Wednesday 24 December 2014

There were more fifth birthdays in 2014 than ever before

"More Fifth Birthdays Than Ever Before
To me, one of the best ways to measure progress is to look at how many children are dying of preventable causes. And today, more kids are living to see their fifth birthday than ever before. This year, for at least the 42nd year in a row, the child mortality rate has fallen. And it’s not just moving in the right direction—it’s falling faster than anyone expected. The Economist ran a great article about this in September, where it estimated that just since 2001, the world has saved 13.6 million children’s lives. It’s hard to think of a better sign the world is improving."

More than 50% of Papa John's sales come from mobile

"Papa John’s continues to be a force to reckon with in mobile ordering with its digital and mobile channels recently reaching a new milestone to account for more than 50 percent of sales in the United States.
Papa John’s claims to be the first brand in its industry to surpass the digital and mobile sales milestone. The company, which was the first U.S.-based pizza chain to introduce digital ordering to its delivery restaurants in 2001, continues to streamline the payment process by accepting Google Wallet Instant Buy for delivery and take-out orders placed via its Android mobile application."

The number of British homes with a TV has fallen for the first time

"The number of UK homes with a TV has fallen for the first time, as viewers turn to alternatives including tablets and smartphones to watch programmes.
Ofcom said that after years of consecutive growth, the number of households with a television set fell from 26.33m at the end of 2012 to 26.02m at the end of last year.
The media regulator said that nearly one million homes have a broadband connection, but no TV, indicating that other internet-connected devices are being used to view content.
Ofcom said catch-up TV content in particular is growing in importance and being watched on smartphones, tablets, computers and games consoles."

The Internet in Real Time 2014


An incredibly useful site from WebPageFX, showing the key metrics for key sites and services.  Often these things are out of date, but this one seems to be bang on, as at December 2014.
File under 'essential resources!
See it here

Sites and services covered include:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
Foursquare
Pinterest
Tinder
WhatsApp
Snapchat
Skype
Amazon
Google
Kickstarter
Yelp
Email
Dropbox
Wordpress
Tumblr
Flickr
reddit
Android
iOS
Youtube
Netflix
Spotify
Pandora

Tuesday 23 December 2014

15% of Google searches on Android by signed-in users return deep links to apps

"App deep links are the new kid on the block in Search results, and they’re picking up speed faster than you can say “Schema.org ViewAction”! For signed-in users, 15% of Google searches on Android now return deep links to apps through App Indexing. And over just the past quarter, we've seen the number of clicks on app deep links jump by 10x."
Source:  Google Developers Blog, 9th December 2014

Rovio's Toons TV has had more than 4 billion video views

"In March 2013, Rovio turned every Angry Birds game into a video distribution channel and instantly a star was born. ToonsTV launched to an immediate audience of hundreds of millions of global viewers. This week and before its second birthday, ToonsTV reached 4 billion views in 230 countries with the biggest audiences in US, UK, China, Mexico and Russia. The massively popular content from Rovio Animation Studio and its partners can be accessed with a simple tap of an on-screen button, online at toons.tv and on Comcast, and from Roku boxes and Samsung Smart TVs."

More than half of the TVs sold in the UK are 'smart'

"After five years of continuous decline, research from Mintel reveals that the TV market has recorded growth in value for the first time since 2009. Boosted by the impact of the FIFA World Cup, Mintel expects that the UK televisions market will return to growth by the end of 2014, with sales of televisions forecast to increase by 1 per cent in volume and 3 per cent in value, up from £2.8 billion in 2013 to an estimated £2.9 billion in 2014. Although the market performed well during 2014, sales are forecast to decline again in 2015.
Paul Davies, Senior Leisure and Technology Analyst at Mintel, said: “While anticipation and excitement surrounding the tournament prompted a frenzy of upgrades, particularly from men aged between 16 and 34, many of these purchases were brought forward by just a few months. Although sales of TVs are rising, 2014 is only likely to represent a temporary spurt of growth, as demand for new televisions is expected to drop further over the next five years, the continuation of a longstanding decline.”
Furthermore, 2014 is expected to be the first full year in which smart TVs will account for more than half of televisions sold in the UK market (57 per cent, up from 39 per cent in 2013), equating to nearly 5 million sets – up from 3.4 million the year before. Today, as many as a quarter (24 per cent) of all UK homes have a smart TV."

