Around 812,000 users or 1.7% of all UK mobile subscribers visited a social networking website using their mobile during the first quarter of 2008, according to Nielsen Mobile research.

Published: 14 May 2008

Around 812,000 users or 1.7% of all UK mobile subscribers visited a social networking website using their mobile during the first quarter of 2008, according to Nielsen Mobile research.

Almost 44% of UK mobile phone subscribers belong to an online social network and of this group, 25% use their handset for social networking-related activities.

Neilsen's survey is based on interviews with just over 10,000 UK mobile phone users.

Facebook is the most popular site for mobile social networking, being visited by over half a million Britons (557,000) from their mobiles, or 9% of all UK mobile Internet subscribers. MySpace was the next most popular for mobile social networking with 211,000 UK users accessing the website via their phones in the first quarter. Bebo was third, with 162,000 mobile networkers, Windows Live Spaces fourth with 109,000 and Flixster at 90,000 completing the top five. The top 10 most visited social networking websites by mobile users also included Friends Reunited, Where Are You Now?, Yahoo Groups, Faceparty and BBC Communities.

"Social networking is already a global phenomenon, and going mobile is the next big thing," said Jeff Herrmann, Nielsen Mobile media vice president. "In the UK and the US especially, we already see millions of users of MySpace, Facebook and other social networks interacting with their virtual spaces while on the go," he added.

European Internet Analyst at Nielsen Online, Alex Burmaster, said the increasingly competitive nature of social networking online is being replicated in the mobile space.

"The leading players remain the same but networks such as WAYN and Faceparty have considerably improved on their PC ranking in the mobile world," he said. "In an effort to differentiate their offerings and pull ahead all the networks are looking to what the mobile medium can offer – particularly when it comes to attracting 15-24 year olds, a group highly representative amongst social networking addicts."

One in five (21%) Britons who use their mobile for social networking activities, use it to add friends. Bur most popular activity remain sending messages and mail (55R%).

Burmaster said, "It's all about adding value. By tapping into the key elements of mobile phone activity, such as text and images, the social networks can increase engagement and 'stickiness' amongst their members as well as maximising audience numbers and activity on their own site."