comScore: Mobile "Search" gaining.
Posted by Jay Donovan on 09/27/08 in Business, Mobile Marketing, Opinion
From Mobile Marketing Magazine
comScore, which specializes in measuring the digital world, has revealed mobile search is gaining in both popularity and frequency of use in the US and Western Europe.
comScore M:Metrics reports that in June 2008, 20.8 million US mobile subscribers and 4.5 million European mobile phone subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68 and 38% from June 2007, respectively. The UK had the highest penetration of mobile subscribers using search at 9.5%, followed closely by the US at 9.2%.
“It is interesting to note that as we see the number of mobile search users increase, the frequency of activity is also growing,” says comScore Analyst, Alistair Hill. “The number of people accessing mobile search at least once a week grew 50% in Europe, with France and Spain leading at a rate of 69 and 63%, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of US users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and Smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans. We have also seen a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the US market.”
Google is the preferred brand for browser-based searches with a 60% share of mobile searchers in all countries measured by comScore M:Metrics. Yahoo! ranks second in Germany, Italy, UK and the US. In the US Yahoo’s mobile searcher penetration is 34.6%, more than double its share in most other countries
What these statistics also reveal is that the comfort level with viewing a mobile device as “more than a way to make phone calls” really is gaining traction. With regard to brand marketing, (hey, it’s my day job yo) these new mobile search stats are significant for two reasons:
1. It proves that more consumers are doing search tasks out in the field that were once constrained to their desktop machines, and from a brand viewpoint that could just as likely be product comparisons as it could be looking up word definitions or directions. We know that a major portion of research preceding a brand purchase happens online. Brands that can optimize and reach their savvy users with mobile content on searched demand will have an advantage , especially as the “Power-Users” of today gradually become the average users of tomorrow.
2. With location-based services and software popping up on more and more phones, “Search” is about to get even more granular, more localized, more precise, more useful. These increased numbers justify more development of these kinds of tools and services. Brands that realize this and adapt to this kind of scheme will also have advantages.
Written by Jay Donovan · Filed Under Business, Mobile Marketing, Opinion
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