In China, the mobile internet reigns supreme. Seventy-three percent of Chinese mobile youth ages 15-24 reported using the mobile internet in the previous 30 days compared to 48 percent of U.S. mobile youth and 46 percent of U.K. youth. (Less than a quarter of young people in other European countries said they used the mobile internet in the previous month.)

Messaging tends to skew female in most markets, with a few notable exceptions: Indian males ages 15-24 are twice as likely as their female counterparts to use text messaging and four times more likely to use picture messaging. China and Saudi Arabia also skew male when it comes to messaging, but by a more narrow margin.

For more information on Mobile Youth Around the World, download the Nielsen report: Mobile Youth Around the World.

According to a report released Monday by Nielsen’s Telecom Practice, Americans should expect to see more text message marketing in the future.  Given the immense popularity of texting in the U.S. and abroad, it’s not surprising that marketers have ramped up their use of the medium to engage their customers — where there’s an audience, marketers are not far behind.

So far, Nielsen’s report notes, marketers have used short code marketing in a tight but creative range of ways: from simple information messaging, to rewards programming, to couponing, and even direct SMS purchasing.

Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards program, which had engaged 1.1 million AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers as of Q3 2008, according to Nielsen, is a notable example.  Subway, Arby’s, Jiffy Lube, BestBuy, Papa Johns, Village Inn, and other major brands have also provided special offers through text and multimedia messaging.

Short codes are also changing the way Americans engage with traditional media.  Participation TV falls into this realm — with “American Idol” being the most prominent example of viewers engaging with a TV program over text messaging.

Radio listeners are also increasingly being called to action via text message.  In Q2 2008, for example, Nielsen’s tracking of short codes showed more than a million transactions with the short code “A-L-I-C-E” (or 25423), a short code assigned to the station Alice 97.3 KLLC-FM in San Francisco.  Alice listeners are frequently invited to send text messages directly to the studio to make requests, win prizes, and enter polls. 

View Nielsen Telecom Practice’s full report.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Wireless and Mobile News.

How do consumers feel about talking to brands via texting — the same way they talk with their friends and family?  Read more on Nielsen Wire.

Television
-Men typically watch less TV than women their age — with one exception: male teens actually watch more TV than female teens.  Men ages 18 to 34 tend to watch more cable and pay channels, while women gravitate to broadcast networks.

-When it comes to sports programming on TV, men 18-34 are more attentive viewers (+12%) than women of the same age.  But when non-sports programming is on, the reverse is true: males 18-34 are 6% less attentive than their female counterparts.

-In general, men 18-34 are less attentive viewers of both sports (-8%) and non-sports (-10%) TV programs than older men ages 35 and up.

-Men 18-34 are also more receptive to product placements within TV programming than females their age; they report 26% higher brand opinion improvement for advertisers integrated into TV programs.

Online
-Online streaming videos of full-length TV episodes hold the attention of men 18-34 much more than the same programs on TV.

-In general, men 18-34 view more Web pages each month than women their same age (2,353 vs. 2,305 in August 2008).  Men 18-34 also view 63% more individual video streams than women their age (1.4 million vs. 893,000 streams in August 2008).  For their part, women typically spend more minutes watching videos online than men (4.1 minutes vs. 2.4 minutes), who prefer short-form videos on consumer-generated media sites like YouTube. 

Mobile
-Male mobile subscribers ages 18 to 34 are three times as likely as average mobile subscribers to watch video on their phones, and twice as likely as average mobile users to access the mobile Web.

-In Q2 2008, male mobile subscribers ages 18-34 sent and received more than twice as many text messages (531 texts on average, per month) as phone calls (246 calls on average, per month), while women 18-34 made slightly more mobile phone calls than men their age (251 vs. 246 calls per month).


Video Games
-Men ages 18 to 34 averaged approximately 19 gaming sessions in August, with the average session lasting about 66 minutes.  Among all males, men 18-34 accounted for 35% of all minutes played on gaming consoles in August.

-In comparison, women 18-34 logged fewer gaming sessions in August (just over 10, on average), but — like their male counterparts — averaged about 65 minutes of play per session.  Women 18-34 accounted for 39% of all minutes played by females on gaming consoles in August.