School-age teens and young adults are leading users the mobile applications sector in Britain and Germany, says M:Metrics, the mobile market authority. In its February Benchmark Survey, the measurement firm found that Generation M, 13 to 24-year-olds, are the most predisposed to use mobile data services. Content companies should not overstate the importance of this group, however, as subscribers 25 and older comprise in excess of 70 percent of mobile content consumers.
“Although 13 to 24-year-olds make up less than 20 percent of the mobile audience in the UK and Germany, they show a high propensity to consume mobile content, with 62 percent of British, and 47 percent of German members of Generation M using one or more mobile applications,” said Paul Goode, vice president and senior analyst, M:Metrics. “But the appeal of mobile content extends beyond youth, as the majority of mobile content consumers are over 25. The challenge the mobile content industry faces is to similarly engage a higher percentage of older consumers.”
Even in mobile game consumption, an activity typically associated with youth, adults 25 and older comprise 62 percent of game downloaders in both Britain and Germany. But, only two percent of German and three percent of UK mobile subscribers 25 or older downloaded a game in February. This compares to five percent of German teens downloading a mobile game and eight percent of their British counterparts. Subscribers in the 18 to 24 age group are the most likely to download a mobile game. In Germany, this age group accounts for 27.3 percent of the market and in the UK, 26 percent. In both geographies, males out-gamed females, although the gender gap is largest in Germany, at 60 percent male, 40 percent female, versus 54 percent male, 46 percent female in Britain.
M:Metrics also reports that in both Germany and the UK, 13 to 17-year-olds are twice more likely than the average subscriber to download a short video clip, and three times more likely to stream music over the air.
Fashion-conscious females outdo males in personalizing their phones with ringtones, wallpapers and ringback tones, accounting for 53 percent of subscribers who purchased personalization content in Germany and 56 percent in the UK. Teenagers were the predominant users of personalization content. In both countries, the 13 to 17-year old age group was the proportional leader in consumption. Surprisingly, those over 25 account for 75 percent of the German, and 85 percent of the UK markets.
“This data shows that that mobile content has mass appeal,” observed Goode. “But in order for this sector to grow, publishers, operators and other mobile content owners need to better identify underserved market segments and develop media that will compel all consumers to look to their devices for information and entertainment.”