Apple sold 2.7m Apple TV devices in the first half of 2012

"Yesterday’s much-anticipated interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook at the All Things Digital conference in California contained no slips-ups or surprises, but confirmed that TV remains an area of ripe interest for the company.
[...]
He revealed that sales of the Apple TV device are on the up – 2.8m units were sold in 2011, and 2.7m were sold in the first six months of this year – with growth helped by the move to 1080p content and cloud delivery (and presumably the recent price drop)."

Source:  IP&TV News, 31st May 2012

3G penetration by market Q4 2011

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Source:  Data from Informa & WCIS+, taken from Mary Meeker & Liang Wu's Internet Trends presentation 2012, KPCB, May 2012

Amazon.com increased its revenue by 1% for every 100 milliseconds of load time improvement

"But for the precious milliseconds site owners can shave off page load times, they can see huge returns. For example, Amazon.com increased its revenue by 1% for every 100 milliseconds of load time improvement. And Aol said its users in the top 10% of site speed viewed around 50% more pages than visitors in the bottom 10%"

Source:  Stated in Mashable, 6th April 2011.  

Also quoted in this presentation from 2008

Note - Original source not found.  Another classic stat that crops up a lot.  If you know the original source please leave a comment!

A one second delay in site load leads to a 7% drop in conversions

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Source:  Taken from Aberdeen Group's The Performance of Web Applications, November 2008
Note - this is a very old, and often quoted stat.  If you know of a newer one please leave a comment!

European mobile benchmarks March 2012

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Source:  Data from comScore for the 3 months to March 2012, reported in a press release, 31st May 2012

Digital accounts for for 55% of UK record industry revenues

"Downloads and streaming accounted for 55.5 per cent of overall UK record industry revenues in the first quarter of 2012, according to BPI.
The lobby group said the growing digital market had offset the decline in sales of physical formats, leading to an 2.7 per cent increase in overall revenues compared to the same period in 2011, to £155.8m.
BPI called the switch a “significant milestone”, after years of dire predictions about the impact the internet could have on the record industry because of the “unbundling” of albums into single track downloads, unlawful filesharing and other technology-driven factors.
Total digital revenues grew 24 per cent compared to a year earlier, to £86.5m. Physical revenues fell 15.1 per cent to £69.3m.
Strikingly, revenues from the premium subscription tiers of streaming services such as Spotify and We7 almost doubled year-on-year to £9m. The sector has benefited from increased smartphone ownership as mobile music apps are the main draw for subscription streaming."

Source:  Daily Telegraph, 31st May 2012

Worldwide mobile transactions grew to $106bn in 2011

"Worldwide mobile payment transaction values will surpass $171.5 billion in 2012, a 61.9 percent increase from 2011 values of $105.9 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The number of mobile payment users will reach 212.2 million in 2012, up from 160.5 million in 2011.
"We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 42 percent annual growth between 2011 and 2016, and we are forecasting a market worth $617 billion with 448 million users by 2016," said Sandy Shen, research director at Gartner. "This will bring opportunities for service and solution providers who will need to cater to the local demand patterns to customize their offerings.""

Source:  Press release from Gartner, 29th May 2012

Note - I deliberately don't put prediction onto this site, but I'm including this for the 2011 figures.  

Internet Trends 2012 - KPCB

KPCB Internet Trends 2012

View more presentations from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Mobile and tablets account for 20% of US web traffic

"Mobile Web browsing continues to take off, with smartphones and tablets accounting for 20 percent of Web traffic in the U.S. and Canada, according to a new report.
The analysis, from online advertising network Chitika, finds that those stodgy old PCs still produce just under 80 percent of Web traffic, with smartphones accounting for 14.6 percent and tablets making up 5.6 percent.
Other findings of note, Windows Phone now accounts for a third as much traffic as BlackBerry devices. Undoubtedly its market share is far less than that, but its more powerful browser and larger screen likely make it more conducive to Web surfing."

Source:  AllThingsD, 25th May 2012

More people follow Lord Sugar on Twitter than buy the main UK quality newspapers

Source:  Tweet by Lord Sugar (2m followers), 26th May 2012

Mobile operating system share Q1 2012

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Source:  Data from IDC, reported in a press release, 24th May 2012

Chinese social football game The Winning Goal II generates $800,000 per month in revenues

"The Winning Goal II, the sequel to Chinese online game developer and operator The9's self-developed soccer social game, generated nearly RMB 5 mln per month in revenues between February and May this year, with over 50% via Sina Microblog's gaming platform.
The Winning Goal games are similar to French developer Motion-Twin's My Brute fighting browser game, determining the winners of matches automatically, and is The9's earliest profitable browser game product, breaking the seven-figure RMB monthly revenue barrier in February after joining three gaming platforms, including Sina Microblog's, at the beginning of the year."

