Digital Stats

Women write shorter presentations than men

2012-01-30T16:59:00.000Z

That and other stats can be found in this presentation from Slideshare

SlideShare Zeitgeist 2011

View more presentations from Rashmi Sinha

Spotify has 3m paying subscribers

2012-01-27T17:11:00.000Z

"Music subscription services may prove to be the saving grace for the recording industry. Three million people are now actively tuning in to Spotify, the song streaming platform once criticized for paying paltry royalties to record labels. Spotify has gained a million users since September, largely due to getting plugged into Facebook's social sharing."
Source: Rolling Stone, 27th January 2012
Earlier - 2.5m in November

Mobile accounted for 42% of all technology investment in 2011

2012-01-27T14:14:00.000Z

"Some revealing numbers out from the analysts at Rutberg & Co. that point to how big mobile is in terms of tech investments today, and how consumer applications are the source of the most action at the moment.
The analysts say that mobile investments accounted for 42.4 percent of all technology investment in 2011—or $6.3 billion for mobile startups in a year where, overall, venture capital investment in technology totaled $14.9 billion."

Source: Paid Content, 23rd January 2012

Facebook contributes an estimated £2.2bn to UK GDP

2012-01-27T14:11:00.000Z

"Facebook estimates that it benefits the UK to the tune of more than £2bn a year, including the development of an almost £500m "app economy" that has sprung up around the world's most popular social networking website.
The company commissioned a study by Deloitte, which concluded that Facebook supports 35,200 UK jobs and fuels £2.2bn to UK GDP each year, and published the document at the DLD conference in Munich on Tuesday.
Deloitte's estimates looked at the direct economic impact of Facebook – such as paying tax, profits and wages – as well as the more broad impact it has had in enabling businesses to reach customers, make sales, create and monetise apps and even boost demand for products such as broadband and smartphones."

Source: The Guardian, 24th January 2012

5m guest reservations have been made on Airbnb

2012-01-27T09:50:00.000Z

"Airbnb, the online marketplace where you can rent out your house or spare room to travelers, announced today it has reached a milestone of five million guest reservations overall. The company also celebrated its strong international growth, with property listings in more than 19,000 cities in 192 countries around the world.
In terms of reservations alone, 2011 was a great year for Airbnb. The company launched in 2008 and it took about three years to reach one million bookings. In the last year alone, more than four million reservations were made, bringing Airbnb’s total to a cool five million.
The company also brought in some serious funding in 2011. Last July, investors gave Airbnb $112 million at $1.3 billion valuation, bringing the company’s total funding to $119 million dollars.
[...]

The online listing and booking service is paying off for many in a big way; earlier this week we reported that New Yorkers are making an average of $21,000 per year by renting out their spaces to travelers. The legality of renting out spaces for short periods of time is questionable in some cities, but people have flocked to the service none the less."

Source: VentureBeat, 26th January 2012

In December 2011 12% of paid searches in the UK came from mobile devices

2012-01-27T09:42:00.000Z

"During December 2011, 12 percent of all paid search clicks in the UK were made either on a tablet or a smartphone, with 88% of all clicks originating from a desktop computer. This represents a 49% increase in mobile click share since October.
Share of search spend through December 2011 on smartphones and tablets represented a total of 7.5 percent whilst desktops clicks accounted for 92.5 percent of paid search spend.
The disparity between mobile click share (12 percent) and mobile spend share (7.5 percent) highlights favourable performance conditions for mobile advertisers. Relative to desktop search, volumes are growing faster than budgets, resulting in less expensive clicks on mobile campaigns.
Across all devices, paid search click volumes increased 43 percent, click-through rates (CTR) increased 24 percent and cost per click (CPC) decreased 5 percent during Q4 2011 on a year over year basis. The combination of improving CTRs and declining CPCs, point to significant efficiency gains for advertisers over the past year."

Source: Data from Marin Software, reported in a press release, 19th January 2012

Netflix has nearly twice as many 'streaming' subscribers as 'DVD' subscribers

2012-01-27T06:40:00.000Z

"Netflix may be getting out of the DVD business sooner that previously predicted, if Wednesday’s fourth quarter financial results are any indicator. The company now has close to twice as many streaming subscribers as DVD subscribers in the U.S., and it lost some 2.76 million DVD subscribers in the last quarter alone.
Netflix had 21.76 million subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter, which is 220,000 more than in the previous quarter. Internationally, it now has 1.86 million subscribers. The number of DVD subscribers shrunk to 11.17 million, down from 13.93 million in the third quarter. That means for the first time ever, streaming plans outperform DVD rentals by a ratio of close to 2:1."

Source: GigaOM, 25th January 2012

Next Generation Media - January 2012

2012-01-26T10:00:00.002Z

This is my most recent Next Generation Media Quarterly presentation, showing examples and stats that have really impressed me over the past 3 months.

Take a look!

Next Generation Media Quarterly January 2012

View more presentations from Dan Calladine

Nuts magazine saw over 200,000 interactions with its augmented reality issue in one week

2012-01-25T11:45:00.000Z

"Nuts magazine clocked up over 200,000 interactions with its recent augmented-reality (AR) issue in just a week, according to its publisher IPC Media.
The lad’s mag’s first print issue of 2012 contained over 20 pieces of editorial content that readers could interact with when scanned with popular AR app Blippar.
Statistics released today by the publisher claimed that over 15,000 unique users generated more than 200,000 interactions, or “blipps”, with the issue using their smartphones.
This meant that on average, each user that interacted with the content did so 13 times."

Source: NMA, 24th January 2012

Apple sold 37m iPhones and 15m iPads in the final quarter of 2011

2012-01-25T11:39:00.000Z

"Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 first quarter which spanned 14 weeks and ended December 31, 2011. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 44.7 percent compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter."

Source: Press release from Apple, 24th January 2012

Previously - 17m iPhones and 11m iPads in Q3 2011

Tumblr gets 15bn page views a month

2012-01-24T12:08:00.000Z

"At the Digitial Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich, Germany, Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp announced that the blogging site now reaches 120 million people and 15 billion pageviews every month.
According to The Next Web, Karp credited the site’s sociability for its growth. The average Tumblr blog is re-blogged nine times, said the founder, and the content is distributed through RSS, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms.
“There’s the spreadable future of social media,” quipped journalist and professor Jeff Jarvis on Twitter.
That adds up to 560 million people who have viewed content on Tumblr to date. There are 249 million visitors in the U.S. alone, comprising 45% of Tumblr’s audience. Next in line are Brazil with 49 million visits and the UK with 34 million visits."

