Wednesday 30 April 2014

Twitter's ad revenue per view is falling

"More people are using Twitter more often, but the company isn’t generating as much advertising revenue each time people refresh their feeds.
Twitter’s first-quarter revenue of $250 million beat analyst expectations, but the stock fell to a new low in after-hours trading. That may be because Twitter’s user growth remains modest: About 255 million people now actively use the service, up from 241 million at the end of 2013.
But the most alarming figure is that Twitter generated $1.44 in advertising revenue for every 1,000 timeline views, down from $1.49 in the previous quarter. That’s the best measure of the company’s ability to make money from its existing base of users, and it’s going in the wrong direction."

Tuesday 29 April 2014

Tesco sold 500,000 Hudl tablets in the UK in 7 months

"Retail giant Tesco has sold 500,000 of its own-brand Android tablet since its launch in September last year, and announced this week it plans to unveil a successor to the device later this year."
Source:  ZDNet, 17th April 2014

Average daily frequency of app usage March 2013 & March 2014



Source:  Data from Flurry, reported in their blog, 22nd April 2014
Based on analysis of 500,000 apps across 1.3bn devices
What it means is that the bulk of devices (56%) open apps fewer than 16 times per day, but there is a rising number (31%) of super users who open apps 16-60 times, and some (13%) who open more than 60 times.
I'd be an addict on my phone and a regular user on my tablet

Friday 25 April 2014

Apple has nearly 800m iTunes accounts

"In the latest earnings call, CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple has nearly 800 million iTunes accounts.  In June of 2013, iTunes had about 575 million accounts.  That’s a growth rate of roughly 40 percent in one year on a very mature product. However, iTunes doesn’t let users merge old accounts with current ones. Cook didn’t say how many of these accounts are actually active.
Tim Cook did point out that most of these 800 million accounts have credit card information attached, which is both impressive and frightening."
Source:  Digital Music News, 24th April 2014
Earlier - Just 225m in June 2011 (assuming I'm comparing like with like)

The Age of Living Mobile


Thursday 24 April 2014

Facebook has 1,008 million monthly active users on mobile


Source:  Facebook Q1 2014 results, reported by Business Insider, 23rd April 2014
Total MAUs - 1,276m, total on mobile only - 341m

Ten times more marketers are using Facebook Custom Audiences than a year ago

"Facebook said it had seen strong advertising revenue growth in the mobile gaming, e-commerce and consumer-packaged goods sectors, as well as from small and medium businesses, and in direct response advertising.
The site plans to invest in its ad products as a "high priority" and developing its targeting tools is one of three key areas.
Facebook claims that ten times more marketers are now using its ‘Custom Audiences’ targeting feature compared to the same period last year. It gives Ben & Jerry’s as an example, after the ice cream brand targeted premium buyers with Facebook tools and attributed an 8.1 per cent sales uplift to the campaign."

Writer Peter Jukes raised over £20,000 on Indiegogo to fund his Tweeting of the phone hacking trial

"After publishing my book I started to work as a freelance writer. I was covering the phone hacking pre-trials and hoping to do the same for the trial itself. But I quickly realized freelance work wasn’t going to cover my costs.
In the three days of the opening I tweeted as much as I could. I had planned to write articles too, but I realised I could provide more comprehensive coverage if I focused on live tweeting. I started to build a big following very quickly.
But, after three days I had to tell my Twitter followers that I couldn’t afford to keep reporting. It was then someone on Twitter suggested crowdfunding.
Initially I wasn’t keen on the idea, it felt a little like begging. But my Twitter followers encouraged me and I set up an indigogo page with a target of £4,000. I was astounded when people helped me to raise £6,362. I’ve since raised another £14,500 to help me keep tweeting until the end of the trial."
Source:  Twitter blog, 21st April 2014
See his Indiegogo page here

Apple sold 43.7m iPhones and 16.3m iPads in Q2 2014

"Today's earning report out of Cupertino suggests that the iPhone is still increasingly popular among consumers and that declining iPad sales make room for the next big thing from Apple.
Apple managed to sell 43.7 million iPhones and 16.3 million iPads in the second fiscal quarter, beating Wall Street estimates for iPhone sales of 37.7 million.
The iPhone 5S certainly helped prop up its year-over-year revenue boost. Apple CEO Tim Cook said during an earnings call that each of its three iPhones were better than their predecessors."

