Thursday 22 August 2013

Vine has 40 million users


Source:  Tweet from Vine, 20th August 2013

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Mobiles (excluding tablets) account for 17% of global web traffic


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Source:  Data from StatCounter, reported by Mashable, 20th August 2013
Also - link to Statista

Between them One Direction & its members have nearly 25 million Twitter followers

"One Direction is the most followed UK band on Twitter with more than 14 million followers. Each of the members also have their own accounts with between ten and 15 million followers each:
One Direction (@OneDirection) - 14.3 million followers
Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles) - 15.4 million followers
Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) - 13.4 million followers
Louis Tomlinson (@Louis_Tomlinson) - 12.2 million followers
Liam Payne (@Real_Liam_Payne) - 12.3 million followers
Zayn Malik (@zaynmalik) - 10.0 million followers
Between them, these accounts have a total of more than 24.8 million unique followers - more than the population of Australia. There is also a dedicated Twitter account for the movie - @1DThisIsUs, which has more than two million followers."
Source:  Twitter UK blog, 21st August 2013
For comparison, Justin Bieber has 43m, Kity Perry 41m, and Lady Gaga 40m

More time is now spent on ecommerce websites in the US on tablets & mobiles than on desktops

"Time spent visiting retail Web sites on tablets and smartphones has eclipsed that of time spent shopping via the desktop. A combined 51% of time on retail sites took place on devices as of February (37% on smartphones, 14% on tablets) compared to 49% on PCs, according to a new study by mobile ad network Millennial Media and comScore.
The desktop share is down from 84% in 2010. But comScore indicates that while time spent is shifting toward mobile, it’s helping extend the desktop audience by 45% as consumers that start on PCs continue their shopping experience across devices. So there’s a fair amount of overlap among platforms.
Who’s shopping on mobile devices? More than half the U.S. audience is men (52%) and 48% women, with most in the 18 to 44 age range. Nearly half (48%) have an Android smartphone, and 45% own an iPhone. Tablet owners tend to skew more affluent, with more than half with household incomes higher than $75,000, and 47% access retail content."

Smartphones accounted for 52% of all handset sales in Q2 2013

"Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 435 million units in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 3.6 percent from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 225 million units, up 46.5 percent from the second quarter of 2012. Sales of feature phones to end users totalled 210 million units and declined 21 percent year-over-year.
“Smartphones accounted for 51.8 percent of mobile phone sales in the second quarter of 2013, resulting in smartphone sales surpassing feature phone sales for the first time,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. Asia/Pacific, Latin America and Eastern Europe exhibited the highest smartphone growth rates of 74.1 percent, 55.7 percent and 31.6 percent respectively, as smartphone sales grew in all regions.
Samsung maintained the No. 1 position in the global smartphone market, as its share of smartphone sales reached 31.7 percent, up from 29.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012. Apple’s smartphone sales reached 32 million units in the second quarter of 2013, up 10.2 percent from a year ago."
Source:  Press release from Gartner, 14th August 2013

Amazon accounts for more than 5% of global ecommerce revenues

"Amazon has done a lot more than become a stellar retailer. It has reinvented, disrupted, redefined, and renovated the global marketplace. Last year, e-commerce sales around the world surpassed $1 trillion for the first time; Amazon accounted for more than 5% of that volume. This seemingly inevitable shift has claimed plenty of victims, with more to come. Big-box retailers like Circuit City and Best Buy bore the brunt of Amazon's digital assault, while shopping-mall mainstays such as Sears and JCPenney have also seen sales tank. Malls in general, which once seemed to offer some shelter from the online pummeling, have been hollowed out."
Source:  FastCompany, 5th August, 2013

Facebook made revenues of approximately 80 cents per mobile user in Q2 2013



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Source:  Estimates based on official figures, made by MarketingLand, 14th August 2013

70% of emails traffic in Q2 2013 was spam

"The percentage of spam in total email traffic increased by 4.2% from the first quarter of 2013 and came to at 70.7%.
The percentage of phishing emails in total mail traffic fell by 0.0016% and came to 0.0024%.
Malicious attachments were detected in 2.3% of all emails — that’s 1% less than in Q1 2013."

