Social networking sites are being accessed more and more via mobile browsers, but not all the big dogs have loud barks. While Facebook and Twitter are thriving in the mobile realm, MySpace seems to be foundering.
According to recent figures released by comScore, 30.8 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. accessed social networking sites by way of mobile browsers in January, which reflected an 8.3 percentage-point increase from 22.5 percent in the same month last year.
This figure was drastically lower for feature phones – only 6.8 percent of these users accessed social networking sites via mobile browsers, a 2.3 point increase from 4.5 percent in January 2009.
Overall, for all mobile phones, 11.1 percent of users accessed social networking sites via mobile browsers in January, up 4.6 point from 6.5 percent in the first month of last year.
Facebook led the way in terms of the number of mobile subscribers accessing its site, with 25.1 million users in January, up 112 percent from 11.9 million users in the same month last year.
MySpace was second with 11.4 million users, which was actually a 7 percent drop from the 12.3 million mobile users it had last year. Facebook’s mobile audience passed MySpace’s in February 2009, three months before its PC-based audience exceeded MySpace’s in May.
Twitter had 4.7 million mobile subscribers who accessed its site in January, up a whopping 347 percent from the mere 1.1 million mobile users it had in January 2009.
These figures do not include the number of mobile users who access these sites by way of mobile applications, comScore notes.
“Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser,” said Mark Donovan, senior vice president of mobile at comScore.
Female users and those between the ages of 35 and 54 are the most likely to take part in social networking activities via mobile devices, according to the Nielsen Company.
Sources:
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/3/Facebook_and_Twitter_Access_via_Mobile_Browser_Grows_by_Triple-Digits
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/mobile-facebook-twitter-growth-explodes-12179/
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/women-middle-aged-do-most-mobile-social-networking-12137/
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