Mobile accounts for 59% of Facebook's advertising revenue

"Social networking giant Facebook has reported profits of $642m (£383m) during the first quarter of 2014, beating analyst expectations.
The firm said that a surge in mobile advertising helped push revenues 72% higher, to $2.5bn in the January-to-March period.
Mobile now makes up 59% of advertising revenue, from 30% a year ago.
[...]
"Facebook's business is strong and growing, and this quarter was a great start to 2014," said founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a statement.
"We've made some long term bets on the future while staying focused on executing and improving our core products and business. We're in great position to continue making progress towards our mission."
Shares of Facebook rose as much as 4.3% in after-hours trading.
The firm said it reached 1.28 billion users during the period, with more than a billion of those accessing the site through a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet.
The company has taken steps to further grow its mobile business - which barely used to generate any advertising revenue a few years ago - by expanding its product offerings.
This includes launching the Facebook Messenger service and news application Paper."
Source:  BBC News, 23rd April 2014

Amazon Prime members spend an average of $1,224 a year

"Prime members are great customers for Amazon. In 2012, they were about 4 percent of Amazon's 182 million active customer base. But they accounted for nearly 10 percent of purchases, because they spend more than twice as much as non-prime customers—$1,224 a year versus $505."
Source:  Business Insider, 11th March 2013

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Xiaomi spent $577,000 for the mi.com domain name

"Popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has ambitious plans to expand beyond Asia, and as part of its efforts to do so, it has simplified its website domain to Mi.com.
“The new domain is simpler and more accessible to an international audience,” the company said. It added that the newly launched domain also gives a more succinct meaning to the “Mi” brand, which stands for Mobile Internet.
Li Wanqiang, co-founder and VP of Xiaomi, revealed on Weibo that Xiaomi spent CNY3.6 million ($577,000) to purchase the Web domain."

Uber is now in more than 100 cities around the world

"Moving people in more than 100 cities around the world."
Source:  Uber, retrieved 23rd April 2014

10 million torrents have been uploaded to The Pirate Bay

"Last summer The Pirate Bay celebrated its tenth anniversary, and today the site reached another noteworthy milestone.
Just a few hours ago the 10 millionth torrent was uploaded to the notorious torrent site. Considering all the legal trouble and outside pressure the site has been subjected to, this is quite an achievement.
The torrent in question is a pirated copy of a video from the “IntimateLesbians” series, and was uploaded to the site by VIP uploader “Drarbg.” "

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Taobao has about 800 million product listings

"Taobao, a website dreamed up in Mr. Ma's apartment a decade ago, has about 800 million product listings from seven million sellers who pay Alibaba for advertising and other services. In 2013, the combined transaction volume of Taobao and another Alibaba-run shopping site called Tmall reached $240 billion, says a person with knowledge of the figure.
The total is more than double the size of Amazon.com Inc., triple the size of eBay Inc. and one-third larger than the value of all the transactions last year at the two U.S.-based e-commerce giants combined."

Netflix has 48 million subscribers

"Another quarter, more stellar results for Netflix, which ended the first quarter (ended March 31) adding 2.25 million domestic subscribers to a global base of more than 48 million subs (35.7 million in the United States).
Netflix added 1.75 million subs internationally to a base of 11.76 paid members. In a letter to investors, CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said Netflix's current global operations (Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia) would become profitable in fiscal 2014."

Airbnb has 23,000 residences listed in Britain

"Britain’s bed and breakfast and hotel operators are calling for the authorities to create a level playing field on safety regulations and inspections amid intense competition from people renting spare rooms on the cheap via the website Airbnb.
The site founded in 2008 has 23,000 residences listed in Britain, offering spare rooms or whole flats to tourists looking for alternatives to hotels. The American website’s parent company was valued at an estimated $10 billion by a recent fundraising, which makes it more valuable than Intercontinental Group, the world's biggest operator by number of rooms."
Source:  The Times, 19th April 2014
Note - It also said that the average UK host makes £3,000 in revenue from Airbnb, but I couldn't c&p that bit because it's behind the paywall

