The amount of time consumers spend each week using a screen - a television, personal computer, tablet or mobile phone - now tops 50 hours.
According to research from The Diffusion Group (TDG), the role that smartphones play in total screen time continues to expand. Per-capita use now stands at 8.6 hours a week, greater than the total amount of time consumers spend watching broadband video (8.2 hours per week). Notably, social networking now comprises four hours of weekly screen time, of which 63% is spent using services like Instagram (2.5 hours per week).
The overlap between smartphone and social network use is quite significant, which has led a number of companies to test the viability of social-mobile (SoMo) networks for video delivery. While SoMo video currently accounts for 0.13 hours per week of screen time (10% of smartphone use and 14% of total smartphone video time), this is expected to change dramatically during the next decade.
"Screen time is shifting towards mobile,” said Joel Espelien, senior analyst with TDG. “Mobile usage is shifting towards social networking apps. And social networking apps are shifting towards video. All the trends are lining up in favour of massive growth in SoMo Video over the next decade."
TDG forecasts that SoMo video will grow from 684 million daily viewing minutes in 2016 to 7.4 billion by 2025. As a share of total smartphone video viewing, SoMo Video will grow from 17% in 2016 to 43% in 2025.