Line has 170m monthly active users

"After unveiling a series of new features that drastically expand its reach, today Line revealed a series of statistics regarding activity on its signature messaging app, including the number of people that use it every month.
That number? 170 million monthly active users (MAUs), out of a current count of 560 million registered users.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. After Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten purchased Cyprus-based messenger Viber, the company revealed that it had 100 million monthly active users among a total user base of 280 million. Tango, after receiving US$215 million in funding from Alibaba, reported 70 million monthly active users among a total user base of 200 million."

Source:  TechInAsia, 9th October 2014

Mobile advertising accounted for 20% of total UK digital advertising in H1 2014

"Native/content advertising hits £216m – accounts for over 20% of digital display ads.
Mobile accounts for 20% of digital ad spend and 53% of social media spend.
Britons increasing appetite for watching video content on computers, tablets and mobile phones helped drive digital advertising spend up 16.6% to a record £3.5 billion in the first half of 2014 – according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK Digital Adspend report, conducted by PwC.
Video advertising on the internet and mobile phones grew by 59% year-on-year to £202 million in the first half of 2014. Mobile video advertising, alone, grew 196% to £63.9 million and is now the fastest growing digital ad format.
Accompanying online YouGov data reveals 73%¹ of Britons online who own an internet-enabled device watched TV programmes online in the last six months, 72% watched short online video clips and 59% watched films online. Those watching TV online average 2 hours 35 minutes¹ a week doing so, compared to 1 hour 50 minutes for online film viewers and 51 minutes for video clip viewers.
“A third of online viewers, particularly 35-44 year olds, are watching more TV, films and clips online than a year ago. Consequently, video now accounts for £1 in every £5 spent on internet and mobile display ads,” says Tim Elkington, Chief Strategy Officer at the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau. “Average weekly viewing online amounts to 25 videos, 4-5 TV episodes and one film but what's most interesting is that watching video on connected devices is becoming an increasingly social activity, like traditional TV. Half of people watching TV, films or video clips online do so with family members and three in ten watch with friends."
Device owners in Scotland are the most likely to watch TV (78%)¹, films (66%) and video clips (82%) online. However, among online TV and film viewers, those in London average the most time online watching TV (3 hours 6 minutes per week) and films (2 hrs 27 mins) each week. Among video clip viewers, people in the south average the most time (1 hr 2 mins).
Total digital, native, social and tablet
Advertising on the internet and mobile phones overall increased, like-for-like², by 16.6% or £467 million to £3.46 billion in the first half of 2014 – up from £3.0 billion in the first half of 2013.
Content and “native” advertising³ spend – which includes paid for sponsorships, advertisement features and in-feed distribution – hit £216 million, accounting for 21% of digital display advertising.
Social media ad spend grew 73% to £396.0 million, with 53% (£209.7 million) allocated to mobile.
Among media owners who submitted revenue figures to the IAB/PwC, tablet-dedicated advertising⁴ grew 160% to reach £29.0 million; up from £10.5 million.
Mobile ad spend up 68%; accounts for one-fifth of digital advertising
With smartphones accounting for over three quarters (76%)⁵ of handsets, mobile advertising grew 68% from £429.2 million to £707.1 million in the first half of 2014. Mobile now accounts for 20% of all digital advertising spend – up from 14% in the first half of 2013.
“Mobile’s share of the digital ad pie has tripled in two years, accounting for a fifth of total spend – rising to nearly a third of display and over half of social media ads,” says Dan Bunyan, Manager at PwC. “As 4G becomes more prevalent and phone screens become larger, it will play an even bigger role in driving digital ad spend – particularly video.”
Consumer goods and entertainment dominate mobile display advertising
Consumer goods advertisers spent the most on digital display advertising, overall, accounting for 16% share in the first half of 2014, followed by travel & transport (15%) and finance advertisers (13%). Consumer goods was also the biggest spender on mobile display ads - accounting for 23% share followed by entertainment & media (21%) and technology (12%) advertisers.
Digital advertising formats
Boosted by video and social media, display advertising across the internet and mobile grew almost twice the overall digital rate (16.6%) at 30.1% to £1.02 billion in the first half of 2014.
With mobile display growing by 116% to £315.7 million, mobile now accounts for 31% of total digital display advertising.
Paid-for search marketing increased 11.3% to £1.92 billion in the first half of 2014.
Classifieds including recruitment, property and automotive listings, grew 14.4% to £493.5 million – accounting for 14% of digital ad spend."

