Abstract
This Initiatives column is as varied and, we hope, as rich as ever. It includes the usual
Social Media and Networks
There is a seemingly inexhaustible range of activity, product development, ever increasing usage and continuing excitement around social media and technologies. The following items emphasize this diversity. Firstly, an extremely useful collection of resources.
Social Media Toolkit
Along with David Gurteen (http://www.gurteen.com), one of the most knowledgeable, enthusiastic and prolific social media contributors (via blogs and Twitter) is Stephen Dale. Apart from other writing, he maintains an extremely useful collection of social media resources for use in social media and knowledge management training.
These include news, debate, case studies, blogs, Twitter and microblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, aggregation tools (e.g. RSS feeds, Netvibes, Summify), monitoring and tracking tools, social network systems (e.g. Facebook, Google+) and a variety of other useful, general and specific resources.
His regular blog is ‘Communities and Collaboration’ and is at: http://steve-dale.net
The Social Media Toolkit is at http://socialmediatoolkit.wikispaces.com
Stephen’s Twitter identity is @stephendale
Publishing and the Social Web
Publishers risk being shut out of the picture by their new tech gatekeepers on the social web unless they can make the transition to this new world. This was one of the major findings of digital publishing consultants Semantico’s recent 2nd Symposium on Publishing and the Social Web in London to discuss the impact of social media on publishers and information providers. An invited audience of publishing industry leaders debated the issues under Chatham House rules, covering three themes: Trends and drivers; Disruptive effects; Strategy options.
It was a stimulating event with a high calibre guest list, delegates attending from organizations including Bloomsbury, CABI, Course Smart, Harper Collins, Taylor and Francis, ITHAKA and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Semantico’s John Helmer has written an excellent three-part blog summarizing some of the major issues debated at the Symposium. At the time of compiling this Initiatives column, two of these had been published under titles which make clear the challenges being faced by the industry:
The centre cannot hold: Are publishers getting shut out of the social web?
Has push come to shove yet? How publishers are reacting to disruptive forces from the social web.
Helmer introduces his blog with a clear statement: The social web is more than a subset of the changes brought about by the growth of the internet. It might be better understood as the net result of those changes, in so far as they impact the daily media consumption of ordinary people at work and in their leisure pursuits. In short, it’s what the web became. When we come to discuss the social web in the context of business, we find that we are talking about a paradigm shift in the way people use and derive value from information. It’s a shift that can’t help but pose formidable challenges for enterprises that are part of the information industry. Like publishing organizations.
Some publishers are not only adjusting to change but thriving. In other areas, particularly newspaper publishing, things are not so rosy. In between these extremes are many who are struggling to come to terms with disruptive change, as well as others who do not feel particularly affected by it.
Further information from: www.semantico.com
UK Consumers ‘Engage in Exchange’ with Corporate Brands on Social Media
While the corporate fight for brands to engage with consumers continues, the latest research from Mintel reveals that those who are not planning to give something in return, may not click in the way they hope. Indeed, Mintel’s consumer research has found that a quarter of Facebook users (24%) follow brands only when they get something in exchange.
Indeed, it appears that consumer motivation for engaging with brands online lies heavily with being rewarded for the interaction, as 24 per cent of Facebook users agree with the statement ‘I only follow or like a company on a social network if I get something in return’ – compared to 18 per cent of consumers overall. However, nearly one in five (17%) of consumers overall claim that they are happy to supply personal information (e.g. age, address, interests) to companies so ‘they can serve me better’.
Today, more than one in five consumers overall (21%) claim to have followed or subscribed to a company’s social profile – rising to 28 per cent of Facebook users and nearly half (47%) of Twitter users. However, just 8 per cent of consumers say they have conversed with a company via social media (11% for Facebook and 22% for Twitter).
Cecilia Liao, Senior Technology Analyst at Mintel, said: Our research reveals an interesting picture of consumers who will ‘engage in exchange’ with brands in the social media space. Brands who wish to use this medium may wish to think about the incentive they are giving consumers for doing so and brands should not assume that just because consumers are following them on social media they are engaged. Understanding how consumers like and want to interact with your brand is key to success with this medium. Companies need to establish what they are using their social media channels for – and make this clear to consumers set their expectations on what benefits the channel will bring to them.
The emerging influence of social networks on purchasing decisions is also highlighted by the research. Some 14 per cent of consumers claim they are more likely to buy a product or service ‘if I see my friends have positively commented or “liked” it on social networks’. Furthermore, social recommendations are also gaining acceptance amongst younger consumers. Some 23 per cent of under-35s agree that ‘I am more likely to buy a product or service if I see my friends have commented positively or “liked” it on social networks,’ compared to only 9 per cent of the over-35s. Meanwhile, 8 per cent of consumers agree ‘I like websites that show my social network friends “liking” a particular product or service,’ compared to 14 per cent of under-35s and just 4 per cent of over-35s.
Further information from: www.mintel.com
What Kind of Social Media User Are You?
In 2007 Forrester Research released a study of social media where they grouped Internet users into six segments of social media usage which they called ‘Social Technographic Profiles’. These six profiles – Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, and Inactives – became widely used in the industry to describe the behaviours of consumers in social media, and to help inform corporate social media strategies.
Subsequently Forrester announced a new segment to be added to the Social Technographics Profiles – the Conversationalists. Conversationalists are social media users who update their status on Twitter or a social networking site (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) at least once a week. They are less involved than Creators, who write blogs, create content, or publish websites. But they are more expressive than Critics who simply post reviews, comment on others’ blogs, or contribute to forums.
Here are the categories with the percentage of each of the US online users surveyed who were classified using this model. (Segments are not mutually exclusive so the percentages do not add up to 100%.). It was presented as a ladder, with those most engaged in the process at the top and those least at the bottom.
The new Conversationalists group is 56 per cent female, exceeding the concentration of females in any of the other groups. This finding correlates with other studies that show more women are actively using Twitter than men. In fact, Quantcast estimates 53 per cent of Twitter visitors are female. Four years ago, Inactives (online consumers who did not participate in any social media activities) made up 52 per cent of total internet users. That number has shrunk to 17 per cent, while all other segments of behaviour have increased. From this, we can assume that social media usage is becoming ubiquitous.
Forrester added two other important insights in the Social Technographics update:
Even in the period since this amendment was announced, it seems to me that there has been a seismic change in the usage of social media globally. I believe there has been substantial migration up the ladder. Subsequent research will prove if I am correct.
