Planet of the apps — mobile is now the world’s dominant digital platform

28 Sep 2015

The mobile web is where the action is, with apps taking up the most of people's digital time

The mobile web is officially the world’s biggest digital platform, accounting for 62pc of digital media time spent by users on smartphones and tablets. Around 54pc of total digital media time is spent in mobile apps, according to ComScore.

According to the ComScore report, mobile has surpassed TV as the world’s dominant digital platform.

Time spent on desktop has plummeted to 38pc from 49pc a year ago.

But while mobile as a whole accounts for 62pc, time spent in mobile apps accounts for 54pc of total digital media time and 90pc of overall mobile time.

Between them, Facebook and Google own eight of the 10 most visited mobile apps.

Facebook owns the mobile web

Facebook is the top individual app by reach and engagement and its Facebook Messenger app is the third top individual app.

YouTube ranks second while Google Search and Google Play rank fourth and fifth respectively.

Instagram, which achieved the 400m users per month milestone last week, ranks ninth ahead of Apple Music in 10th place.

ComScore points out that while it is easier to establish audiences on desktop and mobile web, app audiences have greater engagement and spend 18 times more time on apps than mobile web visitors.

Half of all time spent on smartphone apps is spent on a user’s single most-used app and 80pc of smartphone app time is spent within a user’s top three apps.

The report found that users aged 18 to 34 spent on average two hours a day on social and entertainment apps.

Users also spent on average 26 hours per month on Facebook, seven hours on Instagram, six hours per month on Snapchat and Tumblr and three-and-a-half hours a month on Twitter.

Mobile web image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com