Mobile Social Networking Has 12.3 Million Friends in US and Western Europe

12.3 million consumers in the US and Western Europe report accessing a social networking site with a mobile device in June, according to the first measurement by M:Metrix of mobile social networking, writes MarketingCharts (via CNET's Tech News Blog).

Some findings from the study:

* The US audience for mobile social networking sites is the largest, with 7.5 million, or 3.5 percent of mobile subscribers. Italy follows with 1.3 million, or 2.8 percent; then the UK with 1.1 million, or 2.5 percent; Spain with 751,000 (2.3 percent), Germany (1.9 percent) and France (1.7 percent).

* MySpace garnered the most mobile users in the United States and United Kingdom, whereas MSN was the forum of choice for mobile Web 2.0 users in the other geographies surveyed.

* MySpace attracts 3.7 million US and 440,000 UK mobile users. In America, Facebook's mobile audience is about 2 million, and in Britain, about 307,000.

* Rounding out the top three is YouTube in the US, with 901,000 mobile visitors, and Bebo in the UK, with 288,000.

M:Metrics also tracks the availability of content across all operator portals and found that in June, the top three US mobile social networking sites had strong distribution, with MySpace appearing on the decks of Amp'd, AT&T, Helio and Nextel:

* Facebook was accessible on the Sprint, AT&T, Virgin and Amp'd decks and YouTube on the Verizon deck*.

* In the UK, MySpace has distribution on Vodafone, Bebo is on the 3 deck, but No. 2 MSN Live Spaces is offered nowhere on portal.
* Those under 25 are the most active users of mobile social networking sites across all geographies studied.
* In France, Germany, Italy and Spain, the age demographic with the largest percentage of use is 13-17-year-olds, whereas college-aged consumers (18-24) are the most avid users in the United States and the United Kingdom.

*YouTube is also on the iPhone deck, which was not under measurement at the time of the survey.