iSense Solutions study: Romanians use their smartphones in the evening, mainly to relax

Cristina Blanaru Business, Events, Mobile

Most Romanians (89%) are using their smartphones especially at home, mainly in the evening, when they are back from work and relax, as shown by a study made by iSense Solutions and presented during the mobile marketing forum Mobifest organized by Evensys.

According to the study, other places where smartphones are used by their owners are at work (65%), while travelling with public transportation (64%), on the road (64%), in coffee shops (58%) and restaurants (50%) and even during social events and parties (43%). With mobile subscriptions and internet enabled non-subscription options already more accessible, 54% users still prefer to connect to the internet via wifi.

In the same time, the number of different activities made via smartphone at least once a day increased from 8 in 2014 to 9 in 2016, with the most common activities besides talking and sending SMS-es being accessing websites (87%), social networks (85%) and e-mail (79%). In the same time, Romanians use their smartphone to chat, make and edit photos, play or listen to the music.

When it comes of video content, 82% are watching videos on their smartphones, 66% preferring to see them on online websites and 55% via online apps like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, 9GAG and Snapchat. Most watched videos are music (77%), followed by funny ones (73%) and tutorials (47%).

The study also shows Romanians use their smartphones while watching TV (68%), eat alone (60%), listen to the radio (54%), use internet on their PC/laptop/tablet (51%) or read a printed book or newspaper (19%).

On the other hand, the smartphones became an information source for Romanian consumers, with 92% of them searching on them at least once info on a certain product before actually making a purchase, mainly when it comes of price, characteristics, consumers’ opinions. Morever, 34% say they make weekly buys via smartphones, most looked for being electronics (25%), followed by clothes and accessories (14% in 2016 compared to 8% in 2014).

The study was conducted by iSense Solutions for Mobifest on a sample of 1.029  respondents, aged over 18, living in urban areas. The data was collected between April 2-5.