Digital Intelligence

The online shopping frenzy reached new heights with the first weekend of December the biggest days for online retail in Western Europe. Around 20m UK users were online that weekend looking for Christmas presents. Ecommerce sites nicknamed the first Monday 'Mega Monday' as shoppers clocked up around £5 billion on food, drink and gifts, raising the total web shopping bill to £15 billion for December.
From The Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk, 01/12/2007
From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 07/12/2007

02/12/2007

Another small moment in the conversion to the digital networked society as data from the US federal government reveals 14% of US households do not have a landline. This is more than a statistic about mobile use; it reflects a much wider change in the way digital communications work. There is a clear cohort effect in play with 30% of American 18-30 year olds likely to only have cellphones.
From StrategyEye: http://www.strategyeye.com, 10/12/2007

11/12/2007

UK online shoppers broke records on December 10th when they clocked up more than £750,000 in a single minute, according to new data according to payment processing giant Retail Decisions. At 1.09pm on 10 December 2007, shoppers an average of 128 people every second were spending almost £100 per person. From New Media Age: http://www.nma.co.uk, 11/12/2007

12/12/2007

A new report from Ofcom shows that British internet users spend more time on social networking websites than other Europeans, writes Brand Republic. One in four British adults claim to use such sites, and users spend on average 5.3 hours/month using them over 23 visits.
The report also found the UK leading in other areas, including digital TV. 76% of households now have digital television, ahead of the US on 61%.
Britain also has the best value "triple play" packages, with cheaper deals for phone, broadband and digital TV than any of the other countries surveyed.
Ofcom's report compared the UK to eight other European nations in addition to Japan, Canada and the US.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 12/12/2007
Ofcom - The International Communications Market 2007: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/icmr07

12/12/2007

Bebo has launched its open application platform allowing developers to create applications and widgets which also work on Facebook, writes Brand Republic. Bebo has signed up over 40 different digital partners for the launch, including Flixster, Gaia Online, Pocketbook, Wallop and YouthNoise. Bebo has also signed up to Google's OpenSocial application platform and says it plans to integrate by early next year.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 13/12/2007
Bebo: http://www.bebo.com

13/12/2007

The New York Times has stopped charging users for content on its NYTimes.com website, writes Netimperative. The paper launched its paid service two years ago and charged $7.95/month (£4) or $49.95/year (£20) for access to its news and columns online. Senior vice-president and general manager of the website Vivian Schiller explained the move: "Since we launched TimesSelect in 2005, the online landscape has altered significantly. Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs and other online sources." The paper has identified the "greater potential for revenue from online advertising" and some sections of the site will have sponsorship placements. Under the new strategy archives from 1851-1922 and from 1986-present will be completely free with only archive content from between 1923 and 1986 continuing to be charged for.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 13/12/2007
NYTimes.com: www.nytimes.com/

13/12/2007

Microsoft has purchased British online map firm Multimap in a deal reported to be worth $50m (£24.4m), writes The Times. Multimap attracted over 4m unique users during November 2007 according to figures from Nielsen NetRatings, second to Google Maps with 11m. Profits at the firm reach £900,000 in 2006 and it is expected to show revenues of £12m for 2007. Multimap will complement Microsoft's existing offerings which include Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and the aQuantive advertising platform.
From The Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk, 13/12/2007
Multimap: http://www.multimap.com/

14/12/2007

The switch from high street to web continues apace with visits to online stores up 11% year on year according to ComScore. Back in October UK online shoppers numbered 29m, and European online shoppers topped 160m visits (up 5% year on year). In the UK, cyber shopping visits continued to gain momentum in the last week of by the last week of November UK online store visits were up 34 percent versus the average weekly activity for the two months prior, with Amazon beating Apple to top place on 9% of online store visits. French shopping also leapt an impressive amount - up 27 percent - while the German market started more slowly.
From New Media Age: http://www.nma.co.uk, 04/12/2007
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 13/12/2007

14/12/2007

December 2007

Peter’s background includes JWT and WPP, but on the day he set up Oystercatchers we asked him about how the marketing and advertising industry is likely to evolve over the next few years with the growth of digital. He’s clear that the models for reward need to change: “It’s not just about paying for the hours people put in, it’s about rewarding them based on the performance they create. Overall its about working with the right talent; that’s what clients want. This doesn’t mean that you necessarily have a roster of agencies all with the same structure of account directors, creatives and planners”. For Peter, the implication is that the scale of change will be personal and internalised as well as a macro re-structure of how the ad industry works. “This probably means more plural lives for individuals, potentially a growth in the freelance market, and a more flexible and fluid marketing industry. Maybe this means a smaller industry, with people paid better, and a greater search for the link between investment and effectiveness.

15/12/2007

Paramount is releasing "Jackass 2.5" for free online in the US, writes Brand Republic. The film will be available through a special website created in conjunction with Blockbuster. Viewers have to download Microsoft's Silverlight media player in order to view the film. This is the first in a series of films that Paramount intends to release online during the next year.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 14/12/2007
Jackass 2.5: http://blockbuster.jackassworld.com

15/12/2007

UK consumers are spending more time shopping online that almost anyone, recording an average of 15 hours per person this Christmas. New research from Core metrics shows this matches the time they spend on the highstreet, suggesting another of the 'crossing points' Digital's team has been tracking has now been reached. The study also showed how 35-44 year olds were most likely to shop online, reflecting how web shopping has become a convenience choice for people with busy lives, dispelling any myths of this being youth behaviour.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 14/12/2007

15/12/2007

A new study from Forrester Research predicts that residential broadband access in Western Europe will grow by 48m households from 44% penetration in 2007 to 71% by the end of 2013, writes Netimperative. Dial-up services are expected to account for only 2% of all European online connections. The study looked at 17 Western European countries.
From Netimperative: http://www.strategyeye.com, 17/12/2007
Forrester Research: http://browser.netscape.com/

18/12/2007

Sales of Freeview digital television receivers reached 2.4m units during Q3, writes The Guardian. The figures from Ofcom found that sales for the quarter were up 70% year-on-year. Sales comprised 1.17m set top boxes and 1.19m Freeview-ready integrated TV sets. 85.1% of UK households can now receive digital television services on their main TV set (from either Freeview, satellite or cable).
From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk, 19/12/2007
Ofcom: http://www.ofcom.org.uk

20/12/2007

Google is planning to launch its Print Ads service in the UK, writes The Sunday Times. The service launched last year in the US and lets advertisers bid on print inventory in the same way as Google AdWords. Google Print Ads now supplies over 600 titles in the US.
In the UK, Google's advertising revenues grew 40% during 2007 to reach £1.25bn.
From The Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk, 30/12/2007
Google Print Ads: http://www.google.co.uk/adwords/printads

Digital's update on the latest ad products from Google

30/12/2007

Your final news download as we wind down and wish you the best for the holidays.

The mince pies and mulled wine are waiting, we're almost finished for the year, but I did want to send you the final newswire to complete your archive. 2007 was a transformative year for the digital media and marketing industries, and having coached marketing teams in more than twenty countries since January, we've seen the pace quicken as the latest ideas from the UK , USA and Scandinavia get picked up in Central America, South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East . In our 'flattened' world the best ideas are only a click away.

Digital Intelligence tracked hundreds of the 'crossing points' in the sector's growth this year and this final edition rounds up some of the strongest evidence about how shoppers have switched to the web, the saturation levels of broadband, and the continued acceleration of key companies. We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who took part in the Christmas appeal - you can still donate to your favourite charity here - and there's details of our charity here:
http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/about/merrychristmas.

Wishing you a relaxing 'unplugged' Christmas from all of us @ Digital, and the best of health for 2008.

Read December 2007

31/12/2007

Radio advertising could fall up to 2% this year as the local advertising sector slows, writes Mediaweek. Revenues could drop below $20bn for the first time since 2002 as the industry faces its eighth year of slow-to-no-growth. Radio is said to be facing its worst crisis since the 1950s when it struggled through recession, the Korean War and the advent of television.
From Mediaweek: http://www.mediaweek.com, 31/12/2007

31/12/2007

Microsoft has launched its beta for Project Gatineau its free web analytics service, writes New Media Age. The trial has currently gone live in the US. Unlike other free offerings the service provides demographic data in addition to age and gender segmentation based on users MSN Live IDs. Standard tools such as click tracking, marketing campaign reporting and conversion tracking are also included. The service uses technology provided by DeepMetrix, acquired by Microsoft in 2006.
Microsoft recently posted its fastest growth in revenues since 1999. Q3 revenues were up 27% year-on-year to $13.76bn (£6.7bn) with turnover reaching $4.29bn (£2.1bn) (from $3.48bn (£1.7bn) in 2006). The release of both Windows Vista and Halo 3 contributed to the strong results.
Finally, Microsoft also ended weeks of speculation when it piped Google to the post to take a 1.6% £240m (£117) stake in Facebook (valuing Facebook at $15bn (£7.3bn)). The deal will also see Microsoft selling ads for the site as it expands beyond the US.
From New Media Age: http://www.nma.co.uk, 31/10/2007
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com

01/11/2007

Social network sites MySpace and Bebo have joined LinkedIn, Plaxo, Friendster, Xing and Google's own Orkut in signing up to Google's OpenSocial project, writes Brand Republic. OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for web developers allowing plug-in applications, tools and widgets to work across a range of websites without the need for conversion. The project now has over 50 partners signed up including developers iLike and widgetbox.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 02/11/2007
OpenSocial: http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial

02/11/2007

Amazon UK has followed its US and Japanese equivalents with the launch of its Prime service, writes New Media Age. The service costs £49 per year and provides unlimited free one-day delivery with no minimum order. In addition customers in London and Birmingham can get discounts on same-day delivery on orders made before 11.30am.
Amazon placed strong Q3 results with net sales up 41% to $3.26bn (from $2.31bn in 2006). Net income grew to $80m (from $19m the year before). Overall sales were boosted by the release of the latest Harry Potter book, with Amazon selling 2.5m copies.
From New Media Age: http://www.nma.co.uk, 06/11/2007
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk

07/11/2007

Time Warner-owned AOL is to buy Israeli online advertising firm Quigo for $340m, writes Brand Republic. Quigo specialises in contextual ads and sponsored links and has about 10% of the contextual ad market. Clients using its AdSonar platform include Time Inc, ESPN.com and FoxNews.com. The purchase is AOL's fourth online ad marketing acquisition this year.
AOL is also launching a new UK video search engine dubbed Truveo which will search across a range of media sources and websites allowing users to browse through millions of online videos.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 07/11/2007
AOL UK: http://www.aol.co.uk

