February 16, 2016

How mobile-first has paid off for Unicorn brands: An Insight into Billion Dollar Companies

Ana Laura Zain
Sr. Manager, Corporate Marketing, EMEA

The so called “unicorns” - private companies valued at $1 billion or more that were once considered a myth, today are seemingly everywhere, embraced by a new digital-savvy generation. As digital audiences continue to grow, driven largely by mobile and younger users, successful brands are actively pursuing a mobile-first attitude which has piqued the interest of the investor community.

Findings from comScore MMX Multi-platform show how six of the top fifteen Unicorns, ranked in descending order of current valuation, have benefited from this focused approach to development, building large mobile-only audiences in the UK.

Key findings:

98% of Snapchat, Inc users are accessing the property via a mobile device, followed closely by Uber.com (85%), as users access their services spontaneously with omnipresent mobile devices.
Despite large desktop audiences, Pinterest.com and Spotify users are now relying more on mobile devices, accounting for 57% and 54% mobile only share, respectively.
Mobile only usage is a growing phenomenon. Spotify saw the highest growth on its exclusive mobile audience during 2015 at 10%, closely followed by Airbnb Sites with 9%, Pinterest.com 5% and Dropbox Sites with 3%.