The news, announced by PayPal President Scott Thompson, also comes with a bold prediction: that by 2015, the wallet will become a thing of the past."
Source: Mashable, 29th June 2011
dentsu 2022 Media Trends
3 years ago
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Paypal has over 100m active accounts
"PayPal has just hit a new milestone: the payments platform has more than 100 million active accounts.
The news, announced by PayPal President Scott Thompson, also comes with a bold prediction: that by 2015, the wallet will become a thing of the past."
The news, announced by PayPal President Scott Thompson, also comes with a bold prediction: that by 2015, the wallet will become a thing of the past."
News Corp sold MySpace for over $500m less than the purchase price
"MySpace, the long-suffering Web site that the News Corporation bought six years ago for $580 million, was sold Wednesday to the advertising network Specific Media for roughly $35 million.
The News Corporation, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, had been trying since last winter to rid itself of the unprofitable unit, which was a casualty of changing tastes and may be a cautionary tale for social companies like Zynga and LinkedIn that are currently enjoying sky-high valuations.
Relief over the sale was palpable on Wednesday, and not just at the News Corporation. Wall Street “just wanted it done, because it’s been a real drag on growth,” said Michael Nathanson, a media sector analyst for Nomura Securities.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the News Corporation said that it would retain a minority stake. Specific Media said it had brought on board the artist Justin Timberlake as a part owner and an active player in MySpace’s future, but said little else about how the site would change.
The sale closes a complex chapter in the history of the Internet and of the News Corporation, which was widely envied by other media companies when it acquired MySpace in 2005. At that time, MySpace was the world’s fastest-growing social network, with 20 million unique visitors each month in the United States. That figure soon soared to 70 million, but the network could not keep pace with Facebook, which overtook MySpace two years ago.
As users fled MySpace, so, too, did advertisers. The market research firm eMarketer estimates that the site will earn about $183 million in worldwide ad revenue this year, down from $605 million at its peak, when the site introduced many Web users and many advertisers to the concept of social networking."
The News Corporation, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, had been trying since last winter to rid itself of the unprofitable unit, which was a casualty of changing tastes and may be a cautionary tale for social companies like Zynga and LinkedIn that are currently enjoying sky-high valuations.
Relief over the sale was palpable on Wednesday, and not just at the News Corporation. Wall Street “just wanted it done, because it’s been a real drag on growth,” said Michael Nathanson, a media sector analyst for Nomura Securities.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the News Corporation said that it would retain a minority stake. Specific Media said it had brought on board the artist Justin Timberlake as a part owner and an active player in MySpace’s future, but said little else about how the site would change.
The sale closes a complex chapter in the history of the Internet and of the News Corporation, which was widely envied by other media companies when it acquired MySpace in 2005. At that time, MySpace was the world’s fastest-growing social network, with 20 million unique visitors each month in the United States. That figure soon soared to 70 million, but the network could not keep pace with Facebook, which overtook MySpace two years ago.
As users fled MySpace, so, too, did advertisers. The market research firm eMarketer estimates that the site will earn about $183 million in worldwide ad revenue this year, down from $605 million at its peak, when the site introduced many Web users and many advertisers to the concept of social networking."
Source: New York Times, 29th June 2011
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
Google is activating more than 500,000 Android devices a day
"Google Android chief Andy Rubin said on Tuesday that more than 500,000 Android devices are activated each day worldwide.
At Google I/O 2011, the web giant announced its Android roadmap and tools for integrating with devices and the home
Week on week, that is a growth rate of 4.4 percent, Rubin said in a post to Twitter. In May, Google announced a 400,000-devices-per-day figure, up from 300,000 per day in December.
That growth in part is due to Android handsets being widely available and inexpensive to implement, as well as offering the basic smartphone experience of touchscreen, fast processor and multimedia features. Also in May, Android's worldwide market share reached 36 percent."
At Google I/O 2011, the web giant announced its Android roadmap and tools for integrating with devices and the home
Week on week, that is a growth rate of 4.4 percent, Rubin said in a post to Twitter. In May, Google announced a 400,000-devices-per-day figure, up from 300,000 per day in December.
That growth in part is due to Android handsets being widely available and inexpensive to implement, as well as offering the basic smartphone experience of touchscreen, fast processor and multimedia features. Also in May, Android's worldwide market share reached 36 percent."
Source: ZDNet, 29th June 2011
The top 10 handsets for mobile web browsing in India
"Top handsets for May 2011 (since May 2010)
Nokia 2690 (10)
Nokia 5130 XpressMusic (1)
Nokia 2700c (2)
Nokia X2 (new)
Nokia 2730c (6)
Nokia C1 (new)
Nokia 3110c (3)
Nokia 5233 (new)
Nokia 7210 Supernova (7)
Nokia 6300 (5)"
Source: Opera's State of the Mobile Web, May 2011, published 29th June 2011
Note - data relates to the top handsets by usage for those using Opera's mobile browser
Nokia 2690 (10)
Nokia 5130 XpressMusic (1)
Nokia 2700c (2)
Nokia X2 (new)
Nokia 2730c (6)
Nokia C1 (new)
Nokia 3110c (3)
Nokia 5233 (new)
Nokia 7210 Supernova (7)
Nokia 6300 (5)"
Source: Opera's State of the Mobile Web, May 2011, published 29th June 2011
Note - data relates to the top handsets by usage for those using Opera's mobile browser
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
A Portrait of an American Tablet User
"Key findings from “A Portrait of Today’s Tablet User” include:
Today’s tablet users represent 12% of the US internet population ages 8 - 64; that number is projected to grow to 23% by early 2012—a group that represents an estimated 54 million people
87% of tablet users are accessing content and information, the dominant activity for this device
93% of tablet users have downloaded apps; the average tablet user has downloaded 20 apps
79% of app downloaders have paid for apps in the last 12 months; 26% of all apps downloaded are paid
On average, those who have downloaded apps on tablets have spent $53 on apps in the past 12 months
In addition to iTunes, Amazon and Google, 29% of tablet users would prefer to buy apps from their cable company or internet provider and 25% would prefer to buy their apps directly from publishers"
Today’s tablet users represent 12% of the US internet population ages 8 - 64; that number is projected to grow to 23% by early 2012—a group that represents an estimated 54 million people
87% of tablet users are accessing content and information, the dominant activity for this device
93% of tablet users have downloaded apps; the average tablet user has downloaded 20 apps
79% of app downloaders have paid for apps in the last 12 months; 26% of all apps downloaded are paid
On average, those who have downloaded apps on tablets have spent $53 on apps in the past 12 months
In addition to iTunes, Amazon and Google, 29% of tablet users would prefer to buy apps from their cable company or internet provider and 25% would prefer to buy their apps directly from publishers"
Source: Press release from the OPA, 22nd June 2011
Methodology - "The OPA collaborated with Frank N. Magid Associates., Inc. to conduct this study. Magid fielded a nationally representative online survey of 2,482 people, ages 8 to 64 years old, to evaluate the attitudes and behaviors of tablet owners and users between April 15 and April 20, 2011. The study found that 12% of today’s US online population (ages 8 to 64) currently owns or uses a tablet device and an incremental 11% intend to purchase a tablet device in the next 12 months."
