Expert: Web audience stays flat in 2016, seen growing in 2017

MOSCOW, Jan 26 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Internet audience remained flat in 2016 at 70.4% of people aged over 16, or some 84 million people, but will grow in 2017, market researcher GfK said on Thursday in a statement.

“We think that the audience of the mobile Internet will continue growing in 2017. The smartphone potential from the point of view of mobile phones replacement – some 30% of sales in units are still presented by feature phones in Russia – we expect stable growth of sales of smartphones by 5% in 2017 in units,” GfK said.

The audience soared before 2016.

“The dynamic growth of the Internet audience at the end of 2014 and in 2015 was provoked, among others, by heavy sales of electronics when people tried to spend devaluating rubles and buy gadgets at old prices,” the researcher said.

“In such a way, the 2016 market reacted to the earlier demand for electronics. Smartphones were practically the only zone of growth on the device market in 2016, which enlarged the audience of the mobile Internet. And, of course, connection operators contributed to the trend with their promotion of ‘mobile’ bundle tariffs in 2015–2016.”

The number of mobile Internet users added 6 million people in 2016. Today, 56 million people aged over 16 surf the Web on mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, or 46.6% of the whole audience. Smartphones prevailed in the growth, as their audience rose to 42.1% as of the end of 2016 from 37.2% in 2015. Web surfing on tablets remained flat.

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