Limbo: Indian mobile phone subscribers get most ads

The number of advertising messages that a subscriber receives varies significantly depending on which country they live in. However, there is one constant and that is that text messaging is the most common mobile advertising format in use.

by Helen Leggatt

A recent report, from mobile social network Limbo and market search agency GfK Technology, found differences in the recall rates of mobile phone users by country.

The second-quarter update of the Mobile Advertising Report revealed mobile subscribers in India are receiving many more advertising messages on their mobiles (85%) as those in the U.S. (37%).

The most common ad format continues to be text messaging with almost three-quarters of Indian subscribers having received ads in that format, 48% in the U.K. and 22% in the U.S. The most-recalled ads were for mobile services, entertainment and music services.

Subscribers in the U.K. are more likely to receive mobile Internet advertising with 16% recalling the receipt of an ad formatted as such compared with 8% in the U.S. and 4% in India.

"With enhanced handsets and flat rate data tariffs increasingly common, it is only a matter of time before mobile Internet advertising starts to rival the penetration of SMS or text message marketing," said Colin Strong, head of mobile communications research at GfK Technology.