Lifestyles of the Mobile and Multicultural

A study was released today by Moguldom Media Group (the owners of Bossip.com) and its partner Briabe Media that sought to answer the question:



Why do multicultural consumers use their mobile phones?

Multicultural mobile users mostly use their phones for
social networking and text messaging.

The results were not incredibly surprising, but still worth noting, especially for advertisers.



 Most "multicultural consumers" or minorities, use their phone for entertainment and social networking more than anything else. In fact using a phone for the Internet (61%) was neck-and-neck with using it to place actual calls (62%). Of course, both were trumped by minorities' favorite mobile pastime - text messaging (68%).

 "There are two relatively new phenomena that we are seeing evolve with these consumers. Mobile entertainment and social networking are both growing in importance now that they have these powerful devices", said James Briggs, CEO of Briabe Media.



"Taking these into account, advertisers would be wise to look closely at offerings such as Facebook Places that can leverage the affinity consumers have for mobile social networks. Further, they should also consider linking their brands more closely with quality mobile content and entertainment platforms. Advertisers have struggled with these in the past; however, I believe that given the increased power of the networks and devices, we are in the midst of the perfect storm for mobile branded engagement opportunities."

Other findings:

• Ninety percent access mobile social networks on their phone, with Facebook not surprisingly holding the top position.
• Texting is now the mobile service used most frequently for 68% of the respondents, followed by placing calls (62%), then surfing the mobile internet (61%); 
• Approximately 65% spend six or more hours per week on the mobile internet, with 18% spending twenty or more hours online via a mobile device; 
• When asked, "What do you want to know more about when on the mobile internet?" 39% of the respondents cited entertainment, followed by news at 17%;  
• Approximately 92% are aware of mobile ads on their phones and 85% respond to them although the vast majority, 63%, respond only rarely;
• Nearly 30% presently make purchases over their mobile phones.

A few questions I have.

How do these results match up to non-minority consumers? What are we really looking at here and how do Asians compare to Whites to Blacks to Hispanics? Maybe these stats don't even represent a multicultural thing and maybe it is just an everyone thing?

I have requested a copy of the report so hopefully I can get some more in-depth information and provided update information soon.

What do you use your phone for? And do you think that your culture/ethnicity race has anything to do with it?