Mobile social networking – the statistics are compelling
Submitted by Editor on 11 March, 2010 - 14:55.
Here are some fascinating facts and figures on mobile social networks. In summary:
• Mobile users spend more time (lots more) on social networking sites than PC users.
• In the US, Facebook and MySpace are top 10 mobile destinations (in terms of audience). AOL is also in the top 10, which includes Bebo.
• Facebook is the number one mobile destination in the UK (in terms of audience). When you consider time spent accessing the Web via a mobile in the UK, Flirtomatic and AOL/Bebo are also in the top 10.
Conclusion: marketers need to take mobile social networking seriously. If you want to learn more, check out this brand-new guide, brimming with tips from leading experts:
Here come the statistics…
You will note that the UK figures are more precise and more in-depth than the US statistics i.e. they give unique users, rather than target audience. The UK figures come through a ground-breaking initiative called Mobile Media Metrics, where the GSMA and ComScore take data on mobile phone usage direct from the UK operators. See this briefing from the GSMA/ComScore, January 2010 for more details.
Table 1: Mobile users are much more active on social networks than PC users.
Minutes spent on social networking per day accessed by mobile device or desktop
Social Network
Mobile Internet
PC Internet
Facebook
45.2
32.4
Bebo (AOL)
39.6
22
MySpace
8.2
7.5
Twitter
19.6
7.2
Source: GSMA/ComScore, January 2010
via: mobiThinking
Table 2: Facebook is the most popular mobile destination in the UK. It also eclipses Google (the number 2 mobile destination) when it comes to pages viewed and total minutes spent online.
Top 10 UK Mobile Internet Sites January
ComScore/GSMA Mobile Media Metrics, January 2010
Total Unique Visitors (million)
Total Pages Viewed (million)
Total Minutes (million)
Facebook
6.3
Facebook
4,049
Facebook
3,077
Google
Google
1,367
Google
728
Vodafone
3.9
Orange
264
Microsoft
220
Orange
3.6
Apple
230
BBC
150
Telefonica/02
3.5
AOL including Bebo
197
Orange
147
Yahoo!
2.5
Vodafone
149
Apple
140
BBC
2.4
Microsoft
139
AOL including Bebo
127
Apple
2
BBC
137
Vodafone
100
Microsoft
2
eBay
128
Yahoo!
68
Nokia
1.4
Yahoo!
111
Flirtomatic
66
Source: ComScore/GSM, January 2010
via: mobiThinking
Table 3: Two, possibly three of the top 10 mobile destinations in the US are social networks - Facebook, MySpace and, maybe, AOL/Bebo.
Most popular mobile destinations in the US (in millions)
ComScore, January 2010
Brand
Target Audience
Total Audience: 13+ yrs old
234
Google
42
Yahoo!
38
Facebook
29.3
MSN/Windows Live/Bing
20.6
AOL Media Network
18.8
The Weather Channel
14.4
MySpace
14
Operator portals
13.6
ESPN
10.4
CNN
10.2
Source: ComScore, January 2010
via: mobiThinking
Rating for this article:
It doesn't surprise me that social networking sites are becoming more popular online than on PCs and laptops. It is just too convenient to use it while on phones that have Internet access.
Nice roundup Andy and these kind of census level stats are more than welcome within the industry.
Off the back of these stats and with a few simple calculations you can work out some user engagement statistics in terms of by time and by pages.
In terms of engagement by time, Flirtomatic tops the list with 524 minutes per month, with Facebook in second at 432 minutes per month. The next closest is Microsoft with 101 minutes per month.
When it comes to engagement by pages, Flirtomatic is again the top performer with 890 minutes per page, but a larger gap appears with Facebook trailing at 528 minutes per page and Google in third at 195
minutes per page.
Mobiles are clearly the future of internet, all firms that want to last on internet should take it into consideration ...
referencement
I have to agree with Raymond that it is more convenient to use those social networking sites into mobile phones. I even update my Facebook account though my phone. Social networking sites are really becoming more popular online through mobile phones.
Well, this sounds reasonable. With a PC, you can do a lot of things and sometimes, you forget to open your Facebook account while on your phone, there is nothing much you can do except to communicate. So, Facebook can be always opened by the user, right?
Social Media and mobile is huge. Twitter for instance was designed with texting in mind.
I am always accessing my facebook on my palm. I know many friends who use twitter or facebook through their phones. Social Media is reason I bought a data plan, im sure many others as well.
As the social platforms develop better mobile platforms more and more will use mobile access.
Thank You for a great blog post.
SMM is staggeringly increasing... Unbelievable how search engines have plummeted.
Facebook and Twitter seem to be the top sites...
I guess that soon it will be "R.I.P." to SEO. But PPC might rise again to the Web 2.0 and social media networking sites...
Social networking makes life easy. Mobile is not being used for calling or receiving calls but its facility deals with busy schedule of busy life and helps to connect. Mobiles without Internet access specially without Facebook and Ebuddy application are not bought by anyone because everyone wants to connect through social network. But being a webmaster, a defect I have seen is that people don't want to browse informational website and use mobile only for entertainment which is not a good trend for young generation.
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