The over-supply of mobile ad inventory

"For publishers, the biggest challenge around monetizing mobile audiences is still the matter of inventory oversupply. The number of mobile apps and sites is growing rapidly, but advertiser investment continues to lag, meaning even networks are struggling to fill the majority of impressions they’re handed.
According to data from publisher-side ad management platform Smaato, that problem is only getting worse. During the third quarter of the year the firm said only 18 percent of impressions were filled by the top 20 U.S. mobile ad networks, representing a decline from the 19 percent of ad slots they filled between April and June."

Source:  DigiDay, 30th November 2012

The most-followed brands on Pinterest

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Source:  DigiDay, 23rd February 2012
Note - this will be out of date very quickly, but it's a useful guide to the sorts of things that are popular at this stage.

25% of Groupons purchased in December were bought on a mobile device

"Groupon today announced record mobile performance in North America in December 2011 with one quarter of all Groupon vouchers purchased via a mobile device and both consumer and merchant app usage up significantly year over year.
December 2011 North American Mobile Performance:
25% of Groupons were purchased on a mobile device
Mobile app users increased by more than three times from last December to over nine million
More than 12,000 merchant partners used Groupon's merchant mobile app to redeem vouchers and track purchases using an iOS device or an Android phone."

Source:  Press release from Groupon, 27th February 2012

There were 3.4m comments in social media about the Oscars

"Social TV tracker Bluefin Labs counted 3.44 million “social comments” about last night’s Oscar awards. That metric, which primarily tracks Twitter usage but also includes some data from Facebook and other services, is certainly big. But it’s much smaller than two other big live-TV events this month. Bluefin counted some 12 million comments for the Super Bowl, and 13 million for the Grammys."

Source:  AllThingsD, 26th February 2012

Advertising accounts for less than 50% of the FT's revenues

"Two thousand of the FT’s new 2011 subs were corporate licenses. In the U.S., print circulation was overtaken by these digital subscribers for the first time.
[...]
Advertising is now the minority of FT revenue, with content sales 58 percent. And digital is now 47 percent of revenue."

Source:  Paid Content, 27th February 2012

850,000 Android devices are activated every day

"With a year-on-year growth rate of more than 250%, 850,000 new Android devices are activated each day, jetting the total number of Android devices around the world past 300 million. These numbers are a testament to the break-neck speed of innovation that defines the Android ecosystem.
Last year at Mobile World Congress (MWC), we announced that there were more than 150,000 apps in Android Market. That number tripled to more than 450,000 apps today, with over one billion app downloads happening every month. Think about the astonishing number of songs Shazam’ed, places Qype’ed and foursquare mayorships! To celebrate the hard work and success of our developer community, we’ve built special “app pods” into our Android stand at MWC. Many of these featured apps demonstrate the latest Android innovations, such as Android Beam, which lets you share content like web pages, videos, directions, and apps—just by touching two Android phones back to back."

Source:  Google Mobile Blog, 27th February 2012

Taobao reportedly accounts for half of all packages posted in China

"Taobao, the largest online retail platform in Asia, mirrors eBay but with an Amazon-like service tacked on. It has a user experience and engagement that puts its Western cousins to shame. Crucially, Taobao has overcome one of the biggest hurdles facing any retailer in China--a lack of trust--by not processing a payment until the consumer receives goods. It reportedly now accounts for half of all packages posted in China, something neither eBay nor Amazon have come close to claiming in the U.S."

Source:  AdAge, 27th February 2012

Caution - I can't find another source to back this up - can anyone help?

'Up to' 70% of UK smartphone users have never looked at the terms & conditions of their apps

"Companies including Facebook and Apple are gaining access to swathes of private data from individuals who agree to the terms and conditions when they download an app.
But according to a poll, up to 70 per cent of smart phone users never read such terms and conditions, leaving personal information, including text messages, their location and contacts, unwittingly exposed.
An investigation by the Sunday Times found that the data accessed via apps is often transmitted to “third party” companies, including advertisers."

Source:  Daily Telegraph, 26th February 2012

(The Sunday Times is behind a paywall, so I can't link to the original)

eCommerce levels for European countries in 2011

"E-commerce is one of the fastest growing markets in Europe. The statistics are problematic as state statistical research organisations tend to underestimate the size of the sector. Based on CRR research commissioned by Kelkoo, 2011 online sales in the UK were £50.34 billion (€59.4 billion) or 12.0% of UK retail trade. In 2008, online was equivalent to only 8.6% of retail sales.
For Europe (including UK), the total market was worth £169,880 million (€200.52 bn) in 2011 (up from £143,720 million [€169.63 bn] last year). Online retailers in only three countries, UK, Germany and France accounted for 71% of European online sales. In 2008, online sales in Europe were £101,840 million (€117.84 bn).
Online sales in Germany were £38.18 billion (€45.07 billion), 9.0% of retail sales (+13% over 2010). In France, where online retailers grew at one of the fastest rates in Europe, 2011 online sales were £32.75 billion (€38.66 billion) or 7.3% of retail sales (+24% over 2010)."
Source:  Retail Research - No date
Click on the link to see full data and a chart showing % of spend by market

US Smartphone penetration by age and income

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Data from Nielsen, reported in NielsenWire, 20th February 2012

Apple sold more iOS devices last year than Macs in the previous 28 years

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Source:  Data from Asymco, reported in their blog, 16th February 2012

Eventbrite has sold 50 million tickets

"Holy bananas, readers! We did it! Well, really, you did it.
Since Kevin and Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage founded the company back in 2006 in a Ramen-filled conference room, we have issued a dazzling 50 million tickets on Eventbrite."

