Wednesday 24 December 2014

There were more fifth birthdays in 2014 than ever before

"More Fifth Birthdays Than Ever Before
To me, one of the best ways to measure progress is to look at how many children are dying of preventable causes. And today, more kids are living to see their fifth birthday than ever before. This year, for at least the 42nd year in a row, the child mortality rate has fallen. And it’s not just moving in the right direction—it’s falling faster than anyone expected. The Economist ran a great article about this in September, where it estimated that just since 2001, the world has saved 13.6 million children’s lives. It’s hard to think of a better sign the world is improving."

More than 50% of Papa John's sales come from mobile

"Papa John’s continues to be a force to reckon with in mobile ordering with its digital and mobile channels recently reaching a new milestone to account for more than 50 percent of sales in the United States.
Papa John’s claims to be the first brand in its industry to surpass the digital and mobile sales milestone. The company, which was the first U.S.-based pizza chain to introduce digital ordering to its delivery restaurants in 2001, continues to streamline the payment process by accepting Google Wallet Instant Buy for delivery and take-out orders placed via its Android mobile application."

The number of British homes with a TV has fallen for the first time

"The number of UK homes with a TV has fallen for the first time, as viewers turn to alternatives including tablets and smartphones to watch programmes.
Ofcom said that after years of consecutive growth, the number of households with a television set fell from 26.33m at the end of 2012 to 26.02m at the end of last year.
The media regulator said that nearly one million homes have a broadband connection, but no TV, indicating that other internet-connected devices are being used to view content.
Ofcom said catch-up TV content in particular is growing in importance and being watched on smartphones, tablets, computers and games consoles."

The Internet in Real Time 2014


An incredibly useful site from WebPageFX, showing the key metrics for key sites and services.  Often these things are out of date, but this one seems to be bang on, as at December 2014.
File under 'essential resources!
See it here

Sites and services covered include:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
Foursquare
Pinterest
Tinder
WhatsApp
Snapchat
Skype
Amazon
Google
Kickstarter
Yelp
Email
Dropbox
Wordpress
Tumblr
Flickr
reddit
Android
iOS
Youtube
Netflix
Spotify
Pandora

Tuesday 23 December 2014

15% of Google searches on Android by signed-in users return deep links to apps

"App deep links are the new kid on the block in Search results, and they’re picking up speed faster than you can say “Schema.org ViewAction”! For signed-in users, 15% of Google searches on Android now return deep links to apps through App Indexing. And over just the past quarter, we've seen the number of clicks on app deep links jump by 10x."
Source:  Google Developers Blog, 9th December 2014

Rovio's Toons TV has had more than 4 billion video views

"In March 2013, Rovio turned every Angry Birds game into a video distribution channel and instantly a star was born. ToonsTV launched to an immediate audience of hundreds of millions of global viewers. This week and before its second birthday, ToonsTV reached 4 billion views in 230 countries with the biggest audiences in US, UK, China, Mexico and Russia. The massively popular content from Rovio Animation Studio and its partners can be accessed with a simple tap of an on-screen button, online at toons.tv and on Comcast, and from Roku boxes and Samsung Smart TVs."

More than half of the TVs sold in the UK are 'smart'

"After five years of continuous decline, research from Mintel reveals that the TV market has recorded growth in value for the first time since 2009. Boosted by the impact of the FIFA World Cup, Mintel expects that the UK televisions market will return to growth by the end of 2014, with sales of televisions forecast to increase by 1 per cent in volume and 3 per cent in value, up from £2.8 billion in 2013 to an estimated £2.9 billion in 2014. Although the market performed well during 2014, sales are forecast to decline again in 2015.
Paul Davies, Senior Leisure and Technology Analyst at Mintel, said: “While anticipation and excitement surrounding the tournament prompted a frenzy of upgrades, particularly from men aged between 16 and 34, many of these purchases were brought forward by just a few months. Although sales of TVs are rising, 2014 is only likely to represent a temporary spurt of growth, as demand for new televisions is expected to drop further over the next five years, the continuation of a longstanding decline.”
Furthermore, 2014 is expected to be the first full year in which smart TVs will account for more than half of televisions sold in the UK market (57 per cent, up from 39 per cent in 2013), equating to nearly 5 million sets – up from 3.4 million the year before. Today, as many as a quarter (24 per cent) of all UK homes have a smart TV."

28% of the money spent on Apple Pay is spent in Whole Foods


Source:  ITG Investment Research Report on Mobile Payments, reported in a press release, 19th December 2014

Wednesday 17 December 2014

The number of parcels sent as a proportion of all mail



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

The rise and fall of SMS messaging



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

The percent who access online video, by device



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

eCommerce Sales by market



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Online and mobile ad spend per head by market




Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Online as a percentage of total ad spend, by market



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Time spent watching TV by market, 2012-2013



Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

The growth in revenue from online video


Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Types of online video viewed on TV, Laptop, Tablet, Games Console or Mobile





Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Percentage who ever watch TV programmes or films online


Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Mobile payments used for physical goods


Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Media Device Penetration by Market 2014




Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, 11th December 2014

Tuesday 16 December 2014

Uber is generating 50,000 jobs every month globally

Just one of the stats on Google Ventures' end of 2014 review or their portfolio companies, December 2014


Nearly four hours of content is added to Mixcloud every minute

"Over six million shows have now been uploaded by a 650,000 strong community of DJs, radio presenters and curators.
A record 200,000 were uploaded in the last month alone, and with each averaging 45 minutes
Nearly four hours of content is being added every minute to our massive catalogue of radio shows and DJ sets"
Source:  Mixcloud's 'Five Years' blog post, 15th December 2014

Monday 15 December 2014

Friday 12 December 2014

10 Trends for 2015




Each year we produce a trends report to help us think about how the worlds of technology and media will change over the next few years.
There are lots of things happening, and we hope we have chosen some the most interesting
This year we look at:
App Simplification & Integration
Video Ads
Connected TV
Paying to go Ad-Free
New News Sites
Start-ups Going 'Full Stack'
Voice
Symbols & Emojis
Virtual Reality
Robots

Please have a look!

Thursday 11 December 2014

More user-uploaded videos than YouTube videos are posted on Facebook

"Social media analysts at Socialbakers tracked data across 20,000 Facebook pages belonging to public figures and companies. They observed a drop in the share of videos coming from YouTube as the number of videos coming directly from users increased, Business Insider reports.
For the first time, user-uploaded videos surpassed YouTube videos in November. The shift comes not long after Facebook tweaked its video playback feature so that scenes would begin playing automatically as the user scrolled through the page."

