The use of smartphones in the Asia Pacific region continues to grow rapidly, on par with the rest of the world, with page-view volume on mobile websites and apps also comparable with the global average.
India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, countries which Opera refers to as the ‘P4’ (Power 4) sub-region, have witnessed a dramatic increase of 545% in the use of smartphones since 2013, making it one of the sub-regions with the fastest growth rates in the world.
The P4 represents less than half of the population in Asia (43%) yet accounts for less than 30% of regional internet users; 76% of these users access the Internet via mobile devices. This group is led by Indonesia, where Opera estimates 93% of internet users access the web through mobile devices.
According to the report, the mobile growth is due to the rapid increase in the rate of devices running the Android operating system. In the second quarter, Android had the top market share, accounting for over 60% of traffic in the region and nearly 70% in the P4 area.
There is also high demand for advertising as well as rapid adoption of mobile video ads. Within the P4, the Philippines has the highest view ratio of video ads on the market, surpassing the expected global standards (ratio of 1:1). Both India and Vietnam have exceeded the average across all of Asia (0.41:1).
Asia Pacific is predicted to have 2 billion smartphone users by 2019 and its usage average is higher than global averages, thanks to the higher demand for mobile video, said Vikas Gulati, Opera Mediaworks’ Managing Director for Asia.
The report’s findings by Opera Mediaworks in partnership with the Mobile Marketing Association are based on Q2 2015 data from 400 million unique internet users on the Opera Mediaworks platform.
