Christian Louca
Archive for the ‘Online’ Category
Guardian mobile site drives mores unique browsers & traffic than apps & tablets combined but where is the engagement?
Posted: May 17, 2012 in Digital Marketing, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Online, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Tablets, Technology, Uncategorized, User Experience & UsabilityTags: Android, App store, App Store (iOS), Guardian, Handhelds, iOS, iphone, iTunes, Mobile, Mobile phone, mobile statistics, mobile web, Page view, Smartphone, Statistics, The Guardian
the guardian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It has been some time since I first remember trying to sign The Guardian to the YOC media network, sometime in 2009. From memory at the time, 4th Screen were selling around 1 million page views per month. I have posted below the latest figures from their site**, that figure now stands at 6.2 million and generates more unique browsers and monthly page views than their iOS, Android and iOS tablet apps combined. These figures are somewhat surprising but not because their mobile internet has the biggest pull, rather that their mobile traffic has only 6 fold in 4 or so years and all their mobile channels are not generating significant page impressions.
I have always been an advocate for mobile internet and I do get and understand that having an app strategy for print and digital publishers makes perfect sense. After all, I have personally been involved in building so many for clients as such, why wouldn’t I think this. My bigger question is why is their mobile internet site and apps not generating higher levels of uniques or monthly page impressions? We know they have an award winning app and their paid for model seemed to work and made them a small profit after development costs.
But… why is their mobile internet site generating far less monthly page impressions in ratio to their applications? And… are their applications generating enough impressions in ratio to the unique users?
Mobile Internet
Generating 6.2 million page impressions from 2.5 million unique browsers can be averaged out that for every one customer visiting the site once a month is only generating 2.5 page impressions per visit. I am guessing that their customers are visiting more than once a month which would mean they are generating even less impressions per visit (just divide the impression number by the number of visits). As you can see from these states it becomes somewhat disappointing and raises some concern. Maybe I am interpreting unique browsers wrongly as unique users, but it sounds like the same thing to me.
The iphone app is a little better…
Again applying the same principle generating 1 million page impressions from 34,000 uniques can be averaged out that for every 1 customer using the app once a month is generating about 30 impressions per visit. Like their mobile internet users the reality is they are visiting more than once a month and therefore the impressions they generate per visit are even less.
Lets look at the rest, again applying the same methodology…
iPad app
45,113 monthly uniques generating 3.45 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 75 page impressions per visit.
Android app
11,000 monthly uniques are generating 1.2 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 110 page impressions per visit.
What does this all mean?
In summary, it shows that their Android app is generating a much richer experience than their other channels. Or maybe Android users are just more engaged than iOS users. We have to be careful here as their mobile internet site will have traffic from all devices but overall the statistics suggest that most of their mobile site users are less engaged than their app users.
In my experience, working with print and digital publishers it is typical for a user to generate up to 10 impressions per visit but at an absolute minimum of visiting the site or apps 2 to 3 times a week. This would mean you would have to divide those impressions (generated by the users) by approximately 12. In doing that, the numbers would suggest that only their Android app and iPad app are delivering a rich experience where the user is most engaged generating 9 to 6 impressions per visit respectively. The others fall well short of this and their mobile internet site alarmingly so.
m.guardian**
A dedicated mobile site giving users access to guardiannews.comcontent any time and from any device. It is optimised for mobile screen sizes and connection speeds.
Traffic:
2.5 million monthly unique browsers
6.2 million monthly page views
m.guardian is showing incredible growth and almost doubled its traffic over the course of 2011 – growth that is outstripping total growth of the mobile internet market (+25% yr on yr).
Users are accessing a broad range of content through m.guardian with the top five most visited sections being world news, football, sport, technology and Comment is free. Comment is free alone delivers over 250,000 page views per month – an indication that users are valuable opinion leaders.
iPhone app
An award winning iPhone app featuring video, live blogs and more that is available free to users in the US.
Traffic:
34,000 monthly unique browsers
1 million monthly page views
With steady growth in unique browsers of almost 50% over the last four months, the iPhone app is another strong performer in GNM’s mobile portfolio. What’s more, the proportion of heavy users is high at just over 50%. That, combined with a strong frequency metric for user behaviour, indicates a very loyal and engaged audience.
In addition to the regular news content, users have a strong preference for football, sport and business content.
iPad app
We launched our critically acclaimed iPad app in October 2011 and since then it has been downloaded more than 500,000 times (globally). With a clean, modern design and easy navigation the Guardian iPad app is immensely readable.
Traffic:
45,113 monthly unique browsers
3.45 million monthly page views
Android App
Free to download and available from the Android market worldwide it contains the latest news, sport, comment, reviews, videos, podcasts and picture galleries from the Guardian website.
Traffic:
11,000 monthly unique browsers
1.2 million monthly page views
The app delivers a globally minded audience of opinion leaders and the most popular sections include football, Comment is free and world news.
Furthermore, over one in three are heavy users and this has steadily increased over the last few months – an indication that user loyalty and engagement is growing.
SOURCE**: Guardian (
http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/mobile?newsfeed=true
)
What’s Trending in 2012?