Source:  Eventbrite blog, 22nd February 2012

Twitter has 500m registered users

"Twitter has just passed the 500 million user mark, as predicted back in January, just shy of its sixth birthday. It has achieved amazing growth over the last year or so as it has become an indispensable feature of the media and entertainment landscape around the world.
There have been a lot of Twitter landmarks along the way stretching back to the 2008 presidential election through to the Arab Spring and the death of Osama Bin Laden.
Twopcharts reported the 500 million figure a few minutes ago and now predicts it will hit 600 million users in around 108 days."
Source:  The Wall, 22nd February 2012
Note - These are registered users, and many will be inactive or automated bots.  Nut no one is doubting that Twitter is popular these days!

Mobile operators lost an estimated $14bn in 2011 due to consumers using messaging through other channels

"Mobile operators worldwide lost USD13.9bn in lucrative messaging revenues last year, as consumers increasingly contact their friends through social networks on their phones, according to new research by Ovum. The loss widened 59.7% year on year from the USD8.7bn drop that beset operators in 2010, as mobile social networking continues to grow in popularity. The stats highlight the pressure facing mobile operators as consumers increasingly opt for data-hungry smartphones with greater functionality, reducing the need for traditional services such as messaging. As a result, Ovum forecasts that revenue growth for mobile services will slow to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 1.9% between 2011 and 2016, when it will hit USD1,047bn globally.
Ovum’s research is likely to exacerbate concerns that mobile data revenues will not be enough to offset the decline in traditional revenue streams. The research firm predicts that mobile data revenues will grow at a CAGR of 7.2% between 2011 and 2016 to hit USD419bn, though the total still comprises less than half of overall mobile revenues from mobile services that Ovum forecasts for 2016."

Source:  StrategyEye, 22nd February 2012

Note:  'Estimate' is putting it politely...  Very notional numbers, but interesting all the same.

The impact of film piracy increases the longer the time allowed between US premiere and opening elsewhere

"[A] new study reveals that movie industry itself has the key to decreasing piracy, without passing any news laws.
In a paper titled ‘Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales’ researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College examine the link between BitTorrent piracy and box office returns. As hypothesized, they find that international movie piracy losses are directly linked to the delay between US and foreign premieres.
In other words, the longer it takes before a movie is released internationally, the more box office revenues are impacted through piracy.
“We find that longer release windows are associated with decreased box office returns, even after controlling for film and country fixed effects. This relationship is much stronger in contexts where piracy is more prevalent: after BitTorrent’s adoption and in heavily pirated genres,” they write.
“Our findings indicate that, as a lower bound, international box office returns in our sample were at least 7% lower than they would have been in the absence of pre-release piracy.”"
Source:  TorrentFreak, 10th February 2012

Nearly 260,000 iOS apps were launched in 2011

"A total 255,922 apps were launched on the UK App Store in 2011, a report from madvertise and AppZapp has revealed. December was the most popular month, with 28,992 apps launching, more than 7,000 over the monthly average.
Twice as many apps were launched for the iPhone as iPad, with the most popular app category on the iPhone being Lifestyle, with a 106 per cent growth rate, followed by Education in second place. On the iPad, it was the other way round, with Education taking first place and growing at a rate of 205 per cent."

Source:  Mobile Marketing, 16th February 2012

Shopping behaviour of people who research purchases on a smartphone

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Source:  Data from Google, reported in a blog post, 13th February 2012

Digital music sales account for more than 1/3/ of UK recorded music turnover

"The 2011 digital income of British record companies grew even faster than in 2010, as new trade figures released today by the BPI confirmed that UK recording industry revenues were resilient last year despite challenging economic conditions.
Trade income from digital music increased by a quarter (24.7%) to £281.6m during 2011, with digital growth now offsetting two-thirds of the decline in income from sales of physical music product.
Total digital music income – earnings from online downloads, subscriptions, ad-supported services and mobile – now accounts for more than a third (35.4%) of UK recorded music turnover, up from 27.4% in 2010.
Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said, “It is highly encouraging for the long-term prospects of the industry that the pace of digital growth continues to accelerate.  British labels are supporting a wide range of innovative music services and music fans are embracing digital like never before.
[...]
Revenue from digital albums grew strongly in 2011 and is now almost at the same level as digital single tracks.  Digital albums generated £117.8m in trade income – up 43.2% on 2010’s year-end result of £82.2m.  Earnings from digital single tracks rose 11.3% to £120.5m in 2011, compared to £108.3m in 2010.
The income from subscription digital music services also grew by an impressive 47.5% during 2011, with services such as Spotify Premium, Napster, We7 and eMusic generating significant trade income of £24.0m.  Advertising supported, free digital services – including Spotify, YouTube, We7 and last.fm – earned £10.7m for UK record companies in 2011, dipping 1.4% year-on-year.
Total trade income from physical formats – albums, singles and music video - fell by 14.1% overall in 2011, with revenues dropping for the eighth year in a row to £513.8m from 2010’s total of £598.0m.  The 2011 market for physical albums dropped 14.4% to £484.7m compared to £566.4m the year before."

