Whether it had anything to do with Americans forgetting to put
something in the mail or not, the supply of mobile unique users soared to its highest point in nearly eight months on Valentine’s Day. While the holiday fell on a Saturday this year -- a day
when weekend mobile uniques normally spike -- the mobile unique user index climbed to 120, the highest level since June 20, 2015, when it hit 121.
While it likely isn’t
possible to draw a direct correlation between Valentine’s Day and a jump in mobile usage, holidays and nationwide cultural events such as the Super Bowl so far have proven to have some
correlation to the supply of uniques -- both on mobile and desktop.
Looking more broadly at recent unique usage patterns, Jumpshot Senior Analyst Shaun Rivera says the Super Bowl also contributed
to an upward surge in mobile uniques, noting that the Mobile Unique Index is currently “about 9.5% higher than the year-to-date weekly average."
The Digital Traffic Index is a collaboration
of MediaPost and Jumpshot, measuring the supply of digital unique users across mobile and computer screens.
The
index is available
continuously and is adjusted daily to reflect the equivalent of a daily trading day -- seven days a week. Periodically, when news events occur or when there are shifts in the baseline index
that represent potential news, MediaPost reports on the market movements related to it.