Posted: January 9, 2012 in Ad Industry, Digital Display Advertising, Digital Trends, Display advertising, Industry News, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Internet, Online, Online Advertising, Performance Advertising, TabletsTags: 2012 Mobile Predictions, Advertising, Android, Apple, Facebook, Interactive media, ipad, Mobile Advertising, Smartphone
Posted by } Alex Spencer
Image via CrunchBase
2011 was a year of rapid growth and change in the mobile advertising industry. It was the year that saw smartphones, Tablets and the mobile internet become mainstream among consumers, and that saw marketers and advertisers increase spend and begin prioritising mobile. 2012 looks set to be even more of a critical year in the development of the industry. From Adfonic’s own data and knowledge of the industry we predict that the following developments will become hot topics over the next 12 months.
Tablet boom
With the iPad being one of 2011′s most popular Christmas presents, and with the new Kindle Fire making tablets more affordable and accessible, we can expect to see tablet devices replacing lower-end laptops and notebooks over the course of 2012. It is not unrealistic to expect that Tablet ownership will more than double.
Rich media going mass market
Rich media is already emerging as a game-changer for the mobile advertising industry, as it offers the consumer a more engaging and interactive experience and facilitates superior branding opportunities for advertisers. Until now, rich media advertisements for mobile have, for the most part, been offered as a premium or niche service across a small number of high end mobile publishers. In 2012, mobile ad networks will be offering rich media on a global scale, giving advertisers access to millions of consumers and challenging budgets across other media channels.
Advertising spend shifting towards mobile
As smartphone penetration booms, consumer mobile usage will continue to increase and extend across new times of the day. For example, one of the most quoted use cases in 2011 has been consumer use of tablet or smartphone devices during TV commercials. Consumers are browsing mobile sites and using apps on their tablets and smartphones in place of TV commercial consumption, which suggests that the perception of mobile as primarily an extension of the PC internet will finally disappear. It is becoming increasingly clear that mobile operates as an alternative to the “fixed internet” for many people and this can no longer be ignored. Advertising budgets will increasingly follow the consumer over to mobile.
Phasing out of feature phones
Smartphones are now becoming more economically accessible to all consumer segments as a result of the large range of Android devices coupled with Apple’s pricing strategy for older phones. As the number of services and options begin to concentrate on tablet and smartphone platforms, advertisers and agencies will slowly phase out features phones from their plans.
Apple and UDIDs
During 2010 and 2011, much investment poured into app tracked campaigns enabling advertisers to deliver installed apps at low cost. A new common approach, superseding UDIDs, will become mainstream across agencies, advertisers, ad networks and other players in the ecosystem, as Apple plans to phase out access to the UDID on its mobile devices.
Mobile web versus applications
During 2011, there were hints (driven predominantly by large industry players opting for HTML5 over a multi-app approach) of the mobile web challenging applications as the way forward for mobile internet usage. During 2012, we are likely to see this debate evolve with the potential for some major decisions by digital players to impact the market and force some rethinking.
Geo-location services
There is likely to be more integration across marketing channels, platforms and other parties that will enable geo-location services and advertising to ramp up during 2012. Driven predominantly out of the US (where most geo-location business is currently concentrated) we are likely to see more demand for campaigns targeted to smaller areas (ring-fencing) with a view to driving footfall into retail stores, restaurants and other outlets.
Increasing use of mobile payments
While this may not be the year that mobile payments become mainstream, many players will come together to make significant progress in piecing together the mobile commerce ecosystem. The success of Google Wallet last year will drive industry players forward in 2012, with major advertising events like the Olympics providing a springboard for new, exciting innovations around mobile commerce.
Facebook and mobile advertising
Facebook has been holding back on pushing mobile advertising aggressively. With close to 1bn users online, and over 300m users now accessing Facebook via their mobile, it provides a significant game-changer and possible milestone for the mobile advertising industry. However Facebook decides to execute on mobile advertising will, without a doubt, have a big impact on the digital industry in general.
Further progress on standards and privacy
With mobile advertising moving at such a fast pace in terms of innovation and market demand, there will be increasing requirements for further standardisation (ad formats, for example, including rich media) and frameworks and policies driven by the trade bodies on privacy and data.
YOC no more
Posted: November 18, 2011 in Ad Industry, Affiliate Marketing, Augmented Reality, Automotive, Content management, Customer Relationship Marketing, Data Privacy, Developers, Digital Display Advertising, Digital Marketing, Digital Trends, Display advertising, E-Commerce, Email Marketing, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, Location Based Services, M-Commerce, Marketing, Media & Entertainment, Mediation Platforms, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mobile Ad Exchanges, Mobile Ad Networks, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, mobile banking, Mobile Developers, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Payment Solutions, Mobile Phones, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Privacy, Mobile Search, Mobile SEM, Mobile Social Media, Mobile Social networking, Mobile Technology, Mobile TV, Multichannel Marketing, Online, Online Advertising, Performance Advertising, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Retail, Smartphones, Sms, SMS Advertising, SMS Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Tablets, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless TechnologiesTags: Advertising, Business, Christian Louca, Evolution of Communication, Mobile Theory, Telecommunications, YOC
I have now left YOC after 4 years since launching their UK operations. It has been an absolute pleasure working for such a fantastic organisation and I wish my old colleagues all the best for the future.
