LONDON—European mobile consumers are far more likely to access the wireless Web than their U.S. counterparts, according to new figures from digital media measurement firm ComScore Networks.
The company found that 29 percent of users in five European counties “regularly” accessed the Internet from their phones while only 19 percent of U.S. subscribers surfed the wireless Web. Germany and Italy, where more than one-third of all subscribers used the mobile Internet, outpaced other countries; U.S. users were the least likely to go online wirelessly.
Interestingly, U.S. subscribers were more inclined than their European counterparts to access WAP pages from Internet behemoths.
“Three-quarters of American mobile Web surfers access content from the leading online portals such as Google, Yahoo and MSN compared to only 30 percent of Europeans,” said Bob Ivins, managing director of ComScore Europe. “In Europe, the mobile Internet appears to mirror the dynamics of the fixed Internet. Google remains strong, but the other U.S.-based portals achieve much lower penetration, facing stiff competition from local competitors—in this case the mobile providers—who have the structural advantage of control over the access point and interface from the mobile phone.”
