A recent study conducted by mobile research firm CCS Insight revealed that a third of young people regularly access Facebook and Twitter through their mobile phones.
The report found that Facebook has become more popular then Bebo, Twitter and Myspace combined making it truly a force to be reckoned with in the social media market.
The idea that Facebook is more popular then Twitter mirrors a recently published Morgan Stanley report on mobile phone usage and the internet. The report made clear the fact that the young audiences that social networking sites target, find Twitter impersonal as no-one is viewing their profile and thus deeming tweets a waste of time.
CCS Insight analyst Paulo Pescatore made similar observations explaining that music and video downloads are superficial and unnecessary as “social networking is where it’s at and Facebook is King of the hill.”
As well as using mobiles for checking Facebook notifications and recent Tweets from their friends and favourite celebrities, 16-35 year olds now want services such as BBC iPlayer to be available on their mobiles. However, the possibility of this becoming a success relies largely on the internet charges put in place by the operators as iPlayer is a very bandwidth-hungry application. As the CCS Insight report estimates that by the end of 2009 44% of mobile phone users will access the internet, high charges may effect this expected growth which would be a massive opportunity lost.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Mobile internet is destined to become more and more widespread. But I feel it is currently yet to truly find its feet. It seems that site owners are encouraging mobile interfaces, where as some handsets support more full browser functionality.
I think in large, the mobile interface needs to improve before, everyone it takes off hugely.
July 16th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I agree, mobile internet will not reach its full potential for a long while unless mobile interfaces adapt.