Mobile Web Use Doubles In A Year, Advertisers Glee

An average of 22 million Americans accessed online information via mobile device each day in January, double the amount for the same period last year. That's good news for advertisers, who say mobile users are much more likely to click on ads.

The figures, from market research firm Comscore, show 63 million people accessed the web on a mobile device at least once during January, also a steep rise. Oddly, however, the figures showed that 19 million accessed the mobile web once a week, which is lower than the daily figure.

These figures may actually be quite conservative. They don't include visits to mobile versions or social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Separate figures in the study show this is the fastest growing area of the mobile web, with 9.3 million doing so on an average day compared with 1.8 million a day last year.

Application Inflation

It appears much of the rise is because of the wider availability of downloadable applications, particularly those sold or given away by the iPhone App Store. Throughout the month, 22.3 million people used a downloaded app to get general news and information, of which 8.2 million used map-based tools.

However, downloaded apps haven't quite caught up with SMS-based (text message) services: 32.4 million used such a service to get news and information during the month. (Source: comscore.com)

Marketing On The Move

ComScore analyst Mark Donovan told the Los Angeles Times that the firm had data, not published in the report, suggesting online adverts have a higher click-through rate among mobile users. That's particularly good news for advertisers given that mobile news and information consumption is highest among 18-34 year old men, traditionally one of the most desirable groups for marketers.

Donovan also believes the mobile web does a good job of getting adverts to people who don't spend much time on computers and are hard for online advertisers to reach. (Source: latimes.com)