Wednesday 28 December 2011

1 in 8 internet visits in the UK on Christmas Day was to an ecommerce site

"Christmas Day 2011 was another bumper day for shopping online as 62.8 million UK Internet visits went to online retail websites. 1 in every 8 visits online in the UK yesterday went to a retail website, a new record for Christmas Day shopping online."

The story Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was an early victim of piracy

"Stephenson's novella was first published by Longmans, Green in January of 1886 and sold 40,000 copies in 6 months in Britain, and an estimated 250,000 pirated copies in the United States"
Source:  Robert Louis Stephenson, by Frank McLynn, 1993, page 263

Friday 23 December 2011

The most talked about celebrities on Sina Weibo in China



Click to enlarge

Source:  Press release from CIC, 14th December 2011
Note - Sina Weibo is China's biggest micro-blogging platform - 'China's Twitter' (if you must)

Tuesday 20 December 2011

40% of tickets on Live Nation go unsold

"Can data really solve this mess? The 40 percent figure was first revealed by Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino last year, in the chambers of Congress of all places.  And now, it's part of a freshly-published research report that focuses on a pressing cheap seats problem.  Because it's not that Live Nation doesn't want to fill every seat in every house, they just don't know how."

Monday 19 December 2011

Reasons for mobile site abandonment



Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from Limelight Networks, reported in their blog, 22nd November 2011
Note - this refers to people abandoning websites that they are visiting on a mobile device

Top Android apps used in the US by age range



Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from Nielsen, reported in NielsenWire, 12th December 2011

10% of iPlayer viewing is through mobile devices

"The BBC iPlayer iOS app has been downloaded 1.1m times in the week since it was updated to run on Apple's iPhone and iPod touch as well as iPad, says Daniel Danker, the broadcaster's general manager of programmes and on demand.
"500,000 of those downloads were to users who had never installed the app before," says Danker, who adds that the application's new ability to stream TV shows and radio over 3G as well as Wi-Fi is also proving popular.
"Last week, 20% of all requests on iPhone were on 3G. That's amazing in such a short period of time. And yet when we look at the audience feedback, nobody has really reported streaming problems over 3G."
The growth of mobile and tablet iPlayer viewing has been sharp in 2011. In October, 16.5m programmes were watched on these devices, up 129% year-on-year.
The key factor in this growth was the launch of native iPlayer apps for iPad and Android in February 2011. Previously, the catch-up TV service had been available as a mobile website.
"12 months ago, 5% of the total consumption of BBC iPlayer was on mobile and tablet," says Danker. "Fast forward to today, and that figure is 10%, one of our fastest growing areas. A year ago, people were sceptical about whether this whole mobile or tablet TV viewing was going to be a big deal. A year on, it's an entirely different story. No one would question it.""

Amazon are selling more than 1m Kindle Fire tablets a week

"Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest online retailer, said customers have bought about 1 million of its Kindle e-book readers and tablets in each of the past three weeks, the most detailed sales numbers the company has released.
The Kindle Fire tablet, which sells for $199, has been the best-selling product on Amazon.com since its introduction 11 weeks ago, the Seattle-based company said in a statement today. Kindle Fire sales have risen week-over-week for the past three weeks, Amazon said."

Apple reportedly charges $10 cpm and $2 cpc for iAds

"Apple has also introduced more flexibility to a pricing structure that had befuddled advertisers, ad executives say. Instead of charging marketers every time a user taps on an ad—a policy which often led to ad budgets quickly being exhausted—Apple is willing to put a cap on what it charges for the taps, according to the person. Advertisers pay $10 every time an ad is viewed a thousand times and $2 every time it is tapped on."
Source:  Agency sources reported by the Wall Street Journal, 13th December 2011

The majority of 18-34 year olds in the US own a smartphone

"The majority of 25-34 and 18-24 year olds now own smartphones (64% and 53% respectively);
The majority of smartphone owners (62%) have downloaded apps on their devices and games are the top application category used in the past 30 days;
The number of smartphone subscribers using the mobile Internet has grown 45 percent since 2010;
87 percent of app downloaders (those who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days) have used deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon or Living Social;
Younger groups text the most. In Q3, teens 13-17 sent and received the most text messages (an average of 3,417 each month)."
Source:  Data from Nielsen, reported in NielsenWire, 15th December 2011

