Depending on whom you ask, U.S. online shopping is either in unprecedented decline–or one of the only bright spots in American retail.
On Thursday, comScore reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped two percent to $29.6 billion versus last year.
Pharmaceutical companies, fearful of running afoul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s marketing guidelines, have virtually abandoned search ad marketing in the wake of the FDA’s online ad crackdown earlier this year.
Someday, the e-tailing sector will grow again. But not yet.
In the second quarter, U.S. online retail sales fell one percent year over year, following flat sales in the first quarter and a three percent drop in the fourth quarter of last year, according to ComScore.
In bringing together their search traffic, Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting an unwinnable war. Worse, they are still fighting the last war.
Hulu, the online TV service launched two years ago by Fox and NBC, has enjoyed incredible success with viewers–too much, it may turn out.
The number of consumers signing up to access the Internet via PC data cards has come nearly to a screeching halt, according to new data from comScore.
The research firm reports today that the number of U.S. subscribers signing up for mobile broadband services using data cards grew just five percent sequentially in the fourth quarter, after a long string of double-digit gains.
Earlier this week, comScore reported that daily web usage on mobile devices had doubled in the last 12 months, with nearly 22.4 million U.S. mobile users using their devices to go on the web.
Today, another research firm, Infonetics Research reported that despite the global economic downturn, the demand for mobile broadband is only going to increase. They expect that there will be more than 1 billion mobile broadband users by 2013 vs. 210.5 million at the end of 2008.
If social-networking site Facebook ever finds a way to make money–and that’s a big “if,” I’d imagine–it could pose a threat to Google, according to a 15-page note out today from RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler, chockablock with charts and graphs and tables.
There are two places most of today’s laid-off executives are heading: to job-search sites to see what other opportunities are out there and to networking sites in hopes they can reconnect with–and milk leads from–former colleagues and business contacts. One site, LinkedIn, offers both of those things in one place.
J.P. Morgan’s Imran Khan theorized in a research note this afternoon that Amazon.com could eventually be a beneficiary of the demise of Circuit City, which earlier today said it would close all of its remaining stores and liquidate. Khan thinks Amazon could inherit as much as half of Circuit City’s online business.
No retail category had a great Christmas, but e-commerce players have some reason to gloat over their brick-and-mortar counterparts: In certain key holiday categories, online sales outperformed offline retail sales, according to market research firm comScore.
There are plenty of “roundups” and tallies of shopping to choose from at this point in the new year, but the more you read them, the less appealing the headlines are. Last week came word from research firm comScore, which tracks Web users’ activity, that sales from Nov. 1 through Dec. 21–in other words, through the last weekend before Christmas–had fallen one percent.
Sales for online retailers during the holiday season appear to have declined slightly from 2007, a calamity in an industry accustomed to growth of 20 percent or more. And it looks as though one group was keeping a tighter grip on its wallets than others: the wealthy.
Citing ComScore data from last night’s search engine results for November, Thomas Weisel analyst Christa Quarles concludes that “Google continues to gain audience market share from its competitors and dominates the rankings globally while both Yahoo! and Microsoft continue on a downward trend.”
Online analytics firm comScore today released numbers for holiday online shopping activity in the U.S., and it looks as though cold weather that kept people indoors and online in some places provided one bright little sliver of hope.
This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."
We are fully aware of the controversies around how linking and aggregating is done on the Web and we, in no way, are attempting to "scrape" original content created by others. Instead, regarding third-party posts, we are trying to point readers of this site to other posts from around the Web that we admire and are trying to do so in the quickest manner possible.
The Internet is full of terrific content that is not ours and we want to help our readers find it by making editorial suggestions--Look, Mom, no algorithm!--of posts we think are worth their time.
That is why we have made even more changes to Voices to ensure we do this in the most transparent and timely way. While we don't expect that everyone will agree with our policies, we have made changes that reflect our intent in pointing to content outside our site.
So here is exactly what we do: Read more »
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate. We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
