Read on for news about wearables, online retail sales, social formats and lots more. Check out the Internet Statistics Database for further stats and insight.
The majority of users are willing to pay a subscription fee for top apps
A new study by McGuffin has uncovered how much value consumers place on the most widely-used free apps. In a survey of 2,004 consumers ranging from 18 to 71 years old, McGuffin found that 72% of respondents would pay for YouTube (if there was no free alternative), with this group willing to pay an average subscription fee of $4.20 a month. Seventy-eight percent of respondents would pay an average of $3.38 for Google Maps, while 64% of respondents would pay $2.92 a month.
It was also found that women would pay 20% more than men for Google Maps, Facebook and Pinterest. Meanwhile, millennials would pay 78% more for Instagram and 42% more for Google Maps than baby boomers. The five apps users are least willing to pay money for are Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Venmo, Instagram and Twitter.
Finally, the study compared each company’s current advertising revenue against what they would hypothetically earn if they charged the average amount that users were willing to pay per app. Overall, it found that all nine companies would stand to earn more in a hypothetical paid future, including Facebook, which had the highest percentage of users saying they wouldn’t pay anything for the app.
Gen Z rely on smartphones for all-day entertainment
New research from Whistle suggests that Generation Z are increasingly turning to mobile phones to satisfy their need for all-day entertainment. In a survey of 1,200 respondents aged between 13 to 34 (spanning two demographics), the survey found that Gen Z is 2x more likely than Millennials to think there is no compromise in quality watching on mobile.
For Gen Z, Mobile isn’t just the primary device to watch social content, it is also the primary device for watching Netflix, with 40% using mobile as a primary device for the online streaming platform. This is compared to just 22% of millennials who watch Netflix this way.
Overall, the research found that Generation Z is using mobile for entertainment more than ever. Eighty-one percent of Gen Z say that putting on a video while doing other things helps keep them entertained, while four out of five of Gen Z think watching a short video is a good way to fill gaps in their day.
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US wearables market reaches $2 billion in Q2 2019
The North American wearables market reached $2 billion in Q2 2019, according to new data from Canalys, with shipments up 38% at 7.7 million units.
This rise was driven by booming smartwatch sales, making North America the most valuable market for wearables, despite China coming out on top for unit sales.
Apple remains the leading wearable brand, capturing 39.5% of the market. This is followed by FitBit with 28.3%. Samsung captured just 6.7% of the market share, however, it managed to generate significant annual growth of 121%.
One in three search specialists say they don’t receive enough support to accurately forecast SEO
New industry research by SEOmonitor has found that there is significant shortfall in the forecasting support provided to SEOs and digital marketers.
In a survey, one third of respondents said they feel they do not currently receive adequate support to provide accurate forecasts. As a result of this, 26% of respondents report that they find it difficult to forecast accurately, and 22% admit that they struggle to calculate the value of SEO activity.
Meanwhile, 37% of respondents cited a lack of investment in specialist tools as the main barrier preventing them from making accurate forecasts. Twenty-five percent also report that they currently do not feel like they receive enough training on how to make accurate forecasts, and 17% admitted to having received no forecasting training at all in their career.
Finally, a lack of support from the C-Suite was cited as a key barrier to accurate forecasts by more than one in six respondents.
Online retail sales fall to lowest ever July growth
New figures from IMRG Capgemini suggest that the June spike in UK online retail sales was an anomaly, as growth slowed to just +4.4% year-on-year and fell by -5.7% month-on-month in July.
Despite online shopping events like Amazon Prime Day, this means we saw the lowest ever July YoY increase, with figures coming in well below the three month, six month, and 12 month rolling averages.
In terms of categories, clothing sales saw a positive growth of +4.5%, but failed to match June’s 2019 high of +15.7% or the five-year average of +8.6%. Elsewhere, garden sales fell by -44.6% (compared to +22% in 2018), contributing to a low overall growth for home and garden of +5.4%.
Lidl’s market share hits a record high of 5.9%
In more retail news, Kantar revealed this week that Lidl’s market share has hit a record high of 5.9% over the past 12 weeks. This comes on the back of Lidl sales increasing 7.7%.
In contrast to this, the ‘big four’ supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s – all lost market share. Tesco is down from 27.4% a year ago to 27%, while Asda saw its market share drop from 15.2% to 14.9%.
As well as Lidl’s rising market share, Kantar revealed that Aldi enjoyed a similarly strong period, with sales increasing 6.2%.
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Carousel is the best performing format for organic interactions on Instagram
Carousel is used only 15 to 18% of the time on Instagram, however, according to Socialbakers, it is the best format for organic interactions on the platform (more so than standard video and image formats). The same applies to Facebook Live, which is far and away the platform’s leader in interactions but is utilised in only 4% of posts.
Elsewhere, the ‘Key Social Media Trends’ report states that interactions have not drastically decreased on these platforms as some have suggested. In fact, over the past year, Instagram’s interactions are almost exactly the same as the start of the year, and Facebook’s interactions are just slightly below where they were in June 2018.
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