Each week the MEF team curates mobile stories from around the world. Essential news, the latest market insight & data nuggets, the Global News Round-up offers an instant international mobile content and commerce snapshot.
Global News Stories
Snapchat Reportedly Turned Down A $3 Billion (!) Offer From Facebook
Huffington Post
Snapchat, a smartphone app that has yet to make any money, turned down an offer from Facebook to be bought for $3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s “billion” with a “B.” Did we mention that Snapchat has exactly $0 in revenue?
An App “Middle Class” Continues To Grow: Independently Owned Apps With A Million-Plus Users Up %121 Over The PAst 18 Months
Tech Crunch
It may be getting harder for mobile developers to break into the top charts in the various app stores, but there is a healthy and growing “middle class” app economy, according to new data released by analytics firm Flurry this morning. The company reports seeing 357% growth over the past 18 months from independently owned apps that have a worldwide audience of over 20 million monthly actives, and 121% growth from those with an audience of over 1 million.
Taobao Smashes Mobile Shopping Record, Over $100 Million In Sales In Less Than One Hour
Tech In Asia
Just one hour into China’s annual Single’s Day shopping blitz, Taobao, China’s leading e-commerce marketplace, racked up RMB 1 billion ($164 million) in mobile purchases from over 14 million user accounts.
Techweb reports Taobao took just over four minutes to complete RMB 100 million ($16.4 million) in mobile purchases. By 7:35 a.m., mobile sales volume reached RMB 2 billion ($328 million).
CHART OF THE DAY: Mobile Is Taking Over The World
Business Insider
Here’s another great chart from our presentation on the future of digital. It shows that mobile is the only medium that is growing. It’s aggressively taking away time from all other platforms. VC Fred Wilson described this trend succinctly on his blog, saying, “The jump from 2012 to 2013 should be terrifying to anyone who has a business based anywhere but mobile. That includes me. Wow.”
Isis, The Mobile Payments Initiative From AT&T, Verizon & T-Mobile, Launches Across The US
Tech Crunch
Mobile wallet platform Isis, backed by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon here in the U.S., is kicking off its nationwide launch today, as previously planned. Alongside the launch, an updated version of the Isis mobile wallet application also hit the Google Play Store yesterday, with separate versions designed for each carrier’s supported smartphones. Isis says that today there are over 40 supported smartphones that work with the technology, and the carriers will give out free Isis-ready SIM cards to those whose phones are NFC-enabled and on the list.
Facebook And YouTube Apps Bigger Than The Mobile Web
Mobile Marketing Magazine
Facebook and Youtube in North America both see more mobile traffic than the entire mobile web combined, according to the latest Global Internet Phenomena Report from Sandvine.
The telecoms network company found that the most upstream data requests come from Facebook’s app – 20.62 per cent – made by users uploading and sharing information, while the most content is demanded from Youtube’s app – 17.68 per cent. The mobile web came third in both cases. Pandora, Netflix, Instagram and iTunes all made it into the top 10 data consumption activities, with real-time entertainment traffic exploding across APAC and Europe.
US M-Commerce Spend Could Hit $9 Billion In Q4
Mobile Money Revolution
Last week, comScore said US e-commerce in Q3 hit $47.5 billion, marking the sixteenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth.
But mobile commerce did even better. It grew 26 per cent year on year to $5.8 billion. Within that, smartphones accounted for 62 per cent, and tablets 38 per cent.
Andrew Lipsman, VP of marketing and insights at comScore, said he expects mobile to come close to “$9 billion, with an outside shot of hitting $10 billion” in Q4.
Full details here
Should Retailers Begin Accepting Bitcoins In-Store And On Mobile?
Mobile Commerce Daily
While Bitcoin is still a new and relatively untested payment network, it does have the potential to provide certain benefits in mobile such as an easier method of transaction for consumers and lower transaction costs for retailers.
The growth of Bitcoins, which now has a Google Glass payments app, reflects how mobile is driving alternative payment solutions and challenging retailers to keep up with how payments are evolving. As Bitcoin becomes a more legitimate currency, retailers are considering whether to accept Bitcoin on a mobile site and application or via the Bitcoin mobile wallet in-store.
The State Of Mobile: Data Subscriptions, Smartphone Ownership Exploding
memeburn
Most off us take our mobile phones for granted. They’re so much a part of our daily lives that we can’t imagine what the world would be like without them, mostly because we don’t have to. In fact, a lot of people are so attached their devices that their brains perceive them in the same way they do phantom limbs. That personal relationship with our phones does however mean that we don’t take the time to consider the big picture.
Global News Round-up – These articles are not written by MEF and do not represent any views of individuals, members or the organisation.