Thursday 17 April 2014

More than 10 billion messages a day pass through Facebook's messaging products

"Q - On the other hand, WhatsApp is huge — huger than Facebook’s Messenger. And you bought that because you think it will move the needle someday. So, tell me about that acquisition, but also tell me: Why couldn’t Facebook invent that? Do you worry that Facebook didn’t invent that?
A - Well, so there are a bunch of things here. One thing is that Facebook Messenger is actually a really successful thing. More than 10 billion messages a day that flow through Facebook’s messaging products. But I think we basically saw that the messaging space is bigger than we’d initially realized, and that the use cases that WhatsApp and Messenger have are more different than we had thought originally. Messenger is more about chatting with friends and WhatsApp is like an SMS replacement. Those things sound similar, but when you go into the nuances of how people use it, they are both very big in different markets."
Source:  Interview with Mark Zuckerberg in the New York Times, 16th April 2014
Update - 200m active monthly users on Facebook Messenger

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Paul McCartney has 10 million followers on Line

"One Direction aren't the only heartthrobs making use of these apps. Sir Paul McCartney has released eight schmaltzy stickers on Line, where he has some 10 million followers. Sharing and sticking the former Beatle's likeness comes at $1.99 a pop. Line, which is dominant in Japan, has over 500 such sticker characters, whose sale -- together with in-game purchases -- raked in $338 million in revenue for Line's parent company in 2013. This month Line will open up a market for anyone to sell stickers. Over the weekend, the company trumpeted ambitious plans to hit one billion users by 2015."
Source:  AdAge, 15th April 2014

Tuesday 15 April 2014

200 million people used Tencent's QQ messenger and network simultaneously

"Last Friday, Tencent’s 15-year-old QQ messenger and social network might have hit it’s final major milestone – 200 million people used the service simultaneously. That’s more than the entire population of Brazil all concurrently using a single application. While Tencent’s mobile messaging app WeChat is renowned for having 355 million monthly active users, that number is still dwarfed by its desktop-first predecessor. In it’s latest quarterly report, Tencent reported 808 million monthly active users on QQ and a peak of 180 million simultaneous users. But those growth figures have started to slow as QQ reaches saturation in its home market and the country shifts to mobile. QQ active users decreased by one percent in Q4 2013. While the number of PC users fell, QQ usage on mobile devices grew 74 percent in the past year. QQ now stands at 426 million active mobile accounts."

Adoption of the M-Pesa mobile payment technology has improved the lives of women in Kenya

"For White, the adoption of M-Pesa has brought significant positive changes for the women in these communities.
Firstly, many women now have the ability to save their money in a safe place and build up resources for costly activities and purchases such as helping their families and, most importantly, sending their children to school. Women stated that they were much less likely to spend their money when they saved it in M-Pesa rather than in their homes. Also, in the past, men often used their wives’ money to buy alcohol or other personal items, leaving the women with insufficient funds to process fish. With the women’s money saved in M-Pesa, their husbands no longer have easy access to it.
The women’s transportation expenses have drastically gone down too. This includes the direct costs of transport and the money the women save since they would otherwise have to stop working for a period of time to physically transport their money themselves. Women use their extra money and time to expand their businesses and profits, most often by processing more fish to sell or, for the most audacious, constructing their own fishing boats.
White emphasises the case of a college-educated women, very involved in her community. Using M-Pesa allowed this woman to have more free time to attend different meetings and trainings, from which she gained knowledge on issues like maternal health and business strategies to share with her community. 81% of White’s interviewees said that the use of M-Pesa makes women more independent; they no longer have to rely on others for money."

Sales of George Orwell's 1984 rose 6,000% following the Edward Snowden revelations

"Sales of George Orwell's 1984 have shot up following revelations that the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) is accessing data on people around the world.
Sales of Orwell's novel have risen by 6,000% since the Guardian revealed the allegations of former NSA sub-contractor Edward Snowden.
In the dystopian novel, all citizens are constantly spied on by an inner elite party in the government.
Banners reading "Big Brother Is Watching You" cover the city and citizens are monitored by the Thought Police, who punish people for independent thinking.
After Snowden leaked the top secret files relating to the Washington's highly confidential Prism programme, questions have been raised about the ethical implications of the surveillance."
Note - Clearly if we don't know what they rose from and to, and over what time period, (how many copies would it sell normally), which countries this covers, and what other activity was happening (new editions, promotions) it's a bit of a suspect stat.  #CaveatEmptor

Monday 14 April 2014

The number of scripted shows on American cable TV has more than doubled in 5 years

