Social Media Report: Spending Time, Money and Going Mobile

Social media not only connects consumers with each other, but also with just about every place they go and everything they watch and buy. Nielsen’s new Social Media Report looks at trends and consumption patterns across social media platforms in the U.S. and other major markets, exploring the rising influence of social media on consumer behavior.

Highlights of Nielsen’s “State of the Media: The Social Media Report”

• Social networks and blogs continue to dominate Americans’ time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the Internet
• At over 53 billion total minutes during May 2011, Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other website
• Tumblr is an emerging player in social media, nearly tripling its audience from a year ago
• Nearly 40 percent of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone
• Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the Mobile Internet
• 70 percent of active online adult social networkers shop online, 12 percent more likely than the average adult Internet user
• Across a sample of 10 global markets, social networks and blogs are the top online destination in each country, accounting for the majority of time spent online and reaching at least 60 percent of active Internet users

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Angry Birds is the fastest-growing brand

“Angry Birds” is the fastest-growing brand in the world in its first two years, according to its makers, with growth expected to jump when the title finally comes to Facebook.
The Angry Birds fad began with the highly addictive video game and expanded to stuffed plush toys, books, clothes and even plans for a movie. These developments lead to its rapid growth, said Wibe Wagemans, senior vice president of brand advertising and analytics for Rovio, the Finnish studio that produces the title.
The game is downloadable for free on several platforms, including mobile devices and the Chrome app store. When Google+ added Angry Birds to its social games site, the game flew to the top of the rankings, beating out other games from Zynga, Electronic Arts and others.
Wagemans said the company’s growth led to 120 million active users playing Rovio’s Angry Birds games, drawing more users than other fast-growing global companies and doing it within 20 months of launch.
And Wagemans expects the growth to continue. Rovio’s main competitor, Zynga, has more than 273 million monthly active users on Facebook alone, and Wegman predicts Angry Birds will snag similar numbers when it launches on Facebook, too.
Rovio enjoys rapid growth, but Zynga might end up being the top gaming company after all, even with Angry Bird toys highly popular among the elementary school set.
In August, reports indicated Zynga, best known for its FarmVille game on Facebook, was in talks with Rovio. Zynga is in the market to add another gaming acquisition, after losing a bidding war for PopCap games, which went to Electronic Arts last month.
Both gaming giants may benefit if they form a partnership. Zynga’s games attract about 148 million users on Facebook every day, but people mostly play the games online instead of downloading them. Zynga makes millions selling game credits so players can build on their game levels.
Rovio earned millions through Angry Birds, which has been downloaded more than 250 million times. Although Rovio has surging profits and revenue, it doesn’t have an online presence or the wider audience Zynga enjoys through Facebook.
Neither party is admitting to a merger, but a Zynga-Rovio partnership may combine users in a gaming experience that surpasses more traditional gaming platforms, such as Nintendo and PlayStation, which are already declining because of the growth of mobile gaming.
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Android is The First Choice for New Smartphone Buyers

According to an August survey, 43 percent of all smartphone owners have an Android device. But if you ask only those who got a new smartphone in the past three months what kind of phone they chose, more than half (56%) will tell you they picked an Android device. The preferences of these so-called “recent acquirers” are important as they are often a leading indicator of where the market is going.
Apple iOS remains popular in second place with 28 percent of all smartphone users, and the same percentage among those who recently got a new device. But those figures could change quickly in the months to come. Every time Apple launches a new iPhone or makes it available on a new wireless carrier, there is an increase in their sales.
Changes in share aside, the smartphone pie is getting bigger. While 43 percent of all mobile subscribers in the US had a smartphone as of August, 56 percent of those who got a new device in the last 3 months chose a smartphone over a feature phone. The holiday season and the launch of new devices like the next iPhone could further accelerate smartphone adoption, though this is always tempered by the fact that many consumers are unwilling or unable to break their service contracts before they expire. In any event, the growing popularity of app-and-media friendly smartphones spells tremendous opportunity for those advertisers, publishers and developers eager to leverage mobile media.


