Mobile social networking on the rise
Friday, 30, Jan 2009 09:17
New figures from comScore suggest there may be opportunities for mobile marketing executives when it comes to social networks.
According to the research provider, usage of mobile social networking in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain soared by 152 per cent between November 2007 and 2008.
This means that just over 12 million people in these countries used their phones to access social media sites in November 2008.
Overall, 9.2 per cent of UK mobile users accessed social networks during the month, making it the region with the highest mobile social media penetration compared with the other countries surveyed.
Of those who only use social networks on the phones rather than browsing any other web content, the majority were female.
"This development is encouraging for the future of the mobile internet," Alistair Hill, analyst at comScore M:Metrics, explained.
"Social networking is taking the mobile internet out of the early adopter demographic and into the mainstream."
Nearly two-thirds of marketers and agencies believe spending on mobile marketing will increase by 2010, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.