The Global Impact Of Mobile Internet Over Newspaper And TV Consumption

There has always been a linger discussion about how mobile internet is going to devour the markets of some other traditional media sources like TV and newspaper. Users are more willing to read newspapers on their mobile devices. Users’ engagement on the mobile devices is increasing with the galloping pace day-over-day. At present, mobile handset owners are more likely to go with their device for entertainment contents related to news, travels and sports. The scenario has been changing even in the emerging countries like India and China, where users are also more willing to get their hands on mobile device for entertainment contents.

Mobile Internet Trend In India

First, I am going to discuss about the mobile internet trend in India due to the two reasons; first, it’s one of the emerging  countries and secondly, it’s the second largest country in terms of mobile subscribers. According to a recent survey (conducted by Komli Mobile ViziSense), 87% users (those activated internet on their mobile) use to access internet through their mobile device every day. Almost half of them (as half of respondents accepted during survey period) use their cellphone every day for 2-3 hours to go online and duration of each visit is more than an hour. Astoundingly, mobile internet accesses is unilaterally dominating by male with 82% compare to 18% of female across the country.

However, it’s somewhat difficult to rely on these facts because the survey was conducted over just 2,024 mobile users which are negligible in compare to total mobile internet users (almost 480 mobile internet users till August 2011) across the country. In addition to this, we have no such information about how many male and female volunteers took part in the survey. Indeed, it’s difficult to say 82% of mobile internet users in India are male. Moreover, 80% users (those access internet through mobile devices) are between 20-34 years age group. Among all respondents, 99% accepted (during survey) that they used to access email from mobile devices and 95% claimed to have accessed social media. As per survey,  one thing has become quite clear that transactions from mobile devices are augmenting year-over-year. Almost 80% of the respondents have already performed some form of transactions through their mobile phones and 28% respondents have even used ‘mobile money’. 45% of mobile internet access across the country is being accounted by 8 metros of the country.

Thanks to the proliferation of cheap Tablet and Smartphone which have boosted to mobile internet consumption across the country. We have already described that mobile devices account 50% of total web traffic across the country. Anyway, the discussion is here whole about the impact of mobile internet on traditional newspaper and TV.

At present, advertisers and marketers are more focusing on mobile platform. A majority of marketers  are going to optimize their websites for mobile platform. Undoubtedly, there has been continuous development of the mobile ad units, mobile search, mobile websites, and SMS since last couple of years.

Global Consumers’ Engagement On Different Media Platform

According to the previous report, 63% advertiser increased their ads spending on the mobile devices last year and 73% were planning to increase spend in the next two years. Still, TV and print media are dominating over mobile internet in terms of advertisement, despite there’s a great  scope for mobile platform. If we compare the engagement on different media platform,  mobile device is leading with 23% over print (6%), web (22%) and radio (9%), but still lower than the TV(40%).

Last year, we have discussed how Facebook had become one of the most preferred platform in terms of products promotions. At present, there are over 83 million users who use the social networking site either through mobile app or the website optimized for mobile. Last year, 89% of advertisers believed that Facebook was the best advertising methodology.

Mobile broadband subscribers reached to almost 1.2 billion by the end of 2011. Worldwide mobile broadband connection outpaced fixed broadband connection last year with two-to-one (2:1). Fixed broadband connection is often use in the developed countries, but in the emerging countries, mobile broadband connection is unilaterally dominating over fixed broadband connections.

Last year, revenue generated from mobile ads reached to $5.3 billion, thanks to Asia pacific which accounted 35.9% of total mobile ad revenue. At present, 10.01% of the total web traffic is generated from mobile device, up from 3.81% in 2010, due to extensive demand of Smartphone and Tablets. The Smartphone market has grown 42.1 % year-over-year in Q2 of this year.

How Mobile Internet Is Going To Be A Big Threat For TV And Newspaper?

Undoubtedly, mobile gadgets are at the top among all electronics devices. Users are now more relying on mobile devices. The scenario is changing, the mobile devices are being used for much more than traditional ‘calling and texting’ purposes. Due to advent of app stores, cloud services and eBooks, users are being enticed towards the mobile platform rather than TV and newspaper.

Users prefer to read newspaper online due to instant availability; they are unwilling to read the same news a day delay. Now, users are more likely to watch TV channels as per their wish without break. It’s the time for users to choose anything (whatever they want) from cloud; they can watch or enjoy as per their wish, but TV has still some limitations. Indeed, mobile devices are going to be a big threat for TV and Newspaper in the future.