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Mobile Internet users VS PC Internet users in 2015

The number of people accessing the Internet from smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices will surpass the number of users connecting from a home or office computer by 2015, according to a new study by market analyst firm IDC.
According to their predictions, smartphones will begin to replace standard-feature phones at an increasingly rapid rate in the coming years, and the tablet sales are expected to “explode,” the company says. “[T]he impact of smartphone and, especially, media tablet adoption will be so great that the number of users accessing the Internet through PCs will first stagnate and then slowly decline.”
IDC estimates that the upward swing in mobile Internet usage will start in the US, and that Western Europe and Japan will quickly follow suit.
The study also predicts that total Internet usage will jump from 2 billion users in 2010 to 2.7 billion in 2015. E-commerce spending will grow from $708 billion per year to $1.285 trillion during the same time period. Advertising spending will also increase, nearly doubling, from a current total of around $70 billion spent on online ads per year, to $138 billion over the next three to four years.
At that point, roughly 40 percent of the world’s population will have access to the Internet.
“Forget what we have taken for granted on how consumers use the Internet,” said Karsten Weide, IDC research president, in a statement. “Soon, more users will access the Web using mobile devices than using PCs, and it’s going to make the Internet a very different place.”
Of course, the evolution from an Internet that’s primarily made up of the World Wide Web to an Internet consisting primarily of dedicated apps has already begun. And if IDC’s numbers are correct, the changes are about to happen at an increasingly quick pace.

66% of Facebook users like the changes

It’s not a scientific survey of any sort… just a Zoomerang online survey of readers and followers of the Marketing Technology Blog. However, judging by the response, you folks like the changes that Facebook has implemented.

There’s still a third of folks out there that were ticked off by such a drastic change. In my opinion, I think two things are happening that’s encouraging for Facebook to continue changing like this:

1.   I believe the high percentage of non-technical users pushes them to voice their frustration when changes like this occur. They get used to something and don’t want it to change. I’m not sure that will ever be likely. As the old saying goes, Change or Die… a lesson that MySpace learned.

2.   Since Facebook has been regularly changing the way people are interacting with the platform, I think they’re slowly lulling their audience into complacency when it comes to the updates. I’m a great example… I used to get a bit frustrated, but now I don’t care. I just spend an extra 10 minutes looking for the option since they changed its location.

Source Douglas Karr

3 Internet Marketing Trends You Don’t Want to Miss

The web is flush with change and innovation. Gone are the days of linear information flow and incremental growth. Content flows in every direction through a variety of platforms, formats and devices.  The mass adoption of the social and mobile web have facilitated a revolution of information access, sharing and publishing at a scale never before experienced.

Access to information for discovery has traditionally been most associated with search. According to comScore, Google handles over 11 billion queries a month. But did you know, Twitter delivers over 350 billion tweets each day? Facebook is now over 800 million users and Google Plus has had a flood of new users as well, with estimates now approaching over 50 million. Social media is ripe for discovery as well as engagement.

Apple to sell 149 million iPads in 2015

According to Gartner, about 63.6 million
tablets overall will be sold worldwide this year, representing an increase of 261.4 percent over the 17.6 million that consumers bought in 2010. Gartner expects Apple to own 73.4 percent of the market this year, selling 46.7 million iPads.
Android-based tablets will trail far behind with 11 million unit sales this year, the research firm predicts.
However, it’s Gartner’s estimates on iPad sales in 2015 that might prove most impressive. The research firm said it expects Apple to sell a whopping 148.7 million iPads in 2015. Android-based tablet sales, in comparison, will hit 116.4 million, Gartner says. All told, 326 million tablets are expected to be sold in 2015.
“Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal,” Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, said today in a statement. “Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen. This allowed Apple to bring the iPad out at a very competitive price and no compromise in experience among the different models that offer storage and connectivity options.”
Gartner is especially bullish on the future of tablets. Last month, another research firm, In-Stat, reported that it believes tablet shipments won’t even hit 250 million units until 2017. If that company’s estimates prove true, the research firm says Apple’s iPad and Android-based devices will own about 90 percent of the tablet market.
Aside from those platforms, Gartner believes that others will also see some success in the coming years. The research firm says Microsoft will sell about 4.3 million tablets next year and see that figure grow to 34.4 million in 2015.
Over the last couple years, Microsoft has been nonexistent in the tablet arena as vendors opt for other platforms to install on their devices. But with Windows 8, Microsoft is hoping to change its luck. That operating system, which Microsoft detailed last week at its Build conference in California, is designed with tablets in mind and will come with a host of tablet-friendly features, including multitouch support.
As Microsoft looks toward tablets to help its software business grow in the coming years, the PC market, which the company has relied upon over the years, will see its growth slow this year. Gartner reported earlier this month that it anticipates PC shipment growth to hit just 3.8 percent this year and 10.9 percent next year. The firm said that it expects 352 million PCs to ship this year and 404 million to hit store shelves worldwide next year.

Source cybershaq