The 10 most overused buzzwords in LinkedIn Profiles in the US



Click to enlarge

Source:  LinkedIn blog, 13th December 2011
Note - the full post also gives top words for other countries
Also - the 2010 list

There are over 1m mobile apps

"Somewhere at a computer last Wednesday, a developer pushed a button and the one millionth mobile app went to market.
Apps shrink the programs that were once available only on a desktop computer to make them usable on smartphones and mobile devices — stock trades, restaurant reviews, Facebook, streaming radio, photographs, news articles, videos and, of course, Angry Birds.
The pace of new app development dwarfs the release of other kinds of media. “Every week about 100 movies get released worldwide, along with about 250 books,” said Anindya Datta, the founder and chairman of Mobilewalla, which helps users navigate the mobile app market. “That compares to the release of around 15,000 apps per week.”
According to Mobilewalla, in a fairly quiet 14 days before the release of app No. 1,000,000, an average of 543 apps were released each day for Android-based devices, and an average of 745 apps hit the market daily for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch. The total for the two weeks across the Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows platforms was 20,738."

Friday 16 December 2011

12 Trends for 2012

Here's my new Trends presentation.

I've been doing predictions for the past few years now, and since my Next Generation Media presentations have proved to be popular I decided to do this as a presentation.

I look at the things that will be more popular next year.  None of them are that surprising (although maybe they are - I'm very close to this sort of stuff), but they're all trends that will grow a lot next year.

Here are the 12 trends:

Mobile Commerce
Mobile Payments
Mobile + TV
Connected TV
Mobile in China, India & Africa
Mobile's Threat to Other Services
Ecosystems & Walled Gardens
Real Time Bidding & Automation
Education Enabled
Hijacks & Guerrilla Marketing
'eBay' for Services
Simplicity

The most shared video ads of 2011

"1. Volkswagen: The Force: Volkswagen Commercial - 4,713,179 shares
2. DC Shoes: Ken Block's Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial - 2,028,238 shares
3. T-Mobile: Angry Birds Live - 1,783,607 shares
4. T-Mobile: Royal Wedding - 1,733,419 shares
5. Kia: Party Rock Anthem-Kia Soul Hamster Commercial - 1,424,110 shares
6. 20th Century Fox: Ape With A20K-47 - 1,132,201 shares
7. David Cornfield Melanoma Fund: Dear 16 Year Old - 1,072,004 shares
8. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Reveal Trailer - 1,062,829 shares
9. Nissan: Poneis Malditos - 956,661 shares
10. Nestle: Contrex - Ma Contrexperience -97s - 950,988 shares
11. Official Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - The Vet Vs The Noob - 922,218 shares
12. Carlsberg Stunt with Bikers in Cinema - 899,550 shares
13. Official Ojai Valley Taxidermy TV Commercial - 830,036 shares
14. Red Bull: The Art of FLIGHT - Snowboarding film trailer featuring Travis Rice - 810,453 shares
15. McDonald's Philippines New Commercial 2011 "BFGF" - 756,141 shares
16. Channel 4: Danny MacAskill - Industrial Revolutions - 696,190 shares
17. Trace Urban: The most amazing beat box video ever! - 687,528 shares
18. Pepsi: Unbelievable David Beckham - 543,812 shares
19. Samsung: Unleash Your Fingers - 542,851 shares
20. Westfield Stratford City: 100 YEARS / STYLE / EAST LONDON - 529,832 shares"
Source:  Data from Unruly & Mashable, reported by Adrants, 12th December 2011

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Facebook accounts for over 52% of online sharing



click to enlarge

Source:  Data from AddThis, based on their plugin on over 11m domains, reported in a blog post, 13th December 2011