Square processed $100m in payments for small businesses on 5th December 2014

"Small businesses using Square's popular iPhone- and iPad-connected credit card readers combined to sell more than $100 million worth of goods and services in a single day, the company announced on Wednesday.
Food the most popular item on that day, with payment for nearly 1.5 million meals and 430,215 cups of coffee flowing through the app. 202,692 people got haircuts, while 72,601 purchased new clothes.
Some 4,445 pairs of shoes, 55,021 can rides, and 648 tattoos were also sold. Consumers paid for 25,569 services, such as home repairs.
Along with the lofty sales figures, Square highlighted some other equally impressive statistics. One out of every four active credit or debit cards in the U.S. has been used with Square in 2014, for instance, and Square merchants would be the 13th-largest retailer in the country if taken together."
Source:  Apple Insider, 10th December 2014
Square blog post with more data & infographics here

Wednesday 10 December 2014

Instagram has 300 million monthly active users

"We’re proud to announce that there are now more than 300 million Instagrammers. Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day. Instagram is home to creativity in all of its forms, a place where you can find everything from images of the Nile River to the newest look from Herschel Supply or a peek inside the mind of Taylor Swift.
We’re thrilled to watch this community thrive and witness the amazing connections people make over shared passions and journeys."

Monday 8 December 2014

Emojis are used more often on Twitter than hyphens or the number 5

"And that’s just one emoji. If we count all emoji together [..] then emoji, as a group, are now used more frequently on Twitter than are hyphens or the numeral 5."

Thursday 4 December 2014

62% of British households have pay TV

"Sixty-two per cent of UK households pay for TV, spending an average of £33 (€42) per month but, according to new research from price comparison and switching service uSwitch.com, almost a third (30 per cent) claim it isn’t good value for money.
TV users find that a large proportion of the channels they pay for are completely redundant as more than one in four people (27 per cent) only watch 10 per cent of the channels available to them. On average, households view just a quarter (25 per cent) of the channels they pay for.
One in four (27 per cent) TV fans fork out extra on top of their existing pay-TV package for programmes such as films on demand, and one-off sporting events – adding an extra £13 to their monthly TV bills each time they do so. This means, collectively, consumers are shelling out £275 million per year extra on add-ons and upgrades to their existing packages to watch more exclusive TV content.
Meanwhile, more than one in 10 (12 per cent) have thrown money down the drain by forgetting to cancel upgrades to their TV package that they no longer want or use. Sheer absent-mindedness could be costing consumers as much as £7.1 million per month."
Source:  Advanced Television,. 3rd December 2014

The market shares of media streaming devices in the US



Source:  Press release from Parks Associates, 2nd December 2014

Wednesday 3 December 2014

US Thanksgiving, Black Friday & Cyber Monday online sales figures 2010-2014

Desktop only



Source:  comScore, 2nd December 2014

John Lewis sold one tablet per second during Black Friday 2014

"John Lewis has reported the best week of trading in its 150-year history, as feverish demand for televisions and tablet computers turned Black Friday into the busiest shopping day ever for a string of retailers.
John Lewis said it had sold an average of one tablet computer every second and a flatscreen 40-inch voice-command TV every minute from the moment 24 hours of promotions began at midnight last Thursday.
The retailer’s internet traffic was up by more than 300% in the early hours of Friday as consumers logged on to snap up discounted clothing, handbags and electrical goods.
Over the week online sales were up 42% on last year and staff at warehouses had to pack 87% more parcels on Saturday than last year as the group’s website coped well with the rush of orders, avoiding the shutdowns seen elsewhere.
The tills were also ringing in stores with branches in London, Liverpool, York and Southampton among those notching up record daily takings.
The store revealed it had sold £179m worth of goods in the seven days to 29 November, a rise of 22% on the same week last year – a result described as “spectacular” by industry watchers. It also surpassed the previous sales peak of £164.4m in the week before last Christmas.
Consumers were splashing out on electrical goods, with sales up 41% on last year. Clothing was also popular, up 17% on last year, as were pricey handbags, up 37%.
“The year-on-year gain was all the more impressive given that John Lewis had also taken Black Friday very seriously in 2013,” said Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight.
Online electricals retailer AO.com said it had its busiest trading weekend in its 14-year history, while Maplin Electronics also said its online sales on the day had been up 70% compared with last year and store sales up more than 30%. Halfords, the bikes to car parts chain, said its website had 1.1m visitors on Black Friday, double the number last year, while online retailer Very.co.uk said its sales were up 134% on last year making it the busiest day in its history.
Jon Owen, retail brands and trading director at Very’s parent company Shop Direct, said: “If Black Friday came of age last year, it was turbo-charged this year. We were blown away by its success.”"

Amazon UK sold approx. 64 items per second during Black Friday 2014

"Black Friday was the busiest day on record for online retailer Amazon UK, with sales that "surpassed all expectations", the company has said.
Its website recorded orders for more than 5.5 million goods, with about 64 items sold per second.
Amazon said the public's appetite for Black Friday was "bigger than ever".
However, the day was not without controversy as police were called to deal with scuffles at a number of retailers' stores across the UK.
And some online retailers reported problems with customers accessing their websites because of sheer demand.
Last year's Black Friday was also a record day for Amazon, when it sold more than 4 million items."

Uber Drivers need to provide an average of 60 rides per week to make $50,000 p.a.

"After looking at the numbers, NerdWallet had a few big takeaways:
Based on their data, drivers can, on average, make more working for Uber than for Lyft and Sidecar in most places. Uber drivers make an average of $15.97 per ride with Uber, as opposed to Lyft ($11.48) and Sidecar ($13.35).
In order to make $50,000 a year, an Uber driver must provide 60.21 rides every week. A Lyft driver would have to provide 83.76 rides, and a Sidecar driver would have to provide 72.03 rides. To put that in perspective, 60.21 rides each week equates to between 20 and 21 hours of driving per week for an Uber driver.
To make $100,000 a year, drivers have to give 120.42, 167.52, and 144.05 rides every week on Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar, respectively."
Note 1 - As ever, if you want to take a holiday you need to factor that into your other weeks
Note 2 - Based on current US rates

Monday 1 December 2014

Over $1 billion was spent on desktop computers in the US on Thanksgiving Day 2014

"comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported U.S. desktop retail e-commerce spending for the first 28 days of the November–December 2014 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $22.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.
Thanksgiving Day saw a significant 32 percent gain to $1.01 billion in spending to surpass the billion dollar threshold for the first time in its history and marking the first day of the 2014 season to reach that level. Black Friday (November 28) followed with an even stronger spending day with $1.51 billion in desktop online sales, up 26-percent from Black Friday 2013."
Source:  Press release from comScore, 30th November 2014
Note - some reports put mobile spending even greater than desktop

Friday 28 November 2014

There are over three billion internet users

"Over three billion people are now online and information and communication technology (ICT) growth remains buoyant in just about every country worldwide, according to ITU’s flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report.
The report is widely recognized as the repository of the world’s most reliable and impartial global data and analysis on the state of global ICT development, and is extensively relied upon by governments, financial institutions and private sector analysts worldwide.
Latest data show that Internet use continues to grow steadily, at 6.6% globally in 2014 (3.3% in developed countries, 8.7% in the developing world). The number of Internet users in developing countries has doubled in five years (2009-2014), with two thirds of all people online now living in the developing world.
Of the 4.3 billion people not yet using the Internet, 90% live in developing countries. In the world’s 42 Least Connected Countries (LCCs), which are home to 2.5 billion people, access to ICTs remains largely out of reach, particularly for these countries’ large rural populations."
Full report here

