13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

"Today, 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and we believe the volume will continue to grow exponentially. Our goal is to allow every person on the planet to participate by making the upload process as simple as placing a phone call. This new video content will be available on any screen - in your living room, or on your device in your pocket. YouTube and other sites will bring together all the diverse media which matters to you, from videos of family and friends to news, music, sports, cooking and much, much more."
Source: YouTube founder Chad Hurley, posting on Google's blog, 16th September 2008

28% of US & Western European mobile subscribers have a 3G device

"After a slower start than Western Europe, the United States caught up in adoption of 3G mobile, with 28.4 percent of American mobile subscribers having 3G devices vs. the average of 28.3 percent among the five largest Western Europe states"
Source: MarketingVox, 8th September 2008, citing data from comScore

Approximately 0.2% of websites have a mobile version

"Overall there are around 0.2% of web domains that have a mobile version. (This is not a precise figure but a rough estimation based on the millions of domains I've crawled)"
Source: MobiForge, August 2008

88% of UK searches are 'navigational'

"We’ve just updated our data on navigational / branded search in the UK for our new research report, Managing Your Brand Online. During May 2008, 88% of searches for the top 2,000 search terms in the UK were branded in nature, up from 81% in 2007 and 66% in 2005.
A quick refresher on the methodology that was used: we carried out an analysis of the top 2,000 search terms in the UK over the same 12 week period ending in May during 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, categorizing them into branded / navigational terms (e.g. ‘bebo’, ‘ebay’, ‘bbc’ – i.e. searches where there was a clear intention to search for a brand or reach a particular website) and non-navigational terms (e.g. ‘flights to spain’, ‘free games’, etc.). As we’ve highlighted previously, this trend towards more navigational / branded search at the ‘head’ of search terms contrasts with more sophisticated generic search behaviour in the long tail."
Source: Hitwise, 14th August 2008

NBC's online coverage of the Beijing Opening Ceremony was 10x more popular than their coverage of the Athens ceremony

"NBCOlympics.com garnered 70 million page views on 8/8/08, an increase of 900 percent and 10 times more than the opening day of the Athens Games in 2004 (7 million).
The 70 million page views are nearly 50 million more page views than the peak day in Athens (Day 4, 20.6 million).
NBCOlympics.com’s 4.2 million unique users show an increase of 496% over the unique users for the opening day of the Athens Games in 2004 (705,000).
Since August 1, 2008, NBCOlympics.com has accumulated more than 127 million page views, nearly half the TOTAL for the entire Athens Games
Source: LostRemote.com, 9th August 2008, citing data from NBC

There were 253m Chinese online by the end of June 2008

"By the end of June 2008, the amount of netizens in China had reached 253 million, surpassing that in the United States to be the first place in the world. This is according to a newly released Suvery Report by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).
This report, the 22nd Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China, also indicates the number of broadband users has reached 214 million, which also tops the world. The CNNIC also announced that, by the time of July 22, the number of CN domain names, which was 12.18 million, had exceeded .de, the country-code Top Level Domain for Germany, thus becoming the largest country code Top-Level Domain names in the world. These three major breakthroughs show a big Internet power is taking shape."
Source: CNNIC, 31st July 2008

More tweens in the US spend and hour a day online than with any other medium

"Tweens consume information through many channels, but the Internet leads. When asked how much time they spent with various media types, 83% said they spend at least an hour per day online, and 68% reported at least an hour per day watching TV. Radio, magazines and newspapers came in much lower with 29%, 10% and five percent indicating they spent an hour per day with these channels.
Nearly half of respondents go online many times per day (more than three), and 87% usually spend at least a half hour each time."
Source, ChiefMarketer, 29th July 2008, citing data from Doubleclick Performics

Over 28m people in India aged 15+ accessed the internet in May 2008

"Over 28 million people in India, age 15 and older, accessed the 'net from home and work locations in May — a 27 percent increase from a year ago.
This makes India one of the fastest-growing internet populations, according to comScore's first study of internet usage in India"
Source: MarketingVox, 24th July 2008, citing research by comScore

10m iPhone apps downloaded in the first weekend

"Apple® today announced that iPhone™ and iPod® touch users have already downloaded more than 10 million applications from its groundbreaking new App Store since its launch late last week. Developers have created a wide array of innovative mobile applications ranging from games to location-based social networking to medical applications to enterprise productivity tools. Users can wirelessly download applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch* and start using them immediately. More than 800 native applications are now available on the App Store, with more than 200 offered for free and more than 90 percent priced at less than $10."
Source: Apple, 14th July 2008