Mobile payments company Square has over 1m merchants

"Mobile payments startup Square now has more than 1 million merchants charging credit cards with the service, the company announced today.
“Just as small businesses are growing with Square, we’re growing with them: Over 1 million merchants now accept credit cards via Square,” the company said on Twitter.
Square is one of a handful of companies, along with names like PayPal, Google and Intuit, that are quickly transforming the mobile payments landscape. The company’s service has seen huge growth since its debut in late 2009. At last check, the company was signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month, so it’s no wonder Square finally hit the 1 million merchant mark.
One of the latest ways Square, which is led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is evolving is with its Card Case app for iOS 5. The app allows for hands-free payments to merchants that use Square. Ideally, as more small businesses accept Square, more users will adopt the Card Case application to speed up the payment process."
Source:  VentureBeat, 13th December 2011

Monday 12 December 2011

51% of X-Factor viewers in the UK use Facebook while they watch on TV

"Social media has come of age. Twitter is now as influential as the X Factor judges when it comes to how people vote on the show. And the micro-blogging service is also 42% more influential than other key news sources in deciding voters’ behaviour, according to a study published by Carat.
The results, which drew on data from 13,000 people, are believed to be the first insight into the influence of social media on actual viewer voting behaviour. They also underline the fact that viewer trust is shifting from traditional media influencers to non-traditional media such as Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter is the most trusted source, with 66% of viewers believing what they read on the site about X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing when deciding how to vote.
It also reveals that multi-screen viewing is now the norm. The majority of X-Factor viewers surveyed said they have used Facebook at the same time as watching the show, at 51%, while 14% used Twitter.
The findings also reveal that commentary is not only generated from the TV shows – advertisers will be pleased to learn that engagement among these viewers is high; 26% of those surveyed had commented on an ad on Facebook during X Factor; 7% said they had tweeted about an advertising campaign.
Key findings summary:
51% of X Factor viewers use Facebook at the same time as watching the programme while 14% use Twitter.
In deciding who to vote for on X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, Twitter and the judges themselves are equally as influential with 17% of viewers saying that this is what influences them who to vote for ‘a lot’.
Twitter is also seen as the most trustworthy, with 66% of viewers saying that when deciding who to vote for they believe this source.
7% of viewers have tweeted about an ad during the X Factor, whilst 26% have commented on Facebook about it.
Respondents who regularly watch X Factor are significantly more likely to say that they like to comment on a social network/blog when a big live event is on TV. They also view social networking as an easier way to tell lots of people what they think."
Source: Research by Carat UK, reported in a press release, 10th December 2011

Saturday 10 December 2011

Megaupload has over 180m registered users

Stats from their site:
Founded in 2005
Employees - 155
Unique Visitors - >50m daily
4% of all internet traffic passes through Megaupload
Unique files stored - >12bn
Registered users - >180m
Corporate Memebership - 87% of the Fortune 500 have accounts with Mega
Source:  Megaupload, retrieved 10th September 2011

Friday 9 December 2011

Referral levels from social media sites



Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from Netmarketshare, reported by Social Times, 2nd December 2011
Note - this is a breakdown of where traffic arriving at other sites comes from.  More info in the original article

Thursday 8 December 2011

14% of US online shopping traffic on Black Friday came from mobile devices

"The expected explosion of mobile media use during this holiday buying cycle appears to be starting. According to the IBM Smarter Commerce benchmark of online retail activity, mobile platforms were responsible for 14.3% of all online shopping traffic on Black Friday, more than doubling the 5.6% of traffic IBM recorded last year. Perhaps even more impressive, sales from mobile devices reached 9.8% of digital retail transactions, tripling the 3.2% of last year.
The surge in mobile activity was part of an overall 24.3% spike in online spending for the day over last year."

