News

UK overtakes US in mobile internet use

New study reveals that the use of handheld technology to access the web is growing fast, with young men taking the lead.

15 May 2007

The UK has overtaken the US in its mobile internet usage, according to a new study conducted by Telephia and comScore. In January this year, 5.7m people used a mobile device to access the web, while 30m people used a home or work computer. The study found that the phenomenon is greater here than it is in the US.

The research also found that young people are most likely to use hand-held devices, with people under 35 representing 67 per cent of all mobile web users - compared to 46 per cent in the US.

Also, men are more likely than women to use the internet on their phones.

Bob Ivins, managing director of comScore Europe, compares this to what was happening 10 to 15 years ago with the internet: "Men under the age of 35 are the early adopters of new technology".

He predicts that the "mobile web", though expanding fast, is still only at an early state of development. However, he said that he "expects usage to grow as phone performance improves, as sites optimise their content for the small screen and as operators fine tune their tariffs". The most popular sites accessed using mobile technology includes the BBC, Yahoo, MSN and Google.