LinkedIn’s Publishing Strategy Kicks Ass

According to an infographic released by Staff.com late last year, nearly 92% of the companies surveyed use the social media for recruiting decisions. LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) is the leading professional network choice for companies. 78% companies surveyed were using LinkedIn in 2010 and that number grew to 93% in 2012. The increased focus on social media as a source for potential employees is also driven by the improvement in the hiring process. 73% companies found that they were able to successfully hire employees through social networks. More significantly, 42% companies claim that the candidate quality has improved due to social media hiring and nearly 20% companies found that it took them lesser time to hire through social networks. Here is the infographic, courtesy MediaBistro.com.

>>>

Featured Videos

Chinese e-Commerce Market Continues Heady Growth; Alibaba Dominant

According to China Internet Network of Information Center, China’s Internet population grew 3.7% over the year to 618 million users as of December last year. That translates to 45.8% Internet penetration in the country. Mobile Internet usage statistics are also impressive with the number of users growing 19.1% to more than 500 million. The center also reported a 6% growth in Chinese online shoppers to 302 million.

>>>

RetailMeNot Not Bothered By Google’s Search Algorithm Change

A recent eMarketer report projects that nearly 55% of the country’s Internet using population above 18 years of age will redeem digital coupons at least once this year. The number has increased by 8% over last year. The researcher estimates the total number of adult digital coupon users to grow from 103.5 million last year to 111.7 during the current year. By 2016, the number of people using digital coupons is expected to grow to 124.4 million. The digital coupon industry is being driven by the increased use of mobile coupons and the report estimates the number of mobile coupon users as a percentage of total adult digital coupon users to grow from 59.5% last year to 70.3% this year and to 82.9% by 2016.

>>>

Disney Trading at Five-Year High

PwC’s report on Global Entertainment and Media projects entertainment and media (E&M) services market to grow to $2.2 trillion by 2017 – translating to a 5.6% annual growth over the five years from 2012 through 2017. PwC projects the digital segment of the market to be the big driver with digital revenues growing 12% annually and accounting for 47% of the market share compared with 35% in 2012.

>>>

Shutterfly Sees Photo Books Replacing Albums

An IBIS World Research report published last December pegs the US online photo printing market at $2 billion, led by Shutterfly and Snapfish. Over the five year period 2008 through 2013, the market reported an impressive 14.5% annual growth. The increased adoption of services like Photo Books is already replacing traditional albums. In a US Photo Printing Survey conducted last year, InfoTrends found that 34% of the respondents had already shifted to Photo Books and another 29% were planning to use them instead of albums.

>>>

Workday Taking on Oracle and SAP with Recruiting

According to an IDC report released last year, the worldwide Human Capital Management (HCM) market was pegged to be worth $7.5 billion in 2011. IDC estimates that HCM will grow annually at 8.1% over the next five years through 2016. The growth in the market is expected to be driven by the increasing adoption of cloud-based services.

>>>

LeapFrog Getting Into Wearables

According to an NPD Group research released earlier this year, retail sales of toys in the US fell 1% in 2013. Even in the last quarter of the year, despite a 4% increase registered during the week of Black Friday and  a 24% growth registered in sales during Cyber Monday last year, overall toy sales fell 1% over the  year. The biggest increase in toy sales was reported in the Youth Electronics segment which reported an 18% increase.

>>>

Flipkart Leads India’s e-Commerce Market, Acquires Myntra

Forrester estimates the Indian e-commerce market to be worth $13 billion last year. The Indian e-commerce market was dominated by travel which accounts for 70% of consumer e-commerce transactions. But retail is catching up as well. Forrester’s report estimates online retail sales to be worth $1.6 billion last year. Analysts estimate the online retail market to grow to $3.1 billion during this year and to grow seven times in the next five years.

>>>

HP’s Turnaround Now Focusing on the Cloud

According to Gartner’s quarterly report, during the first quarter of 2014, Worldwide PC shipments fell 1.7% over the year to 76.6 million units. The market was led by Lenovo, which saw PC shipments grow 10.9% over the year to 12.9 million units. HP was the second largest vendor growing 4.1% over the year to ship 12.2 million units and claiming 16% of the market.

>>>

Marketo Should Roll-Up Their Category, Acquire On24

Earlier this year, Experian Marketing Services released their 2013 Email Marketing Study. The report found that personalized promotional emails had a 29% higher unique open rates and 41% higher unique click rates. In fact, the study claims that personalized promotional emails improved transaction rates and revenue per email by six times compared with non-personalized emails.

>>>