http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Blog/Josh-Catone/20080827-Better-than-free.html?source=cmailer
Galpert lays out a list of five things he thinks that people are still willing to pay for. These concepts can be applied to almost any product or service:
Convenience. People are lazy, says Galpert, which is why they’ll still pay for music tracks on iTunes, rather than get it from a P2P network. If you can offer them convenience over free alternatives, they’ll pay for it.
Quality. Access to higher quality content, products, support, or community features is something that people are willing to pay for. If a subscription fee keeps spammers out of a forum and makes it more attractive to industry professionals, then people will be willing to pony up the dough, for example.
Additional functionality. Galpert cites 37signals, which has pioneered the “freemium” model on the web by giving away a free appetiser, but charging for the full meal. The danger, as Stern points out, is knowing how much to give out so that your pay product is still an attractive upgrade for enough users.
Customisation. Customisation is a great value-added feature for many products, and people are willing to pay for it. Galpert uses Wordpress.com as an example. The site offers free blogs for anyone, but to customise the CSS or use your own domain name you have to fork over some cash.
Privacy. While privacy should be built into any service at any pay level, additional layers of privacy are something that people will pay for. Galpert talks about GoDaddy, which offers a premium service that allows people to mask their information on WHOIS searches.
Galpert’s list is helpful for anyone offering a web product or service that has to compete with free offerings. Competing with free is difficult, but as the example above show, it is not impossible.
A Quarter of Australians Favour Online Government Services
http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2008/mr_132008.html
A quarter of all Australians now conduct most or their entire dealings with government online, according to a report released today by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner.
The report, Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services – 2007, measures the uptake of government services provided through the internet and other channels in Australia.
Mr Tanner said “This report provides insight into Australian citizens’ views and use of online government services. It shows how indispensable the Internet has become for the delivery of those services to the Australian public.”
“Use of the Internet to access government services has changed significantly since these reports began in 2005. By measuring how citizens use government services in different ways, we can identify trends and analyse the experiences, preferences and evolving expectations of those citizens.”
“As the report shows, 25 per cent of people now conduct all or most of their dealings with government over the Internet, up from 14 per cent in 2004-05. Three in five people (59 per cent) used the Internet to access government services in 2007, a 20 per cent increase compared with 2004-05 usage rates.”
The report is based on a study of Australians over the age of 18 who had some form of contact with government in the previous 12 months.
Mr Tanner said the report also highlighted the continuing challenges facing government administration in delivering services to the Australian public.
“Citizens are telling us they value convenience in their interactions with government agencies. Some prefer the Internet, while some prefer dealing directly with real people face-to-face or by telephone.”
“However people prefer to access government services, this report provides a solid foundation for governments and agencies at every level to improve how their services are delivered,” Mr Tanner said.
This report will also form part of the information supplied to Sir Peter Gershon, who is currently conducting an independent review of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Sir Peter Gershon will report to the Minister by September 2008 on options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ICT within Government. The review is part of the broader ongoing reform agenda to improve the efficiency of government spending and deliver better value for money.
Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services – 2007 is available online at www.agimo.gov.au/publications/2007/december/australians_use_of_and_satisfaction_with_e-government_services__2007
Local ads pull in the punters
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080821-Local-ads-pull-in-the-punters.html?source=cmailer
Ads placed in local online media are more likely to evoke a consumer response than those conveyed through more generalised formats such as search or city-wide classifieds, a new study suggests.
Clickz reports that, in a survey of more than 2000 consumers by the Online Publishers Association, over 42% were prompted to act (either making a purchase or visiting a store) after viewing an ad on the website of a local newspaper, TV station or magazine.
Generalised search portals such as Yahoo and Google generated a lower 37% call to action rate, while classified sites triggered consumer action in only 35% of cases.
The higher response rate may have something to do with the additional trust many people have in brands they feel are tied to their local communities. Ads on local newspapers were ranked the most trustworthy by 56% of respondents, with local stations second on 55%, ahead of the generalised media channels.
