Ground Truth: Consumption of Soccer-Related Mobile Content Tripled During World Cup

SEATTLE, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- This year's World Cup proved that not only have Americans become soccer enthusiasts, they have also become increasingly reliant upon their mobile devices to keep apprised of news and events throughout the day.  Ground Truth™ today released the only third-party, census-based study about the popularity of soccer-related mobile Web content during the World Cup, and found that traffic to those sites tripled during the tournament.

Ten days before the start of the World Cup, an average of 10.7 percent of visitors to the most popular mobile sports sites accessed soccer-related content, but on the tournament's inaugural day, a staggering 32.2 percent tuned in for soccer news and updates.

As the U.S. soccer team advanced in the World Cup, so did interest in soccer among visitors to leading mobile sports properties, reports Ground Truth, the mobile media measurement firm that provides precise, timely and actionable mobile intelligence.  The day with the highest percentage of mobile browsers seeking soccer information was June 23; the day the U.S. faced Algeria, at 41.1 percent. Other U.S. games—versus England on June 12 (38.6 percent), versus Slovenia on June 18 (35.8 percent) and versus Algeria on June 23 (40.8 percent) represented peaks in soccer traffic patterns to the sites.

"It's a fascinating phenomenon--there was no run-up of interest prior to the first day of play, but on that day we saw a huge spike in the percentage of people interested in soccer, as well as an overall increase in daily unique subscribers," observed Michael "Luni" Libes, founder and CTO, Ground Truth.  "Beyond the interest in U.S. matches, each set of major games—the quarterfinals, semifinals and final—corresponded with a peak in traffic, with a trough corresponding with the period between the conclusion of the last round of play and the beginning quarterfinals, when no games were played."

To conduct the study, Ground Truth used its patent-pending True View™ methodology to measure traffic to ESPN--the predominate sports site on the mobile Web, whose usage surpasses those of the 20 sport sites ranking below it, combined—and its soccer properties, SoccerNet and ESPN/soccer from the period between May 31, 2010 and July 11, 2010. A graph depicting the trend is posted on the Ground Truth blog: http://bit.ly/c62S9l.

"This event was a textbook demonstration of how the mobile Web keeps consumers connected to major world events as they happen, regardless of whether they are in front of their computers or television screens," commented Libes.  "The data shows that the World Cup brought a captivated audience to mobile—a trend that we expect to grow with the globalization of media and culture, magnified by the accessibility of the mobile Web. If there were any doubt that mobile browsing for news and information is a 'mainstream' consumer activity, this analysis is proof positive that it is."

Because Ground Truth can accurately measure any mobile Web site using True View™, its patent-pending, census-based methodology, the firm provides precise site-level usage metrics across several measures, including sessions per subscriber, pages per subscriber, pages per session and time per subscriber, on a weekly basis.  The Ground Truth syndicated data service delivers precise, actionable metrics through a dynamic, rich and user-friendly online interface.

About Ground Truth: Ground Truth is a mobile measurement firm that delivers the precise, timely and actionable mobile intelligence required for operators, advertisers and publishers to measure, optimize and grow their businesses.  As the sole provider of actual usage data aggregated from millions of subscribers using True View™, a patent-pending census-based methodology, Ground Truth sets the benchmark for Mobile Internet measurement.  Ground Truth is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and is venture-backed by Emergence Capital Partners, OPENAIR Ventures, Steamboat Ventures and Voyager Capital. For more information about the company, please visit www.groundtruth.com.

SOURCE Ground Truth