Monday 30 April 2012

Samsung is the largest manufacturer of handsets


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Source:  Data from Strategy Analytics, reported by BusinessWire, 26th April 2012
Earlier figures -
Q1 2010 - 2011
Q2 2010 - 2011
Q3 2010 - 2011
Q4 2010 - 2011 & FY 2010 & 2011

Apple sold 35m iPhones and 12m iPads in Q1 2012

"Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 second quarter ended March 31, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $24.7 billion and net profit of $6.0 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 47.4 percent compared to 41.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter."
Source:  Press release from Apple, 24th April 2012

China has 152m 3G subscribers

"Of China's combined total of 151.97 mln 3G subs [at the end of March], China Mobile holds 39.19%, China Unicom 32.15%, and China Telecom 28.66%. Of total new mobile subs added in March, China Mobile took 45.25%, dropping its share of China's total mobile user base to 65.9%. China Unicom's share of the total mobile user base increased for the 14th straight month, rising from 20.6% at the end of February to 20.69% at the end of March, while China Telecom's share increased for the 39th straight month, rising from 13.24% at the end of February to 13.42% at the end of March."

The iTunes store has 28 million songs

"The content glut keeps getting worse, not better, and this is now a very serious challenge for artists of all levels. Because even musicians that make incredible music are finding themselves drowned, undiscovered, and frustrated by statistics like these.    
"We now have a catalog of over 28 million songs and 45,000 movies..."
Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer during the company's quarterly earnings call on Tuesday."

The record for the number of Tweets per second was broken during the Champions League Semi Final

"Fans around the world tuned in on Tuesday to watch the Champions League match between Barcelona and Chelsea. And they tuned in on Twitter as well - during the game, total global traffic on the platform peaked at 13,684 Tweets per second. This exceeded the 12,233 TPS mark we saw during the Super Bowl, which took place in the US in February.
The conversation reached its high point immediately following Fernando Torres’ late goal, which tied the game and sealed Chelsea’s victory in the semi-final."

Friday 27 April 2012

92% of consumers say they trust earned media like personal recommendations above other forms of advertising

"Ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as word-of-mouth and recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising—an increase of 18 percent since 2007, according to a new study from Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy. Online consumer reviews are the second most trusted form of advertising with 70 percent of global consumers surveyed online indicating they trust this platform, an increase of 15 percent in four years.
Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey of more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries shows that while nearly half (47%) of consumers around the world say they trust paid television, magazine and newspaper ads, confidence declined by 24 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent respectively since 2009. Still, the majority of advertising dollars are spent on traditional or paid media, such as television. In 2011, overall global ad spend saw a seven percent increase over 2010, according to Nielsen’s most recent Global AdView Pulse. This growth in spend was driven by a nearly 10 percent increase in television advertising, with countries, including the U.S. and China, attracting more advertising dollars versus the year prior."
Source:  Press release from Nielsen, 10th April 2012
Note - it's a pretty stunning figure - until you wonder who the 8% of people who trust TV & newspaper ads  above recommendations from friends...

Square is processing $5bn of payments a year

"Payments platform Square has released a number of new stats today, as well as good news for merchants using its mobile payments app to accept credit cards. According to a Bloomberg report, Square is now processing $5 billion in annual payments (or around $416 million in payments per month), which is up from $4 billion in annual payments in March. And payment volume is up 25 percent over the past month.
Square also says that it will be making funds available in merchants’ bank accounts the next business morning (for any sales made before 5 pm), while other merchant processors can take 2 to 5 business days to get merchants their money. This is a big win for merchants, who now have access to their sales revenue immediately."

A fifth of online shoppers buy with smartphones

"Payment processing firm WoldPay released its Global Online Shopping Report, which surveyed 15 countries on their e-commerce behaviours in order to uncover differences between nations. It found that on average 22% of disposable income was spent online internationally.
Furthermore, in general the percentage of income spent was higher in emerging markets. Taking the lead is India, where respondents spend 36% of their disposable income on purchasing products or services online.
In China this figure fell slightly to 31% of income spent on e-commerce, and Brazilians were clocked a as dedicating 27% of their earnings in this fashion.
The survey found the spending amounts in mature markets are the highest in the UK, where people spent a quarter of their disposable income on online goods and services, whereas peoples in Finland spend only 13%. Spain and France allocate 17% and 19% of their income respectively.
The proliferation of smartphones has opened up different channels for shoppers to make their purchase, another factor that is proven to vary across the markets.
The survey found that just under a fifth of all online shoppers globally use their smartphone to make a purchase, with people in China using this method the most, (46%), and France coming in last with this metric at 7%."
Source:  Research by WorldPay, reported by UTalkMarketing, 27th April 2012