Source:  Data from the IAB & PwC, reported in a press release, 8th October 2014
Earlier - Full year 2013 press release - mobile was 16% of digital ad spend

5% of people who click on a YPlan mobile app ad in Facebook buy tickets

"In addition to helping YPlan acquire new customers, Facebook mobile app ads are part of YPlan’s full customer lifecycle. Mobile app ads for engagement and conversion have proven to be an excellent way for YPlan to interact with their existing customers and app users by engaging with them with specific and relevant events.
1 in 20 people that click on a mobile app engagement ad purchase an event and YPlan has seen a 20% increase in paid bookings through mobile app engagement ads. Thanks to mobile app ads, YPlan has seen a 215% return on investment for engagement ads.
The YPlan team works with many event planners, so it suggests different events to specific audience segments. For instance, if a Beyonce concert is coming up, YPlan targets her fans with its advertising, getting improved cost-per-click results."
Source:  Facebook's Developer Showcase, retrieved 7th October 2014

Ford sold 29,000 cars in the US in 2013 through its mobile site

"Forty percent of Ford’s Web traffic comes from mobile. Mr. Farley said that much of it comes from prospective buyers walking car lots after hours. Further, he said that
29,000 cars were sold last year through the mobile Web site.
Mr. Farley said that the big opportunity resides in our ability to “talk to each customer.” But he warned the audience members that with that comes “a higher burden and standard of excellence for marketers.”"

Source:  Mobile Marketer, 3rd October 2014

More than 100,000 Xbox One consoles were sold in the first day in China

"After a brief delay, Microsoft’s Xbox One game console launched in China this week, becoming the first game console to be officially sold in the Middle Kingdom in over a decade. And according to Chinese gaming news site 17173, the console had a pretty good first day, selling more than 100,000 units.
That number includes preordered units, of course, so the device won’t continue to sell at anything close to that rate, but it’s still a fairly impressive debut given the weak lineup of games available and the other restrictions placed on the Chinese version of the console."

Source:  Tech in Asia, 3rd October 2014

More than half a billion connected TV devices are in use around the world

"Worldwide ownership of Connected TV Devices (including smart TVs, smart Blu-ray players, IP-enabled game consoles and digital media streamers) grew 7 per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2014 and 34 per cent versus the same period in 2013 to reach 500 million units. The growing demand for devices that facilitate the streaming of online video to the large screen TV is creating a highly competitive environment with no fewer than 16 major technology brands accounting for 90 percent of devices in use according to Strategy Analytics’ Connected Home Devices (CHD) service report, Global Connected TV Device Tracker: Q2 2014.
Other key findings from the report include:
One in four Connected TV Devices installed in homes around the world is a Sony branded product while the combined footprint of Sony, Samsung, Nintendo and Microsoft accounts for 60 per cent of all devices in use.
Samsung enjoyed the highest unit increase to its installed base of Connected TV Devices during the quarter while Google’s Connected TV Device footprint grew faster than any other brand from Q1 to Q2 2014.
Apple remained the leading brand within the global Digital Media Streamer market in Q2 2014 although its share dropped to under 30 per cent for the first time in the face of competition from Google’s Chromecast, Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku."

Source:  Data from Strategy Analytics, reported by Advanced Television, 3rd October 2014

More than 40% of broadband homes in Germany and Spain have a Smart TV device

Source:  Data from Parks Associates, reported in a press release, 30th September 2014
Note - it seems that ChromeCast and other similar devices are included in the definition of 'Smart TV'

Messaging App Usage in the US

Source:  Data from Parks Associates, reported in a press release, 2nd October 2014

Facebook use in Africa

"The Meteoric Growth of Social Media: Over five years Facebook has grown from practically no users in Sub-Saharan Africa to become the most widely used social media platform. In the four countries where face-to-face surveys were carried out for this research, between 14% (Tanzania) and 27% (Ghana) of all respondents were using it, a significant number on basic phones using SMS. Facebook is the dominant platform although there are interesting local variations. All forms of social media serve as a source of news and information alongside more traditional media. People “like” news media  (newspapers, radio and TV stations) on Facebook to get information and receive similar “news” or “research” alerts from friends and colleagues."
Source:  Data from Balancing Act, reported by them on 19th September 2014
Note - Much more data in the full article
Reports:
The Sub Saharan Media Landscape
Feature Phone User Survey
Face to Face Survey - Full Results
Qualitative Research

Music drives the sale of hardware including smartphones and tablets

"A study published today by the BPI - the trade body that represents recorded music - has found that the UK obsession with music is not only helping to drive the rapid uptake of consumer technology, it is also generating huge additional demand for the latest smartphones and tablets.
UK consumers spend on average nearly a quarter more per head on music than their counterparts in other G7 countries.  This is resulting in billions of Pounds worth of additional expenditure on music-related technology products in the UK - purchases that are well above and beyond the level that would occur if per capita spend was in line with the lower G7 average.
The independent economic study models the impact that an increase in music sales has on technology purchases.  It tracks variations in spending patterns between 2008 and 2012 across G7 countries , and demonstrates that during this 5-year period the UK's relatively high consumption of music accounted for an additional £11bn in sales of technology products, broken down as:
£8.4bn additional value in the sales of smartphones;
£2.5bn additional value in the sales of tablets;
£384m additional value in the sales of mp3 players; and
£74m additional value in the sales of Integrated Audio Systems.       £11.4bn total
The data confirms that consumers in the UK spend a great deal more on music per capita than in most other developed nations.  In 2012 this averaged at nearly 25 per cent more, resulting in proportionately greater sales of consumer technology products.  The economic modelling used by the study calculates that for every 1 per cent increase in demand for music there is a corresponding 1.4 per cent lift in sales of smartphones, equivalent to £77.6m, while tablets benefit by a 2.2 per cent rise, translating to £52.6m."

