Verizon report points to surge in video app traffic

The report used several sources of information including aggregate information obtained from partners and third parties, as well as de-identified and aggregate information from its own network.

It cites a 129% total mobile network traffic increase over the past five years, while 47% of consumer mobile traffic was devoted to video in the second half of 2023 – this appeared to come from Verizon’s own consumer data.

TikTok was the most popular app in this regard, with US users spending an average of approximately 1 hour 42 minutes per day on it, compared with 1 hour on YouTube and 39 minutes on Facebook.

The pool of data for those stats appears to be wider than Verizon’s own network, coming with the disclaimer: “Third-party data sourced from “Top Apps by Active User” data.ai reports for smartphones in the United States between 2019-2023. The data.ai reports are based on mobile usage data from a global panel of millions of users, proprietary consumer survey data and other data.ai data sets.”

A large portion of the report was dedicated to NFL related traffic. Citing its own network data, total average mobile network usage across all NFL stadiums for the 2023/24 NFL season was 101MB per person, up 47% compared to the end of the 2022/2023 season.  

Other stats contained with the report include; Monthly mobile smartphone usage in cities grew 34% from an average of 11.5GB in January 2022 to 15.5 GB in November 2023; Home Internet subscribers to Verizon’s 5G and LTE Home grew to nearly 1.9 million consumers at the end of 2023, a year-on-year increase of 111%; and Roblox had the fastest growth rate in users for games and the highest average time spent per day per user in 2023.

The source material for these stats seems to jump around a lot, with some looking at Android only and others bringing in iPhone as well, some focussed only on US traffic from Verizon’s own network, and others citing ‘mobile usage data from a global panel of millions of users’ through data.ai in the mix as well. It also switches comparison time frames on an almost per stat basis.

Slight fuzziness on that front aside, the report appears to be trying to present a general picture of the state of mobile data usage, while throwing in some personal wins for Verizon as well. Overall, this is a picture of a sharp upsurge in the amount of mobile data being consumed in the last few years, and the lion’s share of that going through video/social apps – a trend that’s been identified by other firms from various angles as well.