Instagram Officially Has 400 Million Users

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Back in December, Instagram was celebrating passing over the 300 million user mark on its site, with a huge audience drawn in with the ability to post photos and videos with ease. But that’s child’s play compared to the record that the Facebook-owned social site just reached.

The company posted via its official blog page today that it has now crossed over the 400 million user point, meaning that it’s managed to amass an impressive 100 million users in just nine months’ time.

“While milestones like this are important, what really excites us is the way that visual communication makes the world feel a little bit smaller to every one of us,” it said in the blog post.

“Our community has evolved to be even more global, with more than 75 percent living outside of the U.S.,” the post continued. “Among the last 100 million to join, more than half life in Europe and Asia. The countries that added the most Instagrammers include Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.”

It also broke down many inspiring moments that have been posted to the site in that time, including the first surface image of Pluto, celebrations in the Champions League, a Namibian ghost town and the white pools of Turkey.

It also noted many of the celebrities that signed up for Instagram, including soccer player David Beckham, transgender heroine Caitlyn Jenner, and a handful of others.

“When Instagram launched nearly five years ago, 400 million seemed like a distant dream. Now, we continue to strive to improve Instagram helping you experience the world through images and connect with others through shared passions,” the post concluded.

Meanwhile, a study reported by Adweek broke down just what kind of usage goes into Instagram posting, based on a study provided by Mavrck. Based on 1.3 million Instagram posts, it deduced that marketers see better engagement from consumers between 6 AM and 12 PM, mainly due to low posting volume during those hours.

The full breakdown of these numbers can be found here.

Kids Prefer Mobile Devices For Gaming

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While video games as a whole are growing in reach and sales, the format in which they’re preferred is certainly changing and that may be bad news for makers of PC games.

A report from The NPD Group, titled Kids and Gaming 2015, indicates that mobile devices are now the most popular platform for gaming amongst kids aged 2-17, to an estimated 63 percent. That beats out both consoles and PC games.

That means that only 45 percent of kids in that age group are playing on a home computer a 22 percent drop-off from 2013’s statistics. This is the case for all age groups, but is mainly towards the young set, ages 2-5.

Consoles are still popular, but they’re waning a bit as well, with portable platforms (the 3DS and PS Vita) suffering the biggest decline. That said, they still remain popular amongst the 9-11 age group with a 41 percent hold. That’s slightly less than home computer usage.

“The largest and most surprising shift in the 2015 gaming ecosystem was kids move away from the computer,” said Liam Callahan, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “In the past, the computer was considered the entry point for gaming for most kids, but the game has changed now that mobile has moved into that position. This may be related to a change in the behavior of parents that are likely utilizing mobile devices for tasks that were once reserved for computers.”

Kids’ engagement has also picked up quite a bit on mobile devices. 41 percent of those polled said they spend more time on these mobile units than they did in the past year, with the average time spent on them per week reaching around six hours.

And even though consoles have seen a decline in terms of usage, eighth-generation gaming (Xbox One, PlayStation 4) is still doing better than the previous generation (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3).

While overall gaming incidence rates have remained high, shifts in consumer behavior things like growth in time spent gaming — are surprising changes, said Callahan. This type of insight is invaluable to anyone engaged in marketing video games to kids.

The numbers also indicate that physical games continue to do better than digital, with average spending staying somewhere around $27. Compared to that, digital spending averages around $13, although that is an increase of $5 over the previous year. And this is across both genders, male and female.

However, boys seem more likely to spend additional funds, around $54, compared to $36 spent by girls, according to the report. That said, girls are more likely to be gaming on mobile, although the average for spending on that format is about even for both sexes.

To conclude, two out of every ten gamers polled by The NPD Group indicated that they’re spending more on games and microtransactions than they were a year ago, and physical game spending is actually three times more than any other gaming device. Meanwhile, digital games and microtransaction spending in general seems to be on the same level as the previous year.

Game on!

 

Announcing: [a]list Live Streams The 1st Annual TwitchCon

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Want to see what’s going down at the first ever TwitchCon happening this Friday and Saturday in San Francisco [a]listdaily will be live streaming coverage of the event, brought to you by ION, the Influencer Orchestration Network.

Tune in for an in-depth look at the biggest video streaming boom the internet has ever seen with one-on-one interviews and coverage.

daniel kayser

Hosted by gaming industry on-air personality Daniel Kayser, on Friday we’ll be focusing on brands and game publishers taking part in TwitchCon with in-depth interviews live from the Twitch Lounge as well as showcasing the best of the showroom floor.

Saturday will be hosted by Ayzenberg‘s own Amanda Schuckman and coverage will focus on Twitch’s biggest broadcasting talent taking part in the show and what they are doing to find and connect with audiences on Twitch as well as how they are approaching brand and advertising relationships.

