Mobile vs Desktop Internet Usage: Latest Figures

In 2024, most of us are relying less on traditional desktop computers and turning instead to our mobile devices to access the web.

Mobile internet has become the go-to source of web connectivity for most of the world. With the popularity and convenience of mobile applications, it’s easy to see why this method of web access is so common.

Mobile phone ownership is still rising worldwide, and 5G networks are rapidly expanding, making mobile internet speeds that much faster. As speeds rise, mobile devices will become even more popular for connecting to the web.

To give you an idea of how this trend has developed and where we might be headed in the future, we’ve compiled all the stats comparing mobile vs desktop internet usage in 2023. Read on to learn what we found.

Combined Web Traffic on Mobile vs. Desktop Devices

Before we explore more specific aspects of this analysis, here is a snapshot of how much of the world’s internet traffic comes from mobile sources:

 

Mobile traffic more than doubled between 2013-2015, and since 2013, mobile’s share of internet traffic has jumped a whopping 225 percent. The majority of the world’s internet traffic now comes from mobile phones, representing a significant change.

To give you some context, consider that:

• The first iPhone with internet capabilities came out in 2009
• The first version of Android came out in 2009
• In 2010, Facebook had just 500 million users (as compared to more than 2 billion today)
• In 2011, there were 2.267 billion internet users as compared to more than 4.4 billion today

Mobile’s Share of Traffic In Select Countries

The data we’ve just presented takes a look at mobile’s share of traffic around the world. Here’s some more specific data about mobile use in specific countries that we found using data from Statista:

 

 

In thirteen of the countries, mobile’s share of traffic was higher than the worldwide average. Mobile usage represented more than 65 percent of total traffic in six countries – Nigeria, India, Turkey, Ghana, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.

Nations where mobile’s share of traffic is less than the worldwide average tend to be the wealthier, more developed nations of the world. In contrast, nations with a higher percentage of mobile traffic are countries we would consider emerging or “developing."

Understanding this Trend

Two important reasons why mobile traffic has risen so sharply are technological leapfrogging and path dependency.

Technological leapfrogging occurs when less developed areas of the world get access to a new technology that allows them to leapfrog an older one. The smartphone is a good example. If a country lacks infrastructure for traditional phone service, it’s easier to put up cell towers and get people connected at less expense. That’s why large, fast-growing countries like Nigeria and India rely so much on mobile devices. It’s cheaper and more effective to connect people to broadband networks for their phones than to lay cable for traditional telephone infrastructure.

At first glance, this trend might seem harmless. After all, if people are getting connected to the internet, does it matter how? Yes, it does, because the absence of other connections can cause problems. For example, using the internet for work or school usually requires a connection that can support a laptop or desktop. If people are only connected by mobile phone, they won’t have all the opportunities that the internet provides. As a result, technological leapfrogging stands to exacerbate the global digital divide because lower-income people don’t have full access.

The second concept, path dependency, can explain why the world’s wealthier nations still rely so much on desktop internet. Prosperous nations were the first to get widespread internet access, including most of Western Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. Many users first learned how to use the internet when cell phones weren’t even widely available. Of course, many of the people in these nations have adapted and use mobile phones more than ever. However, there is still a significant chunk of the older population that uses the desktop as their go-to, which might shed some light on why these nations still rely heavily on desktop/home laptop internet. Of course, if people have become accustomed to using a desktop or laptop for work or school, they may turn first to that medium for their internet use.

Search Traffic on Mobile vs. Desktop Devices

One of the primary uses we have for the internet is looking up information on search engines. Consider that Google processes more than 2 trillion searches per year, which breaks down to five billion per day, 228 per hour, three million per second, and 63 million per second.

 

 

These search numbers parallel the distribution of the overall mobile vs. desktop traffic, though mobile has always had a significant edge in Google searches.

That data backs up what common sense tells us about Google searches. Many of our searches happen when we’re out with friends trying to pick a place to eat, figure out what time to catch the movie, navigate, settle arguments, etc. Rarely do we say, “let me look that up," and then walk over to our computers to search. Our phones are usually in our pockets, and we’re often not at home when we search for information.

