Tuesday 28 April 2015

Emoji popularity by category



Source:  Data from MdKinsey, reported by The Atlantic, 21st April 2015
Lots more data in the full article

The Edleman Trust Barometer 2015


Minecraft videos had 3.9 billion views on YouTube in March 2015

"Minecraft remains the most popular game franchise on YouTube by a considerable margin, with videos of the crafting game notching up 3.9 billion views in March 2015 alone according to a chart produced by research firms Newzoo and Octoly.
Minecraft was well ahead of second-placed Grand Theft Auto, with its videos attracting 1.4 billion views in March."

42% of American households use video streaming services

"" Streaming video services, now used by more than 42 percent of American households, are heavily changing media consumption habits across generations, according to the ninth edition of the Deloitte "Digital Democracy Survey" released today. The study reveals that streaming content has overtaken live programming as the viewing method-of-choice, with 56 percent of consumers now streaming movies and 53 percent streaming television on a monthly basis, as compared to 45 percent of consumers preferring to watch television programs live. Moreover, younger viewers have moved to watching TV shows on mobile devices rather than on television. Among Trailing Millennials (age 14-25), nearly 60 percent of time spent watching movies occurs on computers, tablets and smartphones, making movie viewing habits decidedly age-dependent.
The report also finds that the trend of binge-watching – viewing three or more program episodes at one sitting – is prevalent with 68 percent of consumers doing so today. In fact, 31 percent of Americans who binge-watch, do so at least once a week, led by Trailing Millennials, who binge watch more frequently than any other generation at 42 percent. The survey also notes that TV-dramas are the most popular television genre to binge-watch, commanding 54 percent of binge-watchers’ attention; a characteristic more pronounced among females. Additionally, 20 percent of Americans binge-watch comedies, with more being male.
Deloitte's "Digital Democracy Survey" compares and contrasts generational preferences of more than 2,000 consumers, ages 14 and older in the U.S., revealing significant technology, media, and telecommunications consumption trends, including attitudes and behavior toward advertising and social networks, mobile technologies, the Internet, and consumption preferences across platforms and devices."
PDF of summary report here

Mobile advertising made up 25% of total US digital ad spend in 2014

"Digital advertising revenues in the U.S. rose to an all-time high of $49.5 billion in 2014, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year, released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and prepared by PwC US. This figure represents a 16 percent increase over 2013’s record-setting total of $42.8 billion – and marks the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth for the industry. The report additionally shows that 2014’s fourth quarter numbers reached $14.2 billion, a 17 percent uptick from $12.1 billion in the final quarter of 2014.
Other highlights include:
Mobile advertising in the United States brought in $12.5 billion during FY 2014, a 76 percent boost from the prior year total of $7.1 billion. As a result, it is the second largest format, accounting for 25 percent of FY 2014 revenues, a rise over 2013, when it accounted for 17 percent of that year’s total.
Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, totaled $3.3 billion in full year 2014, a 17 percent increase over revenues of $2.8 billion in 2013.
Social media advertising saw stellar returns, bringing in $7 billion in 2014, up by 57 percent over 2013’s total of $4.5 billion.
Search revenues totaled $19 billion in 2014, up 3 percent from 2013, when search totaled $18.4 billion.
Display-related advertising revenues in 2014 totaled $13.5 billion or 27 percent of the year’s revenues, an uptick of 5 percent over $12.8 billion in 2013.
Retail advertisers continue to represent the largest category of internet ad spending, responsible for 21 percent in 2014, followed by financial services and closely trailed by automotive which account for 13 and 12 percent of the year’s revenues respectively, and identical to their percentages in full year 2013.
“Marketers clearly recognize that consumers are leading mobile-first lives and are investing their ad dollars accordingly,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “The news of digital video’s double-digit growth is also no surprise. Brands and agencies are clamoring to get into the upcoming Digital Content NewFronts, where they will experience the latest in storytelling in sight, sound and motion.”
“High double-digit growth in mobile advertising is a reflection of the continued shift in consumer behavior away from desktop and towards mobile devices,” said David Silverman, Partner, PwC US. “A prominent rise in social, a significant mobile activity, is driving growth in advertising revenue as consumers spend more time connected.”
“Interactive marketing has generated remarkable revenue growth, a testament to its power to reach today’s consumers with innovative formats at critical junctures in the path to purchase,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics, and Measurement, IAB."

