- The “try-buy” gaming model has lost ground due to the growth of ad-supported mobile gaming apps. The ad-supported business model for PC video game distribution now provides three to seven times the revenue of the traditional try-buy model, according to research from Exent, owners of a gaming website FreeRideGames.com. Their research found that the try-buy model has one to two percent industry average conversion rate, which ceases to earn any additional revenue after purchase. The ad-supported model, however, continues to generate revenue for an average of 195 minutes of game play, per user, per game.
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After Amazon was overloaded Monday when it offered Lady Gaga’s new album in the MP3 format at 99 cents, the company is trying again today. The surprise one-day promotion was so popular it stalled the company’s servers, but Amazon promises that it will be prepared for the next try, reports the New York Times.
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AdMob has been part of Google for just short of a year, and Google has reviewed the growth of the mobile industry in that time. Google says that estimated 300 million smartphones were shipped in the past year, average smartphone data usage has doubled, and the app market now numbers in the hundreds of thousands. In terms of mobile advertising, traffic on the AdMob network has grown more than three and a half times, and it gets more than 2.7 billion ad requests every day. In just the past six months, traffic from tablets on the AdMob network has increased by 300 percent, the company reports.
Chart: Types of Interactive Niche Marketing in Use, 2011
Experian Hitwise Releases bin Laden-related Traffic Stats | SocialVibe “Live” Engagement on FB
Experian Hitwise released highlights of the surge in web traffic following news of Osama bin Laden’s death, and the special-ops mission by an elite Navy SEAL team:
- The daily visits to News & Media websites reached a three-year high for the second time this year on Monday, May 2, 2011 following the announcement of the death of Osama Bin Laden. The previous peak was on March 11, 2011 from the news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
- Yahoo! News ranked first among the News & Media websites on Monday, May 2, 2011 and experienced an increase of 200% in total overall visits when compared to the previous Monday. MSNBC and The Huffington Post followed, with an increase of 257% and 245%, respectively, during the same time frame. Visits to the websites of other Broadcast Media such as CNN and ABC News also experienced triple-digit growth.
- The search terms driving traffic to the News & Media category on Monday were dominated by content surrounding the Bin Laden death, with ‘bin laden wives’ ranked first followed by ‘osama bin laden dead’. Out of the top 100 search terms, 30 were Bin Laden related, with 6 of those search queries including the term ‘photo’ or video’ as some called for additional evidence. Interest also grew for news around the Navy Seal Team 6, the secret unit involved in the operation and the mansion where it took place.
Facebook Takes a Firm Lead in Q1 Ad Impressions | IBM’s New Cloud Analytics Software
- Facebook nearly doubled its number of Q1 ad impressions year over year with 346 billion impressions, according to comScore, and this accounted for nearly one third of all display ad impressions delivered. Facebook.com led all online publishers in Q1 2011 with 346 billion display ad impressions, representing 31.2 percent market share. Facebook’s market share has increased 15 percentage points from 16.2 percent in Q1 2010. Yahoo! Sites ranked second during the most recent quarter with 112 billion impressions (10.1 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 54 billion impressions (4.8 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 33 billion impressions (3.0 percent).
Sony: 24.6 Million More Users Affected | BrightRoll: Online Video Ads to be Bright Spot
- The news doesn’t get better for Sony. On the heels of their apology, announcement of resuming services, and their “Welcome Back” promotion, the company said that another 24.6 million users have had their personal data compromised – including 10,700 users in Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and Spain whose bank account number, customer name, account name and customer address in the hands on hackers since about April 16 or 17. An additional 12,700 non-U.S. credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates (sans security code) were confirmed breached as well. With the discovery of this additional information, the company shut down all servers related to SOE services while continuing to review and upgrade all of its online security systems. The additional millions of users affected was discovered was discovered by engineers and security consultants reviewing Sony Online Entertainment systems.
Twitter Steals Obama’s Thunder | Sony to Restart PlayStation, Qriocity
- Twitter helped stir the rumor soup prior to President Obama’s announcement that special forces had targeted and killed Osama bin Laden, writes lostremote.com, with a former aide to Donald Rumsfeld, given credit for the breaking news. Keith Urbahn tweeted, “So I'm told by a reputable person that they have killed Osama bin Laden. Hot damn." Within ten minutes, Fox and the New York Times tweeted confirmations of the news. As well, the Wall Street Journal has located a tweeter from inside Pakistan -- Sohaib Athar, who uses the Twitter handle “ReallyVirtual,” tweeting repeatedly throughout the night, including, “Since taliban (probably) don’t have helicopters, and since they’re saying it was not ‘ours’, so must be a complicated situation#abbottabad”
At Sony, Financial, Personal Data of 77 Million Users Stolen
Apple’s Cut—30% of Subscriptions Sold in the App Store
Apple today announced its new subscription service to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. Subscriptions purchased from within the App Store will be sold using the same App Store billing. Publishers set the price and length of subscription (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly). Apple processes all payments, keeping the same 30 percent share that it does today for other In-App Purchases. Content owners can bring to their apps existing consumers who subscribe on their websites. But, for new subs taken out in apps, iTunes Store payments must be used, writes paidcontent.org.
Chart: Monthly Value of an App User, January 2011
Microsoft to Close up Massive In-Game Ad Unit
