Social Media Trends: 1B Users Will Access Facebook Monthly on Mobile in 2015

New research from eMarketer reveals that 1B users will access Facebook at least once a month on their mobile devices this year. That’s nearly 70% of the social media site’s total user base. By 2018, eMarketer predicts that1.34 billion users (more than 75% of Facebook’s user base) will regularly access the social network via mobile phones.

Why this is Significant – Two Reasons:

Facebook’s Still Important:

Earlier last year, there was speculation on whether or not Facebook was still relevant to a majority of target audiences (ie teens). What many marketers will realize this year is that Facebook still plays an important role in the online social world. Last year, Facebook made some strategic moves in order to stay relevant to online users and grow audiences, with a more sophisticated search graph, video ads, Facebook trends, and the other features it’s looking to release this year.

Focus Efforts on Mobile:

Facebook’s mobile ad revenue will continue to grow, with no sign of let up. In fact, it’s predicted that the U.S. will remain Facebook’s largest mobile market in 2015, with 123.1 million users, 80% of the country’s total. These users will be accessing the social network through mobile devices and mobile ads will make up 74% of the company’s 2015 ad revenues.

How is Facebook growing to be so successful? eMarketer Principal Analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in the release:

Facebook has been a leader helping marketers to transition to mobile advertising. Because the Facebook experience is basically the same across devices, advertisers don’t have to reinvent the wheel to place mobile advertising. As Facebook’s user base shifts even more heavily toward mobile, it is well positioned to see increasing ad revenues from this channel.

Marketers will not only build a web presence on mobile to stay relevant on search, but fuel their social media efforts with mobile in mind. If eMarketers’s predictions are correct, Facebook will be seeing $18 billion dollars in revenue by 2016. This also suggests Facebook will be selling mobile ads at a premium rate compared to current mobile ad rates. Currently, many mobile ads in general are sold at a lower rate than desktop ad rates because of the assumption that users don’t make purchases very often on mobile devices. This could change within the next few years when mobile payment becomes more popular.

Other recent findings from eMarketer:

• YouTube is the leader in terms of online video and viewing, but Facebook follows right behind. Rather than take away market share, Debra Aho Williamson says that Facebook video will expand the overall online video market and that YouTube will continue to be the favored video advertising destination.
• Twitter is beta testing promoted videos on their site; Instagram, Tumblr, and Snapchat have also begun to test video ad products for their platforms.