Facebook was launched in 2004 to immediate fanfare in the United States, but the service did not hit Southeast Asia immediately. Historic data shows that the social network started to make inroads into the region in 2008, but usage rates still paled in comparison to those of Friendster, the dominant social network in Southeast Asia at the time. At the end of 2008, Facebook had 2.3 million users in its four largest markets (Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia). Friendster, by contrast, had about 65 million users in Asia, most of which were in Southeast Asia.