A recent study by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has found that browsing the mobile web is more popular than reading newspapers or magazines.
The study found that on average 71 million Europeans use the internet on their mobile each week – for an average time of almost one hour every day.
EIAA’s Mediascope Europe study across 15 European markets highlights how consumers are extending the ways in which they enjoy and engage with the internet and its growing influence on everyday lives.
The findings indicate a growing public awareness of the mobile internet - there are now more people who are aware that they can use the Internet on their mobile device than not (48% vs 47%).
71 million Europeans browse the mobile Internet in a typical week, and the time spent browsing is almost an hour per day - an average of 6.4 hours per week browsing. This compares with an average of just 4.8 hours reading a newspaper or 4.1 hours reading magazines.
This increase is largely being driven by the younger generations with 24% of 16-24 year olds and 21% of 25-34 year olds already using the mobile Internet and spending on average 7.2 and 6.6 hours respectively each week.
And the time spent is not the same across all countries, with Poland leading the way with an average of over 10 hours spent on mobile internet per week.
The EIAA study also included some interesting information about what activities are popular on mobile phones:
almost half (48%) of Europeans use their internet enabled phones for more than voice conversation
16% state they communicate using social media via their mobile
16% also using mobile instant messenger
Alison Fennah, Executive Director of the EIAA said: “Better devices and connectivity as well as enhanced consumer motivation all started coming together in 2009 to improve and extend the overall online experience. As a result, the internet is now being consumed across PC, laptop, mobile and gaming devices, providing 24-7 access to digital information and entertainment. This presents a compelling case for brands to explore and incorporate a growing number of complementary interactive platforms into the marketing mix.
“Indeed, new age patterns of media consumption indicate that marketers should be looking to develop multi-platform strategies that reach and connect with consumers more effectively and increase ROI. This is opposed to making media decisions based on an ‘either or’ basis if they want to reach all demographics.”
LONDON: More than a third of the mobile audience in the UK regularly go online via their handsets, a trend encouraged by the popularity of devices like the iPhone.
In a recent study, ComScore, the research firm, estimated 37% of wireless subscribers in the country have gone online in this way.
Elsewhere, 36% of this group as a whole had been exposed to some form of mobile advertising in June 2010 - whether by text and picture SMS messages, or display or video ads hosted on mobile web pages.
Smartphones had a mobile market share of 28% in the UK by May 2010, equating to 12.87m active handsets.
This represents an uptick of over 80% from the figure of 7.13m recorded in May 2009.
Take-up was highest among 25 to 34-year-olds, 3.4m of which possess a BlackBerry or similar product, falling to 2.86m for 35 to 44-year-olds and 2.2m for 18 to 24-year-olds, ComScore found.
Consumers aged at least 55 years old proved to be relatively keen on these technologically-advanced devices, having purchased 1.95m units, declining to 1.74m for 45–54 year olds and 780k for 13 to 17-year-olds.
In terms of category growth, 18 to 24-year-olds are delivering the most rapid increase in sales, and now makes up nearly 16% of smartphone users.
Facebook claimed a penetration of 67% with members of the 15–24 year old age range who surfed the net through the iPhone or equivalent.
Google posted a corresponding total of 61.1% for the same segment, sliding to 47.2% for Microsoft's stable of sites, 38.8% for the BBC's website and 20.1% for Yahoo.
While 71% of subscribers to offerings like the iPhone and BlackBerry had downloaded applications, this decreased to 31% of all mobile owners.
"What we're seeing is a disconnect between the hype around apps and the number of people who are actually using them," said Jeremy Copp, ComScore's vice president of mobile.
"Brands need to think outside of the app space if they really want to engage with a mass-market audience. Apps are by no means the dominant channel, although it would be unwise to abandon them altogether."
The favourite such tools included location-based apps, alongside services linked to social networking and weather forecasts.
"Advertising via SMS and browsing still plays a key role when it comes to advertisers reaching mobile users," Copp argued. "Marketers need to remember they have a variety of channels at their disposal.
* 16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009
* They viewed a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spent an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month
* The top 10 sites accounted for 70 per cent of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month
A more detailed breakdown of the top mobile internet sits in the UK shows that Facebook is by far the most viewed site, with over 5 times the total minutes viewed of any other site.
A recent study by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has found that browsing the mobile web is more popular than reading newspapers or magazines.
