Paid content unpopular in Arabia
Young Arab people are unwilling to pay for online content despite regular news consumption, according to the latest findings from the Arab Free Press Forum.
Mexicans flock online
Mexico's online population has grown by 20% over the past year, according to Comscore's Media Metrix service. The report found that there were more than 15.5 million users in the country making it one of the fastest-growing markets. On average in the month of March, Mexicans spent 28 hours online (up 7.5%), consumed 1,898 pages of content (up 18%) and went online 49 times during the month (up 18.6%).
Chinese consumers embrace online
Young consumers in China are more open to adopting the internet in their daily routines than their older counterparts, according to a new study from Synovate. The market researcher's Media Atlas China report explores the differences between consumers across 66 cities and rural areas in China. It found that the internet and mobile were continuing to gain momentum in the market with 64% of 15- to 24-year-olds stating the internet was integral to their lives.
Facebook feed for CNN websites
CNN is integrating a host of Facebook features into its CNN.com and CNNMoney.com sites. The new features on both websites allows users to recommend, share or comment on CNN content through the Facebook Connect platform.
Mobile ad market up by a third in 2009
A survey by the IAB and PWC has revealed that the mobile ad market grew by an impressive 32% in 2009 to £37.6m. There is plenty more scope for growth, though; at present, it only accounts for 1% of digital spend. Mobile search expenditure grew by 41% to £20.2m, meaning it constituted 54% of mobile spend (up from 50% in 2008).
Yahoo! acquires Citizen Sports
Yahoo! is set to boost is social offering with the acquisition of San Francisco-based Citizen Sports.
Citizen Sports has a network of popular applications across Facebook, MySpace, hi5 and iPhone and Android platforms, and has 39 million monthly unique users in the US.
Would You Check in to a Box of Tampax? For Charity?
CauseWorld is a mash-up of location-based game apps such as Foursquare, GoWalla or Loopt with cause marketing, and has added checking into actual products in retail stores as the newest way for consumers to use mobile-check-in services to earn money for charity.
Costa Rica's Annual Pilgrimage Goes Viral
It sounds like the slacker's version of a religious pilgrimage -- substituting a long, arduous trek to a holy site with an effortless stay-at-home digital version. But the Catholic Church welcomed the idea when Costa Rica's Minister of Health last year banned the country's famous, annual 228-year-old pilgrimage along with all other major public gatherings at the height of the outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus.
Digital Britain - a communications blueprint for the nation
The government's Digital Britain white paper was launched yesterday. The main proposals are: a 50p monthly broadband tax on consumers with copper phone lines to fund rural expansion; target date of 2012 for every household to have broadband access at 2 megabits per second; the BBC to share a portion of its £3.6 billion annual licence fee with commercial rivals; and Channel 4 given the go-ahead to form joint venture with BBC Worldwide.