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Paypal is processing up to $10m in mobile payments each day
"It’s no secret that everyone’s talking about mobile payments. We’ve written about it plenty here at PayPal, and it’s a story playing out in the press almost daily. We recently saw coverage of new data from analyst firm Forrester Research predicting that mobile commerce will hit $6 billion in 2011 – and reach up to $31 billion by 2016.
Today the Wall Street Journal reported on some updated numbers from PayPal as well – we’ve just raised our 2011 Mobile Total Payments Volume (TPV) projections to $3 billion. Mobile payments are growing at a rate we never could have imagined when we started processing them back in 2006 – in fact, this is the third time we’ve had to update our mobile 2011 projections. We first predicted $1.5 billion in 2011 mobile payments volume. At our analyst day in February, we upped that to $2 billion and just a few months later, we have now added another billion to that number.
We’re thrilled by this news, and by other numbers we’ve seen climb in the past few months. We’re now seeing up to $10 million in mobile TPV a day – a big increase from the $6 million we reported in March. And we currently have eight million customers who are regularly making purchases on their mobile phones, up from a previously reported six million users."
Today the Wall Street Journal reported on some updated numbers from PayPal as well – we’ve just raised our 2011 Mobile Total Payments Volume (TPV) projections to $3 billion. Mobile payments are growing at a rate we never could have imagined when we started processing them back in 2006 – in fact, this is the third time we’ve had to update our mobile 2011 projections. We first predicted $1.5 billion in 2011 mobile payments volume. At our analyst day in February, we upped that to $2 billion and just a few months later, we have now added another billion to that number.
We’re thrilled by this news, and by other numbers we’ve seen climb in the past few months. We’re now seeing up to $10 million in mobile TPV a day – a big increase from the $6 million we reported in March. And we currently have eight million customers who are regularly making purchases on their mobile phones, up from a previously reported six million users."
Source: Blog post by Paypal, 23rd June 2011
Friday, 24 June 2011
The best times of day to use social media for marketing
Click to enlarge
Source: Kissmetrics, using data from Dan Zarella, 16th June 2011
Note - the graphic is easier to read on the Kissmetrics site
The average smartphone user spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the internet
Click to enlarge
"Our analysis shows that, for the first time ever, daily time spent in mobile apps surpasses desktop and mobile web consumption. This stat is even more remarkable if you consider that it took less than three years for native mobile apps to achieve this level of usage, driven primarily by the popularity of iOS and Android platforms. Let’s take a look at the numbers.
[...]
Flurry found that the average user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet. This was not the case just 12 months ago. Last year, the average user spent just under 43 minutes a day using mobile applications versus an average 64 minutes using the Internet. Growing at 91% over the last year, users now spend over 81 minutes on mobile applications per day. This growth has come primarily from more sessions per user, per day rather than a large growth in average session lengths. Time spent on the Internet has grown at a much slower rate, 16% over the last year, with users now spending 74 minutes on the Internet a day."
Source: Blog post from Flurry, 20th June 2011
Note on methodology:
"In this report, Flurry compares how daily interactive consumption has changed over the last 12 months between the web (both desktop and mobile web) and mobile native apps. For Internet consumption, we built a model using publicly available data from comScore and Alexa. For mobile application usage, we used Flurry Analytics data, now exceeding 500 million aggregated, anonymous use sessions per day across more than 85,000 applications. We estimate this accounts for approximately one third of all mobile application activity, which we scaled-up accordingly for this analysis.
[...]
The preceding chart compares the average number of minutes consumers spend per day in mobile native apps vs. the web. For mobile apps, Flurry tracks iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and J2ME. And for the web, our figures include the open web, Facebook and the mobile web. "
Thursday, 23 June 2011
In the retail sector, one extra Facebook fan aquired will drive an additional 20 visits to the main site over the course of the year
"We’ve been talking at Hitwise for a very long time about the benefits of social media and how Facebook in particular is becoming critical to the success of multi-channel marketing. We are constantly asked: “What’s the ROI with advertising on Facebook?”and until now that has always been a difficult question to qualify precisely. Leveraging our unique data sets we now have an answer: for retailers, each new fan acquired on Facebook is worth 20 additional visits to your website over the course of a year.
[...]
Our data shows that for the top retailers, even if they have no Facebook fans they can still expect to receive on average 62,000 visits from Facebook each month. However, by utilising this new service, brands can more rapidly build a fan base within Facebook and therefore drive more traffic to their website. Within retail each new fan acquired will drive an additional 20 visits to a retailer’s websites, which in turn will generate extra sales both online and offline."
Source: Data from Hitwise and Techlightenment, reported in Robin Goad's Hitwise blog, 23rd June 2011
[...]
Our data shows that for the top retailers, even if they have no Facebook fans they can still expect to receive on average 62,000 visits from Facebook each month. However, by utilising this new service, brands can more rapidly build a fan base within Facebook and therefore drive more traffic to their website. Within retail each new fan acquired will drive an additional 20 visits to a retailer’s websites, which in turn will generate extra sales both online and offline."
Source: Data from Hitwise and Techlightenment, reported in Robin Goad's Hitwise blog, 23rd June 2011
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
5.4% of paid search impressions in the US come from mobile devices
"It is clear that mobile is not just a growing market, it is a market to really dive into. Mobile is interesting for both search engines and for advertisers. Research performed (in the US!) by Efficient Frontier shows us that the number of mobile searches and mobile paid ads is growing rapidly. But CTR and ROI still stays behind.
Efficient Frontier tells us that already 10-15% of traffic on average comes from mobile devices. And that’s an average, if you look at specific markets these numbers can sometimes even double. The research also shows that 5.4% of all paid search impressions currently come from mobile devices, which is a huge growth compared to last year. This means that by the end of 2011 Efficient Frontier believes that “somewhere between 7.0%-9.5% of search advertising dollars could be spent on mobile devices”."
Efficient Frontier tells us that already 10-15% of traffic on average comes from mobile devices. And that’s an average, if you look at specific markets these numbers can sometimes even double. The research also shows that 5.4% of all paid search impressions currently come from mobile devices, which is a huge growth compared to last year. This means that by the end of 2011 Efficient Frontier believes that “somewhere between 7.0%-9.5% of search advertising dollars could be spent on mobile devices”."
