Smart device users spend as much time on Facebook as on the mobile web

Android and iOS smartphone and tablet users spend an average of 2 hours and 38 minutes per day on their devices on Facebook, according to new data from Flurry. These consumers appear to significantly favor applications over the mobile web: 80% of  their consumption (or 2 hours and 7 minutes daily) is spent inside apps, per the report, while the remaining 20% (31 minutes) is devoted to the mobile web. That means that time spent with Facebook (18% share) rivals time spent with the entire mobile Web.

Interestingly, that 18% share works out to roughly 28 and a half minutes per day spent with Facebook. That aligns quite closely with recent research from Facebook and IDC, which found that smartphone users spend about 33 minutes per day using Facebook. (Notably, though, the Flurry data is worldwide, whereas the Facebook/IDC results are for the US only.)

Despite that significant chunk of time devoted to Facebook use, the social network doesn’t hold a candle to gaming application consumption. According to Flurry, 32% of all time spent with smartphones and tablets, more than 50 minutes daily, is devoted to gaming apps.

Other categories eating up smartphone and tablet time include: Safari (12%); entertainment apps (8%); utility apps (8%); and other social networking apps (6%). Flurry notes that many consumers view web content from inside Facebook (i.e. when clicking a link, the web content is viewed inside the app, rather than launching a browser). The researchers conclude that considering “the proportion Facebook app usage that is within their web view (aka browser)” would result in Facebook becoming “the most adopted browser in terms of consumer time spent.” That would require at least two-thirds of Facebook app time to be devoted to consuming content within the web view, though, and it’s unclear that this is the case (nor does Flurry provide details to support that argument). (Courtesy http://www.marketingcharts.com)