Nearly 20% of online American adults use Twitter

"As of May 2013, almost three quarters (72%) of online U.S. adults use social networking sites, up from 67% in late 2012. When we first started asking about social networking sites in February 2005, just 8% of online adults said they used social networking sites.
In addition to asking about general usage of social networking sites in our current survey, we included a stand-alone question about Twitter and found that 18% of online adults are now Twitter users.  This is roughly double the 8% of online adults who used Twitter in November 2010, the first time we asked about Twitter as a stand-alone platform."

Ads are performing better on Facebook

"Today, we released our Facebook Advertising Performance, Q1vs. Q2 2013 Study of Brands Powered by Kenshoo Social.  In this infographic, you will find a global analysis of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) spanning over 75 billion ads across a representative sample of advertisers and agencies using Kenshoo Social during the first half of 2013.  The sample includes major brands from a variety of verticals, including retail, travel, financial services and gaming.
We were interested to see how Facebook ad performance may have changed from Q1 to Q2 and the results are impressive to say the least.  Facebook Ads improved across all key metrics in the study, including Click Through Rate (CTR), Cost Per Click (CPC), Conversion Rate (CVR) and Revenue generation.
Q2 versus Q1 2013 Facebook Ad Performance:
Click Through Rate (CTR):  Up 18.5%
Cost Per Click (CPC):  Down 15.9%
Click Volume:  Up 16.4%
Conversions:  Up 56.9%
Advertiser Revenue:  Up 28.3%
The results of the quarterly analysis demonstrate that Facebook is not just a brand awareness and engagement channel but is evolving into a powerful direct response channel, as well. Advertisers are finding significant success using Facebook Ads to drive toward their direct marketing goals, most importantly conversions and revenue."
Source:  Blog post from Kenshoo, 19th August 2013
Full infographic here

WeChat has 100 million registered users outside China


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Source:  Tech in Asia, 15th July 2013

Proctor & Gamble spends 25% - 35% of its marketing budget on 'digital'

"Procter & Gamble Co. Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley raised eyebrows on a recent earnings call, estimating the company spends up to 35% of its massive marketing budget on digital.
[...]
Speaking off the cuff, Mr. Lafley was responding to questions on how much P&G is spending and the bang it's getting for its bucks.
"We're pounding away on communication effectiveness, OK?" Mr. Lafley said. "Our digital, I think, is now up to 35% in the U.S. roughly. It goes up and down, 25% to 35%." He added that some brands are finding digital "incredibly effective" while others need to "get up the learning curve faster."
A P&G spokeswoman clarified that Mr. Lafley pegged U.S. digital marketing spending in a range of 25% to 35%, adding that the number includes spending on search, social, online video, mobile and "other costs."
Source:  AdAge, 20th August 2013

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Household ownership of internet-enabled devices in the UK




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

The proportion of time-shifted viewing in the UK by age




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

Daily time spent watching TV in the UK by age




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

Time shifted viewing in the UK by genre




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

Timeshifted TV in the UK




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

67% of UK homes have a DVR/PVR




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

UK Smart TV sales & Penetration




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013


15% of homes in the UK connect their TVs to the internet through a games console




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Source:  Ofcom Communications Market Report 2013, 1st August 2013

Facebook has 24 million daily active users in the UK

"Facebook has published UK-specific user data, broken down for the first time into daily and monthly, and total and mobile user numbers.
The new figures come as the social network’s user base continues to shift towards mobile, and Facebook is keen to convey the shift to advertisers and media planners.
In June, Facebook claims to have had 33 million monthly active users in the UK, and 24 million daily active users.
The significance of mobile to Facebook is underlined by the 20 [daily] million users, or four out of five of the 24 million who log on each day, doing so via a smartphone or tablet computer.
A Facebook spokesperson said: "We believe that understanding who comes back at least once a month is only part of the picture. Instead, businesses should focus on people who come back online every single day, because that is how they live their lives."
Source:  Media Week, 14th August 2013
Note - Further breakdown of the figs, inc US figs here