I am now looking at the next big thing and will update all via my blog in due course. It is exciting times for mobile and we are all moving at an incredible rate. So many fantastic new start ups with so many ingenious ideas all to make our lives better. I believe we strive to help people communicate, engage, consume, learn, inform and so much more.
This global society that we have born is the future and will change lives forever to come. No borders, no politics, no fuss. A generation of globally connected people wanting to share experiences and information from across all corners of the globe.
I am privileged to be part of such an amazing evolution of communication…
comScore Releases Overview of European Internet Usage for May 2011
Posted: July 6, 2011 in Digital Trends, Industry News, Internet, Mobile Internet, OnlineTags: ComScore, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mobile phone, SCOR, Smartphone, Twitter, WordPress
Image via CrunchBase
Posted By: ComScore
Spotlight on France Reveals Seasonal Growth in Tax, Car Rental, and Flowers Web Properties
London, UK, July 6, 2011 - comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of Internet usage in Europe, showing 366.9 million unique visitors went online in May 2011 for an average of 24.2 hours per person. This study draws its data from comScore’s research panel, which measures Internet usage in 49 European markets aggregated under the European region and provides individual reporting on 18 markets. Among the reportable markets, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Turkey showed the highest average engagement with users from these markets spending an average of more than 30 hours online in the past month.
| Overview of European Internet Usage by Country Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000) May 2011 Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Location | Total Unique Visitors (000) | Average Hours per Visitor | Average Pages per Visitor |
| World-Wide | 1,373,976 | 23.9 | 2,161 |
| Europe | 366,862 | 26.8 | 2,752 |
| Germany | 49,993 | 24.1 | 2,638 |
| Russian Federation | 48,294 | 24.0 | 2,618 |
| France | 42,335 | 27.8 | 2,682 |
| United Kingdom | 36,660 | 33.9 | 3,079 |
| Italy | 23,210 | 18.3 | 1,762 |
| Turkey | 22,900 | 31.8 | 3,448 |
| Spain | 21,450 | 26.8 | 2,449 |
| Poland | 18,193 | 26.9 | 3,061 |
| Netherlands | 11,963 | 35.2 | 3,467 |
| Sweden | 6,161 | 25.0 | 2,423 |
| Belgium | 5,944 | 20.5 | 2,085 |
| Austria | 4,676 | 14.1 | 1,485 |
| Switzerland | 4,666 | 19.6 | 1,923 |
| Portugal | 4,146 | 21.5 | 2,034 |
| Denmark | 3,649 | 21.7 | 2,256 |
| Finland | 3,349 | 26.0 | 2,396 |
| Norway | 3,227 | 26.5 | 2,156 |
| Ireland | 2,079 | 21.5 | 1,953 |
Top Web Properties in Europe
Google Sites ranked as the top European web property in May with 333.4 million unique visitors (up 9 percent from a year ago), reaching 90.9 percent of the total European Internet audience. Microsoft Sites continued to rank second with 270.9 million visitors (73.8 percent reach), followed by Facebook.com in third place with 240.0 million visitors (65.4 percent reach). Among the top properties for May, the biggest gains versus April came from The Mozilla Organization (up 52 percent), WordPress (up 13 percent), and VKontakte (up 12 percent).
Europeans continued to spend significant time on social networking sites, with Russian social network VKontakte exhibiting the highest average engagement among the top 30 properties at 496.7 minutes (8.3 hours) on the site. Facebook.com overtook Russian web property Mail.ru Group in May with an average of 326.0 minutes (5.4 hours) spent by visitors on the property, up 15 percent from the prior month. Mail.ru Group visitors spent an average of 315.1 minutes (5.3 hours), up 7 percent. Facebook.com also continued to account for the highest number of page views at 139.8 billion in May (up 21 percent), representing 12.8 percent of all pages viewed in Europe during the month.