Source: SocialTimes, 23rd January 2012

An average TV viewer in the UK sees 47 ads a day

2012-01-24T11:13:00.000Z

"Viewers in the UK are still exposed to a record number of TV ads, with figures from 2011 showing an increase on the previous year.
A survey conducted by Thinkbox using BARB data said that that the average Briton saw up to 47 ads a day, an increase of 2.6% on 2010.
The study also revealed that the average viewer watched up to 28 hours and 14 minutes a week last year. Of these hours 64% were spent watching commercial channels, with 72% of the viewers aged between 16 and 34."

Source: UTalkMarketing, 24th January 2012

91% of TV in the UK is watched live

2012-01-24T11:04:00.000Z

"Nine-tenths of television is watched when it is broadcast despite the rise of on-demand services and new technology, according to the figures.
Figures show 90.6% of the TV watched in the UK during 2011 was watched live and 9.4% was watched on time-shifted viewing, which includes technology such as the BBC iPlayer or Sky+, up from 7.6% in 2010.
Lindsey Clay from Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, said: ''These figures explain why so many tech companies want to join the TV industry. Many companies are flocking to launch new TV services or social media services that feed off people's love affair with TV.
''It is obvious that people want to watch TV programmes on the best screen in the home if they can and 2012 will bring more opportunities to do that with the sale of connected TVs and more catch-up TV services to the TV set.
''And alongside that there is now a wide variety of personal screens to watch TV on which make TV even more convenient. Tablets are really delivering an excellent mobile TV experience."
Source: The Telegraph, 24th January 2012

The number of people subscribing to legal music streaming services rose by 65% in 2011

2012-01-24T10:54:00.001Z

"The number of consumers subscribing to legal music streaming services globally increased by nearly 65 per cent in 2011, according to new IFPI estimates.
Paying subscribers of streaming services hit 13.4 million in the year, according to the IFPI’s new Digital Music Report 2012 – up from 8.2 million in 2010.
Spotify reports it has 2.5 million paying subscribers worldwide, including over 400,000 in the US market since its launch there in July - and that it sees its expansion in the US as a springboard to international markets.
Ken Parks, chief content officer, says: “We were very focused on how Spotify, which had been a European service, would translate to the US. Now, having seen the acceptance in the biggest music market, it gives us a huge degree of confidence and optimism to expand elsewhere.”
Subscription streaming services have caught on "exceptionally well" in certain markets, says the report, particularly in Scandinavia.
In Sweden, says the report, subscription accounted for 84 per cent of digital revenues in the first 11 months of 2011, boosted by its national champion Spotify. Other markets saw sharp growth in subscription revenues, including France which saw an increase of more than 90 per cent in the first 11 months of 2011 (SNEP)."
Source: Data from the IFPI's Digital Music Report 2012, reported by Music Week, 23rd January 2012
See the full report here

Google+ has more than 90m users

2012-01-24T10:39:00.002Z

"Google’s big push into social networking appears to be gaining traction, with the news that Google+ now has over 90 million registered users, according to CEO Larry Page, who announced the figure during Google’s earnings presentation on Thursday.
While this number tells us nothing about engagement, including time spent or number of visits per user, Page did claim that “engagement on Plus is also growing tremendously.” Again, this statement is entirely relative so it doesn’t tell us much, beyond the fact that Google+ is indeed growing.
The latest figure for registered users is more than twice the last number, 40 million, disclosed by Google on October 13. It is also a good deal higher than the independent estimates provided by Paul Allen of Ancestry.com based on his analysis of surnames: Allen pegged Google+ at 62 million users in late December, and forecast growth to over 80 million by February. Meanwhile comScore says that Google+ attracted 67 million unique visitors in the month of November alone -- a figure more in line with Google’s own estimates."

Source: MediaPost, 20th January 2012

More than 115,000 websites took part in the protests against SOPA & PIPA

2012-01-24T10:35:00.000Z

"More than 115,000 websites participated in the protest, with as many as 50,000 sites, including Wikipedia, Craigslist and Wordpress, blacking out their sites, per Fight for the Future, one of the organizers.
Wikipedia, the largest website to participate, blacking out its entire English-language site, reported that 162 million landed on its page and 8 million looked up their congressional representative information in order to protest the bills.
Google blacked out its logo and directed visitors to its petition, which 7 million signed.
Perhaps the most important stat: 20 senators pulled their support for PIPA, which was slated to be brought to the floor next week. Six senators that had co-sponsored the bill removed their names from it."

Source: AdWeek, 19th January 2012

Sina Weibo saw a record of over 32,000 'Tweets' per second during Chinese New Year

2012-01-23T18:40:00.000Z

"Sina Weibo, China’s cult Twitter alternative, broke its record for the average number of tweets per second during Chinese New Year last night, beating even Twitter’s own best. According to a report from Do News, the microblogging service saw an average of 32,312 messages sent per second, as an astonishing 481,207 messages were sent during the first minute of the new year.
What’s particularly impressive is that the figure is greater than the highest volume of messages ever recorded on Twitter – 25,088 per second — which was hit when Japanese users took to the service during a national broadcast of popular Anime series Castle in the Sky in December."

Source: TheNextWeb, 23rd January 2012

60 hours of video are updated to YouTube every minute

2012-01-23T15:02:00.000Z

"YouTube, Google Inc's video website, is streaming 4 billion online videos every day, a 25 percent increase in the past eight months, according to the company.
The jump in video views comes as Google pushes YouTube beyond the personal computer, with versions of the site that work on smartphones and televisions, and as the company steps up efforts to offer more professional-grade content on the site.
According to the company, roughly 60 hours of video is now uploaded to YouTube every minute, compared with the 48 hours of video uploaded per minute in May.
YouTube, which Google acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006, represents one of Google's key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue outside its traditional Internet search advertising business.
Last week, Google said that its business running graphical "display" ads - many of which are integrated alongside YouTube videos - was generating $5 billion in revenue on an annualized run rate basis.
Still, most of the 4 billion videos that YouTube now streams worldwide every day do not make money. Three billion YouTube videos a week are monetized, according to the company."