Some of the people we have confirmed to be interviewed on the stream during the brand day include DayBreak’s Chief Publishing Officer Laura Naviaux, Electronic Arts/Bioware Producer Cory Butler and BandaiNamco Entertainment America’s Cory Maggard. Twitch talent such as Kristen Pickle AKA KittyPlaysGames, Evan Jarvis AKA Gripsed and Fats AKA Warren Blake will be there, too.

The live stream will start at 10:30 am on Friday on the [a]listdaily’s Twitch channel and then we’ll go live at 1:00 pm as well as 3:00 pm PST both Friday and Saturday.

If you want to send us questions that you have about Twitch and the booming video streaming industry and the brands and talent involved, tweet us @alistdaily.

Want to be featured in the stream Contact jbaage@ayzenberg.com.

 

One In Four Americans Plays Games Based On Known IP

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Publishers are increasingly using the brand awareness and popularity of major intellectual properties (IPs) to make their games stand out. By tying their games to popular movies, TV shows or comics, they are hoping to drive user installs and, ultimately, revenues. At the same time, IP owners see games as a way to gain additional consumer revenues. Games based on IP have a history of failure and success, making it crucial to understand what makes an IP game great, and who plays and spends in these games.

Newzoo’s latest service: IP Gaming Report & Data examines 21 of the best performing IP games in depth, providing insights into the most popular titles and the 88 million US gamers, or 27 percent of the total US population in 2015, who are playing them.

Newzoo IP Games Report Simpsons Family Guy V1

In the US, IP Games Perform Better on iPhone than iPad

In July, about 1 in 6 games of the US Top 40 iPhone games were IP franchises, generating more than $11 million in gross revenues that month, or 16 percent of the Top 40’s revenues. MARVEL Contest of Champions performed best, followed by Jurassic World: The Game and the much talked about Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. Interestingly, IP titles do not perform as well on iPad, with only 3 entries in the top 40 in July.

Peter Warman, CEO at Newzoo: “The convergence of games and video content is accelerating and cross-screen engagement is now part of every publisher’s strategy. Not surprisingly, game companies are giving more attention to original and new IP that originates from outside the games space. An IP can undoubtedly provide an enormous marketing boost and potentially save tens of millions in marketing costs. Still, the game itself needs to be stellar to stay up in the charts. Building up IP or using existing IP both have serious pros and cons for game developers. With our recent research, we aim to provide insight into what makes a game based on IP successful and who the most valuable target group is. The report also reflects our objective to do more in-depth reporting on the US market specifically.”

Battle of the Animated Sitcoms: The Simpsons vs. Family Guy

Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff and The Simpsons: Tapped Out have been locked in a monthly battle for the top IP town-building game, with different leaders in the iOS rankings each month. Just like the sitcoms, these titles target a similar audience. This can be seen in the cross-franchise behavior, with Family Guy gamers proving less loyal to the title. Two-thirds of Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff players have also played The Simpsons: Tapped Out, compared to 51 percent of Simpsons gamers having played the rival title.

Profile Your Audience & Competitors

Our IP report and data answer questions such as: How do the most popular IP game franchises perform in terms of awareness, players, recommendation and time and money spent Who are the gamers playing them, who spends money and what aspects do they enjoy the most

The report takes an in-depth look at the IP gamers in the US (based on the players of 21 franchises), examining demographics, game play and spending behavior, platforms used, cross-franchise gaming, engagement and much more.

Along with the report, subscribers get one year access to the Newzoo Data Explorer, where they can cross-analyze the 50+ topics and make custom reports and filters with the support of Newzoo analysts.

The full topic list and the franchises that are included can be found here.

Epic Games Covers the World of Virtual Reality

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With so many virtual reality devices on the way, some consumers may be overwhelmed by what they have to offer and which one is the best way to go when it comes to a purchase.

Fortunately, Epic Games is here to help. The development studio that worked on such franchises as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament has announced a new documentary series called Sense of Presence, per this report from VentureBeat.

With this mini-series, the company will delve deep into the world of virtual reality, complete with explanation of terms and just what it could do for the market a market, by the way, that’s estimated to reach a whopping $150 billion by 2020, featuring headsets from the likes of HTC, Samsung, and Facebook’s Oculus technology.

The series will feature interviews with a number of key features in the world of virtual reality, including Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey, as well as Epic chief technology officer Kim Libreri, 3D Live chief executive officer Nathan Huber, and Magnopus co-founder Alex Hennig.

The first episode of Sense of Presence while a bit short at just under five minutes, provides a reasonable explanation as to what virtual reality is, as well as what it could do for the market in terms of video games and other experiences. This includes glimpses of forthcoming titles like The Solus Project.