European Mobile Benchmarks February 2012


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Source:  Data from comScore for the 3 months to February 2012, reported in a press release, 26th April 2012

The Kindle Fire is the most popular Andoid tablet in the US


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Source:  Data from comScore MobiLens, reported in a press release, 26th April 2012

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Facebook has 901m active users



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"We had 901 million MAUs as of March 31, 2012, an increase of 33% as compared to 680 million MAUs as of March 31, 2011.
We had 526 million daily active users (DAUs) on average in March 2012, an increase of 41% as compared to 372 million DAUs in March 2011.
We had 488 million MAUs who used Facebook mobile products in March 2012.
There were more than 125 billion friend connections on Facebook as of March 31, 2012.
Our users generated an average of 3.2 billion Likes and Comments per day during the first quarter of 2012."
Source:  SEC Filing by Facebook, 23rd April 2012
Earlier - 845m announced in Feb 2012

Monday 23 April 2012

Hulu has 2 million paying subscribers

"As an online television destination, Hulu is something of a teenager now, sometimes tolerating feuding parents and succeeding perhaps in spite of them. Hulu is growing steadily, despite disagreements among its corporate owners, and the new restrictions those owners have placed on free streaming of network shows.
This week Hulu will announce that it has topped two million subscribers for its $8-a-month Hulu Plus service in the first quarter, half a million more than it had at the end of 2011. But it has not been an easy path to growth."

The technology use of American mothers

"BabyCenter®, LLC, the #1 pregnancy and parenting mobile and web destination worldwide, today released its 2012 American Media Mom report, the latest installment of BabyCenter's 21st Century Mom® Insights Series. At an exclusive gathering of media industry luminaries at the Time Warner Center this morning, the research detailed the dramatic reshaping of the family media ecosystem. The findings were the result of in-home interviews with moms, survey research among over 2,500 moms and other online adults, and a three-screen behavior analysis with Nielsen.
Mom uses the latest digital devices as necessities—not luxuries—to help her master the changing media landscape for herself and her family as she takes on the new role of Family Media Manager. Compared with the general population, moms over-index on ownership and usage of EVERY digital device, including laptops, digital cameras, DVRs, and gaming consoles. In particular, she is 38% more likely than the general population to own an Internet TV device (e.g. Apple TV, Roku), 28% more likely to use a tablet, and 38% more likely to own a smartphone.
[...]
While smartphones continue to be Mom's "remote control for her life," new media disruptors are taking center stage. Tablets, Internet TV, and online video are drastically reshaping the family media experience. Compared to three years ago, over one third of the general population says that they are spending less time watching live TV or reading magazines or newspapers. This pattern is even more exaggerated for Moms – they are 2/3 more likely to say that they spend less time with live TV and radio. And, moms are more than 50% more likely to say that they are spending more time with online video and internet TV than the general online population.
In the year since we unveiled BabyCenter's 21st Century Mobile Mom® Report, smartphone adoption among mothers has increased another 10 percent to 65%. According to Nielsen's Mobile Insights data from Q4 2011, Mom smartphone owners are more likely to use their devices to their fullest capacities than the general population. For instance, she is texting and using social media on her mobile device at a higher rate. Mom is also 53% more likely to use mobile banking applications and 58% more likely to shop via her mobile phone compared to the general population.
The Family Media Manager Runs the Show
[...]
Whether it's watching her favorite shows during some downtime, doling out her kids' YouTube playlist during a long car trip, or tapping into her social graph for opinions on products and services when she's in-store, she will adopt the formats that allow her to maximize her time. According to Nielsen's behavioral data, Mom's spend twice as much time online monthly: 66 hours versus 33 hours for the general population, and spends 63% more time streaming online video. We also found that Mom is 45% more likely to use social media regularly compared to the general population. In short: flexibility and efficiency rule Mom's media day.
More Devices = More Media
It is not a zero sum media game for moms. Multiple devices do not seem to be taking away time from any one media platform. On average, moms are spending 10.9 hours daily with media. According to the 2012 American Media Mom report, those who own an Internet TV device spend over 3 additional hours with media, and moms who own a smartphone, tablet AND Internet TV device are spending over 7 additional hours with media—which adds up to over 17 hours per day—in large part because of mom's heightened ability to multitask with devices and media.
Moms are media multitaskers when it comes to video. Half say that they are always or often talking to someone else or using social media while watching TV. 40% are also going online on their tablet, mobile phone or texting someone while watching TV. And 1 in 4 are talking on the phone at the same time. Moms are twice as likely to be using social media or texting while they are watching videos, 3 in 4 moms say that they skip all of the ads they can while watching television content; a rate that is 20% higher than the general online population.
Her Path to the Register Has Evolved
In BabyCenter's 2011 Shopping Rituals of the American Mom Report, we saw that the purchase funnel has been upended. In the six months since we unveiled that data, mom's reliance on mobile throughout the purchase process has dramatically increased. Usage of mobile media for getting product ideas has risen from 20% to 36%; usage of mobile product/brand recommendations has grown from 17% to 33%; using mobile for feature comparisons has risen from 21% to 37%; mobile for price comparison review grew from 28% to 45%; finding coupons or deals shifted from 22% to 31%; deciding where to buy has nearly doubled from 16% to 30%. Additionally, one in 5 moms have scanned a barcode for price comparisons in the past 30 days, and 9% regularly scan QR codes."
Source:  Press release from BabyCenter, 19th April 2012
Methodology:   "The findings in BabyCenter's 2012 American Media Mom report are the result of qualitative research, quantitative survey data, and three-screen behavioral data with Nielsen. We conducted in-home interviews with new and expecting moms in Chicago and San Francisco in February 2012 through our research partner Gallin Group. In addition, we conducted in-depth survey research on media behaviors and attitudes among 1100 new and expecting moms through BabyCenter's 21st Century Media Panel as well as 1400 non-moms (referred to as general population) using Socratic's online panel. Finally, Nielsen provided a three-screen behavioral analysis across Television, Online and Mobile behavior comparing BabyCenter's moms to persons 18+."