The survey also provide a pointer to those businesses that might make best use of local online ads. The most commonly searched-for items were restaurants and cafes (38%), grocery stores (28%) and banks or financial services (25%).
Half of internet users visit search sites every day
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080811-Half-of-internet-users-visit-search-sites-every-day.html?source=cmailer
Using a search engine is a daily habit for 49% of web users according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
The survey, reported in Mediaweek, says search is now second only to email access (which 60% of users do every day) as the most popular internet task.
The surge in search is impressive. Back in 2002 – when Google was still building its monolithic brand – only a third of all web browsers used a search engine every day.
During the same period, the percentage of users checking email every day climbed just eight points, from 52% to 60%.
The survey also found that 39% of users visit news sites every day, while 30% visit weather sites. Interestingly, despite the huge numbers of users joining the social networking wave, just 13% of users log on to those sites every day.
Shoppers prefer retailers with online option: survey
http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=3376
Consumer confidence in online shopping has increased, with 81% of Australians more confident shopping online now than in the past, according to a survey by online comparison shopping site GetPrice.com.au.
And 71% of survey respondents said they prefer dealing with retailers that provide an online shopping option. "The message to Australian retailers is clear. They need to invest more in their online offerings," said GetPrice.com.au managing director Chris Hitchen. The GetPrice.com.au survey conducted across the News Digital Media network also found: · Cost savings (43%) and time savings (34%) were the top two reasons Australians preferred shopping online than in a retail store; · Two in five Australians expect to find the best low-budget items online. This option was chosen above factory outlets, budget department stores and top dollar stores; · Two thirds of respondents have never returned a product they bought online; · The most likely items to be bought online rather than in retail stores are travel fares, music and DVDs, music/concert tickets and consumer and home electronics; · Items most likely to be bought in a retail store rather than online are clothing and accessories, cars and food and beverages. "Our survey results indicate that Australia's shoppers are considerably more confident than in the past shopping online and even if they don't purchase a product online, they expect to be able to do their research on the web before entering a retail store, and that includes looking at pricing information," Hitchen said.
Are Short Videos Best for the Web?
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006454&src=article1_newsltr
Online video viewers are, for the most part, still watching as much TV and seeing as many movies on DVD and in theaters as ever.
Only 11% of online video viewers ages 12 to 64 surveyed in March and April by Frank N. Magid Associates said they had cut back on their TV time as a result of their Internet watching. One in 10 respondents said they went to movie theaters less as a result of online video, and only 7% said their DVD viewing had declined.
That may have something to do with the availability of full-length TV programs and movies online.
"The bulk of video consumed online today is typically short-form entertainment, rather than full TV episodes or full-length movies," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Last year, about one-half or more of US online video viewers surveyed regularly watched short news pieces, humor clips, movie trailers and music videos. Only about one in four viewers watched full-length TV shows, and only 14% viewed full-length movies.
But full-length TV shows were ranked as the most highly desired type of TV content by US and Western European adult Internet users surveyed in Q1 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation for Accenture.
In addition, more than one-half of online video viewers in the US polled by Harris Interactive last November said they would watch more full-length TV shows if they were available online, and nearly one-half felt the same way about full-length movies.
So online video viewers are anxious to watch longer content on the Web. Even if they start watching less TV and going to theaters less as a result of doing so, content publishers do not necessarily worry about their total revenue pool drying up.
Most Internet users seem aware that the money for longer programming has to come from somewhere. More than three-quarters of respondents to a February 2008 Ipsos MediaCT survey said that watching advertising was a reasonable tradeoff for full-length movies online. A full 82% said ads in full-length TV programs would be acceptable. In fact, respondents were far less tolerant of the idea of ad exposure in exchange for short-form content.
Can Local Web Ads Save Newspapers?
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006427&src=article1_newsltr
Extract: One fresh indicator that print newspaper readers are shifting to news sites comes from the Readership Institute. Although two-thirds of Internet users surveyed in July 2008 said they still used print newspapers about as much as they did before they started visiting news sites, more than one-quarter said they were reading print less as a result, and that figure has grown during the past 5 years.