"Basic-cable networks now offer some 125 scripted series — that’s nearly double what was offered just five years ago. And networks that weren’t typically purveyors of original scripted fare, such as History, VH1, BET, Starz, Hallmark Channel, OWN and Sundance Channel have jumped into the space, joining the likes of USA Network, TNT, ABC Family, AMC, FX, HBO and Showtime. And viewers are watching: 59 scripted cable shows garnered 2 million or more viewers on a live-plus-seven-day basis in 2012, compared to only 16 shows in 2007, according to Nielsen. Despite this, television viewing hasn’t increased precipitously over the same period. Viewers watched an average of four hours and 53 minutes of television per day in 2012, compared to four hours and 38 minutes in 2007, according to Nielsen."
Source:  Multi Channel News, 10th June 2013

Facebook stores 600 terra-bytes of data a day

"At Facebook, we have unique storage scalability challenges when it comes to our data warehouse. Our warehouse stores upwards of 300 PB of Hive data, with an incoming daily rate of about 600 TB. In the last year, the warehouse has seen a 3x growth in the amount of data stored. Given this growth trajectory, storage efficiency is and will continue to be a focus for our warehouse infrastructure."
Source:  Facebook Code blog, 10th April 2014

Britons spent £4.9 billion online using mobiles & tablets in 2013

"In 2013 alone, eager British spenders also accounted for a £4.9 billion spend online using mobile devices – over ten per cent of Europe’s total splurge online of £38.8 billion that year.
However, Britain was topped globally by the US, who had the most people purchasing items using mobile devices. Shoppers in France and Italy, in contrast, are the least likely to visit retail stores on their mobile devices.
Computers still currently remain the most popular choice for browsing online, accounting for 85 per cent of last year’s web activity in the UK and seven other EU countries analysed during the research.
Still, mobile shopping in Europe is forecasted to increase by 85 per cent over the next year – demonstrating that people may soon start using computers to browse the web less and less.
Giulio Montemango, Senior VP of International at RetailMeNot Inc, who commissioned the study, said: “As smart phones and tablets have become increasingly sophisticated, more consumers are using mobile devices to shop.”
“The study shows that mobile is now the key driver behind the growth of e-commerce. To take advantage of this shift, retailers must adapt by optimising their websites to mobile devices and ensuring payments are secure.”"
Note - Not too sure RetailMeNot is the most authoritative source...  #CaveatEmptor

Only 11% of Twitter accounts created in 2012 are still tweeting


Click to enlarge

44% of Twitter accounts have never Tweeted

"Twitter is having no trouble signing up users. But some new research provides an update on the size of an ongoing problem: getting people to tweet.
A report from Twopcharts, a website that monitors Twitter account activity, states that about 44% of the 974 million existing Twitter accounts have never sent a tweet.
Twopcharts, which provided some data about tweeting activity last month, is unable to track when someone has logged into their account. It can only tell when the account retweets or tweets its own message.
Twitter said it has 241 million monthly active users the last three months of 2013. Twitter defines a monthly active user as an account that logs in at least once a month. By Twitter’s standards, a person does not have to tweet to be considered a monthly active user.
To be sure, people don’t have to actively tweet to find the service useful. There’s more than enough stuff to read on almost any topic in the world on Twitter to keep users occupied."

The ideal length of a Tweet


Click to enlarge

Source:  The Buffer App blog, 31st March 2014
Note - Also includes length of a Facebook status update, and lots more.
(Although it claims the ideal length of a blog post is 1,600 words - huh?)

Friday 11 April 2014

Mobile ad spend rose to $7.1 billion in the US in 2013

"U.S. interactive advertising revenues for 2013 hit an all-time high of $42.8 billion, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year, exceeding broadcast television advertising* revenues ($40.1 billion), for the first time ever. This momentous figure marks an increase of 17 percent from 2012’s landmark revenues of $36.6 billion. The report, unveiled today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and prepared by PwC U.S., also reveals that fourth quarter revenues for 2013 came in at $12.1 billion, an increase of 17 percent from the $10.3 billion brought in during the same quarter in 2012. In addition, this total represents an uptick of 14 percent from 2013’s third quarter revenues at $10.6 billion.
Other highlights include:
For the third year in a row, mobile achieved triple-digit growth year-over-year, rising to $7.1 billion during full year 2013, a 110 percent boost from the prior year total of $3.4 billion. Mobile accounted for 17 percent of 2013 revenues, whereas it was 9 percent of revenues in 2012.
Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, brought in $2.8 billion in full year 2013, up 19 percent over revenues of $2.3 billion in 2012. As a result, it also increased its share to become the fourth largest format, directly behind mobile.
Search revenues totaled $18.4 billion in 2013, up 9 percent from 2012, when search totaled $16.9 billion.
Display-related advertising revenues in 2013 totaled $12.8 billion or 30 percent of the year’s revenues, a rise of 7 percent over $12 billion in 2012.
Retail advertisers continue to represent the largest category of internet ad spending, responsible for 21 percent in 2013, followed by financial services and closely trailed by automotive which account for 13 and 12 percent of the year’s revenues respectively."