Xbox households in the US spend an average of 84 hours a month on online services

"Yusuf Mehdi, who heads up marketing and strategy for Microsoft's Xbox business, said households now spend an average of 84 hours a month on the Xbox Live online service playing games, watching videos and listening to music. That's up 30% from a year ago. Just over half that time is spent on videos and music.
By comparison, the average household spend about 150 hours a month watching television.
"What we're seeing is that people are turning on the Xbox to play games and then keeping it on afterwards to get other types of entertainment," Mehdi said."

Stats on tablet users & usage

"Today's Tablet User
"Tapping Into Tabletomics" also offers a snapshot of today's tablet user:
62% use their tablets daily
Daily tablet users spend an average of 2.4 hours per day on their tablets
85% of tablet use is for personal reasons versus business
77% of tablet use is alone
74% of tablet usage is done at home
Most media activities on the tablet, such as playing games and watching TV shows, peak with the 18-24 demo
The research reveals emotional connections to this device unlike any other in the household. More than 50% of respondents said their tablet makes them feel happier and more relaxed, while 49% said tablets make them more effective at managing life. Forty percent agree that "my tablet brings out the best in me" and 39% said tablets boost creativity.
One participant succinctly summed up her close relationship with her tablet: "The iPad is my form of entertainment, relaxation, fun, and opportunity to get information. It's my personal space, in a sense." However, not all tablet users feel the same. "Tapping into Tabletomics" revealed varying degrees of tablet love across four distinct segments of tablet users.
Power Trippers (18%): younger users, often male, that love their tablets and use them for everything.
Cool & Efficient (23%): frequent users that rely on tablets to be useful above anything else.
Happy-go-lucky (28%): light users that view tablets as a friendly source of enjoyment and entertainment.
Proceeding with Caution (31%): the lightest and often less technologically-savvy users that stick to basic activities.
Rush continued, "We found that the tablet is a jack of many trades - it offers video and social experiences, it's a source of information and it's portable. But despite its versatility, other devices prove irreplaceable."
While tablets provide both emotional and functional benefits, most tablet owners are not ready to purge their smartphones, laptops or gaming consoles. A vast majority, 65%, would replace their laptop before their tablet because it lacks the work functionality, and 77% would replace their iPhone before their iPad."
Source:  Data from Viacom's "Tapping Into Tabletomics", reported in a press release, 17th April 2012
Methodology:  "Drawing on a national online survey of more than 2,500 people ages 8-54 as well as qualitative, in-depth interviews with dedicated tablet users in New York and Los Angeles, "Tapping into Tabletomics" found that, in just a few years, tablets have risen to second-screen prominence for full-length TV (FLTV) show viewing, ahead of computers. Out of total time spent watching FLTV shows, 15% of viewing occurs on tablets."


