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Email, Weather, and Search Sites Are Most Popular Categories for Mobile Internet Use

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 12:00 CDT

The Weather Channel, Yahoo! Mail, and MSN Mail

Garnered the Highest Reach Among Mobile Users

Telephia, the leading provider of performance measurement information to the mobile industry, shows that email, weather and search websites are the most popular categories among consumers logging online via their mobile phones. According to Telephia's newly launched Mobile Internet Report, 4.8 percent of the 191 million U.S. wireless population accessed web email sites in June 2005 (Table 1). Weather-related sites posted a reach of 3.9 percent of the total wireless audience, while the Search category attracted 2.9 percent. The Sports category came in at the No. 4 spot, with a total reach of 2.5 percent, while the News/Politics category attracted 2.1 percent of wireless consumers logging on via their wireless devices.

Table 1. Telephia Top 10 Mobile Internet Categories (U.S.) Subscriber Age Breakdown (% of audience for the category) Website Category Subscriber Reach (%) 18-24 25-34 35-54 55+ 1. Email 4.8% 19% 29% 41% 11% 2. Weather 3.9% 20% 28% 43% 10% 3. Search 2.9% 24% 30% 32% 14% 4. Sports 2.5% 18% 30% 41% 12% 5. News/Politics 2.1% 14% 22% 45% 18% 6. Entertainment 2.1% 18% 42% 33% 6% 7. City Guides/Maps 2.1% 23% 34% 36% 8% 8. Games 2.1% 21% 40% 34% 5% 9. Portals 1.4% 4% 47% 33% 17% 10. Business/Finance 1.2% 20% 17% 41% 21% -------------------- ---------------------- ------ ------ ------ ----- Source: Telephia Mobile Internet Report, June 2005 Note: The Entertainment category includes movie, music, online magazines, celebrity news, horoscopes and tarot reading websites. Games and Sports are tracked in two separate categories. Similarly, Search URLs are broken out separately from the Portals category (i.e., search.yahoo.com vs. www.yahoo.com).

The audiences for top mobile Internet categories-Email, Weather and Search-skew towards the 35-54 year-old demographic. Forty-one percent of Email website visitors were in the 35-54 age group, as were 43 percent and 32 percent of Weather and Search website visitors, respectively. The same is true for Sports (41%), News/Politics (45%), and Business/Finance (41%) audiences. However, the audiences for Entertainment, Games and Portals websites skew towards the 25-34 year-old demographic. Forty-two percent of Entertainment website visitors were 25-34, as were 40 percent and 47 percent of Games and Portal website visitors.

"For people on the go, accessing the Internet through their mobile devices is an extension of their Internet use on their PC," said Kanishka Agarwal, Vice President of New Products, Telephia. "It is not surprising top mobile Internet categories mirror Internet content categories accessed via a computer."

The Mobile Internet Report is part of Telephia's Audience Metrics product suite, which tracks audience and measures performance of mobile content and applications, such as games, ringtones/audio, wallpapers/screensavers, application downloads, premium SMS, and internet/email/IM. The monthly report is the industry's only source for an accurate and detailed look at consumer mobile Internet usage. The Mobile Internet Report leverages Telephia's panel of 69,000 wireless subscribers. Each month, Telephia surveys panel members who accessed the Internet via their mobile devices. For the month of June 2005, more than 1,200 panelists responded to questions regarding their mobile Internet usage and demographics.

Bellweather Internet Sites Have the Greatest Reach Among Mobile Consumers

The Weather Channel, Yahoo! Mail, MSN Hotmail, Google Search and ESPN were the top mobile websites with the highest reach, according to Telephia. The Weather Channel grabbed the No. 1 spot, reaching 2.5 percent of the mobile population with users spending an average of over six sessions during the month of June. Yahoo! Mail followed closely posting a 2.4 percent reach, while MSN Hotmail attracted slightly over 2.1 percent of the total mobile audience. Google Search also garnered a reach of 2.1 percent, with an average of over seven sessions per user in June. ESPN's reach totaled 1.8 percent, rounding out the top five.

Yahoo! nabbed three of the top 10 mobile Websites with the highest reach, with Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Search, and Yahoo! Driving Directions capturing the No. 2, 6, and 10 spots, respectively. MapQuest was also popular among mobile users, with a reach of 1.1 percent of the mobile population, while CNN and AOL Mail, attracted one percent of wireless users.

"With their ubiquity online and brand awareness, bellweather websites are extending their reach from the PC to the mobile device," added Agarwal. "Availability and reliability of information on a website, rendering on a small screen, and ease of use are likely to be the key factors behind long-term success of mobile Internet sites."

Table 2. Telephia Top 10 Mobile Internet Websites (U.S.) Average Sessions Per User Per Website Subscriber Reach (%) Month 1. The Weather Channel 2.5% 6.2 2. Yahoo! Mail 2.4% 6.3 3. MSN Hotmail 2.1% 6.0 4. Google Search 2.1% 7.4 5. ESPN 1.8% 7.3 6. Yahoo! Search 1.4% 5.4 7. MapQuest 1.1% 4.8 8. CNN 1.1% 8.0 9. AOL Mail 1.0% 2.8 10. Yahoo! Driving Directions 1.0% 3.1 ------------------------------ -------------------- ------------------ Source: Telephia Mobile Internet Report, June 2005

Visit Telephia at CTIA Wireless & IT, September 27-29, 2005 (Booth 1202). The company will be distributing sample data from the Telephia Audience Metrics suite and will demo its On-Device Meter (ODM) technology. As the foundation of Telephia's next generation audience measurement platform, ODM will allow Telephia to build a large opt-in consumer panel and passively meter their mobile usage activity. Information from this ODM panel will complement Telephia's existing sources of data, including bill harvesting panel and consumer surveys, to provide the industry with comprehensive measurement of the mobile consumer.

About Telephia

Founded in 1999, Telephia provides syndicated performance measurement information to the leaders of the mobile industry. Telephia serves more than 50 mobile industry clients, including carriers, device manufactures, content and application providers, retailers, infrastructure vendors and investment analysts. Telephia is the industry standard measure of subscriber share, customer satisfaction, device share, network quality, revenue share, advertising effectiveness, content audience and many other key performance indicators. Telephia helps clients use information to drive superior business results by providing high-quality measurement products and integrated analysis.

For further information, please visit our website at www.telephia.com or call 415-395-0500.

Sourcing guidelines: All Telephia charts, data tables and analysis must be cited as, "Source: Telephia Audience Metrics" or "According to Telephia..."

Source: Business Wire

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