Mobile accounts for 10 percent of all internet traffic now

The Western world may be in love with smartphones, but it's Asia and Africa that see the highest percentages of mobile web traffic compared to desktop web traffic. In fact, according to a new report by Pingdom, in the past two years mobile web use has exploded by 192.46 percent in Asia and by 155.59 percent in Africa.

Comparatively, North America only saw a 69 percent increase in mobile web traffic share over the same period. Across the globe, mobile web use makes up about 10 percent of all web traffic, but in Africa and Asia, it's 14.85 percent and 17.84 percent, respectively. A more granular look at the map reveals countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria that have more than 50 percent of web traffic coming from mobile devices. In India and Uzbekistan, mobile web traffic is over 40 percent of all web traffic. Meanwhile, the U.S. only has 8.61 percent of its web traffic coming from mobile devices.

Why the disparity? It is likely because in developing countries, the only web access that many have is through their mobile device, and many residents don't own desktop or laptop computers, or there isn't a reliable land-based internet service available to them. This trend is likely to continue, and it has been predicted that India, a country with nearly 1.2 billion people, will have more than half of its web traffic coming from mobile devices in the very near future.