Source: Research performed by Efficient Frontier, reported in State of Search, 10th March 2011
Google own 3 of the 5 most-accessed mobile apps in the UK
"In April 2011, 40 per cent of the 21.8 million UK mobile internet users accessed a connected application*. Google Maps ranked as the top mobile app with 6.4 million users, reaching 73.3 per cent of all UK app users. Yahoo’s Weather app ranked second with 3.6 million followed by Facebook’s app with 3.5 million unique visitors. Another two apps published by Google - Google Mobile and YouTube - rounded out the top five, highlighting Google’s strong position among UK mobile consumers."
Source: Data from the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics Report, reported in a press release from comScore, 22nd June 2011
Source: Data from the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics Report, reported in a press release from comScore, 22nd June 2011
The optimum number of times to post to Facebook is three per week
"One of the most common questions I hear about Facebook marketing, is: “How often should I post to my page?” And of course, I wasn’t happy that I didn’t have hard data to backup any answer I might give, so I did a little analysis.
Source: Dan Zarella in his blog, 13th January 2011
Note - see Dan's blog for a great chart visualising this.
Note - see Dan's blog for a great chart visualising this.
The iPhone 4 is now the most popular camera on Flickr
"The iPhone 4 has an excellent camera; I’ve been using it as my primary point-and-shoot for a year now. It looks like I’m not alone either as the iPhone 4 has just taken the top slot for cameras on Flickr. More people now shoot pictures with an iPhone 4 than the top DSLR’s from Canon or Nikon.
The new list of top cameras on Flickr is as follows:
iPhone 4
Nikon D90
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Canon EOS REBEL T1i"
Source: The Next Web, 21st June 2011
The new list of top cameras on Flickr is as follows:
iPhone 4
Nikon D90
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Canon EOS REBEL T1i"
Source: The Next Web, 21st June 2011
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Ads in mobile apps have a higher level of recall than ads on the mobile web
"Kantar Media's Compete, today released research showing that smartphone users have better recall of in-app ads than ads they view while browsing the web using their mobile browser. The findings, part of Compete's Q1 2011 Smartphone Intelligence survey, show that 52 percent of all smartphone owners recall ads they encounter in mobile apps. That number drops to 40 percent when asked about ads encountered while surfing the mobile web. And the disparity is even greater among iPhone users, with 65 percent recalling in-app ads and only 33 percent recalling mobile browser ads.
Overall, considering both in-app and mobile browser ads, Android users have the highest mobile advertising recall, with 55 percent reporting they've seen some form of mobile advertising. For iPhone users, that number drops slightly to 51 percent. Only 22 percent of BlackBerry owners recall some form of mobile device advertising.
Recall of text messaging/SMS ads is lower still among smartphone users. Just over one quarter (27 percent) of iPhone and Android users recall receiving a text message/SMS ad.
In addition to trends in mobile advertising recall, Compete's research reports that the most downloaded app categories are games (55 percent), weather (44 percent), social networking (39 percent), entertainment (38 percent) and maps/navigation (36 percent). Notably, social networking apps, which were #5 in the Q1 2010 survey, have now climbed to #3."
Overall, considering both in-app and mobile browser ads, Android users have the highest mobile advertising recall, with 55 percent reporting they've seen some form of mobile advertising. For iPhone users, that number drops slightly to 51 percent. Only 22 percent of BlackBerry owners recall some form of mobile device advertising.
Recall of text messaging/SMS ads is lower still among smartphone users. Just over one quarter (27 percent) of iPhone and Android users recall receiving a text message/SMS ad.
In addition to trends in mobile advertising recall, Compete's research reports that the most downloaded app categories are games (55 percent), weather (44 percent), social networking (39 percent), entertainment (38 percent) and maps/navigation (36 percent). Notably, social networking apps, which were #5 in the Q1 2010 survey, have now climbed to #3."
Source: Press release from Compete, 16th June 2011
Note - while it doesn't explicitly say so, I believe the research was just conducted in the US
Foursquare has 10m members
More stats on an infographic (dread word!) here. However they're pretty short on meaningful stats, like the ones that Facebook provide. E.g. How many users are active per day? How many external apps use the API? How many checkins have been made? & so on.
Source: Foursquare, 20th June 2011
More background here
Source: Foursquare, 20th June 2011
More background here
Monday, 20 June 2011
Smartphone penetration in the US by ethnicity
Click to enlarge
Source: The Cross-Platform Report, Nielsen, June 2011 (pdf)
More information, and methodology here
Time spent with TV, internet and streaming video in the US, by age
Click to enlarge
Source: The Cross-Platform Report, Nielsen, June 2011 (pdf)
More information, and methodology here
Data usage by US smartphone users has risen by 89% Y-o-Y
"The mobile Data Tsunami initially described here is still growing at an astounding pace. According to Nielsen’s monthly analysis of cellphone bills for 65,000+ lines, smartphone owners – especially those with iPhones and Android devices — are consuming more data than ever before on a per-user basis. This has huge implications for carriers since the proportion of smartphone owners is also increasing dramatically. (Currently, 37% of all mobile subscribers in the United States have smartphones.)
In just the last 12 months, the amount of data the average smartphone user consumes per month has grown by 89 percent from 230 Megabytes (MB) in Q1 2010 to 435 MB in Q1 2011. A look at the distribution of data consumption is even more shocking: data usage for the top 10 percent of smartphone users (90th percentile) is up 109 percent while the top 1 percent (99th percentile) has grown their usage by an astonishing 155 percent from 1.8GB in Q1 2010 to over 4.6GB in Q1 2011."
In just the last 12 months, the amount of data the average smartphone user consumes per month has grown by 89 percent from 230 Megabytes (MB) in Q1 2010 to 435 MB in Q1 2011. A look at the distribution of data consumption is even more shocking: data usage for the top 10 percent of smartphone users (90th percentile) is up 109 percent while the top 1 percent (99th percentile) has grown their usage by an astonishing 155 percent from 1.8GB in Q1 2010 to over 4.6GB in Q1 2011."
Source: Nielsen Wire, 17th June 2011
There are more than 20m Tumblr blogs
"According to their respective websites, 4-year-old microblogging platform Tumblr now hosts more blogs than 8-year-old WordPress.com.
In January, Tumblr had more than 7 million individual blogs. At the time of this writing, the total blog ticker on its site read about three times that at 20,873,182 — beating out WordPress.com’s current count by about 85,000 blogs."
In January, Tumblr had more than 7 million individual blogs. At the time of this writing, the total blog ticker on its site read about three times that at 20,873,182 — beating out WordPress.com’s current count by about 85,000 blogs."
Source: Mashable, 15th June 2011
Instagram has 1.25m users per employee
"Yes, Instagram now has five million users. That’s 625,000 users for every month they’ve been in existence — with the growth accelerating. Just this past weekend they added 100,000 new users, for example. Even more amazing, there are now 1.25 million users for every one employee of Instagram.