Wednesday 9 April 2014

'The less Americans know about Ukraine’s location, the more they want U.S. to intervene'

"On March 28-31, 2014, we asked a national sample of 2,066 Americans (fielded via Survey Sampling International Inc. (SSI), what action they wanted the U.S. to take in Ukraine, but with a twist: In addition to measuring standard demographic characteristics and general foreign policy attitudes, we also asked our survey respondents to locate Ukraine on a map as part of a larger, ongoing project to study foreign policy knowledge. We wanted to see where Americans think Ukraine is and to learn if this knowledge (or lack thereof) is related to their foreign policy views. We found that only one out of six Americans can find Ukraine on a map, and that this lack of knowledge is related to preferences: The farther their guesses were from Ukraine’s actual location, the more they wanted the U.S.  to intervene with military force."
Source:  Washington Post, 7th April 2014

Mobile ad spend exceeded £1 billion in the UK in 2013

"Over one in four British consumers now owns a tablet, as advertisers spent a record £6.3 billion in 2013 to reach people surfing the internet across an increasing array of devices, according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) Digital Adspend report, conducted by PwC.
Over one third (36%) of people accessing the internet are now doing so via tablets, according to UKOM/comScore, as tablet ownership grew 63% year-on-year from 11.0 million to 17.9 million Britons in February 2014. Due to the proliferation of new devices, two-thirds of people online now access the internet using a PC/laptop and one other device – such as a smartphone or tablet¹.
Almost six in 10 (57%) tablet owners online say it’s their “go-to” device to surf the internet at home³. Two-thirds of owners (66%) say it’s easier to go online using a tablet. Almost two-thirds (65%) like to use them while watching TV.
Banking/finance is the area of people’s lives that would be most affected without the internet or mobile phone – cited by almost half (48%) of Britons online – followed by keeping up with current affairs (37%) and relationships with friends and family (35%).
IAB/PwC data shows that advertising on the internet and mobile phones overall increased, like-for-like*, by 15.2% or £853 million to £6.30 billion in 2013 – up from £5.45 billion in 2012.
Among media owners who submitted revenue figures to the IAB/PwC, tablet-dedicated advertising has grown over 400% to reach at least £34.4 million in 2013; up from £6.8 million in 2012.
Mobile ad spend nearly doubles and crosses the £1bn barrier
With smartphones now accounting for over three quarters (76%)² of handsets, advertisers are continuing to invest more in mobile advertising. It grew, like-for-like, by 93% to £1.03 billion in 2013 from £529 million in 2012. Mobile now accounts for 16% of all digital advertising spend – £1 in every £6 – compared to 10% in 2012.
Social media advertising spend on mobile increased to £221.8 million in 2013. Across digital overall, social media advertising grew 71% to £588.4 million. Consequently, mobile now accounts for over one third (35%) of total digital social media advertising.
“Digital advertising continues to grow at impressive rates simply because marketers are becoming more responsive and savvy to the increasing ways people consume content across different devices,” says Tim Elkington, Director of Research & Strategy at the UK’s Internet Advertising Bureau.
“However, there’s still a lot of work for the industry to do when it comes to tablet advertising. Spend on ads designed specifically for tablets is growing fast but it’s still a very small part of the pie – despite the increase in tablet ownership, and the crucial role they play in people’s internet use at home. The tablet has moved from the offices of early adopters to the nation’s living rooms and advertisers should be following suit.”
Video becoming a bigger star
Video advertising grew by 62% year-on-year to £324.9 million. Video now accounts for 18% of all online and mobile display advertising.
Consumer goods increases dominance of display advertising
Driven by mobile display and video, the consumer goods sector continued its dominance as the biggest spender on digital display advertising, overall – accounting for 18% in 2013 compared to 16% in 2012.
Digital advertising formats
Boosted by video and social media, display advertising across the internet and mobile grew above the overall (15%) digital rate at 22% on a like-for-like basis to £1.86 billion.
With mobile display growing by 180% on a like-for-like basis to £432.4 million in 2013, mobile now accounts for 23% of total digital display advertising.
Paid-for search marketing increased 14% on a like-for-like basis to £3.49 billion.
Classifieds including recruitment, property and automotive listings, grew 9% like-for-like to £886.5 million – accounting for 14% of digital ad spend.
“Mobile’s huge rise is down to advertisers taking advantage of key developments in the way people use their mobile devices - particularly social media platforms,” says Dan Bunyan, Manager at PwC.
“Mobile is now more of a story-telling tool for advertisers rather than just an information device. Almost half of mobile ad spend is accounted for by TVs biggest advertiser categories – consumer goods and entertainment brands – which is testament to how important mobile has become for brands.”"