Further information from: www.forrester.com
Business Decision Making
One critical aspect of business decision-making is the role of information – accessing it, assessing it, weighing its authority and deciding on desired outcomes. A very interesting EIU report addresses these and other issues and has somewhat contradictory findings.
Game changer: How companies are responding to a fast changing business environment is an Economist Intelligence Unit report which analyzes the factors driving increased change in the business world and explains what corporate leaders can do to adapt. The research draws on a survey of nearly 400 business executives and 18 senior business specialists.
The key findings from this research are:
The report gives mixed messages about the role of information and how it is handled as part of this process. Michael Denison, research director at Control Risks Group, believes that this increase in the amount of knowledge and information being generated is creating a major headache for businesses. ‘Companies don’t know how to sift through the mountains of information and decide what’s relevant or verifiable and what isn’t,’ he explains.
In other words, the usual and clichéd ‘information overload’ explanation. As readers of this column will know, I am an ‘information overload denier’ as I regard it as a far too lazy and over simplistic analysis of how people use information. My scepticism is underlined by this much more important observation a few paragraphs later:
The full report is free and available at: http://bit.ly/st6i4L
Information Industry
Outsell’s forecasts for the information industry have generally been bullish in recent years, even since the 2008 economic crash. But their views of various sectors of the industry in the next couple of years are somewhat more pessimistic. At least they reflect the current global turbulence in so many markets and countries.
Information Industry Outlook 2012: Break and Reset
Outsell’s look ahead for the information industry in 2012, edited by CEO Anthea Stratigos and Chief Analyst Leigh Healey, provides a very useful perspective on current and future trends. The theme Outsell analysts have adopted for 2012 is ‘Break and Reset’. The authors say: The tumultuous economy, fast-paced change in consumer technology, uncertainty in world economics and politics, and the big behaving badly have upended business as we know it and it’s time to break, take stock, and reset. We have identified key trends and forces, companies to watch, and created our predictions about transformative and disruptive changes and what’s hot and not.
This report contains: Industry drivers and forecast data through 2014; Ten key trends that are shaping the information industry in 2012; The Company’s analysts’ hottest topics – thirteen analysts identify the top issues in their sectors; Outsell’s ‘31 to Watch’ – their annual list of innovators, disruptors, and companies that exemplify their theme of the year; Outsell’s recommended actions for publishers and information providers.
Outsell’s analysis is based on tracking some 7,000 firms in 12 information industry segments, and tracking spending by the three main industry funding sources: advertisers, enterprise users, and libraries. This offers a perspective that crosses segments and helps publishers and information providers grow in a global, fast-paced digital environment.
Looking ahead at 2012, the authors are less confident than in previous years. Dramatic change is afoot and the season of discontent is all around us. This is the era of unprecedented change. Major institutions and industry stalwarts are coming under fire and seemingly everywhere we turn there is upset and unrest. For this reason our meta-theme for this year’s Outlook is Break and Reset – representing the ‘big dissolve’ of historical forces while new norms emerge.
Outsell argues that this is the era of driving company growth. Whether in publishing, data, information services, information solutions, software enabled content – whatever image a company wants to portray – growth is increasingly harder to come by. The name of the game is focus, execution, and continued emphasis on gaining market share, trust, attention, and dollars. This report identifies key trends and forces, companies to watch, and also contains our predictions about transformative and disruptive changes and what is hot and not. Leaders can use this as a backdrop to compare their 2012 plans and get a sense of the overall dynamics continuing to shape the ever-changing information industry
The report identifies 10 critical themes for the year:
Mobile, Social, and the Rise of GAFA;
Big Data and Extreme Analytics;
Focused Scale;
M&A, Value Chains, and Convergence;
Aggregation’s Persistent Call;
Fun, Gamification, Philanthropy;
Human Assistance – Service and Culture;
Sales 2.0 and the Industry Dilemma;
Open versus Closed;
New Interfaces.
The report also picks 31 companies and outlines the reasons for their choice.
Finally, the report identified some ‘essential actions’ for publishers and information vendors, a number carried forward from previous years. None of the dynamics that the report charts year over year are moving so quickly that they have come and gone within 12 months. The authors have chosen the most important actions, updated a few, and added some new ones. They are:
Develop Platforms, Not Products;
Get Visual;
Make a Plan for Big Data and Analytics;
Focus on Discovery;
Help Make Money, Save Money, or Mitigate Risk;
Perform at Industry Benchmarks or Better;
Have More Fun and Do Something Worthwhile.
Further information on this ‘free to download’ report from Outsell at: http://bit.ly/xZ0m0P
One of the major UK business information conferences in recent years is run by Perfect Information. Their 2012 offering looks extremely important and addresses some of the most challenging issues which face producers and users of business information.
Perfect Information Conference 2012: Information – Online, Offline, Local, Global
8–10 May 2012, Ashdown Park Hotel, East Sussex.
This is the ninth Perfect Information Conference (PIC 2012). Each of the topics to be discussed has been developed and selected based on delegate feedback and interviews, as well as considerable research. As a result, PI hopes that the programme is a true reflection of the most prominent issues facing the information industry in 2012. The conference will incorporate keynote presentations, panel discussions and focussed breakout sessions, along with opportunities for delegates to network with their peers, colleagues and industry friends.
Keynote Sessions will include:
Moving and Shaping in a Mobile World;
Data Protection – a global issue;
Free versus Fee;
Going Global;
Is the Industry Lacking Body?
Workshops cover a variety of topics including:
Social Media (application and legislation);
The Debt Capital Markets;
Effective Written Communication Skills;
Vendor Portfolio Management;
Outsourcing;
Managing Pressure and Effective Decision Making.
This conference is aimed at senior information and knowledge professionals within investment banking, law, accountancy, consultancy institutions and public sector organizations. It is hoped that participants will be able to increase professional development and enhance industry understanding, share knowledge and experiences with peers and learn something new, refreshing and relevant. PIC2012 has been designed for delegates to develop skills to better their department’s efficiency and effectiveness and provide an opportunity to network and socialize with industry colleagues, old and new, and with suppliers. The structure of the event will emphasize practical and interactive sessions with industry experts as well as identifying the key changes and current industry challenges.
Further information from: Carley Donegan, +44 (0) 207 892 4282 or email carleyd@perfectinfo.com
SLA Europe Announces Leadership for 2012
Ahead of another busy year which is promising much success for SLA Europe, Darron Chapman, Director of TFPL, has been appointed SLA Europe President for 2012. A very strong Board has also been appointed:
Darron Chapman said: 2012 is going to be an incredible year with many celebrations planned including the Olympics and Para Olympics, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and of Course SLA Europe’s 40th Anniversary. SLA Europe is busily working on a broad range of activities to ensure our members have an excellent programme of events throughout 2012. I would like to thank everyone on the various SLA Europe committees for all their hard work and commitment during 2011 and I look forward to further building on those successes in 2012.
