The markets for messengers, browsers and search engines are dominated by a small number of companies. Based on a representative survey of Austrian users, RTR.Telekom.Post investigated barriers to switching between these services and mobile phone tariff providers. For this purpose, a representative survey was conducted to determine the selection criteria for deciding on a service, switching behavior, reasons for and against switching, as well as barriers to switching to an alternative provider.

In the last two years, 19% of respondents have switched their mobile phone tariff provider. In contrast, only 6% have changed the messenger, 8% the browser and 5% the search engine they mainly use on their mobile phone. Network effects are decisive in the choice of messenger, while multi-homing, the parallel usage of different messengers, is an established practice. In the case of browsers and search engines, pre-installations and habit contribute to the fact that switching is often not even considered.

The report, the survey questionnaire and the raw data collected are available below (in German only). The data is freely accessible and usable as open data. An Executive Summary is available in English.