We’re becoming quite a global market, and it seems that the mobile industry is only speeding up the process.  It’s reshaping the web, while in many ways picking up where PCs left off.  And the true leap into the future will be determined by the ways in which our mobile technology is incorporated into our every day lives—how it affects our culture, our communication and our transactions.

Recognizing the need for cross-market analysis, comScore has released its first comparative report on mobile usage in Japan, the U.S. and Europe.  Tapping into its MobiLens service, the new report looks at a number of metrics, including content consumption, demographics and social networks.

With certain parts of the globe seeing staggering activity in many of the areas comScore is researching, it’s certainly interesting to see how culture and geographic locations play a part in the larger mobile plays.

As expected, mobile behavior is expressed differently across the studied markets.  Some of the notable differences were in the types of apps used, with Japanese users taking to mobile browsing, and Europeans being the most active in text messaging.

The U.S. takes the cake on social networking, with a 21.3% share, followed by Japan at 17%, and Europe at 14.7%.  And while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hails the network as a globally unifying one, it looks like Twitter is the one actually manifesting a universal appeal.  It appeared as a prominent social network across all markets studied, though Facebook does dominate in both the US and Europe.

Global stats are of rising importance, as the mobile market seeks international growth.  Payment platforms are extending across global currencies, developing an extension of the markets erected by Nokia, Apple, AT&T, Google, and all the others.  Looking to these countries in particular means looking ahead, seeing where useful trends are bubbling for SMB interests far and wide.

From a marketing standpoint, it would also be important to note other trends as they’re replicated across the world, in the types of apps being created, to the average age of mobile users.  Thirteen year-old females are highly active across all three markets, with heavy interests in social media, gaming and chatting.

See here for the complete comScore report, and if you’d like another interesting look at social media influence on a global scale, check out this haphazard map.