There’s a real dearth of good data about the mobile web. If I want to find out the top websites in any country in the world, region or even globally, there’s any number of free and paid-for stats I could access.
The same isn’t true of the mobile web at all, as it seems to be off the radar for many analysts and marketers alike. I’m involved in the mobile web on a day-to-day basis through AdMob and via our partnerships with mobile websites and via talks with actual and potential advertisers throughout the world. But I’m constantly surprised at how vibrant the mobile web ecosystem actually is and how relatively low awareness is among decision makers and the people who influence them.
To put this in perspective in 1996 (if you can remember that far back) you couldn’t open a newspaper or business magazine without talk of this Internet thing and how it was going to change our lives. But at that time only 19% of US adults used it and the stats would have been even lower in Europe.
However, results of a tracking survey by ComScore Networks released yesterday showed that 19% of US adults use the mobile Internet today and yet the mobile web scarcely gets a mention in the press. Furthermore, Europe is even higher, with Germany and Italy leading the way with 34% each, then France (28%), Spain (26%) and the Uk at 24% - though stats I’ve seen from M:Metrics puts the UK at 29%.
I also know that these probably aren’t the biggest markets from AdMob stats - I’m sure that S Africa and India would be even higher than that.
So why is the world ignoring this - which is every bit as revolutionary as the PC-web before? After all, if you believe some pundits (well, OK, me) the mobile will become the single most important device for accessing the web, even in developed markets within a 5 year time frame.
I don’t have an answer, but I can speculate.
Since most usage is probably led by early adopting youth markets, older people - the decision makers and influencers - just aren’t aware of what’s going on around them. If 25% of the population started wearing berets and stripey T-shirts, it would be blindingly obvious that something was happening. Well, OK maybe not in France, but you get the picture. Whereas what you do on your mobile is essentially a private thing and it’s not getting seen.
So, do the industry a favour and point out to a few people and the mobile web is here and it’s being used by a big enough percentage of the population to be called mainstream - and it’s happening right under our noses.
Maybe we should have a Mobile Web Day and spread the good news - any takers?
There’s no “poster children” for the mobile web yet. In Japan and Korea there are mobile services that have become major brands - there’s nothing like that outside of those markets. The mobile web needs its “amazon” or “myspace” before it will get taken seriously.
“Maybe we should have a Mobile Web Day and spread the good news - any takers?”
I’m all up for the “Mobile Web Day”.
Maybe the real internet revolution was the ‘network’ itself that connected us to information and people in a completely brand new way. Perhaps joe public (and joe press) see mobile internet as just another way - a very expensive way - to access this network, so why should we expect another device accessing the same network to elicit mass consumer/press hysteria? I suspect in the minds of the press and joe consumer the real revolution has happened already. Sure they can access the worlds biggest encyclopaedia on the move - but I think many consumers see this as a ’so what’ feature. I dont think a killer service will change this sentiment anytime soon. Mobile Ops are repeating what Compuserve, AOL et al did before mass open internet powered by flat-rate tarrifs arrived - they are rinsing revenue from consumers crazy enough to pay the exorbitant data charges. Mobile internet will never move into the fast lane unless the ops go flat-rate. When that will this happen? Hopefully the process will begin when Ofcom review wholesale UK SMS charges next year. The ops will realise they need to stimulate other data traffic to stem the loss of profits when Ofcom insist that consumer SMS prices be moved out of the ‘daylight robbery’ category.
Cellufun’s traffic has been growing tremendously, and you’re right — it’s not a story people focus on. But, I guess we’ll have to keep working on that MySpace thing
Arthur Goikhman
Cellufun.com
I’d like to propose that Mobile Web Day be on November 16th in Mountain View, California at the Microsoft Campus — oh, wait, there’s already an event there that day called Under the Radar: Mobility! My bad! No, seriously — I sing your praises, Russell. There are actually quite a lot of market research companies cropping up…m:Metrics is a great one…but it’s our belief that almost everything is going mobile, from ordering take-out to paying bills and that the importance of market data and even of the need to mobilize has not yet been realized. We’ll be covering this issue and will be featuring a bucket-load of stealth, innovative companies that are about to rock the mobile world at Under the Radar: Mobility on 11/16 in Mountain View, Ca. More info here: http://undertheradarblog.com/under-the-radar-mobility-conference/.
[...] « Mobile Web Stats SavaJe In Its Death Throes » [...]
What needs to finally happen is a mass market application/service that takes advantage of mobility. So far we’ve mostly seen mere adaptations of internet ideas to the “small screen”. Once such an application is properly marketed, this is what will give the mobile web broad acclaim as opposed to the “nice to have” status it currently has. I believe LBS-enabled content is the key to success.
Half the problem with the mobile web is that people don’t really know how powerful it is. The other day I needed to find a local restaurant and just pulled up a map of my location with al the local pubs dotted around with distances, phone numbers and directions.
My g/f was amazed and had no idea that this sort of information was just a couple of clicks away. Its products like this with the “wow” factor that need to be demonstrated to people before they know what they are and why they are useful.
[...] In my post yesterday about mobile web usage, I concluded with a rather throw-away remark about having a Mobile Web Day - partly a celebration of where we are already and partly to evangelize to non-users and the press that it’s big, useful and mainstream, already. [...]
[...] Cam seemed to be under the impression that not many people were using the mobile web currently. Hmmm, it might be an age thing - as I wrote yesterday this is a mainstream phenomenon and I know it’s big in Australia too from AdMob stats. [...]
[...] Following Russell’s earlier post about stats on mobile web usage, this story caught my eye yesterday: [...]
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Very good points, and I can’t necessarily explain the lack of coverage, except to the extent that it’s separate for the non-mobile web. Certainly, to those in the mobile space we’ve seen tremendous changes in the past year, due largely to the opportunity to monetize services with mobile ads provide by AdMob and others.
There’s a learning curve to be over-come with the mobile space. Everything on cellphones is a trickier business than the web due to the proliferation of different devices. That said, we’ve seen amazing click-though rates both for ads we’ve bought and for those placed on our own site, so the payback can be a lot higher. I expect to see companies like Google and Yahoo to devoting more energy in this area in the future, and I look forward to it.
A year ago it wouldn’t have been possible, but mobile ads are funding our service for free mobile phone games, and providing a boost for our premium game sales. Blue skies ahead!