45% of American 12 year olds have a profile on a social network

"Social networks like Facebook and MySpace are supposed to be limited to people who are ages 13 and up, but this is far from being the case, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which found that nearly half of American 12-year-olds -- 45% -- have profiles on these sites. Assuming the 12-year-old population has remained stable, around 3.96 million since the latest Census projections in 2009, that means 1.78 million 12-year-olds are evading Facebook’s age limits.
These figures, while large, don’t come as much of a surprise following an earlier estimate from Consumer Reports that 7.5 million children under the age of 13 are on Facebook, including five million children under the age of 10. And they’re in line with separate data from Harris Interactive, which found that half of parents with 12-year-olds know that their children are on Facebook. What’s more, seven out of ten of these parents actually actively helped their children evade the security protocols meant to prevent anyone from under age 13 getting on the site."
Source:  Mediapost, 25th November 2011

Wednesday 7 December 2011

84% of connected TV owners in the UK regularly access apps on their TVs

"Around 84% of connected TV owners regularly access IP-connected apps to watch TV, according to a joint research project from consultancy Decipher and video-ad network Rovi.
The results form the first part of a two-phase research project to test the viewing habits of 500 Samsung connected TV owners in the UK."

10 billion apps have been downloaded from the Android Market

"One billion is a pretty big number by any measurement. However, when it’s describing the speed at which something is growing, it’s simply amazing. This past weekend, thanks to Android users around the world, Android Market exceeded 10 billion app downloads—with a growth rate of one billion app downloads per month. We can’t wait to see where this accelerating growth takes us in 2012."

The Top 10 global topics on Facebook 2011



Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from Facebook, published 7th December 2011
Note - clearly it's not for the whole of 2011 - just to the start of December

Tuesday 6 December 2011

The most popular ads on YouTube in the UK in 2011

"1. T-Mobile - The T-Mobile Royal Wedding
2. Google Chrome - Google Chrome: Jamal Edwards
3. Asos - The ASOS Urban Tour in London- preview
4. VW- The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
5. Listerine - Listerine Mouth vs. Life
6. Kia - The New Kia Picanto
7. John Lewis - John Lewis Christmas Advert 2011
8. Twinings - Gets you back to you
9. Flora - Flora Cuisine Vernon & Gladys introduce new healthy way to cook
10. Nokia - Nokia N8 Pink - Freedom"
Source:  Data from Google, reported by BrandRepublic, 6th December 2011
Note - clearly this is only data up to the start of December 2011

Chinese internet users spend more time online than with any other medium

"With out-of-home (OOH) ads and TV achieving the highest reach in Chinese consumers at 77% and 76% respectively, it is little wonder marketers are investing heavily in advertising on these two media platforms.  However, the Yangtze Study reveals that the digital space ranks a close third behind OOH ads and TV in reach and is where most consumers are choosing to spend their time, with an average consumer spending 3.25 hours online, compared to 2.21 hours and 0.51 hours with TV and OOH ads, respectively.  More surprisingly, the Yangtze Study also shows that consumers in tier-3 cities lead in the race when it comes to online contact hours per day, clocking in an average of 3.57 hours per day, as compared to their tier-1 and tier-2 counterparts at 3.08 hours and 3.07 hours, respectively.
The Yangtze Study also highlighted the prevalence of online entertainment, especially video, as a favorite way for Chinese consumers to digest content. Across screens, respondents spent an average of 1.76 hours daily watching video clips on computers, with tier-2 consumers heading the pack at 1.98 hours.  With China home to the world‘s largest Internet population, it is highly possible that online has the potential to become the vehicle most used to access video content for cities in tiers 1-4.
"What we are witnessing now is the biggest digital evolution on earth taking place right here in China. There is a growing population of netizens in lower tiers who do not even have a TV set at home and instead are choosing to watch most of their TV content online", said Jeffrey Tan, SMG China‘s National Research & Insights Director. "While internet usage in lower tiers right now is skewed towards instant messaging and online entertainment (such as gaming, music and video), they are quickly catching on to the social networking craze that is sweeping across the country.""