The top 5 countries for Facebook users


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Source:  Economic Times, 8th April 2014

Facebook has more than 100 million active users in India

"Facebook, the world's largest social media company, has crossed 100 million active users in India -- the second country, after the United States, in which it has done so. "We crossed the landmark on March 31," Javier Olivan, vice-president, growth & analytics, Facebook, told ET on a video call from its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on April 7.
The ascent of Facebook in India has been speedy and has been powered by the mobile phone. When the American company set up its first India office in 2010, in Hyderabad, it had 8 million users in the country. Further, according to Facebook, 84 million of its 100 million users in India access the social networking site from their mobile devices.
Facebook, which was set up in 2004, had 1.23 billion users across the world, as of December 31, 2013. "If Facebook continues its current growth trajectory, we can see it as a core communications tool for the world," says Neha Dharia, analyst with UK-based research firm Ovum. "This besides being a media platform where users can share and engage in a range of media such as videos, pictures and games. We expect to see a stronger move around storage (cloud-based) and utility services from Facebook.""
Source:  Economic Times, 8th April 2014

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Android browsing exceeds iOS browsing in 2/3 of countries

"In the 101 territories for which we have data, Android browsing surpasses iOS in 67 of them. We in dotMobi can't speak to the revenues earned for each platform but there can be no doubt at this point that Android devices are generating real user activity. That said, the countries in which Android dominates exclude lucrative territories such as the USA, Canada and much of Western Europe.
Source:  Data from DotMobi. posted on MobiForge, 27th March 2014
Note - Full breakdown and chart on the site

European online retail spend by market in 2013


Click to enarge

Source:  RetailResearch.org, (Centre for Retail Research) retrieved 8th April 2014

European online retail as a percent of total retail by market


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Source:  RetailResearch.org, (Centre for Retail Research) retrieved 8th April 2014

Imgur has 13 employees and 130m monthly visitors

"Now Imgur has 13 employees, 130 million monthly unique visitors and 4.5 billion monthly pageviews. Reddit, where the photo utility was first introduced and quickly adopted by users, is still Imgur's largest traffic driver. Facebook is Imgur's second-leading referrer."
Source:  Business Insider, 3rd April 2014

WhatsApp handled 64 billion messages in 24 hours

Office apps for the iPad were downloaded more than 12m times in the first week

Online & mobile banking in the UK

"The way people manage their money is undergoing a major revolution, with the number of payments made through banking applications on mobile phones doubling in a year, according to research published on Monday.
Around 1,800 transactions are now conducted each minute on Apple iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and other smartphones.
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA), whose research is the most comprehensive study of customer habits undertaken to date, said daily usage had doubled in 12 months.
In total, 12.4m people have downloaded banking apps, which allow customers to check their balance and make payments at the touch of a button. They used their devices to conduct 18.6m transactions a week last year, up from 9.1m in 2012.
[...]
Nearly 40m mobile and internet transactions were made each week in 2013, according to the BBA. Its research found the average Barclays customer now uses mobile banking 24 times a month, while downloads of the RBS/NatWest app are on course to hit a million this year, increasing its total by a third in just 12 months.
Mr Browne said technological developments, “largely explain” the “seismic decline” in visits to high street branches. Footfall at RBS/NatWest, for example, has fallen 30pc in four years."
Source:  Daily Telegraph, 31st March 2014