| Top 30 Properties in Europe by Total Unique Visitors (000) May 2011 Total Europe Audience, Age 15+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Properties | Total Unique Visitors (000) | Total Pages Viewed (MM) | Average Minutes per Visitor |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 366,862 | 1,009,540 | 1,605.2 |
| Google Sites | 333,436 | 99,147 | 188.6 |
| Microsoft Sites | 270,859 | 27,218 | 193.0 |
| Facebook.com | 240,010 | 139,769 | 326.0 |
| Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 161,311 | 2,449 | 13.0 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 141,054 | 9,682 | 73.9 |
| eBay | 107,689 | 14,324 | 59.5 |
| Amazon Sites | 91,475 | 2,658 | 15.9 |
| The Mozilla Organization | 78,079 | 493 | 7.3 |
| VEVO | 77,670 | 774 | 11.8 |
| Apple Inc. | 69,872 | 514 | 4.8 |
| Mail.ru Group | 69,005 | 31,990 | 315.1 |
| AOL, Inc. | 64,278 | 1,664 | 28.5 |
| Glam Media | 63,892 | 937 | 11.5 |
| Viacom Digital | 56,952 | 537 | 10.4 |
| Ask Network | 56,945 | 526 | 4.1 |
| Yandex Sites | 55,720 | 7,817 | 64.7 |
| Dailymotion.com | 53,936 | 755 | 14.3 |
| WordPress | 52,269 | 430 | 5.3 |
| VKontakte | 52,123 | 38,151 | 496.7 |
| CBS Interactive | 51,950 | 538 | 8.9 |
| Adobe Sites | 48,473 | 229 | 3.3 |
| Axel Springer AG | 48,162 | 1,851 | 17.3 |
| Orange Sites | 41,138 | 4,609 | 62.0 |
| NetShelter Technology Media | 40,712 | 407 | 6.1 |
| Deutsche Telekom | 40,290 | 2,501 | 34.1 |
| Technorati Media | 39,621 | 206 | 3.1 |
| Twitter.com | 36,877 | 656 | 14.6 |
| BBC Sites | 34,962 | 1,440 | 34.0 |
| Schibsted (Anuntis-Infojobs-20minutos) | 34,259 | 5,068 | 77.2 |
| Skype | 33,817 | 139 | 51.0 |
Spotlight: Travel, Taxes, and Flowers Draw Visitation in France
In May 2011, a total of 47.4 million users in France (age 6+) went online, up 3 percent from the previous year. Users in France stayed an average of 1,571.8 minutes or 26.2 hours online in May, 2 hours more than the European average for the month and up 12 percent from May 2010. Google Sites ranked as the most visited property with 44.5 million unique visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites (40.8 million visitors), and Facebook.com (32.5 million visitors). Luxury retailer Groupe PPR, which attracted 18.2 million visitors, was the fastest gaining property with a 17-percent increase from a year ago.
| Top Properties in France Ranked by Total Unique Visitors (000) May 2011 Total France, Age 6+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Properties | Total Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | Average Minutes per Visitor |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 47,374 | 100.0% | 1,571.8 |
| Google Sites | 44,530 | 94.0% | 175.9 |
| Microsoft Sites | 40,823 | 86.2% | 245.9 |
| Facebook.com | 32,480 | 68.6% | 308.8 |
| Orange Sites | 23,310 | 49.2% | 99.8 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 22,070 | 46.6% | 60.6 |
| CCM-Benchmark | 20,844 | 44.0% | 10.5 |
| Wikimedia Foundation Sites | 20,656 | 43.6% | 14.2 |
| Iliad – Free.fr Sites | 20,520 | 43.3% | 22.0 |
| Groupe Pages Jaunes | 19,889 | 42.0% | 13.9 |
| Groupe PPR | 18,181 | 38.4% | 12.2 |
As there were a string of bank holidays in France in May, the fastest growing web category was Car Rental (up 69 percent from the previous month), driven by the growth in monthly visitation to Paris-based European rental car company property Europcar, Hertz.fr, and Priceline subsidiary eLocationdeVoitures.fr. In preparation for an annual income tax filing deadline at the end of May, properties in the Taxes category also saw an increase in visitation of 50 percent. Finally, as Mother’s Day approached for France, properties purveying flowers, presents, and e-cards in the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings category saw an increase of 43 percent.
| Fastest Growing Categories in France* Ranked by Percent Change in Total Unique Visitors (000) from April 2011 May 2011 Total France, Age 6+, Home and Work Locations Source: comScore Media Metrix |
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| Categories | Total Unique Visitors (000) | % Reach | % Growth from April 2011 |
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 47,374 | 100.0% | 0.1% |
| Car Rental | 2,620 | 5.5% | 68.8% |
| Taxes | 633 | 1.3% | 49.6% |
| Flowers/Gifts/Greetings | 5,540 | 11.7% | 43.2% |
| Humor | 7,395 | 15.6% | 38.4% |
| Health Care | 2,426 | 5.1% | 38.0% |
| Beauty/Fashion/Style | 13,480 | 28.5% | 36.6% |
| Lotto/Sweepstakes | 8,498 | 17.9% | 34.3% |
| Government | 19,081 | 40.3% | 33.2% |
| Information | 6,545 | 13.8% | 29.8% |
| Airlines | 7,529 | 15.9% | 28.7% |
*Excludes Platform and ISP categories.
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
Berit Block
comScore, Inc.
+ 44 (0) 203-111-1758
worldpress@comscore.com
Mobile advertising: profit at your fingertips
Posted: June 10, 2011 in Digital Display Advertising, Digital Trends, Display advertising, Industry News, Internet, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Multichannel Marketing, Online, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology, Telecommunications, Television, Wireless TechnologiesTags: IAB, mobile statistics
Posted By ] James Robinson
Expensively produced adverts that were once only seen in glossy magazines are now being produced for many tablets and smartphones. Photograph: Jim Wilson/New York Times/Redux/eyevine
Mobile advertising is finally beginning to come of age as phones transform the relationship brands have with their customers in new, and sometimes unexpected, ways. The rate of growth is astounding, and the pace of change so rapid it is now difficult to believe that many companies greeted the predicted inexorable growth of mobile advertising with barely disguised scepticism a decade or so ago.
