Good evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today I am looking at the future of social networking, with a new report out this month by Morgan and Stanley on Internet Trends.  Below are some of the trends from the report.

1) Social Networking Overtakes Email Usage
Social networking has now as of July 2009 overtaken email in terms of the number of users (see chart below).  So for all you doubters out there that think social networking is still a fad, think again.

2) People move away from search to social networking
Facebook has largest share of global online usage, with Facebook the most downloaded free app on the iPhone.

3) Mobile internet usage will be bigger than desktop internet usage in the next 5 years
These are the predictions made by Morgan & Stanley, as consumers move towards using data more than voice on mobile devices.

This will be facilitated by the increase in 3G penetration.

Other trends you should be thinking about….

• Location based services
• Transparent pricing as consumers can compare prices in stores and scan barcodes of products to find where the product is sold and for how much
• Deep discounting with the increase in invitation only, time based offers
• Immediate gratification with instant delivery

But my favourite slide is this one comparing the Rest of the World in 2008 vs. Japan in 2000 in terms of mobile internet revenue mix… This slide freaked out this bunny!! What do you think?

Would love to hear your comments, thoughts, suggestions, ideas on the future of social networking, mobile internet and mobile revenue tell me in the comments…

Until then I have to go and develop a few mobile app’s!!!