Friday 20 April 2012

39% of people who bought a book from Amazon in the US has previously looked at the book in a physical store

"Looking at products in stores and then buying them at lower prices via the Internet. A survey conducted in late 2011 by a book market research company, the Codex Group, indicated that 39 percent of people who purchased books from Amazon said they had looked at the book in a bookstore before buying it online. Best Buy’s recently announced fourth-quarter loss – $1.7 billion, resulting in the closing of at least 50 stores – can in part be attributed to “showrooming,” the name given to the practice of visiting stores to look at products and then price shopping and ultimately purchasing the products online. Indeed, Best Buy stores seem to be a perfect venue for finding and toying with all the latest technology – but not necessarily buying it there."

Draw Something has lost 2m daily players since it's peak

"Draw Something, an app that Zynga essentially bought for about $200 million, is in trouble.
It's gone from having more than 14 million players daily to around 12 million, according to AppData.
To try and reverse that, Zynga is today releasing a big update for the game that will give it a bunch of new features that fans have been craving."

Online ad spend in the US rose to $31bn in 2011


"The IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year 2011 reveals that revenues soared to a landmark high of $31 billion. That milestone represents a 22 percent increase over 2010’s full-year number, which itself had been a record-breaker at $26 billion. The report, released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and prepared by PwC U.S., also unveils that fourth quarter revenues for 2011 hit a best-ever at $9 billion, marking a 15 percent increase over the third quarter 2011, which came in at $7.8 billion, and a 20 percent growth year-over-year in comparison to 2010’s $7.4 billion.
Other highlights of the report include:
Mobile experienced the fastest growth of all categories – triple-digit growth year-over-year – up 149 percent to $1.6 billion in full-year 2011 from $0.6 billion in 2010.
Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, saw a significant uptick of 29 percent year-over-year, bringing in $1.8 billion in revenue in 2011 compared to $1.4 billion in 2010.
Search revenues in 2011 totaled $14.8 billion, up almost 27 percent from $11.7 billion in 2010.
Display-related advertising revenues in 2011 totaled $11.1 billion or 35 percent of 2011 revenues, up 15 percent from $9.6 billion in 2010.
Retail advertisers continue to represent the largest category of internet ad spending, accounting for 22 percent in 2011, or $7.1 billion, up from 21 percent ($5.5 billion) reported in 2010.
“This historic moment, with an especially impressive achievement in mobile, is indicative of an increased awareness from advertisers that they need to reach consumers where they are spending their time—in digital media,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Pushing past the $30 billion barrier, the interactive advertising industry confirms its central place in media. Across search, display, digital video, digital provides a wealth of opportunity for brands and consumers. With the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, it is likely that the tremendous growth in mobile will continue as these screens become even more crucial to the marketing mix.”
“The year 2011 saw mobile advertising become a meaningful category,” said David Silverman, Partner, PwC U.S. “By combining some of the best features of the internet, along with portability and location-based technology, mobile advertising is enabling marketers to deliver timely, targeted, relevant, and local advertisements in a manner that was not previously possible. It is for these reasons that we expect strong growth to continue with mobile advertising.”
“Digital advertising’s stellar performance in 2011 attests to the high value marketers put on the medium,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics, and Measurement, IAB. “In addition, with advancement in areas like mobile and digital video, it appears that there will be robust avenues for interactive’s growth in the future.”"
Source:  Press release from the IAB, 18th April 2012

Next Generation Media Quarterly April 2012

This is the latest instalment of my regular catch-up presentations, essentially distilling bits from my examples and stats blogs over the last 3 months.

Have a look:

Next Generation Media Quarterly April 2012

View more presentations from Dan Calladine

Wednesday 18 April 2012

The Pebble watch raised over $3m on Kickstarter in less than one week

"An electronic paper watch designed by a Canadian entrepreneur to work alongside smartphones has raised more than $3m (£1.8m; 2.2m euros) in less than a week on net funding site Kickstarter.
It is a record for the site which crowdsources cash to fund start-ups.
Eric Migicovsky initially sought $10,000 over a five-week period but the total, six days in, now stands at $3.4m.
It is the fifth Kickstarter project to make more than $1m.
The Pebble watch reached the $1m mark in 28 hours. The firm behind the device, which has been designing smartwatches for three years, said that it was "blown away" by the support.
The watch has an electronic paper screen and connects via Bluetooth with iPhones or Android powered devices to allow users to customise the watch face and download apps."

