Black Friday sees greater use of mobile phones to make purchases

Black Friday saw greater use of mobile phones by consumers to zero in on and make purchases, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Black Friday, which marks the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season in the US, saw mobile online payments through PayPal increase by nearly 650%.

Searches from mobile devices were up from around 5,000 on Black Friday 2008 to around 200,000 this year, said Siva Kumar, chief executive of product search engine TheFind.com.

Comparative shopping, done both at home and in stores, is helping to fuel mobile shopping, the report found, along with the proliferation of smartphones.

MediaTel Group is hosting a seminar on the ‘Future of Mobile’ in London next Wednesday 9 December, with two panel sessions discussing subjects including; location-based opportunities, key current revenue streams and major future opportunities, the implications of a more widely available iPhone and whether any media owners have ‘cracked’ mobile.