The UK market was worth £83m in 2010, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), up from £37.6m the previous year, an 116% like-for-like increase. Online market research company comScore says that in 2010 there were 19.1 million monthly mobile internet users in this country, up by 4.6 million from the same month the previous year. US investment bank Morgan Stanley said this year that “online advertising may finally be entering a golden age”.
The bank believes that the mobile advertising market in western countries is set to reach the recent growth rates seen in Japan, where mobile ad spend rose threefold from 2006 to 2009, to stand at $1bn (£610m). FirstPartner, a consultancy company, predicts that the UK market will be valued at £992m by 2015.
Much of that growth has been driven by the mobile internet and, latterly, by smartphones. Jon Mew, head of mobile at the IAB, points out that 41% of the population already have a smartphone. “By next year that should be half of the population,” he says, “and it shows no sign of slowing.”
Rik Haslam, chief creative officer at leading digital advertising agency RAPP, says: “Clients sometimes ask me whether mobile advertising is really something they should focus on. I tell them that right now more smartphones are being built than laptops and desktops combined, that mobile internet use is ramping up almost 300% faster than desktop internet access did, and that more than 50% of people use a mobile device while watching TV. So yes, it’s something clients should focus on.” He adds: “If the internet revolution disrupted business norms, then the smartphone revolution is devastating business norms.”
Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimate that by 2020 there will be about 10bn mobile internet devices worldwide – 10 times the number of PCs currently in use.
But the story can’t be told by statistics alone, as compelling as they are. The arrival of tablets, Apple’s iPad in particular, and the popularity of location-based services, which use the GPS functionality of a smartphone to offer users services based on their location, have transformed the user experience – and the aesthetics – of mobile advertising. Put simply: it has become sexy.
“Traditional brands didn’t do much on mobile, but it’s changed dramatically in the last year,” says Mew.
In recent years, around two thirds of online advertising spend has traditionally been on ringtones and downloads, but 12% of spend last year came from companies that sell fast-moving consumer goods.
The look, feel and size, of the iPad, one of the fastest-selling new computer devices in history (it took just one month to sell 1m iPads; the iPhone reached the same target in 74 days), has prompted fashion brands and car companies to create sumptuous online campaigns that were only seen in glossy magazines or expensive television adverts until recently.
Generating a response
Although they have been talked about for some time, location-based services have only really started to take off over the past 12 months, aided by the launch of Google and Facebook products, such as Facebook Places. Those services are powerful, allowing carefully targeted advertising campaigns that generate far better responses among consumers. Research published by location data firm Navteq in August 2010 found that 41% of consumers who saw a specific mobile advert went into one of that retailer’s stores – and 53% said it was the advert that prompted them to visit.
Text messaging and advertising campaigns have become more targeted and more sophisticated. More people are using their phones rather than PCs to search the internet (10% of all UK traffic now comes through mobiles) and new mobile technology is enabling big corporations to experiment with reward schemes designed to attract and retain customers, which may, ultimately, make loyalty cards obsolete. M-commerce also continues to grow: mobile-generated sales at online giant eBay tripled to nearly $2bn in 2010, with the UK the fastest adopter.
Challenges remain for advertisers, however. The lure of the iPad and the iPhone, with their hugely popular apps, can make companies who want to establish a mobile advertising presence lazy. According to mobile marketing company 2ergo: “A lot of companies launch a mobile app and think they’ve ticked the mobile box – but an iPhone is only 11% of the total [mobile] market. You’re missing out on the bulk of your target audience.”
If a company wants to reach all of its target audience, it has to create content that can be used on all of the popular operating systems, which combined make up the vast majority of the market. Google’s operating system for mobiles, Android, is growing market share, and Android-powered phones recently overtook iPhone sales. BlackBerry-maker RIM has won a new audience of young enthusiasts who use its instant- messaging service.
All of those platforms are likely to enlarge, but there are lingering concerns among consumers about privacy and there is still some resistance about using services such as mobile internet at all. According to a recent IAB survey, 21% of respondents said they only used their mobile phone for texting or calling. That seems set to change, however, as mobile phones become the next link in the internet’s evolutionary chain. There have been several false dawns, most notably when WAP-enabled phones, which allowed users mobile access to the internet for the first time, became available at the end of the last century and failed to live up to the hype that surrounded their launch. This time around, the hyperbole seems justified.
Via:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile-marketing-2011/mobile-advertising-profit-fingertips
Half of smartphone owners now shop online via a mobile device
Posted: May 23, 2011 in Digital Marketing, Digital Trends, E-Commerce, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Multichannel Marketing, OnlineTags: Consumer, Google, Mobile application development, Mobile device, mobile statistics, Personal computer, Retailing, shopping, Smartphone
Posted By ] Paul Skeldon
Half of smartphone owners have now completed some sort of purchase on their mobile, increasing by 20% over just nine months, with 11% of smartphone shoppers now using the device to make a purchase on a weekly basis, according to research by eDigitalResearch and Portaltech.
