Mobile broadband is growing globally: according to the latest issue of the “Mobility Report”, by Ericsson, concerning media and communications, Lte/4G contracts are about 2,4 billions, 260 millions of which were subscribed in the second quarter of 2017, with an YOY increase of +25%.

Wcdma/Hspa (3G) contracts are also doing quite well, and have increased up to about 30 million. On the other hand, the world of Gsm/Edge has consequently lost almost 170 million units. Read it in Italian. 

In the second quarter of 2017, the penetration rate of mobile phones reached a global 103%, with a peak of 142% in central Europe. In other words, there are more SIM cards than people in our world, with a total amount of 7,7 billion mobile contracts, translating into an increase of 92 million units in the second quarter of 2017 and into a YOY growth of 6%. The countries leading this trend are China, with 19 million new contracts, India with +17 million contracts, Indonesia with +7 million contracts and Ghana with +4 million contracts. North America is steady (+0 million) while the Middle East recorded a slight decrease (-1 million).

In this scenario, mobile users are 5,3 billion. And in case you were wondering why contracts are more than actual users, this is because some customers, due to some specific offers or benefits or just because they own more than one phone, have subscribed to more than one contract.

Consequently, also mobile data usage and traffic have increased by 67% over the past year and by 10% between the first and the second quarter of 2017. Such increase was also due to a steady increase in the average mobile data usage per contract (especially video and social networks), and marketers should be aware of this.

It is no surprise then, that smartphones sales have increased, as well. Over 370 million smartphones were sold in 2017, i.e. the 80% of the total number of cell phones sold in the same quarter (against 20% of old cell phones which cannot connect to the internet) against 75% of the fourth quarter of 2015. Moreover, 56% of mobile phones subscriptions are linked to smartphones. Such figures should help us understand the relevance of such phenomenon.

And the aforesaid report confirmed that videos are leading the market and are the main resource for digital and creative advertising (and phone providers too!). Therefore, brands wishing not to lose market share shall promptly take this into consideration.

What are you doing about mobile video ads? And what type of campaigns are you choosing? Tweet @agostinellialdo.

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