The importance of content for the reinforcement of
brand equity, developments & partnerships
22 SEPTEMBER 2015
Summary in 20 quotes by MediaSpecs
Full Article in MediaSpecs Insights: http://insights.mediaspecs.be/dossier/grp-media-vision-day-2015-20-powerful-quotes-day-after
The iPhone Strikes Back! Android’s Share Of New Smartphone Purchases Has Collapsed.
The iPhone 4S has demolished the gap between Android and the iPhone in the U.S. amongst new smartphone buyers according to the latest data from Nielsen.
Nielsen has released its data for the last three months of 2011 and as you can see, Android has collapsed.
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Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nielsen-android-iphone-2012-1#ixzz1kVUmyQPb
Timeline: How Social Media Changed In 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC] – AllTwitter.
From Twitter’s launch of its new desktop app for Mac on January 6th to Google+ announcing admin and insights for brand pages on December 22nd, 2011 was quite the year for social networks. Here’s a full timeline of the notable moments in social networks in 2011.
Most of Twitter’s major changes in 2011 were customer-oriented. They updated their Twitter for Mac app in January, launched new search and discovery tools in April, unveiled its automatic link shortener in June, and completely redesigned their interface in December.
But not all of the changes at Twitter this past year were for its users. The company created new website buttons to enable visitors to more easily follow authors and content creators in May, and in July they made Promoted Tweets more visible for businesses to reach users with their brand message.
Twitter wasn’t the only network that had some pretty major milestones in 2011. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+ all had some pretty major redesigns, analytics tools, and new features throughout the year.
Here’s the full timeline itself, courtesy of Bluepost Digital (click to enlarge):
(Top image: silavsale via Shutterstock)
[Retour sur 2011] L’évolution de la “gamification” en 2011 – Summify.
25,4 millions de français jouent aux jeux vidéo, que cela soit sur consoles, sur internet ou bien sur leurs téléphones mobiles. Au total, Angry Birds a été téléchargé plus de 350 millions de fois et CityVille a compté plus de 100 millions de joueurs. C’était une des grandes tendances annoncées au début de l’année 2011, tendance nommée « Gamification ».
Ce terme est néanmoins apparu dès 2007 et désigne « le transfert des mécanismes du jeu dans d’autres domaines, en particulier des sites web, des situations d’apprentissage, des situations de travail ou des réseaux sociaux. Son objet est d’augmenter l’acceptabilité et l’usage de ces applications en s’appuyant sur la prédisposition humaine au jeu » (Wikipédia).
2011 aura définitivement été l’année de l’amplification de ce phénomène. A l’heure où 83% des français déclarent que la publicité est une entrave à leur navigation, l’approche par le jeu et l’interactivité est une piste empruntée par de plus en plus de marques… En effet, les marques tirent parti de cette passion pour le jeu et ont mis en œuvre cette année de nouvelles façons de communiquer, intéresser et fidéliser leurs consommateurs grâce aux mécanismes du jeu.
C’est par exemple le cas de Melvita, spécialisée dans les cosmétiques biologiques à base de miel. Elle a lancé « Happy Beez », un jeu social sur Facebook conçu par l’agence Digiworks. Un jeu qui reprend les principes de FarmVille sauf que l’on y gère une ferme apicole. Le joueur y incarne un apiculteur qui produit et vend du miel biologique ayant pour objectif d’obtenir le label de qualité Melvita… et de ce fait, devenir un fournisseur de la marque. Ainsi, on y apprend à gérer la composition de son miel pour remplir les différentes missions proposées comme produire du miel de montagne ou du miel d’oranger. Par la même occasion, il faudra protéger les abeilles contre ses ennemis (parasites, frelons…) et améliorer régulièrement les ruches et la miellerie.
Lancé fin novembre, Melvita a déjà réuni plus de 10 000 joueurs. Happy Beez transmet un message publicitaire et écologique, en lien direct avec le positionnement de la marque étant elle-même très impliquée dans des projets de sauvegarde de l’environnement avec sa fondation.
