MasterCard looked are six different factors, namely:

• How familiar and willing consumers were to using mobile payments. Interestingly Kenya scored top here.
• Economic, technological and demographic factors were taken into account (i.e. Internet penetration and per-capita income). The United States, United Arab Emirates, Canada, and France led the way in this category.
• Financial Services such as accessibility and affordability, and penetration of digital (plastic card-based) payments. Japan was a clear winner here.
• MasterCard also looked at mobile phone penetration, mobile coverage and the extent of NFC terminals. Top rankings belonged to Singapore and China.
• How banks, mobile networks, and the government cooperated with each other was a factor, and Canada took the leading Mobile Commerce Clusters score.
• The final factor was how information and communication technology as regulated, with Singapore taking a top score again.

Some related key take outs from the mobile readiness survey are:

• 9 out of 10 components leaders are located in the MIddle East, Asia or Africa
• 89% of Kenyans are familiar with mobile payments, with 68% of Kenyans making mobile P2P payments frequently
• In Saudi Arabia, 24% of consumers use mobile devices for P2P payments
• Canada leads in Internet penetration (82% of the population)
• the United Arab Emirates came out tops in terms of business absorption of new technology
• Japan, Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong and Canada scored tops in the financial services component.
• In Japan, there are on average 14.98 payment cards per person.
• 100% of Singapore’s population is covered by a mobile network There are 859,000,000 mobile phone subscriptions in China

You can download the full report here:

Presented by Cosmedia’s founder and lead strategist Gino Cosme, our meticulously compiled Digital and Social Media Trend Briefing covers what’s driving the international online marketplace, business strategies and consumer behaviour on the Internet.

Truly Global Digital Trends

Essential to navigating the often complicated and ever-changing online environment, each of our presented trends are a result of our attendance at some of the world’s largest and best creative, technology, marketing, social and mobile conferences, trend briefings and expos.

Drawing on the most recent and exciting innovations from Dubai, Qatar, Hong Kong, France, Spain, Portugal, Singapore, England, and Germany – and harnessing the latest statistics, trends and research from expert sources in the United States, we have prepared some of the most thought provoking material to fuel meaningful, forward thinking corporate discussions.

A Few Reasons To Book an In-House Trend Briefing

We have identified the six key areas that marketeers, researchers and communicators want to improve on: mobile, social media, online marketing, content, design and measurement. To this end, we will share with you:

• Case studies from companies who demonstrate best practice in improving their mobile, social media and online marketing efforts.
• How companies and agencies are creating engaging and interactive content that consumers engage with.
• Essential insights on current and emerging trends that are impacting the global mobile industry.
• The commercial success stories across various social media, mobile and online marketing channels.
• A debrief of the very best commentary from digital thought leaders, users, developers, journalists, and bloggers.
• Our “digital wall of fame” – a showcase of the most inspirational and innovative brands and campaigns that demonstrate true digital genius.

Book a Trend Briefing Now

Cosmedia has delivered engaging and inspiring digital trend briefings for clients across various industries and regions, including Siemens, Discovery, Ndalo Media, PruHealth, DSTV, AdvTech, TSS, Telkom, GIBS, to name just some corporate clients.

To find out what’s going on in the online marketing, mobile and social media arena – and what your company can do to keep ahead of the digital curve, book one of Cosmedia’s limited in-house trend briefings.

Some of the report’s findings (covering over 1,000 U.S. consumers and 124 members of the eHealth Initiative) include:

• One-third of consumers use social media sites for health-related matters. This includes not only searching for medical information but also tracking and sharing symptoms, and reviewing or sharing views about their doctors, specialists, medication, prescribed treatments, and healthcare plans.
• One in three consumers have used social media to seek the experiences of other patients’ with the same disease. This is because one in four consumers have published something on a social media site about their health condition.
• One in five of the consumers surveys said that they have joined a health forum or community.
• 41% said social media content affects what doctor, hospital or medical facility a patient chooses, while 34% make decisions about certain medication based on what people say about same online.
• A consumers choice of health insurance plan is also affected by the content they come across on social media sites (32% of those surveyed agreed with this).
• Younger adults (80%) aged between 18 and 24 are more engaged with health information through social media when compared to adults (45%) aged 45 years+.