The study also finds that smartphone owners are increasingly using their phones to shop, browse and research for products via their phones. More than a quarter (28%) now use their smartphone to find product information on a regular basis and remains one of the most popular shopping activities to complete on a phone.
The study looked at the increasing role of mobile in retail commerce and surveyed both smartphone and non-smartphone users. The results clearly show the continuing shift in consumer behaviour as more and more shoppers are adapting to new technologies, browsing, shopping and interacting with brands on the move.
Chris Russell, Director at eDigitalResearch, tells us: “This second study reinforces what our previous results have shown; that the dramatic increase in Smartphone use is fundamentally affecting consumer behaviour. We are entering into an age of MEcommerce; a shopping revolution where the consumer now has the power to dictate to retailers where, when and how they want to shop and interact”.
The results clearly indicate the growing trend that smartphones are being used more and more as an essential lifestyle accessory, with almost a 15% rise in the number of consumers interacting with mobile applications on a daily basis.
The results also show that consumers expectations of mobile websites have dramatically increased since the first research results last year; 31% of users now say that quick browsing should be an essential feature of mobile websites, compared with just 20% who said the same last June. Other significant factors that people see as essential include security, fast loading images, zoom functions and a professional looking site, reaffirming that consumers expect to find the same coherent retail message across channels.
Smartphone users who said that they never shopped online reduced from 70% last June to 49%, echoing the overall trend of growing consumer acceptance of m-commerce. Similarly, smartphone owners who said that they expected to browse and purchase more on their phones in the next 12 months more than doubled from 20% to 46% and firmly establishes the importance for retailers to continue to develop and invest in mobile.
Rachel Wilkinson, Head of Brand and Retail at Portaltech, explains: “I hope this research reassures reluctant retailers that mobile is not a flash in the pan, but a rapidly increasing channel that should be integrated into wider marketing, social and commercial strategies. Mobile is unique in that it is the most portable and accessible channel to a consumer – you are literally in the palm of your customer’s hands and this level of accessibility 24/7 allows retailers to deliver messaging, marketing or unique experiences in a totally different way from any other channel.”
Andrew Walker, CEO or Portaltech adds: “In the last year, mobile has gathered pace with retailers reporting traffic of between two and 12% via the mobile channel and Morgan & Stanley predict that by 2014, sales via a mobile device will overtake sales from a PC. The trends in multi channel and convergence within retail, are reinforcing the importance of a single integrated platform that can manage and support all the channels, including mobile.”
Shoes.com: 85pc of purchases come from mobile Web, not apps
Posted: May 11, 2011 in Digital Marketing, Digital Trends, E-Commerce, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, M-Commerce, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Search, Mobile Technology, Multichannel Marketing, Online, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Retail, Search, Smartphones, Strategy and Planning, Technology, TelecommunicationsTags: Android, iphone, McDonalds, Mobile Computing, Mobile Marketer, Mobile phone, mobile web, shoes.com, Website
My Comments on the below:
I am a bit late finding this article but there you go. I find the stats really interesting. Despite the fact they offer shoes for all, I am guessing here that their main user base is made up of Women. I can instantly relate to their experience. If I look at my partner who since purchasing her an android phone (6 months ago), who by the way is a kind of techno-phoebe, has moved from a 0 to a 10 user of the mobile internet (0 being not at all and 10 being everyday more than once). However, despite this amazing change of her use of phones not once has she been bothered by apps. This is not because she is not aware or has not tried them but she is used to searching for content when she wants. She finds it easy. She already knows which sites she has interest in and what sites she would buy clothes/shoes and whatever other flavour. It is interesting as her peers also share the same thought process, yet their male counterparts and very engrossed into both mobile internet & apps. In fact the more I think about it especially apps that help them not have to think for themselves or games of course! Anyhow, before I digress, this supports the experience shoes.com has described. As women, being the main demographic (again this is an assumption) of shoes.com, they are comfortable and familiar with SEARCH (and aren’t we all, no matter our gender) hence making more purchases via the mobile site than apps. Therefore, as long as the e-commerce site is mobile optimised and the URL re-directs are in place then their customers will happily discover and purchase via the mobile internet site (as we in the industry call m-commerce, a transaction made via the mobile device).
In the early adoption days of mobile internet we saw that many publisher, media owners and e-commerce sites were receiving anywhere up to 5% of their users online coming from a mobile device. Whilst with one hand this was positive news, with the other it was bad. As the sites that were not optimised for mobile you can start to work out the potential loss of revenues and/or damage to the brand/media owner by delivering a poor user experience and/or no real payment flow. Traditional publishers and media owners quickly woke up when they saw these stats. However, the retail industry was very slow to react. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs created the iPhone and apps that they retail sector started to take the space semi-seriously. It is great to see now how retailers or e-commerce sites are starting to understand and experience this space better and as the article suggests ‘not just jumping on the app-bandwagon’.
Posted By ] Rimma Kats
Shoes.com's mobile site
SAN FRANCISCO – A Brown Shoes Co. exec at the Mobile Shopping Summit said that 85 percent of mobile purchases come from the shoes.com mobile site and not its applications, proving that retailers should focus on having a Web presence before jumping on the app bandwagon.