Two thirds of cookies on sites are from third parties

"As UK companies scramble to comply with new laws requiring them to disclose and get permission for all the cookies they use, a new study has found that more than two thirds of all the bits of tracker code on websites are from third parties. Which means they are essentially for delivering targeted advertising or analysing behaviour across the website."
Source:  Data from Truste, reported by the Financial Times, 18th April 2012

The iPad accounts for 90% of mobile shopping revenue in the US

"According to the 2012 Q1 Mobile Study iPad users spent significantly more time and money on retail sites than other mobile users. Data from March 2012 shows that:
iPad users constitute the bulk of all mobile shoppers—accounting for about two-thirds (68%) of shoppers.
The iPad accounts for 90% of all mobile revenue (and 4% of total retail revenue).
Conversion rates were also strongest with the iPad (1.5% for iPad vs. 0.57% for other mobile devices).
Average pages per session were highest for the iPad compared with all other mobile devices, at nearly 6 pages per session (5.7 for iPads vs. 3.6 for iPhone vs. 4.1 for other mobile devices).
iPad Users Spend More, Buy More Expensive Items (even more than desktop users)
iPad users spend dramatically more – on fewer items – than other mobile shoppers. When compared to online shoppers, iPad users spend approximately the same amount on an average order, but buy much more expensive products.
The iPad had the highest average order value (AOV) of any mobile device: $158 for iPad vs. $105 for other mobile devices vs. $104 for iPhone and other iOS devices in March 2012.
Interestingly, AOV for iPad shopping is creeping ahead of the AOV from desktop computers. ($158 for iPad vs. $153 from desktops).
While they spend more per average order, iPad shoppers had on average fewer number of items per order of any mobile device (2.98 for iPad vs. 4.22 for other iOS devices vs. 4.41 for all other mobile devices in March 2012)
Overall, iPad shoppers averaged $52.66 per item vs. $21.86 per item for desktop users and $23.80 for other mobile users."
Source:  Data from the Rich Relevance Shopping Insights Q1 Survey, reported in a press release, 11th April 2012

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Mobile accounts for 11% of UK search spend

"Mobile search spend in the UK increased by 250% for Q1 year-on-year (YOY) as traffic on mobile devices increased four-fold, according to data from Adobe.
Mobile now accounts for 11% of all UK search spend compared to 8% in the US.
Of this, tablets alone accounted for 4.25% of UK search spend.
But despite this boom, Adobe’s Global Digital Advertising Update shows that overall search spend only increased by 2% in the UK compared to 16% in the US.
This is lower than the 30.3% YOY increase in US search ad spend reported in IgnitionOne’s Global Online Advertising report, but still shows that the industry is experiencing strong growth.
Adobe’s report suggests that the relatively low increase in UK search spend “reflects the fragile state of the European economic recovery.”"
Source:  Adobe, 10th April 2012
Note - given that the IAB report that UK search ad spend was £2.8bn in 2011, this 11% figure seems much too high.

Facebook advertising CPM costs rose by an estimated 40% in 12 months

"Thanks to the incredible popularity of the world's social network, soon-to-be-publicly-traded Facebook is top of mind for advertisers both large and small, many of which have been pouring more money into Facebook advertising campaigns.
But how are those Facebook ad campaigns treating advertisers?
According to ad agency TBG Digital, which looked at several hundred billion impressions across campaigns for more than 200 clients, the cost for a thousand impressions on Facebook has increased substantially (41%) in the past year, but over the past quarter, click-through rates have dropped by nearly double digits (8%). Ads sold on a CPC basis have also risen in price during the same period."

Foursquare has 20m users

"In 2010, foursquare fans declared April 16 4sqDay (4/4^2 – nerds after our own heart!). Two years and two billion check-ins later, you’re still why we get out of bed each day. Thanks to all 20 million of you for making us part of your lives.
There are hundreds of amazing parties planned for tonight! Find one near you here. The foursquare team will be at meetups in NYC, SF, London, Ithaca, and Whitewater, WI – we hope to see you!"
Source:  Blog post by Foursquare, 16th April 2012

Friday 13 April 2012

Spotify lost $59m in 2011

"Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel EK says that 2012 revenues will top $889 million USD as the music streamer expands quickly into more territories.  Ek also confirmed figures provided by Swedish business daily Dagens Industri that Spotify sales grew 160% to $236.4 million USD last year and accumulated a net loss of $59.4 million or 25% of total revenue.
Spotify has more than 10 million active users and 3 million paying subscribers, but expects to continue to loose more money this year. "Our focus is all on growth," according to Ek. "That is priority one, two, three, four and five. But of course we expect to make a profit in the long run," he was quoted as saying."

