Developed Asian markets such as Japan and Korea have stormed ahead of Europe and North America in mass uptake of mobile multimedia, according to a new report from TNS.
The number of consumers using mobile TV features in Japan and Korea has more than doubled in the last year, rising from 14% to 32%, said TNS, with similar rapid growth in Hong Kong (18% to 32%).
Contrastingly, mobile TV growth in Europe was considerably slower over the past year, rising from 6% to just 8%. While the UK is ahead of the European average, rising to 13% from 8% last year, mobile TV penetration still far lags behind developed Asia.
In the US, although the number of mobile TV users have doubled in the last year, mobile TV uptake remains relatively low at 11%.
Stephen Yap, group director at TNS Technology, said: “A number of reasons underpin the significantly higher adoption of advanced mobile technologies in Asia. Technology tends to be more aspirational for Asian consumers, who tend to be earlier adopters as a result.
“Early and significant investment in mobile infrastructure by industry players, and in some cases governments, have led to network capabilities that today surpass those of Europe and North America.”
A recent report from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers found that mobile adspend was up 99.2% year on year in 2008, hitting £28.6 million (see IAB: UK mobile adspend hits £28.6m in 2008).
The research shows that paid-for-search advertising on the mobile internet accounts for £14.4 million, 50.2% of all mobile advertising spend, while mobile display advertising – which includes banners, text links, tenancies pre/post roll and in-game – accounted for £14.2 million in 2008, 49.8% of all mobile advertising spend.
Elsewhere, a study from Universal McCann found that more than one-third of high-use smartphone users respond to mobile advertisements (see Over one-third of smartphone users respond to mobile advertisements).
It found that smartphone users are clicking on ads (53%), requesting more information or a coupon (35%) and making purchases via their handsets (24%).