I got a chance to catch up with Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom this morning to talk about the milestone and the bigger picture for the service. Beyond the five million user mark (which they actually hit yesterday), Instagram is about to hit another huge milestone: 100 million photos. They’re at 95 million right now, and they’re adding roughly 860,000 a day. In other words, by the end of this week, the total number of pictures should cross 100 million.
For comparisons sake, it took Flickr two years to hit 100 million photos. Again, Instagram, just eight months. If you still had any doubts that a mobile photo revolution is happening, there you go.
As for the burgeoning Instagram ecosystem, Systrom says that there are now 2,500 unique apps out there accessing their APIs. Remarkably, they are also seeing some 350,000 connections across their API, meaning that some of the apps connected are massively popular. Which are the most popular? Webstagram and Flipboard were the top two the last time he looked, Systrom says. There are also now applications pushing photos into Instagram — not through the API, but through more creative means."
Source: TechCrunch, 13th June 2011
I got a chance to catch up with Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom this morning to talk about the milestone and the bigger picture for the service. Beyond the five million user mark (which they actually hit yesterday), Instagram is about to hit another huge milestone: 100 million photos. They’re at 95 million right now, and they’re adding roughly 860,000 a day. In other words, by the end of this week, the total number of pictures should cross 100 million.
For comparisons sake, it took Flickr two years to hit 100 million photos. Again, Instagram, just eight months. If you still had any doubts that a mobile photo revolution is happening, there you go.
As for the burgeoning Instagram ecosystem, Systrom says that there are now 2,500 unique apps out there accessing their APIs. Remarkably, they are also seeing some 350,000 connections across their API, meaning that some of the apps connected are massively popular. Which are the most popular? Webstagram and Flipboard were the top two the last time he looked, Systrom says. There are also now applications pushing photos into Instagram — not through the API, but through more creative means."
Source: TechCrunch, 13th June 2011
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Soundcloud has 5m users, an increase of 4m in 12 months
"The company just shared some astonishing growth figures with Digital Music News, including a userbase of 5 million. That's a gain of 4 million (ie, 400%) in just one year.
On top of that, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's A-Grade Fund has also stepped into picture with a 'small investment'."
On top of that, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's A-Grade Fund has also stepped into picture with a 'small investment'."
More people visit an Apple store in a quarter than visit Disney's 4 biggest theme parks in a year
"More people now visit Apple's 326 stores in a single quarter than the 60 million who visited Walt Disney Co.'s four biggest theme parks last year, according to data from Apple and the Themed Entertainment Association.
"Apple's annual retail sales per square foot have soared to $4,406—excluding online sales, according to investment bank Needham & Co. Add in online sales, which include iTunes, and the number jumps to $5,914. That's far higher than the sales per square foot and online sales of jeweler Tiffany & Co. ($3,070), luxury retailer Coach Inc. ($1,776), and electronics retailer Best Buy Co. ($880), according to estimates."
Simply amazing. In 2001, when the stores were launched, they were expected to be a flop within a year - perhaps two - because companies such as Gateway had failed with them. Dell tried them and didn't thrive. Intriguing view from behind the counter."
"Apple's annual retail sales per square foot have soared to $4,406—excluding online sales, according to investment bank Needham & Co. Add in online sales, which include iTunes, and the number jumps to $5,914. That's far higher than the sales per square foot and online sales of jeweler Tiffany & Co. ($3,070), luxury retailer Coach Inc. ($1,776), and electronics retailer Best Buy Co. ($880), according to estimates."
Simply amazing. In 2001, when the stores were launched, they were expected to be a flop within a year - perhaps two - because companies such as Gateway had failed with them. Dell tried them and didn't thrive. Intriguing view from behind the counter."
Source: Data from Apple and the Themed Entertainment Association, reported by the WSJ, and The Guardian, 16th June 2011
Social networking accounts for 16% of the time Americans spend online
"Social networking use has doubled since 2007, and it’s all thanks to Facebook, Twitter and an array of other social companies reaching record traffic highs.
comScore’s latest numbers are out, and they paint a familiar story: social networking is on the rise. It’s the rate of growth that’s surprising, though.
According to the web analytics firm, the average online user in the U.S. now spends nearly 16% of his or her time on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr or Twitter. That’s up from just 8% in July 2007. In the last year alone, social networking use has increased by approximately 25%."
comScore’s latest numbers are out, and they paint a familiar story: social networking is on the rise. It’s the rate of growth that’s surprising, though.
According to the web analytics firm, the average online user in the U.S. now spends nearly 16% of his or her time on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr or Twitter. That’s up from just 8% in July 2007. In the last year alone, social networking use has increased by approximately 25%."
Source: Data from comScore, reported by Mashable, 16th June 2011
Angry Birds is downloaded over a million times a day
"Speaking at Mobile 2.0 Europe – openIDEAS Conference, Rovio’s “Mighty Eagle” Peter Vesterbacka announced that the company now sees over a million downloads a day of its Angry Birds games.
The announcement comes just two days after Vesterbacka told Techcrunch that the company had surpassed the 250 million downloads milestone, noting that the company was also going to release a cookbook and integrate more NFC features into its titles."
The announcement comes just two days after Vesterbacka told Techcrunch that the company had surpassed the 250 million downloads milestone, noting that the company was also going to release a cookbook and integrate more NFC features into its titles."
Source: The Next Web, 16th June 2011
The web in 60 seconds
Infographic by- Shanghai Web Designers
Source & full data: Go-Gulf.com, June 2011. Sadly the individual stats aren't sourced
56% of US companies that use daily deals make a profit on the deal
"—The study surveyed 324 businesses across 23 U.S. markets that participated in daily deal promotions between August 2009 and March 2011. 55.5 percent of those businesses reported making money on the deal, 26.6 percent lost money, and 17.9 percent broke even.
[...]
—On average, nearly 80 percent of deal users were new customers for the business, but just 35.9 percent of them spent more than the deal’s face value. 19.9 percent returned to the business to make a full-priced purchase. OpenTable does better with repeat customers: 51.9 percent of OpenTable deal users were new customers, and 30 percent of OpenTable deal users came to the restaurant again.
—21.7 percent of deal buyers never actually redeemed the deals they purchased. On the one hand, that’s a good thing for the business offering the daily deal: Non-redemption makes the deal more profitable for them. On the other hand, when deal buyers don’t redeem the deal, businesses don’t get the exposure they sought in the first place. The report recommends, “To increase the likelihood of a profitable promotion, businesses should consider offering a daily deal of relatively high face value ($50 or more), with a shallow discount (at most 25% off face value), a short redemption period (three months or less), and place a maximum limit on number of deal vouchers that consumers can buy.”"
[...]