2/3 of smartphone owners in the US used their phones for shopping-related activities in September 2011

"The results showed that 38 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to make a purchase at least once in the course of their device ownership. The most popular products purchased on smartphones during the month of September included digital goods, clothing/accessories, tickets and daily deals.
[...]
“Fueled by smartphone adoption, mobile is becoming a central part in the shopping funnel for many consumers,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile. “In September we saw two-thirds of all smartphone owners perform shopping activities on their phones, including comparing products and prices, searching for coupons, taking product pictures or locating a retail store. Considering there are currently 90 million smartphone owners in the U.S., retailers without a well-developed mobile strategy are not only missing a tremendous opportunity with these customers but also risk becoming obsolete in the minds of these digital omnivores.”"
Source:  Data from comScore reported in a press release, 5th December 2011

How digital media & technology is changing retail behaviour

"Across most categories of goods, the majority of respondents reported a preference to purchase items online rather than at a physical outlet. In the UK 74% percent of consumers said they were more likely to buy flights and vacations online (globally 70%), 77% prefer to buy CDs, DVDs, books and video games online (65% globally).
However, the majority of respondents said they prefer to purchase luxury goods in store and four in ten consumers still seem to shun online grocery shopping. These trends are particularly evident in the Americas where more than three quarters of respondents said they would book a flight online, but only 21 percent said they were more likely to buy groceries online.
The survey reveals the extent to which smartphones and tablets are changing shopping behaviour. When shopping at retail outlets, 45% of UK respondents said they now use their mobile devices to locate the nearest store, 32% to research products and services, 30% for online coupons and one in 5 (19%) scan in barcodes to for product information. Globally 41% research products & services and almost a quarter pay with their mobile devices.
When buying products or services the majority of customers in the UK and globally consult feedback and ratings pages on the internet or get information on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Monitoring and managing third party information sources will therefore be a key element of any digital sales strategy."
Methodology:  "Consumers and Convergence V: The Converged Lifestyle [hyperlink], KPMG’s survey of consumer trends in digital technology, communications and e-commerce surveyed 9,600 consumers in 31 countries ranging in age from 16 to over 65."

The Top 10 Trending Topics on Twitter in 2011



Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from HootSuite, published by AdAge, 6th December 2011
Note - the dates for the analysis are 30th November 2010 - 1st December 2011
Plus - Twitter's official 'Hot Topics' although they're not saying how they compiled the list, so I suspect some editing may have gone on.

Monday 5 December 2011

Friday 2 December 2011

Instagram has 13m users and 7 employees

"The popular photo app that’s responsible for flooding the internet with fuzzy, low-contrast, retro images of cats, hipsters and urban street scenes shows no sign of slowing down.
Of course we’re talking about Instagram and its iPhone-only app for sharing stylized photos. The startup attracted 12 million users in just over a year on the App Store. By early November, the small company — and we mean small; Instagram has just seven employees — grabbed another million and now boasts well over 13 million application users, co-founder Kevin Systrom shared with VentureBeat."

Paypal's global mobile payments were 516% higher Y-o-Y on Black Friday 2011

"By using their mobile devices, shoppers have access to a “mall” in the palm of their hand, complete with millions of products and simple, secure payments, to find and buy the hottest holiday deals. An increasing number of shoppers turned to their mobile devices on Black Friday to shop wherever, whenever.
- eBay Mobile announced that shoppers in the U.S. purchased nearly two and a half times as many items via eBay Mobile this Black Friday when compared to 2010
- PayPal Mobile announced a six-fold (516%) increase in global mobile payment volume compared to 2010
- GSI Commerce announced a three-fold (254%) increase in U.S. mobile sales this Black Friday compared to 2010.
“Shoppers are increasingly choosing the convenience of mobile to find the best deals from wherever they are while avoiding big crowds and long lines,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president, Mobile, for eBay Inc. “The ability to simply pick up your phone or tablet and purchase what you want, when you want it, has become an attractive alternative to shoppers in record numbers this holiday season.”"
Source:  Press release from eBay, 26th November 2011

Thursday 1 December 2011

40% of mobile users in Canada have a smartphone

"8 million people in Canada owned smartphones in September 2011, representing 40 percent of the mobile market in Canada, a gain of 7 percentage points in the past six months. RIM ranked as the top platform with 35.8 percent of the smartphone market, followed by Apple at 30.1 percent. Google Android gained ground among the competition by doubling its market share to 25.0 over the past six months. Symbian ranked fourth with 4.2 percent share, followed by Microsoft with 3.2 percent."
Source:  Data from comScore, reported in a press release, 30th November 2011

