Black Friday 2015 & the day after generated $4.5bn in online sales in the US

"The first two days of the holiday sales period have netted $4.45 billion in U.S. online purchases, with mobile devices — led by smartphones — accounting for a record $1.5 billion of that amount, with $2.72 billion spent on BlackFriday and $1.73 billion on Thanksgiving. The figures come from Adobe, which has been tracking some 4,500 sites, including 80% of the top 100 retailers.
IBM says Black Friday outpaced that with the average basket size of $134.45, and sales up 20.7% on a year ago with popular items including Apple Watch, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, and TVs from Samsung, Sony and LG.
The number of people buying goods online and by mobile during the holiday season continues to grow, but the average value of what they are buying may be falling. IBM says that Thanksgiving online sales — amassed by way of its Benchmark survey tracking thousands of sites — overall were up 26% compared to a year ago. But the average spend per order on Thursday as $123.45. That’s down from $125.25 a year ago, and nearly $10 less than 2013, when the average basket value was $132.
Adobe said that its $2.72 billion in estimated spend online on Black Friday showed growth of 14%. Adobe had expected growth of 19%."

Source:  Techcrunch, 28th November 2015
Update - Total for Black Friday - Cyber Monday was $11bn
Update - Walmart's statement on Cyber Monday
Update - Millions of Amazon devices - Kindle Fires, Fire Sticks - sold
Update - £1.1bn spent online in the UK on Black Friday - first ever shopping day over £1bn

Mobile's share of traffic and sales in the US during Black Friday 2015

Source:  Data from IBM Watson, November 2015
Note - 9 page report here

iPhones in use in the US by model number

Source:  Apple Insider, 19th November 2015
Note - This means that there are over 60m iPhone 6 or above, that could use Apple Pay

The most popularly used emoji in US TV-related Tweets

Source:  AdWeek, 20th November 2015

The first series of the Chinese version of Top Gear has had 217m views across all platforms

"Honyee Media’s Chinese version of BBC’s Top Gear has taken the world’s most populous country by storm, with the first 5 episodes of the second season accumulating a combined audience of 217 million across TV and online.
The show, which launched on Shanghai Dragon TV on October 19th, was the number one programme in its time slot for the past 4 weeks across all cable and pay-TV channels nationwide, with an average weekly audience of 9 million tuning in to watch live. The fifth and latest episode of a run of 10 attracted its highest audience to date, garnering over 11 million viewers.
Interest in Top Gear China has been so intense that the season’s first 5 episodes have received 173 million total views across 8 of China’s largest online video websites."

Source:  Advanced Television, 20th November 2015

Note - I'm assuming that the 217m figure is views, not viewers

Note - You can watch episodes legally on YouTube here

WeChat makes an average of $7 a year from each of its users

"The major players in Asia — WeChat, LINE, and KakaoTalk — have already begun driving revenue by launching apps and services on top of their messaging platforms. Almost everything a smartphone user would do inside a native app can now be done inside a messaging app: gaming, ordering taxis, sending and receiving money, listening to music, watching TV, buying goods online, and so on.
Average revenue per user is very high for messengers that offer these platform layers: $7.00 for WeChat, $4.24 for KakaoTalk, and $3.16 for LINE. The main drivers of revenue are games and, for KakaoTalk, e-commerce. By comparison, WhatsApp makes $0.06 per user, and this money comes exclusively from subscriber fees. The upside of introducing platform layers is quantified, and now that Facebook Messenger has launched a nascent app store and virtual assistant ‘M’ inside its service, the messaging landscape seems to have found its revenue roadmap."

Source:  Stephanie Newman on Medium, 23rd November 2015

Smart devices - phones and tablets - per head in Europe

"Flurry from Yahoo currently tracks over 725,000 apps across 564 million devices in Europe. All Europeans love their smart devices, but there are marked differences in usage and preferences across the continent. Let’s take a look.
For this analysis, we focused on the top 10 European countries by total population: Russia, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Ukraine, Poland, and Sweden. We next compared the total population and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of these countries, to the number of iOS and Android devices Flurry Analytics tracked in each of these countries throughout October 2015. GNI is a measure of a country’s wealth, as calculated by the World Bank in constant US dollars."