Source:  Press release from the BPI, 16th February 2012

Apple generated almost 20% of all US consumer electronics revenues in Q4 2011

"U.S. consumer technology hardware and consumable sales* fell just one half of a percent in 2011 ending the year at nearly $144 billion, according to leading market research company The NPD Group.
Nearly 60 percent of all sales in 2011 were driven by the top five categories; PCs, TVs, tablets/e-readers, mobile phones, and video game hardware, according to NPD’s Retail and Consumer tracking services and Mobile Phone Track. PCs (notebooks and desktops) generated the most revenue with nearly $28 billion in sales, accounting for almost 20 percent of sales, but that figure was a decline of 3 percent from 2010. Tablets/e-readers were the clear winner in 2011, nearly doubling sales to $15 billion in 2011.
“U.S. hardware sales growth is becoming harder and harder to achieve at the broad industry level,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “Sales outside of the top five categories fell by 8 percent in 2011 as consumers shifted spending from older technologies to a narrow range of products.”
Apple benefited from this shift as it was the leading consumer electronics brand for the second year in a row. Among the top five brands Apple was the only one to experience a sales increase, posting a 36 percent rise over 2010.  By the critical fourth quarter Apple accounted for 19 percent of all sales dollars, almost twice as much as number two Hewlett-Packard."

Source:  Data from NPD, reported in a press release, 13th February 2012

Zynga has 240m monthly active users

"Daily active users (DAUs) increased from 48 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 54 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 13%.
Monthly active users (MAUs) increased from 195 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 240 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 23%.
Monthly unique users (MUUs) increased from 111 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 to 153 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 38%.
Average daily bookings per average DAU (ABPU) increased from $0.055 in the fourth quarter of 2010 to $0.061 in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 11%.
Monthly Unique Payers (MUPs) increased from 2.6 million in the third quarter of 2011 to 2.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 13%.
Zynga launched 12 games during 2011, including 4 titles on web-based platforms and 8 titles on mobile platforms.
As of December 31, 2011, Zynga had the top 5 most played games on Facebook, based on DAUs, including CastleVille, which launched in the fourth quarter of 2011 and reached 7 million DAUs in two weeks.
Zynga saw strong growth from mobile games in Q4 primarily from titles Dream Zoo, Words with Friends and Zynga Poker. These three games were among the top 10 grossing games on the iOS platform during the quarter.
2011 Annual Financial Summary
Bookings: Bookings were at a record level of $1.16 billion in 2011, an increase of 38% on a year-over-year basis.
Revenue: Revenue was $1.14 billion in 2011, an increase of 91% on a year-over-year basis. Online game revenue was $1.07 billion, an increase of 85% on a year-over-year basis. Advertising revenue was $74.5 million, an increase of 226% on a year-over-year basis.
Adjusted EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA was $303.3 million in 2011, a decrease of 23% year-over-year, largely due to our increased investment in developing new games.
Net income (loss): GAAP net loss was $404.3 million in 2011, which included $510 million of stock-based compensation expense for restricted stock units issued to employees that, in accordance with GAAP, was previously unrecognized until the occurrence of a liquidity event, triggered by the Company's initial public offering."
Source:  Zynga's 4th Quarter Results, released 14th February 2012

Offline advertising spend grew 13% in China in 2011

"According to Chinese ad spend figures released by CCTV market research subsidiary CTR, China's traditional advertising market (comprising television, print, radio, and outdoor media) grew by 13% YoY in 2011, the same rate as in 2010. Television advertising revenues grew by 13%; radio advertising revenues, by 28%; outdoor media, by 1%, with 26% growth in subway advertising and 25% and 34% growth, respectively, in public transportation TV displays and LCD screens installed in office buildings. The top five industries by ad spending in 2011 were cosmetics and bathing products, business and service industries, beverages, foods, and medicine."

Source:  Xinhaunet, via Marbridge Daily, 14th February 2012

There are estimated to be more than 300 companies in China creating fraudulent app reviews

"An industry insider said recently that there were at least 300 companies in China specializing in submitting fraudulent reviews for applications. The insider said that at a conservative estimate 30% of mobile applications used the services of these companies, and that 70% of applications had boosted their app rankings either using their own staff or the services of these companies. The practice of hiring people to boost app download figures and positive ratings, and to leave negative feedback for competitors' applications, is an open secret in the industry."

