According to new research published by mobile technology company Bango, the spending gap between digital and offline content is narrowing among US consumers, particularly among those who are mobile-savvy. Mobile-aware Americans are spending nearly as much money on e-books and digital music as physical media (CDs and paperbacks). Another result of the research is that there are no gender differences with mobile content spend – and people are spending more money on e-books than music.
[caption id=“attachment_2360” align=“alignleft” width=“230” caption=“US women spend $12.50 per month on mobile music (Photo: Music:)Ally)”]
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“Our survey findings show that the spending habits of US consumers are changing as a result of the adoption of internet-enabled cell phones and smartphone devices,” commented Anil Malhotra, SVP marketing and alliances at Bango.
“Consumers who have a passion for content like music and books are spending comparable amounts for digital and physical products. This is why, for brands, having an integrated offline and mobile strategy is now becoming more essential. To capitalize on these changing spending patterns, thinking of mobile as a separate marketing channel no longer makes sense.”
Respondents were asked how much they spend on each product category in a typical month and, across the group of people who spend money on mobile content, music and e-book downloads are the top entertainment categories for mobile content spend. Of all the entertainment categories in the survey, video games and mobile games show the widest spending gap. The average spend for video games is $36.46 and $12.51 for mobile games. Bango believes this is due to the high price points for no-mobile titles.
US consumers who spend money on music downloads, spend on average $13.31 monthly, compared with $17.94 on CDs. Men spend on average $13.90 a month on music, while women spend $12.50. In a typical month, US consumers who buy e-books on their mobile phones spend an average of $15.34, compared with $20.23 on paperbacks. Women spend on average $15.80 a month on e-books, while men spend $14.80.
The Bango Omnibus Survey was conducted in January 2011 among 1,068 respondents, representative of all US population demographics. The sample included respondents who own a mobile phone (91.57%), of whom 56.74% said they have access to the internet from the phone. Women are as likely as men to own a phone with internet access, with the gender split being 28.65% men and 28.09% women.