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Buzzfeed gets 5x more traffic from social sharing than from search



Source:  Buzzfeed Industry Trends, 24th November 2014
Note - lots more quite diverse stats in the full report
Note - Buzzfeed concentrates on social sharing - the figs aren't reflective of the web at large

Monday 24 November 2014

A typical Gmail user receives about 5 emails a day

"All of the decisions revolved around the central fact that a typical Gmail user was receiving only about five emails per day, most of which were of promotional nature, and as such, required no response. This was in contrast to a typical Googler who received an average of about 450 emails per day, many of which were important to at least read, with a good chunk of them requiring a reply."
Source:  TechCrunch, 16th November 2014
Note - I'm assuming typical means modal...  & I'm assuming 'user' means 'account' - e.g. one person could have multiple accounts

Uber is active in 240 cities in 46 countries



Source:  BusinessWeek, 20th November 2014
Note - it's currently adding a new city every 2 days

Friday 21 November 2014

18% of internet users are responsible for over 80% of video shares

"While almost one in five (17.9%) internet users are sharing video content with their social networks these ‘super sharers’ are responsible for the majority (82.4%) of all video shares.
In the Geography of Sharing report from marketing technology company Unruly, the networks used were analysed and it found that more than three quarters of video views take place outside of YouTube.
In terms of where video is being shared, it is a fragmented picture. While Facebook sees the most videos shared (59.4%) worldwide, viewers share across a multitude of platforms including Twitter (13.8%), Google+ (9.3%), Tumblr (5.7%) and Pinterest (3.9%).
Among its other findings were that South Koreans are the fastest sharers, with 20% of shares occurring within the first 24 hours of launch and its citizens are also more likely to click, replay or share an ad than any other territories worldwide.
However viewers in Germany are more likely to watch an ad to the end; 79% of Germans who watched an ad stayed till the final frame. The UK was in second place with 77%."

Netflix accounts for nearly 35% of US peak time internet traffic

"Netflix continues to dominate North American networks, accounting for 34.9 per cent of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours
Amazon Instant Video has established itself as the second largest paid streaming video service in North America. While still only accounting for 2.6 per cent of downstream traffic, its share has more than doubled in the past 18 months
In advance of plans to start offering a stand-alone streaming subscriptions in the US, HBOGO accounts for just 1 per cent of downstream traffic in the region
On a fixed network in Australasia, where Netflix isn’t even available yet, approximately 2.5 per cent of subscribers are accessing the service and it comprises as much as 4 per cent of peak downstream traffic"
Full report here

Multi-Screening is now mainstream in Europe

"During peaktime viewing in the UK, 74 per cent claim to have picked up an internet connected device during TV ad breaks, with very little difference between age groups, social demographics or gender (Craft/Thinkbox ‘Screen Life: TV advertising everywhere’, 2014)
Most TV shows attract some social media commentary, but the shows which attract the most tend to be live sports and reality TV shows – the 2014 BRIT Awards in the UK saw a vast volume of Twitter conversation with 4.2 million Tweets about the show.
42 per cent of French viewers aged 15-60 say that they have engaged with a TV programme via a social network (OmnicomMediaGroup/ Mesagraph РSocial T̩l̩vision)
37 per cent of Swiss say that it’s “normal” and “commonplace” to use the internet while watching TV (Publisuisse, ‘Media du Future 2017’)
In Spain, 62 per cent of people claimed in 2013 to use a second screen while watching TV – an increase of 11 percentage points compared to the previous year (Televidente 2.0, 2013)
In Sweden, 55 per cent viewers have used another screen (smartphone, tablet or computer) while watching TV (MMS Moving Images 2014:1)
33 per cent of people in Poland have multi-screened and almost half of multi-screening activity (49 per cent) is in order to look at content that is related to what is being watched (Millward Brown ‘AdReaction 2014’)."
(Lots more stats in the full article)

The 'serial' podcast has nearly 1.3 million downloads per episode

"In the normally low-profile world of podcasting, “Serial” is a certified sensation—a testament to the power of great storytelling. It’s quickly become the most popular podcast in the world, according to Apple, and the fastest to reach 5 million downloads and streams in iTunes history. “Serial” is the top podcast in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, and in the top 10 in Germany, South Africa and India.
[...]
“Serial” is downloaded an average 1.26 million times per episode, sending fans into debates over the finer points of the evidence. People can hear the podcast, which is like a radio show but entirely on the Internet, either by streaming it from the “Serial” website or downloading it onto a phone, tablet or computer from a platform like iTunes."

Consumers spend more time with mobiles than TV in the US



Source:  Data from Flurry, reported in a blog post, 18th November 2014


TV data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

Note - Ofcom's International Communications Market Report gives a higher figure for TV - 293 minutes



Source - Ofcom ICMR December 2013

Thursday 20 November 2014

About 50% of YouTube's views come from mobiles or tablets

"YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki appeared at the Code/Mobile event on October 27 and shared some stats about the online video site. One of the most interesting numbers concerned mobile devices, which now supply about 50% of YouTube’s views.
This is up 10% from the last time YouTube reported any stats related to mobile viewing. In 2013, the Google-owned video platform claimed roughly 40% of the site’s views came from mobile devices. And a year before that, in 2012, only a quarter of its views were from mobile.
“Mobile is super important. I think it’s important for every business right now,” Wojcicki said to Re/code at the Code/Mobile event."

Wednesday 19 November 2014

Teespring, 'the Kickstarter for T-shirts' has sold 6m shirts in 2014

"Some tech companies look to change the way we communicate or can travel in space. Teespring helps people sell t-shirts. Custom, well-made t-shirts. And it’s good at what it does.
Teespring has sold 6 million shirts this year through its customers, hundreds of whom make more than $100,000 from their tee trade. At least ten, the company says, have become millionaires from the work. Teespring claims that one in 75 Americans owns a shirt  it’s helped sell in the last year. For 2015, the startup plans to go even bigger, and it’s raised millions in venture backing to get ready. The two-year-old startup announced Tues. it’s raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Khosla Ventures, with partner Keith Rabois joining the board. Earlier investors and board members include Lars Dalgaard of Andreessen Horowitz and Sam Altman of Y Combinator."

