Mobile Internet consumption 2018

Mobile phones, the main way to connect us in 2018

Society Internet

In February 2018, there were 52,241,712 mobile lines*, in Spain, which is greater than the population of Spain, and the trend is upward. Spanish people are focusing all their online activity on their mobile phones: 92.1% of the population access the Internet with their mobile phones. That is followed by the laptop computer, the desktop computer, and then by tablets and televisions.

It is young people who are behind the trend, making mobile first fashionable and using their mobile phones as their main channel of communication. In 2018, half of young people aged 15 to 24 years are spending between 90% and 100% of their online lives on their mobile phones**.

Mobile phone habits and internet use worldwide

What happens in Spain can be extrapolated to the world as a whole: There are 7,476 million humans on the planet, and there are more than 8,450 million mobile lines. Additionally, according to the Digital In 2017 Global Overview report, published by We Are Social and Hootsuite, Spain has more mobiles per person than any other country in the world, followed by Singapore, Italy, Japan and Germany.

Mobile phone use worldwide 

Mobile phone and internet use in Spain

What do we do online with our mobile phones? Most Spanish people connect to check their email, use instant messaging services, access social networks, read the news, watch videos, check their bank accounts, upload photographs and make purchases.

More and more Spanish people are shopping online for convenience and speed: 9 out of 10 of Internet users have bought something online during the last year. These are the products they buy most frequently:

• Electronics
• Clothes and accessories
• Travel tickets
• Accommodation
• Show and event tickets

Users around the world are so dependent on their mobile phones that 61% of them admit that they look at their phones within five minutes of waking up, and the average user spends 170 minutes a day, that's almost three hours, using their devices.

Mobile phones have changed the way we act, work, and of course, communicate; and we do it when we are inactive, as well as when we are doing other activities like shopping, working, watching TV, talking to other people, and even when we are crossing the street! Welcome to our lives.

* National Markets and Competition Commission.

** According to the Digital Society in Spain 2017 report published by the Telefónica Foundation.

 Digital transformation