Are you reading this blog on a small screen?

Did you know that the US is now the #1 consumer of mobile browsing? I wouldn't have guessed it, but the February 2009 mobile browsing rankings compiled by Bango are:

• USA 29.3%
• UK 20.3%
• India 11.1%
• Indonesia 5.5%
• South Africa 5.4%
• ...
• Portugal 1.2%
  
• Sweden 1.1%
  
• and on, and on, and on.

To put that in some context for Canadians ... South Africa has a population of about 44 million. Portugal 10 million, Sweden has a population 9 million. Canada has a population of 33 million. Yet, we don't even rank in this report. Well - I assume we are lumped in with the 198 other countries that make up the 21.6% of mobile browsing traffic.

Why haven't Canadians hit the mobile web yet? It isn't due to a lack of mobile handsets that can browse the web. It is more to do with the outrageous fees that our mobile service providers are charging.

Some interesting statements in the report on MarketingCharts.com:

"Bango also said that this growth in traffic is being matched by a corresponding growth in users paying for content on the mobile web, in part because of publicity behind the Apple iPhone, as well as increasingly improving payment experiences that encourage more people to buy mobile content.

"Though the use of the mobile web is growing quickly, the increase in mobile browsing has taken many businesses by surprise, Bango noted, adding that a large number of companies do not yet have mobile websites.

"The statistics also show that while some countries such as India and Indonesia have a good appetite for browsing on their mobiles, it doesn’t always convert into purchases. In fact, only five countries in the Top 10 browsing chart are also in the Top 10 payments chart - USA, UK, Portugal, South Africa and Spain.

"No matter how high the browsing rate, it is only converted into a high purchase rate where people have a good disposable income and can pay for content on their phone bills, Bango said. In regions such as India, South Africa, Indonesia and Egypt the driver for mobile browsing is a lack of fixed-line broadband and PCs for accessing the internet which means that the mobile device is the only way people can get onto the internet."

For Marketers in the US this report should convince you of the immediate imperative to optimize your website for mobile browsing, and also to start measuring mobile traffic. Perhaps you should check out Bango for the analytics component.

For Marketers in Canada (and the rest of the world) this report should remind you that:

1. The world is round. If some of the 245 million people from the US currently access your site through the web, you can bet they are also visiting it from their mobile devices.
   
2. The wave will hit. It is only a matter of a time before our wireless service providers drop their outrageous fees and Canucks follow the behaviour patterns of the rest of the world. We will be doing some heavy mobile browsing and spending in short order.