Fanta a également lancé cette année un jeu social publicitaire sur Facebook appelé « King of the park ». Le principe ? Un parc où chaque attraction correspond à un mini-jeu simple et ludique. Les attractions ne sont pas toutes disponibles dès le début et s’ouvrent au fur et à mesure en fonction de votre niveau de jeu. De plus, chaque joueur possède un certain nombre de parties par jour.
Et ce, sur trois points principaux:
Mais le phénomène de gamification ne s’applique pas uniquement à des opérations de communication. Former, recruter, instruire, sensibiliser ou résoudre des problèmes réels du quotidien… tel est le principe de certains jeux.
De nouvelles méthodes de recrutement ou de détection des « talents » ont fleuri ces dernières années prenant la forme de jeux vidéos ou de tournois de poker… Ces derniers ont des objectifs bien précis : recruter des nouveaux candidats, rendre l’entreprise attractive ou encore se différencier de ses concurrents pour attirer les jeunes talents.
Par exemple, L’Oréal a mis en place un “business game” en ligne : Reveal by L’Oréal. C’est un jeu pédagogique destiné aux étudiants désireux de se renseigner sur des métiers pour les aider à construire leur projet professionnel. Ce site interactif propose une immersion dans l’entreprise avec des mises en situation comme si vous étiez un employé chez L’Oréal. Grâce à ce jeu, l’entreprise a répondu à plusieurs de ces objectifs : se rendre attractive en proposant un moyen innovant de se renseigner et de recruter.
“Il y a eu un gros travail de rencontre avec les joueurs par des entretiens collectifs ou traditionnels, complémentaires de la partie en ligne, assure Aude Desanges, directrice “marque employeur” du groupe. Au final, nous avons embauché 120 participants en stages ou CDI. Ils viennent de 19 pays, notamment des émergents où le prestige de L’Oréal n’est pas aussi important qu’en France.” Ce “business game” lui a donc permis de toucher un nouveau public en dehors des circuits habituels de recrutement (comme les écoles…). La marque s’est également adaptée à une nouvelle génération, la génération Y, qui s’intéresse aux jeux et qui est hyper-connectée, créative, polyvalente… Ce faisant, elle a démontré un intérêt pour ses futurs employés, sa capacité à comprendre le marché de l’emploi, à innover et a su se différencier.
Jane McGonigal est une “game designer”/ développeuse renommée qui présente les jeux comme des éléments pouvant influencer et changer le monde. Dans son livre « Reality is broken », elle affirme que jouer non seulement rend les gens heureux mais qu’ils peuvent aussi inspirer les gens à collaborer pour résoudre les problèmes. Si nous pouvons tirer parti, même une fraction des millions d’heures que les joueurs passent dans des mondes virtuels et les engager dans le monde réel, ils pourront accomplir un « epic win » c’est-à-dire une « réussite critique » d’un événement particulier, leur procurant surprise et satisfaction pour ainsi contribuer à résoudre des problèmes du monde réel. On vous invite à regarder sa présentation résumant ainsi son point de vue.
Dans cette logique, mais avec une implication moindre, LeFigaro.fr a lancé cette année un jeu d’actualité où l’internaute incarne le ministère des Finances et doit allouer son budget 2012 à des postes de dépenses ou de recettes. Plan rigoureux ou très rigoureux, il doit tout faire pour respecter son objectif. Ce jeu permet de prendre connaissance d’une part des différentes sources de dépenses/recettes de l’État mais également des difficultés rencontrées pour répondre aux attentes des français (population, entreprises, syndicats…). Une immersion plutôt bien réalisée à laquelle on prend vite goût !
De nombreux adeptes des jeux ou théoriciens sur le sujet adoptent une attitude critique face à ce phénomène. Certains critiquent le terme en lui-même le trouvant trop généraliste, d’autres se focalisent sur les mécanismes de jeu utilisés par les marques ou internautes et les dérives que cela induit. Par exemple, Raph Koster, auteur du livre « A Theory of Fun », parle de bonne et de mauvaise gamification. Pour lui, le principe de gamification correspond au fait de mettre au centre du système des éléments à explorer, à maîtriser engendrant ainsi une difficulté. Ainsi, acheter un billet d’avion ou envoyer un SMS pour élire la nouvelle star ne sont pas des choses que l’on explore ou maîtrise.
