Five Friday Facts #27
News
News
The rise of mobile Internet in Asia
Mobile Internet now accounts for 10.01% of total Internet usage in the world, having increased from just 3.81% in 2010, which reflects the rapid adoption of smartphones and tablet devices. Within Asia, India leads with 48.87% of its Internet usage coming from mobile devices. Globally, mobile’s share of web traffic in Asia has increased the most, from 6.1% in 2010 to 17.84% today. Given that more of mobile web traffic is likely to come from feature phones rather than smartphones in Asia specifically, marketers should perhaps be engaging these audiences through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter which offer built-in integration in feature phones, as opposed to other digital properties such as websites or smartphone apps. For more on mobile Internet usage and mobile behaviour around the world, here’s a recent post from Tom Smith, founder of GlobalWebIndex.
Smartphone usage in India
Smartphone users in India spend a total of 81 hours a month on their mobile devices, even though mobile habits differ quite distinctively between male and female users. For instance, female smartphone users spend most of their time on online apps when they use their mobile devices, whereas male users spend the majority of time on offline activities. In addition, men spend 50% more time browsing the web on their smartphones than women do, although women prefer social sites more than men. Social networking sites make up 43% of web pages visited by women, compared to just 32% for men.
Instagram in Thailand
ZocialRank has revealed that Instagram has more than 153,582 Thai users, who have uploaded just over 11 million photos which are shared across various other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Flickr. Female celebrities are the most followed personalities on Instagram in Thailand, making up 9 out of 10 of the most followed Thais on the platform. Check out ZocialRank’s infographic through this link.
Tablet device usage affecting “bricks-and-mortar” purchase habits
A survey by mobile advertising network InMobi and Mobext found that 69% of tablet owners had made purchases using these devices in the last 30 days. Nearly 10% of respondents would purchase “big ticket” items through their tablet devices, whereas only 2.9% of smartphone users would choose to do the same. An important point to note would be that over 20% of tablet early adopters claimed to have made less trips to bricks-and-mortar stores after obtaining their tablets. This signals to retailers not only the need to make their various digital properties mobile-friendly, but also to provide a different experience in both their physical stores and e-commerce platforms such that one does not necessarily cannibalise the other. As such, marketers should increasingly look at using social media to drive both offline footfall and online traffic to e-commerce sites at the same time.
How brands influence consumers
A survey by customer intelligence solutions Market Force revealed that 78% of US consumers’ purchase decisions were impacted by the posts made by companies they follow on social media. In addition, 79% of respondents “Liked” a company’s Facebook page because the business offered discounts and other incentives, 70% “Liked” businesses that post details on sales and events, and 28% do so to share their favourite things with friends. Even though offering discounts and deals is not a long-term social media strategy that brands should adopt, the findings reflect the need for a content strategy that incorporates varied content to engage their audiences on social media.