Mobile: The 50 percent mark has been cracked

MOBILE Mobile devices are becoming the dominant starting point for Internet use. This is shown by the latest trends of the most frequently used websites from 4Trend.ch. Precise figures on this trend are now available from the Swiss startup 4Trend.chwhich specializes in data analysis and indicator engineering. The use of Wikipedia was analyzed. The online encyclopaedia is one of the most popular websites in the world. In July, 52.9 percent of all page views came from mobile users. This was the first time the 50 percent mark was broken. In comparison: in October 2014, only 42.6% of requests came from mobile devices.Celebrities at the forefrontIn July, around two billion page views were taken into account for the analysis (see text box for details). Various trends can be described here: celebrities and generally entertaining topics are much more frequently accessed on mobile devices. In July, during the Wimbledon tournament, this included tennis stars Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in particular, who were temporarily among the top 20 most frequent Wikipedia queries. Martina Hingis made it to 36th place and Stan Wawrinka to 278th place in the English-language Wikipedia edition. Films are also very popular for mobile queries, although the picture is not uniform when it comes to TV series and TV shows.More serious topics via desktopMore serious topics - such as science, technology and research - are predominantly searched for on desktop PCs. The fact that such search queries are often made at work probably plays a role here. Finally, a differentiated picture emerges in the area of health: topics that tend to affect the younger age group are mostly searched for on mobile devices - in contrast to diseases such as dementia, diabetes or Alzheimer's, where the older generation is more likely to be affected. The reason for the difference is therefore likely to be the different user behavior of the various generations: The older generation still prefers desktop computers.The catalysts of developmentComment: "Technological hardware developments and affordable cell phone subscription fees have accelerated the shift to mobile. Internet usage is continuing to move towards mobile - regardless of short-term seasonal trends, i.e. the vacation season with increased cell phone usage. However, stationary Internet use will continue to be of great importance in the future. Marketers are well advised not to neglect either side. Firstly, because we will also be connected online via various channels in the future. And secondly, because the older, affluent generation still prefers desktop."BackgroundThe 5,000 most frequently visited pages on the English-language Wikipedia were analyzed each week. Not only is it the most used worldwide, it is also the most comprehensive with 4.9 million texts (followed by the German-language Wikipedia with 1.8 million entries. Only six websites are used more frequently globally than the Wikipedia.org encyclopaedias: Google, Facebook, YouTube, Baidu, Yahoo and Amazon. In Switzerland, Wikipedia is even in the top 5 - after Google.ch, Goolge.com, Facebook.com and Youtube.com.