Digital, Social & Mobile in Southeast Asia 2015

Digital, Social & Mobile in Southeast Asia in 2015 from We Are Social Singapore

Mail Online has a global staff of 720, inc 420 editorial staff

"Mail Online employs a total global staff of 720, including 410 editorial staff. Of those, 200 are based in the US, 130 of them are editorial."
Source:  The Guardian, 25th November 2015

Smartphone and feature phone ownership among British kids

Source:  Ofcom's Childrens & Parents Report, 20th November 2015

Adele sold over 2.3m copies of '25' in the US in the first 3 days

"It’s confirmed. Adele’s 25 has broken the single-week U.S. album sales record, according to Nielsen Music.
After processing the first sales reports from Monday, Nov. 23, the album has already sold at least 2,433,000 in pure album sales in slightly more than three days. That sum beats the single-week record for an album since Nielsen began tracking sales in 1991, set by *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, when it debuted with 2,416,000 in the week ending March 26, 2000.
Adele's '25' Is the 20th Album to Sell a Million Copies in a Week: See the Full List
Nielsen Music began tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991. Prior to 1991, there was no authoritative music sales tracking service in the U.S. and thus, it was mostly unknown how many copies of an album or song/single were sold in a single week.
25 was released on Nov. 20 through XL/Columbia Records. Yesterday (Nov. 23), Nielsen reported that 25 had sold at least 2.3 million copies in its first three days of release (through Nov. 22)."

Source:  Billboard, 24th November 2015
Update - 3.38m in the first week in the US

Time spent with media per day in India

Source:  Data from TNS, reported by Next Big What, 20th November 2015

Kids' media use in the UK 2005-2015

Source:  Ofcom's Children & Parents: Media use & attitudes report 2015, 20th November 2015

British record labels 'make more money from vinyl than they do from YouTube'

"The boss of British music industry body the BPI has claimed UK labels make less money from YouTube than from vinyl sales.
Speaking at the Music Futures conference in Gateshead, Geoff Taylor said vinyl revenues were worth more than the “14bn music streams on YouTube” in 2014.
Although he did not give a specific figure, last year the BPI said that in 2013, British labels’ income from sales of vinyl albums was £12.1m. In 2014, more than 1.3m vinyl albums were sold in the UK, but the BPI has not published a figure for how much income that meant for labels.
In response to Taylor’s comments, a YouTube spokesperson said: “Music videos on YouTube can be discovered by over 1 billion people in over 80 countries. To date, we’ve paid out $3bn to the music industry – and that number is growing year on year.”
The company also cited its YouTube for Artists site that provides musicians with analytics and advice on building their audiences. YouTube has also just launched a standalone YouTube Music app in the US, which ties into its new YouTube Red $9.99-a-month subscription service."

Source:  The Guardian, 13th November 2015

Over 1m households in Australia subscribe to Netflix

“There are now 2,677,000 Australians (14+) who have Netflix in the home, with the number of households with a Netflix subscription rising again in October to 1,039,000 (11.4 per cent),  subscription VoD data from Roy Morgan Research shows.
For the majority of Netflix subscribers, this is their first time paying for TV. In the year preceding the arrival of Netflix, over seven in 10 Australians lived in a home without any paid TV service; as of October, this had declined to 58 per cent.
According to the research firm, the rise of SVoD, dominated by Netflix, is perhaps impacting Australians’ DVD and downloading habits. In the six months to September 2015, fewer Australians have been buying or renting DVDs or downloading TV shows or movies.
[…]
Australians have been notorious for their high levels of illegal downloading. While our figures of course include legal downloads, it is notable that the younger, tech-savvy people most likely to download TV shows and movies have been the quickest to subscribe to Netflix—and the overall rate of downloading has declined.
A year ago, just over one in five 14-24 year-olds downloaded TV shows or movies in an average month—today, around 22 per cent of this group lives in a Netflix home, and the rate of downloading has fallen sharply to 15 per cent.”

Source:  Advanced Television, 12th November 2015

Note - Netflix only launched in Australia in March 2015

Call of Duty®: Black Ops III generated revenue of $550m in the first 3 days

"Activision Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), today confirmed that Call of Duty®: Black Ops III is the biggest entertainment launch of the year. In its first three days, the blockbuster title exceeded $550 million in sell-through worldwide, according to Activision estimates. The opening weekend haul is the biggest entertainment launch of 2015, including theatrical box office, music and book launches.
Engagement per player also set a new record for the Call of Duty® franchise. Additionally, fans played more than 75 million hours online in its opening three days.
"Call of Duty's millions of passionate fans have shown us, yet again, the strength of their commitment to this enduring franchise," said Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard's Chief Executive Officer. "Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the biggest entertainment launch this year in any medium, and bigger than any theatrical opening weekend ever."
"The Call of Duty: Black Ops III launch is bigger than any game, any movie, or any entertainment launch this year. But more importantly, our fans are engaging more deeply with the franchise than ever before. In fact, so far, people are playing Black Ops III for more hours per player than any Call of Duty game on record," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. "Call of Duty is more than a game, it's a year round passion for a growing base of millions of fans and it's only gaining momentum.""