—On average, nearly 80 percent of deal users were new customers for the business, but just 35.9 percent of them spent more than the deal’s face value. 19.9 percent returned to the business to make a full-priced purchase. OpenTable does better with repeat customers: 51.9 percent of OpenTable deal users were new customers, and 30 percent of OpenTable deal users came to the restaurant again.
—21.7 percent of deal buyers never actually redeemed the deals they purchased. On the one hand, that’s a good thing for the business offering the daily deal: Non-redemption makes the deal more profitable for them. On the other hand, when deal buyers don’t redeem the deal, businesses don’t get the exposure they sought in the first place. The report recommends, “To increase the likelihood of a profitable promotion, businesses should consider offering a daily deal of relatively high face value ($50 or more), with a shallow discount (at most 25% off face value), a short redemption period (three months or less), and place a maximum limit on number of deal vouchers that consumers can buy.”"
Source: Research from Rice University Business School, reported by PaidContent, 14th June 2011
Auctions only account for 31% of the sales on eBay
"Today, auctions are a smaller portion of ecommerce than they were in 2001, and even on eBay they are a dwindling, if still important, part of the business: They now account for just 31 percent of all sales on the site and are no longer at the heart of the company’s business model. Dane Glasgow, vice president of global product management at eBay, told me that “eBay does not have a selling format of choice. We’re indifferent to format.” This creates, to be sure, something of a dilemma for the company, since customers very much associate it with auctions. But as a corporation, eBay is now remarkably diversified, making money through its ticket reseller, StubHub; its bargain deals site, Half.com; and especially through PayPal, the preeminent online-payments system that last year posted a staggering $3.4 billion in revenue and is expected to do twice that by 2013. And on the eBay site itself, where tens of billions of dollars in goods change hands every year, the majority are sold through Buy It Now, a button that makes an eBay transaction similar to a purchase from Amazon.com or any other online store—with a fixed price that would make A. T. Stewart proud."
Source: Wired, 17th May 2011
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
YouTube has 20,000 advertisers, double last year's level
"YouTube is busy funding content channels in hopes of bringing more brand dollars to video. But it turns out that like search, there is a long tail for video advertising. YouTube said it has 20,000 different advertisers running campaigns, a 100% increase from last year.
"The 20,000 advertisers are all separate companies that are running campaigns with us," said YouTube's senior product manager, Phil Farhi. "Everything from major brands to the smaller, newer types of advertisers."
It turns out video can be a pretty powerful tool for tiny advertisers, ones that you won't find on TV. One example: GoPro, a manufacturer of helmet-mounted cameras that upload directly to YouTube and other platforms. Its ads have garnered millions of views and are shared all over the internet.
"They are not a Super Bowl-sized advertiser, but they work really well with a subset of the YouTube community," Mr. Farhi said. "And they are running most of our ad formats." That's one way to take advantage of the audience that's available on YouTube -- niche communities waiting for their kind of product.
Mr. Farhi said that as of this year, 98 out of 100 of Ad Age's top 100 advertisers are now advertising with YouTube. The challenge is increasing those budgets through more "premium" inventory, hence why YouTube's content efforts now under way."
"The 20,000 advertisers are all separate companies that are running campaigns with us," said YouTube's senior product manager, Phil Farhi. "Everything from major brands to the smaller, newer types of advertisers."
It turns out video can be a pretty powerful tool for tiny advertisers, ones that you won't find on TV. One example: GoPro, a manufacturer of helmet-mounted cameras that upload directly to YouTube and other platforms. Its ads have garnered millions of views and are shared all over the internet.
"They are not a Super Bowl-sized advertiser, but they work really well with a subset of the YouTube community," Mr. Farhi said. "And they are running most of our ad formats." That's one way to take advantage of the audience that's available on YouTube -- niche communities waiting for their kind of product.
Mr. Farhi said that as of this year, 98 out of 100 of Ad Age's top 100 advertisers are now advertising with YouTube. The challenge is increasing those budgets through more "premium" inventory, hence why YouTube's content efforts now under way."
Source: AdAge, 14th June 2011
Sainsbury's sold over one third of the DVDs of The King's Speech sold in the UK in the first week of sale
"The general merchandise and clothing offer grew faster than food, despite a very tough market. This quarter Sainsbury celebrated its biggest childrenswear sales week ever, and it was the number one retailer for The King's Speech DVD, where it achieved a record market share of 34% in the week of its release.
The convenience business grew at 20%, underpinned by strong like-for-like growth, and the groceries online business grew at over 20%."
The convenience business grew at 20%, underpinned by strong like-for-like growth, and the groceries online business grew at over 20%."
Source: MarketWire, 15th June 2011
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
The demographics of US Groupon & LivingSocial users
Click to enlarge
Source: Data from comScore, reported by Clickz, 13th June 2011
Note - more stats available in the original article
Monday, 13 June 2011
Flipboard gets over 10m page views a day
"In the video above, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue makes the case that in tablet publishing, “the bulk of the revenue will come from advertising.” To make his point, he shares some recent numbers from Flipboard, which is seeing more than 10 million “flips per day”, up from 3 million two months ago. A “flip” in the app is like a pageview (in the video, he says 10 million flips per day, but later he checked the number and it is actually 11.4 million). Of the 2 million people who have downloaded the Flipboard app to their iPads, I’ve heard from other sources that about half are active, which would mean that on average each user flips through 10 pages a day."
Source: Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, reported in TechCrunch, May 12th 2011
Source: Flipboard CEO Mike McCue, reported in TechCrunch, May 12th 2011
10% of website visits come from sharing
"ShareThis, the world’s largest platform for sharing and influence, today announced that it is releasing, in collaboration with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), the most comprehensive study of online social sharing to date. Conducted by former ARF Chief Research Officer, Joel Rubinson, the study paints a picture of an online behavior that, while still unexplored and untapped by many publishers and advertisers, is shaping the way users interact with each other and with content online. This study is the first in a series of studies as part of an ongoing partnership between ShareThis and SMG.
The study focuses on ShareThis’ database of sharing activity for the month of March 2011 and includes a detailed analysis of more than 7 billion sharing signals across all major sharing channels, specifically looking at the sharing patterns of more than 300 million monthly users across the top 1,000 publisher websites of ShareThis.
[...]
Sharing is bigger than fans, friends and followers. Sharing generates almost half of the traffic for websites and brands that is created by search — 10 percent of website visits come from sharing. Sharing also accounts for 31 percent of referral traffic.
Sharing is about scale, not virality. Shared links are, on average, across all sharing channels, clicked on 4.9 times each, so content shared by large groups of people reach a wider audience than content passed along from others.
Everyone who shares is an influencer if the subject is important to him or her. Instead of one person being universally influential on a wide range of topics, the study found that many people are influential on only one or two topics.
