By now you’ve probably heard the buzz surrounding mobile media and mobile marketing. If you’ve zoned it all out so far, you’ll want to tune in now.

The UK Embassy in Beijing has a QR code to access its Sina Weibo account.

Investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ (KPCB) comprehensive annual Internet Trends slide deck boasts some staggering mobile statistics for 2013.

If you enjoyed our post on the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, we’ve extracted the 8 most relevant points from KPCB’s extensive 117-slide report that you’ll need for your business.

So, why mobile? Because the key to successful marketing and customer engagement is to learn what medium consumers use most and put yourself and your business in front of them in that medium, and we’re already three years into the mobile age.

Pretty soon, not being available on mobile devices will be as crippling for your business as not having a company website at all.

The Top 8 Reasons Why You Need to Get on Mobile Marketing from KPCB’s 2013 Internet Trends Report

1) Mobile Internet traffic has been and continues to be on the climb. It’s currently 15% of all global Internet traffic, a 5% jump from last year.

2) Almost everyone and their mom has a phone. There are now over 1.5 billion smartphone subscribers, and over 5 billion mobile phone users overall, a 31% growth from last year. The top two smartphone markets are China and the U.S., in descending order.

At this point, people are hooked on their phones. The average person reaches for his phone nearly 150 times a day. Texting is the top reason to reach at 23 times a day, calls are #2 at 22 times a day, and time-checking rounds out the top three at 18 times a day.

As such, mobile operating systems have the lion’s share of the global market share.

3) Mobile operating systems (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) have 88% of the global Internet market share, an 83% jump from six years ago. Even among the three, iOS and Android surpass Windows Phone by 25%.

That said, if you’re finally warming up to smartphones, another mobile wave is already here: tablets.

4) Tablets are already eclipsing smartphones. iPad sales have tripled from last year — 140 million units were sold so far this year versus just under 60 million iPhones.

Tablets are starting to outsell laptops and desktop PCs as well after only three years. Approximately 115 million tablets have flown off the shelves compared with about 80 million laptops and roughly 30 million desktop PCs.

Tablets are even in their own league separate from computer vendors. Apple and Samsung are the top two tablet vendors, versus HP and Dell for laptops and PCs.

5) Online education is on the rise. 32% of students are taking at least one online course as of May 2013, causing more schools to supply their students with ebooks to read on tablets and ereaders instead of physical textbooks.

Furthermore, there are far more open-source online learning platforms available for those who desire a skill without spending thousands on college, including iTunes U, Coursera, and Codecademy (free web design and app coding courses). In fact, iTunes U accounts for 25% of open-source online course enrollment, and Coursera accounts for 35%.

The KPCB report even lists Twitter, YouTube, and Google Docs as the top three Internet learning tools as of 2012.

6) As if that wasn’t enough, mobile Internet use has moved to automobiles as well. Google’s car is completely unmanned and runs on the mobile web (GPS, etc.). Remember the Social Media Marketing Industry Report’s mention of auto manufacturers integrating podcasts into their new models? That’s mobile Internet use.

KPCB reports that Internet radio service Pandora has higher mobile and vehicle use (approximately 60% and 13%, respectively) compared to listening via PC.

7) Mobile is wearable too. Thanks to health and fitness apps and websites, more people own wearable Internet-connected devices (anklets/bracelets, pedometers, etc.) which post their fitness results on the web. Google’s Glass has also joined the mobile mix as a wearable computer.

8) Mobile web transactions are far more prevalent now. In China alone, 9 million QR codes are in use as of March 2013, a quadruple jump from 2012. 42% of them are used for passcodes (coupons, rewards, tickets, etc.), 33% for ad promotions, 22% for data, and even 3% for payments.

There are even taxi reservation apps in which China citizens can competitively bid for a cab, push to talk to a cab driver, and/or track the driver’s arrival for their pickup in real time.

Additionally, more people are handling their finances online. There are already five emerging online financial services with explosive growth over the past year:

• Chase Mobile has nearly tripled growth, processing over $29 billion in gross online payments per year
• Square, the mobile payment device and service made popular by the Apple Store, has already tripled its growth from last year, processing over $15 billion in gross payments to date
• Bitcoin has quintupled its 2012 revenue with over 18 million cumulative transactions
• Lending Club has tripled its revenue from last year with over $1.8 billion in loans issued to date
• Free bill payment app Check has seen a whopping 17-fold increase from last year, processing over $500 million in bill payments per year

If you were still on the fence about going mobile, these findings are all the motivation you need to start asking around.

Share this post with your networks and bookmark it. You’ll definitely come back to it.

_{Photo of UK Embassy in Beijing taken from the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers 2013 Internet Trends Report, Slide #63.}