March 10, 2010
Yahoo's line of thinking with regards to the big Microsoft/Yahoo search and advertising deal is that it will benefit both Microsoft and Yahoo's advertisers, as well as consumers and publishers. It will benefit advertisers because it will increase search volume, with results from both Bing and Yahoo being taken into consideration. It will benefit consumers because by combining advertisers from both properties, there will be a greater pool to deliver sponsored results from, which Yahoo says will mean increased relevance. It will benefit Yahoo, Bing, and their publisher partners with increased liquidity, participation, and relevance. That is basically the sum of it, according to Yahoo Vice President of Search Advertising David Pann. WebProNews recently sat down with Pann and discussed these things and how the deal will affect advertisers.
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March 3, 2010
The average number of hours spent each week on online gaming has climbed 10 percent since 2009, while an average of 20 percent of all games purchased were digitally downloaded up from 19 percent in 2009, according to a new report from The NPD Group. Among those reporting they personally play video games on at least one type of console, 54 percent said they play games online, down slightly since 2009 and 2008 (56% and 55% respectively). The average number of hours spent per week on online gaming has increased from 7.3 hours per week in 2009 to 8 hours per week in the 2010 report. This means that, despite the decline in overall online game play, those who are playing, are spending more time playing than they did last year. "While the percentage of the population that reports playing games has declined slightly, this study details other metrics which point to both stability and growth in both online and offline gaming," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group." The report found 71 percent of online gamers purchased or received a game over the 2009 holiday season. There were no major changes to the percent of online gamers making purchase from 2008 to 2010, and also no significant changes regarding average volumes purchased during that same time period. This indicates online gamers buying habits may not have been significantly impacted by the recession and it may be a positive for the future. "The installed base of video game systems continues to grow, the platforms available to play games continue to expand, and the options for content acquisition have never been greater, especially online," said Frazier. "And yet, effective monetization of many forms of online gaming continues to be a topic of much debate and discussion within the industry."
"Mobile gaming, for instance, has advanced to play a bigger role and the iPhone, in particular, is attracting a lot of attention given the dizzying array of game apps available for this device. Social networks have emerged as the hot venue for online gaming, due to the huge number of subscribers these are attracting. But still, it's unclear which business models are working in this space." The PC is still the most-used system for online gaming, with 85% of online gamers reporting using a PC for online gaming activities. Among non-PC systems, the Xbox 360 maintains its leadership for the third year in a row as the top video game system used for online gaming at 48%. In contrast to 2009, when Wii was leading over PS3 by 8 percentage points, PS3 and Wii are now neck and neck, with about 30 percent of online gamers reporting that they use each system for online gaming.
This is due to an increase in use for online gaming on the part of the PS3, which increased 10 percentage points since last year. The top three systems with the highest average hrs/wk spent gaming online (using the respective systems they own) are: Xbox 360 (7.3 hrs), PC (6.6 hrs) and PS3 (5.8 hrs).
February 21, 2010
Microsoft has spent a lot of money promoting Bing since its launch, and Bing's usage has grown by millions of people since then, but it still has a long way to go to reach the top of the search market share mountain. Google is still sitting comfortably atop that mountain of course, but Google doesn't really have to lose for Bing to win. Microsoft has been putting things in motion that have the potential to increase Bing usage by an enormous amount. Let's Start with the Yahoo Deal The search and advertising deal between Yahoo and Microsoft has now received its approval from the Department of Justice and other regulators, and appears poised to go into effect by the end of the year, at least in the U.S. The announcement says: "The companies will begin the transition of algorithmic search and have set a goal of completing that effort in at least the United States by the end of 2010. The companies also hope to make significant progress transitioning U.S. advertisers and publishers prior to the 2010 holiday season, but may wait until 2011 if they determine that the transition will be more effective after the holiday season. All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012." Search ad inventory from both Microsoft and Yahoo (and their respective partners) will be combined into a unified search marketplace, as the companies put it, giving advertisers access to their combined audience of nearly 577 million searchers worldwide. Then There's That Other Deal Compete made some data available this week, showing that Facebook surpassed Yahoo in the U.S. as the second largest site in terms of unique monthly visitors, just behind Google. Earlier this month, Microsoft and Facebook "enhanced" their partnership, which will give Facebook users a "more complete search experience" as Microsoft puts it. Bing will continue to be the exclusive search provider for Facebook's web search results.
"This change will also enable Microsoft to continue its focus on driving strong performing campaigns across our own social media and communications tools, including Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail, and via rich content environments across MSN and Xbox Live," noted Bing General Manager Jon Tinter. According to data released by Nielsen this week, the average Facebook user spends about seven hours a month on the site. Now only a fraction of that is probably using the site's web search feature (or Bing feature, if you will). However, Facebook continues to find ways to get people staying on Faceboook for more of their online time. With Bing right within, this is likely going to be an increasingly important segment of Bing usage. Accentuating this point, comScore's latest numbers have Facebook's own search market share increasing by 13% from December to January. Mobile May Also Play a Vital Role This week, Microsoft unveiled its upcoming Windows Phone 7 series. This is a series of mobile devices, which Microsoft already has a slew of partners lined up for that will not only come with Windows software, but with a Bing search hardware key. If these phones become popular Microsoft is pretty much guaranteed a significant boost in Bing usage. They should be out for the holidays.
Lately rumors have been swirling about Apple and Microsoft being in talks to offer Bing as the default search engine on the iPhone as well, and if that were to happen, that would also obviously be huge. Google said recently that it has no reason to believe its relationship with Apple is going to change, and that it doesn't comment on rumors, but they think the "relationship is stable." Meanwhile, competition seems to be heating up between those two with each passing day, and Apple going to Bing isn't exactly seeming less likely. It's Already Growing Bing's share of the search market is already growing. From Decemeber to January, the number of U.S. searches on Bing grew by 5%, according to Experian Hitwise. Google's share shrank by 1% and Yahoo's by 2%. Of course Microsoft continues to roll out new features for Bing, and will continue to do so along the way. It's hard to speculate what all that might entail, but Microsoft is clearly hellbent on getting more people to search with Bing. Even if Bing is never able to surpass the far more dominant Google in search market share, Bing is on pace to get a lot more people using it.
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