A tweet from a billionaire investor added 5% to the value of Apple stock

"APPLE’S shares rocketed last night after legendary investor Carl Icahn tweeted his support for the company, adding tens of billions to its market value.
The activist shareholder sent markets wild with a pair of tweets during afternoon trading yesterday, telling over 40,000 followers that he owns a large amount of Apple stock – which he believes is undervalued.
As shares began to rocket – rising as much as 5.6 per cent – Icahn stuck to the social media forum to divulge that he'd been speaking to the tech giant’s chief executive, and pushing Tim Cook to return some of the company’s huge cash pile to shareholders.
“We currently have a large position in Apple. We believe the company to be extremely undervalued,” Icahn tweeted, sending trading volumes up to three times their usual daily level.
“Had a nice conversation with Tim Cook today. Discussed my opinion that a larger buyback should be done now. We plan to speak again shortly.”
Stocks soared up 5.6 per cent on the statements, before ending the say up 4.75 per cent – representing a gain of $17bn to the market value of the business. The jump leaves the shares at $489.57, their highest level since January."
Source:  City AM, 14th August 2013

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Over 70% of EU households have a broadband connection

"Broadband access at home is the reality for 3/4 of households: 72.5% of EU households now have a broadband connection, up from 67.3% in 2011 (Source: Eurostat). The number leapt by 20 percentage points in Romania and by 16.7 points in Slovakia, with more than 50% of households now having a broadband connection across all member states. And the division between phone & Internet is blurring fast: 34% use the internet to make voice calls (Voice over Internet Protocol or "VOIP"), up 7 points in 2012. 28% uses the internet to talk to users on the same VOIP network for free, and 4% use VOIP to make cheaper international calls. Web-based calls are extremely popular in Bulgaria (57%), Cyprus (55%), Estonia (54%), Lithuania & Latvia (51%). VOIP is less used in Portugal (18%), Italy, (26%), Spain (28%) & Greece (29%), but becoming more popular, with use growing by an average of 7 points since 2011. The increase in VOIP use seems to track the growth in broadband; for example, in Cyprus, there were 11% more connected households in 2012 and VOIP use grew by 16 points."

Monday 12 August 2013

Mobile internet payments in China grew 91% in Q-o-Q in Q2 2013

"According to the statistical data released by iResearch, GMV of China third-party mobile payment market attained 106.41 billion Yuan in Q2 2013, up 64.7% compared with Q1. GMV of remote mobile Internet payment gained 85.24 billion Yuan, up 90.7% over Q1, which was higher than the overall mobile payment GMV in Q1.
In Q2 2013, GMV of remote mobile Internet payment experienced explosive growth, up 90.7% versus Q1. Text message payment kept around 2% QoQ growth rate. Near field communication (NFC) payment experienced about 50% growth due to efforts made by participants in the industrial chain.
iResearch analyzes that there are three factors contributing to the rapid development of mobile payment market. Firstly, rapid development of mobile e-commerce market brought mobile payment with conventional increment. Secondly, mobile payment holds unique advantages in convenience, greatly enhancing user viscosity. Personal business, represented by repayment, payment and telecom account top-up, gradually shifted from PC to mobile device. Thirdly, in the trend of rapid development of mobile Internet and gradually clear mobile payment standard, participants in the mobile payment industrial chain actively made strategies and piloted new business. Therefore, mobile payment market witnessed booming development."
Source:  iResearch, 5th August 2013
Note - I take 'mobile internet payment' to mean m-commerce, while NFC payments will be made in-store.