Jane McGonigal met également en garde quant à ces dérives : un jeu se base sur le principe de surmonter des obstacles pour atteindre un objectif, une récompense. Les mécanismes de jeu ne doivent donc pas être simplifiés…
Enfin, un des pontes dans ce domaine, Ian Bogost, a délibérément créé un jeu pour se moquer de ces pratiques. Il a donc créé une application Facebook « Cowclicking ». L’objectif ? Cliquer sur une vache.
Enfin, Margaret Robertson met en avant le fait que gagner des points ce n’est pas forcément un jeu en soi. Par exemple, Foursquare, sur l’aspect relié au gain de points, relève plus de la pointification (expression créée par Margaret) que de la gamification.
D’après une étude de Gartner, 50% des entreprises impliquées dans l’innovation et la recherche utiliseront d’ici à 2015 la gamification. Ces résultats sont très intéressants car ils démontrent les changements importants à venir en terme d’innovations.
Les résultats présentent également quelques exemples où les changements ont déjà commencé, y compris la Banque mondiale Evoque, mais l’exemple le plus intéressant est « Idea Street ». « Idea Street » est un projet interne du Royaume-Uni au sein du département « Works and Pensions » (Emploi), où les employés interagissent et partagent des idées. Le projet comprend une mécanique de jeu de base comme quelques badges et des classements mais le conducteur intrinsèque de partage d’idées et de collaboration sur des projets est la principale motivation derrière le projet. « Idea Street » facilite le processus. Une étude de cas a été réalisée par Gartner et les résultats montrent que dans les 18 premiers mois, 4 000 personnes font partie du projet. Il a généré 1400 idées, dont 63 ont été mises en œuvre au sein du ministère.
Enfin, selon Wanda Meloni (marketing stratégiste et analyste), la gamification va prendre une place de plus en plus importante dans les stratégies marketing des entreprises et des organisations. Elle prévoit ainsi qu’en 2016, 2,5 milliards de dollars seront dépensés dans des actions de « gamification ».
En conclusion, il est fort à parier que la gamification / pointification continuera de se développer en 2012 et prendra de plus en plus d’ampleur au sein des entreprises. Néanmoins les enjeux de fond et les problèmes du monde (santé, faim dans le monde, guerre, politique…) ont eux aussi vocation à se “gamifier” dans le but d’y apporter des réponses. Il semblerait que c’est principalement cette vision de la gamification qui tendra à se développer dans les années à venir.
Sources : Bigdoor, Gartner, E-marketing, Jeux vidéo Yahoo
Un goût prononcé pour les technologies, une bonn…
Typical Android User is Anything But Typical [INFOGRAPHIC].
What are Android users like? Are those who use Google‘s smartphone operating system and its associated gadgetry male or female? What sort of clothes do they wear? Are they married? Do they wear watches?
Get your answers to those questions and lots more in this infographic from the people at Bluestacks, makers of an app player that lets users run Android apps on Windows PCs.
To find this typical Android user, they put together a seamless and whimsical illustration, encompassing data gathered from their 145,000 Facebook fans, as well as information from Nielsen, all collected between 12/12/11 and 12/19/11.
If the graphic below isn’t large enough, click it for a full-sized version.
Infographic courtesy Bluestacks, used with permission
2011: A Huge Year for Social Media
30TH DECEMBER 2011 by PAUL SAWERS
Is it really 2012 already? No, not quite, but we’re almost there. And with only two more sleeps to go ’til the new year, we thought we’d take a retrospective look at social media this past year. After all, rather a lot happened.
We actually kicked off 2011 with an apt piece on 8 actionable items for social media this year, including things like Twitter monetizing and the need for Google to wake up to the social revolution. TNW contributor, Niall Harbison said at the time:
“Google needs to wake up and see that the whole social world is engulfing them from every angle and that their core product of search is under some serious threat from the likes of Facebook. We know that Google is working on its new social product (Google me, Google +1 or whatever they are going to call it) and that it will launch in spring but that is seriously delayed and their previous attempts with Buzz and Wave have been so poor that one wonders if they really understand social at all.”
