Report - Mobile Consumption of Internet Services is Abysmal

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Innovation (CCI) presents findings, from the first survey undertaken by the Australian component of the World Internet Project, titled The Internet in Australia. This is definitely quite an intriguing work that reflects upon the activities of a general population affected by the Internet. Before I jump into my summary/conclusions, some of the highlights of this report for me are :
  • Nearly 80% of home has broadband.
  • Only 25.3 % of people use wireless devices to access the internet.
  • Only less than an hour/week on a mobile device to access the internet.
  • Email is the most popular means of communicating online.
  • 82.8% of users never made an internet phone call.
  • 20% of people use messaging daily.
  • 59.2% of internet users pay bills online.
  • Only 70.9% of rural households have broadband access compared to 83.0% of households in capital cities.
  • Internet users spend less time watching television, listening to radio and reading newspapers than nonusers.
  • Copying a friend’s DVD is the most popular way for internet users to get digital movies.
  • Nearly 60% of users will use the internet to learn about local breaking stories
  • Only 8.1% of internet users usually buy music online.
  • A majority (65.1%) research goods before buying them from a local store.
  • While at home 50 % of people access the internet from their study room, 12% from the bedroom, 12% from the Lounge room & 11% from the living room.
  • Most people rate the internet as a reliable source of information such as newspapers and more reliable than television.
  • 52.1% think that the internet has increased their contact with family members.
  • Just over four in ten (40.6%) internet users are using the net to look up information about restaurants.
  • 86% of employed people use the Internet on a regular basis.
  • 73% of Men and 70.9% of women are on the internet.
  • Only 40% of people in the lower income level <20k br="" internet.="" uses="">
  • 62.6% of internet users check weather forecasts online.
  • People born overseas are slightly more likely to use the internet than those born in Australia (76.7% to 71.6%).
  • Only less than eight per cent work on a personal blog.
My take on this report:
  • Broadband is becoming a utility service.
  • It is still not available to all Australians, rich people seem to be enjoying it more.
  • The digital divide between cities and country areas still exists, but the difference is diminishing.
  • Internet access on Mobile devices is now here compared to countries like, Korea, Japan-US & EU. This suggests a great opportunity emerging for consuming online services on a mobile device (from e-commerce to m-commerce, opportunity, opportunity).
  • Being a dominant player Telstra's, hyped 3G rollout for Mobile devices seems to be not making much headway with one hour/week consumption. This reminds me of the emerging battle between carriers for the iPhone market.
  • Online education-based services might be getting a lot of traction (50% of users access the internet from a study room :-) this is debatable).
  • Devices like Tivo/Apple TV still haven't made it into the living room, but there is an emerging market/opportunity here.
  • Online DVD Rental stores like AppleBox should work on providing more value add, as piracy in DVDs is emerging. People are ripping/downloading more songs/CDs than Movie DVDs. Ripping a friend's DVD is preferred instead of buying/renting.
  • VOIP-based calls are still not mainstream, which suggests a lot more opportunity for carriers offering naked DSL.
  • More people prefer the internet for breaking stories, which means emerging platforms like Twitter can be embedded into online media (like Fairfax) portals, definitely an opportunity here!.
Well, these are just my views from the top of my head. What do you think, this report tells us?

For detailed insights into the report, it can be downloaded in PDF format from here.

Comments

Simon said…
Hi Vishal, thanks for the mention. You're right, value add is important for all DVD rental companies. Ripping and pirating movies is unfortunately de rigeur for way too many people. Whilst people feel it might not hurt Will Smith, the action filters down to effect the smallest of production companies and independent film feels the pain more than anyone. But I digress. Our value-add is to make it easier to find the movie you really want to watch. You can watch a ripped DVD simply because it's free, or you can pay $3 to rent the movie you've really been meaning to see. Now .. when you have to search up and down aisle after aisle to find that movie .. forget it, but when you can find it instantly online, and it's a quick trip to pick up or even have it home delivered, I think the equation changes somewhat. We also look forward to greater uptake of blu-ray as along with a much better movie experience, their much greater capacity means ripping these discs or downloading them will be harder again.
Renu Sharma said…
Thanks for your comments Simon. I think you will have to rethink you strategy as far as monetizing is concerned. Things are moving on Cloud, so i see definite threat to you revenue model. Think on the lines of cloud and for that you need to tie up with some big guy.
One other good thing you have go though is this IP as a web prroduct which has a huge potential. Not sure if you have got some traction in that space.
Last how come yr pricing is $3 instead of 2.99 :-)
Simon said…
Thanks for your concern Vishal, but in my business, things aren't moving as quickly as you might think :-). That's not to say we can't be mindful of where things are going .. but the particulars of DVD rental exist well outside the cloud today. Innovation in a mature market (like we do) is also about new models and new ways of containing costs ... drop a business's operating costs and you've got new levels of earnings, even in a shrinking market. It's a powerful competitive advantage, for when existing businesses who can't trim their costs fall out of the market greater catchment is delivered to the survivors.

But the DVD rental market (still a half billion dollar market here in Aus) is going to transition into the digital realm at some point...

For us it's all about a transition strategy that will have us moving from the physical to the digital timed at a point when the market might actually support digital delivery beyond the early adopters... crossing the chasm as Geoffrey Moore might say.