Mobile in the boardroom 2010

Financial Times Mobile Report

Executive summary

Consumers are using their handsets to access the mobile web in increasing numbers. Yet according to research conducted on behalf of the Financial Times, business professionals remain significantly ahead of consumers in terms of adoption and usage intensity.

This white paper is based on the results of a quantative survey of business professionals commissioned by the FT. It also draws upon analysis of aggregated traffic data from the FT’s servers. The main conclusions are as follows:

n A majority of business professionals (over 60%) are already using their handsets to browse for content on the mobile web. A similar proportion use mobile apps. Business professionals are twice as likely to access the mobile web compared with the broad population.

n News forms an important component of mobile content consumption among business professionals. Over 40% of business professionals use their handsets to access news and current affairs content. Among those who regularly access the web on their handsets, the proportion rises to 76%.

n Business professionals are significantly more willing to pay for online content than consumers. 32% of business users suggest that they “probably” or “maybe” pay for access to financial or business news over traditional internet connections. 36% say they would “probably” or “maybe” pay for general news content delivered to their mobile handsets.

Yet if business professionals are already enthusiastic consumers of mobile content, usage levels have the potential to rise significantly from current levels as handsets develop, browsers improve and apps proliferate.

The iPad and touchscreen tablets have brought a new kind of mobile experience to market. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that the so-called iPhone effect remains real enough. Data from the FT’s servers published here for the first time suggest that iPhone usage has a remarkable effect on users’ propensity to access mobile content and the amount of time they spend consuming that content.

The stage is set for an explosion of mobile content consumption. As this white paper concludes, we are witnessing the mainstream emergence of a profoundly important new channel for the distribution of news and current affairs content.

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Introduction

Mobile web access is growing rapidly among consumers across the developed world. Yet in the boardroom, the mobile web is already a mainstream activity.

According to research commissioned by the FT for this survey, nearly two-thirds of business professionals use apps or handset-based browsers to access the mobile web.

What do usage patterns among business professionals tell us about the future of consumer markets? This report highlights trends among business professionals which may yet emerge as defining characteristics in consumer-led mass markets:

n News is already popular among consumers who use their handsets to access the mobile web. Yet usage patterns among business users suggest that news will become significantly more popular as high-end smartphones, news apps and user-friendly browsers proliferate. Consumers will become more enthusiastic users. As they do so, the mobile web will emerge as a major new channel for the distribution of news. Among business users, this shift is already occurring.

n Among the 43% of business professionals who define themselves as “heavy” users of the mobile web, a remarkable transformation is taking place. FT subscribers who use iPhones to access the newspaper’s content do so twice as often as the average UK-based visitor to a national newspaper web site. In addition, dwell times among these mobile users are starting to approach those generated by users who visit national newspaper web sites on the desktop web.

Today, among business users, the mobile web has already emerged as a rival to the desktop web. Tomorrow, the same rivalry will emerge in consumer markets. In some cases, mobile browsing will replace desktop browsing. Just as often, however, it will complement it, extending the amount of time consumers can spend consuming content.

Either way, usage patterns among business professionals suggest the existence of a substantial opportunity for news organisations. As momentum picks up among users, media companies are making significant investments in the future of mobile content.

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Mobile in the boardroom: already mainstream

Mobile news: Where business professionals lead, consumers may follow

Mobile web access has become firmly established as a mainstream activity among business users. According to new research commissioned by the Financial Times, nearly two-thirds of business professionals in the UK use a browser to access the mobile web. A similar proportion – 60% – use apps on their handsets.

The contrast with the consumer-led mass market is striking. Much has been made of consumers’ increasing propensity to access the mobile web. Recently, analysts at Morgan Stanley described the rise of the mobile web as an “epic technology transformation” that will match or exceed the evolution of the PC and of the desktop internet in terms of its implications.(1) Yet according to data from comScore, only 29% of UK mobile users access the web using a browser. Approximately 37% of consumers use apps on their handsets.(2)

Surfing the mobile web: Business users vs. consumers

Percentage of business users surfing the mobile web 61%

Percentage of UK mobile users using a browser 29%

Source: comScore Browser Access Trends (November 2009); FT research (January 2010)

Using apps: Business users vs. consumers

Percentage of business users using apps 60%

Percentage of UK mobile users using apps 37%

Source: comScore App Access Trends (November 2009); FT research (January 2010)

Business professionals have become a significant community of early majority users on the mobile web. Where they lead, consumers will ultimately follow.

