According to recent studies, a typical American spends two weeks a year in the bathroom and takes about thirty minutes to one hour in the bathroom each morning before going to work. If he lives to the ripe age of eighty, three years more than the expected life expectancy, he will have spent three whole years in the restroom.

Ask the typical American whether he brings anything when he’s in the bathroom – chances are, you will get a positive response. Some read newspapers and magazines; some bring their mp3’s while others turn to their mobile phones.

Survey Says

According to a recent survey conducted by AIS Media, Inc., [an online agency that brings businesses closer to their consumers through digital technology and social media marketing] a total of 27% out of 500 Americans have been known to ‘connect with friends’ on their mobile phones while taking care of “business!” 54.4% of the respondents were female and 45.6% were male. This time management activity ranked high in the 30 to 49 age group.

Significance to Businesses and Brands

Facebook inadvertently profits from the relationship between its users through the brands, businesses and companies included in building its rumored $50 billion estimate. Case in point, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) recently made a $500 million investment on Facebook late last year.

Each time a user clicks the ‘Like’ button for promotions, brands and companies he wants to affiliate himself with, he proves that Facebook is indeed a 500 million rich arena of potential consumers all within easy reach of the brand. Want to promote your brand for free? Get users to ‘like’ your page and thus encourage consumer support and help in viral marketing activities.

But according to Inside Facebook Gold [an information service of the Inside Network research firm] and comScore [an internet tracking company] Facebook might have reached the saturation point when it comes to American users. This is because while the social networking site is near to closing in on its 600 millionth user, US users showed a decline in growth in the last four months.

Solution

This means that Facebook will have to work on making sure that existing users spend more time on Facebook. To bank on this statistic, Facebook has recently released an application for feature phones or the traditional mobile phones. The smartphones already have a preinstalled Facebook mobile application, but smartphone users are pegged only at about 30% of the 228 million mobile users of the US population.

Thus, Facebook recently partnered with Snaptu to bring Facebook to more than 2,500 mobile phones manufactured by Nokia, LG and Sony Ericsson and will be released through American wireless service providers and select carriers in countries like Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Sri Lanka and Romania.

Time, they say, is our most precious commodity and in the modern age, I guess this includes the time we spend on the John. After all, what better time and place than sitting on a toilet bowl to ask yourself Facebook’s signature question.. so.. “What’s on your mind?”