iTWire - Kiwi youth the region's most avid mobile Internet users

Kiwi youth the region's most avid mobile Internet users

By Stuart Corner
Monday, 27 October 2008 04:29

Global media measurement firm, The Nielsen Company, has come up with an interesting statistic: New Zealanders, and particularly those under 25, are streets ahead of any other Asia-Pacific populations in accessing the Internet from a mobile device.

According to Nielsen's nine country survey - of Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand - 42.3 percent of Kiwis under 25 access the mobile Internet and 23.9 percent of those over 25.

This figure is more than double that of the number two nation, Thailand with 17.0 and 7.5 percent usage. Australia, the country culturally and economically closest to New Zealand, was in third place with 11.1 and 5.4 percent usage.

However, when it came to MMS usage, New Zealanders were bottom of the table with 3.1 percent under 25 and 1.4 percent over 25 using MMS. Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand all scored about 20 percent in the under 25 category with 24.1, 24.6, 36.2 and 35.1 percent respectively.

The findings come from Nielsen Media Index and Panorama, which studies consumer media and product consumption across the Asia-Pacific region and in its public announcement of the finding Nielsen offers no explanation for New Zealand's mobile Internet leadership.

However it does suggest that the mobile Internet presents "a huge opportunity for marketers who are looking at new channels to reach their target customers," so some investigation of mobile Internet usage in New Zealand might may dividends.

In every country except the Philippines usage of Internet and MMS was greater among the under 25s than those above, generally by about two to one. This is curious given figures quoted recently from the fourth Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index released by the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA).

It was claimed that this report "revealed 26 to 40 year olds – a demographic highly prized by advertisers – accessed more information on mobile phones than any other group."