Source:  Press release from Activision Blizzard, 11th November 2015

Shoppers spent $14.3bn on Alibaba on Singles Day 2015

"China’s online shopping holiday “Singles’ Day” broke all previous records when it wrapped up at midnight last night (Nov. 11) in Beijing—Chinese shoppers bought $14.3 billion of merchandise through e-commerce giant Alibaba alone, and that figure doesn’t include billions more on competing websites.
That $14.3 billion figure blew through expectations, and beat last year’s number by 60%:
[...]
[This] shows the raw power of China’s consumers, who purchased over $450 billion in merchandise online in all of 2014, a figure expected to more than double to over $1 trillion by 2018."
Source:  Quartz, 12th November 2015

18% of British internet users use ad blockers

"The latest wave of the Internet Advertising Bureau UK’s Ad Blocking Report, conducted online by YouGov, reveals that 18% of British adults online are currently using ad blocking software. This is a rise from 15% in early June.
Ad blocking is more prevalent among men surveyed (23%) than women (13%) and the propensity to block ads decreases with age – from 35% of 18-24 year olds to 13% of people 55+.
40%’s main motivation isn’t to block all ads
However, less than six in 10 (57%) people who’ve ever downloaded the software said their main motivation was to block all ads; 20% said the main reason was to block certain types of ads or ads from certain websites.
Less interference and fewer ads main ways to stop ad blocking
The most common reason people would be less likely to block ads is if they didn’t interfere with what they were doing (cited by 48%) followed by having fewer ads on a page (36%). One in seven (14%) would be less likely to block ads if they were more relevant.
“The small rise in people blocking ads is not unexpected considering the publicity it’s been receiving,” said IAB UK’s CEO, Guy Phillipson. “However, it does provide some perspective on the situation for those referring to an “adblockalypse.” More importantly, it also provides a clear message to the industry – a less invasive, lighter ad experience is absolutely vital to address the main cause of ad blocking. That’s why we're developing the L.E.A.N advertising principles for the online advertising supply chain."
Majority still prefer free content and ads vs having to pay
When told that ad blocking means some websites will have to stop providing free content or charge people to use them, 61% of British adults online said they would prefer to access content for free and see ads than pay to access content.
Phillipson explains: “The other key tactic to reduce ad blocking is making consumers more aware of the consequences – what we call the “value exchange.” If more people realise content is only free because ads pay for it, then fewer people will be inclined to block ads. Only 4% are willing to face the other option – paying for content with no ads.”
Among those currently using ad blocking software, 71% are doing so on laptops, 47% on desktop PCs. Just under a quarter (23%) are blocking ads on mobiles and less than one in five (19%) on tablets."

Source:  Press release from IAB UK, 11th November 2015
More - 25% of US and UK smartphone users use an ad blocker (research slightly let down by claim that 21% don't know whether they do or not

More than 6bn videos a day are watched on Snapchat

"Snapchat is generating 6 billion video views on its app every day, according to the Financial Times.
That number has tripled since May, the FT's Tim Bradshaw reported, citing people close to the company.
Snapchat confirmed the view count, but declined further comment, according to the report. Business Insider has also contacted Snapchat for comment and we'll update this article if we hear back.
In September, International Business Times reported Snapchat was drawing in 4 billion video views a day.
The new 6 billion figure means Snapchat is rapidly closing the gap with Facebook, which last week said it had doubled its number of daily video views to 8 billion, up from 4 billion in April.
What makes Snapchat's number even more impressive is that it attracts around 100 million daily active users to its app, compared to Facebook's 1 billion daily active user count. Facebook's numbers also include both desktop and mobile views, while Snapchat is a mobile-only service."

Source:  Business Insider, 8th November 2015

Just Eat gets over 700,000 visits a day in the UK, and is used by 10% of adults

"Online takeaway business Just Eat’s chief operating officer Adrian Blair has argued that major brands will benefit enormously from working with it. So far, the company has focused on building a network of 59,000 independent restaurants. Writing for Propel Friday Opinion, he stated: “Just Eat gets over 700,000 visits a day to our apps and website in the UK alone (about 10x the footfall at Westfield London). It is essentially a busy digital high street, exclusively for restaurants. The vast majority of these visits occur at dinner time. In other words, people are not researching a future purchase – they are hungry and choosing what to eat right now. Only brands visible on the Just Eat digital high street are part of the consideration set for these consumers – and many of those that do feature find it their largest source of new customers. Just Eat is now a mainstream consumer brand, used by one in ten adults in the UK. Contrary to the perception of some, they are not “downmarket” – over half of Just Eat users are A / B / C1s. People from social grade A (“high managerial or professional”) alone spend over £200m on Just Eat each year. 80% of target consumers see us as a mass market consumer brand, and brand affinity is one of the main reasons people use the service."

