Business Issues Blog

Mozilla’s next salvos in the browser wars won’t come quite as soon as the company previously promised.

According to Opera, Facebook is the most popular site on the mobile web in Africa. In addition, a report from the company shows a 5% jump in global mobile Internet users. Opera Mini has garnered more than 41.7 million users worldwide showing a 5.3 percent jump compared to the previous month, according to the report. The number of page views in November went up 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% compared to October. In Africa, Facebook has taken a strong lead and ranks as the most popular site in six out of the top 10 countries, Opera says. The company highlights the following global trends: – In November 2009, more than 41.7 million people used Opera Mini, a 5.3% increase from October 2009 and more than 154% compared to November 2008. – Those 41.7 million people viewed more than 18.8 billion pages in November 2009. Since October, page-views have gone up 9.5%. Since November 2008, page-views have increased 231%. – Opera Mini users generated over 285 million megabytes of data for operators worldwide in November 2009. Since October, the data consumed went up by 8.3%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 2.6 petabytes of data in November. Since November 2008, data traffic is up 213%. – The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Poland. Opera also highlights the following trends for Africa: – The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in Africa are (in order): South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Tanzania and Namibia. – Some numbers regarding Africa: From November 2008 to November 2009, page-views in the top 10 countries increased by 374%, unique users increased by 177%, and data transferred increased by 183%. – Since our last spotlight on Africa, Kenya jumped from #4 to #3, Ghana jumped from #11 to #5 and Ivory Coast jumped from #8 to #7. – Growth rates in Africa: Ghana and Kenya lead the top 10 African countries in terms of page-view growth. Ghana and Ivory Coast lead the top 10 African countries in growth of unique users. Kenya leads the top 10 African countries in page-views, with each user browsing 525 pages on average each month. – Facebook has taken the lead in Africa; it is the most popular site visited by Opera Mini users in six out of 10 countries and the #2 site in the three countries where it isn’t #1. Google is also very popular, and is ahead of Facebook in a few of the top 10 African countries. Yahoo and Wikipedia are also ubiquitous in the top 10 lists of the various African countries. – Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets are extremely popular in Africa, but Samsung is a significant exception, boasting the most popular phone used by Opera Mini users in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia. “It is heartening to know that Opera Mini continues to grow consistently in all regions and categories — specially in continents like Africa where mobile phones are more likely the only way for people to access the Web,” said Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner. “At Opera, we are striving to bring the most innovative and affordable way for people to access the mobile Web and expect 2010 will prove just as successful for us as the case has been in previous years.” Have You Read This? > Opera Turbo Sees 60% User Growth in One Month > 40 Million Reasons You Need a Mobile Web Presence > Opera Releases Latest Version of Popular Mobile Browser

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Opera: Facebook Most Popular Mobile Site in Africa

The mobile version of Firefox – also known as Fennec – is almost ready to launch.

Next year, Ford will be introducing it’s new version of SYNC , a technology it partnered with Microsoft on. This technology will allow you to have constant Wi-Fi in your car. All an owner of a SYNC-ready car would have to do is plug in a compatible USB mobile broadband modem (or air card), and they will create a secure wireless connection that will be broadcast throughout the vehicle. “While you’re driving to grandma’s house, your spouse can be finishing the holiday shopping and the kids can be chatting with friends and updating their Facebook profiles,” said Mark Fields, Ford president of The Americas. “And you’re not paying for yet another mobile subscription or piece of hardware because Ford will let you use technology you already have.” “The speeds with which technology is evolving, particularly on the wireless front, makes obsolescence a real problem,” said Doug VanDagens, director of Ford’s Connected Services Solutions Organization. “We’ve solved that problem by making SYNC work with just about any technology you plug into it. By leveraging a user’s existing hardware, which can be upgraded independent of SYNC, we’ve helped ensure ‘forward compatibility’ with whatever connectivity technology comes next.” “Using SYNC with existing mobile devices helps Ford provide the most value, the most flexibility and the most convenience for owners,” said Fields. “Constant connectivity is becoming a routine part of our customers’ lives, and we’re making existing technology more accessible without adding costs: That’s the kind of value Ford drivers have learned to expect.” Ford has proven in the past to be a particularly Internet-savvy company. This was evident from an interview WebProNews did with Scott Monty, who runs the company’s social media efforts: Ford says studies by the Consumer Electronics Association show that as many as 77 million adults make up the so-called technology enthusiast drivers population, more than half of whom express the desire for a connected communications and information system in their vehicles. They say over a third of Americans would be interested in the ability to check email and access Web sites in their vehicles. Have You Read This? > Google Earth Makes Leap To Automobiles > Google Develops Fleet Of Fuel-Efficient Cars > How Ford Does Social Media

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Ford Turning Cars Into Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspots

Over the past several months, MySpace has become much more formidable thanks to some new features, a deal with a record label, and a couple of acquisitions.