Source:  Data from the BPI, reported in a press release, 2md October 2014

Facebook's digital ad share in the US is higher than it's share of time spent

"The amount of ad dollars spent on Facebook FB +0.05% is outpacing the amount of time people spend on the site, a reflection in part of Facebook’s ability to convince marketers of the power of advertising with the social network.
While 6% of U.S. adults’ digital media time is spent on Facebook, 9.7% of U.S. digital ad spending in the U.S. flows to the site, according to a new report by eMarketer. That’s not the case with the rest of the industry. For example, U.S. adults spend 7.1% of their digital-media time listening to Pandora – that’s more than Facebook – but the online music streaming service commands only 1.4% share of digital ad dollars.
There are a couple of reasons why Facebook is able to buck the trend in the rest of the industry. For one, it not only continues to add to its more than a billion users around the world, but those customers are still increasing the amount of time they hang around. Adults in the U.S. will spend an average of 21 minutes a day on Facebook this year, according to eMarketer. That’s up from 19 minutes a year ago and only six minutes in 2010. The increasing usage underscores the obvious: Facebook is incredibly popular."

Source:  WSJ, 18th September 2014

There are more female than male gamers in the UK

"Driven by 25-44 year old women downloading free puzzle and trivia game apps, there are now more women playing video games than men, according to a new report from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) on the British game-playing audience.
The “Gaming Revolution” study, carried out by independent research agency Populus, reveals that females account for over half (52%) of people who’ve played some form of video game¹ in the last six months, compared to 49% three years ago. The gamer audience has now hit 33.5 million Britons – 69% of the population.
Not just child’s play…
The study also reveals there are now more people over 44 years old playing games (27% of gamer population) than children and teenagers (22%). Over half (56%) of people aged 45-54 have played a video game in the last six months, as have 44% of 55-64 year olds and even a third (32%) of 65-74s.
Free mobile apps driving the change
The growth in women and older gamers has been driven by free games, primarily mobile apps. Six in ten (61%) games acquired in the last six months were free. Apps are now the most popular video game format (played by 55% of the online population) followed by online games (48%) then disc-based games (40%). Over one in four (27%) people played all three formats – rising to 70% of 8-12 year olds.
Consequently, smartphones are now the most popular device for playing games, cited by 54% of respondents – a quarter of whom play on their phone every day. Then follows computers (51%), consoles (45%) and tablets (44%). The average gamer plays on three different devices.
“The internet and mobile devices have changed the gaming landscape forever,” says Steve Chester, Director of Data & Industry Programmes at the Internet Advertising Bureau. “They’ve brought down the barriers to entry, making gaming far more accessible and opened it up to a whole new audience. In the past you needed to go out and buy an expensive console and the discs on top to get a decent experience, now you can just download a free app.”
Trivia/word/puzzles are favourite genre – driven by older women
One third of respondents, overall, cite trivia/word/puzzles as their favourite game genre – compared to over half (56%) of women at least 45 years old and half of women aged 25-44. Action/adventure/ shooter games are the next favourite, cited by 18% of all respondents, rising to 45% of 16-24 year old males and 26% of men 25-44.
Time’s up
The average gamer aged 16+ spends around 11 hours gaming a week, compared to 20 hours for 8-15 year olds. 6-8pm is the most popular game-playing time.
The average Briton spends six hours per week playing games, just over 11% of their 52 hours of media consumption a week – the same share accounted for by social media and slightly less than listening to music (14%).
Looking at share of game-playing time by device², consoles account for 30% of time followed by computers (24%), smartphones (21%) and tablets (18%). Looking at share of time by format², online accounts for almost half (47%) of game time followed by apps (23%) and disc-based games (22%).
In-game advertising
Two-thirds (67%) of game-players are aware that advertising appears within some games (in-game advertising). Six in ten (61%) are happy to see ads in games if it makes them free, while a quarter (24%) think it makes games more realistic and immersive. The number of ads acceptable in a free game (1.7 every 30 minutes) is twice as high as in paid games (0.8).
Chester concludes: “Getting in-game advertising right is a very delicate skill. In-game ads can enhance the experience by adding realism or extra content – as long as they’re not interruptive and irrelevant. If they are, it can have the opposite effect and stop people playing.”"

Source:  Press release from the IAB UK, 17th September 2014