Source:  China Business News, via Marbridge Daily, 9th February 2012

41% of ad-related searches during the Super Bowl came from mobile devices

"Multi-tasking while watching TV isn't new, but nowadays smartphones and tablets are also becoming popular couch companions. Mobile devices have driven increases in total searches because of their always on, always-with-you nature. During the Super Bowl, 41% of Google searches in the US related to Super Bowl TV ads came from mobile devices. By looking at a selection of specific Super Bowl related queries both during the game and one week before, we found that the number of searches on these terms increased at a significant rate across all devices and was particularly high for mobile. Super Bowl ad related searches in the US rose 200% on desktop, 970% on tablets and a whopping 2700% on smartphones."

Source:  Google Mobile Ads Blog, 7th February 2012

Twitter employs 'about 900 people'

"Last month Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that the company now employs “about 900 people”. I’ve been tracking Twitter’s staff count pretty closely for a few years now, and while it’s certainly true that Twitter’s hiring spree is on a major uptrend, with some serious growth in the past few weeks, either Costolo rounded up a little, or Twitter themselves are slow to update their own data, because their current roster looks to be set at 833 people."

Source:  MediaBistro, 9th February 2012

There are more than 800 online dating sites in the UK

"The UK market, with an estimated £120m a year in revenue, has more than 800 dating websites. Most fall into one of two camps – free-to-use sites that generate revenue through advertising and those that offer services by subscription such as Match, owned by the Nasdaq-listed IAC."
Source:  Financial Times, 10th February 2012

The 2012 Grammy Awards was the most social TV event ever

"Last week we saw explosive growth in social TV with a record-breaking 12.2 million social media comments during the Super Bowl. The trend continued last night with the 54th Annual Grammy Awards setting a new record of 13 million comments – a 2,280% year over year growth from the 2011 Grammy Awards, which had 546K comments.
So what got people commenting last night? The first big spike in responses occurred when Chris Brown took the stage, though much of the sentiment was negative and related to past domestic abuse issues. After that, Adele was a popular topic with people tweeting up a storm during her 10pm performance. When she won Album of the Year for “21″ at 11:20pm, the comments poured in with 489K responses over a five minute period."

Source:  Data from Bluefin, reported in a blog post, 13th February 2012

The iPad accounts for 88% of US tablet traffic

"Not all tablets generate the same click rate. Apple's iPad generates the majority of tablet traffic, with an 88% share, while Amazon's Fire managed to step in as a low-priced alternative, generating slightly more than 4% of tablet ad clicks in late December before dropping to 3.5% at the end of January.
The traffic from non-iPad tablets still comprises less than or around 1% of total traffic for most. In January, RKG estimates the traffic at 0.8%.
About 68.1 million tablet units shipped worldwide in 2011, up from about 19.6 million in 2010 worldwide, according to the IHS iSuppli Worldwide Tablet Market Tracker Q1 2012. The research firm estimates tablet manufacturers will ship an estimated 124 million units in 2012."

Source:  MediaPost, 8th February 2012

The number of 'internet only' TV homes in the US rose 23% Y-o-Y in Q3 2011

"Characterizing it as a “development to watch,” Nielsen issued a new report to clients Wednesday showing that the number of U.S. households that bypass cable or satellite TV and subscribe only to broadband Internet access has grown dramatically in the past year, and not surprisingly, they spend dramatically more time watching TV over the Internet.
The Nielsen report said it is too soon to determine whether these households are so-called “cord-swappers”  - swapping the cable/satellite TV cord for the broadband Internet cord - but they are growing faster than any other segment of the “cross-platform” television marketplace.
While the percentage of Internet-only TV homes is still relatively small - less than 5% of all TV households - they grew 22.8% over the past year, according to the report, which reflects data for the third quarter of 2011 vs. the third quarter of 2010."

Source:  MediaPost, 9th February 2012

Super Bowl advertisers achieved over $11m value in 'free' online views in the 3 days after the event

"Online views have effectively returned a huge chunk of Honda’s Super Bowl investment, as the automaker earned itself some $4.42 million in free media impressions in the three days after Super Bowl XLVI.
According to a new study by Kantar Video, the automaker aired two spots in the Super Bowl that enjoyed a whole new life online after the game. Through Feb. 8, Honda’s spoof of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, starring Matthew Broderick, was viewed 14.8 million times on YouTube and other online destinations, for an “earned media” value of $2.24 million.
Also drawing a crowd online was the Acura NSX spot starring Jerry Seinfeld. The ad, which featured cameos from the Soup Nazi and a usurping Jay Leno, was viewed 18.5 million times on YouTube, generating $2.18 million in free exposure.
Based on the average unit cost of $3.5 million per 30 seconds of airtime, each one-minute spot recouped nearly 33 percent of its original cost.
[...]