Source:  Techweb, via Marbridge Consulting, 23rd May 2012

Note - 5 million RMB = $790,000 according to XE.com, 23rd May 2012 - $1 = 6.33 CNY

72% of UEFA Champions League viewers watch one their own

"The free StarPlayer game, by AKQA, allows fans watching football on TV to anticipate the scores and events as they happen on the pitch, such as free kicks and corners.
The interactive game can be played in real-time via iPhone, Facebook and iPod touch. At certain points throughout the game, users are asked a series of trivia questions to win points.
The game can be played on the Heineken Facebook page or downloaded from the App Store from today. Heineken plans to make it available across multiple platforms, including Android and tablet devices.
According to Heineken, 75% of TV viewers are "dual-screening" and 72% watch the UCL at home alone.
Heineken has sponsored the Uefa Champions League since 2005. The game will run until the end of its sponsorship, which is contracted until the 2012 season."

Source:  Research by Heineken, used when making their StarPlayer game, and reported by Marketing Magazine, 27th April 2011

72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute

"In May 2005 we first shared YouTube with the world. Seven years later, you’re the ones doing the sharing! We’re so honored that you’ve used YouTube to share how-to tips, political moments, home videos, comedy, music, and so much more.
Last year to celebrate our birthday, we wrote you, the YouTube Community, a thank you note for making our first 6 years so special. And on that birthday you gave us a great present by reaching a record rate of 48 hours of video uploaded to the site every minute. Well Community, this year, on our 7th birthday, you’ve outdone yourselves once again.
Today 72 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. Like many 7 year olds around the world, we’re growing up so fast! In other words, every single minute you now upload three whole days worth of video instead of two. That's 61 Royal Wedding Ceremonies, 841 Bad Romances, and 1,194 Nyan Cats."

Source:  YouTube blog, 20th May 2012

Earlier - 60 hours a minute announced in January

500m shares were traded on the first day of the Facebook IPO

"The Facebook IPO opened hot and heavy in trading on its first day, with an opening price of $38, a spike to $42 and a closing price of $38.37. According to CNBC, it also became the first IPO to see 500,000,000 shares change hands in the first day of trading.
Just 30 seconds after trading, some 82 million shares had changed hands, spiking to 100 million in just 5 minutes."

Source:  The Next Web, 18th May 2012

Chrome is now - by some measures - the most popular web browser

"Google Chrome has been long expected to leapfrog Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to take its position as the Web’s most used browser and, according to data from Statcounter, the momentous change of leadership happened last week.
The firm’s latest figures — spotted by Global Nerdy blogger Joey deVilla – show that Chrome’s line of usage creeped overtook IE’s for the first week ever, with Firefox, Safari and Opera completing the top five respectively.
Statcounter’s findings give Google a double win, after the analytics site found that its mobile browser — Android Robot — had leapfrogged Opera to become the most popular option for mobile-based Web surfers in March.
Measuring the Web is an imprecise science, very often based on scaling up small scale measurement surveys, but the gist of Statcounter’s data over the last year indicates that Chrome use is rising of Chrome at the expense of IE and Firefox, regardless of the exact precision of the data."
Source:  The Next Web, 21st May 2012
Update - The Guardian refutes the claim - 22nd May

Facebook has 80% reach on smartphones in the US

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Source:  Press release from comScore, 7th May 2012

Android has over 55% share of all smartphones sold in Q1 2012

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Source:  Data from Gartner, reported in a press release, 16th May 2012

50,000 people interacted with the Shazam-able TV ads during Britain's Got Talent

"ITV and Shazam have revealed that around 50,000 viewers used the Shazam app to tag the Pepsi MAX and Cadbury ads that aired in just 60 seconds of airtime during special ad breaks in Saturday’s final of Britain’s Got Talent.
Viewers with Shazam on their smartphones were able to enter contests to win summer music festivals from Pepsi MAX and an Olympic Ceremony package from Cadbury, as well as participate in the conversation on social networks. The Pepsi MAX ‘Crowd Surfing’ football ad also included the chance to unlock other prizes, free screen savers, merchandise and a link to download the Calvin Harris track, Let’s Go, the ad’s official soundtrack."