Of course, as we all now know, 2011 was indeed the year that Google came out all-guns-blazing, launching its +1 social feature, and Google+. Early signs indicate that Google+ could cause more than a little disruption in the social sphere, and the uptake of the social network so far has been pretty good, though Facebook’s traction is probably too advanced to fall under any serious threat from it. However, there is room for more than one social network, and if any company is equipped to make a long-term success of it, it’s Google.
2011 saw some big developments across the social space, and here’s some of the key highlights.
As 2010 morphed into 2011, a new Twitter record was set. Japan sent a staggering 6,939 tweets-per-second as midnight chimed at the start of the new year, which was nearly double the previous record of 3,283 tweets-per-second set during Japan’s victory against Denmark at the 2010 soccer World Cup. This actually led us to question exactly why Twitter is outgunning Facebook in Japan.
The record didn’t stand for too long though, as it was broken again during the women’s soccer World Cup final. How many? 7,196 per second. And the UK set aTwitter traffic record of its very own in May, with 1 in every 200 website visits landing on Twitter.com.
The Super Bowl generated an astounding 4.5bn tweets in February, and by the following month it was announced that Twitter users were sending 1 billion tweets per week around the world. By September, Twitter’ had drawn in 100m active users each day.
Although 2011 was a strong year for Twitter, Yahoo Research revealed that 50% of all tweets come from only 20,000 users, though it did finally manage to gain trademark ownership of the word ‘tweet’, which was nice.
The issue of influence arrived early on 2011′s social media radar, with a singleAshton Kutcher tweeted link garnering the creator’s video 13,000 hits, which isn’t bad for what was essentially 5 seconds of Ashton’s time. But I guess that’s the power of having 6m followers.
There were more than a few quirky Twitter tidbits throughout the year too. For example, there was the Malaysian man who was ordered to tweet an apology 100 times, after claiming on Twitter that one of his friends, who was pregnant, had been maltreated by her employer.
Then there was the former history student who started live-tweeting World War 2, an initiative he plans to run for the full duration of the war. Of course, there was also the Twitter-powered Space Invaders game too which was, well, interesting.
Twitter has always been synonymous with celebrity, and when President Obama started tweeting personally this year, it served to cement the microblogging tool as the Web’s preeminent platform for public pontification.
The Next Web also managed to catch up with Twitter’s Ryan Sarver in its new UK office to talk about its healthy and viable billion-dollar ecosystem. Sarver said:
“Between January and June this year, the developer ecosystem saw half-a-billion dollar investment coming in. But what was really cool over that same period, there was over a billion dollars worth of exits.”
So that means third-party app developers that use Twitter’s data have been raking it in this year. For starters, Salesforce acquired Radian6 for $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, whilst Koxmix was later acquired by Walmart for what was rumored to be over $300m. “These aren’t the only metrics we track”, added Ryan. “But it is indicative of a healthy and viable ecosystem”.
Speaking of the ecosystem, earlier this year you may remember that Twitter fell under a fair bit of criticism for the way it was trying to curb third-party client apps. Sarver said at the time that developers shouldn’t create new apps “that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.”
TweetDeck was a colossal client in terms of users, so it made sense for Twitter toacquire it for $40m rather than let it fall into the grasp of another big company. But Twitter made it clear that it wanted to create a more consistent core experience across the Twitter-sphere, which meant the myriad of Twitter apps that “looked kind of like Twitter, and did sort of the same thing” weren’t going to be encouraged. “While I think we could’ve improved the way we messaged it, the message itself is still a credible and important one to give”, said Ryan.
Twitter also got sucked into the social networking row that exploded in the wake of the London riots, and Twitter confirmed it was meeting with the UK government about this very issue (see ‘London riots’ further down).
To cap off a busy year for Twitter, it unveiled a new design and layout in early December, as it sets up to launch an assault on the global masses in 2012 and prepares to unify 7bn people.
