Social networking is the catalyst of mobile Web users in Western Europe, according to comScore latest data.

In November 2008, 34 percent of mobile phone users in the region who visited social networking sites only accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile Internet content.

Mobile social networking users in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) accounted for 12.1 million. They are still expanding with a 152 percent increase from November 2007 to November 2008.

The reach of mobile social networking was the highest in the United Kingdom, at 9 percent, almost triple that of Germany, the lowest. The average penetration rate across the five countries was 5 percent.

"A large portion of the growth in the mobile Internet audience can be attributed to social networking," said Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore M:Metrics. "In the UK, for example, the audience of those accessing news and information, but not social networking services, with their mobile browser or an application grew by 149,000 unique users, whereas the number of those exclusively accessing social networking grew by six times that number in the past year."

comScore also found that those using social networking exclusive of other mobile Internet content skew more female, than those who also access other forms of mobile Web content. 48 percent of those who access only social media are women, compared to only 32 percent of people who consume other types of content.

Moreover, the median age for social media-only consumers is 28, versus 36 for users of multiple mobile Internet contents, according to the comScore press release.

"This development is encouraging for the future of the mobile Internet. Social networking is taking the mobile Internet out of the early adopter demographic, and into the mainstream," Hill added.