Advertisers spent about 7% less last year with newspapers, at the same time that Internet ad spending saw healthy growth, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus data released in March 2008.
The good news is that newspaper site ad revenues are growing along with other online ad spending, especially for local news sites. Local newspaper online ad revenues are predicted to reach $3.7 billion this year (up 19% on 2007), according to eMarketer calculations based on Borrell Associates data.
The bad news is that this spending will not make up for print ad losses for some time, according to Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer. Ms. Phillips noted that advertisers still pay more for print readers than for online readers.
"This is a transition that will take several years," she said. "Local advertisers are paying attention to the shift in reader behavior, but it will take a while for everyone to adjust."
When times are tough, shoppers head online
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080721-When-times-are-tough-shoppers-head-online.html?source=cmailer
Slow economic times has sent newly price sensitive shoppers in Britain flocking to online comparison and rating sites, according to online ratings firm Hitwise.
Over the past 12 months, the number British people that have visited sites in Hitwise’s Rewards and Directories category, which is mostly comprised of price comparison engines, affiliates and voucher sites, has shot up 36%.
That spike in visitors is translating into increased traffic for online retailers. According to Hitwise, almost half of the downstream traffic from Rewards and Directories sites goes to online retailers, with department store and appliances and electronics sites the biggest winners.
Fashion is apparently already on people’s minds as the economy fades – a bit of therapy shopping never goes astray – with visitors to fashion sites up 60% over the past 12 months.
Local search
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080714-Top-10-search-and-sale-tools-and-how-to-get-on-top-of-them.html?source=cmailer
If you haven’t noticed already, Google has made some major changes to its rankings. If you run a local business with a website, this could present you with an opportunity to get to the top of Google without having to do any serious SEO at all!
Google has thrust local search to the forefront of its new universal search results platform by squeezing 10 local results into (what’s been coined) a “local box”.
Local search results used to look like this:
So as you can see, there were three results next to the map. The three local box results were part of the top 10 at Google.
After Google’s algorithm change, here’s what we’re seeing now…
Essentially there are now 20 results on a Google page – 10 local results run alongside the local box and 10 run beneath (as standard results). If you used to rank first, you now rank 11th.
This change has propelled some businesses from “nowhere” into the top 10, and relegated others (who may have invested in SEO) to the bottom 10 results.
Life’s not fair is it?
So how do you give your website a chance at the top 10 with local results?
First off, you’ll need to create a Google account. That will allow you to create a free “local business listing” which allows you to enter all the information about your business. You can also move the map marker!
It certainly doesn’t hurt to think about keyword optimisation while you’re entering your information.
For example, if your business is a local florist in Leichhardt, you should enter “Joes Flowers – Leichhardt Florist”. Try and get important keywords alongside your business name – you won’t get in trouble if you keep it reasonable!
The next tip is to register your business with TrueLocal. Google and NewsCorp have a commercial relationship (hard to believe I know), where TrueLocal results help to power Google’s own local business results. It really helps if you’re included in both Google and TrueLocal.
I have it on good authority from an expert in local search, that at present there is no relationship between a premium listing at TrueLocal and Google rank. I guess that makes sense. If it were true, it would set a worrying precedent. You might at last be able to buy your way to the top of Google! At $900, that’d be pretty cheap in my book.
Finally, optimise your site as best you can. Spend a few dollars and obtain some strong authority links; get included in the Yahoo directory. I’ve seen websites gain dramatic ranking improvements at Google once their Yahoo directory listing was approved (with no other changes).
Top 10 search-and-sale tools and how to get on top of them
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080714-Top-10-search-and-sale-tools-and-how-to-get-on-top-of-them.html?source=cmailer
The web is constantly changing, and business owners with a web presence need to keep on top of every new improvement in how your customers can keep finding your website.
SmartCompany runs through the top 10 new search tools to help you get found and sell more.
