Facebook App: The Next Big Name in Mobile Browsing?
When it comes to desktop computers, the picture is pretty clear: Google Chrome is by far the most popular web browser in the world. Google’s home-grown, lightweight, and lightning-fast web browser now runs on almost 70% of all computers worldwide, followed by Firefox in a distant second place with a little over 11%, Internet Explorer with almost 7%, Safari with 5%, and Microsoft Edge with a little over 4%. When it comes to mobile, though, things are a bit different. According to a recent report compiled by analytics company Mixpanel, the Facebook app has claimed its place in the top list of American mobile browsers.
Browsing Facebook
Facebook is, without a doubt, the largest social network in the world. Its user base is massive all over the globe – as of the second quarter of this year, its user base has reached 2.23 billion, even after the recent data collection scandal that left it with a ravaged reputation. The number of its users is constantly growing in Africa, too, and as a result of Africa’s ongoing digital revolution, most of its local users are mobile-first – over 90%, statistics say. This means that a massive amount of content is consumed through its native app on all mobile platforms – especially Android.
What the numbers say
Mixpanel has looked especially on data compiled in the United States but the situation is probably similar in the rest of the world. According to its report, almost 8% of all the mobile browsing traffic in the United States was handled by the Facebook app, putting it in the third position of the top five list after Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome. Safari is the biggest mobile browser in the US, with a market share of around 58% – and the fact that Apple’s iPhone has a market share of more than 65% in the United States indicates that many iPhone users either use Chrome or another mobile browser or navigate mostly through the Facebook app.
According to the latest numbers published by Statista, more than 95% of all Facebook users accessed the content flowing through the big blue social network from a smartphone, compared to just around 32% of them using a desktop computer to browse it. According to another analyst, more than 85% of smartphone owners use the Facebook app, and there are up to 6% of smartphone owners that spend all their browsing time on the Facebook app (as of May 2018) and this number is expected to grow further in the coming years.
Facebook, it seems, is becoming an increasingly important name in the world of mobile browsers, representing a very important channel of consuming online media for a massive number of users worldwide – especially in the United States.