Panelists during the “Mobile Roadmap Part I: Key Evaluation Criteria For Developing Your Initial Mobile Platform – The Keys To Mobile Merchandizing” session discussed the challenges and success their companies face with mobile. The panel was moderated by Marci Troutman, CEO of Sitminis, Atlanta.
“We had a strong ecommerce platform,” said Pete Hogan, vice president of ecommerce at Brown Shoe Co., St. Louis. “We were seeing a lot of agencies contact us about mobile and there were few players in the game two years ago.
“Eighty-five percent of our mobile sales come from the mobile Web and not apps,” he said.
Future of mobile
According to Mr. Hogan, the company’s long-term mobile strategy will involve the use of HTML5 to provide a richer experience to consumers on their mobile devices.
For companies that are looking to develop mobile sites or apps, it is important to keep the consumer in mind and try to make the overall mobile commerce experience as seamless as possible.
“Think about your business and how many times people touch your business,” Mr. Hogan said. “If you’re Starbucks then it’s daily, if you’re McDonalds it’s weekly.
“If our customer is a registered customer, we wanted to make sure we auto filled their shipping information,” he said. “That’s where you help them save time.”
A majority of consumers who download applications to their mobile devices do not use most of them.
A mobile site is an ideal tool to capture that consumer at the point-of-sale, per the panelists.
However, companies wanting to enter the application space should make sure that their apps provide a different experience than the mobile site. A lot of the time, mobile apps are geared towards loyalists, pushing deals and alerts to them daily.
There needs to be an incentive for consumers to click on that app icon when they want to shop instead of going to the company’s mobile site.
The mobile site, on the other hand, is an access point for existing and potential customers and should be treated with that in mind.
Brown Shoe first developed a mobile site and then an iPhone application.
Currently, the company has three iPhone applications, three mobile-optimized sites and three Android apps.
According to Mr. Hogan, the company’s mobile site mimics its ecommerce site and now features personalized recommendations and ratings.
“We tried to add most of the bells and whistles,” Mr. Hogan said. “However, there are still a few missing things.
“Tracking is also important – we can see when customers are coming to our mobile properties,” he said. “The ROI is trackable.”
Mobile extension
Dale Monson, senior vice president of operations at The Sportsman’s Guide, said that the company is currently working on a second version of its mobile site.
Although the company has a mobile presence, Mr. Monson said that it has not invested in marketing efforts to promote its applications.
“When we launched our iPhone app, we wanted to make sure we were in the market,” Mr. Monson said. “The main challenge we had was a lot of items on our Web site and it’s difficult to push that into the mobile and have consumers shop easily.
“However, we have not had a good marketing program yet to push the downloads,” he said. “We have not invested in marketing efforts for our apps.”
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.
How new internet standards will finally deliver a mobile revolution
Posted: April 27, 2011 in Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Applications, Online, Telecommunications, Information communications technology, Internet, Technology, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Handsets, Smartphones, Mobile Industry News, Tablets, Mobile DevelopersTags: Android, Clients, Google, Google Chrome, HTML, HTML 5, Java (software platform), Microsoft, Zokem
Image via Wikipedia
Posted By ] Bengi Korkmaz, Richard Lee and Ickjin Park
FEATURE
An arcane-sounding change with potentially significant implications for consumers and businesses is under way on the web: the shift to a new generation of HTML, the programming standard that underpins the internet. Senior executives, regardless of industry, should take note; like the exponential growth of device-specific applications, this evolution of HTML will further boost the power of mobile devices, accelerating changes in the way people consume content and the potential use of smartphones and tablets as both a marketing platform and a productivity tool.
The next generation of the internet standard will essentially allow programs to run through a web browser rather than a specific operating system. That means consumers will be able to access the same programs and cloud-based content from any device – personal computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet – because the browser is the common platform. This ability to work seamlessly anytime, anywhere, on any device could change consumer behavior and shift the balance of power in the mobile-telecommunications, media and technology industries. It will create opportunities and present challenges. This article seeks to provide a primer on these changes for senior executives, who may feel the effects of the move toward ‘web-centricity’ much sooner than they think.
Web-centricity
In some ways, the evolution of mobile technology resembles the battle among PC makers in the 1980s. While today we take it for granted that Microsoft’s Windows operating system underpins hardware from countless manufacturers, it wasn’t always that way. Remember the operating systems that powered the Commodore 64, the biggest-selling PC of all time, or the Apple II? Before the emergence of Microsoft’s DOS and then Windows, PC users faced a tough decision about which technology to adopt, because that determined the games and utilities they could use, as well as the general usefulness of their computers. The same occurs today with mobile devices. Users must weigh the hardware and software merits and commit themselves to a technology, whether it’s a device from manufacturers such as Apple or Research in Motion, the ever-increasing array of tablets and smartphones running Google’s Android operating system or, soon, offerings from Nokia running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system.