Online Reviews Sway Shoppers
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006404&src=article1_newsltr
Extract: Consumer reviews play a big part in purchase decisions for online shoppers in the US, according to a June 2008 Opinion Research Corporation study.
A full 61% of respondents said they had checked online reviews, blogs and other online customer feedback before buying a new product or service. Search engines were the preferred way to research purchases. Of those who looked for reviews and other feedback, more than eight out of 10 said such evaluations had at least some influence on their purchases.
"Businesses today exist in an era in which it's nearly impossible to escape the likelihood of being evaluated." said Linda Shea, senior vice president at Opinion Research, in a statement, "There's nowhere to hide."
The company also found that 38% of respondents first checked online product or service reviews when starting shopping research.
Online shoppers value product reviews from other consumers (29.6%) even more highly than professional reviews (21.3%), according to an InQuira-commissioned survey conducted in 2008 by Service Excellence Research Group.
It is not just new online shoppers who look for the opinions of other consumers, according to a February 2008 study commissioned by PowerReviews and conducted by the e-tailing group. Nearly one-half of US consumers surveyed who shopped online four or more times per year and spent at least $500 said they needed four to seven customer reviews before making a purchase decision.
Broadband and Internet Use in Australia
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006414&src=article2_newsltr
Extracts: In what is typically a sign of growing broadband usage, the number of dial-up subscribers in Australia showed a notable decline last year, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Meanwhile, the number of high-speed subscribers climbed markedly.
Indeed, broadband penetration in Australia has been rising dramatically over the past several years. A clear majority of households had a broadband connection in 2007, and in 2008 more than 63% of homes, numbering just over 5 million, are expected to be high-speed Internet subscribers. ADSL is by far the most popular broadband technology, projected this year to be installed in almost 4 million households. The use of cable technology for broadband access is a distant second, with 785,000 users projected for 2008.
Across the board, whether via ADSL, cable or other technologies, broadband penetration is expected to continue to climb through 2012, when more than three-quarters of households in Australia are projected to have broadband access of some type. It is safe to say that Australia, despite its small population, is poised to take a top spot among the giants of the industrialized world with regard to broadband penetration.
Although the majority of Internet users in Australia have broadband, their preferred online activities are not bandwidth-intensive, according to Nielsen Online data released in March 2008. Some 98% of those surveyed said they used e-mail while online last year, making it by far the most popular Internet activity in the country. Financial activities were also favorites, including banking (72%) and bill payment (66%).
A minority of respondents said they used the Internet for various e-commerce activities, including purchasing airline tickets (44%), booking hotel and travel arrangements (37%) and auctions (37%). Activities related to research and information are especially popular in Australia, with 62% of respondents reporting they used the Internet for maps and directions and 59% for directories (yellow and white pages).
Putting the dominance of eBay and PayPal into context
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/sandra-hanchard/2008/07/putting_the_dominance_of_ebay.html
Extracts: eBay Australia was the leading website in the Hitwise online Shopping & Classifieds industry in May 2008, accounting for 29.07% market share of visits. The next website to follow was eBay with 4.09% share of visits. During this period, Hitwise tracked over 31,500 websites in the Shopping & Classifieds industry, ranging from comparison shopping websites to the online properties of major retail brands.
Visits to the online Auctions industry are in fact particularly high in Australia. Auctions websites accounted for 38.11% of visits to all Shopping & Classifieds websites in May 2008 in Australia, compared to 21.35% by U.S. Internet users.
This article from the WSJ surmises that "consumers Down Under have plenty of choices of where to trade their goods online." Within the Auctions space, the combined properties of ebay.com and ebay.com.au accounted for 83.3% market share of visits by Australian Internet users during the week ending 28 June 2008.
eBay's nearest competitor, Trading Post Online debuted at 3rd position (week ending 14/06/08) when it launched its auctions service and accounted for 3.78% share of visits during the week ending 28 June 2008. Oztion Auctions followed with 2.53% market share, reaching its highest point ever during the week ending 28 June 2008.
