Market research business GfK Retail and Technology has revealed a unique ‘Network Intelligence Solution’ (GfK NIS) tool that analyses mobile behaviour via operators’ IP traffic. The tool, which will be rolled out globally in 2011, promises detailed insights into mobile data usage. It’s already been used to look at the mobile activity of over 200,000 mobile internet consumers in three European countries.
Fredrik Hallberg, Managing Director of GfK NIS, said “NIS allows us to provide both mobile operators and the media industry with relevant and reliable information, enabling them to fully monetize mobile traffic for the first time”.
GfK RT says mobile internet activity naturally takes off in the morning, with high traffic visible by 10am. The peak occurs just before 4.30pm as people leave work to return home. However, usage differs considerably during the day and sometimes even within the same hour. For example, 7.45am can have up to 30% - 40% more traffic than 7.15am on the same day.
The average smartphone user makes up to 24 web sites visits per day, mainly to traditional websites and not mobile-specific sites.
About 40% of all visits are to the ‘top 50’ sites, with the popularity of Facebook consistent across all countries measured. In fact, GfK identified a a group of users – between 10% and 15% of all mobile users – where Facebook is almost the only site visited.
The NIS tool measures all websites visited using the mobile internet regardless of the device; feature phones, smartphones, tablets and 3G modems are all monitored.