Research Findings – Number of websites on Earth

According to market research survey conducted by Netcraft, the number of websites added to the internet has increased from 185.5 million at the beginning of 2009 to 231.5 million in April 2009, representing an increase of 46 million websites in just a few months. Interestingly, the increase is more than the number of websites which were created in 2008. In 2008, only 29.9 million websites were added to the dot.com platform. The phenomenal growth witnessed this year, is attributed to a surge in blogging websites registered by a Chinese social network called QZone.

This increase in blog related websites clearly shows the popularity of blogging as a social network and also as a business model. Blogging has indeed taken the internet by storm, it has now turned into a multi-billion business with master bloggers like John Chow and Yaro Starak making thousands of dollars from their sites every month.

You may be wondering, what is this thing called a blog?  Blogs are websites with content management systems that allow visitors to the site to add content. They are forums for organizations and individuals to exchange ideas and communicate with their partners, customers, employees, etc. You can create pages relevant for your business, post articles on different subjects, and offer a platform for others to write their comments or opinions on that post.

Blogging is not just for individuals, it is also a vital marketing tool for businesses. Today most popular blogs are commercial blogs that utilize their reach to promote their products and services.  Due to its easiness to create and convenience of interacting with customers and prospects, this platform has evolved to become one of the most important tools for promoting a business and its products.

Happy blogging!!!!!

World’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands

The value of the world’s top 100 brands has held its value at $1.95 tn (a marginal increase of 1.7 percent). Google is number one with a value of $100 bn, Microsoft is number two at $76.2 bn, and Coca-Cola enters the top three for the first time at $67.6 bn. ”In the current environment, where the value of many businesses has fallen, brand has become even more important because it can help to sustain companies in tough times,” said Joanna Seddon, CEO Millward Brown Optimor. “Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spend.” There are 15 new brands entering the ranking this year. Pampers is the highest entrant at no. 31, followed by Nintendo (no.32) and VISA (no.36).

Trends identified from this year’s rankings are:

Value — Brands that represent good value for money have done well, this is about quality as much as price, for example Wal-Mart (+19 percent), ALDI (+49 percent) and Auchan (+48 percent). H&M (+8 percent) is now the number one apparel brand.

Vice — People still reward themselves with little treats when money is tight. Brands such as McDonald’s (+34 percent), Marlboro (+33 percent) and Budweiser (+23 percent) have all done well.

At Home — Brands that can be experienced at home have shown strong growth. This includes home shopping: Amazon (+85 percent) and eBay (+16 percent); Coffee that can be prepared at home: Nespresso (+27 percent) and Nescafe (+23 percent); and gaming — Nintendo jumped into the ranking for the first time at no. 32.

Wireless — The increased popularity of using the internet on the move through devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry has led to huge increases for the mobile operators category as a whole, driven by demand for data services. Vodafone enters the top 10 for the first time this year (+45 percent).

Internet usage in Africa

Africa is the second-largest continent, after Asia, in size and population; located south of Europe and bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east by the Indian Ocean. Africa has a population of 975,330,899 (2008 estimate).

Considerable development has been made in terms of the expansion of the use of the Internet in Africa. African governments have come to realize the importance of global connectivity that the Internet offers and are making effort to provide the rudimentary infrastructure for Internet take-off. A notable instance is the general consensus by African leaders that ICTs and specifically global connectivity are priority areas coupled with poverty alleviation. This development has continued to grow in the Internet use and market in Africa. 

As at December 2008, there are 54,171,500 internet users in Africa, with 5.6% penetration rate. The largest populations of Internet users exist in South Africa (4,590,000 users); Egypt (10,532,400 users); Morocco (6,600,000 users) and Nigeria (10,000,000 users).

A Closer Look at the Spending Habits of African Americans

Blacks make up only 12% of the U.S. population, yet account for 30% of the country’s Scotch consumption.Detroit, which is 80% black, is the world’s No. 1 market for Cognac.  

According to Target Market, a company that tracks black consumer spending, blacks spend a significant amount of their income on depreciable products. In 2002, the year the economy nose-dived, we spent $22.9 billion on clothes, $3.2 billion on electronics and $11.6 billion on furniture to put into homes that, in many cases, were rented.

The only area where blacks seem to be cutting back on spending is books; total purchases have gone from a high of $356 million in 2000 to $303 million in 2002. This shortsighted behavior, motivated by a desire for instant gratification and social acceptance, comes at the expense of our future. The National Urban League’s “State of Black America 2004″ report found that fewer than 50% of black families owned their homes compared with more than 70% of whites.

According to published reports, the Ariel Mutual Funds/Charles Schwab 2003 Black Investor Survey found that when comparing households where blacks and whites had roughly the same household incomes, whites saved nearly 20% more each month for retirement, and 30% of African-Americans earning $100,000 a year had less than $5,000 in retirement savings. While 79% of whites invest in the stock market, only 61% of African-Americans do.

Certainly, higher rates of unemployment, income disparity and credit discrimination are financial impediments to the economic vitality of blacks, but so are our consumer tastes. By finding the courage to change our spending habits, we might be surprised at how far the $631 billion we now earn might take us. As the numbers continue to grow in poor communities despite economic hardship, don’t be surprised as the number of people who judge a book by its cover does also.