Interactive Marketers Vie For Customers In An Increasingly Crowded Field

A Forrester Research report on marketing spending in the United States projects that interactive marketing spending in the country will increase to $77 billion in 2016 from an estimated $34 billion in the current year. In 2011, interactive marketing spend accounts for 18% of overall marketing spending in the country. That share is projected to rise to 35% by 2016. Within interactive marketing, spending on campaigns on email, mobile, and social media will grow 27% annually to $15.7 billion by 2016. Another report by IDC estimates that spending on marketing automation will grow to $4.8 billion in 2015 from $3.2 billion reported last year. Spending on analytics is expected to grow to $3.4 billion in 2015 from $2.2 billion reported last year.

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Concur And NetSuite On Larry’s List

Concur (NASDAQ:CNQR) recently reported strong results that beat estimates and said it would be ramping its investment across its business. The prospect of higher spending has led to investors selling shares, causing the share price to fall from about $48 to $43. Let’s take a closer look. >>>

Pandora Turns A Profit And Expands User Base

According to Gartner, end user spending on online music services will increase from $5.9 billion last year to an estimated $6.3 billion in the current year.  The market is expected to be worth $6.8 billion in 2012 and will grow to $7.7 billion in 2015. Over the same period, spending on music in physical formats, including CDs and LPs, is projected to fall to $10 billion in 2015 from $15 billion reported last year. Subscription services are projected to grow from $0.53 billion in 2011 to $2.22 billion by the year 2015, and download-based revenues will grow to $4.05 billion from $3.63 billion estimated this year. Market growth is expected to be driven by emerging markets of Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. In line with these market projections, newly listed online music player Pandora reported a strong performance in the recent quarter.

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Salesforce.com Near 52-Week Low

Oracle recently acquired its first SaaS company, RightNow, for $1.5 billion. RightNow had annual revenue of $185.5 million in 2010, and its acquisition makes Oracle a direct competitor of Salesforce.com. Meanwhile, Salesforce, the leader of the SaaS CRM market, continued to develop its social networking capabilities with its recent acquisitions of social customer service startup Assistly for $50 million and Model Metrics, a mobile and social cloud computing consulting services company for an undisclosed amount. Let’s take a closer look.

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FriendFinder Network and The Online Dating Sector

The online dating industry is estimated to be worth $4 billion worldwide in 2011. Reports estimate that 5.5 million U.S. residents use some kind of online dating service. Earlier this year, FriendFinder Network, one of the leading players in personals and social networking for adults went public.

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How Will Meg Whitman Change HP?

IDC and Gartner reports estimate that global PC shipments increased 3% over the year last quarter to 91.8 million units, shy of 5% growth projected earlier. HP maintained their lead by growing 5% over the year to retain 18% of the global market. Within the U.S., HP’s shipments grew 15% over the year to reach a market share of 29%.

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Many New Games And A Possible Holiday IPO For Zynga

According to a report by PopCap Games, in 2011 the number of people in the U.K. and U.S. playing social games at least once a week increased 71% over the year to 118.5 million. The study claims that the number of players transacting in virtual currency increased 86% over the year to 31 million. Facebook remains the dominant platform in social gaming as it is the platform for 91% of casual and avid social gamers playing games. Google+ still has a long way to catch up with Facebook; only 17% of casual social gamers and 23% of avid social gamers play on Google’s platform as well as on Facebook.

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Dell Still In Turbulent Waters

According to IDC and Gartner reports, growth in global PC shipments over the previous quarter was not impressive. Reports estimate that global PC shipments of 91.8 million units reported meager 3.2% growth over same quarter the previous year. Gartner had earlier predicted growth of 5.1% for the quarter. HP maintained their lead in the PC market with 5.3% growth over the year to retain a 17.7% market share. Lenovo reported the highest growth at 25.2%, claiming a 13.5% market share and surging ahead of both Dell and Acer. Dell’s 11.6% market share declined 1.4% over the year. Within the U.S., HP was the leader with a 28.9% market share, up 15% over the year. Dell came in second with a 21.9% market share despite reporting a decline of 7.2% over the year. Apple continued to eat into the PC market share and reported impressive 21.5% growth to capture 12.9% of the U.S. market.

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Taleo A Takeover Target?

According to market research firm Bersin & Associates, the talent management market, currently worth about $3 billion, is expected to grow by 12-15 percent or more this year. SuccessFactors (NASDAQ:SFSF) and Taleo (NASDAQ:TLEO), the leading players in the market have over the past two to three years, have made many acquisitions and seen tremendous growth. Let’s take a closer look.

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Taking Stock Of Groupon Following Its IPO

Within North America, there are more than 650 daily deal providers from whom more than 26 million users have bought deals. With an 88% user share, Groupon is the market leader in the segment. Analysts expect the U.S. daily deals market to pick up during the holiday season after a slump over the summer. Domestic daily deals market fell 7% sequentially in July but has been growing since to report 9% sequential growth in August and 12% growth in September. By revenue, Groupon commanded 54% of the U.S. daily deals market, followed by Living Social at 22%.  Recently, Groupon’s long-awaited IPO also hit the market and was the largest offering by a U.S. Internet company since Google’s in 2004. Priced at $20 per share, the IPO was to raise $700 million for the daily deals leader. The list price was, however, lower than the market’s anticipated $25 per share.

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