AUTO TRADER ‘MOBILE TIPPING POINT’ CAME 20 MONTHS EARLIER THAN GOOGLE FORECAST
Auto Trader has today confirmed the date at which searches for cars on mobile and tablet exceeded those made on a desktop. The ‘mobile tipping point’ took place in March 2013, twenty months earlier than forecast by Google in a March address made at the Starcom MediaVest Group’s mobility conference. Delegates there were told that the cross-over for all searches would likely take place on 4 December 2014.
Since March 2013, growth of mobile has continued apace. Latest figures from June 2014 reveal that mobile use now accounts for nearly two thirds of Auto Trader traffic. 63% of searches have now gone mobile (20% on tablet and 43% for mobile devices) compared with 37% for pc.
“The fact that mobile and tablet use has exceeded desktop should come as no surprise,” commented Auto Trader market research director Nick King. “What is more interesting is the rate of change and the fact that car buyers seem to be blazing a trail in the use of mobile devices. Nearly seven in every ten full-page advertisement views were made on tablet or mobile last month. That should be a rallying cry for dealers who question the value of optimising their websites for mobile devices.”
Auto Trader – monthly mobile, tablet and pc visitor statistics
In total more than 44.3 million visits to Auto Trader were made in June. Of these 19 million were made on mobile devices, with 8.7 million on tablet and 16.6 on pc. That represented a 21% rise in mobile use (from 15.7 million) compared with the same month in 2013 and 25% in tablet use (from 7 million).
By far the lion’s share of tablet traffic – 85% – comes from Apple iPad users; it’s high resolution serving to aid browsing the desktop version of the site. 17% of iPad users download the iPad Auto Trader app.
The figures showing growth in tablet use on Auto Trader, complement figures released recently by Kantar Media. These confirmed that 53% of tablet users are researching information on a product or service using their device, up from 44% six months ago
