Media information company Nielsen has released new data on the top 10 mobile internet sites and brands. It shows that, to a large extent, mobile internet usage mirrors total internet use, with Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Microsoft among the most visited mobile brands. Surprisingly, the AOL network ranked fifth in terms of traffic.
Nielsen estimated from its mobile sample that in December 2009 the total mobile internet audience was 62 million. Over half of mobile users visited a Google or Yahoo brand in December. Facebook and MSN/WindowLive/Bing ranked third and fourth. And the AOL brand saw 17.3 million mobile users in December.
A look at the top mobile websites shows that AOL email accounted for 7.3 million mobile internet visits, which leaves 10 million unique visits coming from AOL’s wide array of content sites. It was certainly a surprise to this Google devotee, and demonstrates that the AOL brand still has legs.
A comparison of the top 10 mobile brands with the top 10 overall internet brands shows a few differences in how people are using the mobile web. The mobile sites in pink above are those that don’t appear on the top 10 list for overall internet usage. Not surprisingly, people care about weather, news, and sports when they are on the go, and Weather Channel, CNN and ESPN have succeeded in transporting their brands to mobile. The brands in gray to the left are sites that did not appear on the mobile list. Again, not a surprise to learn that mobile internet users are not as likely to watch videos, get tech support or buy products from their cell phones.
Nielsen estimated the total US internet universe to be 196 million in December 2009. With the mobile internet reaching 62 million, that means that 32% of all internet users are also using the mobile web. While the majority — 68% — of internet users still use only a computer, it’s encouraging to see these large numbers only 2 1/2 years after the release of the first iPhone, which brought the mobile web to an estimated 42 million phones worldwide.
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