Indian smartphone users now spend more time on content than voice and sms: Nielsen-Informate study

More than three hours per day is spent on smartphones by 15-25 year-olds, and 60 per cent of this is on entertainment and browsing. Data usage for 3G users is nearly 44 per cent more than 2G users.

India's growing population of smartphone users now spends more time on entertainment and internet-based content than on voice calling and text messages, finds the newly- formed strategic alliance between Nielsen and Informate Mobile Intelligence.

Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights, as the alliance is called, has revealed that the average smartphone user spends 2.5 hours a day using their phones, with 72 per cent of their time spent on activities such as gaming, entertainment, apps and internet-related content. Only 28 per cent of their time is now used for voice calls and text messaging.

"India's rapidly growing mobile user base presents marketers and businesses with an opportunity to improve the precision with which they reach out to the new Indian consumer. Today, young Indians, for instance, prefer texting and chat over voice communications; understanding this behaviour better can define data consumption and customer acquisition strategies for operators and handset providers," says Farshad Family, managing director, media, Nielsen India.

"On-device metering is a technology that will, for the first time, give advertisers, content developers and telecom players an insight into how the mobile consumer is evolving. For instance, we now know that 3G users consume significantly more data than 2G users, and android users download and consume a greater volume of apps," says Kedar Sohoni, president, Informate Mobile Intelligence.

Sohoni also believes that these analytics will offer marketers an unmatched view of a powerful new medium.

Key findings by Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights also reveal that smartphone users in India are using their phones for more than 2.5 hours per day, of which communication (calls, SMS, emails) accounts for only 28 per cent of usage. Younger smartphone users (15-25 year-olds) spend more than three hours per day, on their phones and spend 60 per cent of the time on entertainment and browsing (gaming, surfing the net, and multimedia).

The finding also suggests that 68 per cent of 15-24 year-olds used a chat app last month, as compared to 42 per cent for the 31-plus year-olds.

The study discloses that data usage for 3G users was close to 44 per cent more than 2G users.

An Android user installs an average of 19 apps in a month, as compared to 10 apps for a symbian user. The report also suggests that 84 per cent of Android users played a game in the last month, as compared to 59 per cent for symbian users.