Source:  IAB US, 22nd April 2015

The median opt-in rates for push notifications by category



Source:  Urban Airship, reported by Venture Beat, 15th April 2015

Facebook Messenger accounts for 10% of global mobile VOIP calls

"Facebook Messenger wants to replace the telephone, not just SMS, and it’s on its way. Messenger now makes up 10% of global mobile Voice Over IP calls, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during today’s Q1 2015 earnings call. And Zuckerberg said that because mobile VOIP can actually provide higher audio quality for calls than traditional phone calls, he expects that growth “is going to continue very quickly.”
Considering Facebook only fully rolled out free mobile VOIP calling to Messenger last April, it’s impressive that it’s already becoming a legitimate competitor to apps like Skype. And just yesterday it began rolling out free VOIP calls to WhatsApp on iOS after bringing the feature to Android last month."

Apple sold over 61m iPhones in Q1 2015

"Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus continue their hit parade, building on a massive first quarter of 2015 with a very strong second quarter total of 61.2 million handsets sold. This isn’t an all-time quarterly record, but it’s normal to see a slight decrease quarter-over-quarter coming out of a launch sales period, and this is a huge increase year-over-year compared to the 43.7 million iPhone sales sold during Q2 2014. This is the second highest total for quarterly iPhone sales from Apple of all time, besting the 51 million from Q1 2014 it beat with Q1 2015’s 74.5 million sales by a wide margin.
The iPhone may have seen big gains year-over-year, but in what’s becoming a common refrain, iPad sales continued to be less than impressive. The iPad saw only 12.6 million sales during Q2 2015, compared to 16 million in the year-ago quarter, and 21.4 million during Q1 2015. The iPad was expected to sell around 14 million units according to consensus analyst estimates, while the iPhone predictions pegged total sales at around 58 million units for the quarter, so Apple handily blew those away.
The Q2 2015 iPhone sales represent 40 percent growth year-over-year, while the iPad’s sales slid over 21 percent compared to the year-ago, three-month period."

Tuesday 21 April 2015

One third of American adults owns a smart TV or device to stream video to their TV


"The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released “The Changing TV Experience: Attitudes and Usage Across Multiple Screens,” an in-depth study that explores new ground in the ongoing dramatic shift in consumers’ television viewing habits, and offers marketers insights into reaching audiences as connected TV ownership and multiscreening become more prevalent.
Connected TV Versus Traditional TV:
The study revealed that one in three Americans over the age of 18 owns either a smart TV or a device that streams video to their TVs, with two in five (38%) of those individuals spending at least 50 percent of their TV viewing time streaming video to their television.
Half of connected TV owners say they are more likely to stream content than watch traditional TV because there are fewer commercials, while 40 percent considered commercials on these platforms to be less intrusive than standard TV ads. In addition, they are quite satisfied with their new viewing experience, with 76 percent saying it is just as good or better than traditional TV (“as good” 51%, “better” 25%). They also cite a preference for streaming since it gives them greater control (33%) and better selection/more content of interest (29%).
In the connected TV universe, people watch a range of programming at least once a month:
Over three-quarters stream Netflix and YouTube video content
About half stream traditional TV shows, Amazon Prime programming, and videos from portals such as AOL, Google and Yahoo
Two out of five stream videos from Hulu Plus

Over a third (35%) of connected TV owners are streaming more video to their TV than a year ago. One in four smartphone and tablet owners, and one in five computer owners say the same. Meanwhile, 19 percent of adults 18 and older state that they are watching less traditional TV year-over-year.
Traditional TV Undergoes Multiscreen Transformation:
According to the report, 78 percent of U.S. adults simultaneously use another device while watching traditional TV, with browsing the internet being the most popular activity across devices and smartphones serving as the predominant second screen. More than two-thirds (69%) of smartphone users regularly conduct activities on their mobile phone during TV viewing, and 84 percent do so daily. In addition, more than half of computer and tablet owners multiscreen during TV viewing, with 79 percent of computer users doing so daily, and 65 percent of tablet owners doing so with the same frequency.
A significant portion of smartphone, tablet, and computers user perform tasks related to the TV shows or commercials they are watching, including:
Email/IM/text with friends about the show/movie (54% smartphones, 37% tablets, 38% computers)
Search for information about show/movie/actor (49%, smartphones, 43% tablets, 44% computers)
Read/post on social media pages of the show/movie/actor (42% smartphones, 31% tablets, 33% computers)
Search for reviews of a product/service shown in a commercial (37% smartphones, 40% tablets, 40% computers)
Post on social media about a commercial (34% smartphones, 28% tablets, 26% computers)

