DeviceAtlas Mobile Web Intelligence Report Q1 2017
INTRODUCTION
DeviceAtlas tracks web traffic from hundreds of thousands of partner websites using our device detection
platform for web optimization, segmentation, and analytics. This allows us to analyze the current state of the
mobile web by sharing some exciting statistics about the most popular smartphones used today.
In the Q1 2017 edition of the Mobile Web Intelligence Report we focused on analyzing how selected high-
profile news websites owned by the world’s largest daily newspapers fare in terms of web performance on
mobile. For this research, we used testing conditions which included opening these websites on a Nexus 5X
using a 1.5 Mb/s network which equates to a “good 3G” connectivity. After testing newspapers’ websites on a
few consecutive days we found out that:
Average loading time on mobile was 10.5 seconds
Average page weight on mobile was 1.35MB
Five slowest websites loaded in 22-19 seconds in our test conditions
Five heaviest websites were 5.3-2.7MB in our test conditions
30% of news websites used some form of mobile URL redirection
MOBILE DEVICE USAGE HIGHLIGHTS:
In this edition we also present our selection of the most interesting mobile device usage statistics to help you
better understand the latest trends in the mobile world. This quarter, we focused on screen sizes, screen
resolutions, phone makers, mobile OSes, and phones with the NFC standard. Some highlights include:
5-5.1-inch is now the most popular diagonal screen size category
Samsung lost a lot of web traffic share between Q4 2016 and Q1 2017
NFC phones generate over 70% of web traffic in developed countries but for emerging markets it can get
as low as 30%
Notes on methodology
All statistics in this report are based on device usage data pulled from DeviceAtlas, a device detection
solution. DeviceAtlas works by parsing User-Agent strings which are looked up in the device description
repository that includes over 34,000 unique entries. The report offers just a glimpse into what’s possible with
DeviceAtlas. See the mobile analytics demo to get a better idea.
DeviceAtlas Mobile Web Intelligence Report Q1 2017
LEADING NEWS WEBSITES’ PERFORMANCE ON
MOBILE
In the Q1 2017 report we conducted research on the current state of mobile web performance of some of the
largest daily newspaper websites in 18 countries across the globe. We learned their average page weight
and loading times on smartphones, as well as whether or not mobile users are redirected to a specific
URL. These metrics and the website architecture are particularly important for news content which is often
consumed on-the-go, where WiFi or LTE are unavailable.
For measuring loading times we used emulation to learn how leading news outlets perform on a mid-range
Nexus 5X with data connectivity limited to “good 3G” (1.5 Mb/s). We also measured average page weight
for high-end and mid-range phones. All tests were repeated on different days and an average number was
calculated to give an estimated web performance on mobile.
Note: Loading time and page weight aren’t fixed, unchanging values. They differ widely according to location,
ads served, images and videos served, user behaviour, CDN, etc.
The Sydney Morning HeraldAUHindustan DainikINDagens NyheterSE
Herald SunAUla RepubblicaITHürriyetTR
Neue Kronen ZeitungATCorriere della SeraITFinancial TimesUK
Al-AhramEGLa Gazzetta dello SportITThe SunUK
Helsingin SanomatFILa StampaITThe IndependentUK
LibrationFRMainichi ShimbunJPThe GuardianUK
Le FigaroFRAsahi ShimbunJPThe TimesUK
La TribuneFRYomiuri ShimbunJPThe Daily TelegraphUK
Le MondeFRAftenpostenNOLos Angeles TimesUS
Le ParisienFRRossiyskaya GazetaRUWashington PostUS
Süddeutsche ZeitungDEIzvestijaRUThe Boston GlobeUS
Die WeltDEKomsomolskaya PravdaRUUSA TodayUS
Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungDEThe Chosun IlboKRThe Wall Street JournalUS
Rheinische PostDEEl PaísESThe New York TimesUS
De TelegraafNLMarcaES
Dainik JagranINABCES
The Economic TimesINLa VanguardiaES
The Times of IndiaINEl MundoES
Websites tested in the research
DeviceAtlas Mobile Web Intelligence Report Q1 2017
AVERAGE LOADING TIME AND PAGE WEIGHT
While you may think that news outlets should offer stellar web performance on mobile, the reality is
uninspiring. It can take over 22 seconds for your phone on 3G to load some of the most sluggish websites
owned by daily print newspapers. At the same time, users expect websites to load on mobile in 3 seconds—
after that time, the majority of would-be visitors leave (source). The study shows that many news websites
significantly exceed this threshold, which leads to higher bounce rates and fewer pages per session.
That being said, there are news websites which perform very well on mobile, loading in as little as 2 seconds
and weighing around 350KB. Mobile URL redirection is still popular with 30% of all newspaper websites
tested using URLs that send users to a separate mobile-optimized experience, such as m-dot, or mobile-dot.
Note: Loading times were measured as “time to interactive”—the time it takes for the website to become
responsive, so that the user can, for example, start scrolling or access an active link.
10.5 seconds
average loading time on mobile
1.35MB
average page weight on mobile
22.4 seconds
slowest website: lavanguardia
2.1 seconds
fastest website: welt.de
Leading daily news websites’ performance on mobile—research highlights
30%
using mobile URL redirection
$0.39
estimated cost of accessing
wsj on mobile in the USA
5.3MB
heaviest website: krone.at
0.34MB
lightest website: repubblica.it
Test your website with mobiReady
For some of these tests, we used mobiReady, a free tool which benchmarks any website against the Alexa
1,000 and also visualizes how it loads on low-end, mid-range and high-end mobile devices. Try now。