SEATTLE—Companies looking to create a “mobile MySpace” may want to target U.K. wireless subscribers, according to the latest figures from M:Metrics.
British users are more inclined to use wireless social networking applications than their counterparts in the United States or Germany, the mobile usage measurement firm said this week. More than 10 percent of U.K. users reported uploading photos or videos from their phone to the Web or using a chat or dating application in April; only 7.2 percent of Germans and 6.7 percent of Americans said they used such offerings.
Unsurprisingly, the firm found subscribers who create their own content are similar across the United States and Europe as they are often males between 13 and 17 years old.
“The mobile content industry has learnt that the ringtone and games markets are not just about the youth and are broadening their offerings accordingly,” said Paul Goode, vice president and senior analyst for M:Metrics. “This is not just older groups catching up, but also the youth moving on to become creators rather than just consumers. Social networking is the most youth-driven category of mobile content.”
The report comes amid a stampede of companies looking to expand the user-generated content craze from PCs to mobile phones. Juice Wireless Inc., Intercasting Corp. and Traffix Inc. are just a handful of companies who hope to gain traction in wireless just as MySpace, YouTube and others have done with computer users.