All told, the roster of Super Bowl ads churned up some $11.1 million in incremental free online views. The top 10 spots alone accounted for $8.62 million of the total, on 95.2 million views."

Source:  AdWeek, 13th February 2012

American brewer New Belgium estimates that its Facebook fans are worth approx. $50m in revenue

"Facebook fans really "like" New Belgium beer -- so much so that they account for half the brewery's annual sales.
New Belgium has 42,000 local fans in 38 markets and 400,000 across all of its Facebook pages.
While it's tough for brands to value Facebook fans, the No. 3 U.S. craft brewer has a pretty good idea: It estimates its Facebook fans are responsible for $50.7 million in yearly sales. That's why the Fort Collins, Colo.-based brewer goes the extra mile when it comes to social and event marketing. It has made a notable investment in its Facebook presence, enlisting local salespeople (called "Rangers" in company parlance) to update 38 local pages across 28 states and Washington, D.C., and investing in custom apps and experiences. It also strategically targets Facebook ads to existing fans of its main page -- now 211,000 fans strong, compared with 138,000 and 134,000 for the No. 1 and No. 2 in the craft-beer category, Samuel Adams and Sierra Nevada -- to drive them to local pages for their region.
Since the market for craft beer is inherently regional, New Belgium considers Sam Adams to be less of a competitor than much more obscure breweries in its local markets. This is where a regional Facebook presence comes in handy -- especially when New Belgium is eyeing new markets like Michigan, where it will begin distributing this summer.
"With these pages that essentially become Ranger blogs, we're really able to talk about what we're doing locally," said Adrian Glasenapp, New Belgium's director-advertising and social media. "They highlight the fact that we have sales reps who live in these communities and work with local nonprofits [offering sponsorships]."
[...]
New Belgium now has 42,000 local fans in 38 markets and 400,000 across all of its Facebook pages, including 107,000 for Fat Tire, its best-known beer. It set out to figure out how valuable they are this fall by asking Facebook fans to fill out a survey, which nearly 3,000 completed.
Based on the findings, they concluded that the typical fan bought $260 worth of New Belgium beer per year, assuming that respondents drank 10 beers a week and that New Belgium made up 25% of their consumption, which adds up to $50.7 million spent yearly by unique Facebook fans.
New Belgium committed roughly $235,000 to its social-media presence last year that was mostly dedicated to Facebook, including both app development and advertising. However, most of its marketing budget still goes to print buys in national titles such as Wired, Rolling Stone and Men's Journal; niche publications dedicated to topics like cycling; and alternative weeklies and other regional titles."

Source:  AdAge, 13th February 2012

Nike's TV & press advertising budgets in the US have fallen, while marketing spend has risen

"Just try to recall the last couple of Nike commercials you saw on television. Don't be surprised when you can't. Nike's spending on TV and print advertising in the U.S. has dropped by 40% in just three years, even as its total marketing budget has steadily climbed upward to hit a record $2.4 billion last year. "There's barely any media advertising these days for Nike," says Brian Collins, a brand consultant and longtime Madison Avenue creative executive."

Source:  Fortune, 13th February 2012

Smartphone shipments rose 55% Y-o-Y in Q4 2011

"The worldwide smartphone market grew 54.7% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11), as Apple unleashed its iPhone 4S on an eager marketplace. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 157.8 million units in 4Q11 compared to 102.0 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. The 54.7% year-over-year growth was higher than IDC's forecast of 40.0% for the quarter, and higher than the 49.2% growth in 3Q11.
On a full-year basis, total smartphone shipment volumes reached 491.4 million units in 2011, up a strong 61.3% from the 304.7 million units in 2010. This was higher than IDC's full year estimate of 54.7% for the year, but still below 2010's year-over-year growth of 75.7%. Although this marks a slowdown from 2010, IDC still fully expects continued double-digit growth for the foreseeable future."

Source:  Data from IDC reported in a press release, 6th February 2012

Android has nearly 60% share of shartphones among first time buyers

"Apple was named the best-selling U.S. handset brand during the fourth quarter, according to a new report from the NPD Group.
However, the findings suggest that while iOS has won this battle, Android is really winning the war.
Not only do 48 percent of all smartphone buyers own Android smartphones (versus a close 43 percent on iOS), there is a much bigger disparity for first-time smartphone buyers. Android is attracting more than half of them at 57 percent, while Apple is considerably behind at 34 percent."
Source:  CNET, 6th February 2012

Unilever's digital campaigns yield 'over $3 in revenue for each $1 spent'

"Unilever Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Huet also mentioned his company's 15% increase in digital spending last year vs. a 2% increase overall in the context of spending efficiency in a Feb. 2 investor meeting. That follows a December investor presentation by Chief Marketing Officer Keith Weed in which he noted several digital programs that produced north of $3 in revenue for each dollar spent."

