Background and Context

A few months ago we looked at a snapshot of Facebook’s sharing data on mobile and found that 57% of all sharing was through the mobile web, with all apps on all platforms combined – iPhone, Android and Blackberry – contributing 40%.

(Click for full size image.)

Combine that data snapshot with ongoing rumors of a full HTML-5 version of Facebook, fit for the mobile web and codenamed Project Spartan, and we can start to see the macro trend of Facebook’s business and users is to embrace the mobile web as essential.

Mobile Summary of S-1 Filing

In Facebook’s S-1 Filing, we saw more details on mobile usage, growth and revenues that caught our eyes.

(The S-1 is form companies use to describe their business when they go public. Here’s more background on S-1 filings.)

And a few of the mobile details that stood out in the coverage:

• Facebook reports 845 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs)
• 57% of monthly active users visit Facebook every day and are classified as Daily Active Users (DAUs)
• 425 million of those monthly active users (~50%) used Facebook mobile products in December, 2011
• Facebook does not serve advertising on its mobile experience so increased mobile usage actually hurts their revenues
• Facebook are nervous about mobile because “user growth and engagement on mobile devices depend upon effective operation with mobile operating systems, networks, and standards that we do not control”

As covered by ReadWriteWeb in Facebook’s Biggest Risks Explained, quoting Antone Johnson in point form:

“No revenue currently generated from mobile advertising; unclear how much mobile use could be monetized; failure to solve this puzzle combined with a dramatic shift toward mobile usage could be a serious problem for FB; and per the next risk factor, they don’t control the iOS and Android platforms.”

So mobile presents a paradox for Facebook: huge growth, no current revenues.

Mobile is how their users are increasingly choosing to access Facebook but they haven’t figured out how to insert their key revenue driver – advertising – into the experience.

Mobile: Engine of International Growth

Reading the Facebook S-1 and knowing a lot about international mobile traffic, we can see that a heavyweight driver of Facebook growth around the world is the mobile web.

From the Facebook S-1:

There are more than two billion global Internet users, according to an industry source, and we aim to connect all of them. We have achieved varying levels of penetration within the population of Internet users in different countries. For example, in countries such as Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela we estimate that we have penetration rates of greater than 80% of Internet users; in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States we estimate that we have penetration rates of approximately 60%; Increased mobile usage was a key contributor to this growth. DAUs as a percentage of MAUs increased from 54% in December 2010 to 57% in December 2011.

And as move towards 2014, the year when mobile becomes the #1 way to access the web, mobile will increase its importance as the engine for international growth of online businesses.

Reading into the numbers, it’s apparent that Facebook see the popularity of the mobile web today and also a dominant future for the mobile web around the globe.

So it will be interesting to watch their evolution as a public company, as they are required to share more information publicly.

If early indications are accurate, mobile apps will be part to their mobile strategy and the mobile web will be essential.

In 2012, Mobify served 167 million people mobile pages – equal to around 20% of all smartphone subscribers.

Of those people, most of them used their mobile phones to access the web.

However, there has been a huge surge in tablet traffic, specifically from the iPad.

Data shows that smartphone users are more like than desktop to purchase online.

On top of this, tablet users are more likely than smartphone users to purchase – and when they do, they, on average, spend more.

Despite this, many retailers do not have a tablet optimized site.

Read more at Gigaom.

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.

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

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.

When comparing January 2011 to December 2011, the Mobify mobile site network had:

• 196% more pages served
• 213% more visits
• 70% more unique visitors

As a result of the growth on Mobify-powered mobile sites, we have jumped into the Quantcast top 300 as one of the largest networks on the web.

Quantcast ranked us at 247 in the world - which is great – but doesn’t highlight our real achievement.  While other networks in the Quantcast rankings include all types of traffic, our traffic comes entirely from mobile devices.

When looking at the devices accessing our network, there were few surprises over 2011.

• 46% to 51% increase in iPhone traffic
• 28% to 36% increase in Android traffic
• 10% to 4% decrease BlackBerry traffic

On a final note, notice the 2 highlighted downward spikes in the image below.  What caused that?

Here’s a hint: they happened on December 25 and 31st.

On a few days, some things are just more important than browsing on your phone.

In 2012 we’re looking forward to bigger and better things on the Mobify Network as mobile continues on its path to become the largest source of traffic on the web.

Its three-year growth rate is an astonishing 40,882%.

As a high-end flash sales site where deals can come and go in the blink of an eye it is important for them to be able to reach their customers wherever they are, even when on the go.

With the launch of their Mobify-powered mobile site, we are happy to report – that just in time for the holiday season – users can now browse and buy from their mobile devices.

Its adoption has been swift and remarkable, with a huge amount of people visting the site every day.

Check out their beautiful mobile site by visiting ideeli.com on your iPhone or Android device.

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12 Launches of 2011 covers a dozen selected mobile sites launched in 2011 on the Mobify Platform.

It’s a celebration and a big thank you to all our customers for making 2011 Mobify’s best year yet!

Read all 12 Launches of 2011.

Coastal Contacts – and its localizations ClearlyContacts.co.nz, ClearlyContacts.com.au, and CoastalContacts.ca – focus on giving their users the best possible buying experience when buying glasses or contacts.

Coastal Contacts revolutionized the contact lens and glasses business by easily verifying and filling prescriptions online and were looking to make their service available on mobile.

Their mobile site allows their users to easily browse and buy a vast range to eyeglasses, sunglasses, and contacts lenses from the comfort of their mobile phone or iPad.

Check it out for yourself by visiting Coastal.com on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device.

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12 Launches of 2011 covers a dozen selected mobile sites launched in 2011 on the Mobify Platform.

It’s a celebration and a big thank you to all our customers for making 2011 Mobify’s best year yet!

Read all 12 Launches of 2011.