.

Federman also believes the penetration of high speed Internet access in the United States, even in urban areas, is lower than in Toronto or in Europe.

Like London, Toronto is the home of various universities and about half a dozen community colleges, so there is a large population of "demographically-right" potential users, according to Federman.

Leslie Chan, a social science lecturer at the University of Toronto, agrees.