60% of US mobile internet usage is social networking

Nearly 60% of the time Americans spend using the mobile internet is social networking, according to a new report from research firm Ground Truth.
In fact, there is a huge gap between the 59.83% of time spent on social networking by US mobile subscribers and the 13.65% of time spent on portals, the next most popular category.
"While the popularity of mobile social networking is widely believed, this is the first time we have been able to truly quantify just how much the category is driving adoption of the Mobile Internet with actual usage metrics," says VP of marketing Evan Neufeld.
The company also broke out some usage stats for specific social networking services.
The average mobile user of MySpace and Facebook spends 30 and 40 minutes using them a week, respectively.

However, mobile-specific social networks have much more intensive usage. The average users of MocoSpace and AirG spend more than one and a half hours a week using them, for example.
"This data points to the fact that there is a whole universe of media properties advertisers need to consider that have to date been largely ignored," says Neufeld.
Well, up to a point. Facebook has more than 100 million mobile users globally, so while it may lack the mobile engagement of some of its rivals, its sheer size means it will prove attractive to advertisers if and when it ramps up its mobile advertising plans.

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/36854...ial-networking