News content is already popular among consumer users of the mobile web. According to comScore, only two out of 37 kinds of information site – those dedicated to search and social networking – receive more browser-based mobile visitors. Among the sites that receive fewer mobile visits are those dedicated to entertainment news, classifieds, gaming, weather forecasts, online retail, job listings and adult entertainment.

Although consumers who use apps are less enthusiastic about news, comScore suggests that only four varieties of information-oriented app generate more traffic than those dedicated to news (maps, weather, social networking and search). Almost certainly, app-based news consumption among consumers will increase as the apps launched by news organisations at an accelerating pace during H209 find their way on to more handsets.

Consumer browser users: Most popular information sites (monthly UK visitors – millions)

Search 6.4

Social networking 6.2

News 5.0

Sports information 4.7

Weather 4.0Source: comScore, November 2009

Consumer app users: Most popular information sites (monthly UK visitors – millions)

Maps 2.5

Weather 1.6

Social networking 1.6

Search 1.1

News 0.9Source: comScore, November 2009

Publishers should be reassured by these figures, which suggest that news content will play a prominent role in content consumption on the mobile web.

However, patterns of usage among business users suggest that news could become significantly more popular among consumers as adoption progresses. Almost half (46%) of all business professionals say that they go in search of news and current affairs on the mobile web.

Business users: Using the mobile web

© Financial Times Limited

Source: comScore, November 2009

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Dwell time & visit frequency: In the boardroom, handsets rival desktops

The evidence suggests that business users are roughly twice as likely to access the mobile web compared with the general population of consumer mobile users.

Remarkably, business users are over four times more likely to access general news content using a browser – and over 20 times more likely to access news content on their handsets using apps.

Browsing news: Mobile users visiting news & current affairs sites (% of all mobile users)

Business professionals 46%Consumers 10%Source: comScore App Access Trends (November 2009); FT research (January 2010)

News app use: Mobile users using apps to access news on handsets (% of all mobile users)

Business professionals 41%Consumers 2%Source: comScore App Access Trends (November 2009); FT research (January 2010)

How can we explain the much higher propensity of business users to access news content on their handsets? One possible explanation is that business users have a greater need to keep up to date with events in the wider world.

Yet other factors may be involved. Business users may well be equipped with higher-specification handsets and better browsers than the rest of the population. The evidence also suggests that business users are more likely to download and use news apps than consumers.

On this basis, business users may simply be anticipating the future of mobile web access among consumers. As consumers become more experienced and better-equipped, they may well acquire a similarly substantial appetite for mobile news.

Multiple factors are driving rapid expansion of mobile web access. Among consumers, flat-rate (“all you can eat”) tariffs have been encouraging usage for the past three years. (3)

Yet among many business users, a different dynamic has been at work for much longer. Most companies are willing to cover the entire cost of executives’ mobile use. Yet 90% of business professionals we surveyed say that they own the handset they use on a daily basis.

This combination of personal ownership and fully-subsidised usage represents a virtuous circle. It encourages heavy usage and frequent handset upgrades. In turn, these upgrades keep business professionals at the cutting edge of handset design, equipped with handsets that access the mobile web increasingly well. The results include increasing consumption of mobile data.

This virtuous circle encourages business professionals to push the edge of the envelope in terms of usage patterns. It’s clear, for example, that business users access the mobile web from overseas (while travelling for business) far more frequently than consumers who find themselves personally liable for the expensive data roaming charges that lie in wait when they venture abroad.

