Популярность социальных СМИ растет взрывными темпами, отмечают эксперты Nielsen. Пользователи теперь проводят в них более 110 миллиардов минут, что составляет 22% от общего времени в онлайне. В абсолютном соотношении это равняется одна к четырем с половиной минуты общего времени, проводимого в интернет-пространстве.

Исследования показывают, что число пользователей соцсетей и блогов впервые достигло трех четвертей от общего числа глобальных онлайн-потребителей, и за год эта армия приросла почти на четверть. Время, проводимое средним посетителем на подобных ресурсах увеличилось по сравнению с 2009 годом на 66% (почти 6 часов в апреле 2010 против 3,5 часов в 2009).

The research firm estimates end-users around the world will spend $5.6 billion on mobile gaming this year, up 19% over 2009 spending. By 2014 the market will increase to $11.4 billion in spending.

By 2014, nearly two-thirds of all Internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks.

Nokia to run Yahoo's maps in global partnership

By BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP) – 3 days ago

NEW YORK — Nokia Corp. will run mapping and navigation services for Yahoo Inc. in an acknowledgement that the slumping Internet company hasn't kept up with rival Google Inc. in the increasingly important area of location services.

Yahoo will, in turn, provide e-mail and instant messaging services on Nokia phones, as part of the worldwide partnership announced Monday.

Yahoo has been working to focus on its core businesses — creating and licensing content, selling online ads and providing messaging services — while turning to partners to run some of its other offerings.

"It just allows us to deliver better experiences than everybody trying to do the same thing," Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said in an interview.

Partnerships, she said, are increasingly becoming a part of Yahoo's DNA. Last year, the company entered a 10-year Internet search partnership with Microsoft Corp. in an effort to whittle away Google's leadership. On Monday, Yahoo said it will drop its Yahoo Personals brand for its dating service and partner with Match.com, a standalone dating website owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.

The maps deal with Nokia, the world's No. 1 maker of mobile phones, covers both phones and computers.

Bartz said Yahoo has "chosen to invest in other areas" in recent years. That put the company's navigation services well behind Google, which has continued to innovate.

Google was the first, for example, to offer the now-common feature of letting users move their location on an online map by dragging it with a mouse, rather than repeatedly clicking arrows and waiting for the pages to refresh. More recently, it offered free software that provides spoken-aloud, turn-by-turn directions on phones running its Android system.

Yahoo and Nokia wouldn't disclose financial details of the deal, but they both stand to benefit from the other's reach and expertise.

The services will be co-branded, with Yahoo's navigation services and maps "powered by" Ovi, Nokia's brand of software and services. Nokia's Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat will likewise be "powered by" Yahoo. The services will start to become available later this year and will be offered worldwide in 2011.

Bartz said location is becoming increasingly important as people want to know where they are, where their friends are and what is around.

"It's sort of the anchor for all services," she said.

While advertising was not part of Monday's announcement — both Nokia and Yahoo said their ad strategies haven't changed — by upping the ante on its location services, Yahoo should benefit from advertising based on it.

"On the PC side, any of the mapping services by definition give us, especially in the local arena . a good platform for advertising," Bartz said. "And as mobile increasingly becomes important for advertising, the same thing will happen in the mobile application."

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the deal brings Yahoo's services to more people around the world, including those whose first Internet experience is through mobile.

And it increases the Finland-based company's visibility in the U.S., where its phones are not as popular as they are in the rest of the word. Although Nokia devices dominate worldwide, it's overshadowed in the U.S. by Apple Inc.'s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry.

Standard and Poor's analyst Scott Kessler believes the Nokia and Match.com deals will help Yahoo expand its mail and messenger footprints, enhance its offerings and improve the profitability of its dating services.

"We are a little disappointed there is no pact to sell Personals ... but think these deals will add value," he said in a note to investors.

Shares of Yahoo rose 22 cents to $15.70 in afternoon trading. U.S.-traded shares of Nokia slid a penny to $10.06.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

With smartphone penetration increasing steadily, mobile applications are on brands’ radar as a necessary complement to their overall marketing strategy.

From pay-per-download, in-application micropayments and subscription models to free/ad-supported and branded/promotional, there are different types of applications to meet various brand objectives. And while SMS and the mobile Web still provide the widest reach, applications provide the most optimized rich media experience and help brands reach desirable affluent demographics.

“We are seeing a higher spend in the production of the application and an increased awareness from our customers that a bare-bones entry or application no longer meets the expectations of the consumers,” said Scott Michaels, vice president at Atimi Software, Vancouver, BC. “As such, the budgets to produce applications have been rising, along with the associated traditional and digital marketing spend to promote that the new app exists and has value.

“The second trend is the much tighter relationship between the more traditional desktop applications and mobile, as mobile is no longer a nice-to-have—it is a core component of most modern applications being developed,” he said.

