In 2011 166,781,543 unique visitors around the globe tapped, scrolled, and swiped their way around a Mobify-powered mobile website.

That’s more than the entire population of Japan and Canada combined.

That’s also equal to around 2.4% of the world’s total population.

This works out to around 20% of all smartphone subscribers in the world, based on Morgan Stanley’s estimate of 835 million smartphone subscribers worldwide.

The Mobify Platform in 2012

Looking ahead to 2012, we continue to see huge growth in mobile traffic overall and in more incredible grwoth in mobile traffic on the Mobify Platform.

In 2012, we are on track to exceed:

• 5 million unique visitors a day on mobile
• 1.3 billion visits
• 30 pages served / second

These are predictions for the Mobify Platform and they’re echoed by other industry giants.

In a speech at Marketforce’s Broadcasting and Digital Entertainment conference in London, YouTube’s director of content partnerships Ben Wilson revealed that they project mobile usage will surpass desktop usage in 2013, if not sooner.  He made the prediction based on YouTube’s current data – serving three billion views a day – 15% of which already comes from mobile devices.

The big picture change we’re witnessing is the acceleration of mobile usage beyond projections from years ago.

Mobile is growing faster than projected and much, much faster than almost everyone is preparing to serve.

Are you ready?

Maybe it’s time you talked to Mobify.

Mobile payments have skyrocketed over the past few years and 2 recent announcements were particularly noteworthy to show us the future direction of mobile payments, and who will be competing for market leadership. 

PayPal, Visa, et al.

PayPal, one of the pioneers in the mobile payments game, has seen their mobile payments explode from under $1 million in 2006 to $4 billion in 2011.

This 4000% increase surprised even PayPal, who revised their estimates dramatically upwards 3 times in 2011 alone.  They predict $7 billion in mobile transactions in 2012.

The shift is so dramatic that Visa Europe is predicting that half of all its payments will be mobile by 2020, while Juniper research group predicts that by 2015, mobile payments will make up $670 billion.

Why is this happening now?

We believe it’s for a few key reasons:

• technological advances (mobile internet, affordable smartphones)
• rollout of retailer partnerships
• consumer acceptance of mobile wallet systems

Seeing this shift in consumer acceptance, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover joined together to form Isis, a mobile payment network that will allow you pay using NFC chips embedded in phones.

E-commerce Moving to Mobile Commerce

Here at Mobify, we’re definitely seeing the results in this consumer shift to buying on mobile.

Over the last year, our client’s mobile revenue has ramped up considerably, with one even taking in more money via mobile and tablet sites than via desktop during the busy holiday season.*

The expectation that everything you see on your screen can be purchased with a click is shifting to from desktop to mobile.  Retailers who still don’t have a mobile-optimized site are putting themselves at a severe disadvantage, especially when consumers expect easy and fast access to information, no matter what device they are using.

The shift to mobile commerce is due to:

• confidence (people are more comfortable making purchases online - even large ones)
• people adopting the mobile lifestyle

Far more than a fad, mobile technology marks a fundamental shift in how we communicate, find information, and shop. By 2014, the number of mobile Web users is projected to overtake the number of desktop users.

You may already be witnessing this macro shift with your Web site. How much of your Web traffic today comes from mobile devices? Five percent? Twenty percent? No matter what the exact figure is, you can bet it will be higher in the future.

Read the full article at DestinationCRM.com

Mobify ceo Igor Faletski recently wrote about his experience teaming up with Google for an event, and what lessons startups can learn from one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Core elements of their attitude and approach have not changed during their journey from startup to giant – and we can learn from them.

Click here to read 5 things every startup can learn from Google – on StartupNation.

Mobify ceo Igor Faletski recently wrote an article for eConsultancy on the differences between search on mobile and search on desktop.

He discusses the importance of how important phones have become in today’s society (1/3 of people would give up sex before they give up their phone) and how search on a mobile device is fundamentally different than search on desktop.

It is critical to undertand these differences and what drives the mobile searcher in order to maximize the potential of your mobile visitor.

Read the full list on eConsultancy.