Average Time Spent Consuming Media on Mobile vs. Desktop Devices

Another way to look at this trend is to see how much time we spend on each type of digital device. We now know that mobile devices seem to be the preferred method of using the internet for most people. By looking at how much time we spend on various devices, we can confirm whether or not this is true.

Internet traffic statistics can be based on how many visitors there are to a website and how many searches are conducted. So, it’s possible that we are using our mobile devices more frequently but using our desktop devices for multiple searches, a behavior which would blur the picture on how much we’re searching on mobile vs. desktop.

When we took a look at these stats, here’s what we found:

 

 

Clearly, mobile phones are winning this race. While we spent roughly the same amount of time on each device back in 2013 – around 136 minutes – the amount of time we spend consuming media on desktop devices has dropped down to just 128 minutes in 2019. In contrast, the amount of time spent consuming media on mobile phones has jumped up to 203 minutes. This is a 59 percent increase in time compared to a 6 percent decrease in the amount of time spent using a desktop.

Again, if we apply these numbers to our own lives, this makes a lot of sense. Over the past ten years, lots of popular services, such as Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc., have released apps that we now use almost exclusively to consume media.

Also, social media has grown tremendously over the years – back in 2013; nobody had ever even heard of TikTok. Yet here we are, using our mobile phones more frequently and for more time than ever before.

We haven’t seen any evidence of things leveling off in this area, although growth has been slow. With the expected improvements in wireless technology just around the corner, we can probably expect this trend to continue.

What’s interesting about these numbers is the difference between the two. In 2013, average media consumption was split evenly between mobile and desktop. Just one year later, mobile traffic had a 36 percent edge, and this number has continued to grow up until the present day.

eCommerce Sales: Mobile vs. Desktop

It’s clear that mobile phones have come to dominate the internet world, and it’s also become evident that they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. However, there is one area that still depends heavily on desktop internet, and that is eCommerce.

Mobile eCommerce is indeed growing. In fact, since 2016, mobile eCommerce sales have jumped from $970 million per year to more than $3.56 million, which represents a 267 percent increase. However, when we compare that to the overall eCommerce market, we see a much different picture. Here is a graph illustrating the percentage of eCommerce sales that have come from mobile eCommerce between the years 2016 and 2020:

 

 

This graph shows that mobile eCommerce accounts for just 0.6 percent of all eCommerce sales, which indicates that users strongly prefer shopping using their desktop devices rather than their phones.

Conversion Rates: Mobile vs. Desktop

This tendency is reinforced by data on conversion rates for eCommerce on mobile and desktop devices.

 

 

In general, rates are low, but they have been improving over the years. However, the conversion rates on a desktop are nearly four times those on mobile devices. Tablets lie somewhere in the middle.

Mobile Traffic Moving Forward

The data we’ve presented here shows that mobile phones have taken over as the primary means of using the internet in a rather short period of just six years. However, while use has surged over this period, the rate of increase in mobile phone use is leveling off, probably due to stagnation in technological development and other factors. But as we update this study over the next few years, it’s likely that mobile’s share of traffic will go up, largely due to the following factors:

• 5G – Already rolled out in big cities around the country, 5G is the telecommunications industry’s primary focus. It’s a faster network that can handle more activity, meaning that cell phone data performance will improve. Better speed and connectivity will encourage people to rely even more on their cell phones.
• Cheaper Phones – As the smartphone market continues to grow, prices continue to drop. Yes, top-of-the-line models will still run you a pretty penny, but there are more options than ever, and this is likely to continue. In some cases, phones are even free, which helps those with more financial burdens get access to the web, especially those living in remote areas that previously had no connection.
• Growth in Developing Nations – Internet connectivity has been booming in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Yet, there are still millions and millions of people without access to the internet. As these nations grow economically, expect more internet users, and expect them to be connecting via their phones and not a desktop device.
• Covid-19 – The pandemic that has wreaked havoc on 2020 seems to have no end in sight, and one of the many adaptations we have had to make as a society is to rely even more on our digital devices. We now use our phones for more stuff than ever, such as paying for things, ordering from restaurants, feeding parking meters, and more. It’s likely that the mobile options developed in response to this crisis will remain.