The top 20 most-followed people on Google+

Rank, name, followers
"#1 Britney Spears 807,743
#2 Larry Page 780,994
#3 Snoop Dogg 681,127
#4 Mark Zuckerberg 612,321
#5 Tyra Banks 571,843
#6 Paris Hilton 525,609
#7 Richard Branson 515,344
#8 Jessi June 512,775
#9 Sergey Brin 502,636
#10 Vic Gundotra 495,516
#11 Tom Anderson 482,796
#12 Dane Cook 473,356
#13 will.i.am 432,883
#14 Trey Ratcliff 403,858
#15 Thomas Hawk 399,687
#16 Felicia Day 388,210
#17 Dalai Lama 378,951
#18 Hugh Jackman 374,329
#19 Guy Kawasaki 368,127
#20 Ron Garan 366,370"
Source:  SocialStatisics.com, retrieved 1st December 2011
Notes:
Jesse June is a glamour model (!)
Vic Gundotra is a techie at Google
Trey Radcliff & Thomas Cook are both photo bloggers
Dane Cook is a comedian & actor
Felicia Day is an actress
Ron Garan is a NASA Astronaut
Tom Anderson is 'Tom from MySpace'
Mark Zuckerberg has seemingly never added anything - people just think it's amusing to add him
Compare to the Twitter top 10 - 7 of those are women, only 4 of the G+ top 10 are; Britney Spears is the only person to appear on both lists.  The other striking things are that it's still comparatively 'techie' and photography is popular.

Spotify is the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe

"Artists can — and do — receive very substantial revenues from Spotify, and as Spotify grows, these revenue streams will naturally continue to grow. Spotify is now the second single largest source of digital music revenue for labels in Europe (IFPI, April 2011) and we’ve driven more than $150 million of revenue to rights holders (ie whoever owns the music, be it artists, publishers or labels) since our launch three years ago.”"
Source:  Statement from Spotify, quoted in Wired, 18th November 2011

Twitter has 2,400 advertisers

"Twitter makes money three ways, says Bain. Twitter sells promoted tweets, promoted trends, and ads. Many brands, for example, want to know how to increase their followers. "We've scaled from next to no advertisers to more than 2,400,' says Bain.  "We have about 100 folks working directly with advertisers and agencies all over.  We thought were going to have to answer the question, 'Why Twitter?' But no advertiser has that question.""
Source:  Twitter Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain, quoted in SFGate, 30th November 2011

Internet advertising revenue in the US rose 22% Y-o-Y in Q3 2011

"Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $7.88 billion for the third quarter of 2011, representing a 22 percent increase over the same period in 2010, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report figures released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC US. These figures also show a 2.7 percent uptick from the record-setting revenues of the second quarter of 2011. Results for Q3 2011 further mark the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth."
Source:  Press release from the IAB, 30th November 2011

Social, Digital & Mobile in Asia

The Guardian receives 1m page views a day from its Facebook app

"Facebook has released some intersting stats on its Open Graph features for media partners, which include Yahoo! News, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Daily,  that it announced at f8. We already know that Facebook is a major driver of news traffic with twice as many getting their news via Facebook than any of social network, but the amount of traffic it is driving on a daily basis is striking.
The Guardian is picking up around one million pageviews a day while the Washington Post is getting 3.5 million monthly readers for its social reader app. The Independent has in excess of one million monthly active users are connecting their Facebook accounts and Yahoo News has seen a 600% increase in traffic.
That provides traffic that papers like the Guardian can sell ads against and it is also sending younger readers their way.
[...]
The Guardian: Built an app for Facebook.com and has been installed by nearly four million people, generating, on average, almost a million extra page impressions every day. Additionally, over half of the app’s users are 24 and under, “traditionally a very hard-to-reach demographic for news organizations,” said Andrew Miller, chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group."