Mobile social media is taking off with French smartphone users
Though some research showed that France had been falling behind the rest of the EU5 (Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom) in April 2012, in terms of mobile social media use, but as politicians in that country used the technology to help to gain votes, it increased significantly.
Though the election is over, this mobile trend appears to have taken hold in France.
According to eMarketer, by the end of 2012, there will be 21.9 million users of social networks, and this number will increase to 23.6 million next year. Though this is an impressive figure in and of itself, what is gaining the most attention is the number of people who are accessing these networks using their smartphones.
In 2012, the number of users over smartphones and tablets will grow by 53.8 percent to reach 7.5 million, and by next year it is estimated that mobile social media users will make up almost half (11.3 million) of the total number accessing these networks. By the year 2014, almost one in every four people in France will be taking part in this mobile trend.
This is causing many of the social networks to place their focus on location-based apps and features.
One example of this effort was the acquisition of Glancee and Instagram by Facebook. Geolocation is exploding around the entire world, as more iPhones are sold every day than there are people born. As people use Wi-Fi hotspots and their device GPS for check-ins, local information is becoming a vital part of the survival of businesses and the expectations of consumers.
This is because it brings a level of relevance and value to consumers that had never before been possible. Moreover, it allows companies to reach consumers at precisely the moment that they are in the area of the store or restaurant, for example, and interact with them at a time that they are already thinking about the products and services available there.
Local mobile social media has opened up the possibility of linking the information currently available with the location of the recipient.