Healthcare Technology Featured Article

June 12, 2014

Opera Mediaworks Focuses on iPhone, Andriod Users' Health & Fitness Preferences


With over one million available with the touch of a button, Apps have proven themselves to be significant software of the current technological era. Easily accessible on-the-go using your iPhone or Andriod Device, you can enter the Appstore and purchase an array of Apps, ranging from games, business, entertainment, music, and of course, health and fitness.

Opera Mediaworks, the world's largest mobile advertising platform, helps advertisers reach their target audiences and publishers to optimize ad monetization. The company recently released a two-part study on how consumers use their app devices, focusing specifically on iPhones and Andriods, to interact and engage with health and fitness content.

Broken up into two parts, the first part of the study focuses on the 500 million monthly ad impressions that are served on 400+ mobile sites and apps within the Health & Fitness category on the Opera Mediaworks platform. The Health side of the platform represents sites and applications concentrating on medical and healthy lifestyle issues, while the Fitness side caters to exercise interests or weight control.

The company found that certain content proved to be accessed more depending on the type of mobile device a consumer used. Overall, users most interested in the Health & Fitness category are more likely to have an iPhone. Said users also prefer Health topics (62 percent) more than Fitness (58 percent). Additionally, Andriod users represent the opposite of iPhone users, and prove to be more interested in Fitness content than Health content (39 percent vs. 30 percent).

The top three countries most inclined toward Health & Fitness content include Canada, Australia, and the U.K. Despite expectations, lack of advanced medical care did not stimulate more use of health sites in other countries, as measured by the ratio of impressions specific to that content. While 11 percent of total impressions are served in countries with the fewest doctors per capita, only 1 percent of that audience consumes health-focused site impressions.

Opera Mediaworks also found that consumer use of Health & Fitness sites mainly occurs on weekdays, with Tuesday and Wednesday being the peak days for content use. Activity dies down with the start of the weekend, most likely because Friday through Sunday is when users get the chance to unwind and relax. Use of the content is also specific to the time of day. Health sites and apps prove to have the most engagement around noon to 1pm, and exhibit a steady, high use in the early afternoon hours. In contrast, Fitness content sees the most activity in the afternoon and evening, with peak usage occurring around nine at night.

Moving on to the second part of the study, Opera Mediaworks chose to concentrate on the United States, being that the U.S. provides the highest volume of traffic from health and fitness sites and applications overall. To acquire research, the company looked at data from nearly 50,000 unique U.S. smartphones, and conducted a 2000-person survey as well.

The outcome of this data revealed that over 50 percent of all U.S. smartphone users use their device to find out more about diet, exercise, and health and wellness topics. However, of this percentage, only 22.5 percent do so more than once a week.  When not using exercise apps, Fitness users tend to focus their attention on entertainment and productivity categories, while Health users are more likely to be engaged in social media activities or on News sites.

Research also revealed that American women are more likely to carry their Smartphone while exercising, and are more likely than men to listen to music and send and receive texts while exercising. Men ages 25-34 were recorded using Health & Fitness the most, but watch the least amount of video, while men in the younger age group, 18-24, prove to have a very strong preference for video. In contrast, women 25-34 are likely to watch far more video (e.g., TV, movies) than men of the same age group. 




Edited by Maurice Nagle
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