Survey finds social networks and email are most popular mobile Web activities

Webcredible has released the results of a survey about what people use their mobile device for the most, discounting voice or text. 1,132 visitors to Webcredible between February and April this year were polled. Of the respondants, over 50% of them said that they were now using their devices for at least some mobile Web based services, outside of normal SMS and voice usage.

Breakdown of the findings:

  - 52% of respondents said they use their device to access some mobile Internet services.

 - 55% of those said that they mostly used it for emailing or social networking (39% for email, 16% for mobile social networking).

 - less than 16% said they mostly downloaded ringtones.

 - 13% mainly use it for news or sport content

 - 12% or maps and directions

 - 4% for local or travel news.

Webcredible compared this with a similar survey from the end of 2007. Way back then, downloading ringtones was the most popular pastime on the mobile Web! 43% said it was their favourite past time, with only 21% checking email back then, and nobody on social networks.

From the release:

Abid Warsi, Senior Consultant at Webcredible comments, “Although there are still a substantial number of people who use their mobile phones for nothing other than calls and texts, these results clearly demonstrate the evolution of mobile Internet usage in-line with its increase in the ease with which mobile phone users can access the Internet, the increase in speed and technological capabilities, as well as the decrease in cost. Social networking sites are helping the mobile Internet reach its tipping point. We are now seeing an increasing number of people taking a real multi-channel approach to their communications with the growth in the use of email, Facebook and Twitter on the mobile, no doubt assisted by newer, technically advanced handsets like the iPhone.”

What we think?

Excitable survey releases like this (and we’ve seen a few), always address how well something-or-other is doing, and how it’s driving mobile Web use, without addressing a point that goes hand-in-hand with that. And that is that the size of the mobile Web audience is still relatively tiny. The point is no longer that social networking and email work great over mobile - that has been proven many times over now. The point is that the number of people actually using the mobile Internet needs to be increased, and that is the next great challenge to overcome.