Mobile Web Usage Triples in U.S., Study Says

LONDON — More and more consumers are surfing the Internet on their mobile phones, resulting in a three-fold increase in the U.S. over the last year, according to a new study released by mobile web promotions company Bango.com.

The study said that 21 percent of mobile users worldwide live in the U.S., while South Africa contributed 11 percent and India counted for another 9 percent.

According to the study, the U.K. remains the worldwide capital for mobile web usage, accounting for 27 percent of all users.

But the study was only based on mobile web traffic that passed through Bango's many mobile web portals. Bango provides businesses with a variety of ways to help its customers move from standard online websites to mobile websites and vice-versa.

Anil Malhotra, executive vice president of marketing for Bango, told XBIZ that although the company only handles about 10 percent of mobile web traffic worldwide, Bango's diverse client base added legitimacy to its study.

"The numbers we gathered are significant enough for the data to be meaningful," he said.

But what's causing more people to surf the Internet with their cellphones? Malhotra attributed the increase in mobile web traffic to three trends:

  • More companies are offering more and better content on their mobile websites. The presence of better content is attracting more surfers, Malhotra said.
  • Mobile web providers have started to charge flat rates for surfers, as opposed to the download-by-download charges that characterized the early mobile Internet.
  • The mobile Internet is becoming more like the regular Internet. Yahoo and Google have both established stronger presences on the mobile web, and Malhotra said that's only the beginning.
  • As for the future of the mobile Internet, Malhotra said there's a difference of opinion in the mobile web community. Some think that consumers will only use the mobile web for what he called "imperative" services — sports scores, flight times and directions.

    Others like Malhotra maintain that as the mobile Internet becomes more like the regular Internet, consumers will surf on their phones for the same reasons they surf on their computers: to stay informed, shop for clothes — and especially to procrastinate.

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