93% Subscribe to Mobile Magazines

INFO PLANT recently conducted a nationwide survey during a one-week period of mobile phone users, via the Toku-suru menu on NTT DoCoMo i-mode, and based the following results on 4,987 valid responses. 93.2% of all respondents had subscribed to receive mail magazines on their phones. 39.6% of them have signed up to 3-5 different ones. The largest portion of the users have signed up for 3-5 mail magazines (39.6%), followed by 6-9 (19.1%), and 1-2 (16.2%). Looked at by gender and age, over 20% of those subscribed to over 10 mail magazines were males and females in their 40’s, which was higher than any other age group.

90.2% of mail magazine subscribers receive gift campaign information provided by companies. This makes up the most popular category of mail magazine, followed by information about new products and services (67.9%), and coupons (56.7%). Looked at by gender, women outnumbered men with regard to bargain discount information (males: 33.7%, females: 47%) and coupons (males: 48.9%, females: 61.2%).

Looked at by gender and age, a higher number of males and females receiving gift campaign information were in the older age groups, and younger age groups tended to be signed up for coupons. In addition, younger women were the most likely to be looking at bargain discount information.

When asked how frequently a mail magazine should be sent to a phone by a company, the most popular response was once per week (44.1%), followed by 2-3 times per week (25.4%), and once per day (17.7%). Looked at by gender, more males than females responded they preferred 2-3 times per week (males: 28.8%, females: 23.5%). Looked at by gender and age, most of those favoring one time per week were men and women in the higher age groups. Furthermore, those preferring to receive mail magazines once per day tended to be women in the younger age groups.

When asked about the usefulness of mail magazines sent by companies, the largest number of respondents said they were “somewhat useful” (65.4%), followed by “not very useful” (26%), and “very useful” (65.4%). In addition, the combined number of those answering “very useful” and “somewhat useful” brings the total of those calling them useful to 71.9%.