Telephia and comScore announced today what many of us have long suspected – that the mobile web is growing like Topsy. In fact, 5.7 million¬†people in the UK use the mobile web, as opposed to 30 million who access the web by PC. This means that the mobile web is already nearly one fifth the size of the PC web.
In the US, the stat is 17% (30 million of 176 million), which is pretty impressive considering that the US often lags behind a little in mobile. It’s also worth combining these two pieces of the jigsaw and saying that there are as many mobile web users in the US as there are PC web users in the UK.
In the UK, 67% of mobile web users are under 35, with the equivalent figure for PC web being 39%. Clearly then, the mobile web is a young man’s game – not a sexist statement, ladies, as 63% of mobile users are male. A similar situation, though not as pronounced, exists in the US, with 46% of users being under 35 (v’s 36% on the PC web) and 60% male (v’s 49% on the PC).
Accessing the¬†web via the mobile, as any sane, thinking person must acknowledge is going to dwarf PC access. And indeed, I would argue that it’ll replace it altogether within the next 5 years – PC style functionality (keyboard and large screens) will be available via a docking station when you need it. So this is just the start of things and as fixed price data packages become available, handsets get better, speeds get faster and mobile sites are better designed and optimised, the pace of growth is simply going to explode.
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