QR codes were first used in Japan in August 2002

"We are often asked: when did qr-codes for mobile phones start in Japan?
Here is the answer: the first mobile phone with qr-code reader was the J-SH09 produced by SHARP for Japan's J-Phone mobile operator (today's Softbank) and came on sale in August 2002 - seven years ago."
Source: EuroTechnology Japan blog, 29th July 2009

37% of American adults claim to own a smartphone

"Driven by demand for the Palm Pre and new Apple iPhone devices, smartphone ownership is continuing to rise, with 37% of US consumers now reporting they own some type of smartphone, according to a June survey by ChangeWave Research.
The survey also found that 14.4% of respondents say they plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days - up one-third from a year ago (10.5% in June 2008) and the highest percentage ever recorded in a ChangeWave survey."
Source: ChangeWave Research, June 2009, reported by MarketingVox 24th July 2009
Note: I'd treat this with a little bit of caution - I'm mnor sure how tight the definition of Smartphone was in the survey - could people have interpreted it as any phone with internet access?

The number of Americans watching video online on sites like YouTube has nearly doubled in 3 years

"As the audience for online video continues to grow, a leading edge of internet users are migrating their viewing from their computer screens to their TV screens. At the same time, more cell phone users are opting for the convenience of watching video on smaller screens via their handheld devices.
According to an April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, the share of online adults who watch videos on video-sharing sites has nearly doubled since 2006. Fully 62% of adult internet users have watched video on these sites, up from just 33% who reported this in December 2006.
Over time, online video has also become a bigger fixture in everyday life, garnering 19% of all internet users who use video-sharing sites to watch on a typical day. In comparison, just 8% of internet users reported use of the sites on a typical day in 2006."
Source: 'The Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Shoots Up', Pew Internet & American Life Project, 29th July 2009
Full report here

Vodafone has 315m mobile customers, more than the size of the US population

"Proportionate mobile customer base of 315.3 million; 8.0 million net additions during the quarter"
Source: Vodafone Interim Management Statement for the Quarter Ended 30 June 2009, 24th July 2009
Vs.
US population of 307,014,052
Source: US Census Bureau Population Clock, retrieved 27th July 2009

8 billion songs have been sold through iTunes

"During its most recent quarterly review, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer revealed cumulative song downloads of 8 billion, since a mid-2003 start. "The iPhone OS 3.0 software allows customers to wirelessly download movies, TV, and audio programs directly to an iPhone or iPod touch and I am pleased to report that as of last week, customers had purchased and downloaded over 8 billion songs from the iTunes Store, yet another remarkable milestone," Oppenheimer stated. [...]
Starting in early 2007, the iTunes Store established a yearly sales pace of about two billion annually. In January of this year, Apple revealed a cumulative total of 6 billion, pegging a year-end estimate of at least 10 billion - more than double the previous pace."
Source: Official Apple statistics, reported by DigitalMusicNews, 23rd July 2009

The 'Causes' app on Facebook has raised $10m in two years

"Today, Causes broke $10,000,000 raised through the application in just over two years. Half of this, $5,000,000, was donated in just the past 6 months. It is through the hard work of activists and nonprofits on Causes that we have been able to reach this milestone. We are constantly awestruck by the drive, commitment and passion poured into a cause, petition or birthday wish. In an effort to share what $10,000,000 raised means, we thought we’d show how that breaks down and how you have all contributed to this success.
Here’s how it all breaks down:
$10,000,000 donated
$5,000,000 donated so far in 2009
$25 median donation
192,000 unique donors
26,000 causes have received donations
$1.4 million raised through Birthday Wish feature"
Source: Joe Green on the CausesExchange blog, 10th July 2009

80% of US internet users find overlay ads 'very frustrating'

Click to expand

"At the same time as many internet advertisers are ramping up their web advertising efforts, the majority of US consumers say they are very frustrated by many common types of internet ads, according to (pdf) a recent study by Harris Interactive, which cites pop-ups, ads that are “moused over,” difficult-to-close ads, and musical ads as some of the worst offenders.
Ads that spread across the page and cover the content beneath them are the most vexing for consumers, with 80% of respondents in the study deeming these types to be very frustrating. Ads on which consumers can’t find the skip or close button are a close second, with 79% of respondents similarly annoyed, the survey found."
Source: Harris Interactive study, reported by MarketingVox, 23rd July 2009

An estimated 74% of Facebook's US advertising revenue for 2009 will come from local advertisers

"Facebook may “only” make $310 million this year, but a full $229 million of that will be from local advertisers, or 74% of total revenue. That’s quite striking at first, but when you really think about it, a lot of the ads on Facebook are indeed for local venues, and Facebook makes it easy to target geographically."
Source: Identified US Social Network Ad Spending 2009 Projections, Borrell Associates, cited by Mashable, 20th July 2009
Caution - these are projections made mid-year, and also, bizarrely they project that twitter will make $288m in ad revenue, despite it carrying no ads.

The Pirate Bay gets more than 1 billion searches a month

"The Pirate Bay is one of the 100 most visited Internet sites in the world and one of the leading search engines for file sharing. The site has more than 20 million visitors and over one billion searches per month"
Source: Press release from Global Gaming Factory X, cited by Business Wire, 30th June 2009

iPod sales fell by 7% Y-o-Y in the quarter to 27th June 2009

"iPod sales reached 10.2 million during the recent fiscal quarter, down 7.3 percent from the comparable quarter last year. "We expect the MP3 player business to decline over time," said Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer"
Source: Apple Financial Statement cited by DigitalMusicNews, 22nd July 2009

Apple sold 5.2m iPhones in the 3 months to 27th June 2009

"Apple sold more than 5.2 million iPhones in the quarter, seven times greater than the same period a year, before, boosted by a new iPhone model."
Source: BBC News, 21st July 2009

Over 70% of AdAge Top 100 marketers ran campaigns on YouTube in 2008

"Over 70% of Ad Age Top 100 marketers ran campaigns on YouTube in 2008. They're buying our home page, Promoted Videos, overlays, and in-stream ads. Many are organizing contests that encourage the uploading of user videos to their brand channels, or running advertising exclusively on popular user partner content (see Carl's Jr.). Advertisers just want control, so we're continuing to develop tools and targeting products that give advertisers more control over where their ads appear on the site."
Source: Google blog post 20th July 2009
Note - Google are very vague in the post about what sort of advertising it was, but I'd assume it was a combination of banner ads, video ads, and paid for pages, for example for competitions