in numbers

Upstream’s mobile intelligence reports have shared insights on key trends in mobile market and digital advertising.

Top-tier media like FT, CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC have covered our research papers.

Profound Mobile Consumer Research

Western Operators Lost Opportunity

More than 45.6bn mobile app store downloads in 2012

Approximately $15bn were generated out of 5 billion downloaded paid apps

750million active iOS and Android users generated

$10bn in 2012

100% of operators believe voice andSMS traffic will

dramatically decline in the next 20 years

Source: Gartner Research / Ovum Whitepaper

The Rise of Over The Top (OTT) Services

Skype

The leading Voice OTT with over 900m users spending over 1bn minutes/day

OTT voice will cause total mobile voice revenues to fall from $714bn to $573bn over 2012-2016

WhatsApp

75m WhatsApp users exchange 2 billion messages/day

27 messages per user/day

OTT messaging cost MNOs $4,2bn in 2012 and $12,5bn in 2016

Source: Mobile Squared Report

There are 610m Internet users but a staggering

1,8 billion mobile phone connections in BRICI

BRICI have 1,8 billion mobile phone SIM cards compared with a

combined total 394m of US and Japan

The African average is 65 mobile phones

for every 100 people 

99% of Internet subscriptions in Kenya are via mobile phones

Emerging Opportunities

Source: BCG “Internet in the G-20-economy”

Mobile is the most used device for one in two (47%) over laptops, tablets or desktop PCs

Apple (21%) comes third in brand preference in emerging

markets after Samsung (32%) and Nokia (22%)

Almost a third of consumers (27%) in emerging markets bypass their favorite brands and buy devices with similar functionality, but at a cheaper price

60% of consumers are prepared to spend up to $5 every month on mobile apps

The majority of consumers polled (42%) prefer being billed for content and apps by their MNO

Key Points