UK Gambling Ads Double Over Past Year
Online ad monitoring service LemonAd has released research that indicates an increase of over 50 percent in advertising for the U.K. online gambling sector.
October 2000 saw 130 gambling ads placed on U.K. Web sites, but increased to 203 gambling ads placed in October 2001, a 56 percent rise in placements.
The results highlight an increase in use of online betting in the United Kingdom, partly because of the abolition of the U.K. betting tax and growth in the interactive gambling market.
"Both 'bricks and clicks' and 'pure-play' gambling organizations are boosting their online advertising activity," Simon Bright, managing director of LemonAd's parent company, NetCrawling, said. "Competition is heating up in this sector and is set to increase".
E-Commerce Sales Numbers Jump on Monday After Thanksgiving
While the Friday after Thanksgiving is traditionally the strongest retail sales day at traditional stores, the Monday after Thanksgiving is proving to the be the strongest e-commerce sales day at online stores.
comScore Networks released data that showed Monday, November 26 as the highest total for e-commerce sales yet this year, with $220 million in total sales for the day.
comScore was given permission by a representative group of 1.5 million Internet users to confidentially monitor their online buying and browsing behavior and the estimates of total sales are based on this cross section of the Internet community.
The data also indicated the sectors with the most increased sales for that Monday as the computer hardware and consumer electronics categories. Combined, these sectors usually represent about 20 percent of total sales but during this period reached 33 percent of total sales.
Dan Hess, vice-president of comScore noted "While the Friday following Thanksgiving is traditionally the day to watch in the offline world, it's the following Monday--when people return to work and are able to use their company's high-speed Internet connection--that really waves the starting flag for holiday e-commerce."
Majority of US PDA Users Want Wireless Email
According to a study commissioned by Motient, almost two-thirds of people in the US that use Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) would like to have wireless email available on these devices.
The study also found that the Palm V was the most popular of the competing PDA devices, with 36 percent of respondents using this particular model, and that women were half as likely to own a PDA than men.
Additionally, researchers asked PDA users what other features they would like to have access to and the response was for faster data transmission speeds and increased storage capacity/RAM.
Internet Use Rapidly Expanding in Greece
The number of Greek Internet users is expected to increase by 60 percent this year according to a study conducted for the National Research and Technology Network.
Last year, Greece recorded a 33 percent increase in Internet users and if the current growth rates continue, half of Greece may be online by 2004.
Greece has historically lagged behind the European Union's technology standards, but Internet penetration is beginning to near the European average, and by the end of 2001, 12 percent of the Greek population will be surfing the Web. These findings indicate a faster than expected growth rate in Internet penetration in Greece.
Spread Betting Popular with Private Investors
Fewer shares are being traded by private investors this year, but independent Web site Onewaybet.com has data that suggests they're spread betting instead.
The site estimates that financial spread betting volumes will be over 25 percent of last year's total and the highest ever recorded. In contrast, the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers show a 30 percent decline in volume of private investor share trading compared to the same period in 2000.
Private investors may be wary of the wobbly stock markets and economic downturn, which is causing them to trade conventional stocks less. But the benefit of spread betting on stocks is that traders are able to go 'short' as well as 'long' on shares and stock indices.
Additionally, spread betting on financials is becoming more widespread, with 50,000 private investors holding accounts with financial spread bookies. Last year there were only five such bookies, but this year there are seven.
Internet Users Won't Pay for What Was Once Free
A survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked Internet users whether they would pay for services or content online that they used to get for free and the answer was a resounding no.
Only 12 percent of Internet users surveyed would ante up for access to Web sites that were once free and the rest opted to discontinue service or access to those sites.
The survey was conducted between Aug. 13 and Sept. 10 of this year and served as a follow-up to a survey Pew conducted in March that found that most Americans viewed dot-com problems as arising from either greed or "cluelessness."
Companies' Use of Live Web Events Increasing
According to an IDC survey completed Nov. 7, conferencing companies should expect to see a 25 percent increase in the usage of live Web events within the next six months.
Survey respondents were picked from several of the largest conferencing and e-learning companies and represented a variety of business sectors, from healthcare to telecommunications.
The value of live Web-events has been increasing according to IDC, but companies will have to make adjustments to realize the full potential of this growth opportunity. The program manager of IDC's Learning Services research, Cushing Andersen stated, "Vendors will have to refine their strategies, demonstrate immediate value, and recognize the unique requirements of their targeted segments. For example, companies will need to spend their time on focusing on serving education-related events and developing 'pay-as-you-go' services."
Singapore Execs Find Entertainment Online
Executives in Singapore are increasingly looking online for entertainment, with visits to online gaming sites rising 42 percent in the last six months, according to NetValue.
Nearly one-quarter, or 246,830 of Singapore's Internet population visited an online gaming site in August, as opposed to only 173,270 visiting similar sites in February.
The study also indicated an increase in time-spent on Internet gaming sites, jumping from 29.4 minutes in February to 39 minutes in August. Executives in the recession-riddled city-state spent an average of 64 minutes per visit.
Jack Loo, NetValue's manager for Singapore also noted that "nNot only were more people visiting online gaming sites, there has also been an eight-fold increase in the amount of bytes transferred at these sites." This figure, Loo said, indicates people actually playing rather than simply browsing the pages of these gaming sites.