With future chapters in the series, Epic hopes to explain further details on the world of virtual reality, as well as why consumers should be excited for the likes of such technology as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

No word yet on what Epic Games could be working on through the VR front, but considering its impressive Unreal Engine 4 technology, big things are certainly on the horizon. Next year is going to be quite the interesting one as these VR headsets make their way to retailers.

Mobile’s Domination In Charts

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Usage of mobile devices for web browsing continues to be on the rise, as comScore has provided a number of new statistics showing just how powerful the mobile medium has become as a whole, according to this report from Digiday. 

Numbers indicate that monthly visitors to the top 1,000 mobile websites rose to nine million people on an average – that’s up from the six million reported in 2014.

“Total digital audiences have grown 22 percent year-over-year, which is crazy if you think about it, because desktop has flattened out and it’s driven all by mobile,” said Andrew Lipsman, comScore’s head of marketing and insights. “And really, it’s more about the mobile Web than apps.” 

Overall traffic managed to grow 42 percent for mobile websites, and 21 percent for mobile app usage. That’s not a surprise, considering that more digital publishers are working to create more engagement amongst app users and mobile device owners. “it’s all about the power of habit,” Lipsman added.

There are various charts that break down the results from the study, which you can find below.

chart 12

This first chart gauges the popularity of both mobile apps and mobile web properties, and as you can see, the number for mobile web grew quite a bit, while mobile apps saw their own little increase as well. Both are expected to grow over the next few years as well.

 chart 22

This chart looks at the top 25 mobile apps with unique visitors, and Facebook clearly has a grasp on the lead, while YouTube, Facebook Messenger, Google Search and Google Play are closely behind to round out the top five. Twitter, meanwhile, is much, much lower on the list.

chart 32

Brand apps can go a long way as well, as both Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts have proven over the last couple of years. Dunkin’ Donuts rose a whopping 456 percent since 2013, while Starbucks showed a 100 percent increase over that same time frame. Both have a strong amount of visitors that isn’t likely to dwindle anytime soon, based on each of their apps.

 chart 42

Retailers are also playing a big part with app usage, as Wal-Mart, Kohl’s and Target (with its Cartwheel service) have all seen increases in audiences over the past year, with Wal-Mart showing the biggest increase by 402 percent.

 chart 52

Tinder also saw a significant increase in visitors, nearly doubling its numbers to about two million people per day, a big jump over last year’s numbers. It’s also attracting quite the young audience, as four out of five Tinder users are younger than 35 years of age.

chart 6

Millennials were a big part of this report, as their top apps by share of total mobile app time spent were gauged on this cart. Facebook has the biggest individual grasp with 21.2 percent, followed by Pandora Radio and YouTube. Other apps got their share of the pie as well, including Spotify, Facebook Messenger and Snapchat.

chart 7 Finally, the top 20 apps with highest concentration of millennials were measured, and YikYak easily took the lead with 98 percent. Venmo, InstaSize, BuzzFeed and Tinder were closely behind.

More details on this report can be found here.

Instagram Could Trump Twitter In Popularity

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We already knew that Instagram was gaining a huge audience, while at the same time introducing new advertising venues that would no doubt be profitable for the Facebook-owned site. But now, its popularity could easily overtake another social network — Twitter.

A new report from SocialTimes indicates that, per numbers provided by GlobalWebIndex, Twitter still has a grasp on more active users than Instagram at the moment in 29 of the 33 markets, but that may not stay the same for long.

Speaking about the four markets — Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Sweden — where Instagram has the lead, GWI explained, “As is often the case, the problem here is that social networks use competing definitions of active usage. In our survey, where visitation and active usage are tracked in the same ways across all networks, we are much better positioned to show how networks compare to one another. While it’s certainly significant that Instagram has forged ahead in four markets, the fact that it lags in 29 of them shows the scale of the challenge that lies ahead if it wants to displace Twitter.

“That said, there is better news for Instagram when we look at visitation rates by age. Twitter might be ahead in all groups, but the gap is very small among the key 16-through-24 group (where 42 percent have visited Twitter and 39 percent have been to Instagram). That the photo-sharing service is so popular among the youngest Internet users is extremely encouraging for its future growth prospects.

The company also posted a large infographic, included below, that breaks down just what kind of dominance both Twitter and Instagram have in each of the 33 markets. As you can see, some differences are as clear as night and day, like Twitter having a healthy lead over Instagram in Indonesia, Turkey and Mexico.

However, the line is somewhat blurred when it comes to other markets. In the United States, for example, Twitter’s lead over Instagram is marginal, and that’s the same way for other markets like Brazil, Portugal and Malaysia. This could indicate that, with the right promotional tools, Instagram could easily move in and expand its lead on these markets, instead of just overtaking the four it has first place in right now.

insta twitter

We’ll see where the next few months lead — and what Twitter could be up to in regards to keeping its lead in these countries.

