Mobile Social Networking: MySpace, Facebook, MSN the Leading Services

M:Metrics has released some data about mobile social bookmarking networks. As expected MySpace is the largest mobile network in US and UK with MSN/Windows Live Spaces a close second. About 12.3 mi

M:Metrics has released some interesting data about mobile social networking. It states that MySpace has the largest mobile network in the United States and UK, while MSN/Windows Live Spaces is preferred in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Overall 12.3 million consumers in the United States and Western Europe reported accessing a social networking site with their mobile device in the month of June 2007. 7.5 million of those were from the US, perhaps surprising given that the US is not usually considered a leader in the mobile Web space - Europe and Asia is where mobile thrives. M:Metrics didn't measure Asia's activity (which would be fascinating), but in Europe Italy had 1.3 million mobile social networking users in June, then the UK with 1.1 million, Spain with 751,000, then Germany and France. College-aged users (18-24) are the most avid users in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Mobile social networking is defined by M:Metrics as "the ability to connect to these communities with a mobile phone, allowing people to access profiles and share content while they’re on the go."

MySpace and Facebook are the top two social networking sites accessed via mobile in both the U.S. and UK. MySpace attracts 3.7 million U.S. users, while Facebook’s mobile U.S. audience is about 2 million. In the U.K. there are 440,000 mobile users for Facebook, while Facebook has about 307,000. YouTube is third in the U.S., with 901,000 mobile visitors, while Bebo is third in the UK with 288,000.

Mobile MySpace, pic by Stan

Interesting to note that content distribution with mobile operator portals is key. M:Metrics found that the top three U.S. mobile social networking sites had strong distribution - MySpace appeared in Amp’d, AT&T, Helio and Nextel. Facebook was accessible on Sprint, AT&T, Virgin and Amp’d; YouTube on Verizon (also iPhone, which wasn't measured in this survey). In the UK, MySpace has distribution on Vodafone, Bebo on 3. Only U.K. number 2 MSN Live Spaces is not offered on a mobile operator portal.

Here is the breakdown of content and apps for U.S., which seems traditional and not much to do with social networking sites (texting, ringtones, etc). It'd be interesting to check back in 6 months or so and see what impact iPhone and similar web-friendly mobile devices have on this - will we see more social networking functionality in the stats then?

Facebook Mobile pic by random0

[via Read/WriteWeb]