Behavioral Targeting
http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000487&src=report5_head_info_newsltr
Extracts: Held back by incomplete technology development, brand marketers’ preference to have ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy, eMarketer estimates that US spending for behaviorally targeted online advertising will reach only $775 million in 2008.
The Behavioral Targeting report analyzes the trends that are driving, and delaying, development of this promising new online channel.
Things may not be going smoothly, but they are about to change.
eMarketer projects that behaviorally targeted ad spending will reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.
Mainstream adoption of online video advertising will be the key factor driving behaviorally targeted ad spending to nearly 25% of all US display ad spending that year.
Harvard’s Anita Elberse: Forget the “Long Tail”
http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=476&tag=nl.e808
The Find: One Harvard Business School professor crunches the numbers and comes up with a startling conclusion for those in the media biz: forget the long tail, aim for the occasional (and old fashioned) blockbuster.
The Source: An alaysis of sales patterns in the music and home-video industries by Anita Elberse, a Harvard Business School associate professor in the Harvard Business Review and a response from Long Tail author Chris Anderson in the HBR Conversation Starter blog.
The Takeaway: Chris Anderson’s now famous “long tail” theory urges media bosses to forget hit-making and instead to take advantage of the near zero cost of digital distribution to try and make money from selling small numbers of many titles to niche consumers. Sounds solid, but Elberse looked at some real world numbers and ends up less than convinced.
At Rhapsody, the music download service, the top 10 percent of titles account for 78 percent of all songs played, and the top 1 percent of titles for 32 percent. In 2006, at movie download service Quickflix, the top 10 percent of DVDs accounted for 48 percent of all rentals, and the top 1 percent for 18 percent of all rentals. That’s a serious concentration on the “head” rather than the “tail.” “But what about trends?” you ask. The top hits will always get a disproportionate number of hits, but the tail is getting fatter, right? Not according to Elberse. She found that at Quickflix: “The number of titles that sold only a few copies almost doubled for any given week from 2000 to 2005. In the same period, however, the number of titles with no sales at all in a given week quadrupled… Rather than bulking up, the tail is becoming much longer and flatter.”
Her conclusion for producers of content: “It would be imprudent for companies to upend traditional practice and focus on the demand for obscure products.” Or in other words, keep focusing on making and marketing hits. For retailers, Elberse cautions that attempts to direct your customers to the tail too often, which can lead to dissatisfaction (maybe because hits are hits for a reason).
Anderson gamely responds in the Conversation Starter citing his admiration for Elberse and her research and laying out where he thinks her definition of the “tail” differs from his, but Elberse’s conclusion that The Winner-Take-All Society by Robert Frank and Philip Cook is a better model for media than Anderson’s blockbuster still seems hard to refute.
The Question: Is hit-making a dead art or on its way to a resurgence? And are we still “water cooler creatures” by and large - only interested in congregating around hits?
Internet advertising: $US65 billion this year, and growing
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080626-Internet-advertising-US65-billion-this-year.html?source=cmailer
Monday, 30 June 2008: Spending on internet advertising is set to total more than $US65.2 billion this year and will grow 15% to 20% a year, reaching $US106.6 billion in 2011, according to forecasts by research firm IDC.
The forecast for 2008 will account for 10% of spending across all media, and the prediction for 2011 will see internet advertising account for 13.5% of all media spending.
The highest spender is the United States by far, projected to spend more than $US45 billion for online advertising by 2011, and more than $US265 billion for all other forms.
John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC, told marketingcharts.com: “By the end of the forecast period, spending for internet advertising will trail direct mail – the third-largest form of advertising – by more than $30 billion, while spending on TV and print ads will each be nearly twice as great as for online ads.”
Email marketing gains ground
http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=3084&h=Email-marketing-gains-ground-
Email-based marketing is fast becoming a key tool for reaching consumers in the Asia Pacific region, according to a survey conducted by Epsilon International and Return Path.
