Users Log in With Facebook Instead of Creating New Accounts Online

Online consumers seem to agree: The more a site or app knows about a user, the better that user's experience will be.

That mantra has driven the need for personal accounts and logins at nearly every turn, and social sites such as Facebook and Google+ are competing to be your login of choice. Whether you're signing in to play Words with Friends, or managing your Fantasy Football roster on ESPN, you almost always need a username and password.

New data released Tuesday from Gigya, a social-login provider for large enterprises such as Verizon, Pepsi and ABC, found that people are using their Facebook identity more often than those of other social networks to log in to third-party apps and websites. Data collected over Q3 from the company's more than 700 clients found that those who have social logins use Facebook 51% of time, followed by Google+ (26%) and Yahoo (18%). Twitter was a distant fourth at only 4%.

The biggest benefit for being the social login of choice is staying power, said Gigya CEO Patrick Salyer. "It's a way for [social networks] to create very long-term relevancy with users," he explained. "Whatever you're using as your authentication login, that is going to be a service you continue to maintain and use possibly years and years from now."

More and more users are choosing to log in with social accounts they already have because it's more convenient than creating a new username and password for each stop you make on the web, Salyer said.

This login share for Facebook is important to the company's long-term plans, particularly around mobile. Facebook's share of mobile logins is at 66%, Gigya found, and the social network seems to be the login of choice in many areas outside the United States and Europe. In South America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, Facebook's login share was higher than 70%, compared to only 47% in the U.S.

The future of Facebook's mobile strategy depends heavily on emerging markets, and as Internet access becomes more widespread, an increasing number of users will need logins to complete their online activities. Its presence in markets outside the U.S. will likely help with this.

Facebook has been openly pushing to make social login easier for users. The company fully implemented two-step login permissions in August, aiming to encourage more users to sign in with their Facebook identity by better explaining the data and information to which third-party apps and websites have access.

As of August, Facebook had more than 850 million login events per month.

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Images: Antony Dickson/AFP/GettyImages, Gigya