28% of the money spent on Apple Pay is spent in Whole Foods


Source:  ITG Investment Research Report on Mobile Payments, reported in a press release, 19th December 2014

Wednesday 17 December 2014

The number of parcels sent as a proportion of all mail



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

The rise and fall of SMS messaging



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

The percent who access online video, by device



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

eCommerce Sales by market



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Online and mobile ad spend per head by market




Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Online as a percentage of total ad spend, by market



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Time spent watching TV by market, 2012-2013



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

The growth in revenue from online video


Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Types of online video viewed on TV, Laptop, Tablet, Games Console or Mobile





Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Percentage who ever watch TV programmes or films online


Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Mobile payments used for physical goods


Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Media Device Penetration by Market 2014




Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Uber is generating 50,000 jobs every month globally

Just one of the stats on Google Ventures' end of 2014 review or their portfolio companies, December 2014


Nearly four hours of content is added to Mixcloud every minute

"Over six million shows have now been uploaded by a 650,000 strong community of DJs, radio presenters and curators.
A record 200,000 were uploaded in the last month alone, and with each averaging 45 minutes
Nearly four hours of content is being added every minute to our massive catalogue of radio shows and DJ sets"
Source:  Mixcloud's 'Five Years' blog post, 15th December 2014

Monday 15 December 2014

Friday 12 December 2014

10 Trends for 2015




Each year we produce a trends report to help us think about how the worlds of technology and media will change over the next few years.
There are lots of things happening, and we hope we have chosen some the most interesting
This year we look at:
App Simplification & Integration
Video Ads
Connected TV
Paying to go Ad-Free
New News Sites
Start-ups Going 'Full Stack'
Voice
Symbols & Emojis
Virtual Reality
Robots

Please have a look!

Thursday 11 December 2014

More user-uploaded videos than YouTube videos are posted on Facebook

"Social media analysts at Socialbakers tracked data across 20,000 Facebook pages belonging to public figures and companies. They observed a drop in the share of videos coming from YouTube as the number of videos coming directly from users increased, Business Insider reports.
For the first time, user-uploaded videos surpassed YouTube videos in November. The shift comes not long after Facebook tweaked its video playback feature so that scenes would begin playing automatically as the user scrolled through the page."

Square processed $100m in payments for small businesses on 5th December 2014

"Small businesses using Square's popular iPhone- and iPad-connected credit card readers combined to sell more than $100 million worth of goods and services in a single day, the company announced on Wednesday.
Food the most popular item on that day, with payment for nearly 1.5 million meals and 430,215 cups of coffee flowing through the app. 202,692 people got haircuts, while 72,601 purchased new clothes.
Some 4,445 pairs of shoes, 55,021 can rides, and 648 tattoos were also sold. Consumers paid for 25,569 services, such as home repairs.
Along with the lofty sales figures, Square highlighted some other equally impressive statistics. One out of every four active credit or debit cards in the U.S. has been used with Square in 2014, for instance, and Square merchants would be the 13th-largest retailer in the country if taken together."
Source:  Apple Insider, 10th December 2014
Square blog post with more data & infographics here

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Instagram has 300 million monthly active users

"We’re proud to announce that there are now more than 300 million Instagrammers. Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day. Instagram is home to creativity in all of its forms, a place where you can find everything from images of the Nile River to the newest look from Herschel Supply or a peek inside the mind of Taylor Swift.
We’re thrilled to watch this community thrive and witness the amazing connections people make over shared passions and journeys."

Monday 8 December 2014

Emojis are used more often on Twitter than hyphens or the number 5

"And that’s just one emoji. If we count all emoji together [..] then emoji, as a group, are now used more frequently on Twitter than are hyphens or the numeral 5."

Thursday 4 December 2014

62% of British households have pay TV

"Sixty-two per cent of UK households pay for TV, spending an average of £33 (€42) per month but, according to new research from price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com, almost a third (30 per cent) claim it isn’t good value for money.
TV users find that a large proportion of the channels they pay for are completely redundant as more than one in four people (27 per cent) only watch 10 per cent of the channels available to them. On average, households view just a quarter (25 per cent) of the channels they pay for.
One in four (27 per cent) TV fans fork out extra on top of their existing pay-TV package for programmes such as films on demand, and one-off sporting events – adding an extra £13 to their monthly TV bills each time they do so. This means, collectively, consumers are shelling out £275 million per year extra on add-ons and upgrades to their existing packages to watch more exclusive TV content.
Meanwhile, more than one in 10 (12 per cent) have thrown money down the drain by forgetting to cancel upgrades to their TV package that they no longer want or use. Sheer absent-mindedness could be costing consumers as much as £7.1 million per month."
Source:  Advanced Television,. 3rd December 2014

