A world map of the top social networks in 2009 & 2013

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Source:  Data from Alexa, compiled by Vincos.it
Note - While we all have problems with Alexa data, it pretty much tallies with what I've seen from other sources, and illustrates the big shake-out and consolidation that has happened in the past 4 years

Facebook has more than five times as much TV-related chatter as Twitter

"[...] lots of people talk about TV on Facebook, too, right?
Yes, they do. And now we’re getting the first inkling of a TV push from Facebook.
This comes from a new study from social TV tracker Trendrr, which looked at Facebook TV chatter for a week in May, using data that isn’t normally available to the public. Trendrr’s conclusion: Facebook has five times more TV-related activity on its site than Twitter and every other social network combined.
Trendrr’s work comes with some caveats — for starters, it’s only measuring a week — but it’s not surprising. After all, Facebook has a billion users to Twitter’s 200 million, so that 5x ratio makes plenty of intuitive sense.
The more interesting point is that Facebook said it’s going to start talking about all those TV talkers, sharers and thumbs-uppers.
“The reality is that a conversation is taking place around TV on Facebook at unprecedented scale,” said Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s director of global media partnerships. “It’s important that we help networks and advertisers understand the full level of engagement people have with TV content on Facebook. We’re just getting started and are committed to providing more insight into how people are talking — and how much they’re talking — about TV shows on our platform.”
Trendrr said that Facebook TV talkers also behave differently than those on Twitter (the other “social TV” services have very little traffic to speak of).
For instance, there is more chatter about comedies, Spanish-language programming and dramas on Facebook, Trendrr said."
Source:  AllThingsD, 23rd July 2013

The BBC News website received mobile smartphone traffic than desktop traffic twice in July 2013

"BBC News received more traffic from mobile phones than from desktop computers on two weekend days this month.
The stats, which exclude traffic from tablets, show that on Sunday 14 July and on Saturday 20 July the majority of global hits to BBC News came from smartphones.
Traffic on the first day the site reached the milestone was largely driven by a story on the death of Glee actor Cory Monteith, according to Nathalie Malinarich, who is overseeing mobile editorially at BBC News.
On a typical day mobile phones (excluding tablets) contribute 42 per cent of the total traffic to BBC News, Malinarich told Journalism.co.uk.
The figures for mobile include people accessing the BBC News responsive website, those looking at the desktop site on a smartphone, and those using the BBC News apps.
Two other milestones
The royal baby story provided two other milestones for BBC News. Monday (22 July), the day of the birth, was a record day for mobile and tablet traffic, with the site being accessed from 9.2 million devices globally. The previous record was 7.8 million, which was following the Boston bombings.
Reports on the US election and Hurricane Sandy resulted in previous records for mobile for BBC News.
BBC News received record global traffic on the day of the royal birth, with 19.4 million unique browsers globally. It was the second biggest day in its history for UK traffic, just behind the response to its coverage of the 2011 riots."

Source:  Journalism.co.uk, 25th July 2013

More than 10% of Starbucks' US transactions are made with a phone

"Once a coffee shop, now a café, Starbucks is also catching the attention of younger generations with its technology capabilities. Starbucks’s Chief Digital Officer, Adam Brotman, was the first to speak on the conference call following Mr. Schultz, indicating his increasingly important role at the global company.
Mr. Brotman said Starbucks passed the 4-million-follower mark on Twitter earlier this month, and now more than 10% of its transactions in the U.S. are made with a phone. Starbucks’s loyalty cards in North America booked 30% year-over-year growth in dollars loaded. And Starbucks is installing wireless charging mats in more stores, its next big step in technological advancement."

Source:  WSJ, 26th July 2013

1/3 of US adult shoppers now regularly 'showroom'

"The biggest beneficiary of these searches is Amazon – twice as much so as Google — according to a study released by Pargo, a Lewisville, Texas-based commerce and rewards company. The company surveyed 1,043 US smartphone owners (53 percent female, 47 percent male) in June 2013 and summed up the results in Dynamic Pricing in Smartphone World. Here are some of the highlights (and points illustrated with the help of graphics from the study):
58% of adult smartphone users and 1/3 of all US adult shoppers now regularly “showroom.”
A price difference of just $5 can sway shoppers from in-store to Amazon purchasing
comparison shopping on a smartphone while in-store is up 400% over last year
Not only is Amazon #1, but it is used for showrooming 2x more than the next option, Google.
For 46%, price is king when it comes to comparison shopping on smartphones while in-store
59% of households with $200,000+ annual incomes buy on their phones weekly while in-store.
The higher the income, the greater the propensity to switch to Amazon to save $5 on a $50 item.
A 5% discount on a $500+ item that is not an exact match, but is similar, can switch half of all shoppers to Amazon."
Source:  GigaOM, 24th July 2013

