Study: Social dominates smartphone Internet time

New York—Social media represents the largest share of online time on smartphones, well ahead of email, according to a study by market research company GfK Group.

The report by MultiMedia Mentor, a GfK tracking service, found social sites and activities account for 31% of smartphone online minutes, and include such activities as reading status updates and posting short comments, replies and likes. Email ranked second at 16% of smartphone online minutes.

The GfK analysis revealed that social media represents only 18% of time spent on the Internet via PCs, whether desktop or laptop, indicating that social media use is increasingly a mobile experience.

GfK's study was based on interviews with 2,616 members of an online panel in the U.S., conducted between February and July.