New Research Report: “Mobile Video Usage, A Global Perspective”

From the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau):

Contrary to popular opinion, mobile screens are regularly being tapped for streaming longer-form video, according to “Mobile Video Usage: A Global Perspective,” a new comprehensive survey of consumers from 24 countries around the world who watch smartphone video. Thirty-six percent of total respondents said they watch videos that are 5-minutes or longer on their phones daily or more frequently. Smartphone video viewers in Turkey, Finland, China, Russia and Singapore are particularly frequent viewers of such videos. Even longer programming, such as movies and full-length television show episodes, are also viewed by audiences on mobile devices, with Chinese viewers being the most inclined to watch both films and TV shows on their mobile screens.

From the News Release and Summary

Across the 24 countries in the survey, there are several common ways that mobile video viewers discover digital video to view on their phones, including:

• YouTube (62%)
• Social media platforms (33%)
• Search results (20%)
• Advertising (14%)

When looking for mobile video to watch, advertising has even more influence in the U.S. (22%) and Canada (18%).
Apps are indisputably the main method for viewing mobile video in each of the markets studied. Nearly half of respondents overall (48%) said that they “only” or “mostly” leverage mobile apps to stream video on their phones, with the UK (63%), Brazil (60%), and Turkey (58%) leading the trend. By contrast, across the survey sample only 18% said they “only” or “mostly” use mobile websites to view video.
More than a quarter (28%) of viewers across the participating countries said that they often see ads on mobile video that they’ve already seen on TV. Numbers climb higher in France (38%), Turkey (36%), Finland (35%) and the U.S. (35%). But, marketers might be missing out with this approach – since 80+ percent or more of consumers in most markets expressed interest in any kind of tailored ad versus “I prefer no tailoring of ads at all.” The findings point to the importance of ads being relevant to the content of the video being watched, but also show viewing history being a significant factor, especially in the U.S. and Canada.

Direct to Full Text Report (68 pages; PDF)

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