AirBnB Valued at $2.5 Billion

Market reports pegged the vacation rental market for the U.S. and Europe at $85 billion in 2010. The market continues to grow, and according to recent reports last year, its value increased 10% over the year. Besides entire homes being rented out for vacations, there is also an increasing trend of individuals sharing rooms within their own homes as vacation rentals. Players like AirBnB are being named as forerunners in this emerging “sharing economy”  – a concept where people connect through online media to share services with each other.

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Online Music Industry Needs to Stop Catering to Freeloaders

The growing popularity of internet radio stations has led several technology giants to enter the space. In June, Apple announced the release of iRadio, its online radio offering, to directly compete with internet radio stations like Pandora. Google also entered the space with the release of a paid service, Google Access, that lets users listen to on-demand music. Microsoft too is updating its XBox’s music offering to add a subscription service that will let users create stations based on artists and music genres and stream live to mobile devices as well as XBox consoles.

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Tremor Video’s Shaky IPO

eMarketer expects overall advertising spend in the U.S. to grow at 3.5% annually over the period 2012 through 2016. Within advertising, online video advertising is among the fastest growing segments, with a projected compounded annual growth rate of 28.9% during this period to be an $8 billion segment. Advertisers spent $2.9 billion last year on online video advertising out of $165.8 billion spent on advertising overall.

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RetailMeNot’s IPO Aspirations

According to Euromonitor International, global retail sales, excluding grocery sales, were worth $7.5 trillion last year. Globally, as access to the Internet and mobile devices increases, there is a rise in the use of online tools to make purchase decisions. A recent report by IDC estimates the consumer e-commerce market at $987 billion globally. IDC projects a growth rate of 18% annually for the e-commerce market from 2012 through 2017. IDC also estimates the mobile commerce market to grow 36% annually over this period from $63.4 billion in 2012.
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Good Technology Prepares for an IPO

A report by MarketsandMarkets published last year, “Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), Consumerimization of IT (Co-IT) and Enterprise Mobility Market – Global Advancements, Business Models, Market Forecasts & Analysis (2012 -2017)” estimates the BYOD and Enterprise Mobility market to grow 15% annually from $67.21 billion in 2011 to $181.39 billion by 2017. In 2011, North America accounted for $24.26 billion of this market. It is projected to grow 13% annually to reach $58.60 billion by 2017.

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Accenture Enhancing Services Through Acquisitions

According to a report by GIA, the global IT consulting market is projected to be worth $255 billion by the year 2015. Over the past several years, the economic recession had hurt the industry and growth had slowed. The analyst expects the market to pick up soon. Meanwhile, current depressed conditions in the European region continued to hurt the industry. Global IT consulting giant, Accenture (NYSE: ACN), suffered setbacks and its financial performance and outlook fell short of market expectations.

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BlackBerry on Huawei’s Radar

For a while now, BlackBerry (Nasdaq:BBRY) had been counting on its much-awaited BB10 phone releases to help pick it up from a financial mess. But the wait seems to have been in vain. Last week, the company reported disappointing quarter results driven by lackluster sales of its smartphones. The results sent the stock plummeting 28% in a day, making it the worst day in nearly ten years.

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King’s Projected IPO

According to market researcher Newszoo, the worldwide gaming industry is projected to be worth $86.1 billion by the year 2016, growing at an annual rate of 6.7% over the period 2012 through 2016. Growth within the industry will be driven by the increased use of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. The researcher estimates the tablet gaming industry to grow at an annual rate of 48% through the four-year period. The smartphone gaming market is projected to grow 19% annually during this period to $13.9 billion in 2016. During the current year, the smartphone and tablet game revenues are projected to grow 35% over the year to $12.3 billion.

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