Facebook’s revenue in the first half of 2011 was reported to be $1.6bn, which sounds like a lot until you consider how many people actually use the service.
Whilst we predicted that Facebook might hit 1bn users in 2011, it looks like it may have fallen a little short of this figure. At the f8 conference on September 22, Facebook revealed it had 800m active users, but perhaps more interesting is that it announced at one point 500m people used the service in a single day at its peak.
A rough calculation would indicate that Facebook probably has somewhere in the region of 900m users now – give or take – and you can bet your bootlaces that the next major milestone announced will be the magic billion figure, which we expect to happen in the first couple of months in 2012. With those sorts of numbers, a paltry $1.6bn turnover doesn’t really seem all that much.
Probably one of the biggest developments at Facebook Towers in 2011 was the new Timeline feature, announced at its f8 conference, and we covered why this new feature essentially changes everything in the social landscape.
Elsewhere, fears that Facebook was about to be sold to the Saudi king proved unfounded, and then its much mooted $100bn IPO was also a big talking point throughout the year, now expected to take place some time in early 2012.
Facebook announced that it was to combat child porn by using Microsoft’s PhotoDNA tool, which was a good PR move, but it shot itself in the foot when ananti-Google stunt backfired. It seems the battle for digital supremacy took a rather ugly turn, as Facebook hired a PR agency on the sly…specifically to plant negative stories about Google. Tut tut, Zuck.
Earlier in the year we reported that Facebook was driving more traffic to news websites than any other source, but the social network took a big step towards becoming a self-contained subsection of the World Wide Web when it announced it would be supporting newspaper apps – this meant users could read news without leaving Facebook. Indeed, the Guardian newspaper alone notched up 4m installs in just two months.
Rumors first started flying about a Facebook/Spotify partnership back in May, and this deep integration finally materialized at the f8 conference. Though Spotify came in for a bit of flak after it was revealed that new subscribers would be required to have a Facebook account to access the music-streaming service.
2011 was a huge year for Facebook in many other respects too. It introduced real-time analytics for social plugins, edged past Yahoo as the number one seller of display ads, set the wheels in motion for its first non-US servers, and ASOS became the world’s first fully integrated Facebook Store, with users able to complete online purchases without leaving the social network.
Facebook also lost its longest service employee – other than Mark Zuckerberg, of course – this year, news that followed hot on the heels of our feature examiningwhat it’s like to work at Facebook.
On that note, last year actually saw a fair amount of Facebook employees leaving. Was it because the company was starting to stagnate? No, it seems that the employees in question had joined before Facebook gave staff ‘restricted’ stock – which means they were all able to sell their stock on secondary markets and become very rich.
We also ran a plethora of Facebook-centric posts this year, giving tips, tricks and advice on how to get the most out of the social network. For starters, there was the10 Facebook campaigns to inspire your business piece, with the likes of Corona’s epic campaign helping to highlight how the social platform can be used as a marketing tool. And then there was how journalists could use Facebook as a news-reporting tool too.
Facebook is never normally too far away from controversy in the data-privacy arena and, well, 2011 was no different. Whilst the social network did updated its privacy controls this year, Facebook VP for the EMEA region, Joanna Shields, did receive a minor grilling on the subject at the inaugural Wired event in October, which she talked openly about.
Lastly, it seems that stagnation is the last thing being served up at Facebook, as we covered in our Is Facebook innovative? feature from a few weeks back. The answer we arrived at with regards to that question was a resounding ‘you bet’, but the bigger question we raised was will Facebook remain innovative in a post-IPO world? The answer to that question was slightly less resounding, but if Facebook can retain its DNA and not succumb to external pressures, it certainly CAN remain innovative. Only time will tell though.
As we noted at the beginning of this post, Google was heavily involved in the social space in 2011, having rolled out social search globally, before unfurling the +1 button across the Web, giving Google a more Facebook-esque feel. But the biggie was still to come.
Google launched its much anticipated Facebook rival Google+ in June, which led to much debate in the weeks and months that followed. Indeed, we argued that whilst it would have one eye on bringing Facebook down a peg or two, it was LinkedIn that should perhaps be more scared in the long term. Google+ eventually launched to everyone in September, having been invite-only for three months.
