This week on the Blogosphere we’ll discuss five blog posts that examine the increasing significance of social networks in the mobile space, the rising popularity of real time search and the continuing growth of online ad spending worldwide currently, as well as in the future.
- Facebook announced this week that they’re planning to go mobile with their recently launched Open Graph, and that their user volume on mobile devices now reaches beyond 150 million users.
- Facebook surpassed its own traffic record in June, reaching more than 141 million unique visitors nationwide. These numbers help to further support the notion that they’ve become a real competitor to Google (in terms of traffic volume), who saw 179 million unique visitors in May.
- Twitter’s currently supporting 800 million queries a day–a 33% increase since April.
- Even though total media spending worldwide decreased in 2009, online ad spending saw a 2% boost, rising to $55.2 billion.
Facebook’s Open Graph going mobile
CNET | Jessica Dolcourt | 7-13-10
Facebook’s head of mobile products, Eric Tseng announced this week at MobileBeat 2010 that their newly released Open Graph will soon enter the mobile space. He didn’t specify an ETA, though Tseng stated that the release would be an ongoing process. Facebook describes Open Graph as a specified list of metatags that people can implement on their pages, which will allow Facebook to categorize each page by the object type they represent. The article’s author points out that the highly popular Facebook “Like” button, which is widespread across the entire Web (not just on Facebook), is part of the larger plan of Open Graph. An increasing number of Facebook social sharing options (i.e. the “Like” button) will begin to appear in non-Facebook mobile applications that lack social networking options with the release of Open Graph mobile plug-ins, the author claims. Eventually, the author suggests Open Graph may connect geolocation advertising with Facebook friend recommendations within mobile apps.
- Facebook has just announced their plan to go mobile with Open Graph.
- The major social network hopes Open Graph’s mobile move will effectively combine location-based advertising with recommendations from a user’s Facebook network of friends.
Facebook Mobile Usage Surpasses 150 Millions Users
All Facebook | Nick O’Neill | 7-14-10
Facebook has now reached over 150 million users on mobile devices, up from 100 million users in February, announced Eric Tseng of Facebook at MobileBeat 2010. The author of the post points out that while the growth rate of the company’s users via mobile isn’t climbing as rapidly as Facebook’s actual website, the numbers still emphasize the increasing significance of mobile. The author makes a few speculations as to Facebook’s next move based on Tseng’s presentation, stating that the popular social network might very well be developing a Facebook Mobile Platform.
- Facebook recently announced that their user volume on mobile devices is now over 150 million.
- As the social networking giant continues to make their way into the mobile space, the post’s author suggests that we might see developments like a Facebook Mobile Platform surface.
Facebook Hits New Traffic Record
Mashable | Adam Ostrow | 7-13-10
Recently, comScore reported that Facebook beat their own record for site traffic in the month of June, reaching more than 141 million unique visitors in the U.S. alone, an 11 million increase since May. Facebook’s currently experiencing nearly double their unique visitor traffic from a year ago (June 2009), which totaled 77 million. According to comScore, Facebook’s traffic growth rate is climbing much more rapidly than its competitors, including Twitter and MySpace. The article’s author points out that Twitter has defended its traffic growth, expressing that users frequent Twitter through wireless devices and third-party clients versus the actual social network, and that the social network’s still experiencing high traffic volumes. Facebook’s record-breaking traffic, the author says, makes them a real competitor to Google (in relation to traffic volume), who saw 179 million unique visitors in May.
- Facebook beat its own traffic record with 141 million unique visitors in June, signaling an increase of 11 million since May.
- These figures put Facebook on the map with Google; the search engine reached 179 million unique visitors in May.
Twitter search queries up 33 percent from April to 800 million per day
VentureBeat | Kim-Mai Cutler | 7-6-10
Twitter reported this month that they’re currently experiencing 800 million queries a day (or, 24 billion queries a month)–a 33% increase from April when they claimed to receive 600 million queries per day. Daily query numbers are hardly consistent, though. At times, the company claimed to support as many as 750 million queries a day in April. While the most recent worldwide traffic stats for Bing and Yahoo are from December 2009, Comscore released figures stating that Yahoo received 9.4 billion monthly queries and Bing, 4.1 billion monthly queries. Twitter has publicly voiced desire to be perceived as an information network versus a social media network. The author also points out that this rapid search query growth rate will most likely help support Twitter’s current advertising approach: “Sponsored Tweets.”
- Twitter recently stated that they’re supporting 800 million queries a day, which marks a 33% increase since April.
- While the most recent global stats for Bing and Yahoo date all the way back to December, the two search engines saw 4.1 billion and 9.4 billion monthly queries respectively (in December), whereas Twitter’s currently receiving 24 billion monthly queries.
Double-Digit Growth Again for Online Ad Spend
In their recent report, “Worldwide Ad Spending,” eMarketer states that even though total media spending worldwide decreased in 2009, online ad spending saw a 2% boost, reaching $55.2 billion. They project that in 2010, online ad growth worldwide will reach into the double-digits with an 11.9% increase, amounting to $61.8 billion. Online ad growth will consistently see rates of more than 10% annually through 2014, says the report. While almost 75% of global online ad spending in 2009 was generated in North America and Western Europe, eMarketer estimates that developing countries in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe will demonstrate more rapid growth rates than these more advanced markets in years to come. Between 2009 and 2014, they predict the Internet’s share of total ad spending globally will increase from 11.9% to 17.2%. eMarketer explains that online ad spending has the capacity to make this leap due to their consistently rapid growth rate and total media’s spending decrease of 10.5% in 2009, as well as the latter’s slow repossession of the market. The report’s author, Jared Jenks says it’s evident why online ad spending’s seeing such growth due to its ever-increasing popularity among the general public, efficacy and measurability.
- While total global media spending decreased in 2009 online ad spending experienced a 2% increase, rising to $55.2 billion.
- eMarketer forecasts an online ad growth of more than 10% each year through 2014 and an increase in the Internet’s share of total ad spending worldwide from 11.9% (in 2009) to 17.2% (in 2014).
Where’s Mobile Going Next?
We hope that you’ve enjoyed reading our weekly update and would like to hear any feedback or questions you might have. To get the weekly summary, or any other Optify updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or subscribe to our RSS feed. Here are some questions that we’d like to receive your input on:
- What are your thoughts on Facebook’s mobile expansion using Open Graph?
- While the concept of linking location-based advertising and Facebook friend recommendations in the form of a mobile app is most applicable to the B2C marketer, how could B2B companies leverage this marketing strategy?
