Mobile Behaviour Varies Globally

US mobile users do the most social networking, European mobile users text the most, and Japanese mobile users are the most connected, according to new comScore MobiLens data.

US Leads in Mobile Social Networking, IM
A comScore cross-market analysis of mobile activities in the US, Europe and Japan revealed significant differences among consumers by geography. Out of the three markets, in June 2010 social networking/blogs reached the greatest percentage of mobile users in the US at 21.3%, followed by Japan at 17% and Europe at 14.7%.

Perhaps reflecting the slower adoption of advanced mobile technology in the US as compared to other global markets, social networking and instant messaging (17% reach compared to 12.6% reach in Europe and only 3.3% reach in Japan) were the only major mobile activities where the US had a significant lead.

Europeans Text Most
Messaging methods also varied, with Europeans displaying the strongest use of text messaging with 81.7% sending a text message in June 2010, compared to 66.8% in the US and just 40.1% in Japan.

Japanese Most Connected
Mobile users in Japan were the most “connected” of the three markets, with more than 75% using connected media (browsed, accessed applications or downloaded content) in June 2010, compared to 43.7% in the US and 38.5% in Europe.

Japanese mobile users also displayed the strongest usage of both applications and browsers with 59.3% of the entire mobile population accessing their browsers in June 2010 and 42.3% accessing applications. In addition, Japanese users exhibited the highest reach in the email category at 54%.

Comparatively, 34% of mobile users in the US and 25.8% in Europe used their mobile browsers, with 31.1% in the US and 24.9% in Europe accessing applications.

Japanese Mobile Use Patterns Most Age- and Gender-Balanced
A comScore demographic analysis of mobile media users across markets showed that mobile media consumption was more balanced across age segments in Japan when compared to the US and Europe. In the US, 25-34 year olds were 44% more likely to access mobile media than an average mobile user, with 18-24 year olds 39% more likely. In Europe, 18-24 year olds represented the most-connected segment, 54% more likely to be mobile media users, while persons age 25-34 were 35% more likely.

The US and Europe also showed greater gender disparity among mobile media audiences. Females were 9% less likely to be mobile media users in the US, while females in Europe were 16% less likely.

Twitter Scores Globally
In all three markets, the top mobile social media brand mirrored the top PC-based social networking brand, with Facebook leading in the US and Europe and Mixi leading in Japan. Local brands Gree and Mobage Town were the number two and four most-accessed social networking brands in Japan. Twitter was the only brand to be ranked in the top four in all three markets.

Mobile Twitter Use Explodes
Mobile usage of the Twitter social network has increased more than 60% in the past five months, according to data from Twitter. The total number of mobile Twitter users grew 62% between April and September 2010, according to statistics compiled by Twitter. In addition, since that time, the number of Twitter users who start out using Twitter via mobile device has risen from 5% to 16%. Furthermore, close to half (46%) of all Twitter users at least occasionally access the network via mobile device.