Sharing is about moments of opportunity and relevance. The study proves that sharing is a viable marketing solution for reaching audiences when they are most receptive to a particular category of advertising, such as CPG, Business & Financial Services, or Consumer Electronics."
The study focuses on ShareThis’ database of sharing activity for the month of March 2011 and includes a detailed analysis of more than 7 billion sharing signals across all major sharing channels, specifically looking at the sharing patterns of more than 300 million monthly users across the top 1,000 publisher websites of ShareThis.
[...]
Sharing is bigger than fans, friends and followers. Sharing generates almost half of the traffic for websites and brands that is created by search — 10 percent of website visits come from sharing. Sharing also accounts for 31 percent of referral traffic.
Sharing is about scale, not virality. Shared links are, on average, across all sharing channels, clicked on 4.9 times each, so content shared by large groups of people reach a wider audience than content passed along from others.
Everyone who shares is an influencer if the subject is important to him or her. Instead of one person being universally influential on a wide range of topics, the study found that many people are influential on only one or two topics.
Sharing is about moments of opportunity and relevance. The study proves that sharing is a viable marketing solution for reaching audiences when they are most receptive to a particular category of advertising, such as CPG, Business & Financial Services, or Consumer Electronics."
Source: Data from ShareThis and SMG, reported on the ShareThis blog, 6th June 2011
Friday, 10 June 2011
1 in 5 luxury brands on Facebook don't allow fans to post on their wall
"Facebook recently announced that, as of August this year, all brand Pages will be forced to allow fans to post on their Walls. Several brands, particularly those in the heavily-regulated pharmaceutical industry, prefer not to allow their fans to engage in this manner.
L2's recent study of 100 luxury brands, the "Prestige 100", across auto, beauty, fashion, jewelry, and spirits and Champagnes found that Facebook's decision will be good for brand engagement.
[...]
However, the study findings reveal that one in five of the 100 luxury brands, many of which are world leaders, do not allow fans to post on their Facebook Walls, suggesting the industry continues to treat the social network as a one-way communication channel."
Source: Research by L2, reported by Biz Report, 7th June 2011
L2's recent study of 100 luxury brands, the "Prestige 100", across auto, beauty, fashion, jewelry, and spirits and Champagnes found that Facebook's decision will be good for brand engagement.
[...]
However, the study findings reveal that one in five of the 100 luxury brands, many of which are world leaders, do not allow fans to post on their Facebook Walls, suggesting the industry continues to treat the social network as a one-way communication channel."
Source: Research by L2, reported by Biz Report, 7th June 2011
Online game Moshi Monsters has 50m registered users
"Moshi Monsters, the UK based social network aimed at kids that takes many a visual cue from Nintendo's Pokemon series, has hit a landmark 50 million registered users. The figure means that now 1 in 2 UK children aged between 6-12 own a Moshi Monster account, with 1 new sign up every second from over 150 nations across the globe.
Letting kids interact and play online in safe, colourful environment, Moshi Monsters lets kids care and nurture for their own little online monster pet."
Letting kids interact and play online in safe, colourful environment, Moshi Monsters lets kids care and nurture for their own little online monster pet."
Source: Tech Digest, 6th June 2011
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Frito-Lay holds the record on Facebook for the most new Fans in 24 hours
"PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division today announced that its rapidly growing Facebook community set the Guinness World Records® title for "Most Fans on Facebook in 24 Hours," garnering 1,571,161 new "likes" (i.e., fans) on April 11, 2011. As a thank you for setting this groundbreaking 24-hour record, Frito-Lay will reward its fans by giving away 24,000 bags of chips made with all natural ingredients. Beginning April 29, 2011 at 2 p.m. CDT, the first 24,000 consumers that have "liked" the Frito-Lay Facebook page www.facebook.com/fritolay and registered on a special product giveaway tab will receive a coupon for a free bag of chips valued at $3.99."
Source: Press release from PepsiCo, 28th April 2011
2/3 of American attorneys cite Facebook as a primary source of evidence in divorce cases
"According to a recent survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 81 percent of divorce lawyers say they’ve seen an increase in social networking evidence in their cases over the last five years, reports ABA Journal, a publication of the American Bar Association. Facebook was named the “unrivaled leader for online divorce evidence” with two-third of attorneys citing it as a primary source of evidence, followed by MySpace at 15 percent and Twitter at 5 percent."
Source: Everyday Health, 8th June 2011
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter is effectively the 3rd largest funder of Indie comics in the US
"In May, Kickstarter funded ten books and five additional projects in single-issue format. Vertigo solicited 7 books and 10 single issues for May. Kickstarter has the edge in books (10-7), Vertigo has the edge in overall items (17-15). There’s not a lot difference in output volume.
The comparison highlights the way that Kickstarter has become a much larger source of funding for comic book projects—larger than some established indie publishers. Even with a slow January, Kickstarter averaged just over $81,000 per month in funding for various comics-related projects. In May, the funding broke six figures with $102,110 split over 15 projects.
What gets funded on Kickstarter? In 2011, an average of 13.8 projects per month. Projects are split fairly evenly between books (graphic novels, reprint collections, hardcovers, etc) and the monthly issue format (including multiple issue mini-series and newspaper formats) with 7 books per month to 6.8 issue projects per month. Add in a comics app for tablets and a newspaper comic strip archival project and you have over $400,000 worth of funding in the first 5 months of 2011.
Charitable and not-for-profit works seem to have particular success with projects like “Girls Making Comics: A Midsummer Night’s Dream” taking in $7,292 from 196 backers for a print edition of work from a comics workshop for teenage girls and “The TRANSMETROPOLITAN Art Book” taking in $46,690 from 638 backers for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Heroes Initiative.
Where would Kickstarter fall in terms of content production when compared to the independent publishers of the Direct Market? Not that high up for single issue projects, but higher than you might think for books.
If you make a list of how many books were solicited for May by the top direct market publishers that follow DC and Marvel on the sale charts and insert Kickerstarter into that list, this is what you get:
Dark Horse: 15 Books
IDW: 15 Books
Kickstarter: 10 Books
Image: 6 Books
Boom: 5 Books
Dynamite: 5 Books.
The number of projects funded by Kickstarter in a given month does vary quite a bit, as does the format of the projects. And some of those same funded projects are eventually published someplace else, often at a publisher like Image."
Source: Publishers Weekly, 7th June 2011
The comparison highlights the way that Kickstarter has become a much larger source of funding for comic book projects—larger than some established indie publishers. Even with a slow January, Kickstarter averaged just over $81,000 per month in funding for various comics-related projects. In May, the funding broke six figures with $102,110 split over 15 projects.
What gets funded on Kickstarter? In 2011, an average of 13.8 projects per month. Projects are split fairly evenly between books (graphic novels, reprint collections, hardcovers, etc) and the monthly issue format (including multiple issue mini-series and newspaper formats) with 7 books per month to 6.8 issue projects per month. Add in a comics app for tablets and a newspaper comic strip archival project and you have over $400,000 worth of funding in the first 5 months of 2011.
