Japanese Mobile Users Hit the Web More Than U.S. or European Users

Japanese mobile-phone users are about 70% more likely to regularly use their devices to connect to the Internet than Americans, and more than twice as likely to be connected as European mobile users, according to a new report by ComScore.

Specifically, 75% of Japanese mobile users regularly connect to the Internet, compared with 44% of Americans and 39% of Europeans, indicating more widespread mobile-application usage across all age groups in Japan. While texting was more prevalent in the U.S. and Europe, the Japanese were far more likely to use a Web browser or send email from their phones.

"As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behavior become evident," said Mark Donovan, comScore's senior vice president of mobile, in a statement. "These differences are even more pronounced than they are for PC-based Internet usage due to the complex nature of mobile."

Much of the discrepancy between regions is among age groups. For instance, Japanese residents 55 and older were more than twice as likely to engage in mobile media than their American counterparts, more than offsetting higher U.S. mobile-media usage among younger age groups, according to ComScore.