Similar Web - Key Takeaways On Global Mobile Trends

Neil A. Doshi and San Q. Phan

February 9, 2016

Research

Technology + Media + Telecom

Facebook, Google and Amazon Appear To Dominate Mobile Usage

Summary

Yesterday, we hosted a meeting with Similar Web in San Francisco to discuss key trends in the mobile app sector. We met with CEO Or Offer, CFO Jason Schwartz, and Head of Product, Ankit Jain and discussed key topics including top apps around various regions around the world, how people spend their time on mobile devices, key mobile retail trends, and the rise of Zombie Apps. Companies that are in the best mobile positions include Facebook, Google, and Amazon.

Key Points

We met with Similar Web in San Francisco. Similar Web is an Israeli-based start-up in the digital market intelligence space that has one of the largest Internet-based panels to track online behavior through its free apps and software and ISP relationships. This includes over 200 million devices across the globe, which results in Similar Web capturing 1% of all online activity in 60+ countries every day. We believe this scale gives Similar Web a unique and rich perspective on key trends taking place on the traditional web and mobile ecosystems.

Facebook dominates mobile. On Android, Facebook continues to be leading app in terms of usage. But following Facebook is Google’s Chrome Browser, then Google Search, and YouTube. When Similar Web dissects the data across various continents, Facebook’s family of apps dominates in pretty much every major continent. In North America, Facebook accounts for four out of the six top apps in terms of daily active usage (these apps include Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram). #5 and #6 are SnapChat and Kik. A similar trend holds true for Asia, and in Europe, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger hold three of the top six apps.

Mobile share of total online still has room to grow. When comparing the average share of top 5 sites in key categories, Similar Web finds that mobile share of total online share is still less than 50% in many verticals. In Banking, mobile share is 38%, in News it is 47%, eCommerce is 48% and Travel is 60%. In our opinion, many people may be using their mobile device for shorter, targeted interactions. As a result, some of these verticals are still less than 50% penetrated. Mobile web share for online retail in India is 66% and 65% in the UK, while 56% in the US and 43% in Germany.

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