comScore just enhanced its website traffic reporting by showing both the mobile and desktop audience at major websites. They call it Media Metrix Multi-Platform. The top-50 U.S. sites are available here.
Unfortunately, there are no banks in the top-50 and just one fintech company (Intuit, note 1). But comScore forwarded us a list of the top-10 banks to share with readers (thanks, see table below).
Highlights:
- The mobile-only group is becoming a significant segment, amounting to about 20% of the desktop banking group (across all banks)
- However, BofA and Chase have much higher mobile-only groups, 50% higher than any other top-10 bank
- Across all banks, 40% of mobile users are “mobile-only” while 60% also use desktop online banking
- But at BofA and Chase, about 2/3 of their mobile base is “mobile-only”
Bottom line: It is no surprise that mobile usage is significant. But what I didn’t realize is how quickly mobile users are giving up desktop online banking. Look at Chase and BofA, which have had mobile the longest. Only 1/3 of their mobile users went to the desktop during February. Partly, that’s because many are single-service credit card customers. But it’s strong evidence for what many have hypothesized: once users become accustomed to mobile convenience, they have much less need for desktop access.
——————————-
Table: U.S. desktop and mobile traffic at the top-10 busiest U.S. banks
millions of unique visitors, age 18+ (Feb 2013)
| Feb 2013 (USA) | Total | Desktop | Mobile* | Mobile Only | Mobile Incremental** |
| Total U.S. Internet | 236 | 221 | 127 | 14.5 | 7% |
| Banking total | 102 | 85.1 | 39.1 | 16.4 | 19% |
| 1. Bank of America | 31.5 | 24.1 | 11.7 | 7.4 | 31% |
| 2. JPMorgan Chase | 28.3 | 21.9 | 9.9 | 6.3 | 29% |
| 3. Wells Fargo | 22.2 | 20.0 | 3.5 | 2.2 | 11% |
| 4. Capital One | 15.4 | 12.7 | 3.8 | 2.8 | 22% |
| 5. Amex | 15.3 | 12.6 | 3.8 | 2.7 | 21% |
| 6. Citi | 11.8 | 10.4 | 2.0 | 1.4 | 13% |
| 7. Discover | 7.8 | 6.5 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 20% |
| 8. HSBC | 6.5 | 5.5 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 19% |
| 9. US Bank | 5.5 | 4.8 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 14% |
| 10. PNC | 4.8 | 3.9 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 21% |
Source: comScore, March 2013 (methodology)
*Includes smartphone and tablets, native apps and mobile Internet
**Mobile-only divided by desktop base
———————————————–
Notes:
1. Intuit placed #42 of all U.S. digital properties with mobile audience of 15 mil, desktop of 29 mil, and total 38 million. It had 8.9 million mobile-only users, 31% of its desktop base.