AOL Instant Messenger lost 64% of its users in 2011

"Before there was Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, there was AOL Instant Messenger.
In fact, you could argue Facebook was conceived on AIM.
My how times have changed.
Between January 2011 and January 2012, AOL Instant Messenger usage – on AIM.com and in the AIM app – declined 64%, from 12 million users to just 4 million."

Instagram has 40 million users

"Instagram received a fair amount of press over the last week. First, 10 days ago, the app launched on Android. Then news of Facebook buying the tiny startup for $1 billion was everywhere from the Drudge Report to The Daily Show. The attention resulted in explosive growth. Since the launch of its Android app, Instagram’s user base grew from 30 to 40 million. That’s over 1,000,000 new users a day.
Rakshith, the creator of gramfeed, pinged us this morning after noticing the milestone from Instagram’s API. The 40 millionth user is valentinoelbuti. It seems at the time of this post’s writing, Instagram has exactly 40,026,379 users — or rather, roughly 5% of Facebook’s active user base."

JK Rowling sold $1.6m worth of eBooks in the first 3 days on sale

"Harry Potter fan site Pottermore sold more than $1.59 million worth of ebooks in the first three days after the books became available, Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne said on a Radio Litopia show, “The Naked Book.”
The sales were “considerably higher than I expected,” said Redmayne.
The ebooks, which cost $8 to $11.10 ($61.70 for the entire collection), can only be bought at Pottermore. Digital versions of the highly popular series were originally slated for an October 2011 launch, but the date was delayed as Pottermore (which is still in beta) was struggling to cope with overwhelming user traffic."

Starbucks has processed more than 42 million mobile payments in the US

"A novel new way to pay by iPhone or Android at Starbucks locations is proving too convenient for caffeine-crazed customers to pass up.
Starbucks has processed more than 42 million mobile payments since the U.S. launch of its mobile pay program less than 15 months ago, the coffee company shared exclusively with VentureBeat.
Starbucks released “mobile pay,” a prominent feature of the company’s iPhone and Android applications, in January 2011. Customers use the mobile app to load money on to a digital Starbucks Card and then present a 2D barcode to pay at the register. Baristas simply scan the barcode using the scanners they already have at their cash registers. Mobile pay first launched in the U.S., but has since migrated to Canada and the U.K., and Starbucks recently made it available to customers ordering from drive-thru windows.
In December 2011, Starbucks revealed that it had processed 26 million mobile payments. Adoption continues to grow expotentially, the company said."

Thursday 12 April 2012

Pinterest is now the 3rd largest social network in the US in terms of visits

"Pinterest is now the number three most-popular social network in the U.S., behind Facebook and Twitter, according to Experian Hitwise.
A new report from the researcher shows Pinterest got 21.5 million visits during the week ending Jan. 28, a nearly 30-fold increase over a comparable week in July. Not surprisingly, the site skews female with a 60/40 ration of women to men visitors.
Experian rep Matt Tatham says Pinterest beat its next-closest competitor, LinkedIn, in total visits in February. Tatham says the rankings by total visits for March is as follows:
1. Facebook: 7 billion
2. Twitter: 182 million
3. Pinterest: 104 million
4. LinkedIn: 86 million
5. Tagged: 72 million
6. Google+: 61 million
The report, which tracks visits rather than unique visitors, is based on web traffic and doesn’t factor in visits from mobile sites. According to Experian’s reckoning, Foursquare only got 2.9 million visits in March and Instagram got 10.2 million."