Charitable and not-for-profit works seem to have particular success with projects like “Girls Making Comics: A Midsummer Night’s Dream” taking in $7,292 from 196 backers for a print edition of work from a comics workshop for teenage girls and “The TRANSMETROPOLITAN Art Book” taking in $46,690 from 638 backers for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Heroes Initiative.
Where would Kickstarter fall in terms of content production when compared to the independent publishers of the Direct Market? Not that high up for single issue projects, but higher than you might think for books.
If you make a list of how many books were solicited for May by the top direct market publishers that follow DC and Marvel on the sale charts and insert Kickerstarter into that list, this is what you get:
Dark Horse: 15 Books
IDW: 15 Books
Kickstarter: 10 Books
Image: 6 Books
Boom: 5 Books
Dynamite: 5 Books.
The number of projects funded by Kickstarter in a given month does vary quite a bit, as does the format of the projects. And some of those same funded projects are eventually published someplace else, often at a publisher like Image."
Source: Publishers Weekly, 7th June 2011
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Interactive football game I Am Playr has 140,000 monthly users
"I AM PLAYR is now in the final stages of Beta testing and has attracted 140,000 monthly users. It has enlisted Nike as principal brand partner and Ginsters as River Park's shirt sponsors."
Source: The Drum, 23rd May 2011
Source: The Drum, 23rd May 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Princess Beatrice' Royal Wedding hat was sold on Ebay for £81,100
"Princess Beatrice's royal wedding hat has been sold on auction site eBay for £81,100.01.
The dramatic creation by Philip Treacy has been likened to a Turkey Twizzler, a lavatory seat and a pretzel.
The 22-year-old princess wore it to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last month, and a Facebook page was set up in its honour.
The auction on eBay ended on Sunday, with the proceeds going to charities Unicef and Children in Crisis.
The identity of the winning bidder has not yet been revealed."
The dramatic creation by Philip Treacy has been likened to a Turkey Twizzler, a lavatory seat and a pretzel.
The 22-year-old princess wore it to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last month, and a Facebook page was set up in its honour.
The auction on eBay ended on Sunday, with the proceeds going to charities Unicef and Children in Crisis.
The identity of the winning bidder has not yet been revealed."
Source: BBC News, 22nd May 2011
Bad Romance was the most played song on British radio in 2011
"Top 10 most played songs in 2010
1. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
2. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind
3. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
4. Plan B - She Said
5. Kylie Minogue - All the Lovers
6. Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go
7. Ke$ha - Tik Tok
8. Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart
9. Train - Hey, Soul Sister
10. Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire"
Source: Data from PPL, reported by The Guardian, 6th June 2011
1. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
2. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind
3. Lady Gaga - Alejandro
4. Plan B - She Said
5. Kylie Minogue - All the Lovers
6. Olly Murs - Please Don't Let Me Go
7. Ke$ha - Tik Tok
8. Florence and the Machine - Rabbit Heart
9. Train - Hey, Soul Sister
10. Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire"
Source: Data from PPL, reported by The Guardian, 6th June 2011
Apple data revealed at the WWDC Keynote
"Mac sales rose 28 percent year-over-year during Apple’s last quarter, while PC sales declined 1 percent
There are now 54 million active Mac users around the world.
Mac sales have outpaced the broader PC market for 5 years, 22 straight quarters
Apple has sold 200 million IOS devices to date …
… which accounts for more than 44 percent of the mobile market
25 million iPads were sold in the device’s 14 months of availability
15 billion songs have been sold from the iTunes store …
… making Apple the #1 music retailer in the world
130 million books have been downloaded from iBooks
There are 425,000 apps in the app store
90,000 of them are designed specifically for the iPad
14 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in less than 3 years
Apple has paid some $2.5 billion to developers building apps for the app store
There are 225 million iTunes Store accounts, all of them with associated credit cards and 1-click purchasing
There are 50 million Game Center users. XBox Live, which has been around for a lot longer, only has about 30 million
IOS users send more than 1 billion Tweets a week
To date, about 100 billion push notifications have been sent to iOS devices
The iPhone 4′s camera is the second most used camera on Flickr"
Source: Data revealed at the WWDC keynote on 6th June, reported by AllThingsD, 7th June 2011
There are now 54 million active Mac users around the world.
Mac sales have outpaced the broader PC market for 5 years, 22 straight quarters
Apple has sold 200 million IOS devices to date …
… which accounts for more than 44 percent of the mobile market
25 million iPads were sold in the device’s 14 months of availability
15 billion songs have been sold from the iTunes store …
… making Apple the #1 music retailer in the world
130 million books have been downloaded from iBooks
There are 425,000 apps in the app store
90,000 of them are designed specifically for the iPad
14 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store in less than 3 years
Apple has paid some $2.5 billion to developers building apps for the app store
There are 225 million iTunes Store accounts, all of them with associated credit cards and 1-click purchasing
There are 50 million Game Center users. XBox Live, which has been around for a lot longer, only has about 30 million
IOS users send more than 1 billion Tweets a week
To date, about 100 billion push notifications have been sent to iOS devices
The iPhone 4′s camera is the second most used camera on Flickr"
Source: Data revealed at the WWDC keynote on 6th June, reported by AllThingsD, 7th June 2011
Vinyl sales in the US have risen nearly fivefold in the last 5 years
"The latest, sourced from RIAA retail revenue data obtained this week, shows a near-fivefold revenue increase in vinyl over a five-year period. Which, when scaled to size, looks something like this...
Specifically, 2010 receipts - after returns - were $87.0 million, compared to $15.7 million in 2006. And, keep in mind, this also counts indie-focused distributors, owned by major label groups. Which makes sense, because indies are driving a lot of this action. Here's the breakdown, in both units and revenues (in millions, all net post-returns):
2006: 0.9 million units; $15.7 million revenue
2007: 1.3 million units; $22.9 million
2008: 2.9 million units; $56.7 million
2009: 3.2 million units; $60.2 million
2010: 4.0 million units; $87.2 million"
Source: Data from the RIAA, reported by Digital Music News, 3rd June 2011
Note - Digital Music News have a great graphic on their site
Specifically, 2010 receipts - after returns - were $87.0 million, compared to $15.7 million in 2006. And, keep in mind, this also counts indie-focused distributors, owned by major label groups. Which makes sense, because indies are driving a lot of this action. Here's the breakdown, in both units and revenues (in millions, all net post-returns):
2006: 0.9 million units; $15.7 million revenue
2007: 1.3 million units; $22.9 million
2008: 2.9 million units; $56.7 million
2009: 3.2 million units; $60.2 million
2010: 4.0 million units; $87.2 million"
Source: Data from the RIAA, reported by Digital Music News, 3rd June 2011
Note - Digital Music News have a great graphic on their site
Monday, 6 June 2011
FremantleMedia produces nearly 10,000 hours of TV programming each year
"With production studios in 22 territories and 11 regional offices around the globe, there are loads of fascinating facts to learn about FremantleMedia. Here are just a few ...
