Preparing for a mostly-mobile audience is becoming a huge part of the journalism business now. The world is rapidly moving towards a ubiquitous connectivity that will further change how and where people consume media.
The days of desktop superiority are over. Mobile has rapidly risen to become the primary digital platform, with the total activity on Smartphones and tablets accounting for an astounding 60 percent of digital media time spent in the U.S.
The fuel driving mobile’s huge growth is primarily app usage, which alone makes up a majority of total digital media engagement.
According to recent reports by ComScore on media consumption in the U.S., more digital media is viewed on mobile platforms than desk-bound platforms. Apps today are driving the majority of media consumption activity, according to these reports, now accounting for 7 out of every 8 minutes of media consumption on mobile devices. On Smartphones, app activity is even higher, at 88 percent usage versus 82percent on tablets.
It wasn’t too long ago when PCs (desktop computers) were the dominant online platform and the central hub for all the consumer’s digital activities. But with the proliferation of Smartphones, not to mention the tremendous growth in the use of mobile data for internet access, mobile’s rise in Nigeria has been swift and unrelenting.
Nigeria is the fastest growing mobile market in the world, with more than 129 million active mobile subscribers as at April 2014, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Over 70 percent of Nigeria’s current population (est. 174 million) are under the age of 30 and are all digitally aware.
The Nigerian market remains attractive to foreign investors largely due to its massive and young demographic, strong economic growth indices and most importantly, enormous Smartphone and mobile data penetration and usage.
“The next wave of digital game-changers will emanate from frontier markets such as Nigeria,” said Amit Pau, director, EnterpreneurCountry, an entrepreneurial ecosystem with a 133,000-strong community from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.
Nigeria is the largest mobile market in Africa and the tenth largest in the world. With low PC and fixed-line penetration, there’s little surprise that the mobile device has long-since surpassed the PC as the way that Nigerians access the Web.
While a meteoric growth of apps is expected transpire quickly, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. After all, apps are the fuel that is driving mobile’s growth and where most of the Smartphone’s utility comes from in developed economies.
Without apps, Smartphones are simply shells — like a beautifully designed car equipped with every feature you could want, but without any gas in the engine.