China has 365m mobile internet users

"According to a report on the state of development of China's mobile internet newly released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), as of the end of 2011, China's number of mobile internet users had reached 356 mln, an increase of 122 mln within one year. By the end of 2011, total smartphone users in China reached 190 mln, with daily mobile internet use per user at an average of 109 minutes a day. Most-used features included Tencent's (0700.HK) QQ instant messaging platform and other IM clients, as well as mobile search.
The proportion of smartphone users who surfed the internet over their phones multiple times a day was 60.2%, 13 percentage points more than the proportion of non-smartphone users who did the same. Although smartphone users were stickier in their use of the mobile internet, the average daily total time they spent surfing on their phones was not significantly greater than the time spent by non-smartphone users on theirs. Average total time spent online per day for smartphone users was 109 minutes, while average total time spent online per day for non-smartphone users was 106 minutes, a difference of only 2.9%.
In the second half of the past year, over 80% of mobile Internet users did not purchase mobile apps."
Source:  Beijing Evening News, via Marbridge Daily, 9th April 2012

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Facebook paid approximately $28 per Instagram user

"A startup is acquired for any combination of the technology, talent, or the user base.
If we look strictly at the acquisition cost per user, Facebook got a relative deal with the Instagram purchase, paying roughly $28 for each of Instagram’s 35 million users. (The median cost across all the acquisitions is about $92 per user.)
Compare that to acquisitions like Aardvark ($555/user) or Jaiku ($240/user), and it becomes clear which were likely technology or talent hires. The glaring exception is Yahoo’s famous $5.7 billion purchase of Mark Cuban’s Broadcast.com in 1999 — about $11,000 each for 520,000 monthly active users, or 10 times any other startup. (Broadcast.com skewed the chart so much, I had to leave it off.)"
Note - see the full post for lots of excellent charts, and analysis of cost per employee

Google's paid search clicks from mobile devices increased by 132% in 2011

"In 2011, paid search clicks from mobile devices on Google increased 132% from January to December. By December 2012, Marin Software projects smart mobile devices will generate 25% of all paid-search clicks on Google as a result of the explosive adoption of smartphones and tablets. Consumers are much more engaged with search ads on smartphones and tablets as opposed to desktops, as evidenced by click through rates that are respectively 72% and 31% higher. Search ads on smart mobile devices also have a lower costs-per-click than desktop ads. This difference, in cost coupled with higher click-through rates on mobile, creates favorable performance conditions for advertisers and increased demand for mobile ads."
Source: Press release from Marin Software, 26th March 2012

Monday 9 April 2012

Mad Men is reportedly costing Sky TV £5 per viewer per episode

"It was poached from the BBC with much fanfare by Sky, which reportedly bid three times as much for the rights.
But the satellite broadcaster may be regretting its decision to snap up American advertising drama Mad Men.
Viewing figures sank to just 47,000 for the third episode of the fifth series on the Sky Atlantic channel on Tuesday night.
That’s an alarming drop from the 355,000 viewers who watched the premiere of the fourth series when it was on BBC4.
It is understood that Sky is paying about £250,000 an episode for the glossy 1960s drama. Based on Tuesday’s figures, that amounts to more than £5 per viewer."

Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion

"Facebook has just announced that it will acquire Instagram, the popular mobile photo-sharing service, for $1 billion in cash and shares.
The social networking giant posted on the acquisition, its biggest yet, on its site, as well as on CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Timeline on Facebook.
Photos are critically important for Facebook, which has been slow to innovate in the fast-growing mobile arena in the important consumer space. By contrast, Instagram has taken the arena by storm, with its delightful and elegant app and the motto, “Fast beautiful photo sharing.”
Consumers have responded (including me — it is the only non-communications app I use many times a day). The San Francisco-based company — with only 13 employees — had 30 million Apple iPhone users before it came to Google’s Android last week, where it got more than a million new users in just 12 hours."

Thursday 5 April 2012

The app Draw Something has has more than 50m downloads in 50 days

"Zynga has released a statement that says Draw Something has passed 50 million downloads, making it one of the fastest growing apps of all time. It's likely the only app to ever hit 50 million downloads in just 50 days.
"We believe it’s not only the fastest growing original mobile game of all time – 50 days to hit 50 million downloads - but one of the fastest growing web sensations that we’ve seen.  In addition, the game just regained its spot as the #1 paid app in the App Store, knocking off Angry Birds Space," says Zynga."

1m Android versions of Instagram were downloaded in the first 24 hours

"Eager Android users awaiting the release of Instagram scooped up a million copies in less than 24 hours.
The free photo-sharing app made its official appearance on Google Play yesterday following a pre-registration period on March 24 that captured 430,000 interested users. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told The New York Times yesterday that the app was grabbing 2,000 people each minute following its debut."

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Ringtones generated more revenues than music streaming services in the US in 2011

"Technology simply moves faster than consumers, and older formats die hard. Which is why ringtones still accounted for $277.4 million in revenues last year - in the US alone - according to stats just released by the RIAA.  That compares to $241.0 million in revenues from the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody, MOG, and ilk, combined."

