Daniel Slotta
Research expert covering Greater China
Mobile internet usage worldwide - statistics & facts
Over half our time online is spent on mobile phones. Adding wireless connections to our portable devices has shaped the modern digital environment for both hardware and software, while helping digitalization in emerging markets. In mid-2024, it was estimated that over 96 percent of the global digital population used a mobile device to connect to the internet.
Mobile usage trends worldwide
During the second quarter of 2024, global users spent almost 60 percent of their online time browsing the web from their mobile phones. The mobile revolution continues to transform internet usage behavior: according to a survey of global smartphone users, watching videos was the most popular mobile activity, followed by reading the news, and online shopping. The change in download trends highlights how consumers’ preferences are shifting their mobile activities: tool apps and functional programs available on mobile have attracted a larger number of downloads in 2024 than in the previous year. Compared to the previous year, downloads of generative AI mobile apps doubled due to the novelty of the category and its popularity, while tool apps for file management experienced a 24 percent increase in 2024.Mobile-first consumer markets
Today, mobile traffic accounts for 62.5 percent of the global internet web traffic, while in mobile-first markets such as Asia and Africa, mobiles account for an even larger share of webpage views. Thanks to smartphones’ widespread commercial availability, developing global markets experienced access to the internet via mobile devices first. In the Asia-Pacific region, the growth of the mobile industries brought the number of mobile internet users to almost 1.1 billion in China and 1.05 billionmobile phone internet users in India in 2024.Mobile internet global growth
Despite being a fraction of the cost of a laptop or desktop computer, internet-powered mobiles can do almost as much as larger devices. Mobile broadband connections power our portable devices and fuel the digital economy, so much so that as of 2024, the entire digital world was connected via mobile phones. Mobiles represented the first connection point for users in developing markets, increasing levels of digitalization around the world. Mobile devices will continue influencing consumption trends in the post-pandemic economy, with the advancements in 5G and 6G technologies driving internet growth.