Sunday 16 November 2014

You need 'at least 100' Facebook friends to verify yourself on Airbnb

"At the other end of the Airbnb helpline in Colorado, “Casey” sounded incredulous. “You have how many Facebook friends?” she drawled. “Er … about 50,” I replied. Long pause. “Well, you don’t have enough for us to verify you. You’d need at least 100.”
“But”, I squeaked, “I post every now and again … I’m on Facebook most days to check on my friends and relations.” This, however, was not enough to convince Airbnb I existed. And, as I didn’t exist, I could not book a room.
Helpful Casey had another suggestion: why not upload a video of myself saying why and where I wanted to book. The problem with that, I explained, was that the Airbnb link supplied was incompatible with my iPad 2. Use your smartphone, suggested Casey. I didn’t have one, said I. There was an audible intake of breath.
Have you ever been told you don’t have enough friends – and are a Luddite to boot? It’s crushing. And more to the point, I had a flight booked to Bremen in Germany, for two; I had tickets for the Glocke concert hall; but I still had nowhere to stay on the first weekend of November – that of the Freimarkt, the oldest fair in Germany – one of the busiest on the Bremen calendar.
Earlier that week I had logged on to Airbnb for the first time in search of a room for two. I found one (with “Sabine”) that ticked the boxes, filled in my credit card details, and booked … or so I thought. Back bounced an email saying that I was not acceptable to Sabine, and my money had been returned. So I tried to book with “Harald”. The same thing happened. “Viktoria” (“Nice room, near park”) rejected me, too.
I’m a middle-aged mum of two, I’m a school governor, I have an impeccable credit record. But I couldn’t book a B&B. Not when I didn’t have enough “friends”."

Friday 14 November 2014

There are approximately 200,000 film-related tweets per day



Source:  New research from Twitter, reported in a blog post, 7th November 2014

Xiaomi sold 1.2m phones during Singes Day 2014

""November 11 saw a new record for the world’s biggest shopping day as Alibaba’s shoppers spent US$9.3 billion in 24 hours on the company’s two main ecommerce marketplaces, Tmall and Taobao. The top Tmall brand store on that sales bonanza day was Xiaomi, the budget smartphone maker. Today Xiaomi revealed that it saw a record high of 1.16 million phones sold during China’s Singles Day event.
Along with Xiaomi’s other gadgets, such as its new MiBand fitness tracker, Xiaomi pulled in RMB 1.56 billion – that’s US$254 million – in sales volume in that 24-hour period. The figure is well up from Singles Day in 2013 when Xiaomi’s customers spent US$89 million.
Xiaomi points out that it was China’s top-selling phone, TV, tablet, wearable, and a few other first-place distinctions during the day of discounts. Xiaomi discounted its new Mi4 smartphone by a relatively small amount compared to some other brands’ products on Singles Day, dropping it from US$325 to US$293."

Tweets drive time-shifted TV viewing


"Not surprisingly, the most important factor changing how many viewers watch later was an episode’s live audience tune in, accounting for 42% of variance in +7 TV audiences. So, just under half of the difference between the live and +7 audiences can be explained by the size of the original live audience. Conventional wisdom on several other variables also bore out. For example, reality series were 31% more likely to be watched live. A premiere episode, regardless of genre, was 15% more likely to be watched live.
Interestingly, all 11 variables tested proved to be statistically significant. In other words, all measurements and characteristics we looked at affect time-shifted viewing. In fact, this integrated model explains 72% of the variance in the +7 audience, significantly higher than what the live audience could explain alone. Moreover, Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings (NTTR) impressions were significant, even after accounting for the effect of the other 10 variables. Specifically, a 10% increase in NTTR impressions corresponded to a 1.8% increase in the +7 audience, indicating that social media activity around TV programming is playing a role in driving viewers to watch programming later in the week."

Wednesday 12 November 2014

Facebook Messenger has over 500m monthly active users

"Messaging is an important part of how people stay connected and since Messenger launched in 2011 we’ve been passionate about giving people a faster and more expressive way to communicate.
Today more than 500 million people are using Messenger each month and we’re more committed than ever to make it the best possible messaging experience.
Messenger was the first of our standalone apps, and unlike our core Facebook apps, it focused on one use case – messaging. With Messenger, you can reach people instantly. It is just as fast as SMS but gives you the ability to express yourself in ways that SMS can’t. You can send stickers or videos, take selfies, chat with groups and make free calls. We’ve also continued to improve speed and reliability. Updates to Messenger ship every two weeks so it continues to evolve and improve."

$9.3 billion was spent on Alibaba sites during Singles Day 2014

"After 24 hours of frantic clicking across China during the nation’s annual online sales day bonanza, Alibaba’s customers spent a grand total of US$9.3 billion (RMB 57.1 billion) on the company’s two estores. That’s up significantly from last year’s full-day tally of US$5.8 billion.
The real-time data from Alibaba also showed that people on phones and tablets accounted for 42.6 percent of that expenditure – another record high, up from 21 percent in 2013.
Alibaba’s customers generated a total of 278.5 million packages during the sales event – which occurs every November 11 and is called Singles Day – as shoppers snapped up discounted items offered by nearly 30,000 merchants on the company’s marketplaces, Tmall and Taobao. They’re China’s two largest ecommerce sites with a collective 250-plus million active consumers. Major Chinese and global brands took part by offering discounts, including Uniqlo, Disney, Clinique, and Xiaomi.
Gadgets and home appliances made up the top three most popular brands on Tmall in terms of what people were spending on: Xiaomi in top spot, Huawei second, and Haier third. Japan’s Uniqlo was next up in fourth place.
This year’s sales day saw expenditure on Alibaba’s sites surpass last year’s tally as early as 1:30pm, setting the stage for a record-breaking sum at the end of the promo at midnight."

Tuesday 11 November 2014

Spotify has 50m active users & 12.5m paying subscribers

"Our free service drives our paid service. Today we have more than 50 million active users of whom 12.5 million are subscribers each paying $120 per year. That’s three times more than the average paying music consumer spent in the past. What’s more, the majority of these paying users are under the age of 27, fans who grew up with piracy and never expected to pay for music. But here’s the key fact: more than 80% of our subscribers started as free users. If you take away only one thing, it should be this: No free, no paid, no two billion dollars."
Earlier -
40m MAUs, 10m paying - May 2014
24m MAUs, 6m paying - Mar 2013
5m paying - Dec 2012
3m paying - Jan 2012
2.5m paying - Nov 2011

Monday 10 November 2014

Facebook sees more than half a billion Android connections per month from >10,000 different device models

"The rise of Android phone usage around the world in the past few years has been staggering. Facebook now sees more than half a billion people connect each month from more than 10,000 different Android device models. As we've restructured mobile development to be owned by each individual product team within the company, we have kept small groups of people focused on developing a deeper understanding of each platform in order to provide common tools and knowledge so we can avoid re-inventing the wheel."
Source:  Facebook Code blog, 6th November 2014

The 'Kim Kardashian: Hollywood' app generated $43.4m revenue in Q3 2014

"Despite being totally free to download (and play), Kim Kardashian's super addictive smartphone app "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood" is raking in MILLIONS. $43.4 million, to be precise—and that's just for the third quarter.
According to a Q314 earnings call report from the game's developer, Glu Mobile (via Daily Dot), KK:H made more than 10 other Glu-owned apps combined. While not necessary to play, in-app purchases can be made to make advances in the game. Over 22.8 million people have downloaded it since it was released in June, and collectively, it's been played for more than 5.7 billion minutes (though, whether the players are willing to admit that is another story)."