Foursquare has 160 employees

"Foursquare’s CEO and founder Dennis Crowley told [FastCompany's Austin] Carr that his company has 160 employees. The old rule of thumb was that you could mentally budget $100,000 per employee in yearly costs, after taking into account rent, insurance costs, and the like. However, given Foursquare’s split profile between San Francisco and New York, I think that the old rule is outdated and far too conservative. Let’s be polite and assume that the figure is $150,000 per worker, giving Foursquare costs in 2013, for personnel alone, of $24 million."

Charity: water has raised $100 million in 7 years

"In just seven years, Harrison’s organization claims to have raised roughly $100 million — $33 million in 2012 alone, up from $27 million the year before and $16 million the year before that. Today it is the largest nonprofit in the United States focused on water, with revenues that are four times as great as those of Water.org, the group co-founded by Matt Damon. Charity: water doesn’t drill wells or buy water filters but acts as a fund-raising clearinghouse for locally based charities, which it subcontracts to do the actual work. It markets its partners, mostly using its Web site and social media. “You could almost imagine us a Kayak.com or an Expedia,” Harrison says. But charity: water promises to do more than a mere online travel agent does; it claims to verify that the wells its donors buy are actually completed in a timely fashion. “We create an experience,” he says, “a pure way to give.”"

Snapchat is used by nearly 20% of American iPhone owners

"Still think photo and video-sharing app Snapchat is a novelty sexting app for teenagers? If 5m daily active users and a recent £38.9m funding round hadn't changed your mind, new figures published by analytics firm Onavo might.
The company claims Snapchat was used by 18.6% of all iPhone owners in the US in June 2013, up 10.5% month-on-month, making it the ninth most popular iPhone app there in terms of usage.
Snapchat – which lets people send photos and videos that self-delete after between one and 10 seconds after being viewed – is still a long way behind Facebook (used by 72.5% of US iPhone owners) and Instagram (36.6%), but Twitter's 26.7% market share is within Snapchat's sights."

Twitter activity drives TV viewing, and vice versa

"Today Nielsen released findings, which, for the first time, provide statistical evidence of a two-way causal influence between broadcast TV tune-in for a program and the Twitter conversation around that program. Nielsen’s Twitter Causation Study included time series analysis to determine if Twitter activity drives increased tune-in rates for broadcast TV and if broadcast TV tune-in leads to increased Twitter activity. This latest study follows research released earlier this year that quantified the correlation between TV ratings and Twitter.
Analyzing minute-to-minute trends in Nielsen’s Live TV Ratings and Tweets for 221 broadcast primetime program episodes using Nielsen’s SocialGuide, the findings show that Live TV ratings had a statistically significant impact in related Tweets among 48 percent of the episodes sampled, and that the volume of Tweets caused statistically significant changes in Live TV Ratings among 29 percent of the episodes. The time series analysis methodology used for this study was developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Clive Granger, and is widely used in the fields of econometrics, physics, and neuroscience, among others.
“Using time series analysis, we saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of Tweets, and, conversely, a spike in Tweets can increase tune-in,” said Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer, Nielsen. “This rigorous, research-based approach provides our clients and the media industry as a whole with a better understanding of the interplay between Twitter and broadcast TV viewing.”"
Source:  Press release from Nielsen, 6th August 2013