Source:  AdAge, 6th February 2012

77% of young people use a smartphone to help decide what film to watch

"Seventy seven percent of people aged 18-34 decide which film to watch with their smartphone, according to research commissioned by Odyssey Mobile Interaction.
The study included 600 iOS and Android users in the UK, Germany and France and found that they use their devices to access trailers, find local cinemas and book tickets. Of that group, 36% use their device for this on a weekly basis whilst 64% use it monthly.
The study also found that 58% of the same demographic are likely to click on a banner to watch a film trailer they are interested in on their device whilst the market average is 23%. Consumers are also using the mobile devices in reaction to traditional media with 53% using smartphones to follow up on TV ads and 42% following up on poster ads.
The study took place at the end of 2011 and was conducted by Dres Consulting."

Source:  M&M Global, 6th February 2012

Amazon have 22% of the home entertainment market in the UK

"The online retailer overtook [HMV] in the run up to Christmas last year, making it the biggest seller of CDs, DVDs and video games in the UK, with a 22.4% market share. HMV is still in second place with 17.5%, putting it ahead of other mail-order sites, download stores and the supermarkets, though, of course, its costs – having to operate 200+ high street stores selling just entertainment product – are so much higher.
These figures come from research company Kantar Worldpanel, whose Consumer Insight Director Fiona Keenan, says: “Amazon’s strong performance is down to a number of factors: it is typically really competitive on price, has a wide range of products with no restriction on display space, and is known for its very good customer service”.
After HMV and Amazon come: Tesco (11.4%), Asda (8.1%), Game (7.7%), Sainsbury’s (5.2%), Play.com (4.9%), iTunes (3%) and Morrisons has (2.7%)."

Source:  CMU 8th February 2012

Chinese gaming platform Mobile QQ Game Hall has over 200m registered users

"Shenzhen-based internet company Tencent recently announced on an official microblog account that its Mobile QQ Game Hall app had surpassed 200 mln registered users, with up to 13 mln users per day of the application and peak concurrent user (PCU) totals of over 1 mln users. With Symbian, KJava, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 7, and HTML 5 versions, Mobile QQ Game Hall clients are available on all major platforms. Several dozen casual games are available through the app, with more being added regularly - primarily casual card and board games such as Dou Dizhu, Chinese chess, and Tetris."

Source:  Tencent Tech, via Marbridge Daily, 8th February 2012

Apple's iPhone business makes more revenue & profit than the whole of Microsoft

"Tech writer MG Siegler just noted a remarkable fact:
Apple's iPhone business alone is now bigger than Microsoft.
Not Windows. Not Office. Microsoft.
Think about that.
The iPhone did not exist five years ago. And now it's bigger than a company that, 15 years ago, was dragged into court and threatened with forcible break-up because it had amassed an unassailable and unthinkably profitable monopoly.
The iPhone also appears to be considerably more profitable than Microsoft.
In the December quarter, Apple's iPhone business generated $24.4 billion of revenue. Microsoft's whole company, meanwhile, from Windows to Office to servers to XBox, generated $20.9 billion."
Source:  Business Insider, 4th February 2012

Pinterest has over 11m monthly visitors in the US

"It’s beautiful, it’s addictive, and now Pinterest is having its glorious hockey stick moment. TechCrunch has attained exclusive data from comScore showing Pinterest just hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors, crossing the 10 million mark faster than any other standalone site in history.
In fact, users are spending so much time sharing their favorite images that now only Facebook and Tumblr have more social media time on site than Pinterest. Who’s propelling its rise? 18-34 year old upper income women from the American heartland. Maybe we should call it blow-dryer growth.
According to comScore, the average Pinterest user spend 98 minutes per month on the site, compared to 2.5 hours on Tumblr, and 7 hours on Facebook. If you don’t count sites like Google+ or new Yahoo channels that have built in user bases, comScore’s data shows Pinterest would be the fastest site of any kind to hit 10 million monthly uniques in the U.S.
[Update: comScore reported to us that Pinterest was the fastest independent site to hit 10 million monthly uniques in the U.S., and that according to its data, Formspring never reached 10 million monthly active users in the U.S. and instead peaked around 8+ million."

Source:  TechCrunch, 7th February 2012

Super Bowl 2012 broke TV viewing records with an average of 111.3m viewers

"The New York Giants’ 21-17 win over the New England Patriots in last night’s Super Bowl was seen by an average of 111.3 million people, the biggest audience in U.S. television history, according Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC network.
The viewership total for the game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis narrowly topped last year’s record of 111 million for the Green Bay Packers’ Super Bowl win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, NBC said in a news release.
The game was seen in an average of 47 percent of U.S. homes, the best rating since 1986 when the Chicago Bears’ win over the Patriots drew a 48.3 rating. Yesterday’s 47 rating is the sixth highest in Super Bowl history.
This was the seventh straight year of Super Bowl-record viewership. It peaked at 117.7 million during its final half- hour, as the Giants’ Eli Manning directed a late-game touchdown drive that gave New York the lead, and a desperation game-ending throw to the end zone by New England’s Tom Brady fell incomplete. It was the Giants’ fourth Super Bowl title and second in five years.
An average of 114 million viewers watched the halftime show that featured Madonna, the most for a championship halftime show that featured entertainment, which dates back to 1991. More than four million fewer people watched the Black Eyed Peas at halftime a year ago."

