World didn't end, but Gangnam Style did hit 1 billion views

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It’s broken a number of records — overtaking Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ to become the most popular YouTube video of all time — but today it marks another impressive YouTube milestone: the first video to reach one billion views on YouTube.

The most popular YouTube video of all time!!!

The video has topped nearly every viral list it has been part of, becoming Google’s top trending video in its YouTube Rewind retrospective for 2012, leading the most-saved videos on Pocket and even saw Google Chairman Eric Schmidt performing the iconic dance.

Of the billion views, over a third of them originated from a mobile device (over 340 million), while Facebook contributed 45 million via links and YouTube embeds. There’s been over 4 million comments posted, more than 6 million likes (435,000 dislikes) and it has been favorited roughly 1.8 million times.

Start Designing Your Life

I realised that I have reading this kind of books since I am 12. What kind of person reads personal deveopment books at that age of 11-12. Sure, if you do not have enought option to read what you would like to
then you ended up anything else you can get around.

With this post, I tried to show that the designer’s skills can be applied to a wide range of problems—and also that these skills are accessible to a far greater range of people than may be commonly supposed. Designing a life. There is a big difference, though, between planning a life, drifting through life, and designing a life.

We all know of people who go through life with every step preplanned. They knew which university they would attend, which internship would lead to a successful career, and at what age they will retire. Unfortunately, this never works out as planned. And anyway, if you know the winner before the start, where’s the fun in the game?

So, what would you change?

The Teacher’s Apple

A decade ago, electronics and cell phones in the classroom were considered little more than a distraction. Today, new devices such as tablet computers and smartphones are changing this perception. Educators are finding innovative ways to supplement their lectures with the newest technology, and students are beginning to see their devices as essential components of their college experience.

Naturally, major device manufacturers are now battling for dominance in the field. Below, we explore how Apple is winning the battle for education technology and what gives them the edge over the sizable competition in the market.

China at your fingerprints!

China, being the most populated country in the world, has become a hotbed for mobile device and smartphone usage. Consumer, business, and advertiser behaviours are quickly becoming assimilated and adaptive to the mobile gadget phenomenon. Mobile is now the new “cigarette”. Here there is a video created by GroupM Interaction showing facts about Chinese smartphone usage in 2011. [3:40 mins]

Some key facts:
– Android accounted 68% of China smartphones
– 360 million Chinese used the internet on their mobile devices
– 67% of Chinese take photos before eating and post them on social network
– Smartphone users in China check their gadgets every six minutes
– 38% of smartphone users spend more than 5 hours a day on their phone
– 92% of the youth use their mobile phones in the toilet!
– More than 1000 people daily start romantic relationships using their smartphones

Mobile: Are we forgetting to help our clients understand

At the recent MRMW conference held in Amsterdam, Elias Veris from Insites Consulting showed how a mobile MROC application can boost responses and allow observational tasks to be included in community research. In this follow-up article, he discusses how people are using their smart phones and what are the core drivers for using it.

A couple of weeks ago, the MRMW conference took place in Amsterdam. A fine event, with many bright minds talking on how to use mobile as a method. I had the opportunity to present about mobile in MROC’s there too (the presentation is available here) and tremendously enjoyed the discussions I had with many of the other delegates. What struck me however, is how almost all discussions were about the method of mobile, and only very little were about mobile as ‘content’. In other words, how can we in the market research industry help our clients really understand how to use this new era of connectedness in their daily marketing practices?

To kick this discussion off, we have recently conducted a study among 800 + smartphone users in 4 countries (US, UK, The Netherlands and Belgium). Our aim? Finding out how smartphone users use their phone, and what the real drivers are of using it. And, how can brands tap into the power of mobile?


Check the full report here:

%37 of the time online in 2011 spend in social networks

Each year consumers spend more time and more money online. The web is becoming completely integrated into our lives. Social connections are being made, conversations with companies taking place, relationships nurtured, whole wardrobes collected, news consumed and holidays are planned using the web. This adoption and widespread use of the web in all parts of our lives results in more fragmented online consumer behavior. This makes it increasingly harder to provide an objective overview of the online behavior of consumers.

To give detailed insights into the online behavior of consumers in a mature digital market we tracked the digital lives of more than 10.000 Dutch Consumers using our proprietary audience measurement technology. And here’s a short overview of some of the findings.

The Big Three dominate

Consumers spent approx. 60% of their time on The Big Three, which consist out of Social Networks, E-mail, and Search. This is followed by the trio of Shopping, News and Games. When looking at the total amount of visits per category we see a rearrangement of the Big Three and a more evenly distributed playing field. Search is most frequently visited (18,2%), followed by E-mail (11,8) and Social Networks (11,4%). Looking at the consumers behavior this is very logical. People tend to search quite frequently, but quickly. Social networks, however, have a different footprint. The volume is a bit lower, but consumers spend high amounts of time on them.


More time spend on Facebook than any other social network

What will come to know surprise to all of us is that Facebook is the nr. 1 social network in The Netherlands. It should be noted however that this is only since halfway 2011. Before that a popular local social network, Hyves, was in control. When looking at engagement (time on site, avg. pageviews per visit) it clearly shows that Facebook is in the lead. A quite interesting finding is that people, even though it just recently launched, spend more time per visit on Google+ compared to Twitter. The bite-sized content of Twitter definitely contributes to this. Another fascinating insight is that women are more engaged with social networks compared to men. More women spend more time on site and view more pages per visit compared to their male counterparts.
Google absent in Social, but dominates Search

After the initial introduction of Google+ there was a huge spike in traffic. However after the big rise, there was a great drop off and traffic reached a mere 2% penetration in our panel. Also when looking at the characteristics of the visits it clearly doesn’t the levels of engagement other platforms are providing.

