The Mobile Web The Lean Back Legacy

The 20,000 Foot View

Mobile is changing the face of web browsing with a sizeable portion of monthly unique website visitors having already migrated to mobile. This divides between those who visit sites from mobile apps and those who choose a mobile web browser instead. User data around this migration reveals significant differences between the type of consumer engagement via a mobile web browser versus and app and desktop. 

Key Findings

• Mobile browser            is not simply a scaled            version of overall web traffic            both environments distinct and suitable            different mobile strategies
• Out of            mentioned,            placed in both the            Web top            chart and the            Browser top           
• Mobile browsers            themselves better to the nature            Lean Back and Quick Reference           
• Apps lend            better to the nature of            Forward and long-form consumption
• For Lean            sites, it is easier to            consumers from web to apps
• All top            browser sites have a Lean            or Quick Reference proposition as            part of their core service.
• None of            top            free apps offer a            Lean Back or Quick Reference           
           of Buzzfeed’s monthly unique visitors come through a mobile browser
• Successful mobile            do not have to be            led
• Apple’s decision            support ad blocking in browsers            result in an app strategy            rush as content owners seek            take control of their own           

Companies mentioned in this report: Amazon, AOL, Apple, Bing, Blogger.com, Buzzfeed, CNN, eBay, Facebook, Google, IMBD, LinkedIn, Pandora, Spotify, Twitter, Verizon, Wikipedia, Wordpress, YouTube