It's about to surpass the UK as the global leader
By Heidi Dawley Sep 5, 2008
When it comes to accessing the internet through phones, Brits have long led the world, but that looks set to change.
A new study reports that Americans are increasingly using their cell phones to surf the web. So much so, in fact, that they are set to take the lead as early as this month.
“It will be interesting to see how the U.S. market will grow. We think that it will carry on growing and getting bigger and bigger, while the UK will probably grow but not as fast,” says Sarah Keefe, the study's author and vice president of marketing for Bango, a mobile web analytics and technology company that provides web access to mobile sites.
But it's not likely the U.S. will hold that lead very long as other, less-developed markets shoot forward.
Says Keefe: “The really interesting growth areas are India, China and parts of the Far East where there are huge populations. They are buying phones like there is no tomorrow and using them for internet access.”
According to Bango’s data, the UK accounted for 19.35 percent of global traffic accessing the mobile web through Bango in July, with the U.S. right behind at 18.8 percent. India was at 10.82 percent, South Africa 8.82 percent, and Indonesia 4.08 percent.
“Sitting here in Western Europe it is hard to believe,” says Keefe, “but in India 90 percent of internet users use the internet on their phone while only 10 percent use it on a PC.”
That's so because in developing countries like India landline facilities have traditionally been unreliable, so when mobile telephones came along consumers were extra quick in adopting them, entirely bypassing telephone connections to the internet.
Also, there are relatively few home computers, so the far cheaper phones became the primary tool for going online.
Britain’s early lead has been driven by several forces. One surely is Britons' love of their phones. Heavily into personalizing their phones with unique ringtones and the like, they were quick to turn to the mobile web as a source for such things.
Also, UK mobile network operators gave content providers a bigger slice of money from online purchases, and as Keefe notes, “This provided a big incentive for content providers to do good marketing and attract people."
Britain also got an early boost because operators early on introduced flat-rate data charges, what Keefe calls "all you can eat” plans allowing users to browse for a fixed price each month.
The U.S. is catching up in part because it's following the British model more and more by offering flat-rate plans to consumers and a bigger slice of money to content providers.
There's also what Bango calls the iPhone effect. That's the huge ad push the device has gotten for its internet capabilities. That's driven owners of other kinds of phones to investigate whether they too could connect to the internet, and they found that in many cases they could.
The last factor is size. Size does count when it comes to markets, and as Keefe notes the U.S is five times the size of the UK.
***
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Aug. 24, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. For the 13th straight week, the top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, AOL Media Network and Microsoft.
Experian Group Limited retained the top advertiser spot for the seventh straight week with 3.63 million impressions, followed by Netflix at No. 2 with 1.83 million. With 14.91 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MSN at 2.46 million.
Sessions per person per week were up one from the previous week to 17, and domains visited per person rose one to 41. PC time per person was up 2 percent compared with the previous week to 18 hours and 11 minutes.
Top 25 parent companies Through Aug. 24
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
93,334
66.8
0:41:43
2
Microsoft
88,417
63.2
0:50:20
3
Yahoo!
81,656
58.4
1:09:21
4
Time Warner (Division*)
60,192
43.1
1:17:51
5
News Corp. Online
45,377
32.5
0:43:39
6
eBay
33,490
24.0
0:48:49
7
InterActiveCorp
30,356
21.7
0:13:36
8
Apple Computer
24,245
17.3
0:33:42
9
Amazon
24,142
17.3
0:13:11
10
Wikimedia Foundation
22,405
16.0
0:11:23
11
Walt Disney Internet Group
22,244
15.9
0:29:21
12
Turner Network (Division)
21,235
15.2
0:19:36
13
Landmark Communications
21,129
15.1
0:12:45
14
Facebook
20,811
14.9
0:44:26
15
New York Times Company
20,152
14.4
0:09:05
16
CBS Corporation
19,718
14.1
0:11:40
17
AT&T Inc.
18,982
13.6
0:22:19
18
CraigsList
15,308
11.0
0:36:07
19
RealNetworks, Inc.
14,231
10.2
0:16:40
20
Verizon Communications
14,160
10.1
0:17:04
21
Comcast Corp.
12,674
9.1
0:37:23
22
Glam Media
12,138
8.7
0:14:38
23
United Online
12,019
8.6
0:24:45
24
E.W. Scripps Company
11,765
8.4
0:06:05
25
Bank of America
11,532
8.3
0:23:12
Source: Nielsen Online
Note: The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division.
Top 25 brands Through Aug. 24
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
85,163
60.9
0:29:57
2
Yahoo!
80,708
57.7
1:09:37
3
MSN/Windows Live
71,710
51.3
0:50:13
4
AOL Media Network
53,815
38.5
1:24:10
5
Microsoft
50,787
36.3
0:16:39
6
Fox Interactive Media
39,267
28.1
0:45:50
7
YouTube
37,947
27.1
0:29:07
8
eBay
27,562
19.7
0:50:33
9
Apple
24,245
17.3
0:33:42
10
Wikipedia
22,287
15.9
0:11:23
11
Facebook
20,811
14.9
0:44:26
12
Amazon
20,491
14.7
0:12:05
13
Weather Channel
18,753
13.4
0:13:31
14
Blogger
18,685
13.4
0:06:25
15
Ask Search Network
16,886
12.1
0:11:50
16
CNN Digital Network
15,641
11.2
0:18:39
17
Craigslist
15,246
10.9
0:36:15
18
AT&T
14,562
10.4
0:25:12
19
Real Network
14,231
10.2
0:16:40
20
About.com
12,791
9.2
0:03:58
21
Glam Media
12,138
8.7
0:14:38
22
Bank of America
11,045
7.9
0:23:31
23
Comcast
9,979
7.1
0:45:42
24
Disney Online
9,445
6.8
0:37:24
25
Chase
9,011
6.4
0:14:08
Source: Nielsen Online
Note: The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads)
Through Aug. 24
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Experian Group Limited
3,629,181
2
Netflix, Inc.
1,830,661
3
Scottrade, Inc.
1,404,449
4
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,381,045
5
General Motors Corporation
974,508
6
AT&T Corp.
753,591
7
United Online, Inc.
680,708
8
Deutsche Telekom AG
678,404
9
InterActiveCorp
629,406
10
Citigroup Inc.
550,096
11
DirectBuy
507,115
12
Sprint Corporation
501,244
13
Ford Motor Company
474,035
14
Apollo Group, Inc.
426,961
15
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
406,720
16
Dell Computer Corporation
403,392
17
National Council on Problem Gambling
403,119
18
Target Corporation
377,941
19
American Express Company
362,421
20
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
350,285
21
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.
345,014
22
FreeScore.com
309,223
23
Nike, Inc.
301,815
24
Washington Mutual, Inc.
298,297
25
Toyota Motor Corporation
295,626
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads)
Through Aug. 24
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
14,914,740
2
MSN
2,456,858
3
Comcast.net
1,551,191
4
MSNBC
1,549,667
5
MySpace
1,450,533
6
NBC
1,214,906
7
Facebook
1,196,480
8
AOL.com
1,097,931
9
FOXNEWS.COM
529,286
10
IMDb
514,610
11
The Weather Channel
502,872
12
eBay
479,514
13
NeoPets
416,782
14
ESPN.com
388,979
15
Project Playlist
343,400
16
Juno
330,734
17
Photobucket
315,443
18
CNBC
311,091
19
CNN
308,143
20
YouTube
268,191
21
Amazon
256,091
22
NetZero
231,465
23
Pogo
230,774
24
The Weather Underground
226,895
25
AT&T Worldnet
214,704
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