Source:  Bloomberg, 6th February 2012

Smartphone shipments exceeded PC shipments in 2011

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Source:  Data from Canalys, reported in a press release, 3rd February 2012

David Beckham's H&M Super Bowl ad had 109,000 comments in social media within 45 minutes of airing

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Source:  Data from Bluefin, reported by AdAge, 6th February 2012
Note - The count is for comments made within 45 minutes of the ad airing

US eCommerce levels & growth rates 2007-2011

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Source:  data from comScore, reported in a press release, 6th February 2012

The 5 most viewed Super Bowl 2012 ads online

"Here are the updated numbers as of Monday morning: (After the game)
Honda: Matthew's Day Off: 18.4 million
VW: The Dog Strikes Back: 17.8 million
Acura: Transactions: 15.7 million
Doritos: Crash the Super Bowl 2012: 6.3 million
Audi: Vampire Party: 5.3 million"

Source:  AdAge, 6th February 2012

A digest of Super Bowl stats

"Super Bowl 46 is history now and here’s a roundup of all of the internet-related reports. Roughly 100 million watch the Super Bowl every year, making it one of the most viewed events in the world.
Twitter reported that there were an average of 10,000 tweets per second in the final three minutes of the game. That beats the Royal Wedding at 3,966 tweets per second and Osama Bin Laden’s death at 5,106 tweets per second.
Social TV startup Bluefin Labs said it saw 11.5 million comments during the game, up six fold over last year.
The official Super Bowl Twitter account has just 37,871 followers. Some 50 employees and volunteers manned the Super Bowl Command Center for social media.
The NFL has about 2.8 million Twitter followers and 4.5 million Facebook NFL page likes. Verizon added 400 additional 3G and LTE antennae for 3G and LTE service. AT&T added 200 new cell sites in Indianapolis.
InMobi reported that 40 percent of respondents to its survey said they used mobile devices in response to TV ads and 45 percent estimated they would spend 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game. About 39 percent said they would use their mobile devices in response to TV commercials. About 27 percent said they downloaded a Super Bowl mobile app; and 30 percent said they used mobile devices most during commercials.
During the 630 pm EST to 8 pm EST time block, H&M’s Super Bowl commercial site was the fastest with a response time of 1.7 seconds to load the whole page, while Honda’s was the worst with 40 seconds required to load the full page, according to the SmartBear AlertSite."

Source:  VentureBeat, 6th February 2012

The 2012 Super Bowl saw a peak of 12,233 tweets per second

In the final three minutes of the Super Bowl tonight, there were an average of 10,000 Tweets per second.
— Twitter (@twitter) February 6, 2012

Madonna's performance during the Super Bowl's halftime show saw an average of 8,000 Tweets per second for five minutes.
— Twitter (@twitter) February 6, 2012

The highest Tweets per second #SuperBowl peak came at the end of the game: 12,233. 2nd highest was during Madonna's performance: 10,245.
— Twitter (@twitter) February 6, 2012

Source:  Tweets from the official Twitter account, 6th February 2012

Nearly half of the advertisers in Super Bowl 2012 are using Shazam with their advertising

"Now the company says it’s working with nearly half the advertisers at the Super Bowl, and it’s revealing a few key ones: Viewers of the Toyota ad will be able to use Shazam to enter a contest to win two free Camrys. When viewers tag the Cars.com ad, Cars.com will donate $1.00 to one of seven charities. Pepsi’s ad will feature X-Factor winner Melanie Amaro, and using Shazam on the ad will unlock an extra video. Viewers who tag the Teleflora ad will receive a special offer. And not only is Best Buy using Shazam to offer a $50 gift card to customers who buy and activate a mobile phone in 2012 — it’s actually featuring two of Shazam’s founders in its commercial."

Source:  TechCrunch, 2nd February 2012

Facebook has 845m active users

"As part of its initial filing to go public, Facebook has just revealed some new user numbers that illustrate just how big it is.
It had 845 million monthly active users and 483 million daily active users as of December, for year over year growth of 39% and 48% respectively. Mobile is also now half the user base, with 425 million monthly actives. Some other stats, which are a bit more vague: 100 billion friend connections as of the end of last year, and 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day during the last three months of the year."

Source:  TechCrunch, 1st February 2012

Earlier - Most recent full stats (800m in Sept 2011)

Google's mobile search volumes doubled Y-o-Y in December 2011

"Google’s lead product manager for mobile search ads, Surojit Chatterjee, tells us that in December 2011 mobile search ad request volume was more than twice as high as it was in December 2010. Mobile search in general has grown five-fold worldwide in just the past two years, which is a rate comparable to the early days of desktop Google Search, he adds.
Chatterjee says that quality of search ads is increasing thanks to some of the new factors being considered in mobile search ad rankings. For example, mobile web-optimized sites are now ranked higher. Since August 2011, Google has seen more than a 50 percent increase in the number of AdWords advertisers with a mobile optimized sites."

