The average time spent accessing Facebook via smartphone in the United States was 441 minutes in March, compared with 391 minutes via computer, according to comScore, underscoring the increasingly high-profile role of mobile in social networking.
comScore's new Mobile Metrix 2.0 report showed U.S. smartphone users spent 441 minutes per month, or 7 hours and 21 minutes, on Facebook in March. That compares with 391 minutes, or 6 hours and 31 minutes, for people who tapped into Facebook via a computer.
In filing documents for its initial public offering, Facebook highlighted the importance of mobile while noting it does not generate meaningful revenue from mobile users.
"If users increasingly access mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users," the company writes in its filing documents, "our financial performance and ability to grow revenue would be negatively affected."
Beefing up its mobile strategy was part of the reason Facebook in April agreed to spend $1 billion to buy Instagram, a photo-sharing mobile app, analysts say.Historically, Facebook hasn't shown ads to mobile users, although in March 2012 it started including "sponsored stories" in users' mobile new feeds. March marks the first month comScore measured mobile usage -- for Apple's iOS, Google's Android and RIM's Blackberry -- on sites like Facebook.
