U.S. residents have significantly increased their online social-networking activities via their mobile phones, making these sites and applications one of the hottest in the mobile space, according to comScore.
Mobile use of social networking applications ballooned 240 percent to 14.5 million users in April of this year, compared with April of last year, while mobile visitors to social networking sites via browsers grew 90 percent to 30 million in the same time period, comScore said this week.
Other categories that saw strong mobile usage growth both through applications and sites include news content, up 124 percent in application usage and 45 percent in browser-based site visits, sports information (113 percent application usage growth and 54 percent browser-based site visits) and online banking (almost double application usage and 69 percent browser-based site visits.)
Overall, mobile application usage increased 28 percent, while browser-based site visits rose 31 percent, figures that highlight the rising tide of Internet usage by U.S. residents via their cell phones, according to comScore.