Survey: Gen Y Accessing Web On Mobile More Than PC

Many marketers continue to think that the mobile internet is still too small to be worth attention. Indeed, on a global basis the mobile web represents less than 5 percent of all internet traffic, according to StatCounter. (See Royal Pingdom on usage in specific regions.)

Two months ago Forrester Research issued a report dismissing location-based services as too marginal to be worth attention. Pew seemed to confirm that assessment with similar findings. The mobile skeptics and laggards appear to be validated by the numbers, right?

Not so fast. Morgan Stanley predicted mobile internet access would exceed PC-based access, on global basis, by 2014.

OK. That’s a forecast. So maybe it’s based on aggressive assumptions and therefore too “optimistic.”

Now take a look at survey data gleaned from 300,000 users of Opera’s Mini browser this summer. The respondents here are between 18 and 27 years old. Red bars are mobile, green is PC.

What these data reflect is that — today — in all but two countries represented, the majority of “gen Y” Opera Mini users access the internet more often through their phones than on a PC. And look at the margins — today.

This should be extremely sobering data for those who think that mobile is next year’s problem or challenge.