While Facebook’s usage has dropped among teenagers, a recent study has found that it still trumps Twitter in terms of  smartphone users.

The survey, which was conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), showed that Zuckerberg’s platform dominates the mobile app market, with usage four times that of second-placed Twitter.

As part of the study, CIRP questioned 500 smartphone users who had activated devices in the year’s third quarter. They were asked to name the three apps they used the most. Facebook came first with 45 per cent, followed by Twitter (13 per cent) and popular puzzle game ‘Candy Crush Saga’, with 11 per cent.

CIRP’s co-founder, Mike Levin, released a statement earlier this week, saying:

“Facebook just dominates mobile phones, in terms of most frequent use, not just downloads.

“For most other apps, including some well-known ones like YouTube and Pandora, fewer than 10 per cent of phone buyers included them among the most frequently used.”

The dominance enjoyed by Facebook is even more impressive when the owners of each of the apps are considered. The Californian social giant, for example, owns Instagram, which came in in fourth place.

Facebook will no doubt welcome the news, especially after its recent efforts to boost its mobile presence. Furthermore, the data is likely to silence some doubters, with many claiming that the site is losing its younger audience. In October, Piper Jaffray released data showing that Twitter had moved into first place in the table of most popular networks among teenage web users.

In terms of producers, Google came in second in the list, with YouTube, Google Maps, Chrome and Gmail all proving popular. Twitter, which owns Vine, was third, while Amazon, games development firm King and Angry Birds-maker Rovio also found on many of the respondents’ devices.

Graeme Parton

Graeme has experience creating content for online sources and for the radio, and at university he studied Multimedia Journalism.