“Software with or without a mobile component has really been seen as a decision factor to purchasing.”

Scott Michaels is vice president at Atimi Software

Google’s just-approved acquisition of AdMob and Apple’s still-pending acquisition of Quattro Wireless, as well as the announcement of the iAd network, are proof-points that applications' revenue-generating potential is real.

Apple Inc. plans to charge $1 million for in-application iAd packages and $10 million for launch campaigns, and many in the mobile industry are waiting to see which brands pony up and what the campaign creative will look like (see story).

If a rising tide does indeed lift all boats, then the entire ecosystem will benefit from that major injection of marketing dollars into the mobile channel.

That type of investment on the part of the biggest brands in the world validates mobile advertising as a whole, and in-application rich media advertising in particular.

Mobile OS wars
Curiously, however, some brands have been late to the party. For many, the fragmentation of handset platforms is overwhelming, and they do not know where to begin.

“Apps are a mandatory for publishers, but brands are still working out how to implement them effectively and are often unclear on how they fit into a broader mobile strategy,” said Alex Hall, executive vice president of global strategic relationships at TigerSpike Inc., New York. “Although the opportunity is now greater in terms of reach, the decision is arguably more confusing for brand owners since there are now more app platforms to choose between.

“On a positive note though, we’ve had over 12 months of app hype and mobile apps are definitely here to stay,” he said. “It’s not just Apple anymore.

“Android, BlackBerry and Nokia are starting to develop their offerings a lot more aggressively, with major plays from Samsung and others also being made in the global arena.”

In the United States, there has been a relatively clear order of deployment of smartphone platforms to date.

“This starts with the iPhone, and has been followed by Android and BlackBerry,” Mr. Hall said. “However, Android is gathering momentum, with Google announcing [last week] that they’re selling 100,000-plus Android handsets every day in the U.S., with global mobile Web surfing higher on that platform than any other.

“It seems likely that this momentum will spill over into the world of apps, especially with OS 2.2 being released imminently,” he said.

Many brands are still focusing solely on Apple. However, the current level of dominance cannot be sustained.

“The clear winner is still Apple and the Apple App Store—the demand is the greatest, as the user-base and acceptance of applications into the users’ day is well established,” Mr. Michaels said. “Secondarily now is Android, which replaced RIM/BlackBerry in the last year or so in regards to greatest demand from brands and publishers.

“As for the greatest growth, it is still the Apple App Store for growth, as I would expect continued exponential growth for applications under that platform, helped by the iPad and the additional functionality one can have on said device,” he said.

“We expect moderate growth for Android and no real change for BlackBerry.”

App monetization models
Once a brand decides that it does in fact want to participate in the applications space, where does it go from there?

Many brands have chosen to sponsor an application, making an in-application media buy to reach a built-in audience instead of building their own application from the ground up.

Those that do decide to create an application need to keep in mind the purpose they want the application to serve—what specific objectives will the application address for the brand?

“Again using the Apple platform as the main focus, the most common method now is the free application that has monetization via in-app purchase,” Mr. Michaels said. “Secondary monetization is the straight fee to download and finally the free ad-supported/sponsorship model.

“With the introduction of iAds soon, there will be a resurgence of the free-with-ads model,” he said. “However, overall the expectation is for in-app purchases and direct fees to download to continue to be the most common methods of monetization.”

Other platforms are making moves, trying to court developers, publishers, brands and marketers.

“On the Android platform, the lack of true global publishing paid applications via Google Checkout is a limiting factor to paid application growth—however, the expectation is that will be resolved in the near term,” Mr. Michaels said.

“On BlackBerry, finding a smoother, faster way for the end user to buy applications is a critical component to the BlackBerry App World taking off—there are just too many barriers to entry currently to gain the mass adoption such as you see on the Apple platform,” he said.

Reach, discoverability, monetization
While the continued growth of Apple’s App Store makes headlines, some see the eye-popping proliferation of applications available via iTunes as a downside, making it easier for new applications to get lost in the shuffle.

“With the number of applications already available in the Apple App Store, the consumer is arguably already suffering from too much choice,” Mr. Hall said. “It’s getting harder to differentiate and harder to create new content that is going to be useful for extended periods of time, even if you manage to make it through the clutter.

“Currently there is far less clutter in the other app stores, which means it can be very effective to work with those stores for good placement,” he said. “However, this may be a short window to work with depending on how much momentum each store gains.” 

The lesson? Act now before fast-moving competitors become first-to-market, capturing coveted handset real estate.

“Monetization of apps is a hybrid world of free and paid,” said Neil Strother, Kirkland, WA-based practice director at ABI Research. “Most brands will continue to give away their applications for free and monetize via a commerce engine or deep server access to video.

