Yisou: 2012 Q3 Mobile Internet Development Trend Report

On November 19, 2012, mobile search engine Yisou Technology recently released the "2012 Q3 Yisou Mobile Internet Development Trend Report". The report is based on Yisou wireless search logs and organizes and analyzes "operators", "network access methods", "online time", "regional distribution", "terminal brands", "terminal system platforms", "browsers", "application downloads" and other aspects.

Here are the report highlights:

2012Q3 mobile Internet search hot words TOP10

Mobile Internet Browser Usage

In the third quarter of 2012, the mobile browser with the highest usage share in the mobile Internet market was UC Browser, accounting for 35.81%, followed by QQ Browser, accounting for 29.11%; in addition, MTK's own browser accounted for 12.42%, Mozilla's browser accounted for 10.37%, Nokia's own browser accounted for 6.46%, etc. UC Browser and QQ Browser, which had the fastest user growth in the mobile Internet browser market, increased by 2.06 and 1.24 percentage points respectively compared with the previous quarter.

User distribution and network access habits

1. From the perspective of operator access distribution, in Q3 2012, China Mobile users accounted for 82.73% of mobile Internet users, while China Unicom and China Telecom accounted for 9.89% and 7.38% respectively. China Unicom and China Telecom continued to expand their market share with the advantages of 3G services. Compared with Q2 2012, the proportion of China Mobile users decreased by 1.91 percentage points, while that of China Unicom and China Telecom increased by 1.12 and 0.79 percentage points respectively.

2. From the perspective of network access distribution, at present, the WAP gateway is still used for network access, but with the rapid popularization of smart phones and the large-scale promotion of operators' WI-FI infrastructure, the WI-FI user group is in a period of rapid growth. In 2012Q3, the proportion of users accessing the network through WAP gateways and non-WAP gateways was 79.08% and 36.48% respectively. At present, a considerable number of foreign Android brand mobile phones on the market have defaulted to CMNET network access (such as HTC, Samsung, etc.). Affected by the rapid growth of Android smart phone users, the proportion of users accessing the network through non-WAP gateway IP has increased by 5.94 percentage points compared with 2012Q2.

3. From the perspective of regional distribution, the top provinces in terms of mobile Internet user structure in Q3 2012 remained basically unchanged, and were still dominated by provinces with large populations and relatively developed economies. Guangdong Province ranked first with a share of 14.18%, down 0.91 percentage points from the previous quarter. Henan, Jiangsu, Hebei, and Shandong followed closely behind with a user share of around 7%, which was also significantly down from the previous quarter. Although Shanghai and Beijing are among the first-tier cities, their user share is relatively low due to the total population, accounting for only 3.71% and 3.68% respectively.

Mobile terminal brand distribution

1. Distribution of mainstream terminal brands

In 2012Q3, Nokia, Maui and Samsung were still the top three brands in the entire mobile Internet, and their users accounted for 57.94% of the entire mobile Internet; the user ratio of Nokia and Maui continued to decline, and Samsung's overall user growth was driven by its massive efforts in smart phones, and its user share growth rate far exceeded that of other brands. Huawei followed closely behind Samsung and ranked first among state-owned mobile phone brands; Apple's user share continued to grow steadily this quarter and has jumped to fifth place.

As of Q3 2012, Nokia accounted for 24.87% of all mobile Internet users, Maui 20.09%, Samsung 12.98%, Huawei 6.53%, and iPhone 5.73%. Among domestic mobile phone brands, Lenovo, Huawei, and ZTE have the fastest user growth rates.

2. TOP20 models

Except for the knockoff mobile phone (Maui), the users of the top 20 mobile Internet models account for 32.34% of the total users. The iPhone ranks first, followed by the Samsung Galaxy series and Nokia 6120C; HTC Desire, HTC Wildfire, HTC Incredible, and HTC one series are all in the top 20, ranking 4th, 8th, 11th and 18th respectively; ZTE V880 squeezed into the top 20 list for the first time, ranking 19th; Nokia mobile phone ownership is still relatively high, with 11 models in the top 20.

In the third quarter of 2012, MTK and Symbian still had the highest user share among mobile terminal operating system platforms, accounting for 29.39% and 24.98% of users respectively. Android users accounted for 22.44% and ranked third, while iOS users increased to 5.77%, ranking fourth.

The proportion of MTK and Symbian users continued to decline, while smart system terminals represented by Android and iOS continued to maintain rapid growth, quickly seizing mobile Internet market resources. In particular, the Android system has a much higher user growth rate than iOS due to its diverse brands and greater price options. Compared with 2012Q2, the proportion of Android users increased by 4.79 percentage points, and the proportion of iOS increased by 1.29 percentage points.