According to a new study by Juniper Research, the total value of mobile payments for digital and physical goods, money transfers and NFC (Near Field Communications) transactions will reach $670 billion by 2015, nearly triple the current value of $240 billion. Read →
A recent survey by Regus reveals that 47% of businesses successfully used social networks for customer acquisition in 2011, a 7% increase over 2010. The US was slightly behind this average, with 43%. Out of all the countries studied, China saw the greatest change in successful customer acquisition, rising from 44% in 2010 to 65% in 2011. Read →
Micro-blogging continues to grow in China, and Sina Weibo – referred to by the SFGate as “China’s homegrown equivalent” to Twitter – is responsible for 87% of the time spent on micro-blogging services there. The last figures released by Weibo listed the service as having 50 million members back in October 2010. SFGate reported analyst [...] Read →
China has the largest Internet community in the world with over 420 million users, and has shown steady double-digit user growth rates over the past five years. However, this is only 32% of China’s total population of 1.3 billion, leaving a huge opportunity for growth in the Chinese Internet space, as reported by Penn Olson. [...] Read →
Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, but the country’s home-grown social networks are seeing significant adoption rates among the country’s 420 million netizens, according to this article in The Times of India. Kaixin001.com (“happy network”), China’s Facebook-style network, launched in 2008 and had 90 million users as of September 2010. Read →
Consumer research company TNS has released “Digital Life,” the “world’s largest study into consumers’ digital behaviours and attitudes ever conducted.” It’s based on a September 2010 study of online behaviour and perspectives in 46 countries.* Developing/rapid-growth markets are the most avid users of social networks. The study found that social networking has become a mainstream activity [...] Read →
New research from Forrester indicates that while participation in social network services is on the rise, actual content creation is lagging behind. In the past year, their research shows no measurable growth in the Creators category (those who publish a blog, update Web pages, upload user-generated video, or write and post content), while in the [...] Read →
Smart Brief on Social Media’s Merritt Colaizzi posted a summary of statistics from a SXSW panel about social media and China that describe the social media scene in China. Unfortunately, there are no sources given, but the numbers are an interesting glimpse into the burgeoning Chinese social media scene nonetheless: Read →
Social networks around the world 2010 European research and consulting firm InSites Consulting has released a detailed report based on a global study of 2,800 internet users. The full report provides fascinating insights into social networking preferences and behaviors around the world, so we are embedding it above. InSites has a blog post summarizing key [...] Read →
TrendStream, who publishes the Global Web Index, has created a visualization that shows the penetration of different social technologies in major markets around the globe. The research is based on interviews with 32,000 Internet users in 16 countries. Article in Mashable; full chart at Global Web Index. Read →