Local mobile ad network xAd has released its Q1 insights report. Like other such reports now in the market, it surveys trends and year-over-year changes observed on its ad network. This comes on the heels of xAd's co-sponsored "Mobile Path to Purchase" report (with Telmetrics), based on Nielsen data. That report had some truly striking findings. Chief among them: 46 percent of survey respondents said they relied exclusively on their mobile devices to conduct online research across a range of purchase categories. In other words: no PC usage. The principal finding of the Q1 insights report [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

YouTube could launch subscription-based channels as early as this week, according to The Financial Times. The subscription model will give Google's video sharing site a new revenue stream and support premium video content production. The subscription-based channels, first reported on back in January, will compete with other online premium subscription services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. The Financial Times reports YouTube will unveil as many as 50 subscription-based channels with subscription fees as low as $1.99 a month. YouTube, which surpassed one billion unique monthly users in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube | Top News | Video

The European Commission has made a preliminary determination that Google's Motorola Mobility unit "abused its dominant position" under EU antitrust rules in seeking to obtain and enforce an injunction against Apple in Germany. At the center of the dispute is Motorola's claimed misuse of  "standards essential patents" in mobile patent litigation against Apple. Google's antitrust settlement with the FTC in the US requires the company not to use standards-essential patents to block rival mobile products. The European Commission says that's what Motorola was trying to do in this case. Howe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Critics | Google: International | Google: Legal | Google: Mobile | Legal | Legal: Antitrust | Legal: Patents | Top News

Google and Facebook combine to take up seven spots on Apple's newly-released list of the Top 25 all-time free iPhone apps. Apple published that list -- and three others -- as part of its countdown to 50 billion App Store downloads, which the company expects to happen soon. (Apple is giving away a $10,000 App Store credit to whomever completes the 50 billionth download and $500 credits to 50 others.) Those lists look at the most popular iPhone apps (free and paid) and iPad apps (free and paid). On the paid side, the majority of apps on both lists are games. But, there's more variety in th [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Facebook: Instagram | Facebook: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

Facebook has settled its trademark-infringement litigation over the term Timeline. This was first reported by InsideFacebook based on an SEC filing: We are also party to various legal proceedings and claims which arise in the ordinary course of business. Among these legal matters, in two cases, Summit 6 LLC v. Research in Motion Corporation et al., and Timelines, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc. , we have reached agreements to settle the matters. The cost of settlement in each case, which is included in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 20 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Legal | Legal | Legal: Copyright & Trademark | Top News

The March smartphone market share numbers are out from comScore. What we see is Apple gaining 2.7 points to maintain its lead as the top US smartphone maker. Samsung also gained slightly and remains the number two smartphone manufacturer in the US. All other hardware makers, including Google's troubled Motorola unit, lost ground. Below are the smartphone operating system share percentages. Android lost about a point and a half of share. Apple gained 2.7 percentage points. And Windows Phones saw a slight gain. These comScore data above stand in contrast to data released earlier in [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

LinkedIn reported Q1 2013 results this afternoon. With revenue of $324.7 million, the company beat consensus Wall Street expectations. Revenue for the same period last year was $188.5 million. The US market was responsible for 62 percent of the total, while international revenues were 38 percent. Net income was $22.6 million vs. $5 million in Q1 2012. Non-GAAP income was $52.4 million. The company said it now has 225 million users. Here are the revenue generating products from LinkedIn and the corresponding figures: Talent Solutions: Revenue from Talent Solutions products totaled $18 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Top News

Twitter has hired Cynthia Gaylor as its new head of corporate development. Gaylor has been serving as a managing director at Morgan Stanley, where her recent focus has been in the tech sector. Notably, according to her LinkedIn profile, Gaylor's background includes IPOs. Most recently Cynthia is leading Morgan Stanley's technology execution effort, advising clients across a broad array of strategic financing activities including IPOs, follow-on offerings, equity linked, private placement and debt security transactions. Cynthia has advised on transactions for Workday, ServiceNow, Palo Alt [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Talk about #notgettingit and #dumbrules. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) -- the organization that makes the rules governing college sports -- has banned the display of hashtags and social media URLs on football fields. That means colleges and universities in the U.S. will have to find other ways to market their Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media presences, along with any hashtags they were using to increase school pride, awareness, and so forth. A new bulletin (PDF) from the NCAA Football Rules Committee begins by saying "there may be no advertisi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Top News

A handful of feature changes have been added to the official Android and iOS apps today to help users view local trends, switch accounts and fully integrate with the iOS only Vine product. A global change for both apps included support for the new 160 markets that Twitter Trends announced last month. Users in these locations will be able to view all local data directly from the app. For iOS, users will now be able to invite friends to Twitter directly from the app, a feature that should help to continue to increase adoption of the social network. Additionally, iOS users will now be [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Mobile