07/11/2007

Facebook have launched their new ad system, allowing firms to set up branded profile pages, writes Brand Republic. The site had 100,000 such pages 24 hours after launching the new system including Coca Cola, the New York Times and British Airways. The system also lets companies place ads in news feeds. Last month O2 signed up 63,000 students in 11 days with their Facebook group "The Battle for the UK's Favourite University", which offered a £50,000 party to the university with the most activity at the end of a 30-day period.
Facebook have announced that they are developing a new range of ad tools for marketers and claims that the site is effectively doubling in size every six months as 250,000 new users join each day. Globally the site now has over 50m users.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 07/11/2007
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com

07/11/2007

Following approval from the BBC Trust the BBC has begun the placement of ads on its BBC.com website, writes Brand Republic. The adverts can only be seen by users outside the UK and are expected to bring in £70m/year in advertising revenues. DoubleClick has been chosen to handle the ads. British Airways, Airbus and Hublot are among the first advertisers to sign up. According to data from comScore the BBC has 28m users outside the UK.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 07/11/2007
BBC.com: http://www.bbc.co.uk/

08/11/2007

Over half of Londoners are now using social networks, according to new research by YouGov, writes Brand Republic. The study, commissioned by Garlik, also found that over 4m British internet users also now go online to write or contribute to blogs. With 51% London was the region with most social networkers, followed by the South East (48%). London also scored highly for online banking, with 85% of those in the capital running their accounts online, followed by the North East (82%) and the East Midlands.
Overall, UK traffic to social networks rose 153% from December 2006 to September 2007 according to Hitwise. In September 2007 1 in 20 visits to websites in the UK was to a social networking site. By the same month Facebook.com had grown to become the UK's fifth most visited URL (having increased its share 30-fold year-on-year). Facebook is also the UK's fifth most popular departure point for traffic to other websites.
The figures are even more significant in the light of comScore's latest research which found that the UK has the highest rates for social network usage in Europe. According to comScore social network sites had 24.9m unique visitors from the UK - equivalent to 78% of the UK's total online population. In August British internet users averaged 5.8 hours/month visiting such sites (with 23.3 visits/person). French users averaged 2 hours/month (on 16.8 visits/person) and German users averaged 3.1 hours/month (on 13.8 visits/person). In total Europe had 127.3m unique visitors to social networks in August, representing 56% of Europe's online population.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 08/11/2007
YouGov: http://www.yougov.com

08/11/2007

November 2007

Talking about the changes in the advertising industry, Matthew Mayes is clear that this “calls for a different form of advertising to populate this new space. People choosing to spend lots more time in this landscape.” On the changes in channels Mays may be a digital evangelist, but is no advocate of analogue rejection: “Newspaper and TV brands have a great future, they’ve just going to be watched and read very differently”. However Mayes is convinced that all is not well in the model of how advertising is created. Is ‘the big idea’ happening in the wrong place? “Why do you try to define the ‘big idea’ in the least important channel? This means you have to force it below the line and the model doesn’t necessarily work?”

15/11/2007  |  Full story...

Another massive month for product development at the search engines, as the migration to the mobile web quickens.

Strong financial results from indicator stocks are giving investors greater confidence in the online media sector, and retailers are looking forward to a Christmas that will again break e-commerce records across Western Europe and North America; with the web's role in direct retail dwarfed by its role as the primary place for purchase research.

In this Digital Intelligence we're tracking these trends and sifting through the noise to give you the click-throughs and data that matters. Retailers, consumer brands and media groups who are finalising their plans for 2008/9 are bringing us in as architects and strategists - and through this we're consistently seeing four themes emerge: the challenges in making sense of the landscape are getting worse, social media is moving to the core of every agenda (not always for the right reasons), the risks of getting it wrong have amplified, and there is now an acceptance that training and coaching for senior management is essential to make strong digital decisions.

Read November 2007

20/11/2007

New data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that nearly 90% of all UK web users now use broadband services, writes New Media Age. 88.4% of all UK connections were via broadband in September, from 86.2% in June. Connections were up 8.1% year-on-year with 45.2% of services provided between 2Mbps and 8Mbps.
From New Media Age: http://www.nma.co.uk, 21/11/2007
ONS: http://www.statistics.gov.uk

22/11/2007

Country director for advertiser sales, Google UK

November 2007

It’s been another amazing month or two for the folks at Google as it emerged in the UK they had topped ITV1 in revenues, as well as plucking the prize for world’s most recognised brand, and now one of the US top five firms by market cap. Google’s Matt Brittin is clear that the market is still changing fast and so is marketing. In this type of world why would we even talk about targeting a demographic. With search taking over 8% of all UK adspend, it’s well established as a media channel in its own right, and yet the pace of development remains daunting.

Download the report (right-click and select save/download)

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25/11/2007

BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 have come together to form a new commercial joint venture which will contain on-demand TV content from all three broadcasters, writes Brand Republic. The service (dubbed "Kangaroo") will feature over 10,000 hours of content including catch-up episodes and older archive programming. Some content will be available for free, with other programmes available to hire or download permanently for a fee. The service will also earn revenues through advertising. All revenues will be shared equally regardless of which partner owns the original content. Kangaroo still needs formal approval from the BBC Trust and from each broadcaster's board.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 27/11/2007

27/11/2007

According to Informa Telecoms there are now 3.3bn mobile phone subscriptions around the world, writes Telecoms.com. The figure represents 50% of the world's population though it does not take into account users with multiple mobile phone subscriptions. Informa estimate that 59 countries had mobile penetration rates of over 100% at the end of September. Further figures show that the number of countries with operational mobile networks has grown from 192 in 1997 to 224. Mobile networks now cover 90% of the world's population.
From Telecoms.com: http://www.telecoms.com, 29/11/2007
Informa Telecoms: http://www.informatm.com

30/11/2007

The Charlatans are to release their next album for free through the Xfm website, writes Brand Republic. The album should be ready in early 2008, though in the interim the band are releasing their new single "You Cross My Path" through the site on 22nd October. The Charlatans are now backed by Alan McGee who now believes that CD sales are incidental. He said: "The band will get paid by more people coming to gigs, buying merchandise, publishing and synch fees. I believe it's the future business model."
Prince also gave his last album away for free through the Mail on Sunday last July prior to his 21 night residency in London.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 01/10/2007
Xfm: http://www.xfm.co.uk

02/10/2007

Today's new figures confirm the switch to online continues to accelerate in Europe's lead media market. The internet's share of all advertising swelled to almost 15% in the first half of 2007, with further record-setting leaps in real growth. Boosted in particular by massive increases in the supply of media from social networks, and the continued switch of acquisition budgets into search, the wider media sector is starting to feel the real impact of the digital networked economy as the models that underpin many print and broadcast players get called into question.
As Digital's team forecast, online ad spend growth held steady at above 40% year on year, giving the largest quarters and rises in the history of the medium, and forcing the TV and magazine industry into panic, issuing statements in defence of classic channels.

• First half of 2007: £1,334.3 million
• First half of 2006: £917.2 million
• Year on year growth: 41.3%
• Online adspend market share: 14.7%

With the UK market acting as a key indicator for European online adspend behaviour, the results will boost stock prices for Continental firms looking for models of their own country's digital economy several years down the line. The research is particularly accurate because it relies on publisher revenue declarations (under non-disclosure agreements to PricewaterhouseCoopers), and is one of the only markets in the world to include a revenue declaration from Google.

Classifieds set to beat display:

• Online classified advertising: up 72% year-on-year


• Market value for period: £277.7m


• Market share within online: 20.8%


• Online display advertising: up 33% year-on-year


• Market value for period: £287m


• Market share within online: 21.5%

For further analysis from Digital on these results go to http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com.

02/10/2007

The Financial Times's FT.com website is to start letting users access stories for free, writes Netimperative. Under the new charging model users will be able to access 30 free article per month before being asked to subscribe. The new system will make it possible for bloggers and news aggregators to link directly to FT.com content. The change in charging strategy coincides with a major site overhaul which will include new blogs, a new markets section and increased editorial content. Standard and premium subscription will cost £99 and £199 respectively.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 01/10/2007
FT.com: http://www.ft.com

02/10/2007

UK CEO, Wikimedia

October 2007

Digital Thought Leaders | By Danny Meadows-Klue

The Wikipedia model has revolutionised knowledge classification and the linkages between content. Google pretty much anything and chances are that a wiki listing will be bubbling up on the results page. Clearly Wikipedia will remain a permanent fixture of the landscape, and we should all cherish the fact it’s a foundation. “But the problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice, in theory it would never work”, explains Alison Wheeler, Wikimedia’s UK chief executive. It’s a conundrum: after all, why should people want to dedicate their time to updating and managing entries on a public encyclopaedia?

www.wikipedia.org

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03/10/2007  |  Full story...

Radiohead have released their latest album directly through their website and are letting fans decide how much they want to pay for it, writes Brand Republic. Technically fans can pay nothing for the 10-song album "In Rainbows" though they are still required to cover the 45p credit card fee. Radiohead are currently out of contract, giving them the freedom to release their music on their own terms. Fans can also buy a deluxe £40 "discbox" box set through the website which includes CD and vinyl copies of the album, a second CD and a lyric book.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 02/10/2007
Radiohead - In Rainbows: http://www.inrainbows.com

03/10/2007

The latest numbers for the US from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the IAB confirm that the world's largest online ad market is still enjoying the largest annual growth in real terms. Spend surged ahead by 25.4%, crossing the $5bn (£2.46bn) mark in a single quarter.
US Internet advertising revenues for the first six months of 2007 were nearly $10bn (£4.92), setting yet another new record and were almost 27% up on the first half of 2006. Spend reached nearly $5.1bn (£2.50bn) in the second quarter of 2007.
The growth was propelled not just by search engines (which increased their share of online adspend to 41%) but also by the wider consumer advertising sector. Classifieds continued to swell, but they did lose share within online to the Rich Media and Video formats which now account for 8% of all online advertising.
Read more analysis of these figures: http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com.