Source: Reuters, 23rd January 2012

Earlier - 48 hours every minute - May 2011

YouTube Official Stats (not yet updated with the new numbers)

Over 30% of online ad impressions aren't seen

2012-01-23T10:17:00.000Z

"To better understand the quality of ad delivery today, comScore conducted a U.S.-based vCE Charter Study, which involved 12 national brands, 3,000 placements, 381,000 site domains and 1.7 billion ad impressions. Select advertisers from the charter study include Allstate, Chrysler, Discover, E*TRADE Financial, Ford, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Kimberly Clark, Kraft, and Sprint. All of the impressions analyzed in the study were delivered in iframes and none required publisher site pixels.
Topline study results are included below, and a full whitepaper with detailed insights and analysis will be published in March 2012.
Across all charter campaigns measured, 69 percent of the ad impressions were classified as being ‘in-view.’* The remaining 31 percent were delivered but never seen by a consumer, a likely result of a consumer scrolling past the ad before it loaded or a consumer never scrolling the ad into view. In-view percentages varied by site and ranged from 7 percent to 91 percent.
An average of 4 percent of ad impressions were delivered outside the desired geography, but individual campaigns ran as high as 15 percent. In many cases, ads were served in markets where the advertised product is not sold, meaning wasted ad spend and sub-optimal effectiveness results.
72 percent of Charter Study campaigns had at least some ads running next to content deemed “not brand safe” by the advertiser, meaning that the content is deemed objectionable by the brand. This type of unsafe delivery has the potential to damage the brand, creating a difficult situation for all members of the digital advertising ecosystem."

Source: Press release from comScore, 18th January 2012

Note: While this research is valid, it's worth mentioning the different ad trading models. Most ads are not bought on a 'cost per view' (CPM) model, but are bought on a cost per click (CPC) or cost per action (CPA) basis. This means that the advertisers for these campaigns don't pay for the ads until there is a click or a specified action - like a sale or a registration - so they are not being charge anything for ads that aren't seen.

Part of the job of the agency is to ensure that the ads bought on a CPM basis appear in good positions - that is 'in view' making the site push the other ads down to the bottom of the page. Similarly with ads appearing in unsafe content - part of the job of the agency is to make sure that this does not happen.

The internet in 2011

2012-01-23T10:08:00.000Z

A whole slew of useful stats, including:
"2.1 billion – Internet users worldwide.
922.2 million – Internet users in Asia.
476.2 million – Internet users in Europe.
271.1 million – Internet users in North America.
215.9 million – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
118.6 million – Internet users in Africa.
68.6 million – Internet users in the Middle East.
21.3 million – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.
45% – Share of Internet users under the age of 25.
485 million – Number of Internet users in China, more than any other country in the world.
36.3% – Internet penetration in China.
591 million – Number of fixed (wired) broadband subscriptions worldwide."

Source: Multiple, collected together by Pingdom, 17th January 2012

Lots more stats, all fully sourced, here

Google generated over $10bn in revenue in Q4 2011

2012-01-20T13:55:00.000Z

"Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011.
"Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year. Full year revenue was up 29%, and our quarterly revenue blew past the $10 billion mark for the first time,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally – well over double what I announced just three months ago. By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+ we will create amazing experiences across our services. I’m very excited about what we can do in 2012 – there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business.”
[...]
Revenues – Google reported revenues of $10.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, representing a 25% increase over fourth quarter 2010 revenues of $8.44 billion. Google reports its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting TAC.
Google Sites Revenues - Google-owned sites generated revenues of $7.29 billion, or 69% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2011. This represents a 29% increase over fourth quarter 2010 revenues of $5.67 billion.
Google Network Revenues - Google’s partner sites generated revenues of $2.88 billion, or 27% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2011. This represents a 15% increase from fourth quarter 2010 network revenues of $2.50 billion.
International Revenues - Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $5.60 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 55% in the third quarter of 2011 and 52% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Excluding gains related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the third quarter of 2011 through the fourth quarter of 2011, our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been $239 million higher. Excluding gains related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the fourth quarter of 2010 through the fourth quarter of 2011, our revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been $39 million lower.
Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $1.06 billion, representing 10% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011, compared to 10% in the fourth quarter of 2010.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, we recognized a benefit of $25 million to revenues through our foreign exchange risk management program, compared to $25 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.
A reconciliation of our non-GAAP international revenues excluding the impact of foreign exchange and hedging to GAAP international revenues is included at the end of this release.
Paid Clicks – Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, increased approximately 34% over the fourth quarter of 2010 and increased approximately 17% over the third quarter of 2011.
Cost-Per-Click – Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 8% over the fourth quarter of 2010 and decreased approximately 8% over the third quarter of 2011."

Source: Google's earning statement, 19th January 2012

Share of the computing market chart - Traditional, iPhone, iPad & Android

2012-01-19T10:17:00.001Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Asymco, 17th January 2012
Note - There are several other charts on the Asymco site - go and see those too

eBay's revenues increased 35% Y-o-Y in Q4 2011

2012-01-19T10:09:00.000Z

"eBay Inc., a global commerce platform and payments leader, today reported that revenue for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2011, increased 35% to $3.4 billion, compared to the same period of 2010. The company reported fourth quarter net income on a GAAP basis of $2.0 billion, or $1.51 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income of $788.6 million, or $0.60 per diluted share. The year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by a gain on the sale of the company's remaining investment in Skype. The year-over-year increase in the fourth quarter non-GAAP earnings per diluted share was driven primarily by strong top-line growth and improved productivity partially offset by a higher tax rate.
[...]
The company's PayPal business continued to expand its leadership position in global payments. PayPal ended the quarter with 106.3 million active registered accounts, a 13% increase year over year. On average, PayPal added a million new accounts every month in 2011. PayPal revenue for the quarter increased 28% year over year driven primarily by continued merchant and consumer adoption as well as increased penetration on eBay. In the fourth quarter, revenue from PayPal's international markets exceeded revenue from the U.S. for the first time, reflecting the company's strong global footprint and growth in emerging markets. PayPal's net total payment volume (TPV) grew 24% to $33.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. The company's mobile payment volume reached $4.0 billion in 2011, more than five times the mobile payment volume in the prior year, as more consumers used their smartphones and tablets to pay online."
Source: Press release from eBay, 18th January 2012

China has 128m 3G subscribers

2012-01-18T12:16:00.001Z

"China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has revealed that at the end of 2011, China had over 128 mln 3G subscribers. Included in this figure are 51.21 mln TD-SCDMA subscribers, or approximately 40% of total 3G subscribers, 40.02 mln WCDMA subscribers, and 37.19 mln CDMA2000 EV-DO subscribers."

