Although feature phones still play a role in India’s time spent with mobile figures—17 minutes per day among users—and desktop/laptop time carves out a bit of the overall internet time spent category (18 minutes per day per user), the vast majority of the mobile and internet figures come from smartphones.

PCs and laptops are falling out of favor in some cohorts, as smartphones cement their dominant role in media consumption. In H1 2020, 94.0% of internet users ages 16 to 64 in China polled by GlobalWebIndex owned a smartphone, and a mere 3.3% owned a feature phone. Smartphones were marginally more widespread among younger respondents.

Extensive digital media consumption goes hand in hand with more limited usage of most traditional formats, TV excluded. For example, print newspaper and magazine readership declined more than 5 percentage points between Q1 2019 and Q1 2020 to 40.3% and 32.1%, respectively, per GlobalWebIndex/Publicis Media.

But as mobile minutes for OTT services increase, so should spending within mobile. “Whether in the living room or on the move, mobile is an increasingly important component in the OTT mix,” said Katie Madding, chief product officer of Adjust. In 2021, more OTT video should occur on mobile for three reasons. First is the growth of ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD).

Time spent may be a more revealing measure of current media habits. In H1 2020, internet users in Russia clocked up an average 3 hours, 18 minutes (3:18) per day with their mobile phones. Desktops, laptops, and tablets still claimed nearly an hour more at 4:09 daily, but mobile time is growing as PC time shrinks.

Our forecasts are based on an analysis of data from research firms, online and mobile tracking services, government agencies, media firms, public companies, and interviews with industry experts. Data is weighted based on methodology and soundness.

Elsewhere in mobile, Hispanics don’t stand out as heavy users. We estimate that tablet user penetration in 2021 among Hispanics will be slightly below the total-population figure, at 51.2% vs. 53.1%. Signals are mixed on the extent of Hispanics’ smart speaker ownership.

In the past few years, mobile has been a key part of the media conversation, especially around video viewing and gaming. But when consumers stopped commuting to work and were generally at home more often, they opened up their laptops or desktop computers to watch videos and play games.

Amid the pandemic, US adults spent 1 hour more per day on digital activities (across all devices) than they did in 2019, according to eMarketer’s latest time spent forecast from Insider Intelligence. Total digital time is now on track to surpass 8 hours by the end of 2022.

While younger people have readily adopted digital media habits, many older respondents remain loyal to traditional formats. Broadly speaking, usage of traditional media in Switzerland remains robust across all age groups.

The Global Media Intelligence Report is a concise yet detailed compilation of data and insights about internet users’ traditional and digital media usage in 42 key markets worldwide. This 2020 edition covers the same range of metrics we featured in 2019, and the consistency of GlobalWebIndex’s methodology enables us to offer precise year-over-year comparisons; these provide vital indicators of exactly where and how quickly changes are happening, and where behaviors haven’t altered much.

There was little change in most patterns of device ownership and media consumption among Hong Kong’s internet users. For some years, Hong Kong has registered some of world’s highest rates of digital device ownership and usage, so it’s not surprising to see penetration approaching a plateau in some cases.

Time spent on both mobile and larger-screen devices increased since last year. In H1 2020, respondents estimated that they spent 3 hours, 17 minutes (3:17) daily with desktops/laptops and tablets, while mobile time averaged 2:10. Print media audiences are experiencing attrition, while live TV viewing increasingly shares the screen with digital video.

As with print media, usage was most common in older age brackets. Even live TV posted a small decrease in penetration in H1 2020, to 87.7% of internet users. Middle- and high-income households, and those in suburban areas, were most likely to watch broadcast TV. Gains in digital alternatives outpace any declines in traditional media formats.

PC/tablet time had fallen by a few minutes, while mobile time rose. Some 47.7% of internet users owned a smart TV in H1 2020—effectively the same percentage as in H1 2019. About half that number (23.3% of respondents) owned a TV streaming stick or a similar device.