IAB US: http://www.iab.net, 05/10/2007

05/10/2007

Another cracking month for the internet sector and we held back this round-up of September research to include the two new records set for online adspend in the UK and the US.

Online is taking almost 15% of the adspend cake in the UK and crossed $5bn in a single quarter in the US. The tide of migration to free content is pulling hard and this month we look at how the New York Times, the FT and probably the Wall St. Journal are all getting seduced again to ad funded models; questioning the role of subscription barriers that block audience growth. In our sector focus there's more on the music industry as the Charlatans give away their latest CD and Radiohead let you chose how much their music is worth.

Read October 2007

08/10/2007

Online has grabbed its biggest ever share of the UK's total adspend according to the latest quarterly Bellwether Report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, writes Brand Republic. Figures for Q3 show internet marketing accounting for 6% of all UK adspend, with 31% of firms raising their online ad budgets and only 7% lowering them. Overall 8.3% of companies raised their marketing budgets during the quarter and 9.2% of firms reported a rise in above-the-line spending - a new record figure for the Bellwether Report.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 15/10/2007
IPA: http://www.ipa.co.uk

15/10/2007

Online has grabbed its biggest ever share of the UK's total adspend according to the latest quarterly Bellwether Report from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, writes Brand Republic. Figures for Q3 show internet marketing accounting for 6% of all UK adspend, with 31% of firms raising their online ad budgets and only 7% lowering them. Overall 8.3% of companies raised their marketing budgets during the quarter and 9.2% of firms reported a rise in above-the-line spending - a new record figure for the Bellwether Report.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 15/10/2007
IPA: http://www.ipa.co.uk

16/10/2007

Smart digital marketing by reaching customers online

October 2007

Over the last few weeks we’ve been preparing a new edition of the Digital Viral Marketing Academy; one focussed on the entertainment sector and in particular the challenges facing book publishers. Along the way I’ve learned heaps about how Harry Potter fans used their own magic on the web, how political diarists levered their influence and how unknown authors have shot to stardom. The folks at Book-Trailers.net have begun exploring Hollywood-style approach to selling movies, authors are now buying into creating their own sites, and Penguin Classics have created the cutest RSS buttons imaginable.

While ambling between the sites of the big sisters of publishing, I was lucky enough to stumble into the home of tiny Snowbooks, and find a small publisher that’s pulled off some big web coups.

Snowbooks.com | Snowblog | Snowbooks.com on YouTube | Books-Trailers.net | Training in viral marketing | Tips in viral marketing | Web 2.0 training and strategies

17/10/2007  |  Full story...

Google's latest results show that Q3 revenues at the online giant have risen 57% year-on-year to reach $4.23bn, writes Brand Republic. Revenues were also up 9% on Q2's revenues of $3.87bn. Revenues from Google-owned sites grew 68% from Q3 2006, reaching $2.73bn and accounting for 65% of all revenues. Adsense partner sites represented 34% of all Q3 revenues and reached $1.45bn. Net income for the quarter was $1.1bn (from $733m in 2006). Full-time staff numbers were up 2,130 from Q2 reaching 15,916.
The results followed news of Google's latest purchase: Finnish "micro-blogging" service Jaiku. Jaiku lets users send status updates to their friends and contacts via the web and their mobile phones. Users can also share their location and calendar and on some platforms the service can integrate directly with a phone's address book. Jaiku is Google's latest mobile-related acquisition, coming one month after the firm's purchase of Zingku.
From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 18/10/2007
Google UK: http://www.google.co.uk

19/10/2007

Two years on from helping launch the internet marketing trade association in Mexico, Danny Meadows-Klue returns to for the largest internet marketing conference in Central America. Behind the scenes he has been helping nurture and develop the market throughout, and here he reflects on some of the key aspects of the industry’s growth, and gives his thoughts about what lies ahead.

Watch Danny Meadows-Klue’s podcast

22/10/2007

New data from Forrester Research predicts that the British will spend up to 40% more this Christmas than in 2006, with total spend expected to reach £13.6bn, writes Revolution. Total European online spend is expected to grow 38.5%, The British spend more online than the Germans and the French combined (€11.5bn and €6.5bn respectively) and the UK now accounts for 38.5% of all European online retail spend. On average, British shoppers are expected to spend £509 (€731) online between 1st October and Christmas Day. Forrester's study used data from 17 countries and included online travel spending. Travel accounts for 31% of all money spent online and represents the largest online retail category.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 23/10/2007
Forrester Research: http://www.forrester.com

24/10/2007

New data from Juniper Research predicts that over 50m people worldwide will shop using their mobile phone by 2011, writes ENN. The mobile payments market is expected to be worth $11.5bn in the same year. The market is expected to grow as Near Field Technology and other mobile payment methods begin to offer consumers new alternatives to cash and payment cards.
Further data from Portio Research predicts that global mobile penetration rates will reach pass the 50% mark next year, rising to 75% by 2011. 65% of new users are expected to come from the Asia Pacific region.
Figures from Strategy Analytics for Q3 show that mobile phone shipments were up 12% to 285m. They forecast that 330m units will be sold worldwide during the final quarter of the year. Nokia remains the leading brand, selling 112m handsets and controlling 39% of the market.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 30/10/2007
Juniper Research: http://www.juniperresearch.com//

31/10/2007

Online retail took a major leap this summer, breaking the £4bn threshold for July alone. That’s a staggering 80% growth year-on-year, and well above seasonal expectations (we’re thinking the British ‘Summer’ had something to do with this one).

In the social networking stakes Bebo pipped MySpace in the UK, as both saw audiences swell along with FaceBook and YouTube. Meanwhile in the US the crossing point for online ad spend overtaking newspapers is in sight as latest research suggests 2011 as the date when it happens.

Follow the links for the stories behind the headlines, and we've included extra links to some of our Digital Insight Reports that are now being opened up to clients, friends and partners.

Read September 2007

03/09/2007

24/7 Real Media have launched a new tool which allows advertisers to target potential customers with personalised display ads, writes Netimperative. The new Search Re-Targeting service serves users who click on search engine text ads with customised display advertising on any website in the Global Web Alliance network. Display ads can be modified in relation to the original keyword a user searched for and can also relate to the purchase stage reached by a user. The system can be used for example to keep potential customers interested in potential purchases by offering discounts a month after an original search had been made. Foreign currency firm Interchange FX have carried out the first live UK trial of the system, by comparing two identical display ad campaigns. The campaign with Search Re-targeting enabled saw click-through rates increase eight times.
24/7 Real Media's Global Web Alliance network includes over 950 sites and serves ads to 121m unique users worldwide.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 14/09/2007
24/7 Real Media: http://www.247realmedia.com

14/09/2007

The latest Jack Myers Media Business Report forecasts that global mobile advertising will grow 120% during 2008 to reach $1.1bn (from $500m - £246m), writes ClickZ. The report expects similar growth during 2009 making the mobile ad market worth $2.4bn (£1.18bn) - roughly 1% of total global adspend. Online advertising, according to the report, will grow 20% during 2007, reaching $16.7bn (£8.21bn). This is forecast to rise a further 24% in 2008 and 28.5% in 2009.
From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 18/09/2007
Jack Myers Media Village: http://www.mediavillage.com

18/09/2007

Google has added another string to its bow with the launch of AdSense for Mobile, writes Telecoms.com. The platform places targeted text adverts on publishers' mobile websites.
Google is increasingly looking at the mobile space: the firm's CEO Eric Schmidt said last year that he believes that mobile phone calls should be paid for through advertising.
From Telecoms.com: http://www.telecoms.com, 18/09/2007
Google: http://www.google.com

18/09/2007

Making sense of the ad opportunity today

September 2007

The recent press and debate about what and how we measure in the online landscape have been particularly welcoming to me. The recent furore around the ‘death of the page view’ certainly seems to have put the publishing and ad worlds in a collective spin. The metric that has been held, dearly or not, as the most relevant gauge of the advertising opportunity online has come under threat - and everyone is scrambling to make sense of what happens now. The other issue that has thrust measurement science into the spotlight concerns the debate between the Telegraph and the Guardian about the former’s claim to being “Britain’s number one quality newspaper web site.”

19/09/2007  |  Full story...

The latest Jack Myers Media Business Report forecasts that global mobile advertising will grow 120% during 2008 to reach $1.1bn (from $500m - £246m), writes ClickZ. The report expects similar growth during 2009 making the mobile ad market worth $2.4bn (£1.18bn) - roughly 1% of total global adspend. Online advertising, according to the report, will grow 20% during 2007, reaching $16.7bn (£8.21bn). This is forecast to rise a further 24% in 2008 and 28.5% in 2009.
From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 18/09/2007
Jack Myers Media Village: www.mediavillage.com

19/09/2007

Rupert Murdoch has declared he is interested in removing the $99 (£49) subscription charge from the Wall Street Journal's wsj.com website, writes Brand Republic. "It would be an expensive thing to do in the short term. In the long term, it may be a great thing to do," said Murdoch addressing the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference. WSJ.com currently has 983,000 subscribers. Murdoch's $5bn (£2.5bn) acquisition of Wall Street Journal parent company Dow Jones should be completed by November.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 19/09/2007
WSJ.com: http://www.wsj.com/

20/09/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

21/09/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

22/09/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

23/09/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

24/09/2007

Ad-funded mobile network Blyk has launched in the UK, writes Netimperative. The network is an invitation-online mobile virtual network operator aimed at 16-24 year olds. Users are profiled during registration and by ongoing SMS polling to help brands target more effectively. Users receive up to 6 brand picture messages per day and in exchange receive 217 free texts and 43 free minutes per month.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 25/09/2007
Blyk: http://www.blyk.co.uk

25/09/2007

According to new data from Nielsen//NetRatings Facebook overtook MySpace in August 2007 in terms of unique visitors, writes Brand Republic. Facebook received 6.5m visitors during the month against 6.4m for MySpace. Facebook's audience has increased by 541% since December 2006 compared to growth at MySpace of 20%. Facebook is also the most popular social network in terms of total time spent visiting the site with 991m minutes, ahead of Bebo (600m minutes) and MySpace (540m minutes). Worldwide Facebook now has 42m members, with 5m based in the UK. The site attracts 200,000 new members per day.
The rapid success of Facebook has led to a number of offers for the firm, although the site's co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said that he wants Facebook to remain independent. Microsoft, which already delivers ads on the site, is said to be in talks about acquiring a 5% stake for up to $500m (£246m), valuing the site at around $10bn (£4.92bn).
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 25/09/2007
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com

