Mobile Marketing Association and Vserv.mobi unveil first Mobile Internet Consumer Report for Southeast Asia

Report reveals mobile internet users in Southeast Asia are young, educated and seek downloadable content; Malaysia has one of the highest proportion of full-time employees amongst mobile internet user base in Southeast Asia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 August 2013 – Vserv.mobi, a leading Global Mobile Ad network, released The Mobile Internet Consumer Report - Southeast Asia 2013, developed in conjunction with The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA). The report provides a regional and country-specific insight into mobile internet usage across six Southeast Asian countries namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The report aims to provide media planners and brand advertisers with useful Mobile Internet audience insights, to enhance their reach to the right target audience across this fast-growing region.

With customer experience as one of  the top priorities for every brand, the ability to leverage consumer insights provides key opportunities to drive higher engagement and recall. According to the report, the Southeast Asian mobile internet user is young, employed and possesses a high spending power. Some of the insights from the report include:

Demographic Profile
·         More than half of mobile internet users are generally young; below 24 years of age
·         More than a third possess graduate and postgraduate degrees
·         Over 70% of users are working professionals, with a high spending power that includes frequent visits to restaurants, shopping malls & movie theatres

Consumption Habits
·         Mobile Internet users are content and information hungry, often turning to mobile advertising to fulfil these needs
·         Consumers love mobile ads that provide downloadable content (55%), followed by those that help discover great deals (42%)
·         Apps and games are the most downloaded form of content followed by, videos and music

Additional specific insights on Malaysia include:

Demographic Profile
·         Only one out of eight mobile internet users in Malaysia belong to the youngest age group (less than 18 years)
·         Majority of mobile internet users in Malaysia hold diplomas or are undergoing undergraduate studies
·         Malaysia has one of the highest proportion of full-time employees in the mobile internet user base in Southeast Asia (46%)

Comsumption Habits
·         In order of popularity, the type of content consumed by mobile internet users in Malaysia is similar to that of a typical Southeast Asian user. However, the number of users downloading  games and apps (59%) is relatively lower than Southeast Asia average
·         The penetration of consumer durables is the lowest in Malaysia (29%)
·         The penetration of computers (37%) and tablets (29%) is on par with the Southeast Asia average

Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, MMA Asia Pacific, said, “Brands are keen to learn more about their growing mobile consumer base to enable a richer and more targeted experience. This increases the relevance of the message and therefore the willingness of the consumer to engage with the brand, both in the short and long term. We are delighted to partner with Vserv.mobi in providing brands and marketers useful insights, which will help them in making informed decisions on their mobile media spends.”

Vikas Gulati, Vice-President for Southeast Asia, Vserv.mobi, said, “As an industry leader, Vserv.mobi is committed to growing the mobile marketing industry and evangelise the use of mobile as an effective marketing tool. Our joint survey with MMA, the apex body of mobile marketing in the world, is an important step in that direction. Our first Mobile Internet Consumer Report will solve an important pain-point at an industry level by providing astute, ready to use mobile consumer data. It will help marketers in understanding their audiences better, and use those insights to formulate strategies that create sharper and more focussed campaigns.”

The Mobile Internet Consumer report produced by MMA and Vserv.mobi is based on a primary survey of over 3,000 mobile web and app users. The two-week long survey was conducted in - July 2013. A copy of the full report, with country-wise data for these markets can be downloaded at http://vserv.mobi/insights