Majority of Online Gamblers Soon to Be Non-US Players
The recent "Electronic Gambling" report from Informa Media Group, as reported by eMarketer, indicates a shift in online gaming revenue from a predominantly U.S. market to a majority holding in Europe.
By 2006 revenues from online gaming by U.S.-based players will wane to a mere 24 percent of the total, and Europe will represent 53 percent of revenues from electronic gamblers. Informa Media Group predicts a total worldwide spend of $14.5 billion on Internet gambling by 2006.
Electronic gambling is classified by Informa Media Group as gambling via the Internet, mobile phones and interactive TV. The group also predicts that interactive TV's share of the revenue will reach $5.9 billion, almost reaching the Internet's share of $7.9 billion.
Online Credit Card Fraud Remains Rampant
A recent study conducted by research firm Gartner G2 reveals online credit card fraud is quickly becoming a major issue for online retailers, accounting for a large number of lost sales.
In 2001, one person in twenty, or 5.2 percent of online consumers, were victims of credit card fraud. One in 50, or 1.9 percent of consumers, endured some form of identity theft. In all, $700 million in online sales was lost due to fraud. That is 19 times greater than the amount of offline sales lost to fraud.
Gartner estimates that average credit card rejection rates for online purchases is five percent.
Broadband Users Spend More Time Online
In January, for the first time, broadband users in the United States spent more time online than their dial-up equivalents.
Nielsen NetRatings reported a total of 1.9 billion hours logged by high-speed Internet users, accounting for 51 percent of overall online time in January. This reflects a 64-percent jump in broadband users' time online. Dial-up users logged 3 percent less time spent online in the same period.
According to Neilsen NetRatings, 21.9 million Americans use broadband at home and 25.5 million use it at work.
MMS to Overtake SMS by 2006
According to Frost and Sullivan's recent report on the wireless market, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), while not broadly used today, will begin to overtake the SMS text-messaging format by 2006.
By that year, MMS--which allows the inclusion of video, sound and other multimedia components--will generate $26.9 billion in revenue. Only six percent of phones will be equipped with MMS in 2002, but mass-market penetration levels could be reached by 2005, experts predict.
"The burgeoning growth of MMS will offset the SMS decline in the future. We expect MMS to account for 66.3 percent of all mobile messaging revenue (excluding e-mail) in 2006," said Frost and Sullivan research analyst Eduardo Gonzalez.
Advertising Budgets Shrink in 2001
The latest figures from research firm CMR confirm a fairly sharp decline in advertising dollars spent in the United States in 2001
The tally of total ad spend for the year ended at $94.3 billion, according to CMR. That figure represents a 9.8 percent decline compared to 2000. National newspapers and radio spots were hardest hit, registering a decrease of 23 and 20.5 percent respectively.
The numbers do, however, indicate an unfair comparison due to the boom the advertising industry experienced in 2000.
"Because 2000 was such a banner year in ad spending for advertisers, agencies and the media, a fair year-over-year comparison cannot be drawn for total 2001 spending. If 2000's robust total revenues were excluded, and 2001 were measured against 1999, spending would be down only 2.4 percent," said CMR's president and CEO, David Peeler.
Finance Sites Exhibit High Stickiness Rates
A Newsbyte report on data released by Nielsen NetRatings shows financial information and investment sites hold visitors' interest longer than any other type of site.
Of active Internet users in the United States, fully 44 percent of them visited a finance site in January 2002. Visits averaged roughly 21 minutes.
Financial site Schwab.com saw users spend an average of one hour and 48 minutes per session , a clear winner over news and information sites that registered a 15-minute average in each user session.