SFN report: Mobile social networking a worldwide increasing trend

Posted by Erina Lin on December 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM

Accessing social networking sites on mobile is also an increasing trend worldwide, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported. In January 2008, the total number of the mobile social networking audience in the United States was 2.9 million. At the same time, MySpace and Facebook each had an audience of about 1.8 million and 1.2 million unique users, according to the Nielsen Company.

In December 2008, the total mobile social networking unique audience increased by more than triple to 10.6 million. Facebook visitors reached seven million, exceeding MySpace's 5.7 million. EU mobile networking usage.jpg

In addition, according to comScore, during the three month period ending in November 2008, 33.5 percent of mobile social networking users in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), accessed social media exclusive of all other mobile Web content. Spain, Germany and Italy got the highest rate on this - 46.5 percent, 39 percent, and 38 percent of mobile social networking users did so, respectively. Mobile social networking is a fast growing category in Western Europe, with the number of users up 152 percent from November 2007 to 12.1 million in November 2008. The year-over-year growth was impressive across these countries - highest in France and the United Kingdom, with 167 percent. In the five countries, 5.4 percent of mobile phone users were social networking users. The percentage was especially high in the United Kingdom, with 9.2 percent, according to the report, World Digital Media Trends 2009, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.