New Mobile Web Usage Data

The Pew Center for Internet Research is one of the best sources for unbiased data you can find. The non-profit conducts survey and publishes them openly on their websites, and unlike a number of other sources, it's a safe bet no companies have funded the research that can have a deleterious impact on data integrity.

The center conducted a survey of 2,054 people in December and published the results on their website.

At Least 17 Million Daily Mobile Web Users

One of the most difficult numbers to find for us has consistently been the number of mobile web users, as distinct from those who use text messaging. A number of sources, though, point to the total number of Mobile Web users to be around 46 million, confirmed by this research that indicates 19% of the 240 million mobile phone users to have accessed the mobile web. 7%, or 17 million people, access the mobile web on a daily basis.



Note, I am looking only at the line item for accessing the internet for news, sports, or weather information. Another 27% have played a game, though the survey does not distinguish between web-based and locally. 19% used it for email, 14% for map information and 10% to watch a video. The email users probably includes BlackBerry users, and map information could be web-based such as Gmaps or MapQuest, or it could be built into the OS like Google Maps on the iPhone. Videos are becoming more ubiquitous with YouTube, Treemo, and others, as well as being served up through ads.

The moral of the story is that the number of mobile web users may be much higher.

The Internet and Mobile Web are certainly perceived as a young person's game, but here is some data:



96% of mobile phone users under 30 have participated in one of these activities. That is pretty incredible. I do have to give my folks credit for bumping up the 50-64 category.

The study also has some ethnographic data, but I'm not sure what meaning to impute from that.

I'll leave you with the fact that more young people would rather give up the "Interwebs" than their cell phone. Where do you rank in this category?