E-books Report

A new survey from Nielsen suggests that ebooks continue to make gains in book markets.  The bad news is that some of that seems to be coming from online sales.

The digital formats (ebooks, audiobooks) increased their share of book sales revenues, while traditional print markets saw their share decline to 70%.  The biggest decline was in trade paperbacks, which fell from a third of the market in 2013 to just above a quarter in 2014.  In terms of units sold, ebooks increased their share slightly, to 21% of the market for new books.

 Online retailers (for both print and ebooks) remained the dominant sales channel, although it's share of sales fell slightly, to 35%.  Brick and mortar outlets (bookstore chains, independent bookstores, and other outlets) mostly retained their market shares.  The only big decrease in market share was for bookstore chains.

Diffusion of ebook readers continued apace, with smartphone ownership around 75% of adults, and tablet ownership over 40%.  The graph to the right reports shows the percentage of ebook readers who indicated that they owned a particular device.  Two things are clear from the numbers -- first, that many ebook readers have multiple devices, and second, that market share is variable, and influenced by devices entering and leaving the field.  Last year, for example, saw large increases for Android OS devices (smartphones and tablets). Apple's mobile devices remain the most widely owned, while Amazon's various Kindle devices were the other big branded device.

Source -  E-books Gained, Online Retailers Slipped in 2014, Publishers Weekly

Visual history of US Mobile M&A

Now that the Sprint/T-Mobile deal seems to be definitively off, GigaOm took a look back at how the top 4 U.S. mobile operators got to this point.

Source -  How we got here: a visual history of US mobile companies,  GigaOm

China's Online Video market consolidates

China is an Internet outlier - particularly when it comes to who dominates online service categories.  Between the limits the state imposes on foreign firms, and language and cultural differences, the top online services in China are predominantly native firms - Baidu in search, Alibaba in e-commerce, Qzone and Weibo in social media.  As for online video, some firms are moving to consolidate what had been a fragmented market.

Last year, two of the larger video streaming sites in China merged, forming Youku-Todou.  Baidu, already China's dominant search engine, bought out its original partner for its video streaming service iQiyi, and recently announced its acquisition of video streaming service PPS.tv.  The moves created two claimants for the title of China's largest video platform (depending on how its measured).

Online video is huge in China, in part due to the scarcity of entertainment programs on state-operated TV.  Chinese online video users watch billions of videos monthly.  Video and search are the most popular online services in China, handily topping social media.  And revenues from online video is booming, with analysts predicting a five-fold increase from 2011 to 2016, mostly from advertising.
  Having a dominant position is important for advertising-supported media - dominant firms historically get an even higher share of total advertising revenues, while close competitors don't do as well (some advertisers don't want to buy both).  Some analysts argue that the future of online video in China will be in mobile, with video ads on mobile being the most effective, and most highly valued, segment of the online advertising market.  Youku Tudou claims 150 million daily mobile users for its online video content, and Baidu claimed 200 million monthly users for its iQiyi streaming service - and that was before its acquisition of PPS.tv.  (Note the difference metrics - daily vs. at least once a month).  That's out of 564 million Internet users, according to the latest Chinese government report.

Adding PPS.tv certainly puts Baidu in a better, more competitive position - but it's the content that ultimately drives online video use.  And the reports don't mention what this means in terms of content.  That makes it difficult to evaluate which, if either, will eventually dominate the Chinese online video market.

Sources -  Video streaming is China's big prize, and Baidu just edged closer to claiming it,  Quartz
Baidu Acquires PPS for $370 Million, Claims It's Now China's Biggest Video Platform,  TechinAsia

Edited - Fix typo in header, 13/5/2013

Milepost: Android Tops Apple for Tablet OS

The number of tablets shipped from manufacturers more than doubled over the last year, according to a report from IDC.  They reported 49.2 million tablets were shipped in the first quarter of 2013 - more than in the first half of 2012.  Apple remains the top manufacturer, accounting for 19.2 million units, followed by Samsung.  Microsoft entered the Top 5, shipping some 900,000 of its Surface and Surface Pro tables, but still being outgunned 2-1 by Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.
However, with multiple tablet models and manufacturers using the Android operating system, it's been gaining share from Apple'  In the last quarter (1Q13), 56.5% of the units shipped ran on Android OS, compared to 39.6% running Apple iOS - a virtual flip in positions from the first quarter of 2012.  Windows operating systems cracked the tablet market, with the Windows and Windows RT OS installed on a combined 3.7% of the tablets shipped.