Facebook just announced Q1 2013 earnings. Revenue was nearly $1.46 billion, up 38 percent year over year (YoY). That beat financial analysts' estimates. Net income was $219 million, which was below estimates. Allaying fears of a decline in usage and engagement, Facebook saw 26 percent growth in daily active users (now 665 million). Monthly active users also increased 23 percent to 1.1 billion. Mobile active users were 751 million, a significant jump compared with 680 million in Q4 2012. Ad revenues were $1.25 billion (85 percent of total revenue), which represented a 43 percent increase [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Statistics | Top News

In addition to 15 new original shows headlined by stars like Gwynneth Paltrow, Hank Azaria and Nicole Richie, AOL made several announcements yesterday at NewFronts that aim to put the company at the leading edge of the digital video boom -- and at the head of the line to snag TV ad budgets. The questions of if and when those ad budgets will move to digital content in a meaningful way are yet to be answered, but AOL hopes its efforts will get media buyers thinking about digital video as simply a device extension from traditional TV. Audience Measurement AOL unveiled a new partnership [...]

Related Topics: AOL | Channel: Video | Top News | Video

First introduced in the U.S. last December, Facebook has now made Promoted Page ads available globally. The ads are designed with small businesses in mind to help them garner more Likes for their pages without needing large budgets or sophisticated targeting. Page administrators can launch a Promoted Page ad directly from the Admin Panel The ads will show in users' news feeds as well as in the right column on desktops. Facebook will actually create three versions of a Page ad automatically, including a Sponsored Story ad. Admins can pause or edit the ads from within Ads Manager. Here [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Top News

Now that Google Glass devices are making it out into the real world through Glass Explorers, the debate has started. Are these things just an expensive joke? A device like a Segway that seemed cool but never took off as some expected? I'd say no, and I'll draw from the TV series "Arrested Development" and movie "Wall Street" to help explain why. It's The Next Segway! If Mike Butcher of TechCrunch didn't originate the Segway comparison, he's sure had one of the best summaries of how Google Glass might go that way. Based on his limited experience in wearing them, he wrote: So Google Glass [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features & Analysis | Google: Glass | Search Marketing | Top News

A new GlobalWebIndex study analyzing international social media behavior revealed that mobile use and older Internet users are driving growth for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. To conduct the Social Stream Q1 2013 study, GlobalWebIndex surveyed 31,779 consumers in 31 different countries, examining global social media behaviors during the first quarter of this year. According to the findings, Android and iOS users were more likely to be on social networks than average Internet users. In Japan, iOS users were 133 percent more likely to use Google+ than average Internet us [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook: Statistics | Google: Google+ | Mobile Marketing | Pinterest: Statistics | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter: Statistics

As reported earlier this month, Foursquare has been working to woo agencies and big brand advertisers. Now, a leaked presentation deck picked up by Valleywag shows how the profit-challenged company is pitching two new advertising products that leverage its location-based data. The first product, set to launch in May, is Check-In Retargeting, which would allow advertisers to target users outside of the Foursquare app for the first time. Users' Foursquare check-in data will be aggregated and sold to ad exchanges for retargeting on external platforms including Facebook's FBX. Using demographic [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Foursquare | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

Two months ago, Google rolled out an interesting new twist to Google+ posts, the addition of interactivity. Rather than just text, images or links, Google+ interactive posts allow for calls to action or a specific "deep link" directly within a post. This allows for smarter targeting from companies and smarter, easier, pre-filled updates by users and pre-loaded Google+ buttons. From RSVP-ing to an event, to applying, to finding a table to reserve at a restaurant, the action types available are many. Google officially states that "Interactive posts can drive new users to your site, improv [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+ | Top News

Perhaps the most potent – even shocking – finding of the 2013 US Mobile Path-to-Purchase Study is that 46 percent of survey respondents said they relied exclusively on their smartphones or tablets in conducting online research across a range of purchase categories. Nearly half of the adults involved in this study did not consult PCs as part of their pre-purchase research, search and discovery process. I was taken aback by that finding, so much so that I had to confirm and reconfirm it with xAd, one of the companies that co-sponsored the study. While these mobile-first or mobile-only [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

Facebook's Creative Council evaluated hundreds of Facebook ad campaigns submitted by brands and agencies from across the globe to select winners for the 2013 Facebook Studio Awards. This year's top winner was Oreo, taking home the Blue Award for the Oreo Daily Twist Campaign, a social program that marked Oreo's 100th Birthday Celebration by posting 100 pieces of social content referencing culturally-relevant events in 100 days. This was the second year Facebook hosted their Studio Awards. Both years, the award levels have included Blue, Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards, all given to campaigns [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Despite seemingly flat to declining market share for many months, Kantar Worldpanel (the market-research unit of ad agency holding company WPP) now says that Windows Phones are seeing gains in the US market as well as abroad. The chart below offers a comparison of smartphone OS share in Q1 2012 and the same period this year. According to the data Windows Phone grew from 3.7 percent in 2012 to 5.6 percent in Q1 2013 The company attributed the gains to first-time smartphone buyers upgrading from feature phones. Kantar says that its US consumer panel "is the largest continuous consum [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News