Smartphones and tablets combined to account for 60 percent of the total time Americans spent using digital media in May, up from 50 percent a year ago, and one of several “huge milestones which underscored just how impressive the medium’s ascendance has been in the past few years,” according to the latest from comScore. Mobile apps accounted for just over half (51 percent) of total digital media time spent in May.
The shift toward mobile access and delivery is taking place at different speeds across different categories of content. A couple of content categories “have shifted almost exclusively to mobile.”
For instance, mobile devices accounted for 96 percent of time spent using digital radio, with Pandora leading the way. Likewise, mobile devices accounted for 96 percent of activity in the “Photos” category – with Instagram and Flickr among the key players.
Other categories for which mobile devices accounted for at least 90 percent of engagement included “Maps” and “Instant Messengers,” led by Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and others.
Mobile Share of Social Media Usage
Though the shift to mobile media hasn’t occurred as quickly in social networking, the category “is arguably the most important,” according to comScore. Mobile media now accounts for 70 percent of social networking activity, and social networking is “the #1 category in terms of overall digital engagement, accounting for 20 percent of total digital time spent.”
Adds comScore, “When considering the category’s contribution to total digital ad spending, its rapid shift to mobile marks an important sign of the times for the Internet economy.”
Among the supporting statistics are:
- Total mobile engagement on social has grown 55% in the past year;
- Social networking on mobile has accounted for 31% of all growth in total internet engagement in the past year;
- Social is the home of the #1 mobile property, Facebook, which accounts for 24% of all mobile time spent. The primary Facebook app accounts for 18% on its own.