The study’s results confirm that multiscreening is on the upswing overall, with 40 percent of smartphone users saying that they have increased multiscreening activity over the past year. The rise year-over-year is similar for tablet users (39%), with a solid increase among computer users (28%) as well."
Full report 'The Changing TV Experience' here

There are more than 20,000 Uber drivers in San Francisco

"At Uber we are thrilled to be playing a role in unlocking economic opportunity and empowering entrepreneurs across the Bay Area, and we are even more excited to be able to accomplish this at such a large scale.
Today we’re proud to announce that we reached a new milestone: The number of Bay Area driver-partners on the Uber platform exceeded 20,000 for the first time… and we were not even halfway there just one year ago."

Spotify is worth more than the entire US recording industry



"Sources: Spotify valuation ($8.4 billion) calculated by Wall Street Journal, based on an upcoming, $400 million+ capital round led by Goldman Sachs..  US-based recording valuation for 2014 ($6.972 billion) published this month by recording trade group RIAA."
From the comments:
"The valuation of a company is based on expected future profits. In the case of an established business, these are estimated on the basis of current profits adjusted upwards or downwards according to the market’s judgement of future trends, and discounted for time and risk (which means that possible earnings far in the future have little present value). Current earnings (profits) are usually only a small proportion (maybe 10%) of current revenue. So expected future earnings over, say, a 10 year period might well be of the same order of magnitude as current revenue.
In the case of a speculative start-up venture like Spotify, where there are no current profits, the valuation is little more than guesswork. A valuation of $8 billion implies that the market is expecting future profits of the order of $800 million a year over a substantial period in the future."
Also - note that it's comparing a global valuation to a US one.


Monday 20 April 2015

WhatsApp has 800m active monthly users

"WhatsApp - now serving 800,000,000 monthly active users. Reminder for the press out there: active and registered users are not the same thing"
Source:  Facebook post by WhatsApp founder Jan Koum, 18th April 2015
MAUs

Friday 17 April 2015

The average Netflix subscription watches over 50 hours on Netflix per month

“Video streaming pioneer Netflix Inc added more subscribers than projected in the United States and abroad during the first quarter, news that sent its shares up nearly 12 percent on Wednesday.
Net subscriber additions rose 22 percent year-over-year to 4.88 million in the March quarter, beating the company's forecast of 4.05 million.
The company that shook up television with original shows such as "House of Cards" has been aggressively building its overseas presence as growth slows in the United States. It launched services in Australia and New Zealand in the quarter and expects to start in Japan later this year.
Netflix added 2.6 million customers in its nearly 50 international markets in the quarter ended March 31, bringing the total to 62.27 million users worldwide.
Customers spent more time than ever watching Netflix, streaming 10 billion hours of programming in the quarter, the company said.”
Source:  Reuters, 15th April 2015
10bn hours over 60m subscribers = 166 hours per quarter
(So that’s over 50 hours per subscription per month…)
Note that each subscription can use up to six devices, so potentially multiple users and anecdotally people give their spare places to friends and family

Wednesday 15 April 2015

57% of American broadband households subscribe to a paid online video service

"Access and entertainment research from Parks Associates finds 57% of consumers in U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT (over-the-top) video service, such as Netflix or Hulu Plus. The research firm, which will participate at the NAB Show next week in Las Vegas, reports the average U.S. broadband household spends $9 per month on Internet video, up from $7 in 2012.
Parks Associates is partnering with NAB to host the Super Session “Constant Cravings - Using OTT to Win the Next Generation of Viewers” on Monday, April 13, 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m., in room S222 of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The session, with executives from CBS Interactive, Vubiquity, Discovery Communications, and Parks Associates, features an in-depth discussion of the challenges, opportunities, and threats for OTT video and pay-TV providers.
"The number of hours watching video content continues to rise, exceeding 36 hours per week in 2014, with Internet video accounting for 36% of that time, or approximately 13.3 hours a week," said Brett Sappington, Director of Research, Parks Associates. "Rather than cannibalizing the consumption of broadcast, pay-TV, and packaged media content, Internet video is increasing overall consumption levels for video.""