Darron will be attending the SLA 2012 Annual Conference & Info-Expo in Chicago on 15–18 July.
Further information on SLA please visit http://www.sla-europe.org/about-sla/.
New Products and Product Development
Company Financial Newcomer Duedil
An interesting British newcomer to the crowded market for UK company financial data, Duedil, is a start-up founded by Damian Kimmelman and funded by Passion Capital which is in turn predominantly financed by the UK Government. His expressed intention is to make business more transparent, easier to understand and safer. Other investors include the individuals behind Skype, LastFM, Yahoo, AOL & QXL/Tradus. Duedil has been chosen as a Microsoft Bizspark company.
Duedil is short for due diligence which, Kimmelman believes, is an integral part of making better business decisions. Users of the service range from private individuals wanting to research a company to top hedge-fund managers, accountants, journalists and business analysts.
Launched in April 2011, it is claimed that Duedil is the largest database of free company financials in the world, including 8M companies and 9M directors. Over 30 billion data points are aggregated including information in the Companies House database providing information on every company and director in the UK and Ireland. The service is free.
The principal sources of the data are:
Companies House: Duedil downloads images of company accounts filed at Companies House UK then digitizing and reformatted. The information is taken directly from the accounts submitted by the company so nothing is changed. Some of the original documents are available to download in PDF format on the company’s Duedil profile. Financial profiles are updated every Wednesday at midnight and stock information is updated every 15 minutes via the London Stock Exchange.
The London Gazette: Red flag documents like dissolution notices and petitions for striking off are published in the London Gazette, the official newspaper of record in the United Kingdom.
Social: A number of APIs are used to aggregate social data. This includes Twitter mentions and sentiment via the Twitter Firehose. The Linkedin API shows users their social and business connections. Social results are sorted based on ‘influence’ which are gauged from Klout & Peerindex scores. By using the Quora API, discussions, questions and more subjective data can be added and viewed.
Registry Trust: Duedil’s County Court Judgement records come from the Registry Trust, a non-profit company which operates the Register of Judgements, Orders and Fines for England and Wales on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
Intellectual Property Office: Patents and trademarks from the Intellectual Property Office, the official government body responsible for granting IP rights in the UK.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute: Litigation proceedings are sourced from the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILLI).
Google: Google facilitates the mapping of registered addresses and Google Streetview is incorporated
Other: In order to provide more problematic information, like the company descriptions, directors search, and company credit check, a number of sources are accessed and cross-checked them against each other. These include UK Companies House, Crunchbase, Wikipedia and the Company’s own website. They have plans to expand in various ways including the provision of detailed company credit checks, better APIs and clearer social information.
At the moment Duedil is a free service but in future there will be a charged for premium service delivering extra services. But the Company claims that the basic data on the site now ‘will always be free’. Always is a long time!
Further information from: www.duedil.com
Wall Street Journal Launches German Language News Site
In the latest move to mark its continued global and digital expansion, Dow Jones & Company has launched The Wall Street Journal Deutschland (www.wsj.de), a German-language news site with mobile and tablet editions.
WSJ.de is the most recent in a series of digital initiatives launched by the Journal and Dow Jones to serve its expanding global audience. Other regionally focused offerings, including several local language editions, are available in regions including China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and Eastern Europe. WSJ.de expands Dow Jones’ presence in Germany and provides its German-speaking audience with a unique offering of global news combined with locally focused coverage.
Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief of Dow Jones & Company and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal said: Germany needs to know more about the world and the world needs to be better informed about Germany. The country is entering a period of unprecedented economic and financial challenges, and its role on the European and world stage will be crucial over the coming years. Germany and its companies are dependent on the global market for growth, and our aim is to provide a flow of news and analysis that will enable German businesses and professionals to make better informed decisions. In markets around the world, we see rapidly rising demand for our digital and local news coverage, and we regard Germany as a growth market and the engine of European expansion. Given our increasingly successful pay model, we are able to invest in the world’s best and best-informed journalism at a time when many European news organizations are under pressure to cut reporting resources.
WSJ.de further extends the global reach of The Wall Street Journal digital news business and features a mix of free and subscriber-only content from the Journal and across Dow Jones, as well as news and analysis provided by a team of local journalists based in Frankfurt, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich.
Content will be available via the Website, mobile and tablet applications, and a mobile Website.
‘Localization and digitization are at the core of our international expansion,’ said Alisa Bowen, general manager, The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. ‘We have proven expertise with local language digital platforms in China and Japan and more than 30 per cent of our total digital audience now comes from outside the North American market (Adobe Omniture, Nov. 2011). Our research shows that we can expect to see the same success in Germany with an audience that values the digital delivery of premium business content essential to their working lives, and advertisers are already showing strong demand.’
Knut Engelmann, who has been appointed as managing editor, Germany, for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal Deutschland, oversees a combined news operation serving both newswires and the German-language digital products. Ralf Drescher will join as the site’s editor in March, having worked in a variety of roles at Handelsblatt for the past ten years.
‘We know that our German readers need a global view of business, as well as trusted insight and analysis of the essential news in their own markets,’ said Mr. Engelmann. ‘With access to more than 2,000 journalists globally as well as a dedicated local team, The Wall Street Journal Deutschland offers a unique German perspective on world news across a range of digital platforms designed to suit the changing needs of our readers.’
The site follows a similar layout to WSJ.com. The What’s News column, situated on the homepage, features the day’s most important news stories in business and international affairs. In addition, the site’s International, Business, Markets, Analysis and Technology sections feature the most relevant content from Dow Jones’ global network.
Other key features include:
Comprehensive market data, including highlights from the German, European, US and Asian markets, as well as currencies and futures, provided in partnership with finanzen.net, Germany’s largest financial portal.
Sections highlighting selected stories from other German media on the Web and from WSJ.com in English.
German edition of WSJ.com’s ‘Most Popular’ feature, signaling the most read and frequently emailed items in Germany and the rest of Europe.
Photo galleries, video, a blog and interactive graphics.
The launch was supported by a multi-media marketing campaign. Using the strap line, ‘Straight to the Point,’ the campaign featured online, print, email and retail marketing activities across German-speaking countries.
