Indian youngsters lag behind in mobile Internet use
By ANIThursday, January 13, 2011
LONDON - Indian youngsters are less tech-savvy as compared to their global counterparts, if the recent research by Nielsen is anything to go by.
The study on youth and cellphone usage published on January 11 states that less than 10 percent of Indian youth used their mobile devices to access the Internet last month, while 73 percent of their counterparts in China accessed the web through mobile phones in the same period, reports The Independent.
“Usage patterns vary greatly among youth throughout the world, demonstrating how culture, economy and age can all play a large part in mobile behavior. These factors affect device selection, payment and usage,” said Nielsen.
The study also found that Indian males aged 15-24 were twice as likely as their female counterparts to use text messaging and four times more likely to use picture messaging.
“China and Saudi Arabia also skew male when it comes to messaging, but by a more narrow margin,” said Nielsen.
In other countries, females were more likely than their male counterparts to send their friends text messages.
According to the study, Chinese youth are the heaviest mobile Internet users while youth in the US can’t stop sending emails.
Seventy-three percent of Chinese mobile users aged 15-24 said they used mobile internet in the last 30 days compared to only 48 percent of US youth and 46 percent of youth in the UK.
Less than one quarter of young people living in other European countries said they used mobile Internet in the last 30 days.
Saudi Arabia’s youth downloaded the most ringtones and screensavers in the last 30 days while US youth were the most likely to use their phone’s email features. (ANI)