The next generation of HTML, known as HTML5, may narrow these differences between mobile devices. HTML5, the most significant evolution yet in web standards, is designed to allow programs to run through a web browser, complete with video and other multimedia content that today require plug-in software and other work-arounds. In theory, this will make the browser a universal computing platform: without leaving it, users could do everything from editing documents to accessing social networks, watching movies, playing games or listening to music. Not only would any device with a web browser have these capabilities, but consumers would also have access to all content stored remotely in the cloud independent of locations and devices.
That’s the first reason web-centricity holds particular promise for mobile devices. The second is that it helps overcome the relatively weak processing power of smartphones and tablets compared with PCs and laptops. It’s partly this lack of horsepower that has fuelled the explosive growth in applications (or ‘apps’) to optimise the performance of specific devices: the average smartphone user now spends more than 11 hours a month using apps, more time than either web browsing or talking, according to a March 2011 study by research firm Zokem. HTML5 has the potential to improve the mobile experience – its specifications enable browsers to locally store 1,000 times more data than they currently do, so users can work when offline – writing e-mails, for example – and their devices will automatically update when a network becomes available. What’s more, programs and applications run faster because complex processing tasks are handled by network servers, although mobile-network capacity must go on growing to deal with heavier data demands.
Of course, not all programs are suited to running through browsers, nor is HTML5 the first would-be universal platform to emerge: Sun Microsystems (purchased by Oracle in 2010) promised that with its Java language, programmers could “write once, run anywhere”. Things haven’t worked out that way. And there’s never a guarantee that one kind of standard will prevail. The rate at which developers are writing apps and consumers are buying them is dizzying, and ingrained behaviour can be hard to change. Web-centricity may raise security fears among users because programs are no longer installed on specific devices and because data is stored remotely. And there could be fragmentation issues with both the standard and the browsers – after all, existing ones, such as Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, don’t all treat the current standard, HTML4, the same way.
Despite these possible headwinds, the number of HTML5 websites is increasing by the day. Hardware manufacturers are lining up behind HTML5, and the development community is undertaking efforts to safeguard data in the cloud at a very fast pace. We therefore estimate that more than 50 per cent of all mobile applications will switch to HTML5 within three to five years – and the rate of transition could be considerably higher and faster. No matter how quickly the shift occurs, it will affect both consumers and businesses significantly.
UK retailers aren’t ready for mobile commerce: survey
Posted: April 14, 2011 in Digital Trends, E-Commerce, Industry News, M-Commerce, Mobile Industry News, Multichannel Marketing, Online, RetailTags: Debenhams, Ebay, John Lewis, mobile commerce, mobile web, Ocado, Retail, Tesco
Posted by ] 14 April 2011 11:23am by Graham Charlton
Though the majority of retailers are convinced that mobile commerce will eventually become as popular as e-commerce, just 16% have a strategy in place, and 28% have no plans to implement one.
The findings are based on a Vanson Bourne survey of 100 marketing and IT directors at UK retailers, and 1,000 consumers.
Here’s a few highlights from the study…
Retailers’ attitudes to mobile commerce
The timescales vary, but 83% believe mobile commerce will be as popular as e-commerce within five years, though the 6% who think it already is perhaps need to check some recent stats. Popularity is growing, but it’s not near e-commerce just yet.
Compared to US firms such as eBay and Amazon, many UK retailers have been relatively slow to react to the potential of mobile commerce, but that has changed over the past 12 months.
Whereas a year ago, only a small number of UK retailers had some sort of m-commerce offering, big names like Tesco, M&S and John Lewis have a successful mobile presence.
With these examples, and a number of success stories, from Debenhams, Ocado and others, it’s likely that more retailers will follow suit.
16% of retailers have a mobile commerce strategy fully in place at the moment, a further 18% have implemented some aspects, while 8% have yet to implement it.
So 42% have a strategy at various stages of development, and a further 30% plan to develop an m-commerce site or app at some point. Clearly, the 28% with no plans remain to be convinced.
A mobile retail site doesn’t have to cost the earth, and it can provide an opportunity for smaller retailers to compete with big guys. For example, retro t-shirt and gifts site TruffleShuffle developed a mobile website for a just a few hundred pounds.
I asked Pat Wood of TruffleShuffle how the mobile site had worked, and the early results are very promising. Conversion rates are relatively low, but have jumped from 0.32% in Q1 2010 to 0.46% in Q1 2011.
While in Q1 last year, mobile sales accounted for just 0.3% of turnover, in the first quarter this year, this figure was 3.95%. Considering that the site was implemented at a low cost, and just by following some basic mobile commerce best practice guidelines, it proves the value of a mobile strategy.
The debate over whether retailers should develop a mobile site or app is an interesting one, and it seems the retailers in this study are split more or less down the middle on this issue.
Slightly more (45%) feel the apps are the most important mobile channel for them, an 40% think mobile sites:
I think a mobile site is perhaps the best first step in a mobile commerce strategy, as they can appeal to the broadest possible customer base, though there are still things that apps can do better, such as barcode scanning.
Whether retailers have a mobile commerce strategy in place or not, more and more customers are buying smartphones, and many of those will be looking to make purchases.
There is still an opportunity for retailers to launch mobile retail sites and apps, and to gain a head start on competitors in this channel.