In addition to finanzen.net, WSJ.de is partnering with Welt Online on the provision of some domestic news content as well as marketing, and with Sky Deutschland and Xing on promotional activity.
For further information see: http://www.dowjones.com
Reuters Launches Reuters TV Channel
Reuters has launched Reuters TV, a new YouTube channel featuring ten news, commentary and analysis programs covering hard news, finance, politics, technology and special Reuters investigations.
The programming, which will appear on Reuters.com and on the Reuters redesigned YouTube channel, marks Reuters entry into the rapidly growing business of online video programming, in partnership with one of the biggest players in next-generation TV. Reuters is employing a creative editing style that is suited for Internet programming and does not aim to mimic traditional TV.
‘This deal with YouTube gives Reuters a way to showcase our collection of talented journalists and compelling video from around the world,’ said Dan Colarusso, Reuters global head of programming. ‘It will offer unique insights and images that other media companies simply can’t match.’
Reuters is the biggest news provider among the nearly 100 partners YouTube is working with as it creates original Internet-based programming and reinvents itself as a channel-based video site.
The new shows were developed by television news veteran and Reuters global executive producer Barclay Palmer. They highlight a high-energy, high-quality production style that is unique to any business news broadcasts on traditional television. The ten programmes will feature highly produced reports and commentary from many of Reuters award-winning, nearly 3,000 journalists around the world:
Reuters Investigates, featuring investigative journalism and special reports from around the world, in coordination with Reuters award-winning Enterprise unit;
The Trail, with Reuters political reporters covering the presidential candidates on the campaign trail;
Felix TV, with Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon, named by Time magazine, one of the Top 25 financial bloggers;
Media Bite featuring Peter Lauria, editor of technology, media and telecommunications, and his team of reporters covering a media world experiencing massive change;
Tech Tonic, with Anthony De Rosa, Reuters Digital’s social media editor, dubbed by The New York Times ‘the undisputed king of Tumblr’;
Freeland File, with Reuters Digital editor Chrystia Freeland interviewing top newsmakers;
Fast Forward hosted by Chrystia Freeland and featuring Reuters’ top commentators and journalists, including David Rohde, Reuters columnist, author and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Rob Cox, US editor of Breakingviews; Bethany McLean, Reuters columnist, Vanity Fair contributor and author; David Cay Johnston, tax expert, author and Pulitzer Prize winner; Geraldine Fabrikant, Reuters columnist, senior writer for The New York Times and winner of the Loeb Award; Steven Brill, Reuters columnist, author and founder of the Yale Journalism Initiative; Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group; James Ledbetter, Reuters Op-ed editor and author;
Money Clip, with Lauren Young, personal finance editor and former editor at BusinessWeek and SmartMoney;
Rough Cuts, with Jen Rogers, showcasing the news video that Reuters video journalists shoot around the world, allowing viewers to see and hear that video in greater depth than most television networks can offer;
Decoder, explaining in succinct and surprising ways the key topics in the news, ranging from the debt ceiling to the Strait of Hormuz.
The programming opened with Chrystia Freeland’s exclusive interview with Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire and sportsman who has made the controversial announcement that he is running for president in Russia, challenging Vladimir Putin.
Reuters.com gets at least 40 million unique visitors around the world monthly and is the fourth most trafficked business-news website. YouTube gets more than 3 billion hits per day.
Further information from: www.reuters.com/reuters-tv
Bureau van Dijk Enhances its Product Range
Bureau van Dijk (BvD) has announced a variety of new developments, some already in place and others to come later in 2012. The enhancements cover usability as well as content. They include a new version of its end-user-orientated software, Mint, an increase in global coverage plus additions to its range of Catalysts, a range that tailors BvD products for vertical markets.
New Mint: BvD has redesigned its Mint company databases. The first product to be available in this new format will be Mint UK which covers 3.8 million companies and is used extensively in a sales and marketing environment. The revamp includes more dynamic searching, contemporary screen design and enhanced user navigation. Highlights of the new version include: intelligent and faster company searching; improved visibility of Mint’s most popular search terms; more options to customize results; LinkedIn contact integration; improved reports.
Tony Pringle, BvD’s managing director for the UK and Ireland said: Our Mint range has always offered a streamlined user experience. It’s a simple way to manipulate data and ideal in a B2B marketing environment. We’ve created this new version, using contemporary technology, to optimize our users’ information experience. We’re really proud of our new Mint. It’s simple to use but very powerful.
Enhanced global coverage and enriched content: BvD’s global company database, Orbis, now covers almost 100 million companies – a 30 per cent increase since the same time last year. BvD sources company data from both leading and local information providers to create Orbis; collating, linking, appending and standardizing the data to create a coherent global database for its users.
Also new is a financial strength report. To create this, BvD has partnered with four independent companies. Each has created bespoke models that are optimized to work with companies’ financials as presented in BvD’s global standard financial format. This is a comparable format that’s available on BvD’s international company information products. The aim of the financial strength report is to give users multiple views on a company’s viability, from a range of experts. Each model looks at a company’s industry, country and size. The financial strength report is available for around 20 million companies worldwide. The models are provided by modeFinance, Vadis, CRIF and Zanders.
Tony Pringle said: Customers are increasingly interested in assessing financial strength; we’re seeing this across the range of verticals. We already have plans to develop this next year including the option to compute aggregate scores for a group of companies, and the ability to calculate the scores on user’s ‘own data’ – specific company reports the user has entered into a ‘private zone’ within a BvD database.
A further addition to Orbis includes information on patents held by companies. This will be added before the end of the year.
Working with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU): BvD has long partnered with the EIU, the major publisher of economic and business research. The two companies have recently agreed on new collaborations. These include an EIU company news feed and an integration project on EIU’s ViewsWire service where users can get intelligence on key players in various sectors. EIU now offers access to financial summaries on the top 220 players at world level, plus key financials for the major players at country level, sourced from BvD’s Orbis database, with the option to access the full report via a BvD credit account or credit/debit card payment.
Tailoring BvD’s products to vertical markets – an expanding range of Catalysts: BvD is continuing to create tailored applications to help its customers use its products more efficiently within vertical markets. These applications form its Catalyst range which already includes versions for transfer pricing, TP Catalyst, and company valuations, Valuation Catalyst.
TP Catalyst has recently benefited from the addition of information from CUFTAnalytics, an intra-group finance specialist for transfer pricing analysis. TP Catalyst integrates CUFTAnalytics’ Lending Margin Matrix.