Social Networks Rush To Mobile App Advertising

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Considering the popularity of mobile devices these days, it shouldn’t be any surprise that a lot of companies are looking to invest in mobile app installs, as that can be a real draw for their individual programs and games. But now, social networks are vying to get a bigger piece of the action.

Per Business Insider, a report from BI Intelligence indicates that US mobile app install ad revenue will reach $4.6 billion this year, and extend even further in just a few years’ time, up to $6.8 billion by the time 2019 rolls out. This creates a compound annual growth rate of 14 percent from last year, with mobile app install ads accounting for about 30 percent of overall mobile ad revenue.

chart 10

As you can see from the chart, the increase is steady over each period, starting at $3.6 billion and nearly going double within the five years’ time.

There have been other takeaways from the report as well, including:

  • Mobile app-install ads are becoming quite popular ad units with different app publishers — and not just games.App marketers, including those in eCommerce and brands, feel that these ads are helping increase both downloads and measurable ROI. Social networks also take part, mainly because ads can be sold at a higher rate.
  • Easy-to-measure ROI drives demand. As an app-install ad is downloaded, customers’ activity in the app, including “lifetime customer value,” can be attributed to that ad.
  • Mobile app install ads are higher than standard units on Facebook, mainly due to performance and targeting. The report covers CPM pricing and CTR rates, when compared to the typical Facebook ad.
  • Prices will continue to be steady, while there will be an increase in supply. The mobile install ad has matured quite a bit over the past few years, and supply is becoming much more available through the likes of Twitter and Google. Due to the healthy increase, these aren’t likely to decline.
  • Top mobile publishers and networks will compete for mobile app-install ad dollars, as well as for specific app developers. Twitter and Facebook have been vying for the attention of key app builders in an attempt to increase app installs, complete with tools and analytics to help them get the job done. The ads in general manage to generate one-third of all mobile ad revenue.

The full report can be found here.

Jaunt Raises Virtual Reality Funds From Disney, Others

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Virtual reality is becoming one of the hottest markets to emerge over the next coming year, and Jaunt is ready to play its part, based on its most recent round of fundraising.

A report from Variety states that the start-up virtual reality team has managed to raise $65 million in Series C funding, with a good chunk of it coming straight from the Walt Disney Company. In addition, Evolution Media Partners and China Media Capital (CMC) have provided some money as well.

As a result, the company has reached over $100 million in funding to date the biggest yet for a virtual reality-based team.

With that, it’s stated that it will use the funding to increase production of its virtual reality units, as well as its state-of-the-art camera hardware and software production tools. It also intends to expand its teams based on both its Los Angeles studio and its home base, located in Palo Alto, California.

This gives the team an opportunity to make a big splash in the Hollywood market, especially with both Disney and Evolution Media Partners (backed by CAA partners Evolution Media Capital, TPG Growth and Participant Media) on board. Of course, there’s potential to reach in other markets as well, as previous investors like Highland Capital, Google Ventures and broadcast company Sky have helped raise $50 million previously.

Disney has already put its investment to good use, previously working alongside Jaunt with ABC News to help increase a production system based on news dispatches through virtual reality. This includes a Nightline report on preserving antiquities in Syria.

This round further illustrates our commitment and dedication to advancing the scope of cinematic VR — for filmmakers, storytellers and audiences alike, Jaunt CEO and co-founder Jens Christensen said regarding the funding. With the support of these world-class companies, we will explore new avenues, building on our leadership position to deliver amazing VR experiences using best-in-class tools, technology and creative teams.

Rick Hess, founder and co-managing partner of Evolution Media Partners, stated, Brands, artists and creatives are looking to reach and interact with their audiences in new innovative ways, and Jaunt s expertise provides a groundbreaking medium for exploring these new avenues.

There’s no word yet on when we’ll see Jaunt’s technology in action again, but it’s sure to be sooner rather than later.

Activision Debuts ‘Downton Abbey’ Mobile Game

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When you hear that Activision has released a new game, you start to think about Call of Duty or Skylanders but Activision’s newest game is about as far away from those blockbusters as you could imagine. Still, Activision is going with a tried and true IP with an enormous audience for its latest mobile game the hit PBS series Downton Abbey, now appearing in the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Amazon Appstore for the Kindle line.

The release of the Downton Abbey: Mysteries of the Manor mobile game coincides with the beginning of the show’s sixth (and final) season in the UK (though it won’t be aired in the USA until next year). The game is a free-to-play hidden-object game. In Mysteries of the Manor, you ll step into the role of a newly hired staff member who was brought in to investigate a mysterious burglary, the company said. An intruder has ransacked the abbey, putting the Crawley s family fortune in jeopardy. You ll need to search each room and assemble the evidence if you want to get to the bottom of this whodunit.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tM7ci6LnDMA

Activision plans to release monthly content updates along with a special Christmas content pack, according to MCV.