Google+ reached 10m users in 16 days from its initial launch, but Google said that finding a way to monetize the social network wasn’t a priority.
Also, the main UK political party leaders all signed up for a Google+ account shortly after it launched. But it was only a matter of time before the celeb contingent started using it, with Britney Speakers ending up in 1 million circles, and the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu hanging out on it too. Google can be pretty satisfied with the start that Google+ made this year.
Oh, and if you don’t believe us about the Dalai Lama/Desmond Tutu bit, check the video for yourself here:
Elsewhere, both Barack Obama and David Cameron were interviewed on the Google-owned YouTube, which announced 1 trillion playbacks this year.
Technology was thrust into the limelight as it emerged that social networking played a key role in organizing the pillaging that plagued London and other UK cities in August 2011. Arrests were made in the likes of Wigan and Glasgow after a handful of Facebook users were accused of inciting riots on the social network, whilst at least one teen girl was charged for similar actions using BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
We reported that RIM was engaging with police over the role that BBM played in the riots, and the UK government was to seek a meeting with key representatives from Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry-makers Research in Motion (RIM) to discuss whether it would be right to shut down social networks at certain times. We argued that the government wouldn’t curb social media in times of crisis, and the social networks all later responded to confirm that the meeting was more to do with how they could help the authorities use social media more effectively.
Indeed, UK authorities were actually using social media to fight crime too, with one police force using Flickr to help identify riot suspects, and we later pondered whether Facebook could be effectively used to report crimes.
Political crisis in Tunisia was being broadcast across the Twittersphere in early 2011, and we asked how it was possible to make sense of the deluge of data emanating from Twitter. This deluge was only to worsen, as the Middle East was plunged into chaos, giving birth to the so-called Arab uprisings.
Twitter and Facebook were blocked in Egypt and elsewhere at various points throughout the year, but videos of the Egyptian revolution managed to go viral.
But what role did social media really play in the Middle East? Activist Mohamed El Dahshan, who was in Tahrir during the height of the uprising in Egypt, told our own Courtney Boyd Myers:
“People called it an Internet revolution, but it’s just not true. In fact, half of the people I was with had never used a computer. Living in a country where half the people are illiterate puts a huge limitation on the Internet’s capabilities to organize. In Egypt, Internet penetration is at 29%, but within that 29%, there are over a million Facebook users in Egypt, (out of a population of 84.5 million).”
Indeed, The Next Web’s Middle East Editor, Nancy Messieh produced a prettycomprehensive retrospective on the past year, and said that whilst calling Egypt or Tunisia’s uprisings a ‘Facebook Revolution’ is “incredibly misguided”, she added that there is no denying that social media did play a role in publicizing the story, becoming a key tool for citizen journalists on the ground.
For example, in Egypt, a Facebook page created by Google executive Wael Ghonimas a protest rallying tool, and to get the word out about the cause. Ghonim himself was arrested by Egyptian authorities, after which Google made a public appeal to help locate him. After almost 2 weeks, Ghonim was released by the authorities.
You can read Nancy’s full piece here: 2011 Tech Rewind: This year in the Middle East.
Remember MySpace? Well, it cut its workforce by half, and then we pondered who would actually buy MySpace? Oh, and then there’s Bebo – we interviewed the social network’s founder Michael Birch about his new social initiative aimed at the politically switched-on – Jolitics.
We couldn’t possibly ignore LinkedIn either, as it really started to take cues from Facebook and Twitter as it moved to make itself part of the fabric of the World Wide Web. This included new LinkedIn Share buttons, and it also enabled users to sign in to external sites using their LinkedIn credentials. In fact, we even went so far to say that LinkedIn was actively copying Facebook,
But arguably the biggest news from LinkedIn was its IPO, which saw its stock soar. It’s hard to believe it’s almost ten years old, so we presented its long journey to its IPO in this neat little infographic.