The market shares of media streaming devices in the US



Source:  Press release from Parks Associates, 2nd December 2014

Wednesday 3 December 2014

US Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday online sales figures 2010-2014

Desktop only



Source:  comScore, 2nd December 2014

John Lewis sold one tablet per second during Black Friday 2014

"John Lewis has reported the best week of trading in its 150-year history, as feverish demand for televisions and tablet computers turned Black Friday into the busiest shopping day ever for a string of retailers.
John Lewis said it had sold an average of one tablet computer every second and a flatscreen 40-inch voice-command TV every minute from the moment 24 hours of promotions began at midnight last Thursday.
The retailer’s internet traffic was up by more than 300% in the early hours of Friday as consumers logged on to snap up discounted clothing, handbags and electrical goods.
Over the week online sales were up 42% on last year and staff at warehouses had to pack 87% more parcels on Saturday than last year as the group’s website coped well with the rush of orders, avoiding the shutdowns seen elsewhere.
The tills were also ringing in stores with branches in London, Liverpool, York and Southampton among those notching up record daily takings.
The store revealed it had sold £179m worth of goods in the seven days to 29 November, a rise of 22% on the same week last year – a result described as “spectacular” by industry watchers. It also surpassed the previous sales peak of £164.4m in the week before last Christmas.
Consumers were splashing out on electrical goods, with sales up 41% on last year. Clothing was also popular, up 17% on last year, as were pricey handbags, up 37%.
“The year-on-year gain was all the more impressive given that John Lewis had also taken Black Friday very seriously in 2013,” said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.
Online electricals retailer AO.com said it had its busiest trading weekend in its 14-year history, while Maplin Electronics also said its online sales on the day had been up 70% compared with last year and store sales up more than 30%. Halfords, the bikes to car parts chain, said its website had 1.1m visitors on Black Friday, double the number last year, while online retailer Very.co.uk said its sales were up 134% on last year making it the busiest day in its history.
Jon Owen, retail brands and trading director at Very’s parent company Shop Direct, said: “If Black Friday came of age last year, it was turbo-charged this year. We were blown away by its success.”"

Amazon UK sold approx. 64 items per second during Black Friday 2014

"Black Friday was the busiest day on record for online retailer Amazon UK, with sales that "surpassed all expectations", the company has said.
Its website recorded orders for more than 5.5 million goods, with about 64 items sold per second.
Amazon said the public's appetite for Black Friday was "bigger than ever".
However, the day was not without controversy as police were called to deal with scuffles at a number of retailers' stores across the UK.
And some online retailers reported problems with customers accessing their websites because of sheer demand.
Last year's Black Friday was also a record day for Amazon, when it sold more than 4 million items."

Uber Drivers need to provide an average of 60 rides per week to make $50,000 p.a.

"After looking at the numbers, NerdWallet had a few big takeaways:
Based on their data, drivers can, on average, make more working for Uber than for Lyft and Sidecar in most places. Uber drivers make an average of $15.97 per ride with Uber, as opposed to Lyft ($11.48) and Sidecar ($13.35).
In order to make $50,000 a year, an Uber driver must provide 60.21 rides every week. A Lyft driver would have to provide 83.76 rides, and a Sidecar driver would have to provide 72.03 rides. To put that in perspective, 60.21 rides each week equates to between 20 and 21 hours of driving per week for an Uber driver.
To make $100,000 a year, drivers have to give 120.42, 167.52, and 144.05 rides every week on Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar, respectively."
Note 1 - As ever, if you want to take a holiday you need to factor that into your other weeks
Note 2 - Based on current US rates

Monday 1 December 2014

Over $1 billion was spent on desktop computers in the US on Thanksgiving Day 2014

"comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported U.S. desktop retail e-commerce spending for the first 28 days of the November–December 2014 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $22.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.
Thanksgiving Day saw a significant 32 percent gain to $1.01 billion in spending to surpass the billion dollar threshold for the first time in its history and marking the first day of the 2014 season to reach that level. Black Friday (November 28) followed with an even stronger spending day with $1.51 billion in desktop online sales, up 26-percent from Black Friday 2013."
Source:  Press release from comScore, 30th November 2014
Note - some reports put mobile spending even greater than desktop