The Facebook Stats Game...

Facebook says  that it generated half of its revenues outside of the U.S. and Canada in the first quarter of 2012, and some numbers out today underscore just how extensive its reach is in different markets, with active usage in some countries outstripping that of Facebook in its home market. According to figures from Nielsen — some of the latest numbers to come out in the battery of data that is being fired out in the final day before Facebook goes public – Brazil has the highest active reach of Internet consumers using the social network from home/work computers. Some 38.1 million Brazilians visited Facebook during March 2012, equivalent to 76.7 percent of all people who were active online that month from home and work computers in the market. When you take into account people accessing Facebook from other sources like tablets and mobiles, Nielsen says New Zealand has the highest active reach, with nearly 80 percent of all consumers accessing Facebook in one format or another. However, when you look at actual numbers, the U.S. is still running away with the most users: Nielsen reports the figure in the U.S. 152.8 million users — which it bases on usage from computers as well as mobile devices. The active reach in that market is 69.6 percent, it says. Nielsen notes that Facebook’s active reach in Japan is only 24 percent, with “blog sites” proving more popular in the country. Today Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten announced that it was leading on a $100 million investment in Pinterest , which it noted was picking up huge traction in the country: Rakuten wants to ride that wave with e-commerce integration. Facebook’s low-ish reach in that country underscores the opportunity for another social network to come in and make a mark. But while it can be useful to see what percentage of active Internet users are accessing Facebook, Nielsen’s numbers, rather confusingly, do not tally exactly with those released by Facebook itself. Facebook in its latest S-1  does not break out many individual countries but it does point to numbers for a few: it says that it had 45 million monthly active users in Brazil as of March 31, 2012 (Nielsen’s figure: a lower 38 million). Facebook also points out it had 51 million MAUs in India — a country not included in Nielsen’s numbers. The U.S., Facebook says, had 169 million MAUs (again, Nielsen’s numbers are lower, this time by nearly 17 million). Confused? Another analysis group, Social Bakers , also breaks out country numbers — and cities, too. It notes that Bangkok is currently the Metropolis with the most Facebook users: according to its latest figures, Thailand’s capital had 8.7 million active users in the last month. While Nielsen ranks countries based on the active reach among active Internet users, Social Bakers seems to look at overall penetration, and so the numbers become significantly lower for some of the brightest stars in Nielsen’s rankings: Brazil, for example, has Facebook penetration of 23.4 percent of the population; New Zealand has penetration of 51.4 percent. The very highest penetration for Facebook in Social Bakers’ rankings is for Monaco, with penetration of 124 percent (more than one account?) but representing only 38,000 users. Overall, Facebook’s own, most current figure puts its global active monthly users at 901 million.

Digital Moms vs. Digita...

Two separate infographics from Nielsen and OnlineSchools.com offer insights into the different ways moms and dads use the Internet, mobile devices and social networks. Moms, for instance, are more likely than the average American to visit Pinterest, while dads have more online friends than moms.

Nielsen: U.S. Consumers...