70m Android tablets have been activated

"Today at a press event hosted by Android and Chrome chief Sundar Pichai, Google revealed that there have been 70 million Android tablet activations to date. Google also detailed that, in the first half of 2013, so far one in every two tablets sold globally is based on Android.
Pichai also shared, perhaps unimpressively given its generally perceived popularity in comparison to other Android tablets, that the Nexus 7 “makes up at least 10% of all Android tablets sold.” He went to say that the Nexus 7 was “the single highest selling tablet in all of Japan during the holiday season.”"
Source:  The Next Web, 24th July 2013

Related - Apple announced 67m iPad sold in April 2012

There are more than one billion podcast subscriptions through iTunes

"Apple on Monday announced that the iTunes Store eclipsed 1 billion podcast subscriptions. That’s a whole lot of talking. A special promotion appeared in the iTunes Podcasts directory to commemorate the big number.
Apple says that those billion subscriptions are spread across 250,000 unique podcasts in more than 100 languages, and that more than 8 million episodes have been published in the iTunes Store to date."

Source:  MacWorld, 22nd July 2013

2/3 of tablets sold in Q2 2013 used the Android OS

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Source:  Press release from Strategy Analytics, 27th July 2013

77% of Fortune 500 companies have an active Twitter account

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Source:  University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, reported on Business Grow, 11th July 2013

It took 17 days for the news of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar to reach London

"It took a full seventeen days for news of Nelson’s victory in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar to reach London. The news had travelled at 2.7mph.
News of the 1891 Nobi Earthquake in Japan travelled at 246mph, taking one day to reach London.
And in 2008 it took just one minute for news of the Sichuan earthquake to reach – London, travelling at 204,000mph."

Source:  Blog post by Martin Weigel, 15th July 2013

Note - I'm not sure of the original source, but I think it might be Michael Stillwell, A Farewell To Alms: A Brief Economic History Of The World

See also - 'It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million people

A combined Publicis & Omnicom would have revenues of $35bn and 130,000 employees

"Publicis and Omnicom have confirmed that they are to merge to form a partnership of equals to create Publicis Omnicom Group, which will initially be led by John Wren and Maurice Levy as joint CEO’s, with Levy set to step back to a non-executive role following a 30 month period.
The new entity will merge revenue of $22.7bn and €17.7bn (Publicis) and $35.1bn / €26.5bn (Omnicom) and see it overtake WPP as the world’s largest advertising network group, although the overlap is still uncertain, however Wren revealed a figure of $6bn in Omnicom billings from shared clients during the press conference.
The resulting entity will move forward with a combined revenue of around $35.1 billion / €26.5 billion.
Shared clients include Procter & Gamble, L'oreal and McDonalds, while potential conflicts may transpire between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Microsoft and Google and Verizon and AT&T. The deal was unanimously approved by the board of directors with shareholders from each company holding exactly 50 per cent each.
The new entity will employ around 130,000 people and will include agencies such as BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB, Leo Burnett, TBWA, Razorfish, Publicis Worldwide, Fleishman-Hillard, DigitasLBi, Ketchum, StarcomMediaVest, OMD, BBH, Interbrand, MSLGROUP, RAPP, Publicis Healthcare Communications Group (PHCG), Proximity, Rosetta, CDM, ZenithOptimedia and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, with no mergers between these having yet been announced."

Source:  The Drum, 28th July 2013

Facebook has more daily active users on mobile than desktop

"CEO Mark Zuckerberg observed that the network now has more daily active users on mobile than on desktop. "Soon we'll have more revenue on mobile than on desktop as well," he said.
Considering the global patterns of Facebook usage, demonstrating mobile ad revenue acceleration is critical for the company. There were 819 million mobile monthly active users on Facebook as of June 30, up 51% over the previous year. That's 71% of the total who access the social network at least once a month.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg observed that the network now has more daily active users on mobile than on desktop. "Soon we'll have more revenue on mobile than on desktop as well," he said."

Source:  AdAge, 24th July 2013