Number of people accessing news and information on their mobile device more than doubles in a year.
Reston, VA. – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, reported that the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. Among the audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.
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Accessed News and Information* by Frequency of Access
Three-month Average Ending January 2008 and January 2009
U.S. Mobile Phone Users
comScore, Inc.
Unique Users (000s)
Frequency of Mobile Internet Access
Jan-08 Jan-09 % Change
Daily 10,821 22,369 107
Weekly 10,312 19,283 87
Ever in the month 36,870 63,182 71
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*Excludes social networking
“Over the course of the past year, we have seen use of mobile Internet evolve from an occasional activity to being a daily part of people’s lives,” observed Mark Donovan, senior vice president, mobile, comScore. “This underscores the growing importance of the mobile medium as consumers become more reliant on their mobile devices to access time-sensitive and utilitarian information.”
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Fastest-Growing Categories for Daily Mobile Web Access *
Three-month Average Ending January 2008 and January 2009
U.S. Mobile Phone Users
comScore, Inc.
Unique Users (000)
Daily Unique Daily Unique %
Users Users Change
Jan-08 Jan-09
Accessed News and Information (any) 10,821 22,369 107
Accessed social networking site or blog 1,761 9,278 427
Traded stocks or accessed financial account 1,135 3,274 188
Accessed movie information 1,077 3,072 185
Accessed business directories 939 2,447 161
Accessed entertainment news 2,104 5,470 160
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*For categories of usage with monthly audiences above 15 million
“Social networking and blogging have emerged as very popular daily uses of the mobile Web and these activities are growing at a torrid pace,” observed Donovan. “We also note that much of the growth in news and information usage is driven by the increased popularity of downloaded applications, such as those offered for the iPhone, and by text-based searches. While smartphones and high-end feature phones, like the Samsung Instinct and LG Dare comprise the Top 10 devices used for news and information access, 70 percent of those accessing mobile Internet content are using feature phones.”
In January, 22.3 million people accessed news and information via a downloaded application. Maps are the most popular downloaded application with 8.2 million users, while search was the overwhelmingly favored use for SMS-based news and information access, with 14.1 million users. Overall, 32.4 million people used SMS to access news and information in January.
Young males are the most avid users of mobile news and information, with half of 18 to 34-year-old males engaging in the activity. The mobile Internet is also quite popular among females in the 18 to 24-year-old demographic, with 40 percent accessing it at least once in January.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com
