2 crore mobile users in India prefer news on phones: Survey

Yesterday, Facebook revealed how Indian users have compelled it to change its business strategy as most new users access the social networking website from their mobile phones rather than desktops. Now, a new survey indicates that about 2 crore out of the estimated 4.8 crore mobile Internet users in India, have shifted about 50 percent of their TV and news viewing time to phone screens. The study conduced by ViziSense, India’s leading online audience and ad measurement platform, said that of all mobile Internet users in India, about 87 percent are online on mobile every day, and almost half of these users go online through their cellphones every 2-3 hours. Moreover, the duration of these visits is said to be more than an hour. Then about 60 percent of these users have been on this medium for more than a year already.

More and more users shifting towards mobile

Email and social media are said to be the primary drivers of mobile internet, which amount to about 99 percent and 95 percent respectively. The consumption of content is starting to shift towards both smartphones and tablets. Besides, categories such as games, entertainment, news, and mobile ecommerce are also becoming popular, with almost 80 percent of all users conducting financial transactions through their mobile phones. The survey further disclosed that the subset of women amounted to about 18 percent within the group of mobile Internet users.

Commenting on the findings of the survey, Amit Bhartiya, VP and GM, ViziSense, said, “55% of all daily mobile Internet users hail from outside the top 8 metros. Whilst limited access to branded products was the reason that these regions saw early adoption of ecommerce, errant electricity is one of the reasons why mobile internet is majorly scoring for users from these cities while reducing their dependence on TV as a medium for especially news and entertainment. The survey establishes 2 major trends; the shift in screens is for real and that English print is migrating to mobile phones through WAP sites and applications, especially around lifestyle, travel and sports content”.

Though the number of mobile users in India is on rise, Norton pointed out in its latest survey that Indians fairly lack in mobile security know-how. The Norton survey found that mobile phone users in the country are increasingly using the device not only to stay connected, but to also go through their daily tasks and enjoy activities that improve their lifestyle. The most interesting revelation, however, was that a whopping 72 percent of the online population in the country have at least one mobile phone on them. This number when compared with the percentage of Indians owning a computer (92 percent) is starkly low. The survey highlighted that while 60 percent of Indians agreed that mobile threats are real, roughly 38 percent of the mobile phone users in the country did not have password protection on their phones - a gaping hole in the belief that mobile security is treated with utmost seriousness. Common knowledge says that a password-protected phone can go a long way in protecting personal information of the owner, should he or she lose the device. Strangely, 17 percent were unaware of the possiblility of their location being remotely tracked through their phone using GPS navigation software.