
It’s commonly thought that with the success of sites like MySpace and Facebook, the U.S. is the hub of social networking activity. However, Asia is not only the fastest-growing region for social networking, it is also the largest:
By contrast, fewer Latin Americans visit social networking sites, but are much more engaged:

Each region has a different leader as measured by total time spent. Friendster, for example, was once a pioneer in the U.S. but now attracts a relatively small U.S. audience (North Americans spent 4.4 million hours on Friendster in August 2007 - seventh overall in North America - versus MySpace’s leading 223.1 million hours). However, people in Asia spend more time on Friendster than any other social networking site.

If you are a global marketer, there’s a great opportunity to capitalize on the rapid adoption of social networking sites outside of the U.S. But you’re going to have to ‘get local’ and understand which sites will maximize your reach in a particular region.
http://www.comscore.com/blog/2007/10/consumer_trends_in_social_netw.html
What the comScore data reveal is that MySpace is far more developed as an advertising platform than Facebook – along a variety of dimensions. For example, in September MySpace attracted 68.4 million unique visitors, 2.2 times the 30.6 million that visited Facebook. But, MySpace visitors also consumed 1.4 times more pages per visitor and MySpace delivered 2.2 times more ads on each page viewed (with each ad being about twice the size of the ads run on Facebook). Cumulatively, this translates into MySpace delivering 6.6 times more display ad views than Facebook.
Clearly, these data point to the huge upside that exists for Facebook to increase its advertising business relative to MySpace by continuing to build its user base (Facebook unique visitors in September were up 129% versus year ago while MySpace increased by a slower 23%) and by increasing the number of ads they’re delivering per page viewed. Of course, it can be expected that, as the number of ads delivered on Facebook increases, astute marketers will also begin paying more attention to changes in the “share of advertising views” that they’re getting within their particular product category and target audience to see if their “share of voice” is declining.
Nearly half of teens ages 13 to 18 use instant messaging, according to an AP-AOL study conducted by Knowledge Networks.Three-quarters of adults said they sent more e-mails than instant messages. The ratio was nearly reversed for teens, many of whom liked the distance that IM put between them in some conversations.
Only about one in five adults said they used instant messaging.
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005669&src=article_head_sitesearch
Women are better at multitasking than men, according to 60% of respondents of both genders in a Nokia-sponsored study conducted by Illuminas.
Only 6% of women believed that men were better at handling multiple tasks simultaneously.
More than six in 10 respondents did two or three things while on their mobile phone. When asked what was the most fun activity to do while on their mobile phone, most said “being in bed.”
Nearly eight in 10 respondents said they considered themselves multitaskers. One-half described themselves as ‘productive’ and 31% said they were ‘busy.’
Illuminas surveyed 5,000 visitors to Nokia’s Web site in during October and November, 2007. Respondents came from the United Kingdom, Spain, Finland, Italy, China, Brazil, Germany, Denmark, France, USA, Sweden and Norway.
A couple of weeks ago Sandra, Hitwise analyst in Asia Pacific, wrote a post on what she terms “search value determinants” to consider the language people use when they enter search queries. To follow on her post, this is some similar US data to look at what Americans search for in conjunction with popular modifiers.
Here are the top 10 variations on some typical modifiers for the four weeks to 18th August 2007. Note that the number of variations for each go into the tens of thousands.

The term “discount” is associated with consumer goods, “cheap” is associated with travel and free is associated with low price point items such as music and MySpace layouts.

The term ‘prices’ appears to be associated with economic indicators such as gas, gold, oil, and stock. The term “deals” is associated with travel queries (similar to “cheap”) and “used” is associated with books and cars.

PQ Media projects that worldwide product placement spending on films and TV shows will reach $4.38 billion in 2007, up more than 30% from the 2006 figure of $3.36 billion.

When the exposure value of non-paid product placement is factored in, these figures more than double to $9.33 billion in 2007 and $7.76 billion in 2006.

Nielsen Media Research found that between October 2005 and June 2006, 58% of respondents recognized a brand after viewing a product placement in conjunction with a commercial, versus 47% recognition among those who saw only the commercial.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005444&src=article2_newsltr
Who’s to blame for falling music sales? Illegal music downloaders? Internet radio consumers? Britney Spears?
Regardless of the cause, the music industry has largely seen declining music sales as a crucible. The theory was that although fewer people bought music, the remaining buyers were true fans, and that digital downloads would eventually compensate for falling CD sales. But even though sales are still declining, the music super-consumer has yet to emerge, according to Bridge Ratings data.
“An interesting finding is the steep increase in the percentage of the population that bought music in 2006 compared with the previous year,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.
Yet the average price per purchase is being reduced by the large numbers of consumers buying single MP3 downloads.
The 30% drop in compact disc sales from 2000 to 2005 was too steep to be offset by digital sales. The 16% drop in CD sales from 2005 to 2006 was partially offset by digital download sales growth.
The net effect is still a falling average price per music purchase, decreasing overall music revenues.
eMarketer interpolated the Bridge data with US Census Bureau population estimates dating back to 1980. While the total number of US music consumers has more than doubled to 96 million in 2006 from 45 million in 1980, annual per capita music expenditures have dropped drastically to $120 in 2006, from $198 in 1980.
“In other words,” Mr. Verna said, “a lot more people may be buying music these days, but they’re spending a whole lot less, on average, than they did at any point in the recent or more distant past.”
Again, tabulating Bridge Ratings’ percentages against Census Bureau statistics shows the track-driven download model pioneered by iTunes is broadening the universe of music consumers.
Wonder what Radiohead’s potentially ground-breaking move: putting its new album, “In Rainbows,” out there for fans to pay what they want will do for the industry.
Advertising.com, Inc., in their Bi-Annual Online VideoStudy, comparing the first half of 2007 with the last half of 2006, reports that 62 percent of survey respondents are viewing video online and are comprised mostly of those ages 35 and older viewing news clips. Analyzed by age group, 31 percent of 18 to 34 year olds watch streaming video, while 69 percent of consumers ages 35 and older view streaming video online.
Approximately 83 percent of consumers surveyed indicated that their online video usage in 2007 has either stayed the same or increased since 2006. More specifically, 36 percent of consumers have increased their consumption of online video, with an even breakdown between men (36 percent) and women (37 percent).
The majority of consumers are streaming online video at home rather than work or school, with 45 percent of streaming activity taking place in the evening. 95% stream at home; 4% at work; 1% at school or university.
More than 62 percent of consumers said they are most likely to stream news clips, with movie trailers and music videos next in line. Compared to the second half of 2006, consumers are streaming fewer music videos and streaming more news clips, user-generated videos and sports clips. However, these consumption behaviors vary dramatically by age.
Overall, 42 percent of consumers have forwarded a video clip to a friend. Consumers who view content more than once a week also forward more clips, with 55 percent forwarding clips vs. 34 percent and 20 percent for those who view content once a week and once a month. Women (47 percent) forward more clips than men (36 percent).
Other highlights of the study include:
In conclusion, the report summarizes by noting that consumers continue to incorporate streaming video into the online experience, but there remains a difference, however, among older and younger consumers.
Older consumers using streaming video in order to gain more information, which can be seen by their preference for online news clips, while younger consumers are streaming content for entertainment purposes, such as viewing movies, TV shows and user-generated videos online.
Consumers between the ages of 18 and 34, says the report, continue to assimilate streaming content more into their everyday media consumption habits. Sixty-nine percent of their online video streaming occurs more than once a week, while 47 percent of those ages 35 and older view streaming video multiple times a week