A boom in digital media consumption, magazines taking the leading in the mobile race, the short half life of mobile apps, and more are covered in this installment of TFP’s Media Metrics roundup.
To help you keep up with trends and prepare for changes just around the corner, each month we compile excerpts from some key reports covering issues affecting the publishing and media industries. Here are our top picks.
Digital Media Consumption Is Booming as Investment Floods In (The Wall Street Journal)
- Time spent consuming digital media in the U.S. increased by 49% over the past two years, driven mostly by non-desktop devices, according to comScore data.
- It showed consumption of digital media on smartphones jumped 90% between June 2013 and June 2015, and increased 64% on tablets.
- Notably, the report said during the same period, total time spent consuming digital media via desktop also grew by 16%, which suggests mobile is increasing digital media consumption overall, not replacing desktop use.
These Are the 10 Magazines With the Biggest Mobile Readerships (Adweek)
- The Association of Magazine Media reported that 26% of magazines’ total readership in July came from smartphones and tablets, an increase from 18% in the same period last year.
- Desktop audiences dropped off slightly, accounting for 15% of readers compared with 16% in 2014.
- Meanwhile, print and digital subscriptions continued to decline, with subscribers accounting for 57% of audiences in July, down from 64% in 2014.
Mobile Apps Have a Short Half Life; 
Falls Sharply After First Six Months (Recode)
- Use of mobile apps drops significantly after the first six months of launch, according to a recent Adobe study.
- In fact, the Adobe research and other studies show that about a quarter of all apps are opened just once.
- The report also found that 82% of mobile app launches are via smartphones, compared with 78% a year ago, while tablets account for 17%.
- While a quarter of visits to U.S. retail websites are via smartphones, they account for only 9% of revenue. However, tablets generate 11% of visits and 11% of revenue.
Survey: 56% of U.S. Consumers Have Abandoned a Mobile Transaction (Social Times)
- A recent Harris Interactive poll found 56% of smartphone owners said they abandoned at least one mobile transaction last year, a decrease from 66% in the previous year.
- The report said the leading reason for not completing a mobile transaction was general uncertainty over the purchase (45%), followed by slow loading times (36%), poor app or site navigation (31%), difficulty typing information on small keypads (28%), and complicated payment processes (22%).
- Apparel purchases were the transactions most likely to be abandoned (60%), with food and travel categories following at 41%.
Gartner Says Smartphone Sales Growth Slows (Business Insider)
- Worldwide smartphones sales in the second quarter grew at the slowest rate since 2013, with sales in China declining for the first time, according to Gartner.
- Some 330 million smartphones were sold in Q2, an increase of 13.5% compared with a year earlier.
- However, the report said while overall sales increased, particularly in emerging markets, China saw a 4% decline year over year, suggesting market saturation. China, the largest smartphone market, accounted for 30% of all smartphone sales in Q2, it said.
Social Media Overtakes Entertainment As Favourite Activity Online (Guardian)
- According to the Internet Advertising Bureau, social media is now the UK’s most popular form of entertainment, accounting for almost 17% of the total time users spend online, up from 12.2% a year ago.
- Meanwhile, time spent on online entertainment such as watching television shows or YouTube videos and listening to music dropped significantly, from 22.1% to 12.4%, in the same time period.
- It also noted that social media accounts for more than 20% of time spent on mobile devices as opposed to 10% on desktop.
Ad Block Software Is Approaching 200 Million Users (Business Insider)
- There are now 200 million monthly active users of ad blocking software worldwide, according to a new study by PageFair and Adobe.
- In the U.S., use of ad blocking software increased almost 50% from last year, to 45 million monthly active users.
- The BI Intelligence report puts losses to U.S. digital media companies at an estimated $9.7 billion next year if ad blocking on mobile reaches current desktop levels.
Men Catching Up With Women in Social Media Usage (Media Life Magazine)
- Pew Research Center found that as of July, 73% of men surveyed said they use social media compared with 80% of women. Five years ago, just 53% of men said they used social media compared with 68% of women.
- The study found differences in sites used, however: 77% of women use Facebook compared with 66% of men; 31% of women use Instagram vs. 24% of men; Twitter use is 25% men and 21% women; and LinkedIn is used almost equally by men and women (26% and 25%, respectively).
Women Three Times as Likely to Use Pinterest (Media Life Magazine)
- One social site with a significant difference in usage by men vs. women is Pinterest: Pew Research Center reported 44% of online women in the U.S. use Pinterest compared with just 16% of men.
- Research firm eMarketer projected that on a monthly basis, 47.1 million U.S. online users will use Pinterest this year, though it said 2015 will likely be the last year the site sees double-digit audience growth.
- The firm estimated that by 2019, penetration will hit 21.4% of Internet users (59.3 million people), noting that the majority of the site’s audience will continue to be women for “the foreseeable future.”
Apple Has Sold Over 1 Million Watches in China, According to This Study (Business Insider)
- Big data analysis firm TalkingData reported Apple Watch sales in China have topped 1.07 million units.
- Meanwhile, UBS analyst Steven Milunovich said interest in the Apple Watch is “trending lower,” estimating total sales of 2.2 million units in the June quarter and sales of 20 million in fiscal 2016. Those figures translate to approximately $10 billion in revenue.
- According to Milunovich, Apple Watch sales are likely to be highest in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Hong Kong. “China is difficult to read,” he said in the report, “though Hong Kong can be a good indicator.”
Media Metrics is a monthly feature from Technology for Publishing, aimed at keeping you armed with the latest industry data. If you’d like to share something you’ve read, drop us a note. And keep up with the latest industry news coverage by signing up for our This Week in Publishing emails or our monthly Publishing Innovations newsletter.
Posted by: Margot Knorr Mancini