25/09/2007

New data from Point Topic shows that the British are staying online for longer, writes ENN. 86.6% of home internet users now spend at least 6 hours online each week, up from 83% at the end of last year (and 50% at the end of 2005). Amazingly 5% of those polled claim to spend over 80 hours a week online. According to the research 90% of broadband users go online to use e-mail and 60% to use auction sites such as eBay. In addition 40% of broadband users also download music, with 16% going online to watch TV or streaming video. 70% of all respondents also shop online (from 65% in 2006).
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 27/09/2007
Point Topic: http://www.point-topic.com

28/09/2007

JupiterResearch's latest Worldwide Online Population Forecast predicts that the worldwide online population will reach 1.5bn by 2011 (from 1.1bn in 2006), writes eMarketer. According to the forecast 22% of the world’s population will be online, with most growth coming from Brazil, Russia, India and China. As growth slows in the mature markets of the US, Canada, Japan and Western Europe share of global online internet users is likely to fall in these regions: only 17% of all internet users will live in the US by 2011 down from 21% in 2006. eMarketer estimate that there were 1.1bn internet users in 2006 with numbers set to reach 1.3bn for this year – these figures are in line with recent studies produced by both Morgan Stanley and The International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 01/08/2007

02/08/2007

258m mobile phones we were shipped worldwide in Q2 according to Strategy Analytics, writes ENN. The figure represents an 11% year-on-year increase and a 4% increase on Q1 2007 (247m units shipped). Total shipments for the first half of 2007 exceeded half a billion units for the first time, as demand remained particularly strong in emerging markets. Strategy Analytics predict that 283m mobiles will be sold during Q3. A similar study from IDC calculates global Q2 shipments at 272.7m, up 16.5% year-on-year.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 02/08/2007
Strategy Analytics: http://www.strategyanalytics.com

03/08/2007

According to the annual media sector study from Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) online advertising will surpass newspaper adspend by 2011, writes The Financial Times. VSS expect online to grow over 21% per year to reach $62bn (£30.63bn) in 2011 against a predicted figure of $60bn (£29.64bn) for newspaper advertising.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 07/08/2007
Veronis Suhler Stevenson: http://www.vss.com

08/08/2007

eMarketer projects that US marketers will spend $900m (£445m) on social networks this year. The study follows the latest annual figures from News Corp which show that MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media (FIM) made its first profit on revenues of $550m (£272). 80% of FIM’s revenues are thought to be generated from MySpace. Facebook is also in line to surpass expectations this year. Membership has grown from 8.9m users last September to over 31m active users. The site has partnered with Microsoft to sell banner advertising and is forecast to surpass eMarketer’s previous ad revenue projection of $125m (£62m) for 2007.
From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 13/08/2007
Source: eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com

14/08/2007

Microsoft has completed its biggest ever purchase with the $6.5bn (£3.2bn) acquisition of aQuantive, writes Netimperative. The deal was first announced in May and will now see Microsoft creating a new business group based around aQuantive’s operations. The Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) Group will be responsible for all of Microsoft’s ad platforms including Atlas, DrivePM and Microsoft’s own AdCentre. In-game ad firm Massive and mobile ad firm ScreenTonic will also be incorporated into the APS division.

From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 14/08/2007
Microsoft: http://www.hitwise.co.uk

15/08/2007

Figures for July from ComScore show that Bebo has grown 63% since the start of the year attracting 10.7m unique visitors during the month and putting it ahead of both MySpace (10.1m) and Facebook (7.6m), writes Brand Republic. Overall Bebo now reaches 32% of the UK population, while MySpace and Facebook reach 32% and 24% respectively. Bebo is particulalry strong in Europe with nearly 63% of its users from the region. Both Facebok and MySpace attract around two-thirds of their users from North America. Facebook remains the fastest growing social network in the UK however with growth of 366% since the start of the year. Bebo has also announced a deal with Microsoft to integrate their Windows Live Messenger service with the site. Users will be able to import and export their contact lists direcly between the two services and an IM Me icon will display their online presence allowing contacts to chat via the site. Bebo said that around 90% of their users also use Windows Live Messenger regularly.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 15/08/2007
Bebo: http://www.bebo.com

15/08/2007

Online research firm Hitwise have released a new widget detailing online usage trend data taken from from Hitwise To Go, writes Netimperative. The widget will feature data on online usage behaviour in the US, UK and Asia Pacific markets. Currently the tool is available on the Yahoo Widget platform but Hitwise intend to also release it for Google Gadget and Yourminis. Data from Hitwise To Go is drawn from the behaviour of over 25m internet users and how they interact with over 1m websites per day.

From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 16/08/2007
Hitwise: http://www.hitwise.co.uk

17/08/2007

Online research firm comScore is launching its new qSearch 2.0 interface which incorporates search results from sites beyond the major search engines, writes Netimperative. Currently comScore’s traditional measurement tools provide data from the five main US search engines (Google; Yahoo!; Microsoft; Ask and Time Warner Network). Under the new system comScore will add results taken from local search services (such as maps and local directories), in addition to data from the top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is identified, including sites such as MySpace, Baidu, and Naver. comScore will also be taking data from major “vertical” search locations (e.g. eBay, Amazon or Expedia). qSearch will also track data for searches which take place on partner sites and redirect users to search engines. According to comScore’s results for July, Google Sites kept their top place with 55.2% of searches made among the top five engines, followed by Yahoo! Sites (23.5%), Microsoft Sites (12.3%) Ask Network (4.7%) and Time Warner Network (4.4%).
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 21/08/2007
ComScore: http://www.comscore.com

22/08/2007

Google-owned video site YouTube has placed its first ads on the site, writes ENN. The ads will only run on the most popular content provided by YouTube partners, with revenues being split between them. The ads themselves take the form of semi-transparent overlays which run over the bottom fifth of the video screen. The ads start roughly 15 seconds into a clip and disappear if they are not clicked on after 10 seconds. If a user clicks on the ad the main video is temporarily paused while the overlay plays on top. YouTube developed the format after research suggested that most users would not accept pre-roll ads directly built into the clips. YouTube currently has around 130m subscribers and partners now include the BBC, Warner Music and Chelsea Football Club.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 22/08/2007
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com

22/08/2007

New estimates from eMarketer predict that mobile ad spend in Western Europe will grow to $3.46bn (£1.71bn) in 2011 from $382m (£189m) in 2006. Data from the European Information Technology Observatory (EITO) forecasts that the European mobile subscriber market will total 850m users by the end of 2007 and will reach 920m by 2010.
From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 22/08/2007
Source: eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com/

23/08/2007

Google-owned video site YouTube has placed its first ads on the site, writes ENN. The ads will only run on the most popular content provided by YouTube partners, with revenues being split between them. The ads themselves take the form of semi-transparent overlays which run over the bottom fifth of the video screen. The ads start roughly 15 seconds into a clip and disappear if they are not clicked on after 10 seconds. If a user clicks on the ad the main video is temporarily paused while the overlay plays on top. YouTube developed the format after research suggested that most users would not accept pre-roll ads directly built into the clips. YouTube currently has around 130m subscribers and partners now include the BBC, Warner Music and Chelsea Football Club.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 22/08/2007
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com

23/08/2007

Author and President of Crayon

August 2007

Joseph Jaffe is a passionate digital marketing thinker who puts massive energy into transforming traditional and new businesses. He feels that the whole marketing process needs a rebuild to capture the changes in consumer attitudes and online challenges for brands. In his ten points about the dramatic shift in the relations between consumers and marketers he indicates a path businesses should take.

Download the article (right-click and select save/download)

Join the news service so you hear about future reports (include your company details and areas of interest)

24/08/2007

Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report argues that widespread use of mobile internet services in the UK is just around the corner, writes Brand Republic. The report identified four main developments necessary for greater usage:

• 3G usage has become more commonplace as connections reached 7.8m in 2006
• the majority of handsets now have internet capability
• mobile internet charges have fallen
• mobile operators are now able to offer internet services comparable fixed-line counterparts.

24/08/2007

The IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) index shows that UK online shopping in July grew 80% year-on-year to reach a new high of £4.2bn, writes Brand Republic. Average growth for the 12 months prior to July was 36%. Electrical goods sales grew fastest, rising 102% from the previous year. Online sales of clothing and accessories reached a new high with growth of 56%.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 25/09/2007
IMRG: http://www.imrg.org

26/08/2007

The latest quarterly figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that 61% of UK households (15m households) now have internet access. Access has risen by 7% since 2006 (equivalent to just over 1m households) and by 36% (4m households) since 2002. 84% of those with internet access now have broadband connections, up from 69% in 2006. Overall, broadband services accounted for 86.1% of all internet connections in June, from 83.6% in March. Dial up services accounted for only 13.9% of connections.
ONS: http://www.statistics.gov.uk, 28/08/2007

29/08/2007

CEO Biotics International

July 2007

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Join the news service

17/07/2007

Insight & Analysis | By Danny Meadows-Klue | This article was written for IDM

Coming back to Mexico, I’m coming to a new country. The billboards from the airport are shouting out web addresses, WiFi internet access seems to be just about everywhere, and it’s not just the USA websites people are logging onto; Mexico’s home grown online media is in boom time. There are 22 million online users in México, with a big slant to upmarket professionals. The web is now about 1% of brand advertising spend in Mexico, and it’s focussed on a narrow group, but this is a gap that will close in the next 18 months. The demographics are broadening fast and the web is no longer just a high-end office worker tool, but thanks to the collapsing price of broadband is opening up to Mexico’s middle classes. 3.4 million people are banking online, and e-commerce is at record levels.

18/07/2007  |  Full story...

