Data-Lovers Should Feast on ‘Somoloco’ in 2010

We are half-way through Q1 2010 and there is lots of healthy activity going on in the world of digital media.  New funds are starting to pump capital into digital start-ups, online media entities are filing to go public, Facebook now has 100 million active mobile users on a monthly basis, and Apple finally launched the anticipated iPad media tablet.

Exciting.

Digital media executives/entrepreneurs finally getting over the pain from soft 2009 numbers and are optimistically looking at 2010 to jump-start your businesses, I thought you may enjoy some industry metrics (thanks to Comscore.)

Below are published Comscore 2009 year-end data points that I found interesting:

• US eCommerce spending was $209.6 billion (first year on record with a decline)
• Books and magazine eCommerce achieved the highest growth rates in 2009 (12%,) presumably bolstered by declining prices and best-sellers
• US search grew 16% with the biggest gains at Google and Microsoft
• Nearly 80% of all Internet users visited a social networking site in Dec 2009.  Hands down the most engaging activity on the web.
• Facebook (112 million monthly visitors – up 105%) and Twitter (20 million monthly visitors) dominated the social networking growth
• Facebook metrics (12/08 vs. 12/09) are super interesting; unique visitors up 105%, average daily visitors up 181%, total minutes up 198%, total pages viewed up 151%, and total visits up 236%
• As of December 2009 the Facebook demographic breakdown is as follows; 18.7% is 50+, 31.6% is between 35 and 49, 23% is between 25 and 34, and 26.8% is 24 or younger
• Twitter’s demographic growth in 2008 came from the 25-54 segment (65% of audience.)  In 2009 the younger segments (24 and younger) represented the highest growth while the older age segments lost share.
• US Display Ad impressions were up 21% (total of 4.3 trillion.)
• AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, and Experian Interactive, respectively were the top three US online display advertisers
• Yahoo, Fox Interactive Media, and Facebook, respectively were the top three US display publishers
• 86% of the total US Internet population viewed video content in December 2009 with the average online viewer consuming 187 videos in a month
• Hulu viewers watched 1+ billion video streams (97 million hours) in December 2009 (up 140%) with the average viewer watching 2 hours of video a month
• December 2009 smartphone market share… Blackberry (42%) iPhone (25%) Windows Mobile (18%) Palm (6%) and Android (5%)
• December 2009 wireless carrier market share… Verizon (31.2%) AT&T (25%) Sprint (12.1%) and T-Mobile (12.1%)

Since our industry loves buzz words I decided to create my own for 2010, Somoloco.  No, it is not a country, disease, medication, or religion.  Rather, a pseudo-acronym identifying areas I predict will continue to see explosive commercial growth over the next 12-24 months.

1. SO – Using Social Media to build audience through developing and nurturing transparent and authentic relationships with customers
2. MO – Great mobile experiences for customers to engage in your content (text, images, video, interactive tools, etc.)
3. LO – Local (Everything nearby your current location)
4. CO – eCommerce (silly simple, yet sophisticated capability to purchase anything on any device, anywhere)

Heads-up media executives and entrepreneurs.  If your business plan for 2010 does not include a strategy in all or most of these growth areas you should think long and hard about.

What do you think?  Comment and let me know.