Wednesday, 28 December 2011

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

"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."

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

"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

Friday, 23 December 2011

The most talked about celebrities on Sina Weibo in China



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Source:  Press release from CIC, 14th December 2011
Note - Sina Weibo is China's biggest micro-blogging platform - 'China's Twitter' (if you must)

Tuesday, 20 December 2011

40% of tickets on Live Nation go unsold

"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."

Monday, 19 December 2011

Reasons for mobile site abandonment



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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



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

10% of iPlayer viewing is through mobile devices

"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.""

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

"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."

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

"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

"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



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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

"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."