If the cost of access is important, so, too, are the benefits of access. The rise of the mobile web has been accompanied by steadily improving levels of user experience. In this respect, apps have proved to be a game-changer. Since early 2009, media organisations have released dozens of apps, transforming the relationship between users and the mobile web. (4)

John Doerr, the Silicon Valley financier, suggests that in the wake of PC-based software and static web pages, apps represent a “third revolution in software”. According to Mark Pincus, the founder of Zynga, apps have “fused together the idea of the PC desktop and the internet behind it”. As a result, he adds, apps “feel a generation ahead of the old static web page, where there’s no software involved”. (5)

On mobile platforms, apps speed up the delivery of content and optimise the way in which that content is displayed. Apps also reduce user reliance on search. For most mobile users, inputting search terms on a traditional mobile keypad remains a time-consuming and error-strewn process. (6) As a result, the search-driven unbundling of content that has afflicted publishers on the desktop web may yet prove to be less of a problem for their mobile publishers. (7)

Positive user experience drives adoption in other ways. Several studies have suggested that iPhone users – and, increasingly, Android handset users – are likely to access the web much more frequently than users of other handsets. These studies suggest the existence of significant pent-up demand among users who are currently unwilling or unable to access the web on their handsets. (8)

One recent study suggested that iPhone and iTouch users accounted for 46% of mobile web page views in Europe during December 2009. Another survey suggests that iPhones accounted for 48% of page requests in the UK during November 2009, up from 12.5% in January 2009. (9)

Data aggregated from the FT’s mobile server logs for this report confirms the existence of high engagement levels – calculated in terms of session length or dwell time – among iPhone users.

Remarkably, dwell times for FT users equipped with iPhones approach those generated by readers using desktops and broadband to visit other national newspaper sites.

It remains possible that the session frequency and dwell time data for the FT’s iPhone users represents the future for all news organisations on the mobile web. At the very least, the existing habits of business professionals suggest that mobile handsets will become a major channel for the consumption of news.

iPhone app users: Dwell time at FT (% of sessions, December 2009)

Desktop visits to UK national newspaper sites (% of sessions, December 2009)

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Business users: More willing to pay for content than consumers

How frequently do business professionals using iPhones consume content on their handsets compared with users of desktops and laptops equipped with broadband?

According to data from the Newspaper Marketing Agency, 29.5m UK-based unique users visited national newspaper sites during November 2009. On average, each of these unique users made 2.3 visits to a national site during the month. (10)

By contrast, aggregated data from the FT’s server logs suggests that iPhone users visit the FT’s content almost three times more frequently. As consumers start to become more familiar with the mobile web, and equip themselves with better hardware and software, it seems likely that they will start to consume mobile news on a similarly high-frequency basis.

Business users seek out news on the mobile web more frequently than consumers. On this basis, it’s sensible to ask whether business users are more willing to pay for online content than consumers.

In recent months, surveys have ascribed significant resistance among consumers confronted with the prospect of paying to consume general news content on what we might described as the desktop-based web. (11)

The hardcore population of refusniks who say that they will never pay for general news, or who say they will seek out alternative free news sources if confronted with a paywall, consistently runs at 70% or more.

By contrast, business professionals seem more open to the prospect of paying for content – both on the desktop-based web and via their mobile handsets.

Up to one-third of business respondents (32%) say that they will “probably” or “maybe” pay for financial or business news on the desktop-based web. Strikingly, only 36% place themselves in the hardcore refusnik category by suggesting that they would “never” pay.

Questioned about their willingness to pay for general news content on mobile handsets, business professionals respond in similar fashion. Slightly more than one-third (36%) say that they will “probably” or “maybe” pay for general news on their handsets. The number of refusniks is noticeably smaller: just 26%.

In both cases, business users are significantly more willing to pay for news content than consumers.

In particular, the suggestion that business users are more willing to pay for general news on handsets than for financial/business news on desktops suggests that users place a significant premium on their ability to access news on mobile handsets.

Here, too, the evidence suggests that the attractions of mobile as a news consumption channel are significant. As users start to access news stories on their handsets rather than desktops, news organisations could well find themselves better-positioned to charge for content.

