Computer Mediated Communication

&
Mobile Platforms
CMC 2016 Group 5
A Banoo (213503406)
A Vawda (213532665)

Cell Phones and CMC: The Numbers

In 2011, there were 4.6 billion active cell phone

subscriptions globally

According to research carried out by the UN in

2008, 366 million people in India had access to
adequate sanitation facilities while 545 million
cell phones in India had been connected to
service more people had access to cell phones
than proper toilets.

As of January 2014,

90% of American adults own a cell phone

32% own an e-reader

42% own a tablet pc

According to Google, more searches are requested

from mobile phones than on pc (tablets fell under
the pc category).

Mobile Trends in the African Market

The Mobile Africa Study 2015:
Conducted by GeoPoll and World Wide Worx
3500 cell phone users across South Africa, Nigeria,
Kenya, Ghana and Uganda were polled about their
cell phone usage
The study revealed that 40% of respondents use
their cell phones to surf the internet
Nokia proved to be the most popular phone,
however its market share is rapidly declining.
Competitor in second place, Samsung, has seen an
increase in market share over the past year

Taken from the Mobile African Study, 2015,

the most common phone activities in the
polled countries are:
48% use Facebook
45% send SMSes
41% listen to radio
37% take photos
36% use instant messaging
32% play games
26% download apps
13% use Twitter

Phone conversations with friends and family,

for example, have been supplanted to an
extent by social networks
2016 Report by Deloitte

According to study by Deloitte, 25% of people in

developed countries prefer to communicate via
social networks than an actual phone call (dubbed
data-exclusives)

The percentage of data-exclusives has

increased by 3% since 2015

The decline in the number of users making and

receiving calls is due the wide variety of
applications that have replaced traditional
methods of communication.

CMC and Companies

According to a survey undertaken by Towers

Watson in 2013, over 50% of employers polled
used social networking to communicate with
employees.

Social media is valued by corporations for:

Lower communications costs

Instantaneous nature of the medium

Imagine taken from Towers Watson article

Advantages of CMC and Mobile

Easy Communication Instant messaging

Customer Service improved customer

satisfaction

Collaboration off site meetings

Service Data Access data from different

locations

Disadvantages of CMC and Mobile

Constant Interruption constantly receiving

notifications

Distraction disrupt meetings or classes

Affects Real Interaction difficulty dealing with

people face to face

Issues

Cyberstalking and location disclosure - people

allowing the public to see their location

Invasive privacy agreements - The social network

owns all of the content that users upload

Law enforcement prowling the networks Social

networks have become tools for the FBI to spy on
people

Competition

There is fierce competition between instant

messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat
and SnapChat.

The objective of the world leading tech

companies today is to see who can create the
dominant instant messaging app.

Some Statistics

Facebook Messenger - over 600 million monthly active

users.

WeChat 650 million monthly active users.

WhatsApp - nearly 800 million monthly active users.

Instagram - 300 million monthly active users.

SnapChat 200 million monthly active users.

The Future: Trends in Mobile CMC

Live streaming apps such as Periscope and

Meerkat have seen an increase in their number of
users. As many as 2 million users use Periscope
daily. On Periscope, 40 years worth of videos are
consumed daily

Social commerce: businesses harnessing the

power of social media to market their products

Facebook has done away with the WhatsApp

messengers annual subscription fee and has
announced plans to roll out tools for businesses to
reach interested customers

Facebook has partnered with Uber: people can

now hail cabs from the Facebook Messenger app