During a presentation at the 2012 Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, three Google executives reportedly said that a majority of Google's users will access its services through mobile devices in 2013. The news actually arrives by way of Morgan Stanley who echoed the Google execs' comments to investors.
According to Business Insider, the Google trio included global marketing director for mobile and social advertising Rikard Steiber, YouTube’s global director of platform partnerships Francisco Varela, and general partner at Google Ventures Rich Miner. All three admitted that Google now considers itself as a "mobile first" company.
Over the years Google has built its current reputation by not only becoming the world's top desktop search engine, but offering additional valuable services like Gmail, Calendar, and more. Google+ takes socializing in a new direction, and YouTube continues to serve as a visual form of expression for millions of users worldwide. Google Drive keeps your documents safe in the cloud while tunes stored on Google Music can be accessed from any device, anywhere.
Not to just be an online entity, Google branched out from its search engine roots to build its own mobile platform with Android and Google Play. This platform has taken control of the smartphone market, and is challenging Apple's iPad through Google's own Nexus 7 and Nexus 10, and other Android-based tablets. Because of this, it's understandable why the search engine giant is now making mobile a priority.
During the presentation, Steiber said that mobile will be the primary way people will access Google and its many services. Backing that up, mobile searches have reportedly increased 200-percent to date in 2012.
The Google trio also revealed that 25-percent of YouTube traffic and 40-percent of YouTube views now stem from mobile devices, a 300-percent increase in 2012, they said. Varela added that total mobile traffic to YouTube could soon surpass 50-percent as seen in Korea.