China has over 40 million 4G subscribers

"Yesterday, China’s Ministry of Industry and Informatization Technology (MIIT) released a report saying that the country now has more than 43 million 4G subscribers. Although July’s numbers came from a different source – China’s State Council Information Office – MIIT’s report suggests that over the last few months, the country has gained nearly 30 million new 4G subscribers.
Given that 4G was first launched in China all the way back in December of 2013, this increased growth speed is good news. Subscriber numbers grew slowly between 4G’s launch in the winter and this past summer, thanks in part to the fact that the government issued a 4G operating license only for China Mobile’s TD-LTE network, and not for the competing FDD-LTE networks of China Mobile and China Unicom. Its intent was to bolster the domestically developed TD-LTE standard as the standard for 4G at home and abroad."

Tinder has had 40m downloads

"Dressed in skinny jeans and a blue blazer, Rad unspooled a series of ever more staggering stats. Tinder, which has logged 600% growth over the past 12 months, has been downloaded 40 million times since it launched in 2012. The 30 million people who have registered collectively check out 1.2 billion prospective partners daily—that’s 14,000 per second. And they’re not just kicking the tires: Tinder is now facilitating almost 14 million romantic matches every 24 hours. As originally planned, Rad then confidently revealed the idea for the premium service, as 1,000 tweets shot across the Internet heralding the news. In the hallway immediately after the talk, he did a live interview with CNBC. “After this last year,” he sighs in retrospect, “being able to detach like that onstage was a walk in the park.”"
Source:  Forbes, 4th November 2014
Related - Tinder has a minimum age limit of 13

Just over half of the world's web content is estimated to be in English

"The English domination of the web is completely divorced from the language’s presence in the human population. “Just over half (55.8%) of Web content is estimated to be in English despite the fact that less than 5% of the world’s population speak it as a first language, with only 21% estimated to have some level of understanding,” according to GSMA and Mozilla (pdf). “By contrast, some of the world’s most widely spoken languages, such as Arabic or Hindi, account for a relatively small proportion of the Web’s content (0.8% and less than 0.1% respectively).”"
Source:  Quartz, 6th November 2014

'Monty The Penguin' had over 17m views online in the first weekend

YouTube - 10,536,535
Facebook - 5,783,415 (with 150,941 shares)
Twitter - Twitter doesn't show views in its player, but the video has had 32,000 shares, so if the share rate is the same as on Facebook you'd expect about 1.2m views (approx 1/5 of Facebook's figures)

Video was released at 8am on Thursday 6th November.  Numbers retrieved at 9.30am, Monday 10th November
Note 1 - Views and reach are not the same thing.  Lots of people will have watched more than once, or on more than one platform.  This does not mean that 17 million people have seen the video
Note 2 - John Lewis has been paying promote the video, at least on Facebook - see below, screengrabbed on Friday night - these video views are not necessarily 'organic'
Note 3 - However there will also be other copies uploaded, plus parodies and remixes, which aren't counted in these numbers.


Update - after 8 days - Fri 14th Nov
YouTube - 14,151,257
Facebook - 5,992,387 (with 154,438 shares)
Twitter - Still at about 32,000 shares

Update - 14th Nov - A colleague writes:
"The Facebook video stats are quite misleading as they count an autoplay video without sound as a view. On [our client] we’ve seen that the drop off rate for autoplay videos is high, you lose 50% - 70% of viewership after 5 seconds, as people continue to scroll down their feed. 

Facebook’s video views are really impressive, but marketers who move from YouTube to Facebook will be disappointed by the number of completed views with sound. "

Friday 7 November 2014

The 2014 'Monty The Penguin' John Lewis Christmas Ad had over 4m views on YouTube in 24 hours


Screengrab taken at 8am, 7th November 2014; ad released at 8am 6th November
See the ad here
Notes -
I'm not sure whether paid views were used - this is not necessary 'organic' views
This is just the figure for the official YouTube upload - versions were also uploaded to Facebook and Twitter's video plaftorms, among others
The ad has not yet been shown on TV - it launches tonight on Channel 4

Update - Unruly, via Business Insider, puts YouTube on 4.1m views and Facebook on 2.8m views in 24 hours

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Tinder has a minimum age limit of 13

"Eligibility. No part of Tinder is directed to persons under the age of 13. You must be at least 13 years of age to access and use the Service. Any use of the Service is void where prohibited. By accessing and using the Service, you represent and warrant that you have the right, authority and capacity to enter into this Agreement and to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement. If you create an account, you represent and warrant that you have never been convicted of a felony and that you are not required to register as a sex offender with any government entity. Using the Service may be prohibited or restricted in certain countries. If you use the Service from outside of the United States, you are responsible for complying with the laws and regulations of the territory from which you access or use the Service."
Source:  Tinder terms & conditions, retrieved 4th November 2014
Note - You need to be on Facebook to sign up for Tinder, so this is simply Tinder's way of authenticating identity.

Publicis bought Sapient for $3.7bn

"Global ad giant Publicis is spending big to position itself as the top agency for brands riding the digital wave, after it announced a deal that sees it acquire Sapient for $3.7 billion.
Publicis is paying $25.00 per share in an all-cash transaction at a total valuation that is a 44% premium to Nasdaq-listed Sapient’s most recent share price, as of October 31. The deal, which is described as a merger, will see Sapient become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Publicis Groupe.
The deal has been approved by both companies’ boards, but remains subject to the usual regulatory approval and other red tape. Once complete, Publicis intends to create ‘Publicis.Sapient,’ a new venture that will unite Sapient’s three arms — SapientNitro, Sapient Global Markets, Sapient Government Services — with Publicis’ existing digital services — DigitasLBi, Razorfish Global and Rosetta — and focus on “digital transformation at the convergence of communication, marketing, commerce and technology.”"

Monday 3 November 2014

The fastest companies to reach a $1bn valuation

& also

Note - Doug MacMillan is a tech reporter for WSJ

Yahoo & Tumblr together have 1bn MAUs, 550m on mobile

Note - Original tweet that he is correcting
Note - Doug MacMillan is a tech reporteer for WSJ

ApplePay signed up 3 million cards in the first week

Note - Amir Efrati is a reporter at The Information
Note - 3m cards doesn't mean 3m people - you can upload multiple cards and choose which to pay with (as far as I know)

Mobile is Eating The World, Oct 2014


Mobile Is Eating the World from a16z

& here's a video of the slides, with Benedict Evans explaining them.  Explains the picture of the pot plant on slide 36!