Promoted & organic tweets drive in-store sales for FMCG brands

"In partnership with Datalogix (DLX), a company that specializes in measuring the offline impact of online ads, we’re announcing a new capability we call “offline sales impact” to answer that challenge. Starting today, we can now quantify the impact of Promoted and organic Tweets on offline sales for consumer packaged goods (CPG) (aka FMCG in the UK - Dan) businesses in the United States.
New measurement shows both organic and Promoted Tweets drive offline sales lift for CPG brands
Three key results from our initial tests
We asked Datalogix to run studies for 35 brands to measure the impact of organic and paid Twitter activity on offline sales. These brands spanned multiple CPG categories, including, beverages, food, wellness, household products, and alcohol. Here’s what we learned:
1. Engagement drives greater in-store sales. Users who engaged with a brand’s Promoted Tweets purchased more from that brand than a statistically identical control group, resulting in an 12 percent average sales lift. The results also demonstrate a sales lift among users who simply viewed the Promoted Tweets without engaging, averaging a 2% lift in sales. This proves that both impressions and engagements from Promoted Tweets are valuable to a brand.
2. Brands’ organic Tweets drive sales. Users exposed to a brand’s organic Tweets bought more from that brand than those who were not exposed, producing a 8 percent average sales lift. This lift was nearly 3x greater among users who saw 5 or more organic Tweets over the measurement period. The implication of this finding is that brands who actively build their follower base and regularly tweet to their followers can see an increase in offline sales.
3. Followers who see Promoted Tweets buy more. Beyond generating sales lifts by reaching followers organically, Promoted Tweets augment the sales impact. Followers who are exposed to Promoted Tweets purchased 29 percent more from that brand than followers reached by organic Tweets alone."
Source:  Blog post by Twitter, 8th August 2013

WhatsApp has 300 million monthly active users

"WhatsApp, a tiny startup with a very basic idea, boring design and lots of competition, has somehow managed to connect up most of the world. And that’s actually pretty exciting.
The four-year-old company — which helps users send text messages between all different types of mobile phones on all different carriers in every country – now has 300 million monthly active users, it told AllThingsD this week. That includes more than 20 million active users each in Germany, Mexico, India and Spain.
WhatsApp users now send 11 billion messages and receive 20 billion messages per day (counted separately because some messages are sent to more than one recipient). That’s up from 27 billion total in June.
Not to go overboard with stats, but WhatsApp has 70 percent penetration across the entire population of Brunei — not even limited to residents who have smartphones. Similarly, it has 50 percent penetration in Hong Kong.
Have you heard about how the fast-growing Snapchat app now transmits 200 million disappearing photos per day between its users?
Well, WhatsApp users share 325 million photos per day, according Jan Koum, the company’s co-founder and CEO, speaking in an interview at WhatsApp’s unmarked office housed inside another tech-related business near Castro Street in Mountain View, Calif."
Source:  AllThingsD, 6th August 2013

Friday 9 August 2013

FC Barcelona has more Facebook and Twitter fans & followers than all the teams in the NFL

"Football is clearly America’s game, but the NFL can’t touch soccer when it comes to the global stage. Just look at the social media followings of the two sports. The NFL’s 30 most valuable teams have 60 million Facebook fans and Twitter followers combined. Spanish soccer powerhouse Barcelona has 61 million all by itself."
Source:  Forbes, 15th July 2013
Note - click the link for a table and more data

Wednesday 7 August 2013

20 million Britons play mobile games each month

"Mobile gaming in the UK continues to grow at a steady pace with little that separates it from social media in terms of audience reach. There are now over 20 million monthly mobile gamers, with 6 million playing games on their mobile on a daily basis. As smartphone gamers have a higher propensity to recall seeing and tapping on in-game advertising, compared to the average browser and app user, one wonders why brands aren’t exploiting this channel more. Conversely, TV advertising is targeting an increasingly distracted audience with 64% of mobile gamers playing in their living room and 4 million playing mobile games whilst watching TV."
See the link for an infographic with more data

Tuesday 6 August 2013

The news site Mail Online had 134 million visitors in July 2013

"Mail Online has revealed that it set a new global record of 134 million web traffic users in July, propelled by news stories including the royal birth and death of Glee star Cory Monteith.
Last month provided Mail Online with its biggest-ever day of web traffic – 10.57 million unique users visited on Monday 22 July eager for information on the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's baby boy – and breaking the 1 million visitors per hour mark.
"What is exciting is the fact that these surges in traffic are coming predominantly from our core, loyal audience which is bookmarking our home page and visiting us directly, versus indirect traffic from external sources," said Martin Clarke, publisher of Mail Online."