DVR and online video continue to show considerable growth in the U.S., up 21.1% and 34.9 percent respectively, in time spent in the third quarter of 2009, according Nielsen’s latest Three Screen Report. In Q3, the average American watched 31 hours of TV per week, with 31 minutes spending playback mode with their DVR. In addition, each week the average consumer spent 4 hours on the Internet and 22 minutes watching online video. The average consumer spent 3 minutes watching mobile video each week. “Americans today have an insatiable appetite for not only content, but also choice,” says Nic Covey, director of cross-platform insights at Nielsen . “Across all age groups, we see consumers adding the Internet and mobile devices to their media diet – consuming media anytime and anywhere possible.” Online video viewing is also on the rise, with Internet users watching 53 more minutes of video online in Q3 compared to the previous year. Time spent among overall mobile video viewers remains consistent, with teens reporting the most time spent on average watching mobile, at just over 7 hours per month. Older mobile video users age 45-54 reported viewing 3 hours on their mobile phones each month. Social networks are becoming a popular source for online video. Time spent viewing video on social networking sites increased 98 percent from October 2008 to October 2009. Older demographics are also helping to drive the growth in video consumption with in social media. The 35 to 49 year old segment increased their viewership time by 37 percent and those over 65 increased their viewership 47 percent year-over-year. Mobile video viewing continues to grow, with 15.7 million Americans viewing video on their mobile phone in Q3, an increase of 53 percent over last year.

MySpace has announced a new set of APIs . These include APIs for real-time streaming, status and mood commenting, open search, photo uploading, and an updated version of the post to/share API. “MySpace sees huge value in real-time data and believes sharing it will mature the socialization of content on the Web,” said MySpace COO Mike Jones. “MySpace is building the next-generation content distribution platform and is opening up our floodgate of public data for developers to make compelling real-time experiences around the Web.” The Real-Time Stream API allows the full MySpace activity stream to be pushed to third party sites in real-time. It is already being used by Google, OneRiot, and GroovyCorp. “MySpace made it really easy to integrate public MySpace data into our search engine,” said Tobias Peggs, GM of OneRiot. “With access to this real-time data, we’re offering more comprehensive and meaningful search results to our users.” “MySpace users are making a huge contribution to the realtime, social web by sharing millions of links with their friends each day,” said Peggs. “We’re delighted to have access to that information through the MySpace Real-Time Stream API.” We’ve already seen what Google is doing : The Status and Mood Commenting API lets third party sites use MySpace status and mood updates and allows people to comment from those sites. Comments then appear in the user’s MySpace activity stream, and users can interact with that stream without leaving the third party site. The Open Search API allows third party sites to include public MySpace profile information in search results. Users can search for people by name, profile type (such as musician, celebrity, comedian) or email address and filter search results by gender, age and location. The Photo Upload API lets users upload photos to MySpace from third party sites or MySpace Apps. It also enables creation of public or private photo albums. The updated version of the Post To/Share on MySpace API allows for the sharing of content from third party sites with a MySpace user’s friends. When a user posts content from another site, it goes directly to his/her MySpace activity stream, creating a link back to the third party site. MySpace is even going so far as to host a ” developer challenge ” competition starting January 4 to encourage developers to come up with some cool apps utilizing the APIs. Developers will have the chance to win cash prizes and promotion on MySpace. These MySpace APIs could go a long way in keeping MySpace relevant in the era of Facebook and Twitter. Frankly, they are long overdue. The APIs mean that there can be a lot more useful apps implementing more functionality with MySpace. That means more ways users can keep using it. This and MySpace’s acquisition of imeem could be huge for the future of the social network.