Apple sold 1m 3G iPhones in the first 3 days of release

"Apple® today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone™ 3G on Sunday, just three days after its launch on Friday, July 11. iPhone 3G is now available in 21 countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US—and will go on sale in France on July 17.
“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”"
Source: Apple, 14th July 2008

14m new domain names were registered in the first 3 months of 2008

"In the first three months of 2008, the growth of the Internet remained steady as it added 14 million new domain names according to the first quarter 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief
published by VeriSign, Inc., the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.
The close of the first quarter saw a total base of more than 162 million domain name registrations worldwide across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs). This represents a 26 percent increase over the same quarter last year, and 6 percent growth over the fourth quarter of 2007. That pace of quarterly growth is about the same as the average quarterly growth rate from 2007."
Source: VeriSign, 16th June 2008

More than 8m people downloaded Firefox 3 in the first 24 hours of release

"Thanks to the support of the always amazing Mozilla community, we now hold a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. From 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008, 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox 3 and are now enjoying a safer, smarter and better Web.
Ever since Firefox was launched in 2004 we've relied on our community to help us spread the word, and thanks to projects including crop circles, newspaper ads, giant stickers, videos, blogs and more we now have over 180 million users in more than 230 countries.
Source: Firefox statement, June 2008

Approximately 80% of mobile phones on sale in the UK are web capable

"Here are the figures: over Ireland and UK operators there is a choice of more than 120 unique different handsets, for a total of nearly 280 choices.
Of this total:
82% are fully mobile web capable and should give a good user experience (like a Nokia 6300, Samsung E840, Sony-Ericsson W580i)
17% are capable but limited by screen size or poor software. (e.g. Sony-Ericsson W375, Nokia 3110)
1% are not capable, and anyway only available in pay-as-you-go and not targeted for web users. (e.g. Motorola W208, Nokia 1200) "
Source: MobiForge.com, June 2008

Japan has about 25% of the global mobile handset market by value

"About 25% of the global cellphone market in terms of cash value is in Japan. - Why? Japanese users want a lot more functions (navigation, mobile payment, QR code, mobile shopping, mobile music and video, mobile TV, ...), and are happy to pay much more per phone. Japan is a totally different game: while NOKIA has about 40% of global market, NOKIA's marketshare in Japan is almost zero."
Source: Eurotechnology Japan, 4th June 2008

Online advertising accounts for more than 10% of all ad spend in 7 European markets

"Online advertising accounted for at least 10 percent of overall advertising spending in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the UK, the report said.
Norwegian Internet users were the most expensive to target, with advertisers spending 133.20 euros per consumer reached, compared with the European average of 80.60 euros. In the United States, the average was 91.90 euros per person.
The sectors investing most in online advertising were entertainment and leisure, telecoms, and finance and insurance."
Source: Reuters, 2nd June 2008, citing data from the IAB/PWC

63% of rural homes in the UK have broadband, compared to 57% of urban ones

"The regulator's regional communications market report shows that 59% of rural households have broadband compared to 57% of urban homes.
It is the first time that the country has overtaken the town, according to the report.
Four years ago urban dwellers were twice as likely to have broadband as those living in the country. "
Source: BBC, 21st May 2008, citing OFCOM research

UK online advertising revenues hit £2.8bn in 2007

"In 2007, online revenues rose £797m like-for-like, to reach £2.8bn. The rise represented a slowdown from growth of 41% in 2006 and 66% in 2005 but it outstripped the IAB's forecasts of 35%. That prediction was already ahead of most other forecasts, said the trade group."
Source: The Guardian, 8th April 2008, citing PwC/IAB

UK eCommerce spend reached €18.5bn in 2007

"The UK is well ahead of its European counterparts when it comes to online shopping, with sales reaching €18.5bn (£12.8bn) last year, according to Mintel. The company analysed internet retailing across five countries including the UK, Germany and France. Germany was the second biggest online spender with sales reaching €13bn (£12.8bn) last year. Meanwhile France (€7bn, £5.6bn), Italy (€1.1bn, £874m) and Spain (€1bn, £794m) lagged behind the two biggest markets"
Source: Mintel, cited by NMA, 31st March 2008