Currently in beta testing are Catalysts for procurement, credit and compliance. The new Compliance Catalyst, which will be available in the first half of 2012, integrates BvD’s extensive corporate structures and helps researchers create on-boarding reports more efficiently and share their work with colleagues. Information on PEPs and sanctions is also included. Crucially, Compliance Catalyst helps users research a company’s beneficial ownership, a vital part of the on-boarding process.
Tony Pringle said: We’re looking forward to a busy 2012 as we roll out our new Catalysts. Feedback from our customers has been vital to their development. Each Catalyst is a tailored experience and helps the user get to the specific data points they need for their environment – in the way they need it delivered. They also help integrate content within the user’s existing systems and workflow.
Further information from: www.bvdinfo.com
Barchart Expands its Market Data and Information Business with New Content
Barchart.com, Inc., a provider of market data and information, has announced the availability of a series of new market data and information content, including new exchange data feeds, fundamental data sources and news providers. The new information sets have been acquired and integrated by Barchart to support its expansion into both equity and international markets. Barchart will offer the new information through its data feeds, hosted website content and desktop market data and trading applications.
‘Our institutional business continues to expand into both equity and international markets with most of the growth coming from our data feed and website content solutions,’ said Barchart Managing Director Mark Haraburda. ‘As we serve more clients across multiple markets and regions our inventory of content will continue to grow.’
New and expanded content includes:
New exchange market data feeds: Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX and TSX-V), Montreal Exchange (MX), US equity options (OPRA), London Metals Exchange (LME), Eurex, Euronext LIFFE, Australia Stock Exchange (ASX) and BM&F Bovespa.
Expanded mutual fund data sets: US and Canadian mutual fund profiles, strategy descriptions, top holdings and asset allocation details.
Expanded equity fundamental data: US and Canadian public company detailed profiles, financial statements and ratios, earnings estimates and analyst recommendations.
New economic data: US, Canadian and European macroeconomic data such as gross domestic product, economy growth rates, inflation rates and housing market indicators.
New interest rate data: US, Canadian and European interest rate data such as treasury, corporate and mortgage rates.
Additional news sources: Consolidated public company press release feeds, Canadian Press, Comtex Wall Street Wire and Comtex SEC Filings Wire.
Further information from: www.barchartmarketdata.com.
Business Development and Support
Over the years, countless initiatives have been established, mainly by governments, to provide help, support and information to small and medium sized businesses. Readers with long memories will remember the extensive network of Small Firms Centres dotted all over England. In the last Initiatives column (BIR, 28(4), December 2011) we covered the latest changes to the relatively long-running Business Link service. These initiatives get fresh impetus as recessions bite and there is a desperate policy rush to try and encourage new business start-ups. The UK Government is explicitly trying to increase private sector growth to take up the employment slack from the public sector. So it is particularly interesting to come across a private sector information service aimed directly at start-ups.
Cobweb for Business Start-ups
Cobweb is an independent publisher of practical and easy to understand information for business start-ups, micro/small business owners, and for the advisers, professionals, and organizations that guide and support them. The Company, based in Gateshead in the North East of England, employs 20 staff and a large pool of freelance researchers, authors, editors and independent business experts. The company has in fact been trading since 1998, although the directors have been publishing business information and working in the business start-up/small business field since the 1980s.
Cobweb focuses on sector-specific and business idea-specific information that is practical and relevant to the needs of its target audience and subscribers. The philosophy is to strive to maintain a how-to, what-to and when-to-do-things approach, particularly with regard to business start-up, business compliance and business common sense in general.
Cobweb’s audiences are:
Independent business advisers and professionals use Cobweb to help improve current business awareness and sector intelligence, and to guide, support and advise their start-up and business clients.
Local enterprise and business support agencies who help build and develop the agency’s capacity and ability to guide and support new business start-ups and small businesses.
Business service providers who provide unique and practical added value to their business customers, members and prospects, and deliver an original or exclusive component to their marketing proposition.
Business start-ups are helped to research and develop their ideas, understand their markets, trading and legal issues, and prepare for starting up.
Small business owners are assisted with the day-to-day administration and running of their business, finding new customers, complying with regulations, and understanding the issues they have never previously faced.
Data sources:
The company’s flagship COBRA service has, on average, over 5,000 subscriber logins every week and around 600,000 downloads per year.
There are some 30,000 regular readers of the Company’s publications, professional subscribers to our services and purchasers from our e-commerce site.
Around 200 new or updated factsheets, reports, articles and bulletins are published each month.
There are some 2,000 reports, factsheets, guides and articles in COBRA and in the How-To Library.
Cobweb attempts to provide current, fresh and topical subject matter across a broad range of topics and written in plain English. Justifiably, it claims that its independence is a major selling point. It explicitly avoids providing business advice other than through its publications and research.
Specific services to the start-up and small business community includes:
COBRA (Complete Business Reference Adviser): A comprehensive business reference resource for information professionals and advisers who work with business start-ups and established small businesses.
Scavenger, an online store providing information to help with setting up and running hundreds of different types of small business. Factsheets, profiles and reports are available through a pay-as-you-go service to help write business plans, marketing plans or research specific business ideas.
Better Business magazine: This is a subscription-based business magazine for independent business owners and advisers, providing practical and actionable ‘how-to’ articles, tips and resources.
StartQuest: An automated online training resource that provides budding business owners with an e-mail crash course in starting a business. It is available under licence to business service providers to attract and help potential new business clients and acts as a lead generation tool.
UK Small Business Marketing Bible: A 270 page practical marketing manual aimed at small business owners which includes marketing tactics that are aimed at improving the sales of products and services in any business sector.
Free weekly newsletters, including:
Business Advisers’ (BAD) News – a round-up of business news aimed at business advisers and information professionals.
EnterQuest – tips and ideas for start-ups, new and established businesses.
Finally, Cobweb undertake commissioned content for their clients included tailored business reports, newsletters, guides and articles aimed at start-ups, small business owners and advisers. This can be for one-off projects or on a regular contractual basis.
Further information from: http://www.cobwebinfo.com
Mobile Technology and Data
One of the themes identified in the Business Information Survey 2012 concerns the way that information/knowledge managers are adjusting their services and information products to support mobile personnel in their various customer audiences. This is a subject which is attracting ever more attention and, of course, has organization-wide implications.
Does Your IT Department Support The Needs Of The Mobile Workforce?
Forrester Research has produced a useful report by T.J. Keitt, Matthew Brown and Heather Martyn on this theme which is subtitled An IT Support Report Card on Employee Mobile, Social, And Collaboration Tools.
