Dissecting 'Mobile-First' Usage

While mobile usage accounts for the majority of time spent on social networks, there are still more people accessing social networks via the desktop today, according to a new report from web analytics company comScore Inc.

The report analyzes shifts in time spent from desktop to mobile platforms. It also looks at the overall base of users, and the platform they are using (mobile vs. desktop), by application. Titled Mobile's Hierarchy of Needs, it is based on audience and digital consumption data from nine countries (US, Canada, UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, China and Indonesia), and evaluates mobile usage by category and demographic. The infographic below is based on the report.

Interestingly, while mobile usage accounts for the majority of time spent on social networks, there are still more people accessing social networks via the desktop today. It would seem that a minority of "power-users" are responsible for the rapid growth in mobile usage numbers, but it should be noted that it is a sizable and probably growing minority.

Conversely, applications to do with weather, health, food, personals and career services have both more users and more time being spent on mobile devices, while banking, apparel, real estate and travel have more people using these apps via mobile devices, but account for less time spent than desktop usage.

Entertainment usage is approximately even across desktop and mobile in terms of time spent, but there are more users accessing online entertainment content via desktops than via mobile devices. This study doesn't analyze video usage specifically, but other studies do suggest that time spent watching video on mobile devices now exceeds desktop usage. (See ComScore: Smartphone Penetration Flattens, but Usage Doubles and It's Mobile or Bust, Says Ooyala's Global Video Index.)

The infographic also includes a description of how mobile usage aligns with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, though the connections were not immediately clear to me.

You can see an expanded version of this infographic by following this link.The same link also gives you the option of downloading it as a PDF file, which you can then zoom in and out of.

— Aditya Kishore, Practice Leader, Video Transformation, Telco Transformation