The majority of smartphone owners in Australia, China and Japan are accessing mobile social media at least monthly – and those in China are most likely to connect with social networks via mobile, according to Google’s Our Mobile Planet research.
Smartphone penetration in China is lower than in more-developed countries (estimated at 11.1% in 2011), but the population is so huge that even a low penetration leads to a high number of smartphone users: 148.3 million, based on eMarketer estimates. The U.S. has a much higher penetration, but only 93.1 million smartphone users.
Results of the Google study show that 66% of smartphone owners in China use mobile social media daily, vs. 55% in Australia and 47% in Japan. An additional 23% in China use mobile social media weekly, vs. only 16% in Australia and 11% in Japan.
To look at total numbers of mobile social media users, eMarketer applied their 2011 numbers on smartphone penetration to Google’s research, concluding that approximately 97.9 million smartphone owners access mobile social media every day in China – a huge audience for mobile marketers.