In 2016, Forrester projects that 63 million US information workers will telecommute at least part-time. Our recent survey of 4,985 US information workers indicates we are well on our way to hitting that mark. To cope with a more mobile and remote workforce, many organizations have bolstered deployments of laptop computers, smartphones, and collaboration software. But are these the technologies workers need to stay connected and productive? And are IT departments doing a good job delivering these tools? Forrester asked US information workers how important it was that IT provide these technologies and how well they believed IT delivered. The results will help content and collaboration professionals assemble and deliver tool sets that help their employees work anytime and anywhere.
The report also reveals that workers are untethered from the office as they rise in rank. Fifty-three percent of individual workers are office-bound, but that number drops to 35 per cent among managers and supervisors, and plummets to just 10 per cent among directors and executives.
The report describes three particular technologies which provide the foundation for mobile work. Matt Brown, vice president and practice leader at Forrester Research, said: ‘Looking out five years, Forrester sees three technology “trains” impacting the future of workforce productivity, innovation, and advocacy. All three of these trains have left the station: enterprise mobility, enterprise social, and cloud services for business.’
One of the recommendations is that IT Departments work with employees to develop technology provisioning plans.
Further information from: www.forrester.com
Culture on the Go: CIBER Report says Mobile Browsing Will Transform the Web
A new report, ‘Culture on the Go’, from UK web-watchers CIBER Research, shows how access to information is changing as people search for, read and use information on the move. A growing proportion of web browsing happens on smartphones like the new Mac iPhone 4S and tablets like the iPad, and no longer on PCs and laptops in homes and offices. This shift will have a radical impact on the design and functionality of websites, and will inevitably reflect back to the desktop screen itself.
Professor David Nicholas of CIBER said: We are seeing a transformation of behaviour. We know that the mobile device will soon be the dominant platform for searching the Web and yet right now we know virtually nothing about how people seek, read and use information via these devices. The CIBER group are cyberspace voyeurs – we’ve analysed tens of thousands of visits and are making sense of these digital footprints to give us an understanding of behaviour in the virtual space.
The CIBER group has developed a bespoke deep log analysis technique for monitoring behaviours online. The group conducted their research for Europeana, Europe’s cultural heritage portal, to look at how it should be developing its information services for the Google Generation.
The report sets out to show how people search the Web via mobile devices and compares this with use of the same platform by PC and laptop users. The data was collected for visitors to Europeana.eu using deep log analysis and data mining techniques during 2010–2011. The main findings were that visits from users on the go are very different in the aggregate to those from fixed platforms. Visits are typically shorter, less interactive, and less content is viewed per visit. The variation between different mobile devices is huge, with information seeking on smartphones substantially different from that associated with PCs and laptops, whereas from iPads the behaviour tends more towards PC-based browsing.
Most websites have been designed for access from a PC or laptop, and accessing the Web via a mobile device is quite a different experience. Many websites from the cultural heritage sector are attracting a new demographic that includes more digital natives. This, coupled with the fact that people are used to paying for content via mobile devices, heralds a transformation in the way cultural web services will be delivered.
Jill Cousins, Executive Director of Europeana said: We were prescient in designing a Europeana ‘lite’ interface for users with mobile phones three years ago. However, the mobile screen is too small to get a good experience of the great books and paintings on Europeana. Tablet devices like the iPad give high-resolution display with enough screen estate to explore your favourite pictures. This report shows us that we must speed up our development for new mobile and tablet interfaces.
Culture on the Go also reported on the countries showing the heaviest mobile use of Europeana, and showed France led Europe with over 23 per cent of mobile use. The study also shows that typically, Europeana users look at material from their own country, but that interest in other cultures varies by country and can be tracked. CIBER’s techniques have also been used to study each country’s take-up of mobile devices, and points to a greater democratization of online access than was possible using fixed platforms.
Further information from: http://pro.europeana.eu/web/guest/publications.
Governmental Data
A number of organizations have been pressing for the freeing up, literally, of governmental data in recent years. In the UK the Guardian newspaper’s ‘Free our Data’ campaign has been running since 2006. ‘Give us back our crown jewels!’ was the initial cry, ‘our taxes fund the collection of public data – yet we pay again to access it. Make the data freely available to stimulate innovation’ they argued. The momentum for such change has gathered pace and the European Union is now making a serious policy push on this theme.
Digital Agenda: Turning Government Data into Gold
The European Commission has launched an Open Data Strategy for Europe, which is expected to deliver a €40 billion boost to the EU’s economy each year. The Commission believes that Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealized economic potential – the large volumes of information collected by numerous public authorities and services. Member States such as the UK and France are already demonstrating this value. The strategy to lift performance EU-wide is three-fold: firstly the Commission will lead by example, opening its vaults of information to the public for free through a new data portal. Secondly, a level playing field for open data across the EU will be established. Finally, these new measures are backed by the €100 million which will be granted in 2011–2013 to fund research into improved data-handling technologies.
These actions are intended to position the EU as the global leader in the re-use of public sector information. They believe that it will boost the thriving industry that turns raw data into the material that hundreds of millions of ICT users depend on, for example smartphone apps, such as maps, real-time traffic and weather information, price comparison tools and more. Other leading beneficiaries will include journalists and academics.
Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said: We are sending a strong signal to administrations today. Your data is worth more if you give it away. So start releasing it now: use this framework to join the other smart leaders who are already gaining from embracing open data. Taxpayers have already paid for this information, the least we can do is give it back to those who want to use it in new ways that help people and create jobs and growth.
The Commission proposes to update the 2003 Directive on the re-use of public sector information by:
Making it a general rule that all documents made accessible by public sector bodies can be re-used for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, unless protected by third party copyright.
Establishing the principle that public bodies should not be allowed to charge more than costs triggered by the individual request for data (marginal costs); in practice this means most data will be offered for free or virtually for free, unless duly justified.
Making it compulsory to provide data in commonly-used, machine-readable formats, to ensure data can be effectively re-used.
Introducing regulatory oversight to enforce these principles.
Massively expanding the reach of the Directive to include libraries, museums and archives for the first time; the existing 2003 rules will apply to data from such institutions.
In addition, the Commission will make its own data public through a new ‘data portal’, for which the Commission has already agreed the contract. This portal is currently in ‘beta version’ (development and testing phase) with an expected launch in spring 2012. In time this will serve as a single-access point for re-usable data from all EU institutions, bodies and agencies and national authorities.