Google has gone shopping again this month, this time purchasing RSS distribution firm FeedBurner, writes ClickZ. The purchase will enable Google to expand its AdSense network by placing ads on FeedBurner's database of over 430,000 feeds. Terms have not been disclosed although reports have mentioned the sum of $100m (£50m).
Last month Google also announced the launch of its latest application Google Gears - an open source offline browser tool which lets users use web-based apps even when they are offline. The company has already made its Google Reader feed service compatible so that feeds can be automatically downloaded to PCs for reading when users are offline.
From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 01/06/2007
FeedBurner: http://www.feedburner.com

01/06/2007

Source: comScore World Metrix
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

02/06/2007

Unique People, Age 15+
Worldwide Audience - Home and Work Locations*

Source: comScore World Metrix
comScore http://www.comscore.com

03/06/2007

New figures for April from comScore show that UK internet users spend the most time per month online, averaging 34.4 hours per user, writes Brand Republic. comScore's study tracked 16 countries across Europe and also found that the UK had the highest average number of daily users (21,767) and the highest usage days per month (21 per user). The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries have the highest proportions of internet users, with averages ranging from 68% to 83%. Germany remains Europe's leading online nation with 36.2m people aged 15+ going online. On average 122m Europeans used the internet on any given day in April against 114m in the US. The average European went online on 16.5 days during the month and spent 24 hours viewing 2,662 web pages.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 04/06/2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

04/06/2007

New figures from Nielsen//NetRatings show that Microsoft is the UK's leading online advertiser so far this year, writes Brand Republic. Out of 16,300 campaigns Microsoft ran 104, followed by Hewlett Packard (75 campaigns) and O2 (67 campaigns). In total the top 20 advertisers accounted for fewer than 7% of all online campaigns.
The study follows the news that Microsoft has made its biggest ever purchase, buying advertising network aQuantive for around $6bn in the latest example of online ad industry consolidation. Seattle-based aQuantive has about 2,600 employees and owns ad technology firm Atlas in addition to online inventory specialist DRIVEpm (formerly MediaBrokers) and digital ad agency Avenue A | Razorfish.
From Brand Republic http://www.brandrepublic.com, 05/06/2007
Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com,

05/06/2007

The industry continues to set new records as revenues leap 26% year-on-year. The latest figures from the US Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP show how the world's largest online advertising market continues to grow at a rapid pace, reaching a new record of $4.9bn (£2.45bn) for the first quarter of 2007. Specific drivers of the growth include search engine advertising, video formats and the continued growth of online in the purchase research process.

Source: IAB US http://www.iab.net, 06/06/2007

07/06/2007

Unique People, Age 15+
Worldwide Audience - Home and Work Locations*

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
** Sum of components may equal more than total due to rounding
*** N/A - Residents in January below minimum reporting standard

Source: comScore World Metrix
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

13/06/2007

IBM is recreating a virtual Wimbledon tennis tournament in Second Life, writes Computing.co.uk. Users will be able to watch matches played out by avatars using real data from the championships. IBM is only the latest in a long line of firms who have tried to tap into the virtual world's appeal. The BBC recently made its first foray into the online world when it broadcast a special virtual version of the 'Money Programme' devoted to financial news about Second Life.
New figures from comScore Networks show that Second Life attracted 1.3m users in March, up 46% on figures for January. 61% of active Second Life users are based in Europe (777,000), with 19% in North America (243,000) and 13% in Asia (167,000). Germany comes top of the results with 209,000 users, just ahead of the US with 207,000 users.
From Computing.co.uk http://www.computing.co.uk, 19/06/2007
Second Life: http://www.secondlife.com

19/06/2007

At Digital we continue to try sifting the research and news that matters most for executives in the digital industry, and in this month's edition we're tracking how European and US adspend data revealed major leaps forward, as consumer and business brands upped their budgets.

The Google family of companies continued to broaden, there was another wave of acquisitions, and the virtual world of Second Life swelled to more than 6 million residents - with over 1.3m of them active in the month.

In Europe '1 day a month' is the new magic number. Across the continent the average internet user now spends 24 hours online each month helping put in perspective the scale of the shift in time and focus. UK audiences take pole position, clocking up a staggering 34 hours with the most entrenched online community.

Read June 2007

19/06/2007

This list features the most popular websites based on UK Internet usage for May 2007, ranked by market share of visits across all Hitwise industries.

Source: Hitwise Datacentre, May 2007, based on market share of visits
Hitwise: http://www.hitwise.co.uk/datacenter

09/05/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

10/05/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

11/05/2007

Unique Visitors, Age 15+
January 2007
U.S. Audience

* Does not include operator landing sites

Source: comScore/ Telephia MobileWeb Metrix
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

12/05/2007

Unique Visitors, Age 15+
January 2007
U.K. Audience

* Does not include operator landing sites such as O2 Active

Source: comScore/ Telephia MobileWeb Metrix
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

13/05/2007

Unique Visitors, Age 15+
U.K. & U.S. Audiences

* Mobile to PC User Index is defined as the percentage of Mobile Web users in each age bracket divided by the percentage of PC-based Internet users in the same age bracket. Differences in reach % may not be statistically significant.

Source: comScore/ Telephia MobileWeb Metrix
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

14/05/2007

According to a new study from Telephia and comScore, 5.7m UK internet users went online using their mobiles in January, writes Netimperative. 30m people went online using their computers during the same period, making the British mobile internet market 19% of its computer-based equivalent. These figures put the UK ahead of the US where 30m (or 17%) of the country's 176m computer-based internet users also access the internet using their mobiles.
The UK's mobile web audience remains predominantly young: 67% of those going online via their mobiles are 35 years or younger. The same age group accounts for 39% of computer-based internet users.
The study also revealed the leading mobile internet sites in both countries based on unique visitors, with MSN, Yahoo! and Google featuring in the top five for each country.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 15/05/2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

15/05/2007

AOL has bought a controlling interest in German ad-serving firm ADTECH, writes Brand Republic. The firm will operate as an independent and majority-controlled subsidiary of AOL's Advertising.com division. ADTECH's ad-serving platform provides a number of ad management tools which help web publishers to manage, traffic and report on their online advertising campaigns. Frankfurt-based ADTECH currently has operations in 25 countries including a US office which opened last Autumn
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com,16/05/2007
ADTECH: http://www.adtech.info

16/05/2007

24/7 Real Media has agreed to be bought by WPP Group for $649m (£328m) in a deal set to close in Q3, writes Netimperative. The move follows similar recent acquisitions in the industry including Google's purchase of DoubleClick and Yahoo's purchase of Right Media. WPP's Chief Executive Martin Sorrell told Reuters that the firm considering further purchases of small to medium-sized digital advertising companies.
From Netimperative:http://www.netimperative.com,18/05/2007
24/7 Real Media:http://www.247realmedia.com

18/05/2007

Yahoo! Is said to be working on a $1bn (£500m) takeover deal to buy social networking site Bebo, writes The Sunday Telegraph. Bebo, founded in 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife Xochi, is said to have turned down an offer from BT last year worth £300m. Viacom is also believed to have made an offer last year. Bebo is now more popular than MySpace in the UK, though globally it is about quarter of the size with 25m registered users compared to MySpace's 100m.
Yahoo! made a similar $1bn bid for Facebook last year which was rejected by Mark Zuckerberg, the site's founder.
From The Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk, 21/05/2007
Bebo: http://www.bebo.com

21/05/2007

The IPA and ISBA have teamed up to launch their inaugural best practice guide for online campaigns, writes Brand Republic. The '10 Easy Steps to Best Practice in Online Campaign Development' guide is designed to help agencies and clients work better together to produce successful and on-brief online campaigns. The guide covers the ten areas where both clients and agencies feel the current process can breakdown, including briefing and strategy, budgets, design, development and campaign launch.
Source: Brand Republic http://www.brandrepublic.com, 24/05/2007
IPA http://www.ipa.co.uk

24/05/2007

comScore World Metrix figures show that Facebook was the UK's fastest growing site in April, writes New Media Age. Traffic to the site grew 38% to reach 3.7m (up 90% for March and April combined). Other social networking and sharing sites also did well: Bebo grew 6% from March 2007 while Photobucket grew 5% to reach 2.5m visitors.
At the end of May Facebook announced the release of a new open development platform (dubbed Facebook Platform) which allows third-party coders to build widget-style applications for the site. Some 85 applications have already been built including a music player a photo slideshow and a video message sender. Facebook have signed-up 65 partners to develop further applications including Microsoft, Amazon and PhotoBucket.
From comScore: http://www.comscore.com, 29/05/2007
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com

29/05/2007

Fox Interactive Media (FIM) has acquired both Photobucket and Flektor, writes Netimperative. FIM (a division of News Corporation and MySpace owner) was reported to have offered $250m (£151m) for Photobucket at the beginning of May. Photobucket provides picture, slideshow and video sharing services to over 42m users across 300,000 websites. 47% of all Photobucket users link to social networking website such as MySpace. Flextor provides media tools which allow users to edit video and audio files to create mash-ups and other user-generated clips.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 30/05/2007
Photobucket: http://photobucket.com
Flektor: http://www.flektor.com

30/05/2007

CBS Corporation has bought UK-based social-networking music website Last.fm for $280m (£140m), writes Netimperative. Last.fm currently has over 15m active users and helps users to find and connect with other people with similar tastes in music. Users can also build custom-made "radio stations" and view music clips online. The firm's management team, including founders Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones will continue to run the site which will retain an independent identity from CBS. CBS is the largest radio group in the US with 179 stations.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 30/05/2007
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm,

30/05/2007

eBay has bought StumbleUpon for $75m (£38m) in cash, writes Netimperative. StumbleUpon recommends content, websites and other online information to its members based on votes from other users with similar interests. StumbleUpon currently has 2.3m registered users and receives 5m new recommendations for online content per day. According to analysts the site's peer recommendation system could be used to help eBay users find online auctions which match their interests.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 31/05/2007
StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com

31/05/2007

A new study from ZenithOptimedia predicts that global online adspend will grow six times faster than traditional media spend between 2006 and 2009, with its share of the market growing from 5.8% to 8.7% during the same period (with revenues rising from $23.4bn to $42.9bn (£11.83bn to £21.68bn)), writes ClickZ. The company now expects global online advertising to overtake radio by 2008 - a year earlier than they predicted in December. This will put online in fourth place behind television, newspapers and magazines. ZenithOptimedia predicts that online spending will grow 28.2% during 2007 (against total market growth of 3.7%). By 2009, online adspend will account for nearly 9% of all advertising expenditure. Online adspend already accounts for more than 10% of total marketing spend in the UK, Norway and Sweden.
From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 03/04/2007
ZenithOptimedia: http://www.zenithoptimedia.com

