Close to half (46%) of those who use social networks have visited a social network by using their mobile phone, according to ABI Research.
The majority (70%) have visited MySpace and another 67 percent have visited Facebook. No other social networking site reached 15 percent mobile adoption.
“As in the online social networking space, there is clearly a large gap between the big two (MySpace and Facebook) social networks and the others,” says research director Michael Wolf.
“ABI Research believes this is because consumers do not want to recreate entirely new and separate social networks for mobile, but rather want to tap into their existing social network and have it go with them via the mobile phone. For most, this means MySpace, Facebook, or even both.”
The most popular features people use when accessing a social network on their phone is checking for comments and messages from their friends. Combined these features account for more than 50 percent of mobile social network user activity. Posting status updates is also popular, with more than 45 percent of mobile social users allowing others know what they are up to via their mobile phone.
“The social network is increasingly becoming a central hub for communication across online and mobile domains for many consumers,” said Wolf.
“To a degree, it allows them to centralize messaging, communication and even digital media consumption through a centralized property on various screens. We believe this centralization of a consumer’s digital lifestyle through social networks will only increase adoption of mobile social networking in coming years.”