What Google lack in social, it makes up in Search. Google absolutely dominates the search market in The Netherlands. It accounts for 95,8% of the search volume. Other competitors are near non-existing. Bing follows as a very distant with share of 2,4%, Ask.com 1,6% and Yahoo comes in forth with a meager 0,2%. The adoption of the additional services of Google (e.g. Maps, Mail) shows a classic long tail. While Maps and Mail are often visited during the week, the other services (Docs, News, Calendar, Video, Plus) lack any real traction.
Implications for Research in the Mobile World

This report tells about 90% of the story. And this will only steadily decrease in the near future. Why? Of course because the continuous rise of mobile usage by consumers. As outlined in the introduction this perfectly fits into the information snacking behavior consumers nowadays display. Moving back and forth between devices during different stages of the buying process.

The most important implication for research would be that we must move to an integrated multi-channel research approach. Not focussing on separate devices but on integrated multi-channel customer behavior. The consumer moves freely, quickly and seamlessly on multiple devices through cyberspace. They’re no longer bounded to specific platform for his or her journey. We shouldn’t be either in research.

About the study

These insights are part of a more extensive report (available for free in PDF format) called ‘State of the Web’. This elaborates on the behavior of consumers in specific categories such as Social Networks, Search, and Shopping. With our unique passive audience measurement technology we tracked the digital lives in 2011 of a representative panel which consists of approx. 10.000 Dutch consumers. We collected tens of gigabytes of data, which was used as input for the report.

Inbound Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]

Traditional marketing techniques involve ads such as commercials, billboards, and direct mail which can be costly and dicult to measure. Since your message is going out to all sorts of people who might not want your product or are not ready to buy, traditional marketing can be like taking a shot in the dark.

Inbound marketing instead focuses on targeted techniques such as content creation, search marketing, and social media that help potential buyers find your business when they are ready to buy. This brings better, more qualified leads into your sales funnel.

Online Traffic in North America Doubles This Year [REPORT]

How much time do you spend on the web each day? If you live in North America, a new report says, probably a lot.

Canadian company Sandvine, in their global Internet Phenomena Report, confirmed that online data usage in North America has increased by 120% over the past year. Netflix makes up 33% of the traffic — a definite boost for the company since last year’s price hike angered many of its viewers.

Amazon
makes up 1.8% of downstream traffic, the report says, with Hulu at 1.4% and HBO GO at 0.5%. In total, all audio and video streaming services account for 65% of traffic between 9:00 p.m. and midnight.

File sharing network BitTorrent takes up 16% of traffic — but, Sandvine predicts, real-time entertainment’s rising popularity will size it down to 10% overall by 2015.

Market Research Mobile World Asia 2013, January 29-31 Kuala Lumpur

Market Research Mobile World Asia January 29-31, 2013 Kuala Lumpur
The Most Anticipated Mobile Research Event is coming to Asia!

Dear Subscribers,

I am delighted to be selected as one of the Official Bloggers for the upcoming MRMW Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur! Join us in Kuala Lumpur and explore how businesses are leveraging the power of mobile to gain a deeper understanding of our consumers!

I will be giving you up to the minute updates about the conference from here and in my Twitter account: @Technostrategy. You can also sign-up on MRMW’s Mailing List to keep you on-the-loop! http://www.mrmw.net

I am looking forward to meeting you all in Kuala Lumpur! See you there!

COME AND JOIN US!

This conference is offered at affordable rates that won’t break your budget and will help you to be fully prepared for the changes in the insights and market research industry. JOIN US! Book your place by Nov 5th now AND SAVE 15% Use promo code: AA15

Click here to register: http://www.mrmw.net/MRMW-Asia-Pacific-2013/rates.html

Hear Kraft, Coca-Cola, Philips, Ericsson, Huawei, Mastercard, SingTel and other leading brands talk about the challenges and opportunities of mobile research.

Hear leading-edge innovators from Kantar, Nielsen, Ipsos, GfK, comScore, TNS, Confirmit, Civicom, Toluna, Cluetec and many other trailblazing firms discuss ground-breaking mobile research methods and technologies.

International speakers and experts include:

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

With input from senior executives from both sides of the table, the MRMW Asia 2013 conference is specifically designed for CEOs, VPs, Directors, and Managers of Consumer Insights / Market Research, Market Intelligence, Marketing and Branding, and Innovation & New Product Development.

LEARNING & NETWORKING

MRMW Asia will provide excellent opportunities for participants to engage in collaborative discussions on best practices, innovation methods, and new technology utilization. Opportunities to network with peers will include scheduled breaks during the conference sessions and a series of fun and casual networking events that will take place on January 29th and 30th.


Energising insight through mobile

Smartphone and tablet adoption and usage continues to soar in Asia. According to the recent Mobile Planet study (2012), smartphones are becoming increasingly indispensable to Asian consumers. 54% of smartphone owners from China would rather give up their TV than a smartphone. In Japan 100% of smartphone owners use their mobile device to research products or services. These mobile trends provide businesses with an exceptional opportunity to rethink how to reach the new mobile consumers, interact with them and generate insights for marketing, branding and new product development.