Source: CCTime, via Marbridge Daily, 18th January 2012
Previously - 110m at the end of October

Kickstarter was originally conceived as a way of saving 'Arrested Development'

2012-01-17T12:47:00.000Z

"Did you know that Kickstarter was originally conceived as a way to save Arrested Development? Arrested Development happens to be one of my favorite shows of all time. The idea was to raise enough money in preorder DVD sales to warrant Fox picking up the Emmy winning show for a 4th season."

Source: IndieGameMag, 15th October 2010

Device ownership in 2011

2012-01-16T15:47:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: accenture - Always On, Always Connected report, January 2012
Note - markets in the survey are: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, US

Ownership of consumer electonics devices 18-34s vs. 35-55s

2012-01-16T14:48:00.001Z

Click to enlarge

Source: accenture - Always On, Always Connected report, January 2012
Note - markets in the survey are: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, US

In December 2011 7m TV programmes were watched through the iPlayer on connected TV sets

2012-01-16T10:15:00.000Z

"New figures released by the BBC today reveal that the increasing ubiquity of Web-enabled TVs, smartphones and tablets are driving the popularity of iPlayer, its flagship online catchup TV and radio service.
In 2011, 1.94 billion TV and radio programme requests were made on iPlayer across all platforms in the UK, its highest number ever. Although computers are still the most popular platform for BBC iPlayer users, accounting for two-thirds of requests last year, December saw a massive spike particularly for mobiles, tablets and connected TVs.
In December alone, 7 million programmes were requested on connected TV sets, an increase of more than 1,000% on the same period the previous year, while smartphones and tablets saw 13 million and 10 million requests made, representing an increase of 163% and 596% respectively. This helped BBC iPlayer register a record-breaking 187 million monthly requests across all platforms in December alone, a 29% increase year-on-year. This reflects both the growing penetration of Internet-enabled devices, and the near-universal availability of BBC iPlayer on those devices."

Source: The Next Web, 16th January 2012

KickStarter funded nearly 12,000 projects in 2011

2012-01-16T10:07:00.000Z

"Let’s look at some statistics for 2011:
Launched Projects: 27,086
Successful Projects: 11,836
Dollars Pledged: $99,344,382
Rewards Selected: 1,150,461
Total Visitors: 30,590,342
Project Success Rate: 46%
Here’s 2010:
Launched Projects: 11,130
Successful Projects: 3,910
Dollars Pledged: $27,638,318
Rewards Selected: 322,526
Total Visitors: 8,294,183
Project Success Rate: 43%
Total pledges were just shy of $100 million in 2011. More than one million rewards were selected, nearly quadruple the year before. Approximately 1,000 projects were successfully funded each month. In fact, more projects succeeded in 2011 than launched in 2010."
Source: KickStarter blog, 9th January 2012

Only 2/3 of luxury brands have a mobile optimised site

2012-01-13T16:04:00.000Z

"M-Commerce adoption is nascent in the prestige industry. Only two-thirds of prestige brands maintain a mobile-optimized site, and one-third of these mobile development efforts do not yet support commerce."

Source: L2Prestige100 Report, January 2012

Hulu has 1.5m paying subscribers

2012-01-13T15:59:00.000Z

"We grew the business 60% from 2010 to approximately $420 million in revenue. We exceeded our plan despite the soft advertising market (economy) in the second half of 2011. Overall the Hulu ad business grew aggressively and Hulu Plus materially exceeded our plan.
Hulu Plus now has more than 1.5 million paying subscribers and this number continues to grow extremely fast. Hulu Plus has reached 1.5 million paid subscribers faster than any video subscription service launch (online or offline) in U.S. history. We are attracting more than 2x the number of subscribers each day when compared to this time last year."

Source: Blog post from Hulu, 12th January 2012

Less than 2% of albums released in the US in 2011 accounted for nearly 90% of new album sales

2012-01-13T15:28:00.000Z

"In 2011, 76,875 albums were released and sold at least one copy in the US, according to stats shared by Nielsen Soundscan. These releases came from major and indie labels, as well as unsigned artists, as long as they were properly registered and set up with identifiers like UPC barcodes.
That group of 76,875 albums collectively went on to sell about 113 million copies in the US.
Of that total, sales of roughly 100 million, or 88.5%, came from just 1,500 releases, or 1.9% of the release total.
Which means that, roughly speaking, 2% of releases accounted for 90% of new release sales."
Source: DigitalMusicNews, 12th January 2012

Friday is the most popular day for joining Facebook communities

2012-01-12T18:08:00.000Z

click to enlarge

Source: Analysis from Wave Metrics, 11th January 2012

10% of US search clicks in Q4 2011 came from mobiles or tablets

2012-01-12T18:05:00.000Z

"Marin Software, provider of the leading online advertising management platform for advertisers and agencies, today released the findings of its U.S. Online Advertising Report, which finds mobile and tablet users accounted for 10 percent of all U.S. search ad clicks during Q4 2011. This represents a doubling of click share as a percent of total since Q3, 2011. Furthermore, the report reveals the click through rate (CTR) of search ads served on tablets, such as the iPad, was 38 percent higher than the CTR of ads on desktops."

Source: Press release from Marin Software, 11th January 2012

The demographics of American Pinterest users

2012-01-12T14:44:00.001Z

"Pinterest’s growth over the past six months has been nothing short of astounding. We’ve noted this before, but some new data today from Hitwise confirms the trend. Last week, Pinterest attracted 11 million visits, up almost 40-fold from just six months ago. Pinterest is now one of the top 10 social networking sites Hitwise tracks.
[...]
Visitors tend to be female (58 percent), between 25 and 44 years old (59 percent). A lot of the visitors are from California and Texas, but Pinterest has mainstream appeal distributed across the middle of the country, with strong activity coming from Alabama, Tennessee, and Utah."

