Smartphones: It’s All About Video

The thought of watching video on a smartphone might have seemed crazy a decade ago, yet nearly six in 10 consumers (57 percent) around the world watch videos on their phones every day, according AOL’s annual advertising study—virtually the same as the number of people (58 percent) who watch videos on a laptop or desktop every day.

Add to that the statistic that nine in 10 (89 percent) Americans can’t live without their smartphone or always have it within arm’s reach, and AOL believes “we are very close to the tipping point where mobile will soon be the number one video screen.” The global “can’t live without’ stat is less at 77 percent but still accounts for the vast majority of consumers around the world.

And live video is playing a significant role in the rise of the small screen with an average of 65 percent of consumers saying they watch live video on their smartphones—a number that reached 76 percent in Southeast Asia.

Perhaps not surprisingly, as our obsession with smartphone video increases, attention spans are shrinking. “Consumers are watching more and more digital videos each year, but consumption of short-form video is rising at an even higher pace,” AOL said. “Some 42 percent of consumers watch videos 5 minutes or less every day. As videos get longer, that number decreases.”

What all this means for mobile advertising is simple: Expect to see more of it. Around the world, 47 percent of advertisers and 57 percent of publishers expect to spend at least 25 percent more on mobile advertising in 2017 than in the previous year.

The research was conducted across seven global markets, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

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