With smartphone penetration now at 50 percent in the U.S., the world of apps is seeing a knock-on effect in their popularity: according to a new report from Nielsen , mobile consumers are downloading more apps than ever before, with the average number of apps owned by a smartphone user now at 41 — a rise of 28 percent on the 32 apps owned on average last year. But at the same time, there are hints of people possibly approaching a limit to how much they might use them: despite the rise in app numbers, the amount of time that people are spending in apps has remained essentially flat: collectively, they are being used for 39 minutes per day today, compared to 37 minutes in 2011. Nielsen also notes that apps seem to be taking a bit of time away from mobile web usage (perhaps this is where the extra two minutes comes from…): it says that users are using apps 10 percent more than the mobile web, compared to last year. As for why users are spending no more time on apps than they were before: Nielsen doesn’t really explore that issue, but it does note that privacy has slightly increased as an issue for U.S. consumers: some 73 percent note personal data collection as a concern (compared to 70 percent a year ago), with 55 percent saying they are wary of sharing information. It could be that this privacy concern is actually keeping at least some people away from engaging in apps more. Going back to the increase in app downloads noted by Nielsen, this is something that has been pointed out by the app store owners in a different way: Google says it has now passed 15 billion downloads announced this month , and Apple noted 25 billion downloads in March 2012. This morning, Gartner released some figures that pointed to even more consolidation among the top handset makers and the top platforms — with Samsung and Apple accounting for 49.3 percent of all smartphones sold in Q1 2012 (compared to just under 30 percent a year ago). Nielsen’s app figures seem to point to a similar trend: Android and iOS owners accounted for 88 percent of all apps that were downloaded in the past 30 days, it says (up from 74 percent last year). That may partly be to do with their own market share size in the U.S., where Android and Apple’s iOS dominate the smartphone landscape with respectively 38 million and 84 million users — but it also seems to imply that those users are also actively engaging with their respective app stores. The other significant consolidation trend that Nielsen has picked up on is around what apps are actually getting the most traffic: even as app stores have grown, and our own collections of them have grown, we continue to fixate most on the exact same five apps this year as we did last year: they are Facebook, YouTube, Android Market, Google Search, and Gmail. Yes, that’s right: you can slam Google, Android and Android fragmentation all you want, but four of the five most popular apps today, as they were last year, are owned by the company, and that’s partly thanks to the popularity of three of them on iOS. Ironically, that concentration at the top is also being met with growth in long-tail consumption: Nielsen notes that the time spent on the top 50 apps is actually down compared to last year: the top 50 apps today get 58 percent of our app time, compared to 74 percent in 2011. As with our own personal app catalogues growing in size, this points to consumers getting more diverse in terms of what apps they are using overall, not a surprise really when you consider that there are around 1.1 billion apps currently between just Google Play and the Apple App Store.

With Smartphone-Assiste...

This morning, Nielsen is putting hard numbers to how consumers like to shop with their smartphones, backing up trends we already suspected to be the case. In particular, the new report examines how consumers use their phones when shopping out there in the real world (what’s that?) – using phones to compare prices, scan barcodes and even redeem coupons. Not surprisingly, how you use your phone has a lot to do with where you’re shopping and what you’re shopping for, says Nielsen. The trends are sort of obvious, but there are some interesting bits to be pulled out of the data. For starters, mobile coupons are most popular at grocery stores, (41% of mobile shoppers said they used coupons there), department stores (41%), and clothing stores (39%). At electronics stores, the majority (73%) read reviews, compare prices (71%), and scan QR codes (57%). It seems the higher the purchase price, the more likely it is that users will whip out their phone to shop around. Or perhaps electronics buyers are just a bit more smartphone-savvy than the rest, happily scanning QR codes and the like? Something notable here, perhaps – assuming that, for many of these shoppers, price is the reason for the extra research, it initially seems somewhat odd that furniture shoppers don’t do the same. Only 19% read reviews, and a paltry 5% scan a QR code. And yet, their big-ticket purchases often cost more than a new HDTV. Why is that? Well, besides the fact that furniture is a more personal purchase, like clothing, it’s mainly because the exact same Ethan Allen sofa isn’t going to be found at a Ashley store for less. But it would be interesting if there were apps that could scan a furniture barcode or “see” a photo you snap then show you  similar sofas at nearby stores or online as well as their prices. (Is someone building that? Because I’d use it today. I hate my sofa.)  Unless you’re not in the income bracket where cost is not a concern, this seems to be an unfilled niche. One of the top reasons why people don’t buy furniture they fall in love with is because they feel the need to shop around. Back to the report. It’s not surprising to see minimal usage of the various smartphone technologies at fast-service or low-ticket item stores like convenience stores, dollar stores and office supplies stores, but it’s somewhat interesting to see moderate use at mass merchandisers (Walmart, Costo, etc.). Even though those stores appeal to users because of their low prices, it’s apparent that not all shoppers are convinced that they’re getting the best deal: 34% read reviews and 31% scan QR codes at these outlets. Given the right pricing on the right products, it seems department stores, electronics retailers and online shops can woo customers from the Walmart-sized chains, when it comes to higher priced goods. With brick-and-mortar stores turning into Amazon’s showroom, it’s more important than ever that merchants offer in-store shoppers some other advantage besides low prices. Expect the new crop of customer loyalty startups to have a big role in framing what that advantage might be.

Moms 61% More Likely to...

A Nielsen study shows moms are 35% more likely to shop for clothes online.