Visitors arriving from Pinterest are more likely to spend than those arriving from other social channels

"Pinterest isn’t just driving record levels of traffic to the websites of retailers and publishers — it’s also driving sales, some early data indicates.
Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores), the second largest home goods retailer by revenue, has found that Pinterest referrals are more likely to make a purchase and spend more on average than visitors from other social channels.
Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah says that shoppers referred by Pinterest are more 10% more likely to make a purchase than visitors who arrive from other social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. They’ll also spend 10% more on average.
The statistics are in some respects even more impressive when non-social channels are added in. On average, Pinterest referrals spend 70% more than visitors referred from non-social channels, including search. They are not, however, as likely to make a purchase as those referred by other channels.
Those statistics are averaged among Wayfair’s three home goods websites: wayfair.com, allmodern.com and jossandmain.com, the latter of which is a daily deals site. Collectively, the three sites brought in $500 million in revenue last year. (Williams-Sonoma, the number one player in the category, posted revenues of $3.7 billion for fiscal 2011.)"

Apple's app stores generate over $5m in revenue each day

"Apple’s iPhone and iPad App Stores generated $5.4m worth of combined revenues daily in January 2012, according to new research from telecoms analyst, CCS Insight, and app store analytics firm, Distimo.
The findings are the first fruits of a new research offering, App VU Global, developed by the two companies. App VU Global combines extensive data with analysis of the performance of software stores and the global apps market, identifying trends, and offering detailed comparisons across all major app stores.
The research reveals that Apple continues to dominate in terms of download numbers, catalogue size and revenues. The iPhone and iPad app stores generated daily revenues of $3.3m and $2.1m respectively in January 2012. Google Play (formerly Android Market) saw a 31 per cent rise in daily revenue in January 2012, to $679,000, across both smartphones and Tablets. Other platforms are racing to secure third position, with Amazon and Microsoft recording the biggest growth in catalogue size."

Tuesday 3 April 2012

UK Online Ad Spend Rose to £4,784m in 2011, up 14.4% Y-o-Y

"Despite the backdrop of a depressed UK economy, advertising on the internet increased by 14.4% to a new high of £4,784 million in 2011, up £687 million year on year.
According to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) advertising expenditure report, conducted by PwC, online advertising continues to grow at an exceptional rate, and last year experienced its biggest increase in five years.
UK ecommerce shoppers helped Retail surface as the biggest winner in terms of overall growth in the second half** of 2011, as it became the third biggest display advertiser. Consumer Goods (FMCG) moved to second place, while Finance just held on to top spot.
The top five categories, by share of display spend, in 2011 were:
Finance 15%  
Consumer (FMCG) 15%  
Retail 12%  
Entertainment & the Media 12%  
Technology 9%  
The powerhouse of display is banners and other embedded formats, which continue to drive display forward (73% share). Growth of this format was fuelled by bigger, richer and more dynamic ads that spiked display spend by 13.4% to a high of £1,128 million (£945 million in 2010) and a 24% share of online ad spend (23% in 2010).
Video advertising continued its incredible growth and now accounts for 10% of all online display advertising.  Expenditure on online video doubled year on year to £109 million (£54 million in 2010). The format has grown more than eight-fold since 2008, when video spend was £12 million.
In 2011 banner ads on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, increased by 75% to £240 million – an eight-fold increase since records began in 2008.
Search marketing proved to be a recession-proof staple for direct response advertisers, recording impressive growth of 17.5% to £2,767 million (£2,346 million in 2010), and a 58% share of online advertising spend (57% in 2010).
Despite a difficult market for recruitment, total Classified ads grew 5.2% to £785 million (£751 million in 2010) and a share of 16% (18% in 2010). However, consumer and B2B Classifieds (property, cars, holidays and B2B), reached the half billion milestone for the first time at £509 million (£485 million in 2010).
Advertising on mobile devices rose by 157%* in 2011, to a new high of £203million, as a result of increased smartphone ownership, the proliferation of touchscreen technology, 3G, and soaring tablet sales, which sparked a surge in interest from brands, especially in the Retail and Consumer Goods (FMCG) sectors."

Monday 2 April 2012

Digital magazine subscriptions represent about 1% of total magazine subscriptions in the US

"Magazines more than doubled their paid digital circulation in the most recent reporting period, but print remains the overwhelming majority of their business, according to a new analysis by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Despite all that growth, however, digital remains about 1% of magazines' total paid and verified circulation."