US fastest growing in mobile payments

United States mobile users do more Web browsing and, as a result, spending than any other country, according to Bango. The analytics vendor found that the US accounted for 29% of Web traffic and 57% of payments worldwide in February, knocking the UK out of the number-one spot it occupied at the end of last year.

With the US now capturing 245 million wireless subscribers, the ranking change-up was only a matter of time, according to Anil Malhotra, Bango’s senior vice president of marketing. US companies wanting to capitalize on the increase in mobile web browsing use the mobile phone to charge for digital content – music, video, ringtones and wallpapers – on the Web and consumers are starting to bite. Out of the 208 countries surveyed, the US is accelerating faster than any other country for mobile payments, Bango found.

Mobile browsing and purchasing were inexorably tied together in North America, but that wasn’t the case across the world. Only five countries – US, UK, Portugal, South Africa and Spain – in the top 10 browsing rankings were also top 10 for payments. In some countries, including India and Indonesia, where disposable incomes were less common, the link between browsing and purchases was not as strong. Consumers still participated in mobile browsing, but because they lack fixed-line broadband and PCs for Internet access.

An awareness and interest in mobile browsing has been driven largely by Apple’s iPhone, credited with redefining how mobile data is seen, but it should also be a wake-up call for the majority of businesses that don’t yet have a mobile-specific presence, Malhotra said.

“[The iPhone] sets an expectation amongst some people that you don’t have to do anything different to create a mobile presence – it’s just a shrunk-down PC presence,” Malhotra said. “The iPhone can browse to any site and resize it. What’s happening is that although Website owners are saying mobile connectivity is really important, when you ask what they are doing, a portion says they don’t need to do anything different.”

In actuality, mobile Websites need to be subtly or often dramatically different, Malhotra said, depending on what the consumer needs from that site. For example, as a traveller, he has noticed that British Airways uses its PC Website on the mobile phone, making it difficult to navigate. United Airlines, on the other hand, uses a stripped-down version of its PC site – just a vertical list with no heavy-duty graphics, so it’s ideal for someone on the move.

“People need to think about designing a consumer experience that will not only work for the mobile Web user but also to take advantage of the mobile networks features like location,” Malhotra said. “Holiday Inn might see you are in New York and ask if you need a hotel...Service providers are becoming much more aware of mobile Web browsing, but many are not doing enough yet to think about how they should present their Web site to the generation of users who more and more frequently use mobile to access their sites.”