Consumers use word of mouth to choose VOD apps

(Hulu)

The majority of consumers listened to word-of-mouth recommendations when choosing video applications for their smartphone according to a new survey.

The survey, released August 1, was conducted by Nielsen and the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM). The survey polled 1,510 smartphone owners on different aspects of video applications.

Of the respondents, a 65 percent majority stated that 'word of mouth' played an important role in deciding which video application to choose.

Also, using a video application on their smartphone did not reduce the amount of television watched for the majority of respondents with 85 percent reporting that they watched the same amount or more of regular TV as they did before downloading the app.

A separate study of mobile video viewing in the second quarter of 2011 conducted by Google and the Mobile Marketing Association found that 20 percent of US smartphone owners watched video content on their mobile device on a daily basis, only 14 points lower than the 34 percent of consumers who watched video content on a daily basis on a computer.