Two Rowers Have The Power To Go Further

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ASIMO Does More Than Dance The Robot

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Seven Million PlayStation 4’s Sold

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After already beating its predictions when the system sold five million units a few months ago, Sony’s managed to do it again with the PlayStation 4. As of April 6, the company reported that it has sold through more than seven million PS4 systems worldwide, across 72 different countries and regions. That’s actual systems in the hands of consumers, not just in retail stores. Availability is still limited in many areas for the PlayStation 4 as Sony works to catch up with the demand.

In addition, games are selling equally well, with over 20.5 million sold in stores and through download on the PlayStation Store.

As for the system’s unique Share feature, it’s gotten its fair, ahem, share of traction as well, with over 135 million uses since the service’s activation at launch back in November.

Congrats to Sony on the big numbers – which will no doubt continue with several new game releases through 2014.

Source: Engadget

State Of Social Media Marketing

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It’s been an interesting past year for social media. Facebook has seen friction from both brands and users. The ever-fickle teenager moves platform to platform the moment they detect a marketer’s handiwork impinging on their territory.

Digiday compiled the most meaningful and interesting of what could be called the state of social media marketing in graphs containing data from eMarketer, Shopify, DigitalInsights and Vine.

Intriguing trends emerge. Social media users continue to grow in number and are doing so at a much more steady rate than one might imagine, Facebook is strong in user numbers but Google Plus is catching up, and social ad spend grows in relation to growth of users, along with spend per user. Facebook is the reigning king on social when it comes to purchase conversion rates, but look at what’s following behind– video-centric platforms YouTube, Vimeo and Instagram.

What does the future hold This year looks to be the year of social video– if it wasn’t last year, it certainly is now moreso. Instagram’s notably engaging platform has added video and Twitter’s Vine chugs along, Facebook’s continues testing out 15-second video ads and YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki has plans to make YouTube stars really, really famous.
Check out the data for yourself below.

Microsoft Sells 5 Million Xbox Ones

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Microsoft touted its Xbox One sales numbers yesterday, announcing that over 5 million Xbox Ones have been shipped to retailers worldwide so far. That is not up to the 7 million PlayStation 4 units that Sony has sold so far, and the difference is even greater when you consider that PlayStation 4 numbers reported by Sony are actual sell-through (units in the hands of consumers) versus Microsoft’s Xbox One numbers, which are sell-in (units sold to retailers, not necessarily sold to customers yet).

Microsoft noted that it sold 311,000 Xbox One units in march, with global Xbox One sales outpacing the Xbox 360 by more than 60 percent at the same time after launch. “Even more important to us is how much fun you are having on Xbox One,” said Xbox corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi. It’s amazing that Xbox One fans are spending an average of five hours per day on Xbox One and collectively have totaled more than one billion hours of time spent in games and apps on the console.”

Source: GamesIndustry International

Twitter Reveals Mobile App Install Ads

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After months of rumors regarding the program, Twitter revealed today that it is in fact launching a beta for mobile app install ads, which will run through the company’s mobile app, as well as MoPub, a mobile ad network that the company purchased last year.

With this program, Twitter expects to see an increase in revenues, and will also provide a mobile ad sales push from hereon in. However, the figures will not be included with the company’s first quarter earnings report, although investors should still be quite pleased with their results.

MoPub will play a huge part in this program, as it currently reaches one billion devices and utilizes 130 billion ad requests via smartphones on a monthly basis.

Several advertisers have already jumped on board, including Spotify, HotelTonight, Deezer, Kabam, SeatGeek and GetTaxi.

“Twitter has jumped to be our number one acquisition channel, we couldn’t be happier with the results of the beta,” said Rich Pleeth, global marketing VP at GetTaxi. “The engagement rates are remarkable, not only have we seen stellar results, but we’ve learned some great insights.”

Source: Adweek

‘Find Your Destination’ With JW Marriott

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It seems Facebook feeds have been inundated with quizzes lately of the mostly Buzzfeed variety. What television antihero are you? Are you a beauty addict?

JW Marriott has gotten on board too with ‘Find Your Destination,’ a helpful app which helps would-be travelers decide which of the hotel’s locations suits them the best. Now you’ll know for certain if you should spend your vacation in Cancun or California’s Palm Desert.

The app utilizes Facebook’s interface to increase the likelihood of sharing and prompts users who might be interested in seeing package deals on the destination they should check out.

Find out for yourself {link no longer active} which destination is calling you, whether you’re mad about golf or in need of a spa getaway.

Tencent’s Sweet Deal For China

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Those sweet candies from King.com are making their way to a new region this summer.

King Digital Entertainment, coming off a rough launch of its IPO last month, hopes to bounce back with a new partnership with Chinese game publisher and distributor Tencent, confirming that the highly popular puzzle game Candy Crush Saga would be published by Tencent this summer in China. The game will be available through Tencent’s Mobile QQ service, as well as Weixin Game Centers.

With a network of 324 million monthly unique users as of late last year, the game’s release in a new market should boost that number significantly.

“I am thrilled to be launching Candy Crush Saga with Tencent in China. Tencent has the largest mobile social network in China and is a great partner to work with,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO of King.com. “I look forward to working together to make Candy Crush Saga as popular in China as in the rest of the world.”

Steven Ma, senior vice president of Tencent, added, “Tencent always hopes to bring global premier mobile games to China, and Candy Crush is one of the best. We are excited that our collaboration will combine King’s enjoyable mobile gaming experience and Tencent’s strong game publishing and operation capabilities in China. We are looking forward to bringing great moments of fun to Chinese users soon.”

Source: Gamesindustry International