Source:  Mobile Marketing, 15th May 2012

More than a third of UK small businesses use Facebook to market their products and services

"Social networks have overtaken local directories such as Yellow Pages and Thomson and print advertising in the UK as the main way small businesses seek out new customers, according to research published on Monday.
Over one-third of UK small businesses say that they now use Facebook to market their products and services, compared to 27 per cent that rely on local directories for their advertising.
Twitter has also become popular with UK-based small businesses and their owners – over one-in-six use micro blogging service to scout for new customers and to market their services. As a result Twitter is fast catching up with those who say they use print (21 per cent) and online advertising (20 per cent) advertising for their marketing."

Source:  Data from Basekit, reported by the Financial Times, 14th May 2012

Methodology:  "The results of the survey are based on an online poll conducted last month by Opinium Research among 500 small business owners each employing under 49 people."

Twitter has 10m active users in the UK

"Twitter now has 10 million active users in the UK, out of 140 million worldwide, the company has revealed – and 80%, an unusually high number, access it through mobile phones.
The data about the UK, revealed for the first time by the company, indicates that 8 million who logged in to the company's site in the past 30 days did so from a mobile phone, compared to Twitter's global average of 55%.
Independent studies suggest that the UK is the fourth-largest country for Twitter users in the world, after the US, Brazil and Japan.
The UK's proportion of mobile users is 45% higher than the average for the world, indicating the strength of Twitter use in the UK. Although most users are almost certain to log in via a desktop or laptop computer at some point, a Twitter UK spokeswoman said: "We have seen growth in the number of people signing up from a mobile."
That, she said, went back to the DNA of Twitter – which was originally set up in 2006 as a service that would work over SMS, which is why its messages are limited to 140 characters.
Twitter also points out that its users are particularly active in generating content: 60% have contributed to the network, either through tweeting or posting a picture or other content, compared to the world's biggest video site YouTube, where sources say just 1% of users ever posts a video."
Source:  The Guardian, 15th May 2012

Companies working in the Facebook ecosystem employ 18 times more people than Facebook itself

"There’s that elusive Facebook effect, ramping things up again. This time, it’s the economy. It’s unwittingly urging new startups to sprout, just by existing, and by being very well liked by the masses. Geez, we may soon be calling ourselves the innovation nation.
Scads of startups are cropping up, especially in the San Francisco Bay area, with the sole aim of helping large brands including Atlantic Airways, Sony, and The Virgin Group tend to their followers on the social network. They interact with fans and followers, while boosting engagement and likes, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Indeed, this “ecosystem” is supporting 18 times more jobs than Facebook itself, according to a University of Maryland study cited by the Mercury News."

Source:  AllFacebook, 9th May 2012

US technology adoption rates

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Source:  Technology Review, 9th May 2012

Affluent American men spend more online than affluent American women

"According to digital performance company iProspect, there are 19 million affluent men online, and the vast majority of them are shopping. Nearly half of these wealthy men spend more than $4,000 a year online.
Luxury menswear and accessories are leading the growth trend. Seventy percent of affluent men prefer to both research and buy online, with more than a quarter of them making purchases weekly. (Sorry ladies, but 84% of these guys are buying for themselves.)
Chris Ventry, the general manager of Gilt Groupe's GiltMan, tells CNBC the growth rate of men shopping online has outpaced women, and guys are outspending the ladies by 20% to 30%.
Megan Grant, senior vice president of Marketing for Kiehl's, tells CNBC its men's business online has doubled that of its stores.
These men expect a seamless experience across all digital platforms. iProspect's survey reveals nearly half of all wealthy men research products on their mobile devices.
The affluent male, which the survey defines as a man with a household income of more than $100,000, is very connected, with nearly half of those surveyed researching products on smartphones. Tablet shopping is growing quickly as well."

Source:  CNBC, 5th May 2012

The YouTube channel Machinima generates more than a billion video views a month

"Google has been handing out money to video makers so they’ll make more stuff for YouTube. Now it’s putting money into a video maker itself.
The search giant is set to invest in Machinima, one of the most popular networks on YouTube, via a funding round that should close within a month. Machinima focuses almost exclusively on YouTube videos for and about videogame players, and generates more than a billion views a month."

Source:  AllThingsD, 7th May 2012

Episodes of Game of Thrones have been illegally downloaded more than 25m times since April

"Brace yourselves, HBO. The pirates are coming.
With its popularity swelling and no easy way to watch for viewers without cable, HBO’s hit series “Game of Thrones” is inspiring massive levels of piracy, according to numbers from the BitTorrent-tracking and analysis firm Big Champagne. By the firm’s rough estimate, the second season of the show has been downloaded more than 25 million times from public torrent trackers since it began in early April, and its piracy hit a new peak following April 30th’s episode, with more than 2.5 million downloads in a day.
“It certainly appears to be the most pirated show of the year,” says John Robinson, a senior media analyst with Big Champagne. He says it’s too early to measure definitively, but the company’s data so far as well as the popularity rankings on download site the Pirate Bay point to “Game of Thrones” as filesharers’ favorite show of 2012."

