20% of Population uses Mobile Web
By Will Park on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 4:22 AM PST In Mobile Web, Research
Chances are, if you are reading this on your phone, you are likely to be a younger male than an older female. Even with the horribly inefficient state of the mobile web, we can’t deny that it is a new force to be reckoned with.
A new report from research firms Telephia and Comscore pegs mobile web usage at around 20%. About 1/5 (19 percent, to be exact) of the UK population surfs the web from their mobile phones. That works out to about 5.7 million UK citizens (69% being male and (67% under 35 years in age) that use the “mobile web” – compared to 30 million Brits who log onto the Internet from their PCs (39% under 35 years in age).
The US reportedly sees an impressive 17% of the population logging onto the mobile web – about 30 million Americans (with 60% being male and 46% under 35 years in age).
We can expect that improvements to the mobile web experience will only help drive the adoption of mobile phone-based internet use. And, like new technologies tend to do, the mobile web will gain ground with the help of a predominantly younger, more hip demographic (gender may not play as big of a role).
The mobile web is a great idea and all, but it’s still in the adolescent and awkward stage. Just imagine what it will look like when it’s all grown up and sexy!