There was no shortage of quirky social tidbits this year either. Toyota teamed upwith Salesforce for an in-car social-networking service, the Pope discussed the downsides of creating false social media profiles, a UK security company offered toupdate your Facebook status whilst you’re on holiday, the words Facebook andTwitter were banned from French airwaves, Michael Jackson fans crowdsourcedthis video, a blogger was sued over a negative restaurant review, Charlie Sheen’slive Ustream rant attracted record viewers, and it was revealed that Asians share more photos than Europeans. Startling.
From a stat perspective, there were more than a few milestones reached this year too. Reddit reached 1 billion page views, Stumbleupon stumbled to a billion stumbles, Tumblr tumbled to 10 billion tumbles, Flickr hit 6bn photos, Badoodoubled up in almost every metric, and Foursquare hit 1 billion check-ins – with the Super Bowl attracting 200,000 in itself.
We interviewed Instagram founder Kevin Systrom back in September. Then at LeWeb ’11 in December, he announced that the photo-sharing app had surpassed 15m users, whilst noting that an Android app was currently being worked on. Instagram also opened its API to developers this year, an act that was followedshortly after by Posterous. Oh, and Delicious relaunched too, going more social in the process.
We also introduced you to fictional character Jack, and looked at a day in the life of a true social media geek, whilst Lady GaGa continued her soaring social media success.
It has been an incredible year for social media. Social is everywhere – it’s on our TV screens and computer monitors, and it’s in our pockets. The rise of the digital monopolies has seen the likes of Facebook and Google dominate the World Wide Web. Roll on 2012…
Highlights of 2011: A Crazy Year In Mobile, By The Numbers | paidContent.
his is the first in a series of posts over the next week that will look at the most significant developments of this year in the sectors that we cover, from publishing to mobile to advertising.
SEE ALSO: Why RIM Needed To Fire Its Co-CEOs Months, If Not Years Ago
If we accept that the modern mobile computing movement kicked off in 2007 with the launch of the iPhone, than 2011 was easily the most pivotal year we’ve yet seen. Here are five numbers that illustrate just how eventful a year it was.
324 million: The number of smartphones sold worldwide through three quarters of 2011 (according to Gartner), and feel free to tack on another 120 million or so to account for the fourth quarter. That’s a 63 percent increase compared to the same period in 2010. And amazingly, that’s still only about a quarter of mobile phone sales in general, which underscores just how much growth remains in this industry as component costs decline and wireless networks improve.
194 percent: The growth in Android smartphones worldwide from the third quarter of 2010 to the same period this year. Android’s growth has been nothing short of phenomenal, and while the aging Symbian remains the world’s most widely used mobile operating system Android has lived up to everything Google (NSDQ: GOOG) ever hoped it would in helping to ensure that one company—Apple—would not dominate the modern mobile market.
33.62 billion: The market value shed by Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) during 2011, the year in which it became clear that the company has no clue how to move beyond the BlackBerry that sustained its business for so long until the iPhone made it look pedestrian. At year’s end, RIM had once again delayed a next-generation product while begging for more time, and time is most assuredly not on its side.
6: The number of companies that joined together in order to deny Google a chance to purchase Nortel’s horde of mobile patents in July, forcing it to spend $12.5 billion in August on a panic purchase of Motorola (NYSE: MMI) in order to obtain some sort of patent cover for Android. Patents were the ubiquitous story of 2011 in the mobile world, playing a huge role in product rollout strategies, industry alliances, and frustrating nearly everyone except Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) in the process.
3: The number of mobile products introduced by Apple under the late Steve Jobs, who finally succumbed to cancer in October. The iPod, iPhone, and iPad created the modern mobile market by showing the world that people were desperate for easy-to-use mobile user-interfaces that were also capable of running sophisticated applications and browsing the Web as if they were PCs. And they also set off a scramble among traditional mobile companies like Palm (NYSE: HPQ), RIM and Samsung as well as traditional PC companies like HP, Dell, and Acer to try and catch up to Apple’s lead. Android may have the numbers, but Apple’s vision of mobile computing remains more influential.
More than 200 Billion Online Videos Viewed Globally in October – comScore, Inc.