Source:  Propel Info News, 6th November 2015

Mobile accounts for 78% of Facebook's ad revenue

"Third Quarter 2015 Operational Highlights
Daily active users (DAUs) - DAUs were 1.01 billion on average for September 2015, an increase of 17% year-over-year.
Mobile DAUs - Mobile DAUs were 894 million on average for September 2015, an increase of 27% year-over-year.
Monthly active users (MAUs) - MAUs were 1.55 billion as of September 30, 2015, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
Mobile MAUs - Mobile MAUs were 1.39 billion as of September 30, 2015, an increase of 23% year-over-year.
Third Quarter 2015 Other Financial Highlights
Mobile advertising revenue - Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 78% of advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2015, up from 66% of advertising revenue in the third quarter of 2014.
Capital expenditures - Capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2015 were $780 million.
Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities - Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $15.83 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2015.
Free cash flow - Free cash flow for the third quarter of 2015 was $1.41 billion."
Source:  Facebook Q3 2015 Results, released 4th November 2015
Note - Full charts deck here

Over $2bn has been pledged on Kickstarter

Source:  Kickstarter, November 2015
(Lots more stats if you click on the link)

Facebook generates 8 billion video views a day

"Facebook video viewership is growing by leaps and bounds. It now sees 8 billion average daily video views from 500 million users. That’s up from just 4 billion video views per day in April. Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement on the call to investors following Facebook’s blockbuster Q3 2015 earnings report.
Some might contend that this stat isn’t totally accurate since Facebook counts just 3 seconds of watching as a “view”. But the 100% growth in seven months shows that even when controlling for this limitation of the metric, users are still voraciously consuming videos.
Even at just 3 seconds per view, Facebook is generating 760 years of watch time each day. That means there’s a ton of space for Facebook to lure in TV commercial dollars that are shifting to digital. It also has an opportunity to grow viewership further with an ongoing test where it pays a revenue share to top video creators."
Source:  Techcrunch, 4th November 2015

US Netflix subscribers watch an average of 10 episodes & 4 movies a week

"Regular (monthly) Netflix users in the US have grown even more dependent on the service for viewing TV programming, saying they watch 10 shows per week via the platform – as well as four movies during the same timeframe. For TV content, this represents a doubling of the level (five shows per week) found in the same survey three years ago.
Projected to the full population, this means that the average US consumer ages 13 to 54 watches roughly five TV shows and two movies per week via Netflix using one or more platforms.
The findings come from Over the Top TV 2015: A Complete Video Landscape– the latest study in market and consumer information source GfK’s ongoing The Home Technology Monitor series tracking media technology and services. The new report includes trends from five prior OTT studies conducted since 2010."

Source:  Advanced Television, 28th October 2015

Chinese smartphone users change their phone every 18 months

"Researches show that Chinese smartphone users change their smartphones once every 29-months in 2011, but the period has been shorted to 18 months now. Over 20% of Chinese users will update for a newer phone within one year, while only 8.4% would do so within two years."

Source:  Technode, 13th October 2015

The average WeChat user reads 7 articles a day in the app

Source:  Data from Tencent, from a presentation by China channel, 24th October 2015
Note 1 - This is equivalent to a novel a month according to another slide in the presention
Note 2 - Lots more stats in the full pres - click on the link

Adele's 'Hello' is the first song to sell more than 1m downloads in a week in the US

"Adele’s ‘Hello’ has just sold 1.11 million downloads in one week, the first time any song has sold more than a million downloads in seven days or less.  The data comes from Nielsen, with a large bulk of the downloads coming from the iTunes Store and Amazon.
Adele is utterly crushing the record books on this one.  Previously, the closest anyone has ever come to hitting one million in a week is Flo Rida, whose ‘Right Round’ sold 636,000 downloads during its debut week back in 2009.  Adding to Adele’s accomplishment is the continued slide in overall song download sales, which are quickly losing ground as music fans shift to streaming music platforms like Spotify and YouTube."

Source:  Digital Music News, 3rd November 2015

Paypal's Venmo app processed $2.1bn in payments in Q3 2015

"PayPal’s aim is not only to grow its customer base, but to create deeper, more relevant relationships with each of its customers. In the third quarter, the company processed 1.22 billion payment transactions, which translates to 27 payment transactions per active customer account. This is an increase from 24 payment transactions per active customer account in the same period last year. $2.1 billion of volume was processed through the Venmo product, growing over 200%, making it one of the fastest growing apps in the world by dollar volume."

Source:  BusinessWire, 28th October 2015

Note - Venmo is currently only available to US residents