The Rise Of Smobile: Convergence of Social and Mobile By the Numbers
By Karla Robinson
October 22, 2012
October 22, 2012
- At its Social Media ROI conference, Business Insider addressed the convergence of social and mobile — which it calls “smobile.”
- The presentation noted statistics that look at “the continued shift of social networking to mobile, how smartphones compound the difficulties of advertising on social networks, the potential of social commerce and social discovery applications, and the players who have the early lead in monetizing social-mobile media.”
- In March 2012, the number of minutes per month spent on apps rose above 120 billion, while mobile Web usage stayed pretty stagnant around 20 billion minutes per month. That said, mobile Internet is increasing as desktop Internet traffic drops off.
- Social networking is one of the fastest-rising activities on mobile devices. In 2011, users spent an average of 15 minutes per day on social networking apps. In the same quarter of 2012, that number had increased to 24 minutes, the same amount spent playing games.
- Business Insider reports that “37 percent of U.S. smartphone owners check social networks daily; 64 percent monthly.” Facebook has accumulated around 500 million mobile users, and 55 percent of Twitter’s usage is mobile.
- Unfortunately, click-through rates on mobile ads sits at only 32 percent and only about a third of smartphone users believe advertising is acceptable. Also, mobile remains a small fraction of digital ad spending.
- Despite efforts to advance social commerce, there hasn’t been much traction. It’s not enough to provide discounts based on proximity; consumers have to first be interested in the product or service. Similarly, checkins and social references to commerce sites are “tiny.”
- The presentation recommended “native” mobile ads like Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories” that appear along with regular content. Ads also need to have contextual relevance.
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Facebook, Twitter and Google are “poised to win” to social commerce game according to the presentation. But Foursquare, Pinterest, Groupon/Living Social, Apple, Microsoft or even new startups could position themselves in this market, BI suggests.
Facebook, Twitter and Google are “poised to win” to social commerce game according to the presentation. But Foursquare, Pinterest, Groupon/Living Social, Apple, Microsoft or even new startups could position themselves in this market, BI suggests.
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