The amount of time consumers spend each week using a ‘screen’ — a television, personal computer, tablet, or mobile phone — now tops 50 hours.
According to new research from The Diffusion Group (TDG), the role that smartphones play in total screen time continues to expand. Per-capita use now stands at 8.6 hours a week, greater than the total amount of time consumers spend watching broadband video (8.2 hours/week). Notably, social networking now comprises four hours of weekly screen time, of which 63% is spent using services like Instagram (2.5 hours/week).
The overlap between smartphone and social network use is quite significant, which has led a number of companies to test the viability of Social-Mobile (SoMo) networks for video delivery. While SoMo Video currently accounts for .13 hours per week of screen time (10% of smartphone use and 14% of total Smartphone Video time), this is expected to change dramatically during the next decade,.
According to Joel Espelien, senior analyst with TDG and author of the new report, “Screen time is shifting towards mobile. Mobile usage is shifting towards social networking apps. And social networking apps are shifting towards video. All the trends are lining up in favor of massive growth in SoMo Video over the next decade.”
TDG forecasts that SoMo Video will experience massive growth during the next decade, up from 684 million daily viewing minutes in 2016 to 7.4 billion by 2025. As a share of total smartphone video viewing, SoMo Video will grow from 17% in 2016 to 43% in 2025.