In less than two years the number of mobile Internet subscriptions will exceed that of web users. Does that mean that the entire world will go mobile?
Euromonitor’s latest Consumer Trends report predicts that by 2017, the number of mobile internet subscriptions will surpass that of internet users all over the globe.
How will this happen? According to experts, over the next two years, smart mobile devices like tablets, smartphones and wearable devices will continue to expand. Smart living devices that rely on internet-enabled SIM cards will also witness an increased popularity.
Still, this rise in usage does not mean that the entire planet’s population will be able to access the world through smart gadgets. In fact, the report explains that just four in ten mobile subscriptions in the world will be web-enabled in 2017. That gap is explained by the fact that there will still be many low-income and rural areas that will lack the necessary telecommunications infrastructure.
Nevertheless, it is expected that in just two years, mobile internet subscriptions will hit 3.2 billion worldwide. That means that they will outnumber web users by 0.1 billion for the very first time.
According to the report, the turning point for this new trend was witnessed last year. In 2014, it was estimated that more people have accessed the web through their mobile device and not through their computers, which was a precedent.
Emerging economies will be another key factor that will further contribute to this tendency. Over the next couples of years, many consumers from emerging markets will get the chance to access the internet from a mobile device for the first time. A similar trend was already observed in 2014 when developed economies saw a mobile web subscription increase by nearly 10% per year, whereas emerging countries registered a leap by over 27.5%.
Naturally, this rise of mobile web subscriptions will create many opportunities for different markets like e-commerce, mobile advertising, as well as mobile applications. The mobile games market alone can see a jump of nearly 20% by 2017. As a result, its value may hit $8 billion. The market of mobile e-commerce is also expected to expand. According to the report, mobile internet retail will register a rise by over 56% and reach a value of about $337 billion.
The 2014 State of the Internet Report also made similar predictions on the future of mobile internet. According to it, the number of regular mobile internet users is said to increase to 3.9 billion by 2018. The fastest growing region is expected to be the Asia Pacific. It will rise from its current 1.2 billion users to around 2.1 billion by 2018. It will be followed by the Middle East and Africa, where web users are predicted to double and reach to 431 million.
Along with the expansion of the mobile internet market, mobile data consumption will also increase. Ericsson’s 2014 Mobility Report reveals that last year the average smartphone user consumed approximately 900MB of mobile data per month. However, by 2020, this number is expected to surpass 3GB.