Daily screen usage in the US across generations


Source:  Getting Audiences Right, Millward Brown, March 2015

Changes in the preferred device when accessing video content



Source:  Digital Video & The Connected Consumer Report by Accenture, April 2015
(Lots more charts & data)
Press release from Accenture, 13th April 2015
Methodology:
"The research was conducted online in October and November 2014, with 24,000 consumers in 24 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.
The sample size in each country was representative of the online population, with respondents ranging in age from 14 to 55 and over. The survey polled respondents about their usage, attitudes and expectations related to digital device ownership, content consumption, broadband constraints, digital trust and the Internet of Things."

Facebook accounted for three quarters of global social network ad spend in 2014

"Boosted by solid growth in usage and advertising spend across major social networks, the global social network market continued to show strong growth in 2014, according to Strategy Analytics Global Social Network Forecast. Globally, Social Networks surpassed 2 billion users for the first time in 2014, of which Facebook accounted for 68%.
Ad spend on social networks grew a robust 41% globally in 2014 totaling over $15.3 billion, accounting for 11% of global digital ad spend. Facebook accounted for three-quarters of global social network ad spend in 2014, while Twitter accounted for 8%. In 2015, ad spend on social networks is expected to grow by 29%, totaling $19.8 billion.
“Overall, the social network market continues to show strong growth across all regions as the major social network platforms drive usage and engagement via improved integration of digital media content,” said Leika Kawasaki, author of the report. “While Facebook currently dominates the global social network market, its absence in China allows local social networks such as QZone and Tencent Weibo to gain traction in the rapidly expanding Chinese digital advertising market.”
Other Key Findings from this report include:
Nearly half (46%) of social network users reside in the Asia Pacific region.
China accounts for almost 25% of global social network users with 495 million users in 2014.
North America had the highest ratio of social network users to its population (64%) in 2014, followed by Western Europe at 55%.
The US accounts for the largest share of global social network ad spend (41%), totaling $6.2 billion in 2014, up 35% YoY.
The UK. is the second largest market for social network ad spend, accounting for 8.2% of global social network ad spend in 2014, just edging out China (8%).
The US had the highest social network ad spend per social network user at $31.37 in 2014. This is expected to grow 27% to $39.84 in 2015."

HBO vs Netflix


Source:  Redef, 5th March 2015
Other stats and charts in the full article

Tuesday 14 April 2015

It took Apple 74 days to sell one million iPhones and 28 days to sell one million iPads

"To put [Apple Watch figures not yet revealed] in context: It took Apple 74 days to sell one million iPhones and 28 days to sell one million iPads. So even if sales are constrained by supply, it still likely represents a significant increase in momentum from previous new Apple products."
Source:  Mashable, 13th April 2015
Links -
74 days to sell 1m iPhones - 10th September 2007 (Press release also points out that it took nearly 2 years to sell 1m iPods)
(Note that the iPhone wasn't released in UK and other major markets until after this point)
28 days to sell 1m iPads - 3rd May 2010
Over 300,000 iPads sold in first day - 5th April 1010