“The big exception is the Kraft iFood Assistant for $0.99, but now there is a free lite version,” he said. “From a brand’s perspective have to have good justification to charge, so free is probably their best bet.

“The freemium model is gaining ground—brands are starting with free for a lite version then as companies develop more robust apps, they have a paid version.”

Publishers are increasingly focused on mobile as a way to supplement their dwindling traditional revenue streams. However, they are still tinkering with various monetization models.

“Monetization from a publisher perspective is still a difficult beast,” Mr. Hall. “Ultimately, it is critical that the model chosen doesn’t compromise the quality of the app in any way.

“Newspapers, for example, have a huge opportunity to steal share, if the time is spent working on a better UI/ UX than the competition,” he said. “If it’s easy, consumers will come—if consumers come, so will advertisers.

“That said, apps should have a consumer value to them and will continue to do so.”

Revenue forecasting might be easier with guaranteed revenue per application, but total downloads will be down.

“TigerSpike advocates medium-term sponsorship for a fixed fee to get new apps off the ground, also ensuring a quality product is developed,” Mr. Hall said. “In terms of content, increasingly utility and usability are the keys to success.

“Does your app provide a value adding service or is it inherently entertaining?” he said. “Possibly more importantly, is the user interface and experience intuitive to the device that you happen to be using?

“This is critical to achieving any kind of longevity.”

Integration is key
Brands must not think of applications as a stand-alone pillar, but rather as a complement that can enhance a multichannel marketing strategy.

Applications must also be promoted in as many consumer touch points as possible in order to gain visibility and stay top of mind.

“Apps should be at the level of quality that provides a true brand extension,” Mr. Michaels said. “Doing anything less is harmful to the brand or publisher.

“With the continued trend of users consuming more and more content and producing more work from a mobile device, brands and publishers should not just have applications for consumption of the content, but look at the enterprise side of the mobile applications and have content production applications, be it from the very obvious citizen reporting, to the more sophisticated training and mobile worker applications that exist but are not on the app stores,” he said.

With advances in the mobile Web allowing for far richer mobile interactions, there is a wider debate to be had again on applications versus the mobile Web.

“However, once decided on an app strategy, the key consideration has to be around how you can achieve brand objectives and really gain traction amidst all the competition,” Mr. Hall said. “The marriage of brands and publishers is an obvious solution to this.

“Publishers have proven content, whilst brands that should be loath to invest in gimmicky apps nowadays can bank on that content to provide long-term value to their consumers,” he said. “The marriage of Smirnoff and Time Out in London has been a triumph, with great user reviews, many repeat visits and really intuitive deep branded engagement.

“Expect a lot of more of these kind of partnerships in the coming year.”

Inside eBay's $500-Million M-Commerce Channel Posted on: 11.24.2009 10:32:23 AM Posted by Retail Insight  

By Joe Skorupa

Producing sales and profits in this economy is difficult, but doing it in the Wild West frontier of M-commerce is like difficulty squared. Technologies and vendors are immature, security is uncertain, and there are no industry-wide standards for e-wallet payments.

Despite these hurdles, eBay CEO John Donahoe sent shock waves through retailing when he revealed in the first financial report breaking out M-commerce revenue as a financial category that eBay earned $380 million in sales so far in 2009 and expects it to total more than a half billion dollars by the end of the year. In a company with $59.7 billion in annual revenue this may not seem like a large figure, but it comes just two years after the introduction of the iPhone, which launched the modern era of M-commerce.

Donahoe made the M-commerce revelation in an October earnings call with financial analysts, where he said: "The eBay iPhone app, which has been downloaded more than 4 million times, is expected to generate more than half a billion dollars in gross merchandise value this year. We are rapidly iterating in mobile and will soon be introducing the next version of our eBay iPhone app with improved functionality and features."

In the earning's call, eBay senior executives said customers using the mobile channel visit several times a month and are buying a full range of merchandise, especially "deals of the day," which are featured on the mobile site and consist of new, in-the-box, fixed-price products.

Donahue went on to add that eBay attracts 5.4 million unique mobile shoppers each month, and generates 60 percent of its M-commerce sales from iPhone app accounts and the other 40 percent from its own mobile accounts.

First-Mover Strategies

The eBay mobile tool lets cell-phone users search and bid on auction items, receive alerts when they are outbid, and finalize payment to complete transactions. These are critical services to busy bidders who can't be at a computer when an auction deadline approaches.

Since 60 percent of mobile revenue comes from the iPhone app, it might be said that eBay's success is dependent on the user-friendly iPhone ecosystem. This is partly true, and it demonstrates that smart retailers at this early stage in the M-commerce adoption cycle should place equal importance on launching both an iPhone app and developing their own mobile storefront.