Thursday 30 October 2014

YouTuber Zoella has 14.3m video views & 84m minutes of watch time a month

"14.3 million average video views monthly
Over 5.8 million subscribers
83.6 million minutes average watch-time monthly"
Source:  Case study from YouTube, January 2014
Note - I'm guessing that it's much higher now

35% of Malaysian internet users only access via Smartpnones



Source:  Data from Taylor Nelson Sofres and Google, reported in a blog post, 28th October 2014
Explore the data at http://www.consumerbarometer.com/

Wednesday 29 October 2014

Facebook's revenue by segment, Q3 2014



Source:  Business Insider, 28th October 2014

Facebook had 456m mobile-only MAUs in Q4 2014



Source: Q3 2014 Earnings Charts from Facebook, 28th October 2014

Facebook has 1.35bn MAUs and 1.12bn mobile MAUs

"Third Quarter 2014 Operational Highlights
Daily active users (DAUs) were 864 million on average for September 2014, an increase of 19% year-over-year.
Mobile DAUs were 703 million on average for September 2014, an increase of 39% year-over-year.
Monthly active users (MAUs) were 1.35 billion as of September 30, 2014, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
Mobile MAUs were 1.12 billion as of September 30, 2014, an increase of 29% year-over-year.
Third Quarter 2014 Financial Highlights
Revenue - Revenue for the third quarter of 2014 totaled $3.20 billion, an increase of 59%, compared with $2.02 billion in the third quarter of 2013. Excluding the impact of year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates, revenue would have increased by 58%.
Revenue from advertising was $2.96 billion, a 64% increase from the same quarter last year. Excluding the impact of year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates, revenue from advertising would have increased by 63%.
Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 66% of advertising revenue for the third quarter of 2014, up from approximately 49% of advertising revenue in the third quarter of 2013.
Payments and other fees revenue was $246 million, a 13% increase from the same quarter last year.
Costs and expenses - GAAP costs and expenses for the third quarter of 2014 were $1.81 billion, an increase of 41% from the third quarter of 2013. Non-GAAP information for 2013 has been updated to exclude amortization of intangible assets to conform to our current period presentation. Excluding amortization of intangible assets, share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non-GAAP costs and expenses were $1.38 billion in the third quarter of 2014, up 39% compared to $992 million for the third quarter of 2013.
Income from operations - GAAP income from operations for the third quarter of 2014 was $1.40 billion, up 90% compared to $736 million in the third quarter of 2013. Excluding amortization of intangible assets, share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non-GAAP income from operations for the third quarter of 2014 was $1.82 billion, up 78% compared to $1.02 billion for the third quarter of 2013.
Operating margin - GAAP operating margin was 44% for the third quarter of 2014, compared to 37% in the third quarter of 2013. Excluding amortization of intangible assets, share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non-GAAP operating margin was 57% for the third quarter of 2014, compared to 51% for the third quarter of 2013."

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Twitter had 284m MAUs, and 227m mobile MAUs in Q3 2014

"Third Quarter 2014 Operational Highlights
Average Monthly Active Users (MAUs) were 284 million for the third quarter, an increase of 23% year-over-year.
Average Mobile MAUs represented around 80% of total MAUs.
Timeline views reached 181 billion for the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 14% year-over-year.
Advertising revenue per thousand timeline views reached $1.77 in the third quarter of 2014, an increase of 83% year-over-year.
Revenue - Revenue for the third quarter of 2014 totaled $361 million, an increase of 114% compared to $169 million in the same period last year.
Advertising revenue totaled $320 million, an increase of 109% year-over-year.
Mobile advertising revenue was 85% of total advertising revenue.
Data licensing and other revenue totaled $41 million, an increase of 171% year-over-year.
International revenue totaled $121 million, an increase of 176% year-over-year.
International revenue was 34% of total revenue.
Net loss - GAAP net loss was $175 million for the third quarter of 2014 compared to a GAAP net loss of $65 million in the same period last year. GAAP net loss for the third quarter of 2014 included $170 million of stock-based compensation expense."
Source:  Twitter's Q3 2014 results, 27th October 2014
Earlier - 271m & 211m in Q2 2014

Monday 27 October 2014

Music sales through iTunes 'have fallen by 13% in 2014'

"The music industry continues to evolve, but some bad news is reported by THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, which writes, "the growing availability of cheap music—from free videos and streams to $10-a-month unlimited subscription plans—is sapping demand for digital downloads at the world’s biggest seller of music, APPLE INC. Music sales at APPLE’s iTUNES STORE have fallen 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. The decline is stark compared with a much shallower dip last year. Global revenue from downloads fell 2.1% in 2013, according to the INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE PHONOGRAPHIC INDUSTRY."

Smartphone ownership overtakes non-smartphone ownership at age 9 for UK kids



Source:  Ofcom's Children & Parents:  Media Uses & Attitudes Report, October 2014

Amazon made a $170m write-down in Q3 2014 mainly relating to poor Fire phone sales

"Amazon said in a conference call following the release of a disappointing third-quarter financial report that it would take a $170 million charge “primarily related to Fire phone inventory valuation and supplier commitment costs.” Translation: The Fire phone has been a disappointment."

Friday 24 October 2014

Mobile accounted for 23% of US digital ad spend

"Internet ad revenues climbed to an historic first half-year high of $23.1 billion, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and prepared by PwC US. This marks a 15 percent rise over 2013’s first-half ad revenues of $20.1 billion.
Maintaining the positive trajectory, second quarter 2014 internet ad revenues rose to $11.7 billion, representing a 14 percent year-over-year increase, up from $10.3 billion in Q2 2013.
Highlights of the report include:
Mobile revenues increased 76 percent to 5.3 billion at HY 2014, from the $3.0 billion (15% of total) reported at HY 2013, with the 2014 six month total consisting of $2.7 billion mobile search, $2.5 billion mobile display, and $103 million in other mobile formats
Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, reached $1.5 billion, a 13 percent increase in revenue over the first half of 2013 at $1.3 billion
Search revenues in the first half of 2014 hit $9.1 billion, up 4 percent from $8.7 billion in the first six months of 2013
Display-related advertising revenues in the first half of 2014 totaled $6.5 billion, a 6 percent uptick from $6.1 billion in the first half of 2013, and accounted for 28 percent of digital advertising revenue overall
Social media revenues, which includes advertising delivered on social platforms, including social networking and social gaming websites and apps, reached $2.9 billion in HY 2014, a double-digital hike of 58 percent over the same period in 2013, at $1.9 billion
The top three advertising verticals continue to account for nearly half of advertising revenue (46%), including Retail at 21 percent, Financial Services at 13 percent and Automotive at 12 percent
“This report confirms the fact that brands are deepening their commitment to interactive advertising, and that mobile is seen as a crucial part of the marketing mix,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Moreover, with second half revenues traditionally surpassing those in the first half of the year, this milestone achievement is potentially a harbinger of even stronger digital ad revenues to come.”
“Mobile’s continued rise speaks to consumers’ increasing reliance on smartphones and tablets, whether on-the-go or at home,” said David Silverman, a partner at PwC US. “And, digital video too is seeing gains that reflect a new ‘viewing’ paradigm that is taking place on interactive screens, big and small.”
“Consumers living online is no longer the exception—It is the rule,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics and Measurement, IAB. “Digital screens have become vital tools at every juncture of the day. It is no surprise that brand dollars have followed this growing movement at a steady clip.”
Source:  IAB/PwC, 20th October 2014
Full report here

