Google will focus more on mobile than on its desktop services next year. That's according to three executives who gave a talk at the recent 2012 Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, Business Insider reports.
A note to investors from Morgan Stanley describes the Google execs -- Rikard Steiber, global marketing director for mobile and social advertising, Francisco Varela, YouTube's global director of platform partnerships, and Rich Miner, general partner at Google Ventures -- taking the stage to give some pretty interesting stats to back up their mobile plans.
According to Steiber, mobile will be the main way people access Google in the future, while Varela says more than half the people viewing YouTube will soon be doing so on their phones. Impressive. But that's not all.
The execs said the number of Google searches made on mobile has increased by 200 percent so far this year. Twenty-five percent of YouTube traffic, and 40 percent of its video views, come from people on their phones. And the number of people using their mobiles to access YouTube and view its clips is up a ridiculous 300 percent this year. That's a lot of cat videos on handsets.
In Korea, more people watch YouTube on their phones than on desktop computers.
The execs were speaking at the same conference where Miner said he'd like to see more tweaks to the Android operating system which he helped create.
Google is certainly launching an all out assault on mobiles, offering the ace Nexus 4 for not much money at all. Though only if you buy it direct from the big G. It's not all roses in Google land though. Recently we heard its share of the UK search market had dipped below 90 percent, which is its lowest in five years. Microsoft's marketing efforts are said to have helped Bing to a 5 percent share.
Is Google right to focus on mobiles? What would you like to see it do differently? Let me know in the comments, or on Facebook.