The iPhone effect may help to explain why business professionals are polarised into two camps: heavy users of the mobile web (who say they use their handsets to go online “every day” or “most days”) and light users (“rarely” or “never” using the mobile web). Like the data for visit frequency and dwell times among iPhone users, this polarisation in attitudes points to the existence of pent-up demand among mobile users. News organisations should benefit significantly in terms of traffic levels as the user experience improves.

Visits per user: Mobile, iPhone & PC-based browsing

Business users: General browser & app use

Source: FT Research (January 2010)

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Conclusions

The mobile web is already a mainstream activity among business users. Over time, consumers will come to resemble leading-edge business users in terms of visit frequency and levels of engagement.

Predictably, a significant amount of mobile web consumption occurs on the move. Yet large amounts of mobile consumption also occur at home and in the office.(12) Here, the “lean-back” experience of tablet computing will further expand the footprint of mobile consumption. The iPad represents an attempt to popularise a third consumption scenario that remains distinct from the small-screen experience offered by mobile handsets and the “lean forward” experience of desktop browsing. The inevitable results will include more mobile consumption.

The FT’s research into usage patterns among business professionals – summarised below – suggest that mobile will emerge as a powerful distribution channel for general news publishers. When the mobile web goes mainstream in consumer markets, the resulting shift in consumption patterns will be both radical and profound.

n A majority of business professionals (over 60%) are already using their handsets to browse for content on the mobile web. A similar proportion use mobile apps. Levels of adoption among business users far outstrip those among consumers.

n Over 40% of business users use their handsets to access news and current affairs content. Among those business users who regularly access the web on their handsets, the proportion rises to 76%.

n Business professionals who access the mobile web from their handsets are more enthusiastic browsers than consumers who do similarly. Business professionals who regularly access the mobile web are more than twice as likely to access general news and 1.6 times more likely to access social networking sites.

n The iPhone effect is real and significant. Readers accessing FT content on iPhones initiate sessions, on average, six times a month. The average online unique user of a national newspaper site does so 2.3 times a month.

n Levels of engagement (dwell time) for iPhone users are remarkably high, approaching the levels for general users of national newspaper web sites in the UK. On this basis, it’s entirely possible that mobile access may grow to become the primary way in which some users consume online text-based news content.

n Business professionals tend to describe themselves as heavy users of the mobile web (“every day”/”most days”) or light users (“rarely” / “never”). Relatively few say they occupy the middle ground (accessing the mobile web “weekly” / “a couple of times a month”).

n Business professionals appear significantly more willing to pay for online content (in general) than consumers. 32% of business users suggest that they “probably” or “maybe” pay for access to financial or business news over traditional internet connections. 36% say they would “probably” or “maybe” pay for general news content delivered to their mobile handsets.

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing essential news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community, the FT has a combined paid print and digital circulation of 579,249 (Deloitte assured, October 2010) and a combined print and online average daily readership of 1.9 million people worldwide (PwC assured, May 2010). FT.com has three million registered users and the FT has 189,022 paying digital subscribers. The newspaper, printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 390,228 (ABC figures September 2010).

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Footnotes Appendix

(1) Morgan Stanley, The Mobile Internet Report, 15 December 2009http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/mobile_internet_report.pdfCf: Internet Trends – Presentation From CM Summit, an edited update of this report, published in June 2010.http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/cm_summit_june2010.html

(2) comScore suggests that 13.9m of the estimated 48.5m Britons who own a handset accessed the mobile web using a browser at least once a month during late 2009. Separately, comScore estimates that 17.9m handset users ran apps on handsets during the same time period. comScore, UK Browser Access Trends / UK Application Access Trends, December 2009

(3) Tim Weber, Is the web going mobile at last?, BBC News, 17 November 2006http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6155678.stm

(4) Between October 2008 and January 2010, mainstream news organisations in the UK launched 15 apps for mobile handsets. Thirteen were designed for iPhone users; two for users of Android handsets. Cf.: Appendix 2.