In one of the most significant findings, nearly one in three respondents (32%) said that they would "always" respond to targeted, promotional e-mails.
The survey, which was carried out in February throughout the region, surveyed 1169 participants and sought to discover consumer email habits and attitudes to permission email marketing and spam. "Through client campaigns across Asia Pacific, we know that consumer interaction and responses to targeted permission based communications are high, and drive significant returns for our clients," said Dominic Powers of Epsilon International. "This survey further supports the fact that consumers respond to email marketing if it is directed to the right person, at the right time, and with the right message."
Another survey finding pointed to the increasing acceptance of electronic marketing when used in a controlled and targeted manner, with 76% of respondents in Australia replying that they would use e-mail coupons to buy products online or offline. "E-mail marketing is rapidly becoming the preferred method for consumers to be reached by marketers," Powers said. "Aside from the obvious environmental angles, consumers are now savvy enough to realise that targeted campaigns can offer them deals or savings above the typical promotional offers they find in their letterbox at home."
Other key findings in the survey:
- Promotional emails increases brand loyalty 45% of respondents in Australia said that promotional emails increased their brand loyalty; while one-third (34%) said they had made more purchases after receiving promotional emails.
- Customers interact on relevancy. Half of those surveyed in Australia (51%) are willing to share personal information if they believe it drives relevant and more targeted offers.
- Australian respondents have the lowest uptake (6%) of using mobile devices for email. China reported the highest at 34%, followed by Hong Kong at 29% and Japan at 27%.
Online retailing: the growth will slow
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Industry-Trends/20080423-Online-retailing-the-growth-will-slow.html
Extracts: Consumers have taken to online shopping with enthusiasm, but the industry is set to lose momentum.
The $16 billion online retailing industry, which includes e-tailers, mail-order houses and online auction sites, has enjoyed five years of strong growth as consumers have moved online. The future will not be quite as good.
This industry has grown by 8.1% a year on average over the past five years as consumer confidence in online security and technology has grown. Pet supplies and cosmetics found 2006-07 to be a particularly good year. Growth in the number of internet connections, along with a rise in PC density, has also increased sales.
Mail-order houses are more established compared to electronic shopping, so they experienced a moderate contraction in their share of total retail sales. The main cause of this has been a shift in the purchasing patterns of consumers from catalogues to the internet.
IBISWorld forecasts that the industry will grow by 4.7% a year over the five years to 2012-13.In 2008-09, industry revenue is forecast to grow thanks to a rise in disposable income and growth in household consumption. In 2009-10, industry revenue is expected to increase, but declines in the consumer sentiment index and weaker growth in disposable incomes will have an impact. In 2010-11, industry revenue will be supported by stronger GDP growth.
By 2011-12, industry revenue is expected to benefit from anticipated growth in disposable income and a recovery in the consumer sentiment index. In 2012-13, industry revenue is expected to continue a pattern of growth, with change in the unemployment rate along with stronger GDP growth predicted to bode well for retailers over the year.
This industry has experienced a convergence between traditional retailers and pure internet-based operators. This trend is forecast to continue into the outlook period as operators merge to retain profits and market shares.Another trend that is set to emerge over the outlook period is lower priced products and cheaper delivery costs.
This industry is forecast to become increasingly competitive as an influx of players give consumers more options to choose from. Industry operators are also forecast to increase their level of after sales service in an attempt to keep customers coming back to their site.
Groceries to overtake gadgets as the biggest seller on the web
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080612-Groceries-to-overtake-gadgets-as-the-biggest-seller-on-the-web.html?source=cmailer
Thursday, 12 June 2008. Research from Britain suggests sales of groceries will overtake electrical goods as the leading online product within five years. “Food and groceries are on course to leapfrog electricals into the top spot, accounting for 29% of all online sales in 2012, compared to 22% for electricals,” the report from retail research group Verdict Research says.
