{"id":297,"date":"2013-07-18T18:51:48","date_gmt":"2013-07-18T18:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bcwebwise.com\/?p=297"},"modified":"2025-09-26T15:01:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T09:31:41","slug":"whygomobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcwebwise.com\/blog\/whygomobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mobile Should Be An Important Piece of Your Digital Marketing Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is ample awareness about mobile penetration, and an increasing number of users now getting online through their mobile phones. However, there is still hesitation on how real these numbers are and what the audience is doing via mobile internet. Compiled here is pieces of research and reports, akin to those of a jigsaw puzzle, that when put together give a clear idea on how much is the penetration, what is being accessed on mobile internet, why these numbers can go up, where is it going, and which way should your digital marketing plan be headed.<\/p>\n

STATUS OF MOBILE INTERNET IN INDIA<\/strong><\/p>\n

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According to the last report<\/a> of IAMAI and IMRB, of the total 150 million internet users in India, there were around 87.1 million mobile internet users till Dec. 2012. What’s more, on an average, a mobile internet user spent about Rs 198 towards internet expenses.<\/p>\n

In fact mobile internet access had surpassed desktop in November 2012 as per Global Stats data specific to India:<\/p>\n

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THE BC WEB WISE<\/a> EXPERIENCE<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

In recent (mid-2013) web analytics we have observed that brands and corporates including NGOs, B2C and B2B categories, that are not updated with mobile friendly content get an average of 10 per cent of traffic on websites as well as Facebook. Clients ready with device agnostic pages and content, traffic from mobile is rising and hovering between 20 per cent to 25 per cent.<\/p>\n

FUTURE GROWTH PROJECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the latest report of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), till January 2013, the total wireless subscriber user base was 862.62 Mn of which 708 Mn i.e. 82.08% were active mobile users. However, as analysed<\/a> by GSMA Director General Anne Bouverot, on an average, each user has 2 sim cards and in terms of unique number of subscribers, there are about 380 million actual users – about 26 per cent of the total population.<\/p>\n

McKinsey Research forecasts that the total number of Mobile Internet users will increase more than five-fold to 450 million by 2015<\/a>. Another recent report<\/a> by Boston Consulting Group stated that the total number of Internet users in India is expected to increase from 125 million in 2011 to 330 million by 2016. The report noted that, at present, around 45% of online consumers in the nation use only the mobile to access the Internet. This is expected to increase to 60% over the next three years.<\/p>\n

India’s only official internet and mobile association – IAMAI is the most conservative in the projections expecting the number of mobile internet users reach 130.6 million by march 2014 and 164.8 million by march 2015.<\/p>\n

THE CATALYSTS FOR GROWTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google and Bharti Airtel are encouraging trials to catalyse the adoption of mobile internet. Airtel mobile customers in India can freely access Google online products, including the first page of a Web site linked from search results. Customers will be prompted to purchase a data pack if they click a second link on the Web site they reached via a Google Search, or if they need to download attachments from Gmail.<\/p>\n

Vodafone India recently slashed its 2G Internet tariff by 80 percent to 2 paise \/ 10 KB from 10 paisa \/ 10 KB earlier. <\/a>Vodafone also introduced ‘<\/b>One Time Trial Packs‘<\/b><\/b> in April this year for 2G and 3G at very affordable price points of Rs 25 for 2G and Rs 49 for 3G, together with a 500 MB data transfer package. The intent is give its customers a taste of mobile Internet and its advantages at price points that a customer won’t think twice to say yes to.<\/p>\n

RURAL INDIA IS RAPIDLY ADOPTING MOBILE INTERNET TOO<\/a><\/p>\n

A Financial Express feature<\/a> reported that at eBay India today, every one minute a mobile accessory changes hands and every two minutes a mobile handset. It has 4,306 e-commerce hubs today, of which 1,015 are hubs in rural India, indicating that consumers in the smaller towns of India are a major force in this online growth story.<\/p>\n

PRIMARY USES OF OF INTERNET ON MOBILE<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to a study done by Opera<\/a> the Top mobile sites<\/a> in India are:
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