(5) Richard Waters, Cracking The Code Of Apps, Financial Times, 16 April 2010http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3bd43852-4981-11df-9060-00144feab49a.html

(6) Jakob Nielsen, Mobile Usability, Jackon Nielsen’s Alertbox, 20 July 2009http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html

(7) Nick Carr, The Clickthrough’s Tyrannical Efficiency, Rough Type, 10 March 2006http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/03/the_tyranny_of_1.php

(8) Quantcast, 2009 mobile web trends report, January 2010http://www.quantcast.com/docs/display/info/Mobile+Report

(9) AdMob, AdMob mobile metrics report, January 2009http://www.admob.com/marketing/pdf/mobile_metrics_jan_09.pdfAdMob, AdMob mobile metrics report, November 2009http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/AdMob-Mobile-Metrics-Nov-09.pdf

(10) Newspaper Marketing Agency, Newspaper Online Analytics, November 2009http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/onlinenews?onlineNewsModel=18169

By March 2010, the NMA was reporting 49.1m UK-based monthly unique visitors for British national newspaper sites, generating a total of 112m visits. The resulting average of 2.3 visits per unique user per month is much the same as suggested by the data for November 2009.

(11) See, for example: Robert Andrews, Only 5% Of Web Users Would Pay For Online News, Reports Survey, Paid Content UK, 21 September 2009

http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-readers-would-pay-for-online-news/ In a study published in February 2010, Nielsen suggested that 6% of European consumers already pay for online newspaper content. A further 32% said they would “consider” paying. Fully 62% said they “will not pay” to access newspaper websites.Nielsen, Changing Models: A Global Perspective On Paying For Content Online, February 2010http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/reports/paid-online-content.pdf

(12) Multiple studies have underlined users’ tendency to use handsets extensively for voice calls as well as text-based and video-based consumption in the home. See, for example, Carol Taylor et al, Skimming The Surface: Understanding Real World Mobile Internet Use (University of Washington/MIUX08, Amsterdam, September 2008)http://wiki.research.nokia.com/images/2/27/Taylor-Xu-Anicello-Somohano-Ramey.pdf and Eija Kaasinen et al, User Acceptance of Mobile TV Services (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland/Mobile HCI’09, September 2009)http://mobilehci.uni-siegen.de/proceedings2009/fp138-kaasinen pdf

Appendix 1: Information sources

This paper draws upon three main information sources:

1) An interview-based survey of 1,000 UK-based adults who use their mobile handsets for business purposes. The survey was commissioned by the Financial Times and conducted by Redshift Research Ltd. Fieldwork took place in January 2010.

2) Aggregated and anonymised server log data detailing consumption of mobile content published by the Financial Times between July 2009 and January 2010. The data included (i) metrics for visitors to m.ft.com and (ii) Google Analytics data detailing consumption of FT content by iPhone users.

3) We gratefully acknowledge comScore’s assistance in allowing us to use data from its reports on Browser Access Trends and Application Access Trends in this report. For more information on comScore’s metrics, please visit http://www.comscore.com/Contact_Us <http://www.comscore.com/Contact_Us>

Appendix 2: UK news organisations launching mobile apps, 2008-2010

News app development: Selected UK news organisations, 2008-2010

Origin Free/paid app Free/paid content

Daily Telegraph Android UK Oct-08 Free app Free content

ITN iPhone UK Feb-09 Free app Free content

Daily Telegraph iPhone UK Feb-09 Free app Free content

Sky News iPhone UK May-09 Free app Free content

BBC World News iPhone UK Jun-09 Free app Free content

Financial Times iPhone UK Jul-09 Free app 3-10 free articles/month, then paid

The Independent iPhone UK Aug-09 Free app Free content

The Guardian Android UK Sep-09 Free app Free content

The Spectator iPhone UK Sep-09 Paid app: 59p Paid content: 59p/week

CNN iPhone UK Sep-09 Paid app: $1.99 Free content

Manchester Evening News iPhone UK Oct-09 Free app Free content

The Guardian iPhone UK Dec-09 Paid app: £2.39 Free content

Daily Mirror: 3am & football iPhone UK Jan-10 Paid app: TBA Free content

Daily Mirror/Daily Record iPhone UK Jan-10 Free app Free content

Financial Times (Travel Guides) iPhone UK Jan-10 Free app Free content

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www.ft.com