Malcolm Pinkerton, senior retail analyst and author of the report, says: “The internet is widely perceived as a cheaper and easier way of finding lower prices and bargains in most sectors.” Although Coles and Woolworths dominate 75% of the grocery sector, their online services are only available in Sydney and Melbourne, with Woolworths also offering services in Canberra. But given the habits of Australian consumers, Coles and Woolworths are unlikely to rush to expand their services. Steven Ogden-Barnes, from the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, told the Sydney Morning Herald that competition for the Australian online marketplace would be an uphill battle, arguing consumers are undisciplined and purchase too infrequently.
Only 25% travel from homepage (in Web users 'getting more ruthless')
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7417496.stm
Extract: In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.
Broadband penetration 84% of internet homes (in "Aussie internet usage overtakes TV viewing for the first time" - 18 March 2008)
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_080318_AU.pdf
Extract: The Nielsen Online report found that broadband uptake in Australia is now reaching maturity, with broadband connections now found in 84 percent of Australian Internet users’ homes (up 10 points in 12 months and up 30 points in two years). Based on expected uptake, Nielsen Online predicts penetration of this technology should grow to 90 percent by the end of 2008.
Australia Internet Usage Stats
http://www.internetworldstats.com/sp/au.htm
Internet Usage Statistics:
15,300,000 Internet users as of Dec./2007, 74.3% of the population, according to ITU.
Internet Broadband Subscribers:
4,700,200 Broadband subscribers (connections) as of Sept./07, 22.8% of the population, according to OECD.
Australia: Average Web Usage - Month of April 2008 - Home Panel
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/reports.jsp?section=pub_reports_intl&report=usage&period=monthly&panel_type=1&country=Australia
Statistics about average amount of web use in Australia
Australia: Top 10 Parent Companies - Month of April 2008 - Home Panel
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/reports.jsp?section=pub_reports_intl&report=parent&period=monthly&panel_type=1&country=Australia
Which were the most visited companies or organisations
Hitwise Australia - Top 20 Websites - April, 2008
http://www.hitwise.com.au/datacenter/rankings.php
This list features the most popular websites based on Australian Internet usage for April, 2008, ranked by market share of visits across all Hitwise industries.
Rank, Website, Market Share
1. http://www.google.com.au/ 7.57%
2. mail.live.com 3.1%
3. ninemsn.com.au 2.49%
4. http://www.myspace.com/ 1.9%
5. http://www.ebay.com.au/ 1.87%
6. http://www.facebook.com/ 1.79%
7. http://www.google.com/ 1.73%
8. http://www.youtube.com/ 1.24%
9. au.yahoo.com 1.24%
10. http://www.wikipedia.org/ 0.63%
11. http://www.microsoft.com/ 0.62%
12. mail.yahoo.com.au 0.6%
13. http://www.gmail.com/ 0.59%
14. http://www.netbank.commbank.com.au/ 0.56%
15. images.google.com.au 0.54%
16. http://www.live.com/ 0.51%
17. http://www.bom.gov.au/ 0.48%
18. http://www.msn.com/ 0.46%
19. news.ninemsn.com.au 0.46%
20. http://www.bebo.com/ 0.38%
Note - the Hitwise data featured is based on Australian market share of visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or industry, from the Hitwise sample of 2.95 million Internet users in Australia. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorises websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context.
Source - Hitwise - April, 2008 - based on market share of visits.
What Australians are doing online (Industry Traffic Overview - All Categories Share at Week Ending 9 February, 2008)
http://www.hitwise.com.au/press-center/hitwiseHS2004/au-whataudoonline-02222008.php
Table compares the top ranking categories of websites in Australia compared to US and UK. For example, Banks and Financial institutions account for 4.35% of all internet viewing, whilst education - reference accounts for 2.63%.
Education - Reference - was a leading sub-category partly due to the popularity of websites, Bureau of Meteorology and Wikipedia, which ranked 9th and 12th respectively amongst all websites the week ending 9 February 2008. The importance of Wikipedia as a general content source was reflected by the fact that Wikipedia was the 4th most popular website in the downstream traffic of Search Engines for the week ending 9 February 2008. Australian visits to Education - Reference accounted for 2.63% share, higher than US usage (1.62%) and UK usage (1.61%).