Thursday 9 April 2015

UK online ad spend hit £2.7bn in 2014; mobile was 23% of total

"Nearly four in ten UK households bought a tablet in the last year. Mobile now accounts for 23% of digital ad spend and 56% of social media spend.
The average UK household now owns 7.4 devices that connect to the internet. This drove advertisers to spend a record £7.2 billion on digital advertising in 2014 – according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK Digital Adspend report, conducted by PwC. The report is accompanied by YouGov consumer data.
Among Britons online, smartphones are the most common internet-enabled device (1.7 per household)¹, followed by laptops (1.3) and tablets (1.2). Four in 10 (40%) households now own one tablet, one fifth (19%) have two, while 11% own three or more. According to the IAB/PwC data, tablet-dedicated ad spend alone² grew 118% to reach £87.4 million.
Digital advertising hits annual record £7.2bn – funding free services people increasingly rely on
Alongside the rise in internet-enabled devices, IAB/PwC data shows advertisers increased digital ad spend, like-for-like³, by 14% to £7.19 billion in 2014 – up from £6.26 billion in 2013 (an absolute increase of £936m).
“Advertisers are increasing their digital budgets to reach people as they go online through an increasing array of devices,” says Tim Elkington, Chief Strategy Officer at the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau. “It’s a win-win for consumers, because digital advertising pays for the wide range of free online services they increasingly rely on in their daily lives, but don’t necessarily want to pay much for.”  
The YouGov study reveals the average British adult online is willing to pay a maximum of £1.53 a month for their email service, £1.33 to use search engines, £1.10 for video content, 92p for news websites, 88p for social media, 55p for online games and 52p for price comparison sites⁴.
Banking/finance is the area of people’s lives that would be most affected without the internet or mobile phone – cited by over half (51%)¹ of adult Britons online – followed by keeping up with current events (42%), shopping (38%) and their relationships with friends and family (37%).
Mobile ad spend up 63%; accounts for nearly one-quarter of digital advertising
With smartphones accounting for nearly eight in 10 (78%)⁵ handsets, mobile advertising grew 63% to £1.62 billion in 2014. Mobile now accounts for 23% of all digital advertising spend – up from 16% in 2013.
Consumer goods biggest display advertisers
The biggest spending sector on display ads in 2014 was consumer goods, which had a 19% share, followed by travel & transport (14%) and finance (13%). Consumer goods was also the biggest spender on mobile display ads – accounting for a 19% share, followed by entertainment & media (18%) and retail (14%).
Digital advertising formats
Boosted by video and social media, display advertising across the internet and mobile grew almost twice the overall digital rate (14.0%) at 26.4% to £2.27 billion in 2014. Display now accounts for 32% of digital ad spend – its largest ever share.
Elkington comments, “Display advertising's record share shows marketers are increasingly seeing online as a viable ‘brand awareness’ ad medium – as with traditional media – not just one for generating an immediate ‘direct response’. The internet has been characterised as the latter since the start due to its unrivalled measurability but this shows online advertising has come of age.”
Social media ad spend grew 65% to £922 million, with 56% (£517 million) accounted for by mobile.
Content and native advertising⁶ spend hit £509 million – 22% of digital display advertising.
Video advertising grew 43% year-on-year to £442 million in 2014 – compared to just £53m five years ago. Mobile video advertising, alone, grew 142% year-on-year to £164 million.
Paid-for search marketing increased 8.7% to £3.77 billion in 2014.
Classifieds including recruitment, property and automotive listings, grew 11.6% to £1.05 billion – accounting for 15% of digital ad spend.
“Despite digital’s continued stellar performance, there remains significant growth opportunities to be exploited on mobile and tablet devices,” says Dan Bunyan, Senior Manager at PwC. “These are the two areas where ownership and usage is extremely high but where advertising investment is disproportionately low. For instance, over half of web pages are viewed via mobile phones but they account for just 23% of digital spend.”
Methodology:
¹Source: YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2090 adults. The survey was conducted online between 16-17th March 2015. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).
²Tablet-specific advertising only (i.e. not including internet advertising displayed on a tablet by default).
³All growth rates except video and social media advertising are a like-for-like basis, i.e. only companies that submitted in 2013 and 2014 have been included in year-on-year growth calculations.
⁴All calculations performed by the Internet Advertising Bureau, based on YouGov consumer data
⁵Source: comScore, MobiLens, UK, 3 months ending Dec 2014.
⁶Content marketing = paid for sponsorship, advertisement features, in-feed & native distribution tools."

Wednesday 8 April 2015

More than 1,000 apps for the Apple Watch were submitted in the first four days

"Cook also told employees that “more than one thousand apps were submitted in just four days last week when the App Store started accepting them, and the rate of submissions has only been climbing since then.” Apple started accepting Apple Watch app submissions last week."

Apple has more than 25% of the Chinese smartphone market

"Apple has stolen the No. 1 spot in smartphone sales in urban China from local rival Xiaomi, according to market researcher Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
For the three months that ended in February, Apple's iPhone 6 was the top selling phone in urban China with a market share of 10.2 percent, up from 9.5 percent for the prior three months. The iPhone 6 Plus was the third best-selling phone just behind Xiaomi's Android-based RedMi Note in second place. With the two new iPhones as well as older models selling robustly in China, Apple jumped to the top spot with 27.6 percent market share overall, Kantar said Wednesday."

Mobile & tablets account for more than 50% of iPlayer requests

"Mobile and tablet requests for BBC iPlayer increased to 52% of all requests to TV programmes on the service in February – the highest level seen to date, according to the latest monthly update on the catch-up service from the BBC.
Tablets accounted for 29% of requests while smartphones accounted for 23%
BBC iPlayer had its biggest week ever beginning on February 16, driven by audience interest in the 30th anniversary episodes of soap opera EastEnders, which received 75 million requests, according to the BBC."