Background
Open Data is general information that can be freely used, re-used and redistributed by anyone – either free or at marginal cost. The Commission’s proposal would operate in full respect of rules on the treatment of personal data.
Studies conducted on behalf of the European Commission show that industry and citizens still face difficulties in finding and re-using public sector information. That is to say, open data is largely undeveloped in Europe.
In the important sector of geographical information, almost 80 per cent of the respondents to Commission surveys say that they are prevented from making full use of information held by public bodies. Reasons include high fees, non-transparent rules and practices regarding re-use, a lack of transparency on what type of data is held and by whom, and exclusive licensing agreements which may have the effect of undermining competition.
In its ‘Digital Agenda for Europe’ the Commission identified the re-use of public sector information, alongside fast and ultra fast internet access, as key to delivering a Digital Single Market. Directive 2003/98/EC on the re-use of public sector information introduced a first set of measures to make it easier for businesses to obtain access and permission to re-use government-held information. It also brought about a process whereby governmental agencies lowered the fees charged for obtaining the information. This new proposal extends access and widens the coverage of the Directive.
Further information from: http://bit.ly/w0YGtu and for the Directive 2003/98/EC at http://bit.ly/zq0Z2k
Politics
Coverage of the vitally important political environment for business and the information industry is rarely covered in Initiatives. So we are pleased to start to correct this with the news of the merger of two leading providers of political information.
Dods aquires DeHavilland Political Intelligence
Two of the leading UK sources of political information are merging. Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd has acquired the DeHavilland Political Intelligence division of Emap for £12.8m. Dods says this will be financed through banking facilities and the placing of 200,000,000 new ordinary shares at 5.5p apiece.
Chief executive Gerry Murray said: This acquisition is an excellent fit with our strategic development in digital information, further growing our digital subscriptions business. DeHavilland comes with a high reputation for customer service and quality of information and will provide an ideal enhancement to our existing product portfolio. The integration of this business with Dods’ Monitoring will provide significant service improvements for all of the combined businesses’ clients.
DeHavilland is a leading provider of political intelligence and parliamentary monitoring in the UK and EU. Their services helps public affairs professionals track, monitor and evaluate the impact of the political environment, enabling them to effectively plan, implement and evaluate their organization’s objectives. The company provides the following service categories:
Daily Alerts: A dedicated researcher per client delivers real-time alerts on priority issues directly to the client’s inbox helping a rapid response.
Name Mentions: The researcher will telephone alert clients whenever the client company is mentioned in the media.
Events: This is a forward planning tool suited to monitoring political events, providing the client with the opportunity to network and interact with their key targets and peers.
Search: DH has an extensive political intelligence archive hosting over 2 million items since 1997. This is a one-stop political intelligence resource intended to save clients time and money.
Political Researcher: Advice on parliamentary procedure, political temperature testing and the impact analysis of campaigns. DH’s Political Research team are available to their clients to provide greater insight into the political environment.
Bill/Committees: Helps the tracking of the progress of bills at every stage, from white paper to royal assent, and monitors the activity of relevant select committees. All select committees are covered.
PeoplePoint: This is DH’s contact management service providing contact details of influential parliamentarians. Full biographical profiles identify each parliamentarian’s key issues. This is useful for identifying influential voices on a client’s priority issues.
MediaPoint: DH’s media database enables the targeting of journalists and publications based on issues of interest, constituency, publication or job title.
Monitor: Monitors priority issues in real time enabling the client to react quickly to developments. Tailored streams of information on issues are available in real-time. DH’s parliamentary monitoring services provide coverage of the House of Commons (including APPGs and Select Committees), the House of Lords and Whitehall as well as the London’s Mayor’s Office, the London Assembly, the Greater London Authority, the Scottish Assembly, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Campaign: This is an online campaign management system, enabling the client to create professional and effective campaign materials to support the client’s wider advocacy work.
Further information from: www.dods.co.uk and www1.dehavilland.co.uk
Regional News
As we have charted here in Initiatives over the last few years, the traditional regional newspaper industry is in a very precarious state in the UK, USA and elsewhere. But online sources have grown up to fill part of this vacuum and, indeed, have taken coverage to other places. One virtual source emanating from Manchester and covering the media and marketing sector in the North West is particularly interesting.
How-Do Expands its Offering
How-Do (note the Northern colloquialism) is the leading source of news, information and events for those working in the media and marketing sectors in the North West. Given the development of Salford’s Media City and the consequential growth of media companies in Manchester, these are interesting times in which to run such a service. The main website attracts over 50,000 unique visitors each month and has a database of some 16,000 subscribers. The site has been running for two or three years now but has recently expanded its offerings at a time of shrinking coverage of conventional news sources.
In the last twelve months How-Do has launched three new microsites, all designed to help promote agencies and organizations in the region, as well as providing advice and information for the extensive readership.
The first site, the Showcase is an opportunity for businesses in the region to showcase their skills and services and provide a one-stop resource for those looking to find out more about the people and companies behind all the creative work being produced in the region. The site currently has over 85 companies on it, including amongst others, Bell Pottinger North, MC2, BDB, CTI Digital and Madhouse Associates.
The second site, which is an extension of How-do’s well established jobs offering, is the Employer Portfolio. This site offers North West agencies and organizations the chance to promote themselves as an attractive place to work and currently features profiles from Fresh Group, Creative Lynx, Canyon, TBWA and many more. Profiles on the site come with multiple job ad packages, offering those interested the chance to save money and promote their agency/organization all year round.
The third site is the KnowledgeBank, which was launched in October last year. The KnowledgeBank is the result of How-Do’s desire to tap into the enormous wealth of knowledge that exists within the North West’s creative, media and digital sectors. The KnowledgeBank gives agencies and companies in the region the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise with How-Do’s extensive, specialist readership. The site currently has profiles from Fluid Creativity, Access, SLG Marketing, Mighty Giant and many more.
Further information from: www.how-do.co.uk
Internet Use
Internet Addiction Sets In as BRIC Countries Benefit from Online Confidence Boost
Consumers in fast-growth markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are hungry for greater access to the Internet and once they have it, find it quickly begins to change their lives – according to the latest findings released from Digital Life, a global study by media research company TNS, part of the WPP Group.
The findings show that as advances in infrastructure open up these markets to the web, newcomers to the Internet embrace its potential to expand their world and the opportunities available to them. When asked if the Internet helped to improve their self-confidence, just 12 per cent of those online in France and Germany agreed, compared to 42 per cent of Internet users in China, 52 per cent in India and 55 per cent in Vietnam. This peaks in Saudi Arabia where almost four out of five Internet users (79%) feel more confident online.
