Americans Spend Big Money on Gambling
International Gaming & Wagering Business magazine's annual survey of gross gambling revenues for the past year reveals some interesting findings. Among the eyebrow raisers: Americans lost $58.4 billion last year while gambling at casinos, racetracks, race and sports books and on state lotteries. The previous year, that figure was $55.1 billion. Additionally, the survey showed a 79.21 percent increase in Internet gambling revenues--more than $1.1 billion in 1999 versus $651.2 million in 1998.
E-Cell Phones Gain Popularity, M-Commerce Expected to Increase
C-NET reports that high-end Internet-accessible cell phones have been gaining in popularity. A recent article quotes research by NPD Intelect showing that e-cell phones accounted for 48 percent of all cell phones sold through retail stores during the second quarter of 2000. While the media is touting the benefits of wireless products, NPD researchers aren't sure that e-cell phone users are actually using the phones for Internet services even though users are paying for the services. While the Internet-accessible phones are more expensive than conventional cell phones, the average cost of e-cell phones has dropped tremendously in recent months.
IDC, meanwhile, foresees a multi-billion dollar opportunity over wireless Internet. "Online shopping is gaining popularity on the wired Internet, and despite security issues and concerns from wireless end users, e-commerce over the wireless Internet will also explode," said an IDC analyst. IDC estimates that the number of m-commerce subscribers will grow from the hundreds in 1999 to more than 29 million in 2004. By that time, transactions should grow in value to $21 billion.
www.idc.com
Additionally, Forrester Research found through a survey of 9000 American and Canadian home dwellers that only half of U.S. households have a mobile service, and 34 percent indicate they're unlikely to buy cellular devices. Among those willing to access the mobile Internet, 69 percent would use a PDA while 51 percent indicated a preference for using a cell phone. Two-thirds of North American consumers expressed concerns about using their web-enabled phones to make purchases online.
www.forrester.com
More Visitors Reported on UK Sports Sites
U.K. sports websites have been visited more frequently lately. During the previous nine months, they've jumped in reach from 1.9 percent in February to a 9.9 percent in June, barreling past auction, hobby and career sites in terms of popularity, reports MMXI Europe. More than a million U.K. users surfed their way onto sports sites in June.
www.mmxieurope.com
E-commerce Expected to Hit $132 Billion
By year's end, e-commerce should earn a healthy $132 billion worldwide, according to ActivMedia Research. Last year, e-commerce brought in half that amount, $58 billion. Boosting the growth is a huge influx of European and Asian sites. ActivMedia reports that European sites predominantly serve other businesses, whereas sites from other parts of the world balance their services between consumers and consumers.
www.activmediaresearch.com
More Internet Users Reported in Italy, China
A half million new users sign up for Internet services in Italy each month, according to a report from Between and MT&T. Since September 1999 there has been a 36 percent increase in users, with another 15.8 million non-users likely to head online during the next year.
www.quadrante.net.
China, meanwhile, has 16.9 million accessing the Internet, an increase of 8 million since late 1999. The Chinese Internet Network Information Center reports that non-PC based tools are gaining in popularity for accessing the Web. Five hundred ninety thousand people indicated that they access the Internet using PDAs, mobile phones and television set-top boxes. In addition, the number of Chinese websites has doubled since December, numbering 27,289 in June 2000. The most popular sites, according to the report, were Sohu.com, Netease.com, and 263.net.
www.cnnic.net.cn