Facebook's Mobile app accounts for up to 40 percent of visits on the site. Image: Flickr / johanl / CC-BY-SA
The best mobile app developers know creating a popular app starts with finding something that many people will use on a regular basis. New statistics about the usage of networks Facebook and Twitter highlight this fact.
According to analysis by firm Enders Anaylsis, approximately 40 percent of all Facebook visits each month come from the mobile Facebook app. There are no solid statistics on the number of users that log in to Facebook only through the mobile app and not using any other method, but estimates are as high as 20 percent of Facebook users.
With this many users of Facebook applications, the way these apps are developed has a significant impact on the direction of app development in general. Facebook’s app updates seem to be moving toward an app skin on a unified HTML5 user experience. This trend is true for more than just Facebook, as HTML5 provides many of the same experiences as the proprietary code formats each phone or mobile operating systems without the complexity.
When it comes to social networking, Twitter is nearly as ubiquitous as Facebook. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project Report of 2011, more than half of Twitter users access their accounts using mobile phones or mobile apps in addition to the web interface. Twitter is unique in that there is a huge number of apps that tap into the Twitter API, and the text messaging interface allows for mobile use without an app or a smartphone.
For Twitter, Facebook, or any other social network or social network user, the takeaway lesson of these statistics is simple. Social network users are increasingly mobile-connected, and having an easy way for mobile users to access your website, your network, or your service will become essential in having an incredibly popular tech anything.
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