Online Retail Spending Reaches $39 Billion In Q4
February 10, 2010
Online retail spending in the U.S. in the fourth quarter reached $39 billion, a 3 percent increase compared to a year ago, according to the latest report from comScore.
Total retail ecommerce spending reached $129.8 billion in 2009, slightly lower than the previous year's total of $130.1 billion.
"The fourth quarter, with a 3 percent year-over-year growth, helped end what has been a disappointing year for online consumer spending on a more positive note," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.
"As we head into 2010, there is reason for guarded optimism for online retail spending to continue to gain share of consumers' wallets. At the same time, I expect absolute growth to be stymied by continued high unemployment and the deleveraging that is occurring in the economy as consumers exercise their new found propensity to save."
The largest online retailers, led by Amazon and Walmart, gained market share of ecommerce sales compared to small and medium-sized retailers.
Spending growth was driven by an increase in online buyers, while average spending per buyer saw modest declines.
Other highlights from the report include:
- Free shipping factored into more than 40 percent of e-commerce transactions during the holiday season.
- Tuesday, December 15 ranked as the heaviest U.S. online spending day in history at $913 million.
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AOL Shares Financial Results of the Transition Period
February 3, 2010
AOL has announced it Q4 earnings, which show how the company performed during its final days as part of Time Warner, as well as the beginning of its transition to the current incarnation.
"We have made significant progress in support of the long-term vision we see in the future of AOL, but today's results continue to reflect the need for our focus and execution on the work required in the turnaround of the Company," said Chairman and CEO Tim Armstrong. "2009 marked the closing of an important chapter in AOL's history and the opening of a new chapter that we are passionately pursuing. We have a clearly defined strategy, and we enter 2010 incredibly focused on day-to-day execution."
Here's the summary:
AOL says Q4 revenue declines reflect continued attrition in the subscriber base, leading to declines in subscription and search & contextual revenue. While AOL Properties global display advertising revenue declined 3%, AOL Properties domestic display advertising revenue grew 1%, its first quarter of year-over-year growth in eight quarters. Other noteworthy items as highlighted by the company include:
- Q4 costs of revenues declined at a lower rate than revenue reflecting a 12% increase in traffic acquisition costs (TAC) primarily associated with payments for shipments related to a significant product distribution arrangement. As of December 31, 2009, new shipments under this contract ceased.
- Full-year and Q4 2009 Adjusted OIBDA, operating income and pre-tax income include $190 million and $107 million, respectively, in restructuring costs and certain other items fully discussed on page 8 of this press release.
- We anticipate our restructuring efforts will reduce ongoing operating expenses, excluding TAC and net of incremental operating investments in the business, by approximately $150 million in 2010.
- Full-year and Q4 2008 operating loss and net loss reflect a $2.2 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge.
- Full-year cash provided by operations declined, driven by Adjusted OIBDA declines. The cash flow impact of these declines was partially offset by the timing of working capital changes, including lower employee bonus payments in 2009. Full-year 2009 Free Cash Flow grew slightly, reflecting reduced capital expenditures in 2009. Q4 2009 cash provided by operations and Free Cash Flow declined due to the settlement of a legal matter and a Value Added Tax matter in France.
- AOL had $147.0 million of cash-on-hand as of December 31, 2009, and has not borrowed under the terms of our revolving credit facility, as of February 2, 2010.
Further details and charts can be found here in the release. It will really be interesting to see the report a year from now after AOL has settled into its new role on the web.
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Twitter Improves Mobile Site
December 4, 2009
Twitter intends to offer all of its users an improved mobile experience in the near future, and in the meantime, a preview of its next-generation mobile site has become available. mobile.twitter.com looks to be an upgrade in almost every way.
Leland Rechis, user experience lead on the Twitter Mobile team, wrote on the Twitter Blog, "Its got a great new look, and has some great new touches that will make your mobile experience on Twitter a bit more fun and a lot more helpful." These include improvements with respect to replies, direct messages, and favorited tweets.
What's more, the new mobile site sort of showcases Twitter's engineering strengths, as Rechis noted that it was built from the ground up using nothing other than Twitter APIs.
This will wind up being a fairly important step for Twitter if it can lure people away from using random third-party apps. Taking control of how folks access its site seems like a sort of basic feat that most big companies manage to pull off.
The new mobile site isn't yet perfect, though, so individuals who like stuff to be perfectly polished should proceed with caution. Rechis warned that the new site may not get along with BlackBerrys. Also, it doesn't offer the new-ish Twitter Lists feature.
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Microsoft Launches Twitter-Esque Service In China
December 2, 2009
Microsoft has launched a new service in China, and although it's based on Windows Live Messenger, comparisons to a site that's popular elsewhere in the world have become inevitable. MSN Juku, which is in beta, seems a little bit similar to Twitter.
The most obvious connection to Twitter is Juku's 140-character limit on messages. Juku users are also supposed to upload profile pics and interact with friends in a manner that would be familiar to Twitter fans. And although Juku messages are displayed via a slow scroll, setting it apart from Twitter, this detail just makes it reminiscent of Plurk.
Microsoft has made an effort to ensure that Juku isn't thought of as a copycat, however. It doesn't look like Juku's going to go head-to-head with Twitter in the U.S., either. A Microsoft spokesperson told Stuart J. Johnston, "This service was developed by the MSN China team and is only available in the Chinese market."
Plus, it's possible to play games and win prizes on Juku. Twitter and Plurk don't officially offer possibilities along those lines.
Anyway, a key point aside from seeing how people react to Juku is seeing whether it will remain accessible. The Chinese government has had Twitter and a few of its competitors on a blacklist for months.
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> Number Of New Twitterers Declines
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