Mobile Social Networking is driving Mobile Internet Growth
Whilst across Europe only 5% of users are using the Mobile Internet, a comScore report has shown that social networking is the key driver of new users.
With 12.1 million users in Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.), mobile social networking has grown by 152% in the year to November 2008. The U.K. leads – with the highest penetration of mobile social networking, at 9%, nearly triple that of Germany, where the activity is the least popular. In November 2008, 34% of mobile phone owners in Western Europe who visited social networking sites accessed social media exclusively of all other mobile Web content.
Alistair Hill, analyst, comScore M:Metrics said “A large portion of the growth in the mobile Internet audience can be attributed to social networking, 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 analyzed the demographics of social media users in Europe, and found that those who use social networking exclusive of other mobile Internet content skew more female than those who consume other forms of mobile Internet content. Women comprise 48% of the audience accessing only social media, but only 32% of those who access other types of mobile Internet content. In addition, the median age for social media-only users is 28, versus 36 for other mobile Internet users.
“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.”
comScore M:Metrics also released the results of its Mobile Benchmark Study. Social networking and e-mail usage posted some of the largest gains, while playing downloaded games and watching video dipped in most European markets.
