OpenSignal, a mobile analytics company that independently analyses and reports on consumers’ real-world mobile network experience, has released a global report on State of Mobile Video, analyzing worldwide consumer video experience for the very first time across 69 countries including Thailand.
Mobile video is the dominant traffic source and driver of consumer engagement on mobile networks worldwide.
“Taking another leap forward in our real-world measurement philosophy and approach, we are now analyzing how consumers experience the specific services they use on their mobile phones. Video experience analysis represents a major step forward towards our vision,” said Brendan Gill, CEO of OpenSignal.
Video views on mobile devices have skyrocketed over the past decade and the industry expects video consumption to increase further, fueled by the rollout of 5G networks and bigger smartphone screens from Apple and other OEMs. According to Cisco, by 2020, mobile video will increase 11x, representing more than 75 percent of the world’s mobile data traffic.
The results of this analysis were definitely surprising. Countries with the most sophisticated networks and the fastest speeds aren’t necessarily those providing the highest-quality video-viewing experience.
The report has some interesting findings such as:
- OpenSignal measured the video quality consumers experience day to day as they watch TV, movies and other video on the mobile network. Their first-of-its-kind video experience metric is calculated as a score from 0 to 100 with 100 being the best video experience possible. None of the 12 countries or territories Open Signal examined in East Asia achieved that high a mark, but several demonstrated impressive video capabilities. The best video experience scores in the world, however, weren’t found in Asia, but in Europe.
- Faster isn’t always better when it comes to video quality. South Korea has some of the most powerful and most far-reaching LTE-Advanced networks in the world, and it scored the highest of the 69 countries in our overall download speed. Yet South Korea fell well short of the top mark in overall video experience. An exceptional video experience clearly depends on much more than a fast mobile broadband connection.
- Singapore had the highest video experience score of 66.9, making it the only country in our Asia analysis to earn a Very Good (65-75) rating. Very Good indicates fast video loading times and few playback interruptions even at high resolutions. Australia and Taiwan also excelled in our video experience measurements. Both fell just shy of a Very Good rating with scores above 64. Thailand received a score of 47.29 for overall video experience.
- Only one country fell into the Poor (0-40) category for video experience, the Philippines, indicating very long loading times and frequent stalling in the video stream even at low resolutions. In general, Southeast Asian countries fared worse in Open Signal’s video rankings than their northern and southern neighbors. Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia all had Fair (40-55) ratings, though Myanmar landed in Good (55-65) category along with Japan, Hong Kong, New Zealand and South Korea
- Open Signal did find a correlation between speed and video experience in countries where LTE networks are still maturing. In Southeast Asia, where overall download speeds are generally slow, video experience scores were low. But once we crossed the 15 Mbps overall download speed threshold, the relationship between speed and video quality became far more loose. For instance, Hong Kong’s average overall download speed was only 14.7 Mbps, but its video experience score was on the same level as South Korea, New Zealand and Japan, three countries with overall speeds nearly twice as fast as Hong Kong’s. Thailand’s average overall download speed is 6.49 Mbps
