emarketer

So yesterday eMarketer tells us social network users have started to tire of those services. Today we learn, from eMarketer again, that fatigue might not extend to mobile users.

Analysts, naturally, offer a range of estimates for worldwide use of social nets via mobile devices. At the conservative end, ABI Research says 140 million users by 2013. On the wild side, Pyramid Research says 950 million users -- about one seventh of the world population -- by 2012.

If that holds true, by then it will be so very 20th Century to use a mobile device just to make a lowly phone call.

EMarketer gives us two interesting tidbits regarding adoption of online social networks:

• Per research from Synovate, 58 percent of adults worldwide do not know what social networks are at all.
• In the same study, 36 percent of current social network users worldwide (45 percent in the United States) said they are losing interest in online social networking.

That last point matters most to Internet innovators. This year alone, we witnessed sprouting of several new branded social networks, some on the backs of existing networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn.