On: A Year After Diaspora Another “Facebook Alternative” Emerges

[troymc]

In the USA, Facebook does indeed have the largest number of active users.

Outside the USA, there are serious competitors to Facebook, with larger user numbers than Facebook. Examples: Vkontakte.ru in Russia and Renren in China.

Therefore it's possible, because it has been done already.

[fastfinner → troymc]

I think Facebook is highly used 1) in countries with the latin alphabet and 2) by people who have friends/contacts in countries with latin alphabets.

That's the market Alty seems to be after and that's a lot more difficult to conquer than making a facebook alternative for China or Russia.