Source:  TechCrunch, 1st February 2012

LivingSocial made a net loss of $588m in 2011

"LivingSocial’s financial results for the past year were reported by Amazon today, revealing that the company continues to trail behind Groupon by a wide margin.
Amazon, which has a 31 percent stake in the second-largest daily deals company, released the figures as part of its quarterly filing today with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
It said LivingSocial’s 2011 net loss totaled $558 million on revenues of $245 million."

Source:  AllThingsD, 1st February 2012

Facebook accounts for 28% of online ad impressions in the US

"Ahead of a rumoured IPO as early as tomorrow, Facebook’s position in the ad space has been boosted by comScore data that shows its share of US ad impressions grew to 27.9% in 2011.
This is up from 21% in 2010 and means Facebook has been ranked number one in comScore’s display ad impressions category for the past three years.
Despite its well-publicised woes Yahoo is second on the list with 11% of the market, while Microsoft, Google and AOL trail with less than 5% each.
Unlike the other companies on the list Facebook is almost totally reliant on banner ads to bring in revenue."

Source:  Data from comScore, reported by Econsultancy, 31st January 2012

"Several hundred" YouTube partners made more than $100,000 in 2011

"A Google spokeswoman says that "several hundred" of its partners made more than $100,000 in 2011, up 80% from the "couple of hundred" partners who made more than that in 2010. YouTube partners have also increased to 30,000 in 2011 from 20,000 in 2010, says Tom Pickett, YouTube's global director of content, operations and online creators."

Source:  Wall Street Journal, 2nd February 2012

Mobile phone shipments for full year 2011

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Source:  Data from IDC, reported in a press release 1st February 2012
Lots of analysis and also Q4 data in the press release

The New York Times has 390,000 digital subscribers

"The New York Times ended 2011 with 390,000 digital subscribers, up about 20 percent from its third-quarter total. Some of the new subscriptions came from the publisher’s International Herald Tribune, which started digital sales last fall."

Source:  AllThingsD, 2nd February 2012

Facebook's ad revenue increased by 69% in 2011

"In its filing, Facebook reported 2011 revenue of $3.71 billion, an 88% increase from the $1.97 billion total reported for 2010, though falling short of eMarketer's 2011 projection of $4.27 billion. The increase was mostly attributed to the 69% growth of advertising revenue, which was buoyed by a 42% increase in the number of ads delivered and an 18% increase in their average price.
While advertising made up $3.15 billion of Facebook's revenues last year, the company earned $557 million from Facebook Payments -- the virtual currency it began requiring game developers on the platform to use as of July 1 -- and other fees. Payments are making up an increasingly hefty chunk of Facebook's revenue, and in the fourth quarter of 2011, advertising constituted just 83% of revenues, down from 90% the previous year. Facebook takes a cut of all money exchanged through the use of "Payments," and in the case of virtual goods purchased on Zynga, that cut is up to 30%."

Source:  AdAge, 1st February 2012

Netflix 'streaming' subscribers watch an average of one hour of streaming content a day

"Netflix subscribers watched more than 2 billion hours of movies and TV shows through its streaming service in the fourth quarter of 2011, more than in any previous quarter, the company said early last month.
This statistic suggests that Netflix subscribers are averaging an hour of streaming content daily, according to Janney Capital Market analyst Tony Wible."

Source:  AdAge, 1st February 2012

One of Justin Bieber's Tweets in January 2012 had over 92,000 ReTweets

"On the 10th of January, 2012, Justin Bieber retweeted one of Floyd Mayweather’s tweets (@FloydMayweather Manny Pacquiao I'm calling you out let's fight May 5th and give the world what they want to see). This tweet went on to receive 92,314 Retweets! Now that’s evidence of the Bieber-bump in action."

Source:  Blog post by TwitSprout, 1st February 2012

Follow the link for data on retweets for the top 10 most-followed

More than half US adult mobile phone owners used their phones to help in store in Christmas shopping

"More than half of adult cell phone owners used their cell phones while they were in a store during the 2011 holiday season to seek help with purchasing decisions. During a 30 day period before and after Christmas:
38% of cell owners used their phone to call a friend while they were in a store for advice about a purchase they were considering making
24% of cell owners used their phone to look up reviews of a product online while they were in a store
25% of adult cell owners used their phones to look up the price of a product online while they were in a store, to see if they could get a better price somewhere else
Taken together, just over half (52%) of all adult cell owners used their phone for at least one of these three reasons over the holiday shopping season and one third (33%) used their phone specifically for online information while inside a physical store—either product reviews or pricing information."

Source:  Data from Pew Internet & American Life Project, 30th January 2012

Pinterest drives nearly as much referral traffic as Twitter

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Source:  Data from Shareaholic, reported in their blog, 1st February 2012
Methodology:  "based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month"