Mobile is driving the growth of social
Tom Smith, founder of GlobalWebIndex, exclusively talks us through their latest research into social media usage around the world.
We’ve been talking about the power of mobile for a long time. And there’s been much excitement in various markets around the world as we hit the inflection point of mobile becoming a more significant source of internet access than PC.
So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when our latest data shows that active use of Facebook, Google+ and Twitter is now being driven by the smart and feature phones that we all now carry with us.
The numbers are quite phenomenal, with iPhone users in Russia for example 51% more likely to be active participants on Facebook than the average Russian internet user. In Poland iPhone users were 211% more likely to be using Twitter and in Japan they were 133% more likely to be using Google+.
Android users were also significantly more active than average.
Our ninth survey of global internet usage in 31 countries also shows that the big are becoming bigger. Facebook, Google+ and Twitter continue to grow at the expense of local platforms outside of Greater China and Russia.
But for those in search of the rising stars of social media, it’s worth keeping an eye on Russia’s vKontakte – up 40% in the nine months to the end of Q1 2013, and just behind Twitter (which is up 44%). Another name worth watching is Taiwan’s Eyny, which is up 34% over the same period and just a percentage point behind social media’s biggest name Facebook.