'Non linear' video accounts for nearly half of all video watched in US broadband homes

"New research from Parks Associates shows the average U.S. broadband household now watches more than 17 hours of non-linear video per week, compared to 11.5 hours of linear video. The research firm will examine the market for OTT services and streaming media devices at CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES, January 6, during the session "Streaming Media Devices in the Video Ecosystem," featuring executives from NETGEAR, TiVo, Roku, Comcast, AT&T, and Amazon.
"Non-linear video accounts for 49% of the video consumed on the TV, and it is already the majority, 60%, of TV video viewed by consumers 18-24," said Barbara Kraus, Director of Research, Parks Associates. "Growing consumer demand, alongside new OTT service announcements from HBO and CBS, is driving all players in the video ecosystem to add streaming capabilities to their devices. Our streaming-media session at CONNECTIONS™ Summit will examine the expanding role of devices with streaming capabilities and the future balance of linear versus non-linear video viewing among connected consumers."
Parks Associates research shows consumers are also using connected CE for purposes outside video. Nearly 40% of U.S. broadband households that use the smart TV as their primary connected device regularly access and spend at least one hour per week using Facebook on this device."

iPhone & iPad users use an average of 7.3 apps in a month

"360 View:Mobility and the App Economy finds the Android ecosystem is larger in terms of users but that Apple's iOS ecosystem is more robust for app usage and expenditure.
The average iPhone user uses 7.3 apps on a monthly basis, compared to 6.2 apps for the average Android phone user.
iPhone and iPad owners use, on average, one more app per month than Android phone and tablet users, even though both segments download roughly the same number of apps per month.
iOS users also spend more, with 22% of iPad owners and 23% of iPhone owners spending $1 or more per month on apps. These differences in expenditure are a natural extension of higher incomes among iOS users.
4% of U.S. broadband households use both an iPhone and an iPad; 15% use both an Android phone and an Android tablet; 11% use one Android device and one iOS device.
70% of U.S. broadband households with a household income of $100,000 or more own both a tablet and a smartphone."

55% of American teen smartphone users use voice search every day

"A Google study of voice-search habits among United States smartphone users across different age ranges contains lessons for marketers who fail to give the personal nature of mobile its due, leading to misinformed definitions of success.
The Mobile Voice Study by the Mountain View, CA, provider of search, online-advertising technologies and other Internet products and services found that 55 percent of teens aged 13-18 use voice search every day, while 56 percent of adults said using voice search makes them feel tech-savvy. The study points to the importance of marketers understanding that mobile - especially with voice search - is a much more personal experience for people, and often they are not looking to immediately make that easily measurable conversion that informs budget planning and tends to define marketing success."

Facebook now has more desktop video views in the US than YouTube



Source:  Data from comSCore, reported by MarketingLand, 14th October 2014

Thursday 23 October 2014

Impact of the mobile internet in Africa vs UK


Quinoa features in 540,000 posts on Instagram

"Increasingly our food choices are being influenced by social media, with millions now using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share food photos, blog posts and recipes (quinoa features in 540,000 posts on Instagram alone), and food trends can spread instantly.
‘Because of social media, people are very aware of what’s in products,’ says Gordon McDermott, Course Manager at The Waitrose Cookery School, ‘and they’re learning more about ingredients.’
Waitrose is part of this online food revolution. In 2014, Twitter followers of @Waitrose have risen by three-quarters, while our Facebook ‘likes’ have increased by over 50%. We attracted thousands of Instagram followers within weeks of joining in the summer.
In July, for the first time, the number of customers getting in touch with us through social media overtook the number sending emails for the first time.
The most popular Waitrose-related topics on Twitter and Facebook include Heston, gluten-free, cheese, Mother’s Day and coffee."

Thursday 9 October 2014

43% of UK viewers in Virgin TiVo homes mostly watch time-shifted TV

"The latest study and statistics from Virgin Media have revealed technology is transforming the way the nation watches television.
Data from over 2.3 million Virgin Media TiVo® set-top boxes shows a fifth of all TV is now watched in a time-shifted format; either first recorded onto the hard drive of a set-top box or else watched on demand. This was not even possible twelve years ago before the first personal video recorders or cable television’s introduction of video on demand by a precursor to Virgin Media. Virgin Media customers already watch over one billion programmes on demand each year.
According to the latest study by Virgin Media, almost half (43%) of people mostly watch time-shifted TV, with 20% tuning in to live TV only for must-see moments. Just 30% predominantly watch live TV.
Growth in the popularity of time-shifted TV has been driven by a boom in series stacking and the availability of entire Box Sets on demand, allowing people to watch multiple episodes of TV series back-to-back. One in ten says they dedicate all their viewing time to a single series at a time, with 40% switching between different series depending on their mood.
Data from Virgin Media reveals recorded TV series and one-off shows are typically watched within 14 days after having been broadcast, while movies are often kept for longer and enjoyed on a weekend.
Second-screen trending
Over a third (34%) of people are using second screens while watching TV. 78% of these multi-taskers are typically checking and updating social media sites.
Virgin Media data shows customers are being influenced by social media recommendations. They are quick to set up a series link when a show trends online, giving rise to a surge in ‘reflex recording’. Online buzz around season premieres of popular shows like The Great British Bake Off and Dynamo spark the biggest surges in setting up automatic recordings for entire series on Virgin Media TiVo.
Virgin Media data also suggests people are also using their smartphones, tablets and computers to avoid telly-viewing conflicts, with sports content often getting relegated second screens when there’s a big match on. On the last day of the Premier League this year, Virgin Media saw a 38% increase in the use of Virgin TV Anywhere, the most comprehensive streaming service in the country, as viewers tuned in to watch the final."

1 in 3 UK children has their own tablet

"One in three children in the UK now has their own tablet computer, which has nearly doubled in a year, new Ofcom research finds.
Among children aged between 5 and 15, 34% now have their own tablet, rather than using devices belonging to their parents or school, up from a fifth (19%) in 2013.
Six in ten (62%) children use a tablet at home, which has risen by half in a year (42% in 2013).
A sharp increase in tablet ownership among very young children means that some are using one to surf the web, play games and watch video clips before they join school. More than one in 10 children aged 3-4 now have their own tablet (11%, up from 3% in 2013).
Twice as many children aged 5-15 are using a tablet to go online (42% versus 23% in 2013), which could have implications in future use of laptops and PCs. For the first time, the proportion of children accessing the internet on a PC, laptop or netbook fell, by three percentage points, year on year, to 88%.
These trends are highlighted in Ofcom's annual Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report, which examines children's use of different media and communications, and the role parents play in overseeing them."

Line has 170m monthly active users

"After unveiling a series of new features that drastically expand its reach, today Line revealed a series of statistics regarding activity on its signature messaging app, including the number of people that use it every month.
That number? 170 million monthly active users (MAUs), out of a current count of 560 million registered users.
This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. After Japanese ecommerce giant Rakuten purchased Cyprus-based messenger Viber, the company revealed that it had 100 million monthly active users among a total user base of 280 million. Tango, after receiving US$215 million in funding from Alibaba, reported 70 million monthly active users among a total user base of 200 million."