03/04/2007

New figures from Ofcom show that over 50% of British adults now have broadband access at home (from 39% in 2006), writes Netimperative. Over 13m UK homes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) now have broadband services, up from 9.9m in 2006 and 330,000 in 2001. 23% of those without internet access at home expect to connect in the coming year with 76% saying they will go for broadband services. Bundled services are also growing in popularity: at the end of 2006 40% of all UK adults with home broadband services also took other communications services from the same provider. The report also found that the average broadband connection speed has risen from 1.6 Mbit/s in 2005 to 3.8 Mbit/s in 2006. In February 2007 21% of British adults owned a Wi-Fi enabled laptop, one third of whom had used public Wi-Fi services.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 04/04/2007
Ofcom: www.ofcom.org.uk

04/04/2007

Ford, Nike, Unilever and Samsung are all taking part in the UK's biggest ever in-game advertising trial, writes Mad.co.uk. The three-month trial will include games for the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox 360 Live and PC platforms. Ford is promoting its new Fiesta ST model with ads in racing games Need for Speed Carbon, TOCA3 and Trackmedia Sunrise. Ads for Nike, Samsung and Unilever's Sure for Men will be featured in a selection of shoot-'em-up games. Media agency MindShare Interaction brokered the deals in conjunction with Microsoft-owned in-game specialist Massive. Research firm TNS will measure page impressions during the trial - here defined as the duration a player sees an ad.
According to figures from Microsoft the in-game ad market was worth $56m (£28.4m) in 2005 and is set to reach $1.8bn (£912.1m) by 2010. A further forecast from eMarketer echoes Microsoft's view. eMarketer estimate that the global combined video game ad market will increase at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 23% over the next five years, reaching almost $2bn (£1.01bn) by 2011.
From Mad.co.uk: http://www.mad.co.uk, 05/04/2007
MindShare: http://www.mindshareworld.com

05/04/2007

A survey of 700 internet marketers has found that 60% of British firms intend to increase their search engine marketing in the next 12 months, writes Netimperative. The UK Search Engine Marketing Report 2007 from E-consultancy and Neutralize also found that 62% of firms will be spending more on search engine optimisation (SEO) to increase the visibility of their campaigns. 56% of those polled said that their companies spend more than £10,000 annually on paid search, while 25% spend over £100,000 annually. On average respondents said that they spend 32% of total budgets on online campaigns, of which 32% went on search marketing. 61% of the search marketing budget is spend on paid search with 33% spent on SEO. Google was considered the best search engine in five categories: return on investment, quality of traffic, volume of traffic, customer service and PPC management tools.
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 12/04/2007
E-consultancy: http://www.e-consultancy.com

12/04/2007

According to the latest Bellwether Report from the IPA a net total of 7.7% of companies surveyed increased their marketing budgets during Q1 this year, writes Brand Republic. Overall 54% of companies intend to increase their budgets this year, while only 17% intend to reduce them. The 37% net increase represents the highest rise since 2000. 19% of companies said that they had increased their spending on online marketing during Q1. Online adspend now represents around £2bn of annual marketing spend.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 16/04/2007
IPA: http://www.ipa.co.uk

16/04/2007

Google has agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1bn (£1.6bn), out-bidding Microsoft and Yahoo! In the process, writes Netimperative. The deal values Doubleclick at almost three times the $1.1bn (£560m) it fetched in 2005 and will give Google access to DoubleClick's ad serving technologies and client base (which includes AOL and MySpace). The acquisition will significantly boost Google's revenues from display advertising, consolidating the firm's position in the online advertising sector. The sale should be completed by the end of the year
From Netimperative: http://www.netimperative.com, 17/04/2007

17/04/2007

Freeview is now on the main television set in 8.2m British homes according to new research from GfK, writes Brand Republic. Although BSkyB has 8.4m subscribers this figure also includes viewers in the Republic of Ireland (which Freeview does not serve). In total Freeview is now present in 11m UK homes, when all enabled TV sets are taken into account. Freeview is set to launch its new Freeview Playback digital TV recorder to compete with BSkyB's Sky+ service. The recorder will cost around £150 and will include an electronic TV guide, one-touch recording, pausing of live TV and automatic series recording. According to Freeview 1.7m digital boxes and integrated digital televisions were sold during Q1 and roughly half a million new households selected the service as a primary TV source.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 19/04/2007
Freeview: http://www.freeview.co.uk

19/04/2007

Google's Q1 profits rose 69% to $1bn (£499m) (from $592.3m (£299.38m) in 2006), writes ClickZ. Revenues for the period grew 63% to reach $3.66bn (£1.83bn). The UK saw revenues of $578m (£288m), representing 16% of Q1 revenues (up from 15% in Q1 2006). Combined non-US international revenues totalled $1.71bn (£860m) (47% of total revenues against 42% in 2006). Net sales were up 66% to $2.53bn (£1.28bn). Google-owned sites generated ad revenues of $2.28bn (£1.15bn) (up 76% year-on-year) and representing 62% of total sales.

From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 19/4/2007

19/04/2007

First quarter profits at eBay rose from $248.3m (£125.5m) in 2006 to $377.2m (£190.66m) this year - an increase of 52%, writes Total Content + Media. Revenues for the period grew 27% to reach $1.77bn (£890m) from $1.39bn (£700m) a year ago and for the first time were equally divided between eBay's US and overseas businesses. During the quarter 82.9m eBay users sold goods worth $14.28bn (£722m) - 14% up on last year's $12.5bn (£632m). Recent efforts by the firm to improve buyer experience paid off as revenues generated per listing reached $2.13 (£1.08) (from $1.77 (£0.89) in 2006).
Revenues at Paypal were also up, rising 31% to $439m (£221.89m) to account for roughly 25% of eBay's total sales. Skype reported its first profit as revenues rose 123% to reach $77m (£38.92m).
From Total Content + Media: http://www.totalcontentandmedia.com, 19/04/07
eBay UK: http://www.ebay.co.uk

19/04/2007

Hitwise has been sold to Experian for $240m (£120m), writes The Guardian. The company will be integrated into Experian's Marketing Solutions division. Using data from ISPs Hitwise tracks nearly 1m website every day and reports on the online activities of over 25m consumers. The firm has grown its customer base by over 40% in the last two years and now has over 1,200 clients including Google, eBay, AXA and HSBC. Hitwise has 200 employees across its New York, London and Melbourne offices and will now join other Experian-owned companies including email firm CheetahMail, consultancy Clarity Blue and the online shopping comparison site pricegrabber.com.
From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk, 19/04/2007
Hitwise: http://www.hitwise.com

19/04/2007

Source: Millward Brown
Millward Brown: hhttp://www.millwardbrown.com

23/04/2007

Source: Millward Brown
Millward Brown: http://www.millwardbrown.com

23/04/2007

Google has overtaken Microsoft in Millward Brown's annual "Brandz Top 100" Most Powerful Brands survey, writes ENN. The list combines both brand value and consumer response. Google more than doubled its brand value since the last survey to be valued at $66.4bn (£33.1bn), ahead of both General Electric ($61.9bn - £31.29bn) and Microsoft ($55bn - £27.80bn). The total value of the top 100 brands has grown by 10.6% in the last twelve months to $1.6tr (£810bn). In the UK, Vodafone is the most valuable brand, followed by HSBC and Tesco. Marks & Spencer had the biggest rise in the past year, tripling its brand value to come fourth in the UK and 68th worldwide.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 23/04/2007
Millward Brown: hhttp://www.millwardbrown.com

23/04/2007

Figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the number of subscribers to broadband services worldwide grew 26% in 2006, writes ClickZ. The year-end total reached 197m, from 157m at the end of 2005. Per capita 16.9 subscribers/100 inhabitants had access to broadband services (up from 15.5 subscribers in mid-2006 and 13.5 in 2005). The US still has the world's largest broadband population with 29% of all broadband connections (totalling 58.1m subscribers at the end of 2006).
From ClickZ : http://www.clickz.com, 25/04/2007
OECD: http://www.oecd.org

25/04/2007

Amazon's first quarter profits more than doubled from $51m (£25.78m) in Q1 2006 to $111m (£56.10m) in Q1 this year writes ENN. Revenues rose 32% during the same period to reach $3.02bn (£1.53bn) . Sales in North America rose 30% (to $1.62bn (£8.82bn)) while Amazon's international outlets grew 35% (to $1.39bn (£700m)).
The news was followed by reports that Amazon is intending to enter the digital music download market. Amazon is apparently interested in selling DRM-free tracks and has been encouraged by EMI's decision to sell tracks without restrictions. The firm is said to have started talks with major labels.
Figures from Strategy Analytics predict that the global online music market will grow 62% in 2007, to reach $2.7bn (£1.36bn). This is forecast to increase to over $6.6bn (£3.34bn) by 2011.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 25/04/2007
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk

25/04/2007

Q1 profits at Microsoft grew 65% as consumers bought the latest Vista operating system, writes CNET. Net income reached $4.93bn (£2.5bn), from $2.98bn (£1.5bn) in Q1 2006. Revenues increased 32% during the same period to reach $14.4bn (£7.28bn) (from $10.9bn (£5.51bn) in 2006). Advertising revenues during the quarter grew 23% year-on-year as traffic to Microsoft sites grew 4%. According to data from Nielsen//NetRatings the three-month average monthly unique audience rose from 113.7m unique visitors in Q1 2006 to 117.8m in Q1 2007.
Microsoft has also announced that it is adding instant message capability to the Xbox 360. From 7th May Windows Live Messenger users on the Xbox 360 will be able to communicate through either an on-screen virtual keyboard or through a USB keyboard. Microsoft are planning to launch a new text-inputting device this Summer for the Xbox 360.
From CNET: http://news.com, 26/04/2007
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com

26/04/2007

Online adspend is already topping 10% of the media channel mix in several countries, and ZenithOptimedia are predicting that worldwide it's now on course to top radio by next year.

In the UK our own analysis now puts online above direct mail, and we remain confident in our 2005 prediction that online would overtake TV adspend in the UK by the end of the decade.

Although online can build brands as powerfully as it can generate direct sales, the success of search engine advertising continues to be a key driver in the refocusing of marketing towards the web across Europe. That's why this month our Company Focus looks at Google, with a round up of the top ten news stories from the search giant.