70% of American girls aged 15-17 maintain a social network profile page

"Girls have embraced social networking sites on a massive scale, with 70% of American girls aged 15-17 having built and regularly worked on a profile page on websites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook, as opposed to 57% of boys of the same age.
John Horrigan of the Pew Internet Project says these figures are likely to be echoed throughout the West. “The internet is a very expressive medium and you’re looking at times in a girl’s life when they are very socially expressive; the internet, and social networking particularly, enables that need,” he said."
Source: Pew Internet Project, cited in The Sunday Times, 9th March 2008

Pornographic terms represent 25% of all internet searches

Various statistics on this page including:

"Pornographic websites	4.2 million (12% of total websites)
Pornographic pages	420 million
Daily pornographic search engine requests	68 million (25% of total search engine requests)
Daily pornographic emails	2.5 billion (8% of total emails)
Internet users who view porn	42.7%
Received unwanted exposure to sexual material	34%
Average daily pornographic emails/user	4.5 per Internet user
Monthly Pornographic downloads (Peer-to-peer)	1.5 billion (35% of all downloads)

Source: Various, cited by TopTenReviews, 2006

Filipinos sent 1bn text messages daily in 2008

"Filipinos doubled the number of text messages they sent last year to an average of 1 billion daily, industry data showed on Tuesday.
The Philippines is one of the prolific text messaging centers of the world with even the central bank governor sending monetary policy statements via mobile phone and an increasing number of consumers using their handsets for banking and bill payments."
Source: Reuters, 4th March 2008, citing the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)

100bn minutes of calls made on Skype

"And now, Skype has served 100 billion minutes worth of Skype-to-Skype calls. Please, do quote me on that"
Source: Skype's blog, 13th February 2008

Over 85% of the online population has shopped online

"Over 85 percent of the global online population has used the internet to make a purchase, increasing the market for online shopping by 40 percent in the past two years, according to the Nielsen Global Online Survey on internet shopping habits"
Source: Nielsen Online, 30th January 2008

US Video game sales exceeded $17bn in 2007

"Video game sales topped $17 billion last year, according to the NPD Group, making 2007 by far the biggest year in gaming history.
These numbers mark a 43 percent increase year over year, solidifying the games industry's strong lead in growth over movie box office revenue, which totaled $9.7 billion at a 4 percent increase."
Source: Yahoo Games, 22nd January 2008

World of Warcraft has 10m subscribers

"Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announced today that subscribership for World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has continued to climb, recently passing 10 million worldwide. Interest in the game has remained high in all regions, with thousands of new and returning players signing up through the holiday season. World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia."
Source: Blizzard Entertainment press release, 22nd January 2008

Search marketing makes up 57% of UK online ad spend

"Marketers in the UK say search marketing is the most efficient way to generate leads - so it's no wonder that search marketing accounts for the lion's share of online ad spending compared with other formats, making up more than half (57 percent) of the online advertising dollar (so to speak) in the UK"
Source: MarketingVox, 14th January 2008, citing (ultimately) PwC/IAB research

$29bn spent online in the US from 1st November - 31st December 2007

"“This year’s online holiday shopping season has concluded with a record $29 billion in spending, a 19-percent gain versus year ago,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Ultimately, the softness in the growth of online retail sales during the first ten days of November proved difficult to overcome and prevented the season’s growth rate from reaching our forecast of 20 percent. However, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas -- another measure of the strength of the holiday season -- experienced a healthier 21-percent growth rate.”"
Source: comScore press release, 7th January 2008

First Post

Years ago I went to see a headhunter to talk about getting a new job.

During the interview I said something like "I very numerate, but also very literate - I'm interested in both sides", to which he said "Yes, that is a problem, isn't it?" (exact quote).

No, it's not a problem, it's a good thing. & so while I have my long running Digital Examples blog to cover adverts, virals and sites, I'm now starting this new Digital Stats blog.

This blog will feature interesting and jaw dropping stats from the digital world. All stats will have a headline figure, a quote to show the figure in context, and a link to the original article.

It's clearly not exhaustive, and while I may be accused of 'lies, damned lies and statistics' it is meant to provide small, memorable facts about how the world is becoming more and more digital.

The aim, as with Digital Examples, is to be able to post in less than 5 minutes, so that I can post often and regularly.