It’s official. More people use the internet on mobile devices than on desktops.

Surprise!

Okay, well not really a surprise if you’ve been watching the trends over the last few years, but the big news is that it’s global for the first time ever.

I think we all knew it was heading this way, especially as earlier this year Google announced that mobile had overtaken desktop in 10 countries, including key areas like the US, UK and Japan. It was only at the beginning of this month, however, that StatCounter Global Stats reported that there are now more mobile internet users worldwide.

The official stats are 51.3% of global internet usage is done on mobile, compared to to 48.7% on desktop. Below is a graph showing the growth of mobile over the last few years:

Who does this affect?

Anyone who has a website. And now, by ‘anyone’ we really do mean anyone; no matter where you are in the world.

Why Should You Care?

You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: mobile is where your focus should be. The fact that this is now a global phenomenon is proof that optimising your website for the mobile user is optimising it for the majority.

Sure, your particular website traffic may still predominantly from desktop, but if you don’t pay some serious attention to the mobile versions of your site you’ll miss out big time. We’ve already seen that Google is favouring mobile over desktop, meaning that the benefits of having a bad-ass mobile site will affect your overall web presence, no matter who you are or how old-school your audience is.

Tags: desktop, desktop usage, desktop user, mobile, mobile overtakes desktop, mobile surpasses desktop, mobile traffic, mobile usage, mobile user, SEO