58% of TVs sold in Germany in 2013 have internet connections

"Nearly six in 10 of all TV sets sold in Germany during 2013 are connected – and that is expected to rise to seven in 10 before year-end, new research says.
Research by GfK for industry association BITKOM, reports that 58% of all sets sold this year are smart. This is expected to rise to 70% of all new TV sets sold before the end of the year, GfK says.
This is a sharp rise on 2012’s figure of 47%.
The increase means that every third German household (30%) is expected to have a smart TV by the second half of the year."

Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post newspaper for £250 million

"The Washington Post Co. agreed Monday to sell its flagship newspaper to Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos, ending the Graham family’s stewardship of one of America’s leading news organizations after four generations.
Bezos, whose entrepreneurship has made him one of the world’s richest men, will pay $250 million in cash for The Post and affiliated publications to The Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses.
The company has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper to the Amazon.com founder.
Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will get a new, still undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without the newspaper."

Monday 5 August 2013

Far fewer kids in the UK have a TV in their bedrooms than in 2007

"The trend has been attributed largely to massively increased ownership of smartphones and tablets.
Ofcom said that just over half of adults now use a smartphone, up from 27% just two years ago. The number of tablet owners has more than doubled too, from 11% to 24% in a year.
It means the average UK household owns more than three devices capable of connecting to the internet, with one in five homes having more than six.
In contrast to the proliferation of mobile devices, the number of televisions we own is steadily decreasing.
Teenagers' bedrooms, once incomplete without a small TV in the corner, are now less likely to have sets.
According to Ofcom's data, 52% of UK kids aged 5-15 have TVs in their room, compared with 69% in 2007."
Source:  BBC News, 1st August 2013
Note - Download the full reports and charts here

The announcement of Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor Who generated over 16,000 tweets per minute

"Only 11 people have ever officially played Doctor Who, so when the announcement of the 12th came yesterday, it set Twitter abuzz with conversation. In fact, there were more than a million mentions of the news over the course of the day.
This was only the second announcement of a new Doctor since Twitter was created, and the first since 2009 (not counting the announcement of John Hurt appearing in the 50th anniversary special!) so Whovians flocked to Twitter to discuss it.
When official Twitter account @BBCDoctorWho announced that Peter Capaldi would be the new Doctor, replacing outgoing Matt Smith, it was no surprise to see that Tweet get more than 30,000 retweets and favourites:
For the whole of Sunday, #DoctorWho trended in the UK as fans awaited the excitement. Hashtags on Twitter allow fans of anything - a TV show, a sports team or music fans - to congregate around the same conversation.
Steven Moffat trended number 1 in the UK and worldwide, David Tennant trended at number 3 worldwide, and at one point 7 of the ten UK’s trends were Doctor Who-related.
The BBC’s live coverage of the announcement started at 7pm UK time. The peak of Twitter conversation came at 7.27pm UK time, when the new Doctor was announced, with 16,198 tweets per minute (TPM). And celebrity Doctor Who fans and actors were also quick to get involved in the global conversation."
Source:  Twitter YK's blog, 5th August 2013

59% of Yelp's searches are on mobile

"Yelp mobile:  Yelp mobile continues to grow rapidly.  In the second quarter, approximately 40% of local ads were shown on mobile devices, and approximately 59% of searches were on mobile, including mobile web and app.  Additionally, Yelp launched a number of mobile upgrades including the Nearby feature which suggests businesses and activities based on location, behavior, friends' activities, and other data."

Thursday 1 August 2013

There are nearly 12,000 different Android devices in use

"11,868 Distinct Android devices seen this year
3,997 Distinct Android devices seen last year
682,000 Devices surveyed for this report
47.5% Samsung's share of those devices
8 Android versions still in use
37.9% Android users on Jelly Bean"
Source:  Stats from app developer Open signal, reported on their site, retrieved 1st August 2013
Methodology:
"The Device Fragmentation Graphic shows the 11,828 distinct device types that were present in the last 682,000 unique devices to download our app. The reason we chose 682,000 is because we wanted to make a fair comparison with last year's fragmentation report, which was based on a sample of 682,000 devices over a set period of time."