According to eMarketer, Facebook claims the biggest online display advertising market revenues from the U.S. after overtaking Yahoo last year. This year, Facebook is expected to account for 16.8% of the U.S. online display advertising market share. Google is projected to have 16.5% of the market share compared with 13.8% last year, and Yahoo’s share is expected to fall from 10.8% last year to 9.1% this year. But the growing market share is not helping Facebook’s stock price performance.
Not a lot is going Netflix’s way at the moment. Despite meeting analyst expectations last quarter, the company’s disappointing subscriber growth and continued losses projected for the current quarter sent the stock tumbling. >>>
There is little question that Amazon has redefined the e-tail industry. According to a recent study by Forrester, Why Amazon Matters Now More Than Ever, Amazon is a leading source of research for online buyers. The report claims that 30% of online buyers use Amazon to research products first, compared with 13% of buyers who use Google. Forrester estimates that Amazon’s share in the U.S. e-commerce revenues grew from 9% in 2001 to 19% in 2011. Amazon plans to increase its footprint and is investing heavily to ensure this growth continues.
In a rare event, Apple’s recently announced quarterly results fell short of market expectations. After its meteoric rise, the stock also turned bearish. But given Apple’s strength, this should be just a minor bump in the road.
In the recent spurt of IPOs, where social media and consumer-focused Internet stocks have generally not fared very well, analysts believe that enterprise technology providers have a better chance, especially those operating in the SaaS model. Recently listed Proofpoint, Infoblox, and Splunk are cases in point. Another enterprise services provider, Atlassian, is expected to hit the IPO market soon.
A Gartner report released earlier this month indicated that worldwide PC shipments fell 0.1% over the year to 87.5 million units in the second quarter of this year. This was the seventh consecutive quarter of flat to single-digit growth. Gartner believes that growing consumer interest in smartphones and media tablets is responsible for the declining PC sales.
According to Gartner’s recent report, worldwide IT spending is projected to grow 3% over the year to $3.6 trillion this year. The estimates are higher than expected growth rate of 2.5% over the year published earlier. By segment, computing hardware market is projected to grow 3.4% over the year to $420 billion. Enterprise software will see higher growth of 4.3% to $281 billion, and IT services are projected to grow 2.3% over the year to $864 billion. Analysts expects the most growth in telecom equipment spending, which is projected to rise 10.8% over the year to $377 billion, while the Telecom services segment will see the slowest growth at 1.4% to $1,686 billion. >>>
According to recently released report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC, online advertising spending grew 22% over the year to $30 billion in 2011. The last quarter of 2011 was the best ever quarter, with online advertising spending of $9 billion. For the first time last year, Internet advertising spending surpassed spending on cable television. Within online spending, mobile and video are gaining more ground. Mobile was the fastest growing segment and reported an increase of 149% last year to $1.6 billion. Digital video advertising grew 29% to $1.8 billion in 2011. Search remained the largest contributor for advertising dollars as it grew 27% to $14.8 billion. Search engine giant Google is benefiting from these trends.
Yahoo has of course been in the news lately because of its management changes. Last quarter, the company saw Scott Thompson leave the position due to misleading statements on his CV. His place was filled temporarily by Ross Levinsohn. Earlier this week, Marissa Mayer, former head of Google search, was hired as the company’s new CEO. After four failed CEOs, analysts believe that the young Mayer might just be the right person to help steer Yahoo out of its woes. Let’s take a look at what Mayer is dealing with.
Where several online startups are rushing to go public, there are a few others that would much rather enjoy the freedom of remaining private. Social media giant Twitter is one company that seems to prefer the private route.