Future plans should include mobile app iterations for Blackberry, Microsoft and Android platforms, but the critical first step is to establish an iPhone presence to drive sufficient volume of shoppers to the channel to ensure success.

Last January, ABI Research estimated North American sales of physical goods ordered via cell phones would reach $544 million in 2009, up from $346 million in 2008. Now, ABI is considering updating its forecast to $800 million, and predicting it will double in 2010.

Most of the M-commerce growth in 2009 can be traced to eBay and Amazon.com, which together accounted for about 70% of all mobile sales of physical goods. This is an estimate because Amazon doesn't break out its M-commerce revenue like eBay.
However, by looking at the volume of traffic to Amazon's mobile channel and comparing it to eBay's traffic and reported sales figures we can make an educated guess about Amazon's likely sales figures.

Nielsen Company reports that through the first eight months of 2009 eBay and Amazon dominated the list of unique monthly visitors to mobile sites: eBay with 5,422,000 and Amazon with 3,494,000. No other retailer of physical goods came within a mile of these two.

So, if Amazon has two thirds the traffic volume of eBay and roughly two thirds the sales, a good estimate of Amazon's M-commerce sales for 2009 would be at least several hundred million dollars, after factoring in a reduction in average market basket size for Amazon compared to eBay.

Now that we are seeing two market leaders rack up hundreds of millions of dollars in M-commerce sales, the rush will be on for other retailers to get in on the action. There are estimates at least 100 retailers have launched M-commerce initiatives this year. Expect this number to more than double in 2010.

Additional Resources

For a research-based look into retailer trends in the emerging Mobile Commerce channel click here to read the RIS study "M-Commerce: Retail in Motion."

Workers increasingly have internet access on their smartphones. By the year 2013, 43% of global mobile internet users (607.5 million people worldwide) will be accessing social networks from their mobile devices, according to a new report from eMarketer.

By October 2009 there were approximately 48m mobile subscribers aged 13 and over in the UK. Of these, 13.3m accessed the internet from a mobile browser and just under 17m used a mobile app. Driven largely by the success of the iPhone, smartphones already account for 17.5% of handsets in the UK. When you consider that 65% of smartphone users accessed the internet in October 2009 compared with just 28% of all UK mobile subscribers, the potential for these devices to drive mobile internet use becomes clear.

Apps are undoubtedly the poster boys of the smartphone revolution. With more than 100,000 of them now available, their diversity is clearly appealing to a broad audience. Of the 17m mobile subscribers who used an app in October 2009, maps were the most popular, followed by weather, social networking and search apps.

But beyond the current must-have status of apps, more pragmatically the mobile internet is fast becoming part of our daily lives. Some 3.3m people accessed news and information daily through their mobile in October 2009, with a further 4.3m doing so on at least once a week. Of all UK mobile internet users, 41% were aged over 35, proving that this phenomenon isn’t the preserve of the young.

1. Provide complete information. Regardless of how great your program is, reviewers will not go to the app store and search around to find it. Every email, website, video should include basic information such as the app name, your contact information, company name, and link to the app store page. This may seem like a basic tip, but reviewers report that it is common to get inquires that are lacking basic information. “If I have to ask for something, I probably wonʼt and just ignore the app,” says Jeff Scott at 148Apps.

2. Start with a great description. Lead your inquiry letter with a precise description of what your application does, what segment it belongs in (games, productivity, etc.) and why it is unique or interesting. “Keep it simple and to the point,” said Rob Libbey at apptism. “Show the facts and differentiators of your app in short concise bullet points or sentences.” Stay away from anything not related to your app — reviewers do not respond well to calls for sympathy or other gimmicks.

3. Include promotion code. Reviewers want a promotion code with your request for coverage. “Immediately provide a promo code for publishers to try the app hands-on,” suggests Libbey. Make it easy for them to write about your application by giving them a chance to try it right away. This may require a more selective set of places where you go for reviews, but better to get a few mentions than none.

4. Make a great video. A short video that shows your application in action is perhaps one of your best selling tools. It allows reviewers to get a sense of the graphics, sound and interaction in just a few seconds. Videos should be no longer than two minutes–if you hook the reviewer youʼll do it right away. Also, pay attention to production quality, especially sound, image clarity, etc. “Itʼs unfortunate, but I donʼt have time to download and test every app that comes out,” said Barbara Holbrook, Editor in Chief, at AppCraver. “A video takes just seconds to watch and can be the difference in whether an app gets a longer look.”

5. Put your best app forward. “Most important of all” says Holbrook, “make sure your app is polished and superior to the competition before submitting it to the app store or to publishers.” Many aspiring developers submit apps that are by their own admissions incomplete. Publishers report getting submissions that say, “I created this app in 5 minutes. Itʼs not very good but your feedback would be appreciated.” If you canʼt take time to polish your application, why should a reviewer take time to provide feedback and encouragement?