Global reach
Got Talent has been sold to 27 countries, Idols to 43 countries, The X Factor to 17 countries, The Farmer Wants a Wife to 16 countries and Hole In The Wall to 35 countries.
Production operations in over 22 countries worldwide.
Part of RTL Group, Europe’s largest television and radio broadcast company, which itself is 90% owned by Bertelsmann AG.
Programming hours
In 2008 FremantleMedia produced nearly 10,000 hours of original programming – this would take over one year and two months to watch.
Nearly 10,000 hours of original programming delivered to broadcasters every year in 57 territories.
Over 300 titles in production at any one time.
Distribution and licensing over 20,000 hours of top class entertainment to over 150 countries every year."
Source: FremantleMedia, retrieved 6th June 2011
Global reach
Got Talent has been sold to 27 countries, Idols to 43 countries, The X Factor to 17 countries, The Farmer Wants a Wife to 16 countries and Hole In The Wall to 35 countries.
Production operations in over 22 countries worldwide.
Part of RTL Group, Europe’s largest television and radio broadcast company, which itself is 90% owned by Bertelsmann AG.
Programming hours
In 2008 FremantleMedia produced nearly 10,000 hours of original programming – this would take over one year and two months to watch.
Nearly 10,000 hours of original programming delivered to broadcasters every year in 57 territories.
Over 300 titles in production at any one time.
Distribution and licensing over 20,000 hours of top class entertainment to over 150 countries every year."
Source: FremantleMedia, retrieved 6th June 2011
Friday, 3 June 2011
64% of Twitter users are more likely to make a purchase from a company that answers a question they ask on Twitter
Click to enlarge
"The good news? Answering questions on Twitter will likely earn you more sales. 64% of respondents said that they were more likely to make a purchase from a business that answered their question on Twitter."
Source: Research by InboxQ, revealed in their blog, 26th May 2011
Amazon lost more than $3m (estimate) selling Lady Gaga's album for $0.99
"After all that talk about underperforming singles and creative bankruptcy and overexposure, Lady Gaga did exactly what she was supposed to do with Born This Way, her first album since officially branding herself a superstar: sell a ridiculous number of units. The exact number, 1.1 million in the first week, is startling — but it comes with a caveat. That final tally was greatly boosted by the fact that Amazon, looking to drive people toward their new Cloud Drive music locker service, dropped the price on Born This Way’s digital release to an all-new loss-leader low of 99 cents. Over the two days of the offer, the album was downloaded 440,000 times, roughly two thirds of its overall digital sales count. So how much did Amazon cough up in the process?
According to the New York Times, Amazon paid Gaga’s distributor, Universal, full price (between $8 or $9 per album), meaning they lost more than $3 million. That is certainly a ton of money to have kicked into your campaign by an entity that has no actual interest in how well your album sells, and it provides much fodder for anyone wishing to quibble with the validity of the 1.1 million number."
According to the New York Times, Amazon paid Gaga’s distributor, Universal, full price (between $8 or $9 per album), meaning they lost more than $3 million. That is certainly a ton of money to have kicked into your campaign by an entity that has no actual interest in how well your album sells, and it provides much fodder for anyone wishing to quibble with the validity of the 1.1 million number."
Source: NYMag, 2nd June 2011
Groupon has 83m subscribers across 43 countries
"Groupon, a three-year-old Chicago-based start-up, is by some measures the fastest growing firm in history. It notched up revenue of $94m in 2008, its first year of business. In the first quarter of 2011, revenues were $644.7m, according to information filed with US regulators.
The company sells coupons offering discounts, taking a cut in any money the business makes. It now has 83m subscribers across 43 countries.
In a letter to potential investors, Groupon's co-founder and chief executive, Andrew Mason, warned future growth could come at the expense of profit. Last year, the company lost $450m, compared with $6.9m in 2009 and $2.2m in 2008."
The company sells coupons offering discounts, taking a cut in any money the business makes. It now has 83m subscribers across 43 countries.
In a letter to potential investors, Groupon's co-founder and chief executive, Andrew Mason, warned future growth could come at the expense of profit. Last year, the company lost $450m, compared with $6.9m in 2009 and $2.2m in 2008."
Source: The Guardian, 2nd June 2011
Thursday, 2 June 2011
Twitter has over 600 advertisers
"[Twitter CEO Dick Costello] said that over 80% of Twitter advertisers come back and renew and claimed that average engagement rate with ads on Twitter was of “orders of magnitude” better than traditional media advertising.
He gave an example of a Volkswagen ran ad for new VW Beetle and said the promoted tweet had engagement rate of 52%.
The claim comes in stark contrast to recent reports that suggested ads onTwitter do not work very well for some advertisers. The report said that advertisers were having mixed results.
He also cited a Radio Shack campaign called ‘You Need a New Phone’, which while it only ran for one day on Twitter it resulted in store exchanges being up by double-digits for the next three days.
“These are amazing statistics that marketers just can’t believe when they first hear them…So the business is working phenomenally well,” Costolo said.
However, Costolo would not be drawn on whether Twitter was profitable. He snapped shut saying only “Not gonna talk about it”.
Twitter had been projecting to have around 100 advertisers by the end of last year. It ended up with 150 and now has 600-650 advertisers.
“We’re in no hurry to go make sure [that we jam Twitter up with ads]. It just doesn’t make sense.”"
He gave an example of a Volkswagen ran ad for new VW Beetle and said the promoted tweet had engagement rate of 52%.
The claim comes in stark contrast to recent reports that suggested ads onTwitter do not work very well for some advertisers. The report said that advertisers were having mixed results.
He also cited a Radio Shack campaign called ‘You Need a New Phone’, which while it only ran for one day on Twitter it resulted in store exchanges being up by double-digits for the next three days.
“These are amazing statistics that marketers just can’t believe when they first hear them…So the business is working phenomenally well,” Costolo said.
However, Costolo would not be drawn on whether Twitter was profitable. He snapped shut saying only “Not gonna talk about it”.
Twitter had been projecting to have around 100 advertisers by the end of last year. It ended up with 150 and now has 600-650 advertisers.
“We’re in no hurry to go make sure [that we jam Twitter up with ads]. It just doesn’t make sense.”"
Source: BrandRepublic's Wallblog, 2nd June 2011
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
The demographics of American Twitter users
Click to enlarge
Source: Twitter Update, Pew Internet & American Life Project, 1st June 2011
Note - lots of other data on Twitter users in the report
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