Usage of social media on mobile phones continues to grow

14:30 26th January 2010

Social media sites saw big increases in usage via mobile phones in December 2009, a report has found.

Opera, which provides Opera Mini, a leading mobile phone internet browser, said there had been a 50 per cent increase of page views in the UK in December 2009 compared to the same month the previous year.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter saw the biggest growth, with Twitter seeing a rise of 595 per cent in UK users visiting the site.

Twitter's rapid rise in popularity during 2009 was backed up a global enlargement of 2,859 per cent, making it the eighth most visited site using Opera Mini. That hike even dwarfs that of Facebook, which saw an increase of 619 per cent worldwide.

Amazon was in the top ten for the first time, suggesting more users are shopping via their mobile phones.

The results could encourage digital marketers that using social media is an important way to market their businesses.

A recent survey from Alterian found most digital marketing professionals were already intending to invest in social media marketing in 2010.

Alterian chief executive David Eldridge said social media marketing would become the dominant force in what he dubbed the digital decade.