Context Information for Social Applications

ComScore has published in the last December the report “Top 10 need-to-knows” about social networking activities, providing an overview about how social applications are used nowadays in different countries around the world. Below, you will find repo

rted some information related to context-aware adaptation that were originally provided by the report.

Social networks can be defined as online platforms where users connect themselves, share information and build relationships with other online users. Social networks are popular among Internet users, being adopted by 82% of the online users. This popularity has been significantly changing consumer behaviors, and also life in communities and societies.

Despite differences in government, infrastructure, Internet access, and cultural practices around the world, social networking grows in every country. As such its usage behavior reflects regional differences, for instance, concerning the time spent online, while Latin Americans spent an average of 7.6 hours per user in October 2011, Asians spent less than 3 hours. Concerning the gender, consistently across all regions, women spend more time than men. In North America and Europe, women spend 30% more time than men on social networking sites a month (approximately 2 hours).

• Facebook leads the social networking in the majority of the countries, but exceptions include Japan, Brazil, China, and Russia. Among the top five global networks, Twitter and Linkedin present the highest growth rates for audience size over the past year.
• Microblogging is also a popular social activity, Twitter for instance, is mainly used to communicate events of worldwide and national significance, ranging from the political uprisings in the Middle East to natural disasters as the tsunami in Japan.
• Social networking penetrates mainly among young demographic groups (also called “digital natives”), however users older than 55 represent the fastest growing segment in social networking usage.

Mobile devices represent the future of social networking as they provide means for users to connect on-the-go, facilitating real-time interaction. However, the mobile audience for social networking is still a fraction of users who access them via a classic web interface trough a fixed-line Internet connection.

Across five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom), nearly a quarter (24%) of the total mobile population reported access their social networks on their mobile devices. UK shows the highest social networking penetration among mobile users with 35%. The growth in mobile social networking use can be attributed largely to the growth in popularity of smartphones, specially considering the apps that were developed aiming to provide a better user experience.

The original publication is based in a research with 2 Million people from 171 countries. It can be accessed online at http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/it_is_a_social_world_top_10_need-to-knows_about_social_networking