Read April 2007

27/04/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-online.com/

29/04/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-online.com/

29/04/2007

Total Unique Visitors (000), Age 15+
Total Worldwide - Home and Work Locations

Source: comScore World Metrix, February 2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

29/04/2007

The IPA has published a list of UK-based media companies who have complied with the industry standard 30Kb creative file size. The list includes key media firms such as Yahoo!, Channel Four, AOL, Haymarket and Orange. The format was agreed last November in a joint consultation with the IAB and the ISBA. Under the agreement the format will be reviewed annually with a long-term view to increasing the limit.
IPA press release: http://www.ipa.co.uk, 01/03/2007

01/03/2007

Digital ad firm DoubleClick has bought Tangozebra for £15m, writes Netimperitive. Tangozebra's rich media products will be merged with DoubleClick's DART platform to create an integrated management suite able to create, serve and track all digital advertising formats (including rich-media, podcasting and in-game advertising). DoubleClick is also planning to integrate mobile ad serving into its DART platform this year. Following the merger DoubleClick's team will grow to over 250 staff.Digi
News of the merger has been followed by reports that DoubleClick has been put up for sale for around $2bn (£1.1bn). Microsoft is said to be interested in buying the firm though has not made any public announcement.
From Netimperitive: http://www.netimperative.com, 01/03/2007
DoubleClick UK: http://emea.doubleclick.com/uk

01/03/2007

The BBC is to launch three branded video channels on the online video sharing site YouTube, writes Brand Republic. A "public service" BBC channel will have clips of new programs and specially comissioned online-only content designed to tie-in with popular shows like "Dr. Who" and "Life on Mars". The channel will aim to raise awareness of current programming and drive traffic back to the BBC's website. The BBC Worldwide channel will provide archive clips from entertainment shows and factual programmes (such as wildlife prorammes). This channel will include some advertising. Finally, the BBC News channel will offer around 30 news clips each day. It will be fully funded from advertising but will not be available to users from the UK.
The BBC hopes the channels will drive users to its forthcoming online iPlayer service in addition to raising revenues for BBC Worldwide.
The BBC has also announced a twelve-month 3G mobile trial in partnership with 3 UK, Orand and Vodafone. The service will include live streaming of BBC One, BBC News 24, BBC3 and up to 8 radio stations.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 02/03/2007
YouTube BBC press release:http://www.youtube.com

02/03/2007

A top Microsoft executive has predicted that the majority of the firm's adspend will be spent online by 2010, writes BizReport. Speaking at the AAAA Media Conference Mich Mathews (Senior Vice-President of Microsoft's Central Marketing Group) said: "We're actually pretty confident that by 2010, the majority of our media mix will shift to digital." She went on to explain that we had now entered "The Era of Customer Participation" in which broadcasting to passive targets is being replaced by audience interaction. However, TV and print will not be completely abandoned and will still be used for tactical roles. Microsoft has recently signed up to eBay's TV ad auction system in the US. Figures from Advertising Age show that Microsoft spent $945m in total marketing during 2005.
From BizReport: http://www.bizreport.com, 05/03/2007
Microsoft UK: http://www.microsoft.co.uk/

05/03/2007

747m internet users aged 15+ went online in January 2007, up 10% year-on-year, reports eMarketer. According to the figures from comScore, India, the Russian Federation and China showed the highest growth, with increases of 33%, 21% and 20% respectively. China now has 86.8m internet users (aged 15+), second only to the US with 153.4m users. For time spent online, Canada came top with 39.6 hours/month, followed by Israel (37.4 hours/month) and South Korea (34.0 hours/month). In each of the top ten countries broadband users spent significantly more time online than narrowband users.
From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 07/03/2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

07/03/2007

Notes:
1. Unique visitors are aged 15 or older.
2. Data excludes traffic from public computers, such as Internet cafes and access from mobile phones and PDAs.
Source: comScore, January 2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

07/03/2007

Among Visitors Age 15+*
January 2007
Total Worldwide - All Locations

* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
** Level of narrowband penetration extremely low, therefore an accurate reportable estimate is not available.
Source: comScore World Metrix
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

07/03/2007

Figures from the US IAB/PwC study shows that online adspend rose 34% in 2006 to reach $16.8bn (£8.50bn) (from $12.5bn (£6.33bn) in 2005). Based on the IAB/PwC results eMarketer have release their latest market predictions, forecasting that online adspend will reach $36.5bn (£18.5bn) in 2011. eMarketer expect double digit growth to continue until at least 2011 for the following reasons:

• Audiences will continue to spend more time online and advertisers will need to keep up with them, shifting their spending away from other media.
• The greater targeting and tracking of online marketing will continue to make the medium more attractive.
• As new formats such as online video become more widely used large brand marketers will devote more of their budgets to online campaigns.

From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 20/03/2007
IAB US: http://www.iab.net

20/03/2007

News Corporation and NBC Universal are to launch a new online video website, writes Brand Republic. The site will include thousands of hours of back catalogue TV programmes, films and clips available for free. The two firms have also signed distribution partnership agreements with AOL, Yahoo! and Microsoft. The service will be funded through advertising and Cisco, Intel, General Motors and Cadbury-Schweppes are all said to be lined up.
From Brand Republic: http://www.brandrepublic.com, 22/03/2007
News Corporation: http://www.newscorp.com

22/03/2007

Over half of all Irish internet users are now using broadband services to get online, writes ENN. New figures, published by the Commission for Communication Regulation (ComReg) show that 50.1% of Ireland's 1.036m active internet subscriptions are broadband connections. Broadband subscriptions rose 80,000 during Q4 2006 to reach 517,000. ComReg estimate that 71% of Irish broadband connection are residential.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 27/03/2007
ComReg: http://www.comreg.ie

27/03/2007

Yahoo!'s new search ranking model has increased the number of click-throughs from sponsored search results according to new data from comScore, writes Netimperitive. Sponsored search click-throughs rose 5% in the first week and 9% in the second week following the launch of Yahoo!'s new model. The new ranking model is one of the elements of Yahoo!'s new 'Project Panama' search advertising system which takes into account the click-rate of online ads when determining which ads to run alongside search results.
Yahoo! has also announced the launch of its new Yahoo Mobile Ad Network which will enable marketers to place ads on the mobile sites of third-party publishers. Yahoo! intends to deliver text, display and video ads for mobile sites within the next few months. Yahoo! is aggresively moving into the mobile domain and has also announced the launch of three new mobile services: Yahoo Mobile Content Engine, Mobile Media Directory and Mobile Site Submit.
From Netimperitive: http://www.netimperative.com, 27/03/2007
Yahoo! UK: http://uk.yahoo.com

27/03/2007

New research from eMarketer suggests that the UK is now Europe's leading online economy. As competition in the communications sector has pushed prices down, broadband subscriptions and time spent online have risen. The UK now has 12m broadband-enabled households, overtaking both Germany (11.8m) and France (11.2m). In addition, UK internet users each spend up to six hours more online per week. As of March 2007, 47.1% of UK households had broadband connections and eMarketer predict that this could rise to 76.8% by 2011 (equivalent to 20m households). Further data also shows that the internet is showing high penetration across all age groups: nearly 25% of British users are now over 50.
Informa's Converging Media (CM) Index for May 2006 (which measures digital content consumption across multiple platforms) also estimated that the UK was the most digital country in Western Europe.
From ENN: http://www.emarketer.com, 28/03/2007
Informa: http://www.informa.com

28/03/2007

The online ad market grew 41.2% in 2006 as advertisers spent £2.016bn on internet advertising, reports IAB UK. According to the latest IAB UK/PwC online adspend study, online marketing now accounts for 11.4% of all advertising (from 7.8% in 2005). The study also revealed that:

• Online adspend overtook national newspapers for the first time as newspapers grew 0.2% to £1.9bn (and 10.9% market share).
• Advertising across all traditional media combined fell 2.9% (£466.1m). However with the increase in online spending the entire market grew 1.1%.
• Online adspend reached £1.098bn in the second half of 2006 - 12.4% of all UK advertising.
• The UK now leads the world for share of advertising online; the global average is 5.8%.

28/03/2007

A study from the DSL Forum shows that DSL subscriptions grew 30% during 2006 to reach 185m, writes Telecoms.com. Total broadband subscriptions reached over 281m, giving DSL a 65.7% market share. In Europe 17.5m users took out DSL subscriptions during 2006, up 36% on 2005 to reach 66,374,600. Europe's total accounted for 35% of all DSC subscriptions worldwide. The US remains the world's largest broadband market with over 57m subscribers. China, the world's second market, added 14.4m subscribers in 2006 to reach 51.9m.
From Telecoms.com: http://www.telecoms.com, 29/03/2007
DSL Forum: http://www.dslforum.org

29/03/2007

Online adspend broke the £2bn mark here in the UK and closed 2006 with 12.4% of the total advertising cake. Almost exactly in line with our prediction in the Autumn (12.5%), the growth in search continued to fuel web ads (paid for clicks account for 58% of the total), alongside a broadening of the firms using graphical and banner formats. The increase of 41% sees web adspend overtake national newspapers, and cross the threshold of being half the size of the TV market. With total advertising spend rising only 1.1% year on year, it's clear that the web is now the main driver in the wider advertising economy.

The UK may be the largest online advertising market in Europe, but growth has been strong in France, Spain, Scandinavia and Germany. The audit of the Spanish market - also published this month - revealed another massive leap: online marketing in Spain grew 91.38% in 2006, reaching €310.5m and taking 4.25% of all combined Spanish adspend. Search marketing in Spain rose 132,41% (46.58% of all online adspend).

Read March 2007

30/03/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

31/03/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

31/03/2007

This list features the most popular websites based on UK Internet usage for February 2007, ranked by market share of visits across all Hitwise industries.

