Mobile internet users access content on weekly basis


21 Sep 2010

The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) and Lightspeed Research has released results of a recent UK, French and German ‘Mobile Consumer Briefing’ survey on mobile internet usage.

The research shows that consumers have strong interest in mobile websites, with an average of 28pc of European mobile consumers expecting to access websites via their mobile phone at least once weekly over the next year.

According to the survey, British mobile phone users emerged as the most likely to use mobile internet regularly.

Free access

Driving consumers to access content are free access websites, which account for 56pc of consumers in France and the UK, and 35pc in Germany, who state they would be unlikely to access fee charging websites, according to the survey.

“The survey results have shown that there is a clear and growing market opportunity for the mobile internet,” said Peter Johnson, vice-president of market intelligence, MMA, and author of the study.

“The high usage of the mobile device for accessing websites is opening up as a key channel for advertisers. To make the most of this opportunity, site owners and developers need to ensure their websites are well-designed for mobile, user-friendly and easily discoverable using mobile search engines.”

The survey found that consumers favour websites that boast fast-loading speeds on their mobile devices. They also prefer websites that can be easily viewed and simply navigated.

According to the survey, mobile internet users frequently access news, weather and social networking websites, with maps and directions also readily visited.

Almost a third of mobile internet users revealed they were happy to receive alerts from websites on their mobiles with two users in five preferring to receive SMS rather than email.

In relation to the report, Ralph Fisk, Lightspeed Research marketing director EMEA, commented: “Understanding how their customers use the mobile internet is key to designing effective and interesting content.”

The survey covered brand of mobile phone, current mobile phone operator, SMS plan used, frequency of mobile internet access, mobile site visited, means of entering sites, content visited on their phone, features to increase likelihood of visiting sites, paid subscriptions and reasons for not visiting mobile sites.