Aussies click with social networking on mobiles

Australia’s love affair with social networking has gone mobile, with customers using their mobiles to visit Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in record numbers over the past 12 months, according to new figures released today by Telstra.

Ross Fielding, Executive Director of Telstra Mobility Products, said an increasing number of Australians were accessing social networking sites on their mobiles to stay connected with friends and family on the move.

Telstra examined the social networking habits of more than five million 3G mobile customers over a 12-month period and found:

• The number of customers using Facebook on their mobiles has grown almost four-fold (by 390%) since April 2009.
• The number of people accessing Twitter on their mobiles each month has grown by 450% compared with this time last year.
• Visits to MySpace on mobiles have more than doubled, up 230% over the past 12 months.
• Facebook is by far the most popular social networking destination for Telstra 3G mobile customers followed by MySpace, YouTube and then Twitter.

To help more Australians get in on the act, Telstra will provide millions of its Next G customers access to a new social networking service called ‘Tribe’, which was launched today.

“Tribe is a new mobile social networking service that combines Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in a single location. It allows customers to manage their social profile from a single, portal that can be accessed from a range of Next G mobiles - not just smartphones," said Fielding.