Source: Hitwise Datacentre, February 2007, based on market share of visits
Hitwise: http://www.hitwise.co.uk/datacenter

31/03/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

31/03/2007

Methodology: Chart represents the value of display advertising in both standard and non-standard ad formats. Media expenditure estimates do not always take into account special considerations including publisher discounts, barter agreements, co-sponsorship, affiliate relationships, etc.
Source: TNS Media Intelligence
TNS Media Intelligence: TNS Media Intelligence

31/03/2007

Google's Q4 profits rose from $372m (£189m) to $1.03bn year on year, writes ENN. Net profits after adjustments and charges were $997m (£518m). Revenues for the quarter grew 67% (from $1.92bn (£998m) to $3.21bn (£1.67bn)) compared to Q4 2005 and 19% compared to Q3 2006. International revenues accounted for 44% of total income. Google-owned sites generated $1.98bn (£1.03bn), up 80% from the year before ($1.10bn or £572m), while partner sites generated $1.20bn (£624m) (up 50% on 2005's figure of $799m (£415)). Advertising-related paid clicks increased 61% from the year before and 22% from the previous quarter.
Google is also moving into in-game advertising with the $23m (£11.8m) acquisition of Adscape Media Inc. The move follows Microsoft's $200m purchase of Massive Inc. last year and reflects industry expectations that the sector will continue to show strong growth. According to Yankee Group Research in-game ad revenues will be worth up to $700m (£364m) by 2010.
From ENN: http://www.electricnews.net, 01/02/2007
Google: http://www.google.com

01/02/2007

Ten British online advertising networks have joined forces to form an online ad exchange, writes Netimperitive. Through the exchange created by the AdECN (UK) Consortium, members will be able to buy and sell inventory from a single online destination. The consortium is a not-for-profit entity created in partnership with California-based AdECN, the developer behind the exchange technology. The exchange should streamline the process of buying and selling inventory and help ad networks to sell to the widest market at the best possible price. To sell inventory, members will list available ad spots in the exchange, specifying allowable content and a minimum price. To buy inventory, members will specify how much their advertisers want to pay for their campaign based on a range of targeting factors and can bid on a CPM, CPC, or CPA basis. When a visitor visits a webpage an automated 12 milliseconds auction will be triggered between any interested advertisers for each ad impression. AdECN remains neutral during the transaction and only retains a flat fee for acting as a clearing-house for all transactions.
The AdECN US exchange has been operating in a limited capacity for over a year and AdECN is also set to launch a Chinese exchange in partnership with Fuhu Ltd. However the launch of trading on the UK exchange in March will make it the first fully operational AdECN marketplace in the world.
From Netimperitive: http://www.netimperative.com, 05/02/2007
AdECN press release (PDF): http://adecn.themandco.com

05/02/2007

Q3 revenues for BT grew to £5.1bn, up 5% year on year writes The Guardian. Profits grew 13% to £643m (from £568m) as the company attracted more broadband users. BT Retail announced that it had gained 239,000 new broadband customers during the quarter with broadband revenues rising 24% to £233m. In total BT Retail now supplies over 3.2m broadband users in the UK. For the first time since 2002 BT also gained more residential telephone customers than it lost during the period.
From The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk, 08/02/2007
British Telecom: http://www.bt.com

08/02/2007

* Excludes traffic from co-branded sites
** Powered by Match.com
Total France - Home and Work Locations
Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Source: comScore World Metrix, February 2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

10/02/2007

* Excludes traffic from sites powered by Match.com
Total UK - Home and Work Locations
Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Source: comScore World Metrix, February 2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

10/02/2007

Yahoo! has launched its new mobile ad platform in 19 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas, writes ClickZ. The ads appear near the top of the Yahoo! Mobile Web homepage and represent the first formal use of graphical adverts on its mobile sites. Yahoo! is now using a new publishing platform designed to provide better content and marketing opportunities. The new ads feature click-through and click-to-call functionality and Yahoo's! new system is able to fluidly target ad sizes and creatives to match the screen size and functionality of a user's handset. Eight global advertisers including Intel, Nissan, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble have run campaigns with using the new ad system. In Europe, Yahoo! have launched the ads in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Yahoo! have also revamped navigation on their Mobile Web homepage to better integrate access to search, email, IM, news and sports services. In addition, they also released a new version of their Yahoo! Go 2.0 mobile client software, first launched in January 2006.
Data from Telephia suggests that Yahoo! mobile services reach 6% of US mobile phone users. M:Metrics estimate Yahoo!'s reach for mobile services in the US at 14.5m.
From ClickZ: http://www.clickz.com, 13/02/2007
Yahoo! UK: http://uk.yahoo.com/

13/02/2007

comScore has released data for the top five dating sites in the UK, France and the US, writes Netimperitive. Figures for December 2006 show that France had the highest percentage of internet users aged 15+ (22%) followed by the UK (20%) and the US (13%). The UK's most popular dating site is DatingDirect.com (1.4m UK visitors in December 2006) which was recently bought by France's most popular site MeetIC (2.3m Fench visitors). Match.com was the only top five brand to feature in at least two countries.
From Netimperitive: http://www.netimperative.com, 13/02/2007
comScore: http://www.comScore.com

13/02/2007

A new study from JupiterResearch forecasts that use of European online dating sites will double by 2011, writes Netimperitive. Revenues are also expected to double during the same period from £243m (£167) in 2006 to £549m (£376) in 2011. According to the study the number of European internet users who use online dating sites has increased from 4% in 2005 to 6% in 2006. Overall European dating sites had 2.8m paid users in 2006 and JupiterResearch predict that this will reach 6.0m in 2011.
From Netimperitive: http://www.netimperative.com, 13/02/2007
Jupiter Research: http://www.jupiterresearch.com

13/02/2007

Vodafone has had a busy time this February announcing major deals with MySpace, YouTube, eBay and Google, writes ENN.

• The deal with MySpace will allow Vodafone users to use their phones to edit their profiles and post messages, photos and blogs through MySpace Mobile. MySpace has made similar deals in the US and Japan but this is the first time the firm has moved into the European mobile marketplace. MySpace Mobile will come pre-loaded on a selection of Vodafone handsets with users also able to download it from Vodafone Live! The service will launch in the UK prior to being rolled out across Europe (from NetImperative, 08/02/2007)


• Vodafone's agreement with YouTube will see the online video firm provide a daily selection of new videos to Vodafone users in addition to allowing users to send videos to the site directly from their phones. Users will also be able to send links for content to their friends and search the site for new clips. As with MySpace the service will first roll out in the UK via Vodafone Live! before its full European launch (from ENN, 09/02/2007).


• Vodafone is also working directly with YouTube's parent company Google to provide its Google Maps service to Vodafone customers via a java application. The service will provide maps and local listings to users at their usual data rates. The two firms are already partners, with Google providing search services to Vodafone users (from ENN, 12/02/2007).


• Vodafone's last major deal this month with eBay sees the creation of an application which will allow users to use the online auction service directly from their phones. As with other such applications it will come directly pre-installed on some handset models and will also be available for download from the Vodafone Live! service. The new service is first being trialled in Italy prior to its full European launch (from Telecoms.com 07/02/2007).

13/02/2007

13/02/2007

New research from Park Associates predicts that 55% of all US households will have broadband access by the end of 2007, with services reaching 60m residential users. According to the data the number of US residential broadband subscriptions exceeded 50m during 2006, up 20% on the year before.
Park Associates: http://www.parksassociates.com, 15/02/2007

15/02/2007

A new report from uSwitch predicts that online sales will reach £40bn in 2007 (15% of total retail spend), growing to reach £162bn by 2020 (40% of total retail spend), writes Netimperitive. In 2002 online sales only represented 2% of all retail spending. According to the report 8m households in the UK spend an average two hours per day shopping on the internet. Lower online prices and increasing access to broadband services are helping to lure consumers online. uSwitch claim that UK consumers could save £13bn a year by shopping online (equivalent to £500 per household).
From Netimperitive: http://www.emarketer.com, 16/02/2007
uSwitch:http://www.uswitch.com

16/02/2007

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 79.2% of all internet connections in December 2006 used broadband services. Year-on-year the number of broadband connections rose 29.7%. Connections were also up 5.9% on the previous quarter. Dial-up connections are now used by only 20% of the UK and are falling by 12.7% each quarter.

ONS press release: http://www.statistics.gov.uk, 20/02/2007

Source: ONS
ONS: http://www.statistics.gov.uk

Source: ONS
ONS: http://www.statistics.gov.uk

Source: ONS
ONS: http://www.statistics.gov.uk

20/02/2007

BitTorrent is launching an online download site which will legally provide film, TV shows, music, games and other media, writes Silicon.com. The new BitTorrent Entertainment Network will launch with 5,000 titles which are guaranteed to be legitimate and free of viruses. New release films will be available to rent for $3.99 each (£2.03), with older titles costing $2.99 (£1.02). Users will have one month to start watching a film and 24 hours in which to complete it once started. TV shows and music videos will cost $1.99 (£1.03) each though they will not have any time-restriction. Content will be protected by Microsoft's digital rights management software to prevent unauthorised copying. BitTorrent will launch the site with content from 20th Century Fox News Corp, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Lionsgate Entertainment Corp, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Paramount Pictures and MTV Networks.
From Silicon.com: http://www.silicon.com, 26/02/2007
BitTorrent: http://www.bittorrent.com

26/02/2007

The Financial Times recorded a 30% increase in online advertising sales, reports Spannerworks. Revenues from online ad sales rose 9% with total profits for the paper rising from £9m to £11m.
From Spannerworks: http://www.spannerworks.com, 27/02/2007
The Financial Times: http://www.ft.co.uk

27/02/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

28/02/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

28/02/2007

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen/NetRatings: http://www.nielsen-netratings.com

28/02/2007

Total Unique Visitors (000), Age 15+
Total Worldwide - Home and Work Locations

Source: comScore World Metrix, February 2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

28/02/2007

Ad revenues from online marketing increased 62% last year according to new figures from Frost & Sullivan, writes eMarketer. The firm predict that the Australian online ad market will be worth almost $3bn (£1.560bn) by 2010 from $1bn (£520m) in 2006. Revenues from paid search more than doubled during the year (growing 105%) followed by directories (60%), classifieds (49%) and general advertising (48%).
From eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com, 28/02/2007
Frost and Sullivan: http://www.frost.com

28/02/2007

Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Source: comScore World Metrix, February 2007
comScore: http://www.comscore.com

28/02/2007

In five years 6m of us throughout Europe will go online to find love. In just over ten years nearly half of all purchases will be made online in the UK. Sometimes the predictions can be hard to picture - and they don't always come right - but one thing is certain: the internet will be an even bigger part of all our daily lives. Of course online marketers know this already and the developments in the UK and Australia we cover this month just remind you how fast the digital world is growing.

Carrying the internet is our pockets is also increasingly common and the mobile stories cover both Vodafone and Yahoo! working to integrate our online activities into mobile handsets. It's hard to predict what those will look like in ten years!

Read February 2007

28/02/2007