Device Usage on the Social Web
We use our phones differently than our laptops, and our tablets differently than our gaming devices. We decided to take a deep look into the bitly data to figure out exactly how differently, and we found some surprises! — We analyzed the bitly data …
Context & Ripple Effects
This analysis extends an arc bitly has been building since it shipped its dedicated mobile site in March 2011: the company is positioning itself not just as a link shortener but as a measurement layer for how the social web is actually consumed. Its clickstream gives it something rare for early 2012 — a single dataset spanning phones, laptops, tablets, and gaming consoles.
First-order effects
- Publishers and marketers using bitly links get device-level engagement baselines they previously lacked, letting them time and format posts per screen rather than treating 'social traffic' as one bucket.
- The pickup by ZDNet's Between the Lines blog shows the data traveling beyond bitly's own audience, reinforcing its claim to be a neutral source on device behavior alongside earlier third-party reads like Pingdom's mobile OS split chart.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers and media planners can now justify device-specific creative and scheduling — a shift that complements Nielsen's October 2011 finding that 40% of tablet and smartphone owners use them while watching TV, pointing to simultaneous multi-device sessions.
- Rival analytics and URL-shortening services face pressure to publish their own device-breakdown research or cede the 'who understands mobile sharing' narrative to bitly.
Third-order effects
- If device-specific consumption patterns hold, the industry moves away from one-size-fits-all responsive publishing toward content designed per device class, with measurement firms — not platforms — arbitrating what works where.
- A structural consequence worth flagging as uncertain: whoever owns cross-device clickstream data gains leverage over publishers' distribution decisions, making shorteners and analytics providers strategic infrastructure rather than commodities.
The trend: Social web consumption is fragmenting by device class, and link-level datasets like bitly's are becoming the measurement layer that tells publishers and advertisers which screen each moment belongs to.