Amazon’s Growth Strategy

According to recent Forrester research, the US online retail industry is projected to grow 10% annually over the next five years to be worth $370 billion by 2017. Online retail sales are expected to account for $262 billion this year. While European markets remain subdued, they are projected to show a faster growth rate of 10.5% over the period to grow to €191 billion (~$253.6 billion) by 2017 from €128 billion (~$170 billion) this year. International online retailing giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is investing in its business to be ready for this growth.

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Facebook Earnings: Mobile Success Here, Video Ads Coming

Facebook beat expectations last week. Mobile ads are doing well, better than expected. Analysts are ecstatic.

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eBay Presses Growth

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), retail sales in the country are projected to grow 3.4% this year. The forecast has been revised down from an estimated 4.2% growth projected earlier. NRF’s online division projects e-tail sales in the country to continue to show strong growth, thus driving retail growth. The federation are projcts an increase of 9%-12% during the year for online retail sales.

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Content Strategy Key for Netflix

According to Sandvine’s latest report, real-time entertainment services accounted for 59% of the web download traffic in the U.S. during the first half of the year. Netflix (Nasdaq:NFLX) continues to dominate this usage with 32.3% of the downstream bytes. YouTube is a distant second with 17.1% market share, followed by Hulu and Amazon accounting for 2.4% and 1.31%, respectively.

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Inrix IPO on Its Way

Global positioning system (GPS)–enabled cars and phones are driving the growth of real-time traffic information systems. From 2006 through 2011, the real-time traffic information systems market grew 43% to $309 million. The market is projected to continue to report strong growth statistics over the next few years as well. Analysts at Strategy Analytics estimate that globally, the number of navigation systems receiving traffic data will grow to 37.6 million in 2018 from 8.5 million in 2010.

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Microsoft’s Troubles Persist

There seems to be no relief in sight for the PC market. IDC’s PC shipment report saw second quarter shipments continue to decline, with total units shipped falling 11% over the year to 75.63 million units. Within the U.S. conditions were better, with PC shipment falling 2% to 15.65 million units.

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Declining Mobile CPC Drags Google Down

According to eMarketer’s latest report, Google had a 52% share of mobile advertising revenues worldwide in 2012. Globally, mobile advertising revenues are projected to grow from $8.8 billion in FY12 to $15.82 billion this year. eMarketer expects Google’s lead in the market to continue to grow to 56% as the company’s mobile advertising revenues climb to $8.85 billion. Facebook is projected to remain the second-largest mobile advertising provider, with revenues growing from $0.47 billion to $2.04 billion, amounting to 13% of the market share. Pandora takes a surprising third position with $0.4 billion or 2.5% of the mobile advertising revenues worldwide projected this year.

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Yahoo, A Year After Marissa Mayer

According to eMarketer’s report on Internet ad revenues, digital ad spending worldwide is projected to grow from $104.04 billion last year to $116.82 billion for the current year. Google will remain the dominant leader in the market with 33.2% market share. Facebook is a distant second with 5% market share, followed by Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO), which is projected to command 3.1% of the market. Yahoo’s share has been declining over the past two years. In 2011, they had 3.95% of the market, which fell to 3.4% last year.
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Instructure in the IPO Pipeline

Within educational institutions there is an increased demand for learning management systems (LMSs), which help to integrate technological solutions with traditional methods to assist with classroom learning. Analysts peg the domestic LMS market to be worth $1 billion. Within the LMS, online courses are becoming a very popular segment. According to research by Ambient Insight, the number of post-secondary students in the U.S. taking online classes is estimated to grow 11% annually over the period 2010 through 2015 to 21.13 million. It is not just massive open online courses (MOOCs); today the Internet is being used as an effective teaching aid by both higher education providers and by K-12 schools.

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Analysts Estimate Twitter’s Valuation at $10 Billion

According to eMarketer’s report, Worldwide Social Network Users: 2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates, nearly 25% of people worldwide will be members of a social network this year. The study estimates that last year nearly 1.47 billion people worldwide were connected to a social network. That number is projected to grow 18% this year to 1.73 billion. By 2017, 2.55 billion people, or 35% of the world’s population, is projected to be connected to a social network. Twitter is one of the top contenders, although Facebook leads the pack. Below is an interesting infographic from comScore’s report, 2013: US Digital Future in Focus, courtesy wearesocial.net. While Facebook is a clear leader with 83% share of time spent on social media sites by the Internet-enabled population of the U.S., Tumblr.com was a surprising second position holder as of December last year with a 5.7% share. Pinterest came a distant third with 1.9% of the market, followed by Twitter’s 1.7% market. Professional networking site Linkedin was the fifth largest site with a 1.4% market share.

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