Source: Data from Hiitwise, reported by TechCrunch, 22nd December 2011

The size of the mHealth mobile app market rose seven-fold in 2011

2012-01-12T13:23:00.000Z

"Since our first mHealth report was published last year, the growth in this market has greatly accelerated. The main drivers for this growth have been the increase in the smartphone user base on the demand side, and the doubling of the number of mHealth applications on the supply side.
Mobile healthcare market has grown a lot in the last year …
A majority of the major healthcare companies have discovered mHealth applications as an innovative way to promote and deliver healthcare services and products. A testament to this is that a number of these large players published mHealth apps in 2011 that go far beyond a simple allergy tracker or pill reminder, e.g. Sanofi Aventis’ sensor-based iBGStar Diabetis monitoring app.
As a consequence, the smartphone application based mHealth market increased by a factor of 7 to reach $US 718 million in 2011."

Source: Press release from Research2Guidance, 11th January 2012

50% of Fandango users in the US are using mobile tickets

2012-01-12T10:25:00.000Z

"Fandango claims that 50 percent of its movie fans are using its mobile ticketing after rolling out the program last year.
Fandango’s mobile ticketing is available theaters owned by Regal Entertainment Group, Hollywood Theaters and Reading Cinemas in the United States. The quick growth of the program can be attributed to Fandango’s surge in mobile ticket sales in 2011, claiming that the company saw a 73 percent year-to-year increase in mobile ticket sales in 2011."

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily, 11th January 2012

The reasons for eliminating a home TV subscription

2012-01-12T10:21:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Taken from The Converged Lifestyle by KPMG, January 2012
The countries researched were: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dubai, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Suadi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, US

China Telecom sold 16m smartphones in 2011

2012-01-11T14:16:00.000Z

"Yang Xiaowei, deputy general manager of China Telecom, revealed yesterday at the award ceremony for the Open Mobile Internet Alliance's 2011 Mobile Internet Application Innovation Competition in Beijing that China Telecom sold more than 16 mln smartphone handsets in 2011.
Yang said that at the end of 2011, China Telecom had reached 125 mln mobile subscribers, 34 mln of which use CDMA2000 EV-DO handsets, for growth of 180% over early 2011 figures. In addition, China Telecom's mobile data revenue increased by 120%, surpassing revenue figures for SMS and MMS services."

Source: Netease Tech, via Marbridge Daily, 11th January 2012

Time spent watching TV per day by Market, 2009-2010

2012-01-11T11:54:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: MediaMetrie, Eurodata Worldwide, in the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Note - The figure for Canada excludes Quebec
Lots more data and charts in the full report here

The 2010 World Cup Final had an estimated TV audience of 700m

2012-01-11T10:38:00.000Z

"Spanish broadcasters said Ole! to record ratings as nearly 17 million fans watched the country's one-nil victory over the Netherlands in the finals of football's World Cup, part of about 700 million viewers estimated to have caught the match on small screens worldwide.
Some 16.8 million Spaniards -- 91 percent of the TV audience -- caught the highlight of the match, when Andres Iniesta rocketed in the winning goal in extra time giving Spain its first-ever World Cup win. On average 15.6 million people in Spain, 86 percent of the audience, watched on the three channels broadcasting the match, an all-time average record, according to ratings agency Barlovento Comunicacion.
Similarly in the Netherlands, 91 percent of the TV audience tuned into public broadcaster NOS as their Orange-mantled team failed in its third World Cup final. An average of 8.5 million Dutch caught the match, with millions more watching in pubs and public squares across the country. (Spain's population is 46 million vs. 17 million for the Netherlands.)
Though final figures aren't available, soccer's governing body FIFA estimates around 700 million people watched the final live. If that is correct, the match would beat out the estimated 600 million that caught the opening ceremony at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and would be on par, or slightly above, the 700 million that watched the World Cup final four years ago."

Source: Reuters, 13th July 2010

Note - Neilsen say that over 2 billion saw the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony

Over 2 billion people watched the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony on TV

2012-01-11T10:35:00.000Z

"Based on television audience data collected from 38 markets around the world, The Nielsen Company estimates that just over 2 billion people - almost one third of the world’s population - watched the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The Nielsen Company drew the data from 38 key markets in all regions around the world including host nation China, the United States, Brazil, South Africa, Italy and Australia. Viewing level varied across regions and markets, impacted by factors such as time zone and broadcast time differences.
Comparing regions, the highest audience reach was in Asia-Pacific, where more than five in 10 people watched the Opening Ceremony, followed by Europe (30%) and North America (24%). Looking at individual markets, the percentage of people tuning into the Opening Ceremony varied widely – from the expected high of host nation China, followed by South Korea (where 44% of people watched), Greece (43%) and Australia – all recent hosts of the Summer Olympics (Seoul 1988, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004). Lower numbers of people tuning into the Opening Ceremony were reported in markets such as Indonesia (8%) and Argentina (11%). Viewing levels were also impressive in the United States, where it is estimated that 65 million people tuned into the broadcast."

Source: Press release from Nielsen, 14th August 2008

Methodology: "Estimates are based on data sourced across 38 markets from The Nielsen Company, AGB Nielsen Media Research, BBM Nielsen Media Research, Finnpanel, IBOPE, TAM India and OzTAM. 2 of 2"

Note - This is thought to be the largest ever TV audience - unless you know different! For example it seems to have been bigger than the 2011 Royal Wedding

Apple CEO Tim Cook received $378m in compensation in 2011

2012-01-11T10:22:00.000Z

"Apple CEO Tim Cook received $378 million in compensation last year, which makes him the highest-paid CEO and puts his annual income at a level that hot startups can only envy.
For example, Twitter may hit Cook’s 2011 income level in 2013, according to eMarketer, but it only made around $139.5 million last year. (Others have offered higher estimates for Twitter’s revenues. Twitter, a private company, does not disclose its financials.)
Cook also made more than online ticketing platform Eventbrite, Angry Birds creator Rovio and tied the gross domestic product figure for Tonga, while beating the GDP for three other countries.
The $378 million that Apple paid Cook in 2011, revealed in an SEC filing from the company on Monday, was mostly made up of a grant of unrestricted stock. The aim of the grant was to retain the 51 year-old Cook for around 10 years, the vesting period for the stock."

