2014 the prevalent multi-screen trend in china and note for marketers

Table of ContentsExecutive Summary

Multi-screen viewing is one of the latest digital trends to emerge in China, making the need to adapt to the multi-screen landscape a major challenge for marketers and brands in 2014. The focus of this paper is to study the often-noticed trend of how people in China are using a combination of smartphones, tablets and computer to consume digital content, and how marketers should capture the multi-screen opportunity.

• Demands of smartphones and tablets increases rapidly, surpassing that of PC.

• Average time spent on different devices are evenly distributed and users tend to use smartphones more than PC.

• Cross-device trends and behaviors are becoming mainstream

• No single device can command users’ full attention, devices are used simultaneously.

1. Demand of smartphones and tablets suppressed that of PC

• According to Gartner, the shipments of smartphones and tablets worldwide rose from 87.1% in 2013 to 89% in 2014. While that of PC fell from 12.9% in 2013 to 11.0% in 2014.

• The same happened in China, data from IDC shows smartphones and tablets shipments was 80% in 2013 and increased to 82% in 2014. PC dropped from 20% in 2013 to 18% in 2014.

2. Users spent more time on smartphones than PC

• The average time spent on smartphone is 104 minutes, which exceed the average of 100 minutes on PC; users also spend 42 minutes on tablets, which is very close to 60 minutes spent on TV every day.

2. Users spent more time on smartphones than PC

• The rising use of smartphones and tablets facilitate users to consume digital content more frequent than ever, users spend time on mobile devices while they are traveling , at home, watching TV, etc.

3. China online users already built a habit of multi-screen usage

• Time of Use: Devices are used in different time throughout a day. For example, PC is used the most by China users during daytime at work, while the usage of tablet is often seen at night. On the other hand, smartphone is used throughout the day.

• Context drives device choice: Entertainment is one of the key activities in using mobile devices, users watch videos on smartphone during lunch as well as on transportation, while tablet and PC are used more often at night. Video gross rating from tablet is now higher than PC at night time, implying that user preference has shifted from PC to mobile devices.


• Tablet dominates PC: 77.4% of tablet users mentioned they spent less time and less frequently on PC when they own and use tablet.


4. China users are multi-tasking and juggling different devices at the same time

When using tablets, only 27% of users are focusing on one screen, the rest:

• 44% of China users are watching TV at the same time, • 31% of them are using smartphones for entertainment or social media• 13% of them are on PC• 5% of them are reading books

Recommendations for marketers

1.The highly accessible and ease of use nature of mobile devices have widened the users groups to cover more teenagers and seniors. Advertisers need to create new strategies to attract the expanded group of users:

2. Video watching is the most common activity on mobile device, advertisers need to put more efforts on video marketing:

• Adopt simpler interface design and incorporate touch screen features to cater the needs of the new user groups who may not be as savvy as the majority of the online users.

• Industries who target to the expanded group of users such as pharmaceutical can re-evaluate the opportunity from mobile.

• Keep in mind some important best practice in video marketing: create a short and packed ad messages, make sure the video ad is contextually relevant, distribute to the wide list of video publishers and keep the video quality high.

• Video watching is just the gateway for brands to engage users in the mobile environment. Marketers should adopt cross-channel tracking and retargeting to capture the lead generated from mobile.

3. Consumers shop differently across devices, so advertisers should consider integrated marketing strategy to tailor the experience to each channel:

• Consistency of advertising message in different channels is important

• Monitor users’ behaviors on different devices so as to offer better user experience, e.g. eCommerce advertisers should streamline the path to shopping cart to enhance the purchase journey.

Recommendations for marketers

2014 the prevalent multi-screen trend in china and note for marketers

Marketing