Source:  Forbes, 9th May 2012

Marvel's The Avengers made $1bn in 19 days

"Based on Sunday estimates, The Avengers has joined the fabled $1 billion worldwide box office club. The movie reached this level on its 19th day in theaters, which ties the record-breaking pace of Avatar and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (though The Avengers was only playing in the U.S. for ten of those days). It currently ranks 11th on the all-time worldwide chart with $1.002 billion, and by the end of next weekend it will move up to fourth place behind Avatar, Titanic and Deathly Hallows Part 2.
"We're obviously thrilled with the global success of The Avengers," said Robert Iger, Disney's Chairman and CEO, in a press release. "It's a fantastic movie and an extraordinary franchise that will continue with more great stories and compelling characters for years to come.""

Source:  BoxOfficeMojo, 13th May 2012

Angry Birds has been downloaded one billion times

"Whoa -- 1 BILLION downloads! Angry Birds was just a small hatchling a couple of years back and now we have one of the largest, most dedicated fan bases in the world. So, what can we do to say thanks? Let’s think…"

Source:  Rovio Blog, 10th May 2012

Earlier - 500m announced in November

Over 80% of Nigeria's Facebook users access via mobile

"According to Socialbakers, the countries with the highest Facebook mobile penetration are:
Nigeria: 81.2 percent
Brunei: 80.8 percent
South Africa: 80.5 percent
Malawi: 78.3 percent
Papua New Guinea: 78.3 percent
Namibia: 76.7 percent
Botswana: 76.4 percent
Zambia: 73.9 percent
Japan: 72.1 percent
Singapore: 71.8 percent"
Source:  AllFacebook, 8th May 2012
Note - this means the number who access via mobile as a percent of the total users - but the people accessing via mobile may also access on a desktop device.

Mobile accounted for 13% of online sales in the US in Q1 2012

"Mobile is capturing a larger share of the online retailer sector in the US, according to a new report from IBM. Mobile commerce grew to 13.3 per cent of all online retail sales during the first quarter.
Mobile devices generated 17.1 per cent of all online sessions on retail sites, making a significant jump from 6.1 per cent in the year-ago period. The iPhone drives 6.5 per cent of mobile device retail traffic while Android captures 5.9 per cent and the iPad comprised 5.3 per cent.
"Over the first quarter, the digitally empowered consumer continued to demonstrate the momentum of the online channel and specifically mobile commerce, which has established itself as a legitimate channel for shopping," says Craig Hayman, general manager at IBM Industry Solutions. "Moving ahead, we will help retailers synchronize the demand and supply chains to address issues of product availability and connect to the mobile buyer.""
Source:  Data from IBM, reported by Mobile Marketing, 3rd May 2012

By August 2012 there will be 140,000 NFC payment points in the UK

"By the time of the Olympic Games there will be more than 140,000 contactless terminals around the UK. From the moment visitors land at Heathrow they will be immersed in a contactless payment experience with everything from taxis, to retail outlets, to the Olympic Park itself."
Source:  Press release from Samsung and Visa, 9th May 2012

77% of the UK online population are active participants

"Like the population itself, the picture is nuanced but six striking themes emerged:
The model which has guided many people's thinking in this area, the 1/9/90 rule, is outmoded. The number of people participating online is significantly higher than 10%.
Participation is now the rule rather than the exception: 77% of the UK online population is now active in some way.
This has been driven by the rise of 'easy participation': activities which may have once required great effort but now are relatively easy, expected and every day. 60% of the UK online population now participates in this way, from sharing photos to starting a discussion.
Despite participation becoming relatively 'easy', almost a quarter of people (23%) remain passive - they do not participate at all.
Passivity is not as rooted in digital literacy as traditional wisdom may have suggested. 11% of the people who are passive online today are early adopters. They have the access and the ability but are choosing not to participate.
Digital participation now is best characterised through the lens of choice. These are the decisions we take about whether, when, with whom and around what, we will participate. Because participation is now much more about who we are, than what we have, or our digital skill."

Source:  Data from BBC Future Media, reported in a blog post, 4th May 2012

Note:  "The Participation Choice is a synthesis of primary and secondary research conducted over the past 18 months. The data published today are all taken from the most recent, large scale survey of 7,500 UK adults - representative of the UK online population."