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1. Facebook has 901 million monthly active users (this is up from last year’s 680 million).
2. Globally, one in 7.7 people have a Facebook account
3. Facebook users post 3.2 billion Likes and Comments daily
4. There are 488 million monthly mobile Facebook users. In the month of March 2012, there were 83 million monthly active users who accessed Facebook via their mobile device only.
5. 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook daily
6. Facebook’s revenue totalled 1.058 billion for the first quarter of 2012. This is up from last year’s $731 million.
7. Zynga (an online games company) contributes 15% of Facebook revenue
8. There are 42 million “Pages” that have 10 or more ‘likes’ and 9 million Facebook “apps”

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Using Facebook’s API we create Facebook Applications that add richer functionality and deeper engagement modules to our clients’ Facebook Pages. We provide a complete end to end solution that includes the creation of the most appropriate Facebook strategy tailored to a client’s business needs and target audience, and the design and development of feature-rich applications.

Below are some of the key global mobile trends worth highlighting:

• 17% of the world’s population is a mobile web user (1.2 billion people)
• 30% of the world’s mobile users live in China and India
• 53% of Africa’s population has a mobile device
• Over 300,000 applications have been developed in the last 3 years. These mobile applications have been downloaded over 10 billion times!
• 98% of users use the mobile device at home while 79% use it while shopping and 74% at work
• 9% spend 7 minutes a day using email and mail applications on their mobile device
• 59% spend 40 minutes / day using mobile web applications and utilities
• 50% of all mobile page views was a result of social networking. Facebook mobile users quadrupled in 2 years (from 50 million users in 2009 to 200 million n 2011)
• 8.5% of website page views originate from a mobile device
• There are 200 million mobile YouTube video playbacks each day
• 77% of mobile users use search engines via their mobile device. 9/10 searches resulted in an action (such as a purchase)

As you can tell, mobile significantly impacts the lives of users across the globe on a daily basis – and it’s important for brands to understand how which opportunities exist to optimise their offering so that consumers are able to find, share and consume content and experiences, ultimately with desirable business outcomes.

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With the world’s most active user base of  social media (more than 300 million people use social media in China). the statistics below clearly illustrate the importance of addressing the unique and advanced needs of Internet users in the East…

• Online users in China spend over 40% of their time online using or consuming social media.
• Social media began in China in 1994 (with forums and communities).
• Chinese users could embed multimedia in social media - the same way Twitter and Facebook does – more than 18 months before Twitter users could do the same thing in America.
• User review sites emerged in China in 2003, and blogging came off the ground around 2004. Social networking sites with chatting capabilities were launched in 2005.
• Over 80% of  social media users in China have more than one social media account
• In 2012 there were over 100 million mobile social users in China.
• One study found that 66% of Chinese consumers relied on friend and family recommendations. This number is 38% in the United States.
• Each social media platform typically has more than one major player, and is quite fragmented and localised.

Source

• 23% (144) of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog
• 62% of Fortune 500 companies have an active corporate Twitter account (with a tweet in the past 30 days)
• 58% of Fortune 500 companies have a corporate Facebook Page.
• The Insurance, Speciality Retail (Apparels, Home Appliances, Furniture), and Food Production, Services and Drug Stores industries have the most number of Facebook Pages.
• Coca-Cola, Starbucks and McDonald’s have the highest number of Facebook fans (as of February 2012)

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“Smart phones have really stepped in to meet a variety of needs for travelers, such as coordination of schedules, locations, trip itineraries and transactions. With more than half of all smartphone users now engaging with travel content, there has never been a better opportunity for suppliers and [online travel agencies] OTAs to invest in their mobile strategies to provide a great experience and win loyalty from their customers.”

Some of the report’s findings include:

• Nearly 1 in 5 smartphone users booked air travel and hotel accommodation via their phone.
• 4 in every 5 of the above users accessed both air and hotel content via their smartphone.
• 26%  of smart phone users checked airfare prices, the most popular mobile activity in the report. 18% booked a flight and 10% cancelled a flight.
• 21% of users checked in for their flight on-the-go
• 18% used their smartphone to book accommodation at a hotel.
• 20% of users compared hotel prices and availability.

Read the press release here.

Some of the study’s findings include:

• iPad users make up the bulk of all mobile shoppers (about 68% of shoppers)
• The iPad accounts for 90% of all mobile revenue
• The iPad had the highest average order value of any mobile device
• iPad shoppers averaged $52.66 per item vs. $21.86 per item for desktop users and $23.80 for other mobile users

The following infographic sums up the mobile study’s findings the best:

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