Source - Android Tablets Edge Out iPad: IDC,  Information Week

US Mobile Market Still Growing

The latest report out of ComScores MobiLens service indicates that mobile device ownership and use continues to grow - 234 million American aged 13 or older used mobile devices (that's more than 90% of that age group).  They also show smartphone penetration growing to 116.5 million in August, a 6% gain from last May.  As a result, smartphones are used by about half of all mobile users, and around 37% of the U.S. population.
  Looking at what mobile users do (other than make calls) - 75.6% sent text messages to other phones, 53.4% used downloaded apps, 52.0% used a browser, 38.7% accessed social networking sites or blogs, 34.0% played games, and 28.3% listened to music on their mobile device.
  On the hardware side, Samsung remained as the top mobile device OEM, but a surge in Apple device ownership moved it into a close third (behind LG).  Android maintained the dominant OS, growing slightly to 52.6% of the U.S. smartphone market. Apple's iOS also showed some growth in market share, being used by more than a third of devices (34.6%).  Those gains primarily came at the expense of RIM's Blackberry system, whose market share dropped precipitously to 8.3% (down from 11.5% share in May).  Microsoft and Symbian also saw their share of the OS market drop.

Source - comScore Reports August 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share, comScore press release

Top Online News Sites

Just a quick snapshot

1. Yahoo News - 110 million UMV (Unique Monthly Visitors)
2. CNN - 74 million
3. MSNBC - 73 million
4. Google News - 65 million
5. NY Times - 59.5 million
6. HuffingtonPost - 54 million
7. Fox News - 32 million
8. Digg - 25.1 million
9. Washington Post - 25 million
10. LATimes - 24.9 million
11. MailOnline - 24.8 million
12. Reuters - 24 million
13. ABC News - 20 million
14. USA Today - 18 million
15. BBC News - 17 million

Interesting mix, isn't it?

Source -  Top 15 Most Popular News Websites - September 2012,  eBiz

Goin' Mobile - Adoption Expands (even before iPhone 5)

  There's no question that the use of smartphones and mobile devices is growing rapidly and becoming mainstream.  There's some question, though, as to the precise level of adoption.
  Recently released Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life research indicates that close to half of U.S. adults now use smartphones (45%, in fact).  Another third own "feature phones" (cell phones with added features, but not full internet accessibility), and 5% aren't sure what type of cellphone they have.  That leaves only 15% with no cell phone.  Last year, Pew reported that 35% of U.S. adults had smartphones.
  On the other hand, a Nielsen report indicates that 55.5% of mobile users have a smartphone. The discrepancy isn't that bad, however, as the Pew number translates to about 53% of "mobile users".
  Adoption of smartphones continues to be differentiated.  The Pew study indicates that more than two-thirds of young adults (18-29) have smartphones, as do two-thirds of adults in households earning more than $75000 annually.  In addition, Blacks (47%) and Hispanics (49%) remain slightly more likely than Whites (42%) to have smartphones.
  The Nielsen results also have younger users leading the charge, with 58% of teens (13-17) having smartphones (up from 36% the previous year), as did three-quarters of those in the 25-34 age group.  The Nielsen report also shows the Android OS continuing to lead, with over half of smartphone users using Android OS phones, and a slight drop in the last quarter in Apple's share.  Many analysts felt that the slowdown in Apple iOS growth was at least partially due to expectations for a new iPhone release delaying purchase decisions (with Apple's share of the market increasing again after the release).
   And it looks like those expectations will be met with the iPhone 5.  Apple reported getting 2 million pre-orders for their upgraded device within the first 24 hours they were available, with demand already outstripping supply (the iPhone 5 won't be officially launched until this Friday, Sept. 21).  With a global launch, some analysts are predicting Apple will sell 100 million iPhone 5s by the end of December, if manufacturing can keep up.

Sources -  Smartphones Ring Up Popularity Stats,  OnlineMediaDaily
Young Adults and Teens Lead Growth Among Smartphone Owners, NielsenWire press release
Apple's iPhone 5: 2 million preorders, 24 hours and a unique upgrade cycle,  ZDNet
Smartphone Ownership Update: September 2012, report from Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project

Update - Research from Frank N. Magid indicates that half of U.S. Internet users have also downloaded an app to a mobile device.  Looking deeper, only one in four app users have paid for an app, but one third of those who haven't used an app feel that they are likely to start doing so within the next three months.

Source -  Survey finds half of U.S. online users have downloaded mobile apps, Fierce Mobile Content