US Tops Mobile Browsing League

The US has knocked the UK off the top slot for mobile web browsing, with a 29% share of worldwide traffic, compared to the UKs 20%, according to data released today by Bango. The good news for content providers is that the growth in traffic is being matched by the growth in users paying for content on the mobile web.
With 245 million subscribers, it was only a matter of time before the US became the number 1 country in the world for mobile web browsing, says Anil Malhotra, SVP of Marketing at Bango. When it comes to payments though, the US is accelerating faster than any other country, and now accounts for 57% of payments worldwide, compared to 38% in the UK.
Bango enables mobile users to simply single-click to buy and download content to their handset. This optimized user experience, says Bango, has increased conversion rates to such an extent that mobile advertising and search marketing is now a profitable way of generating leads for its customers.
Bango adds that while the publicity behind the Apple iPhone has encouraged more people to browse the mobile web in countries such as the US and UK, this increase in mobile browsing has taken businesses by surprise, as many don't have mobile websites.
Many people simply have no idea that they have visitors from mobile devices accessing their PC websites, says Malhotra. These mobile visitors are simply invisible to them.
Bango believes that part of the problem is lack of awareness, and has created a short video which explains how businesses can get a good grasp of how much mobile traffic they have.
Bangos February statistics identified mobile web browsers from a total of 208 different countries, using 1,811 different handsets. The statistics show that while some countries such as India and Indonesia have a good appetite for browsing on their mobiles, it doesn't always convert into purchases. In fact, only five countries in the Top 10 browsing chart are also in the Top 10 payments chart the US, UK, Portugal, South Africa and Spain.
No matter how high the browsing rate, it is only converted into a high purchase rate where people have a good disposable income and can pay for content via their mobile phone bill. In regions such as India, South Africa, Indonesia and Egypt, the driver for mobile browsing is a lack of fixed-line broadband and PCs for accessing the Internet, which means that the mobile device is the only way people can get onto the Internet.
You can see a sample of the mobile traffic going through the Bango system here.