Online Performance Awards (most popular websites in 2007)
http://www.hitwise.com.au/images/2007_Winners_AU.pdf
Extract: The Hitwise Australian Online Performance Awards celebrate the #1 websites in over 100 industries for 2007. This unique awards program recognises excellence in online performance through public popularity.
Australia's broadband penetration is healthy regardless of world ranking
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1119606718;fp;32768;fpid;1244820943
Extract: "By 2010 we expect Australia to have a broadband penetration of 69%" said Kennedy. "Obviously growth rate will diminish to around 11% as more people adopt broadband but again this is comparable to other developed nations."
8146.0 - Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2006-07
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0e5fa1cc95cd093c4a2568110007852b/acc2d18cc958bc7bca2568a9001393ae!OpenDocument
Extract: In 2006-07, 64% of Australian households had home Internet access and 73% had access to a home computer. During 2006-07, whilst the proportion of households with access to the Internet increased by 4 percentage points, in the same period, the proportion of households with access to a computer increased by 3 percentage points.
Of the 5.1 million households with home Internet access in 2006-07, 31% had dial-up access and 68% had broadband Internet access. In 2006-07, the number of households with broadband Internet connection increased from 2.3 million to 3.5 million households.
April 2006 Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects, OECD study shows
http://www.acs.org.au/icdl/content/upload/files/pdf/PISA_04.06.pdf
Extract: Nearly three out of four students on average in OECD countries - and in Canada, Iceland and Sweden nine out of 10 – use computers at home several times each week. In contrast, only 44% use computers frequently at school (see Figure 4). In some countries, the discrepancy between home and school use is marked: Germany has the lowest percentage of frequent computer users at school among OECD countries (23%) but a high proportion of frequent users at home (82%) (see Figure 3).
The relationship with student performance in mathematics is striking. Students who have used computers for several years mostly perform better than average. By contrast, those who don’t have access to computers or who have been using computers for only a short time tend to lag behind their class year.
According to the OECD study, students who had been using computers for less than one year (10% of the total sample) scored well below the OECD average. By contrast, students who had been using computers for more than five years (37% of the total sample) scored well above the OECD average.
In general, the poor performance of students who have only recently had access to computers is partly influenced by their home backgrounds: students with low home access, in particular, are likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Even taking account of socio-economic factors, however, a sizeable positive effect from regular computer use is evident. This is particularly clear in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the U.S.
Interactive Australia 2007 : facts about the Australian computer and video game industry
http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1098&context=hss_pubs
Key points
73% of parents say computer games teach children about technology
68% of parents say computer games teach children maths.
64% of parents say computer games teach children to plan ahead.
58% of parents say computer games teach children about science.
48% of parents say computer games teach children language.
(79% of Australian households have a device for playing computer and video games – 95% of these devices are computers).
Other findings
- The average age of Australian gamers is 28 years.
- Interactive games are attracting new players. 41% of gamers are female. 8% are seniors.
- Parents and children are increasingly playing together. 35% of gamers are parents.
- 61% of gamers play for up to an hour at one time.
- Playing computer games does not compete with non-media and outdoor leisure activities. Instead it competes with other media such as TV, film and music.
- Parents in game households say the positive aspects of game play are more than just enjoyment and happiness. 73% say games help their children learn about technology, 68% say games help their children learn maths, 64% say games help children learn to plan.
- 70% of games classified by the OFLC in 2006 were rated G or PG.
- 62% of Australians in game households say the classification of a game has no influence on their buying decision Australians are very confused about the difference between the M and MA15+ classification
- Broadband penetration decreased steadily with age. Game households were 12% more likely than non-game households to have broadband.
- Playing online games ranks 10th among the list of activities Australians identify as their common uses of the internet. Email, web browsing, banking and paying bills are the top uses.
No comments:
Post a Comment