YouTube Delivers 2 of Every 5 Videos Viewed Worldwide
comScore Releases Inaugural Report on Global Online Video Viewing Habits
Reston, VA, December 14, 2011 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released inaugural data on worldwide online video viewing from the comScore Video Metrix service. The report found that nearly 1.2 billion people age 15 and older watched 201.4 billion videos online globally during October 2011. Google Sites, driven by YouTube.com, ranked as the top video destination with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property worldwide during the month.
“As global broadband connectivity continues to rise, online video viewing has taken off in a big way and has become a fully integrated component of the digital content experience,” said Dan Piech, comScore product manager for video. “With the introduction of comScore’s global measurement of online video viewing, multinational media brands and advertisers can now gain a more comprehensive understanding of how online video reaches audiences around the world.”
Google Sites, Youku and VEVO Lead Global Online Video Rankings
In October 2011, 201.4 billion videos were viewed online from a home or work location, with the global viewing audience reaching 1.2 billion unique viewers age 15 and older. Google Sites led as the top global video property with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property during the month, accounting for 43.8 percent of all videos viewed globally. YouTube.com was the key driver of video viewing on Google Sites, accounting for more than 99 percent of videos viewed on the property.
China-based Youku, Inc. was the second largest video property globally with 4.6 billion videos viewed in October (2.3 percent global share), followed by VEVO which accounted for nearly 3.7 billion videos (1.8 percent share). Nearly 2.6 billion videos were watched on Facebook.com during the month (1.3 percent share), followed by Japan-based Dwango Co., Ltd. with 2.5 billion videos viewed (1.2 percent share).
| Top 5 Global Video Properties by Total Videos* Viewed (000) October 2011 Total Worldwide – Visitors Age 15+ Home/Work Location** Source: comScore Video Metrix |
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| Videos (000) |
Share of Videos | |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 201,420,689 | 100.0% |
| Google Sites | 88,278,970 | 43.8% |
| Youku Inc. | 4,644,727 | 2.3% |
| VEVO | 3,697,229 | 1.8% |
| Facebook.com | 2,590,812 | 1.3% |
| Dwango Co., Ltd. | 2,458,180 | 1.2% |
*A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, (both progressive downloads and live streams). For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream.
**Excludes views from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs
Canadians Watch Most Videos, While Turkey has Highest Video Penetration
An analysis of selected online video markets by engagement revealed that viewers in Canada and the U.S. averaged the highest number of videos per viewer in October, at 303 videos and 286 videos, respectively. Viewers in the UK averaged 268 videos per viewer during the month, while viewers in Turkey and Germany both watched an average of 250 videos.
Analysis of selected markets with the highest penetration of online video viewing revealed that 93.6 percent of Internet users in Turkey watched video during the month, followed by Canada with 90.9 percent of web users consuming video. Although markets in Latin America showed lower overall engagement with online video compared to their counterparts in other regions, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico ranked among the markets with the highest penetration, highlighting a significant opportunity for marketers and advertisers as these online video markets continue to develop.
| Selected Markets by Videos* per Viewer and Online Video Viewing Penetration October 2011 Total Worldwide – Visitors Age 15+ Home/Work Location** Source: comScore Video Metrix |
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| Selected Markets by Videos per Viewer | Videos per Viewer | Selected Markets by % Reach of Web Population | % Reach Web Population | |
| Canada | 303.7 | Turkey | 93.6% | |
| U.S. | 286.3 | Canada | 90.9% | |
| UK | 268.6 | Chile | 90.2% | |
| Turkey | 250.7 | Argentina | 89.6% | |
| Germany | 250.6 | Brazil | 89.0% | |
| Japan | 222.7 | Hong Kong | 88.9% | |
| France | 190.1 | Spain | 88.9% | |
| Spain | 178.6 | U.S. | 88.0% | |
| Hong Kong | 160.0 | Mexico | 87.2% | |
| Singapore | 153.2 | France | 86.8% | |
*A video is defined as any streamed segment of audiovisual content, (both progressive downloads and live streams). For long-form, segmented content, (e.g. television episodes with ad pods in the middle) each segment of the content is counted as a distinct video stream.
**Excludes views from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs
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