LeapFrog’s New Products Are Not Helping Them

According to a report by the Toy Industry Association, total US domestic toy sales remained flat in 2013 at $22.09 billion. Despite the flat sales, youth electronic sales recorded the highest growth at 32% to $565 million followed by arts and craft sales growing 14% to $1.16 billion. Outdoor and sports categories were the biggest market with $4.37 billion and grew 1% over the year. The biggest decline was recorded by infant/preschool category and vehicles, both of which recorded a 6% decline.

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New Relic Delivers a Strong IPO

According to Gartner, the global app monitoring market grew 13% to reach $2.4 billion in 2013. The researcher believes that new companies with simpler models are making bigger waves in the market.

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Chinese Momo Lists on the Nasdaq

According to eMarketer, the number of mobile Internet users in China is expected to grow 28% annually to 712.4 million over the period 2013 through 2017 . Researcher Analysys expects the mobile game market in China to grow 40% annually from $2.3 billion in 2013 to $8.7 billion in 2017. They also estimate that the mobile marketing market in the country will grow 70% annually from $2.2 billion in 2013 to $18.3 billion in 2017. No wonder Chinese mobile app makers are seeing a strong growth.

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Care.com Extends Offerings, Yet No Respite For The Stock

According to Care.com, there is a growing demand for care services by families due to the increasing presence of homes where either both parents are working or the single parent is working. The US Census Bureau estimates that such homes now account for 65% of homes in the country. According to research conducted by Care.com, US families spend nearly $243 billion in a year on babysitters, after school programs, tutors, house cleaners, pet sitters, and home-health aides. The company estimates that there are nearly 30 million households in the country that are taking care of adults.

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Angie’s List Up For Sale?

According to local review site researchers, nearly half of all local searches happen on local directories and mobile apps. The researchers have also found that 72% consumers trust online reviews as much as they would trust a personal recommendation from a real person. The strength of the local reviews market is improving competition in the industry.

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Hulu’s Growing Content and Advertising Offerings

According to a recent BI Intelligence report, online video ad revenue in the US is expected to grow from $2.8 billion in 2013 to $5 billion by the year 2016. Over the same period, the report estimates, TV advertising will decline 3% annually from $74.1 billion to $68.1 billion. Last December, video ad views doubled to over 35 billion views.

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Nothing Seems to be Stopping MercadoLibre

According to the 2014 edition of the Latin America 500 by Internet Retailer, Latin America was the second fastest growing e-commerce market in the world. The report estimates that sales of more than 500 web merchants in the region have grown 23% in 2013 to $17.94 billion. The growth was dominated by Brazil due to high Internet penetration rates and a rapidly growing mobile device market. Brazil accounted for nearly 45% of the market with $11.7 billion in e-commerce sales. >>>

Zulily Marches Ahead

A recent comScore report on the US e-commerce industry reveals that Q3 2014 desktop e-commerce sales in the country grew 13% to $53.9 billion. This was the twentieth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and the sixteenth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Mobile commerce continued to report a stronger growth as it improved 17% over the year to $6.7 billion. Total digital commerce sales came in at $60.6 billion for the quarter.

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Jive Continues to Dive

According to a recent report by TechNavio, the Global Enterprise Social Software Market is estimated to grow 19% annually over the period 2013 through 2018. The researcher is seeing a strong demand of platforms that provide a comprehensive access to all social media including blogs, email, wikis, and forums. The strong market growth rate has attracted bigger players into the field while helping existing players deliver strong financial performance.

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Online Travel Going Strong

According to a recent UNWTO report on international tourism, the number of tourists travelling internationally increased 5% over the year for the period January to August 2014. UNWTO estimates that during the eight month period, there were more than 781 million travelers.

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