PlusOne - Musings of a marketer

I came across an interesting press release that indicates that web access from mobile phones is undergoing a silent explosion.

Telephia and comScore (two mobile market research/development type companies) sais their study reveals that 5.7 million people in the U.K. used a mobile device to access the Web during January 2007 compared to the 30 million people age 15 or older who accessed the Web from a PC (either a home or a work machine).

At 19 percent of the PC-based Internet audience, the U.K. Mobile Web market is similarly developed on a relative basis to the U.S. Mobile Web market, where 30 million (or 19 percent) of the 159 million U.S. PC Web users of a comparable age accessed the Web from a mobile device during the same month.

It comes as no great surprise that the youth market is the one that is uptaking this access method…on the move, with a need to stay in touch…if you are looking to move a website to a mobile version make sure it is targetted at the younger age spectrum.

The Telephia and comScore research, MobileWeb Metrix, reveals that U.K. Mobile Web users under 35 years of age account for 67 percent of the entire Mobile Web audience in the U.K., whereas the same age segment accounts for 39 percent of the PC-based Internet audience. Research findings in the U.S. show that those under 35 account for 46 percent of the Mobile Web audience and 36.5 percent of the PC-based Internet audience.

The study also shows that gender is also an influencing factor, with 63 percent of UK Mobile Web users are male, compared to 54 percent of PC Internet users. In the U.S., 60 percent of Mobile Web users are male versus 49 percent of PC Internet users. Again logic dictates that any move to mobile web is for younger male themes.

Table 1

Demographic Breakdown of Internet Users Unique Visitors, Age 15+ (U.K.) and Age 13+ (U.S.) January 2007 U.K. & U.S. Audiences Source: comScore/ Telephia MobileWeb Metrix
	U.K.			U.S.
	% Mobile Web Users	% PC Internet Users	Mobile to PC User Index	% Mobile Web Users	% PC Internet Users	Mobile to PC User Index
Persons Age: 15-24 (U.K.) and 13-24 (U.S.)	25.5	20.0	127	22.2	20.5	108
Persons Age: 25-34	41.4	19.3	215	24.2	16.0	151
Persons Age: 35-44	18.9	23.8	80	24.4	20.2	120
Persons Age: 45-54	10.7	19.9	54	16.8	18.0	93
Persons Age: 55-64	2.7	11.2	24	9.8	10.6	92
Persons Age: 65+	0.8	5.8	14	2.6	5.2	49

*Mobile to PC User Index is defined as the percentage of Mobile Web users in each age bracket divided by the percentage of PC-based Internet users in the same age bracket. Differences in reach % may not be statistically significant.

If these numbers are to be believed, then there are MORE peoploe accessing the web via mobile in the under 35 year age than use PC…

comScore and Telephia also revealed the leading sites on the Mobile Web in both the U.K. and the U.S., ranked by unique visitors. Popular PC Internet sites Yahoo!, MSN and Google all featured in the ranking of leading sites on both sides of the Atlantic. BBC and SKY were the leading sites for U.K. Mobile Web users in January, attracting 2.3 million and 1.2 million unique visitors, respectively (see Table 2).

Table 2

Leading Mobile Web Sites* Unique Visitors, Age 15+ January 2007 U.K. Audience Source: comScore/ Telephia MobileWeb Metrix
	Total Mobile Unique Visitors (000)	% Mobile Reach	PC Unique Visitors (000)	% PC Reach	Mobile to PC Reach Index**
Total Internet	5,708	100.0	30,072	100.0	100
BBC	2,333	40.9	17,554	58.4	70
MSN-Windows Live	1,758	30.8	24,072	80.0	38
Yahoo!	1,513	26.5	19,660	65.4	41
Google	1,434	25.1	25,804	85.8	29
SKY	1,197	21.0	6,951	23.1	91

*Does not include operator landing sites such as O2 Active

**Mobile to PC Reach Index for a brand is defined as the brand’s reach among Mobile Web users divided by its reach among PC-based internet users. Differences in reach % may not be statistically significant.

***May not include all sites owned by a brand

Table 3

Leading Mobile Web Sites* Unique Visitors, Age 13+ January 2007 U.S. Audience Source: comScore/Telephia MobileWeb Metrix
	Total Mobile Unique Visitors (000)	% Mobile Reach	PC Unique Visitors (000)	% PC Reach	Mobile to PC Reach Index**
Total Internet	29,676	100.0	158,970	100.0	100
Yahoo!	15,861	53.4	127,460	72.6	74
MSN-Windows Live	8,961	30.2	97,449	55.5	54
Google	8,817	29.7	107,105	61.0	49
The Weather Channel	6,594	22.2	35,433	20.2	110
AOL	6,081	20.5	88,738	50.5	41

*Does not include operator landing sites

**Mobile to PC Reach Index for a brand is defined as the brand’s reach among mobile Web users divided by its reach among PC-based internet users. Differences in reach % may not be statistically significant.

***May not include all sites owned by a brand
The Weather Channel and AOL represented additional leading sites among U.S. Mobile Web users in January, with 6.6 million and 6.0 million unique visitors, respectively (see Table 3).

Go to original release

As the report says, the Weather Channel in the U.S. has a greater reach via the Mobile Web than it does via PC-based Internet, highlighting how the success of sites that provide content for people on the move by optimizing the pages for the size of the screen.

In addition, sports and news sites are also clearly popular because they have information that is updated often, meaning people can access this information regardless of their location.

A good case in point isthe BBS news site, where there isa huge audience from west Africa. This is a region where mobile-PC ownership has a wide disparity, and where access to information that is seen as neutral is keenly sought-after.

So my view on the future of mobile web browsing?

In Australia it will be a while before it really takes off due to the high data costs. But for savvy website owners who have products or services that especially appeal to the younger male demographic, there are huge opportunities.

For the US and UK markets - data plans are cheap - the sky is the limit. Already mobile social sites are beginning to take off (think MySpace) as a highly mobile, information and interaction hungry demographic embraces new ways of keeping in with the crowd.

Equally, any provider of valuable content should seriously be looking at establishing mobile web versions of their sites. While SMS can be used to send snippetts of information, there is the otential to expand subscriber services by using the SMS as an alert, with the link to a password protected site that contains more complete information.

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