There are under three million people in the UK who are using mobile internet, according to new data from Point Topic.
Point Topic asked 2000 people from across the UK if they had accessed the internet on a mobile device during May. It found that just 6% of the general adult population, equivalent to 2.9 million users, said they had used the internet on the move in the last month.
“The typical mobile internet user who emerges from this research is a member of a privileged minority,” says Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic.
“These are people who have everything. On the whole they are young, well-paid, well-educated and they own a much wider range of consumer goods than average, particularly digital devices of all kinds.”
As with other kinds of internet access, there is a strong correlation between socio-economic status and mobile internet use. Those in Grades A (25.4% of this SEG have used mobile internet during May), B (6.1%) and C1 (8.5%) are more likely to use mobile internet, as well as fixed line internet, than the other grades.
“Of the 28.7 million people who do already use the internet, but not on the move, some 62%, or 17.8 million, say they could be interested in one or more mobile applications. This offers the opportunity for rapid growth over the next few years,” said Johnson.
A recent forecast from Juniper Research predicted that the global market for mobile web 2.0 will be worth $22.4 billion in 2013, up from $5.5 billion at the current time (see Mobile Web 2.0 revenues To Reach $22.4bn By 2013).
Service revenues will account for the lion’s-share of total mobile web 2.0 revenues, said the report, although mobile advertising will represent a significant opportunity.
Research from the Nielsen company found that mobile internet extends the audience reach of many leading internet sites by an average of 13% over home PC traffic alone (see Mobile Internet Extends Website Reach).
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