Source: Mashable, 10th January 2012

Google pays approximately $100m per year to Mozilla

2012-01-10T13:23:00.000Z

"Google has renewed a deal to remain the default search engine within Mozilla's Firefox web browser.
The non-profit foundation said it had "negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement" with Google for the next three years.
Some analysts had predicted Google would back out of the deal as it tries to grow the market share of its Chrome browser.
Mozilla relies heavily on the income generated by search partnerships.
[...]
In its accounts for 2010, the Mozilla Foundation said it earned $121.1m (£77m) from agreements with Google, Microsoft and others. The Google agreement was thought to make up about 85% of that amount."
Source: BBC News, 21st December 2011

Louis CK made over $1m through a direct-to-fan comedy download

2012-01-10T11:43:00.000Z

"Sean Parker wonders why any artist would sign with a major label these days. But maybe the better question is why any established artist would do the same. Just outside of the music sphere, the latest direct-to-fan feat comes from Louis C.K., who just grossed $1 million on his self-released stand-up download, Live at the Beacon Theater. "Yesterday we made a million bucks," C.K. told Jimmy Fallon.
And it's just been happening, just like that. "It just goes into my phone like 'bling,' it's crazy. I've never had one million dollars all at once," C.K. described. And C.K. didn't have to share a gigantic percentage with a major media company, but he is sharing the proceeds with various charities while rewarding staff with Christmas bonuses. Production costs, which came out of C.K.'s wallet, were around $250,000 and easily covered.
If you're just tuning into this one, C.K. recently positioned Live at the Beacon Theater for $5, directly to fans. The download was straight from his site via Paypal, and totally financed by the comedian. "They said everyone was going to steal it, so I just wrote a note that said, 'please don't do that,'" C.K. joked. But seriously, at least 220,000 people (and counting) opted for the low-priced, legal alternative."

Source: DigitalMusicNews, 22nd December 2011

See the download page here

US device ownership

2012-01-10T09:57:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Data from Nielsen reported in NielsenWire, 6th January 2012
Note - more data on the Nielsen site

'Sherlock' set a new record for iPlayer use

2012-01-10T09:52:00.002Z

"New Year’s Day saw the much anticipated return of Benedict Cumberbatch reprising his role as Sherlock Holmes in the first episode of the second season of Sherlock. Looking at the total visits to iPlayer on 2 January there were 4.3 million visits from UK Internet users, a new record for iPlayer."

Source: Data from Hitwise, reported on their blog, 6th January 2012

Chinese online game revenues rose 32% in 2011

2012-01-10T09:50:00.000Z

"Sun Shoushan, deputy director of China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), said recently at the 2011 China Game Industry Annual Conference (CGIAC) in Xi'an that online game revenues in China reached a total of RMB 42.85 bln last year, up 32.4% YoY. Of that, domestically developed online games accounted for RMB 27.2 bln of revenue, up 40.7% YoY, and, beating performance of joint venture and foreign games for the seventh consecutive year, accounted for 63.4% of all game revenue in China in 2011. The mobile game market also continued to display strong growth, increasing 86.8% YoY to bring in RMB 1.7 bln in 2011. Spurred by innovative business models, sales revenue for single-player games rose 301.3% YoY to RMB 61 mln. "

Source: 17173.com, via Marbridge Consulting, 9th January 2012

The Instagram website gets 300m page views a month

2012-01-07T11:30:00.000Z

"From day one, Instagram’s main priority has been building a great experience on its iPhone app — not on the web. But as it turns out, the photo-sharing service has become a huge web destination anyway: Instagram’s website is currently receiving 10 million page views each day, adding up to some 300 million page views per month, co-founder Kevin Systrom told GigaOM.
Such numbers would be impressive for any service, but they’re especially interesting given that the Instagram experience is so tailored to users of the app (currently available only on the iPhone), not viewers on the web."

Source: GigaOM, 6th January 2012

Google+ has an estimated 65m users, and is adding 625,000 users a day

2012-01-06T09:51:00.000Z

"Google+ is adding new users at a very rapid pace. It may be the holidays, the TV commercials, the Android 4 signups, celebrity and brand appeal, or positive word of mouth, or a combination of all these factors, but there is no question that the number of new users signing up for Google+ each day has accelerated markedly in the past several weeks.
Each week my team from elance runs hundreds of queries on various surnames which we have been tracking since July. We revised our model based on the actual user announcements made by Google on July 13th and Oct 13th.
Here is what the tracking shows so far:
July 13 - 10 million
August 1 - 20.5 million
September 1 - 24.7 million
October 1 - 38 million (Larry Page announced "more than 40m users" on Oct 13th)
November 1 - 43 million
December 1 - 50 million
December 27 - 62 million
January 1 - 65.8 million (forecast)
February 1 - 85.2 million (forecast)
What is really remarkable is that nearly 1/4th of all Google+ users (24.01% to be precise) will have joined in December alone.
If this rate of new signups (625k daily) continues then Google+ will reach 100 million users on Feb. 25th and 200 million users on August 3. They will finish 2012 with 293 million users."

Source: Paul Allen of Ancestry.com on his Google+ page, 27th December 2011

Music sales platform Bandcamp sold over $1m in music & merchandise for artists in December 2011

2012-01-05T18:40:00.000Z

"In the month of December alone, Bandcamp artists raked in more than one million dollars in music and merch sales (bringing the total to-date to $12.6MM).
22% of those sales happened because of Bandcamp, driven by things like tags, the home page, recommendations, and search.
40% of the time, fans pay more than the asking price for name-your-price albums.
53% of all purchases are made by fans located outside the U.S."

