Smartphone owners became the majority of mobile phone users for the first time this year, growing from 49 percent of mobile subscribers in Q1 2012, to 56 percent by Q3 2012. Mobile app usage also continued to grow. Among the top 10 mobile apps, Twitter was the fastest growing Android app, and the Facebook Messenger app grew the most among iPhone apps.
Google remained the top Web brand, with an average 172 million unique visitors each month between January and October 2012, followed by Facebook, which garnered an average of 153 million visits each month. Online video continued to grow in 2012, but YouTube remained the top online video source, averaging 132 million unique viewers during the year.
Top 10 U.S. Web Brands of 2012
| Rank |
Site |
Avg No. of Unique Visitors Per Month |
|---|
| 1 |
Google |
172,649,000 |
| 2 |
Facebook |
152,996,000 |
| 3 |
Yahoo! |
141,579,000 |
| 4 |
YouTube |
128,341,000 |
| 5 |
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing |
127,822,000 |
| 6 |
Microsoft |
92,764,000 |
| 7 |
AOL Media Network |
86,638,000 |
| 8 |
Amazon |
78,128,000 |
| 9 |
Wikipedia |
76,031,000 |
| 10 |
Ask Search Network |
73,361,000 |
| Source: Nielsen. Data from January 2012 – October 2012 (Total). Ranked on average monthly unique audience.Read as: During 2012, 172.6 million people, on average, visited Google. |
Top 10 U.S. Online Destinations for Video of 2012
| Rank |
Site |
Avg No. of Unique Viewers Per Month |
Avg No. of Streams Per Month |
|---|
| 1 |
YouTube |
132,468,000 |
15,004,387,000 |
| 2 |
Yahoo! |
39,725,000 |
354,024,000 |
| 3 |
VEVO |
37,714,000 |
547,615,000 |
| 4 |
AOL Media Network |
24,563,000 |
446,363,000 |
| 5 |
Facebook |
23,910,000 |
111,737,000 |
| 6 |
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing |
22,601,000 |
215,803,000 |
| 7 |
The CollegeHumor Network |
20,164,000 |
72,519,000 |
| 8 |
Hulu |
14,627,000 |
832,515,000 |
| 9 |
ESPN Digital Network |
13,081,000 |
245,667,000 |
| 10 |
Perform Group |
11,554,000 |
71,396,000 |
| Source: Nielsen. Data from January 2012 – October 2012 (Total). Ranked on average monthly unique viewers.Read as: During 2012 132.5 million people, on average, streamed video from YouTube each month. |
Top Android Apps of 2012
| Rank |
Apps |
Avg Unique Users |
YTD Change % |
|---|
| 1 |
Google Search |
46,386,000 |
54% |
| 2 |
Gmail |
44,516,000 |
45% |
| 3 |
Facebook |
42,379,000 |
48% |
| 4 |
Google Maps |
41,976,000 |
41% |
| 5 |
YouTube |
32,223,000 |
70% |
| 6 |
Pandora Radio |
11,600,000 |
55% |
| 7 |
Twitter |
10,674,000 |
122% |
| 8 |
Adobe Reader |
10,354,000 |
64% |
| 9 |
Advanced Task Killer |
9,569,000 |
-11% |
| 10 |
The Weather Channel |
8,983,000 |
59% |
| Source: Nielsen, Data from January – October 2012 (Android only). Ranked on average monthly unique users.Read as: During 2012 46 million Android smartphone owners used the Google Search app on average each month, growing their unique users 54% between January and October 2012. |
Top 10 iPhone Apps of 2012
| Rank |
Apps |
Avg Unique Users |
YTD Change % |
|---|
| 1 |
Maps |
32,365,000 |
23% |
| 2 |
Facebook |
28,585,000 |
51% |
| 3 |
YouTube |
22,626,000 |
-4% |
| 4 |
Stocks |
21,080,000 |
51% |
| 5 |
Weather |
20,531,000 |
41% |
| 6 |
Facebook Messenger |
10,458,000 |
544% |
| 7 |
The Weather Channel |
10,446,000 |
54% |
| 8 |
Twitter |
9,748,000 |
47% |
| 9 |
Pandora Radio |
9,563,000 |
47% |
| 10 |
Instagram |
6,910,000 |
197% |
| Source: Nielsen, Data from January – October 2012 (iOS only). Ranked on average monthly unique users.Read as: During 2012 28 million iPhone owners used the Facebook app on average each month, growing their unique users 51% between January and October 2012. |
