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Daily mobile Web consumption of news, information doubles: comScore

A new study claims that the number of U.S. consumers using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009.

In an encouraging indication of regularity, 35 percent -- 22.37 million "of the 63.2 million unique users who accessed news and information on their mobile devices undertook such activity daily in January 2009, according to market researcher comScore Inc. This is a 107 percent increase over the 10.82 million subscribers who access news and information daily on their Web-enabled handsets daily in January 2008.

"What we're showing is a clear shift for this broad category," said Mark Donovan, senior vice president of mobile at comScore, Seattle.

"The increase is driven, first, by widespread improvements and dissemination in technologies that have created better consumer experiences -- 3G, smartphones -- but also very capable high-end feature phones and, second, lots and lots of content and applications being provided by first-tier publishers and others," he said.

Even the weekly consumption of news and information on mobile devices grew 87 percent to 19.28 million consumers in January 2009, up from 10.31 million consumers in the year-ago period.

Monthly consumption was up 71 percent to 63.18 million mobile consumers in January 2009, from 36.87 million mobile consumers in January 2008.

ComScore compiled the data estimates using a three-month average ending January 2008 and January 2009.

The news and information category monitored by comScore excludes mobile social networking.

Social networks, blogs up
ComScore also found that daily unique users of social networking sites or blogs on their mobile devices was up 427 percent to 9.28 million in January 2009, from 1.76 million in the year-ago period.

Similarly, the number of daily unique users who traded stocks or accessed financial accounts on their mobile devices was up 188 percent to 3.27 million in January 2009, from 1.14 million in January 2008.

The number of daily unique users who accessed movie information on their mobile devices was up 185 percent to 3.07 million in January 2009, from 1.08 million in the year-ago period.

Daily unique usage of business directories on mobile devices was up 161 percent to 2.45 million in January 2009, from 939,000 in January 2008.

Also, the number of daily unique users who accessed entertainment news on their mobile devices was up 160 percent to 5.47 million in January 2009, from 2.1 million in the year-ago period.

It is clear from this data that mobile consumption of news and information is growing at a furious pace. But so is the consumption of social networking and blogging on the mobile Web.

Much of the growth in news and information is driven by the surging popularity of downloaded apps for iPhones and text-based searches, per comScore.

Interestingly, while smartphones and high-end feature phones such as the Samsung Instinct and the LG Dare are among the top 10 devices used for news and information access, 70 percent of those consumers accessing mobile Web content are doing it through regular feature phones.

Opportunity for mobile advertising
Applications play a critical role in the growth of the mobile Web.

According to comScore, 22.3 million consumers in January 2009 accessed news and information through a downloaded application.

Maps were the most popular download, at 8.2 million users.

However, search was the top favorite use for SMS-based news and information access, with 14.1 million users, according to comScore data.

All told, 32.4 million consumers are estimated to have used SMS to access news and information in January 2009.

On the demographic side, comScore found that young males are the most serious consumers of mobile news and information. Half of males ages 18-34 are said to engage in that activity.

Mobile Web usage is popular with women ages 18-24. Forty percent of that demographic are said to have accessed mobile news and information at least once in January 2009.

The growing popularity of the mobile Web to the point of becoming a daily activity for many mobile subscribers has far-reaching implications for publishers and how they can leverage mobile advertising against the mobile audiences.

"There's a sizeable and very active audience in mobile that shouldn't be ignored because their competitors are likely publishing to this channel already," comScore's Mr. Donovan said.

"It is further evidence that mobile is a valuable advertising channel," he said. "If you recall our [previous] news about the mobile audience being additive to the PC Web audience, you get a good picture of a channel which for advertisers is additive to the audience they're trying to reach via interactive buys, sizeable and active."