Source: Blog post from Bandcamp, 3rd January 2012

The top 10 shows on GetGlue had 10m checkins in 2011

2012-01-05T18:33:00.000Z

"Today we're presenting full-year 2011 top 10 check-in data that the GetGlue team pulled together for us, revealing more than 6 million total check-ins for shows from "The Big Bang Theory" to "The Walking Dead." [...]
CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" dominated our weekly charts for much of the fall -- right from its two-episode season premiere, when it grabbed the No. 1 check-in spot in and topped the Nielsen ratings for its night (taking the No. 1 and No. 2 spots with its back-to-back fresh episodes). Throughout the fall it also got a big check-in boost thanks to being in syndication. No surprise that it takes the top spot in our full-year 2011 chart, with nearly 1.1 million check-ins.
Only two comedies -- "Big Bang Theory" and Fox's "Glee" -- land in our Top 10, unless you count the accidentally hilarious "American Horror Story" on FX.
No reality TV made the Top 10. How nice!
"There's not one drama here without a sci-fi or supernatural aspect to it," GetGlue CEO Alex Iskold points out. "And 'American Horror Story,' the only new show for 2011 to make the Top 10, is full of paranormal intrigue.""

Source: Data from GetGlue reported in AdAge, 4th January 2012

Follow the link to see the full top 10

Angry Birds was downloaded 6.5m times on Christmas Day

2012-01-05T14:21:00.000Z

"Will the Angry Birds bubble burst in 2012? It showed no sign of flagging in 2011 right up to the end of the year. Developer Rovio Mobile says its three Angry Birds games generated 6.5m downloads on Christmas Day alone."

Source: The Guardian, 4th January 2012

Text messaging is declining Y-o-Y in Finland and Hong Kong

2012-01-05T09:52:00.000Z

"One of the pioneering text-messaging markets of late Nineties showed substantial declines in text-messaging during the key Christmas period. Customers of Finland’s dominant mobile carrier, Sonera, sent 8.5 Million text messages during the Christmas Eve of 2011. This is a surprisingly steep tumble from the 10.9 Million text messages sent during the Christmas Eve of 2010. The more youth-oriented operator called DNA witnessed a decline to 5.6 Million text messages from 5.9 Million text messages. Christmas Eve text messages traditionally form the biggest or second biggest SMS day of the year in many markets (eclipsed by New Year in some regions). A major winter storm hitting Scandinavia triggered YoY SMS growth on Christmas Day, demonstrating how national disasters still drive consumers towards old school text-messaging.
Signs of consumers moving on from text-messaging to social media, email and IP-based messaging systems started cropping up in 2011 in advanced SMS markets like Netherlands and Philippines. What we seem to be witnessing is a situation where those countries where SMS took off first during Nineties are now the first ones to see a steep decline in SMS usage.
In Hong Kong. the Christmas Day text message decline was nearly 14%. It does seem as though the SMS erosion rates in countries that originally pioneered the service are higher than most observers anticipated in early 2011. Possibly because new services such as mobile Facebook and Twitter are now widely adopted in the same markets where SMS took off after 1995."

Source: Forbes, 29th December 2011

YouTube had over 1 Trillion video views in 2011

2012-01-04T18:45:00.000Z

"YouTube has plenty to brag about as far as traffic trends. Here are a few it touts:
48 hours of video are uploaded every minute, resulting in nearly 8 years of content uploaded every day.
More than 3 billion videos are viewed per day.
Users upload the equivalent of 240,000 full-length films every week.
More video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than the three major U.S. networks created in 60 years.
70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
YouTube is localized in 25 countries across 43 languages.
YouTube’s demographic is broad: mostly consisting of 18- to 54-year-olds.
YouTube has 800 million unique users visit each month.
YouTube reached 1 trillion video views in 2011 (compared to 700 billion playbacks in 2010)"
Source: Mashable, 1st January 2012
Official YouTube stats here

The percentage of mobile subscribers with 2 or more handsets, by market

2012-01-04T18:38:00.001Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Forrester Research Q2/Q3 2011, in the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Lots more data and charts in the full report here

The value of B2C eCommerce spending per head in multiple markets 2007-2011

2012-01-04T18:31:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: IMRG B2C Global eCommerce Overview 2011, Update 01, June '11, in the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Lots more data and charts in the full report here

The percentage of people who access TV content online in Europe, the US and Australia

2012-01-04T18:26:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Ofcom Consumer Research, October 2011. Taken from the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Lots more data and charts in the full report here

Devices used to access social networks in Europe, US and Australia

2012-01-04T18:21:00.000Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Ofcom Consumer Research, October 2011. Taken from the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Lots more data and charts in the full report here

Ownership & usage of mobile & consumer electronics devices in Europe, US & Australia

2012-01-04T18:18:00.001Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Ofcom Consumer Research, October 2011. Taken from the Ofcom International Communications Market Report, December 2011
Lots more data and charts in the full report here

All of the 5 most viewed online trailers in 2011 came from films that were in the top 10 highest grossing of 2011

2012-01-04T18:03:00.000Z

"Film sequels ruled 2011, but none more than Twilight's Breaking Dawn: Part 1. With nearly 200 million views for the year, Breaking Dawn – Part 1 was easily 2011's most viral movie trailer. As with all Twilight films, fans have accounted for most of the viral activity for the campaign. With the exception of a few dozen originals, more than 1,500 of the clips are copies or derivatives uploaded by audiences.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Cars 2 battled for runner-up, but Transformers came out on top by 2.6+ million views. Fast Five and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows land at fourth and fifth places.
All of the films on this list are in the top 10 grossing films of 2011, and three are in the top 5. It makes sense – audiences get excited about a movie and they go online to watch its trailers in anticipation of its release."

Source: Data from Visible Measures, reported in their blog, 21st December 2011

Top 10 US shows for product placements in 2011

2012-01-04T17:55:00.000Z

"Top 10 Primetime Programs with Product Placement Activity
Rank , Program, Network, Total Number of Occurrences
1 American Idol FOX 577
2 The Biggest Loser NBC 533
3 The Celebrity Apprentice NBC 391
4 Dancing with the Stars ABC 390
5 The X Factor FOX 312
6 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC 224
7 America’s Got Talent NBC 220
8 Friday Night Lights NBC 201
9 America’s Next Top Model CW 178
10 The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business CBS 161
Source: Nielsen
Data from January 1 – November 30, 2011. Primetime entertainment programming on five Broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, and NBC). First-run episodes only. As a result of coding enhancements implemented in 2009, occurrence counts now reflect the total number of show segments in which a brand/product appears or is mentioned."
Source: Data from Nielsen, reported in NielsenWire, 20th December 2011