With this new-found confidence, people in fast-growth markets are finding their voice online – 44 per cent of the Internet population in Turkey are writing their own blog every week, as are 43 per cent in China and Mexico and 39 per cent in India. The only developed market to come close in terms of sharing their views is Italy, where 40 per cent of online Italians update their blog each week, compared to 14 per cent in the US and UK.
‘We have seen that the Internet can become addictive; some of the most engaged are those people in markets where Internet access has been limited – as soon as the infrastructure becomes available people make the most of it,’ said Matthew Froggatt, chief development officer, TNS. He continued, ‘Really understanding this emotional connection to the Internet presents significant opportunity for companies who need to reach consumers in new markets to build their business.’
The findings were revealed by TNS’s Digital Life study, a comprehensive view of how more than 72,000 consumers in 60 countries behave online and why they do what they do, which was conducted during 2011. Interactive data visualizations of the key findings can be found at www.tnsdigitallife.com
Spending time online has a big impact for consumption of other media. As Internet access has opened up, so TV viewing is starting to drop off. In China and Brazil, approximately 20 per cent more Internet users will go online each day than will watch TV. Conversely, where online infrastructure is still in development, TV maintains a hold and in Egypt, Thailand and the Philippines Internet users are much more likely to watch TV every day than go online.
‘We have shifted from brands interrupting consumers to needing to engage with them,’ says Froggatt. He continues, ‘This change in media consumption from passive TV viewing to actively searching and commenting online presents a real opportunity for brands who can truly understand this shift and develop appropriate ways to interact in this environment,’ commented Froggatt.
Mobile broadband has been a significant catalyst in accelerating Internet access in many fast growth markets. Whilst 36 per cent of people surveyed by TNS globally said they had accessed the Internet via mobile in the past week, the figure was 49 per cent in China, 53 per cent in Singapore and 68 per cent in South Africa. This is particularly true in Africa, where people going online in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are more likely to use a mobile phone than a PC.
Froggatt comments: Introducing people to the Internet for the first time in its mobile format has a huge bearing on their response and engagement with it. Their experience of the Internet is imbued with all the other benefits and excitement these markets see in mobile: opportunities to develop new business models, make new connections, participate in new markets and access infrastructure like banking.
Internet users in fast-growth markets are also amongst the most enthusiastic adopters of new products and services. While only nine per cent of the global Internet population are not currently banking online and are keen to try it, the figure is 20 per cent in Chile, 24 per cent in Vietnam and a striking 62 per cent in Nigeria. Other services with the potential to do well in fast-growth markets include timeshifted TV – 27 per cent of those online in India, 29 per cent in Vietnam and 30 per cent in Brazil and Indonesia want to try selecting programmes already broadcast to watch over the internet, compared to the global average of 22 per cent.
Froggatt concludes: This new enthusiasm for the Internet among later adopters is opening up a huge potential market to brands and businesses who can understand their needs. However, while our research unearths opportunities it also comes with a warning; consumers in more developed markets are already feeling jaded by volumes of ‘digital waste’ thrown at them by brands in social networks. Companies need to find a way to cut through this noise with more personalized approaches based on attitudes and behaviours of online users in different markets.
Further information from: www.tnsdigitallife.com
UK Consumers are a Nation of Online Shoppers
More consumers in the UK use the internet for shopping than other major countries, a new Ofcom report reveals. They also watch more TV online, use their mobiles more to go online and play more games on their phones. The report also reveals that the UK customers are paying lower prices for their communications than many consumers across the world.
Ofcom’s 6th International Communications Market Report into the global communications market looks at take-up, availability and use of broadband, landlines, mobiles, TV and radio in 17 countries. It shows that despite the economic downturn, global communications revenues grew by 3.4 per cent in 2010 compared with 2009, mainly driven by strong growth in the BRIC countries (Brazil, India, Russia and China).
The report found that eight in ten UK internet users (79%) said they had ordered goods or services online in 2010, higher than any other European country, with just 27 per cent of consumers in Italy claiming to have done so. UK internet users were also more likely to visit retail websites online than other countries, with nine in ten (89 per cent) claiming to do so in 2011.
As well as more UK consumers shopping online, they also spent more time on retail sites – an average of 84 minutes in January 2011, compared with around 20 minutes for consumers in Poland and Italy.
Smartphone ownership nearly doubled in the UK between February 2010 and August 2011 (from 24% to 46%) and take-up was higher in the UK than among the other European countries surveyed (France: 35%, Germany: 32%, Italy: 40% and Spain: 45%).
The number of people using their mobiles to go online was also higher in the UK with nearly half (46%) of UK internet users using their phones to go online in October 2011. This was higher than in all the other countries surveyed. UK consumers were also more likely to play games on their phone (34% compared with 16% in France).
A quarter (25%) of UK mobile users accessed news content on their mobiles, significantly higher than in other European countries. This could be partly due to higher smartphone take-up and UK newspaper websites having mobile specific websites.
They were less likely, however, to use the internet to make phone calls than in other countries. Just under a fifth (19%) of UK broadband subscribers used services such as Skype to make internet phone calls, compared with 28 per cent in Italy and 26 per cent in France.
Social networking is a global phenomenon, with over three-quarters of consumers in the markets we surveyed saying that they have visited a social networking site, with the majority saying they visit them on a daily basis. This is much higher among 18–24 year olds, with eight in ten (83%) visiting on a daily basis.
Social networking sites are most popular in Italy, with 91 per cent ever having visited and a quarter visiting over five times a day (24%), while in the UK eight out of ten (79%) have ever visited with one in five visiting over five times a day
UK consumers are more likely to access social networking sites on a mobile phone than other countries, with 43 per cent of those with social networking site profiles saying they do so compared to just 30 per cent in the US.
However UK social networkers say they have fewer friends online (168) than Americans (198) or Italians (216) – but more than the French (108) or Germans (137).
Consumers are also using social networking sites for breaking news, with one-third (35%) of UK consumers saying they do this and nearly half of French (45%) and Italians (47%) agreeing. Breaking news is more popular among 18–24 year olds in all countries.
Ofcom research into the prices consumers pay for their communications services has found that prices in the UK compare favourably to those available in other countries.
The analysis examined the prices of a typical ‘basket’ of communications services (fixed-line phone, mobile phone, broadband and pay TV) for five household types. It compared the prices available to consumers in the UK (in July 2011) with those in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US.
Further information from: www.ofcom.org.uk