Chart: U.S. Virtual Goods Revenue Ready To Explode | SAI

The virtual goods market in the U.S. is ready to take off. Right now, the U.S. only has 28% of the total market. By 2013, the U.S. will make up 41% of the market with $2.5 billion in sales, according to research from Piper Jaffray.

A chart from 3 months ago, but one I want to be able to find again. Thus, the post to my blog.

Social Media's Share of the Online Marketing Budget

Click here to see larger, printable version of this chart

Social media, which would have accounted for a very small increment of the "Other online marketing" slice just a few years ago, is now garnishing 11% of the average online marketing budget. Based on other trends indicated in this report, social media’s share will continue to increase in the year ahead.

Table 1
    -------


    comScore Top 10 Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in
     Unique Visitors* (U.S.)
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    December 2009 vs. November 2009
    -------------------------------
    Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
    ------------------------------------------------
    Source: comScore Media Metrix
    -----------------------------
                                         Total Unique Visitors (000)
                                         ---------------------------
                                                                    Rank by
                                                                    Unique
                                    Nov-09     Dec-09   % Change    Visitors
                                    ------     ------   --------   --------
    Total Internet : Total
     Audience                       201,139    205,709          2        N/A
    ----------------------          -------    -------        ---        ---
    FAMILYLINK.COM                    2,590      6,273        142        222
    --------------                    -----      -----        ---        ---
    JibJab Media                      4,686     10,892        132        129
    ------------                      -----     ------        ---        ---
    Eastman Kodak                     5,116      9,030         77        160
    -------------                     -----      -----        ---        ---
    UPS Sites                        13,091     19,715         51         63
    ---------                        ------     ------        ---        ---
    GIFTS.COM                         4,557      6,797         49        211
    ---------                         -----      -----        ---        ---
    Ganz                              4,822      7,047         46        207
    ----                              -----      -----        ---        ---
    Nintendo Co.                      3,935      5,750         46        241
    ------------                      -----      -----        ---        ---
    Hallmark                          3,881      5,649         46        248
    --------                          -----      -----        ---        ---
    Federated Media Publishing       17,642     25,432         44         45
    --------------------------       ------     ------        ---        ---
    AccuWeather Sites                 5,190      7,344         41        196
    -----------------                 -----      -----        ---        ---
    *Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December 2009.
     Excludes entities whose growth was primarily due to
     implementation of Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement.

It's very exciting to see the number of people who are using FamilyLink.com to find relatives, build family trees, and share messages and photos with each other.

I'm curious to know how you stay in touch with your relatives, and what feature would make FamilyLink.com more interesting to you personally. (Mobile versions, better email list management, online genealogy databases, photo printing and photo book functionality, integration with family blogs, etc.)

We know what our customers want us to do next, since we run surveys every day, but we also need to know what would get new customers to adopt our site for finding and communicating with relatives.

Please speak out. We promise to listen carefully. Every family matters to us. We love doing what we are doing, and we want to address the needs of families worldwide - including yours.

Entrepreneurs have leveraged the power of platforms offered by companies like Facebook, Google and Apple to kick-start a phenomenon we call the “app economy.” In 2009, this revolution took significant strides in funding, acquisitions and job creation for an economic sector of educational and entertaining software that until several years ago did not exist.

Small companies have already created more than 500,000 active apps reached through Facebook alone that attract at least 70 percent of Facebook’s 350 million members each month. Apple’s App Store boasts 100,000 apps and recently celebrated its three-billionth download. These small-scale yet widely used widgets are enriching individuals’ digital lives — and at the same time have cultivated a booming new business model.

These are real companies with everything from accountants to janitors. Consider California-based app developer Playdom, which has grown to a staff of 210 full-time employees, most of whom joined last year. Or Where I’ve Been, a Chicago startup that helps users plan locally, travel globally and share their experiences.

There’s Seattle’s PopCap, creator of the wildly successful Bejeweled Blitz game; and Provo, Utah-based FamilyLink, whose We’re Related app is among our top five with more than 50 million users. Right here in Washington, Living Social lets users share insights about their favorite pastimes and Causes helps individuals organize into communities of action focused upon specific issues or nonprofit organizations.

The app economy is real. FamilyLink has more than 50 employees and is trying to hire more front end and back end developers, Flash/Flex architects, business development and ad sales people.

Platforms make it very easy for entrepreneurs or developers to get started in the app economy. They offer a huge potential audience that is easy to reach. When I lecture at business schools, I focus on "catching the next technology wave" and "building on the right platform" as some of the most important strategic decisions that high-tech entrepreneurs have to make. But don't worry--if you missed a wave, there's always another one coming right around the corner.

The newest member of our accounting department emailed this to me today. You gotta love it when even your G&A staff are adding value and joining in the strategy discussions.

Virtual goods buyers

(Credit: Playspan)

I hadn't seen this report from September. The most popular thing for online gamers to buy is virtual currency followed by weapons, wearables, subscription codes, power-ups, virtual gifts, and maps/levels.

Ancestry.com, which will trade under the ticker symbol ACOM, runs a subscription-based genealogy site. The company digs through billions of historical records to help subscribers name the branches on their respective family trees. While the venture may seem boring to the younger social-media set, a million people are willing to pay for the service.

And still more are signing up. Subscriptions are growing at a rate of 11%, with an average monthly fee of $16.50. Two-thirds of the subs are annual, though, and 38% of the site’s clients pay up for a premium package. Lifetime revenues per subscriber come in at $300, meaning that these people stick around for over 17 years. That explains the low 4% churn rate, which dwindles to 2% for Ancestry members who’ve stuck around for two or more years.

One of the worst pieces of financial journalism I have ever seen. Speaking of Ancestry subscribers:

"...these people stick around for over 17 years."

LOL. Yes, Ancestry has had subscribers for 17 years -- since 1992, years before the internet was even invented. That's how a lifetime value of $300 is calculated. :)

That's what you get when you don't realize that MONTHLY REVENUE is $16.50 per person -- not ANNUAL REVENUE.

Seriously, someone ought to QA this kind of stuff before people go out and buy or sell stock on weak analysis like this.