Nearly 1 million British children do not have access to the internet at home

2012-01-04T11:10:00.000Z

"A DIGITAL divide is leaving poorer children at risk of falling behind at school.
Almost one million youngsters are not on the internet at home because their parents cannot afford computers or the cost of web access.
The e-Learning Foundation said ownership of the latest technology is particularly low among single parent families and warned needier youngsters must get online or be left academically disadvantaged.
The charity’s chief executive Valerie Thompson said: “The hundreds of thousands of children growing up in households without internet access often struggle to complete homework, research topics and use online revision tools.
“Without the use of a computer, the attainment gap that characterises children from low income families is simply going to get worse.”
The e-Learning Foundation said the latest analysis of the Family Spending survey shows about one in 12 youngsters, more than 850,000, are not online at home.
It reckons Government schemes to get more PCs into low-income homes have helped to close the gap.
But it warned much more needs to be done to eradicate the divide.
A total of 77% of all households in the UK now own a computer, up from 65% five years ago. And 73% have the internet, a rise from 55%."
Source: Data from The e-Learning Foundation, reported by The Mirror, 30th December 2011

1.3m eReaders were gifted at Christmas in the UK - inc demographic breakdown

2012-01-04T10:52:00.001Z

Click to enlarge

Source: Data from YouGov, reported in a press release, 4th January 2012

Google sites, including YouTube account for nearly 45% of all online videos viewed

2012-01-04T10:38:00.001Z

"According to data on worldwide online video viewing from the comScore Video Metrix service, 1.2 billion people age 15 and older watched 201.4 billion videos online globally during October 2011. Google Sites, driven by YouTube.com, ranked as the top video destination with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property worldwide during the month."

Click to enlarge

Source: data from comScore, reported by MediaPost, 3rd January 2012

CDs account for 76% of album sales in the UK

2012-01-03T18:26:00.001Z

"While sales may be on the wane – and illegal downloading on the rise – CDs remain the nation's favoured format, accounting for 76.1% of total sales last year, compared with a 23.5% market share for digital and 0.3% for vinyl."

Source: Data from the BPI, reported by The Guardian, 3rd January 2012
Update - in the US it's 68%

An estimated 6.8m smartphones were activated on Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-03T09:30:00.001Z

"[...] because of its insight into application usage, Flurry is also able to see the number of new devices activated. Phones and tablets are always a hot Christmas item and this year was no exception.
On the average day in December, 1.5 million phones were activated, but on Christmas, 6.8 million were activated, representing a 353 percent spike. Last year, Christmas held the previous single-day record with 2.8 million device activations."

Source: Data from Flurry Analytics, reported by All Things D, 27th December 2011
Update - Engadget estimates the breakdown between iOS and Android

An estimated 1.2 billion apps were downloaded in the last 7 days of 2011

2012-01-03T09:20:00.000Z

"In a new report, Flurry Analytics estimates that in the final seven days of 2011, 1.2 billion apps were downloaded worldwide across both Android and iOS, representing a 60 percent jump over a typical week.
More important, it is the first time the globe has punched through the billion-download mark, according to the technology company, which builds tools that thousands of developers use to track usage of their mobile applications."
Source: Estimates from Flurry Analytics, reported by All Things D, 2nd January 2012

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

2011-12-28T12:21:00.000Z

"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."

Source: Data from Hitwise, reported in their blog, 26th December 2011

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

2011-12-28T11:50:00.001Z

"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

The most talked about celebrities on Sina Weibo in China

2011-12-23T12:41:00.000Z

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)

40% of tickets on Live Nation go unsold

2011-12-20T16:56:00.000Z

"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."

Source: DigitalMusicNews, 19th December 2011

Reasons for mobile site abandonment

2011-12-19T17:05:00.000Z

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

2011-12-19T16:53:00.000Z

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

10% of iPlayer viewing is through mobile devices

2011-12-19T16:38:00.000Z

"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.""

Source: Guardian Apps Blog, 19th December 2011

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

2011-12-19T16:20:00.000Z

"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."

Source: Bloomberg News, 16th December 2011

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

2011-12-19T16:16:00.000Z

"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

2011-12-19T16:13:00.000Z

"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

2011-12-19T16:11:00.000Z

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

2011-12-19T16:06:00.000Z

"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."

Source: New York Times, 11th December 2011

12 Trends for 2012

2011-12-16T13:19:00.002Z

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

12 Trends for 2012

View more presentations from Dan Calladine

The most shared video ads of 2011

2011-12-16T10:54:00.000Z

"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

Facebook accounts for over 52% of online sharing

2011-12-14T17:29:00.000Z

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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

2011-12-14T09:56:00.000Z

"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

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

2011-12-12T09:14:00.000Z

"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

Megaupload has over 180m registered users

2011-12-10T13:52:00.000Z

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

Referral levels from social media sites

2011-12-09T14:38:00.000Z

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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

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

2011-12-08T17:40:00.000Z

"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."

Source: MediaPost, 27th November 2011

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

2011-12-08T17:37:00.000Z

"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

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

2011-12-07T18:37:00.000Z

"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."

Source: NMA, 6th December 2011

10 billion apps have been downloaded from the Android Market

2011-12-07T18:34:00.001Z

"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."

Source: Google blog, 6th December 2011

The Top 10 global topics on Facebook 2011

2011-12-07T09:15:00.001Z

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

The most popular ads on YouTube in the UK in 2011

2011-12-06T17:05:00.000Z

"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

2011-12-06T15:48:00.000Z

"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.""

Source: Research from Starcom Mediavest Group's Yangtze study, reported in a press release, 14th October 2011

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

2011-12-06T15:29:00.001Z

"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

2011-12-06T15:15:00.000Z

"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."

Source: From KPMG's Consumers & Convergence Report, reported in a press release, 5th December 2011

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

2011-12-06T14:32:00.001Z

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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.

The Top 10 places for Foursquare Checkins in the US in Thanksgiving Week

2011-12-05T10:16:00.001Z

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Source: Data from Trendrr, published in AdAge, 2nd December 2011

Instagram has 13m users and 7 employees

2011-12-02T12:44:00.000Z

"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."

Source: VentureBeat, 18th November 2011

Earlier - 10m users announced in September

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

2011-12-02T12:41:00.000Z

"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