This isn't a story about Foursquare or its eager little cousin Gowalla. Instead, it's about the most mainstream of the mainstream - Facebook. The platform reaches 62% of the online population. What might surprise you is where it's reaching them.
150 million people use Facebook via mobile. Over 200 developers are creating and deploying even more mobile-friendly tools for the social giant. The reason? It's the #1 driver of their growth right now - getting status updates, party photos and what-kind-of-care-bear-are-you quizzes (literally) into the hands of millions.
The move to mobile doesn't stop with Facebook - mobile social is the #1 fastest growing app category overall (ahead of both news and banking).
All that mobile connecting has a multiplier effect. Facebook recently reported that people who connect via mobile have over twice the amount of activity and engagement as typical computer users.
It's not (all) part of the iPhone elite effect. People are connecting to mobile social via all sorts of devices and browsers. Although iPhone is still in the lead, Blackberry is close behind. (What's up, Andriod?)
The trend is especially true for some of our favorite reach-by-social audiences: like new moms. At home, their go-to chat-with-friends technology is text messaging. On the go, they turn to apps - like Facebook - to connect.
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