Wireless Ads Vex Users
Most wireless Internet customers are not open to the idea of mobile
advertising, although they would embrace such ads if the notices gave them
some benefit, a recent study from the Cahners In-Stat Group found.
The group, a subsidiary of Cahners Business Information, found that 64
percent of wireless Internet users were cold to mobile advertising. The same
sample, however, suggested that such ads would be more welcomed if they
offered the customer special offers or discounts.
The director of Cahners' wireless research said the poll shows that
digital advertising should be no different from more traditional ads.
"Just as sales drive customers to stores, special savings will lure
consumers in, and will make the process of receiving mobile ads more
palatable to users," Becky Diercks said.
The wireless Internet market is estimated to represent five percent of
cellular phone users in the United States.
International Travel to Las Vegas Down
Statistics from the Las Vegas airport show that international travel
dropped off 40 percent after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Travel from Japan and Mexico to McCarran International Airport decreased
the most, reported the Las Vegas Sun last week.
Domestic travel, on the other hand, was down 27.7 percent to 1.9 million
passengers from 2.6 million passengers, compared to last year's figures.
Air travel from Japan was so low in September that Japan Airlines has
suspended service between Tokyo and Las Vegas. Mexico, the city's No. 3
source of visitors behind Japan and Canada, is starting to see a slight
increase from September, but planes are still little more than half full.
Swissport, the company that handles ticketing and ground operations for
AeroMexico, said many flights have been outright canceled.
"People are scared to fly," Biridiana Vazquez of Swissport told the Las
Vegas Sun. "We have had to cancel flights because there haven't been enough
passengers."
Gamblers Aid Climate Study
Researchers from Stanford University looking for historical data on
climate change recently found it in a very unlikely form--a gambling contest
in Alaska.
Since 1917, the people of Nenana, Alaska, which is 50 miles west of
Fairbanks, have bet on the exact time the ice on the local river, the
Tanana, will break. To record the precise timing of the first crack, a
tripod is set up on the ice. The tripod is connected by wire to a switch on
a clock that is sitting on the riverbank. When the ice moves, the wire pulls
the switch and turns the clock off. This year's winnings--$300,000--were
shared by eight people who correctly guessed the right time.
The researchers, noting that the high stakes made for accurate record
keeping of the breakup times, used the data along with weather records to
show temperature changes over time.
Web Shoppers in Search of Convenience
Online shoppers prefer convenience to low prices, according to a survey
released last week by Internet research firm Gartner.
The poll found that 81 percent of Internet shoppers said they valued
convenience and 33 percent said price was more important. Gartner analyst
David Schehr said that in today's downward economy, businesses might expect
the opposite to be true.
"That is not to say that online merchants should begin to raise their
prices," he said, "but alternatively, they should focus their energy on
getting the customer in and out of the site as quickly and efficiently as
possible."
Schehr suggested that retailers put their Web address on as many places
as possible, such as shopping bags and print advertisements. Neil MacDonald,
director of research of the section of Garnter that did the report, said
merchants should view convenience as a way to add value to their products.
"Buyers can get the same product at a low price from any number of
sites," he said. "In the end, the primary factor in choosing your site will
be convenience."
Dot-Com Job Losses Up 60 Percent
Internet job losses rose 60 percent in October to 4,840, said
outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas this week.
Employment in the online industry has declined for the past five months.
The main source of the job losses appears to be layoffs from online travel
companies, many of which lost much of their business after the Sept. 11
attacks, and the waning interest in business-to-business services and
software.
Consumer service firms, which include travel sites, cut 2,055 jobs in
October, representing more than 40 percent of all job losses. The B2B
services sector had 1,001 layoffs. In contrast, online retail businesses had
only 15 jobs lost in October. John Challenger, chief executive of the
outplacement firm, said online job losses affect almost everyone in the
computer industry.
"As companies continue to cut back in online advertising, Web sites are
reducing their business with vendors, he said. "As the entire Internet
sector continues to struggle, so do the companies that provide the
technology and hard-wiring."
Growth in Web Use Stalled
For the first time since Internet use began rapidly growing in 1994, the
number of adults using the Internet has remained unchanged for the last
year.
A Harris Interactive poll released Wednesday shows that the percentage of
adults accessing the Internet from any location--including home, work and
cyber cafes--has been static at 64 percent for the last 12 months.
Harris Interactive reports that 127 million adults have Internet access.
Fifty-two percent can access the Web from home, and 28 percent can go online
at work. The amount of adults who were online in 1997 was 30 percent; by
1998 that figure rose to 56 percent. Last year, 63 percent of adults used
the Internet, but the one percent change from this year to last year is not
statistically significant.
Web users continue to be socio-economically skewed, however. The Harris
poll of 2,023 Americans older than 18 found that only 19 percent of those
online had household incomes of $25,000 or less, compared with 25 percent of
the U.S. population, and that only 38 percent had never been to college,
compared with 52 percent of the adult population.