Apple shipped an estimated 68% of all tablets in Q1 2012

"A steep drop in shipments of Android-based tablets offset a strong quarter from Apple and caused the media tablet market to miss projections for the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12), according to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker. Total worldwide media tablet shipments for the quarter reached 17.4 million units in 1Q12, 1.2 million units below IDC's projection for the quarter. While IDC predicted a sharp seasonal slowdown of -34% from the previous quarter’s record-breaking 28.2 million units, the actual decline was slightly steeper at -38.4%. The total still represents a robust year-over-year growth rate of 120%, up from 7.9 million units in the first quarter of 2011.
"Apple reasserted its dominance in the market this quarter, driving huge shipment totals at a time when all but a few Android vendors saw their numbers drop precipitously after posting big gains during the holiday buying season," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Mobile Connected Devices at IDC. "Apple's move to position the iPad as an all-purpose tablet, instead of just a content consumption device, is resonating with consumers as well as educational and commercial buyers. And its decision to keep a lower-priced iPad 2 in the market after it launched the new iPad in March seems to be paying off as well."
Apple shipped 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, down from 15.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, and grew its worldwide share from 54.7% in 4Q11 to 68% in 1Q12. Amazon, which stormed into the market in 4Q11 to grab second place with 16.8% of the market on shipment of 4.8 million units, saw its share decline significantly in the first quarter to just over 4%, falling to third place as a result. Samsung took advantage of Amazon's weakness to regain the number two position while Lenovo vaulted into the number four spot, followed by Barnes & Noble at number five.
Although total Android shipments were down sharply in 1Q12, companies such as Samsung and Lenovo are beginning to gain traction in the market with their latest generation of Android products. IDC expects the segment to rebound quickly as other vendors introduce new products in the second quarter and beyond."

Source:  Data from IDC reported in a press release, 3rd May 2012

Apple makes 73% of all smartphone handset profits

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Source:  Chart and working from Asymco, quoted in a blog post, 3rd May 2012

Young fathers in America spend more on media than young mothers

"Young Dads …
Spend more money than Mom. Young fathers spend $400 a month on media, $100 more than young moms
Have cleaned up their act. 70% say the type of media they consume is more family-friendly
Give advice. 54% share advice with their friends and family about CPG products. 81% share advice about tech products
73% of young dads use social networking sites to communicate with others over the course of a typical week; 94% (of these social networking users) use Facebook for this purpose. 40% of young dads rely on internet voice/video calling to communicate, with the most popular being Skype (72% of voice/video calling users).
Are still gaming. But 79% use their console for streaming movies and other family-friendly content
Are brand loyal. 50% consider themselves loyal to a particular brand within the auto and tech categories
Use search. Online search and word-of-mouth influence decisions in the tech, telco, auto, CPG and financial categories
Pre-Family Men …
Spend $350 a month on media, $60 more than pre-family women
Give advice. 72% give advice to their friends and family about tech products
Are influenced by media. 66% are influenced by TV advertising, while 50% are influenced by online advertising and 44% are influenced by online search results
Spend the most time online researching autos . 44% of them are loyal auto and tech enthusiasts
Spend 10+ hours a day multitasking between their PC, smartphone, tablet and gaming console
Love gaming. 75% spend more than 7 hours a month gaming or using their console to download movies and other content"
Source:  Research by Microsoft, reported in a blog post, 24th April 2012

Apple sold 67m iPads in 2 years

"And so our view is that the tablet market is huge. And we've said that since day one. We didn't wait until we had a lot of results. We were using them here, and it was already clear to us that there was so much you could do and that the reasons that people would use those would be so broad. And that's precisely what we've seen. We -- the iPad has taken off not only in consumer in a meaningful way but in education and in enterprise, and it's sort of everywhere you look now. And the applications are so easy to make very meaningful for someone, and there -- the -- there's such an abundance of those that -- and as the ecosystem gets better and better and as we continue to double down on making great products, I think that the limit here is nowhere in sight. We've now -- through the last quarter, I should say, which is just 2 years after we shipped the initial iPad, we’ve sold 67 million. And to put that in some context, it took us 24 years to sell that many Macs and 5 years for that many iPods and over 3 years for that many iPhones. And we were extremely happy with the trajectory on all of those products. And so I think iPad, it's a profound product. It -- the breadth of it is incredible, and the appeal of it is universal. And so I am -- I could not be happier with being in the market, and the level at which we're innovating in both the product and the ecosystem here is incredible."

Source:  Apple CEO Tom Cook in an earnings call, 24th April 2012