Mobile advertising accounted for 20% of total UK digital advertising in H1 2014

"Native/content advertising hits £216m – accounts for over 20% of digital display ads.
Mobile accounts for 20% of digital ad spend and 53% of social media spend.
Britons increasing appetite for watching video content on computers, tablets and mobile phones helped drive digital advertising spend up 16.6% to a record £3.5 billion in the first half of 2014 – according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK Digital Adspend report, conducted by PwC.
Video advertising on the internet and mobile phones grew by 59% year-on-year to £202 million in the first half of 2014. Mobile video advertising, alone, grew 196% to £63.9 million and is now the fastest growing digital ad format.
Accompanying online YouGov data reveals 73%¹ of Britons online who own an internet-enabled device watched TV programmes online in the last six months, 72% watched short online video clips and 59% watched films online. Those watching TV online average 2 hours 35 minutes¹ a week doing so, compared to 1 hour 50 minutes for online film viewers and 51 minutes for video clip viewers.
“A third of online viewers, particularly 35-44 year olds, are watching more TV, films and clips online than a year ago. Consequently, video now accounts for £1 in every £5 spent on internet and mobile display ads,” says Tim Elkington, Chief Strategy Officer at the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau. “Average weekly viewing online amounts to 25 videos, 4-5 TV episodes and one film but what's most interesting is that watching video on connected devices is becoming an increasingly social activity, like traditional TV. Half of people watching TV, films or video clips online do so with family members and three in ten watch with friends."
Device owners in Scotland are the most likely to watch TV (78%)¹, films (66%) and video clips (82%) online. However, among online TV and film viewers, those in London average the most time online watching TV (3 hours 6 minutes per week) and films (2 hrs 27 mins) each week. Among video clip viewers, people in the south average the most time (1 hr 2 mins).
Total digital, native, social and tablet
Advertising on the internet and mobile phones overall increased, like-for-like², by 16.6% or £467 million to £3.46 billion in the first half of 2014 – up from £3.0 billion in the first half of 2013.
Content and “native” advertising³ spend – which includes paid for sponsorships, advertisement features and in-feed distribution – hit £216 million, accounting for 21% of digital display advertising.
Social media ad spend grew 73% to £396.0 million, with 53% (£209.7 million) allocated to mobile.
Among media owners who submitted revenue figures to the IAB/PwC, tablet-dedicated advertising⁴ grew 160% to reach £29.0 million; up from £10.5 million.
Mobile ad spend up 68%; accounts for one-fifth of digital advertising
With smartphones accounting for over three quarters (76%)⁵ of handsets, mobile advertising grew 68% from £429.2 million to £707.1 million in the first half of 2014. Mobile now accounts for 20% of all digital advertising spend – up from 14% in the first half of 2013.
“Mobile’s share of the digital ad pie has tripled in two years, accounting for a fifth of total spend – rising to nearly a third of display and over half of social media ads,” says Dan Bunyan, Manager at PwC. “As 4G becomes more prevalent and phone screens become larger, it will play an even bigger role in driving digital ad spend – particularly video.”
Consumer goods and entertainment dominate mobile display advertising
Consumer goods advertisers spent the most on digital display advertising, overall, accounting for 16% share in the first half of 2014, followed by travel & transport (15%) and finance advertisers (13%). Consumer goods was also the biggest spender on mobile display ads - accounting for 23% share followed by entertainment & media (21%) and technology (12%) advertisers.
Digital advertising formats
Boosted by video and social media, display advertising across the internet and mobile grew almost twice the overall digital rate (16.6%) at 30.1% to £1.02 billion in the first half of 2014.
With mobile display growing by 116% to £315.7 million, mobile now accounts for 31% of total digital display advertising.
Paid-for search marketing increased 11.3% to £1.92 billion in the first half of 2014.
Classifieds including recruitment, property and automotive listings, grew 14.4% to £493.5 million – accounting for 14% of digital ad spend."

Tuesday 7 October 2014

5% of people who click on a YPlan mobile app ad in Facebook buy tickets

"In addition to helping YPlan acquire new customers, Facebook mobile app ads are part of YPlan’s full customer lifecycle. Mobile app ads for engagement and conversion have proven to be an excellent way for YPlan to interact with their existing customers and app users by engaging with them with specific and relevant events.
1 in 20 people that click on a mobile app engagement ad purchase an event and YPlan has seen a 20% increase in paid bookings through mobile app engagement ads. Thanks to mobile app ads, YPlan has seen a 215% return on investment for engagement ads.
The YPlan team works with many event planners, so it suggests different events to specific audience segments. For instance, if a Beyonce concert is coming up, YPlan targets her fans with its advertising, getting improved cost-per-click results."
Source:  Facebook's Developer Showcase, retrieved 7th October 2014

Monday 6 October 2014

Ford sold 29,000 cars in the US in 2013 through its mobile site

"Forty percent of Ford’s Web traffic comes from mobile. Mr. Farley said that much of it comes from prospective buyers walking car lots after hours. Further, he said that
29,000 cars were sold last year through the mobile Web site.
Mr. Farley said that the big opportunity resides in our ability to “talk to each customer.” But he warned the audience members that with that comes “a higher burden and standard of excellence for marketers.”"

More than 100,000 Xbox One consoles were sold in the first day in China

"After a brief delay, Microsoft’s Xbox One game console launched in China this week, becoming the first game console to be officially sold in the Middle Kingdom in over a decade. And according to Chinese gaming news site 17173, the console had a pretty good first day, selling more than 100,000 units.
That number includes preordered units, of course, so the device won’t continue to sell at anything close to that rate, but it’s still a fairly impressive debut given the weak lineup of games available and the other restrictions placed on the Chinese version of the console."

More than half a billion connected TV devices are in use around the world

"Worldwide ownership of Connected TV Devices (including smart TVs, smart Blu-ray players, IP-enabled game consoles and digital media streamers) grew 7 per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2014 and 34 per cent versus the same period in 2013 to reach 500 million units. The growing demand for devices that facilitate the streaming of online video to the large screen TV is creating a highly competitive environment with no fewer than 16 major technology brands accounting for 90 percent of devices in use according to Strategy Analytics’ Connected Home Devices (CHD) service report, Global Connected TV Device Tracker: Q2 2014.
Other key findings from the report include:
One in four Connected TV Devices installed in homes around the world is a Sony branded product while the combined footprint of Sony, Samsung, Nintendo and Microsoft accounts for 60 per cent of all devices in use.
Samsung enjoyed the highest unit increase to its installed base of Connected TV Devices during the quarter while Google’s Connected TV Device footprint grew faster than any other brand from Q1 to Q2 2014.
Apple remained the leading brand within the global Digital Media Streamer market in Q2 2014 although its share dropped to under 30 per cent for the first time in the face of competition from Google’s Chromecast, Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku."