Unlike other companies which focus only on single markets, the GlobalWebIndex can provide a truly global perspective built on a wealth of more than 70,000 surveys completed over the past year.

The results are then analysed and commented by an international team of researchers to give you the most accurate view on what’s changing in the social media landscape.

This is one of our presentations for the Social Media Week in London, now free for all to enjoy.

• Social media has reached mass maturity. Today it’s no longer about massive growth but a shift of already active social consumers to ‘real-time’ technologies, such as status updates or tweets. The old view of text-based social media, defined by blogs and forums, is being surpassed, moving the impact of social media, from creating content and publishing to sharing other people’s content and ‘live’ opinions about real-world events. In short ‘real-time’ is re-orientating consumer from creator to distributor and moving the focus to traditional media and professional content.
• The open browser-based web is losing out to packaged internet platforms such as mobile apps, internet connected TVs, tablets, e-readers, pc apps, gaming and video platforms. These packaged platforms are re-engineering the internet and destroying the notion of the internet being a singular entity. Crucially for the entertainment revolution, they provide professional media with the means to create sustainable internet business models, something the economics of the browser-based web totally failed to enable.
• Professional “traditional style” content is now a core part of the consumer online experience. Internet platforms, for hundreds of millions of consumers, are increasingly the entertainment platform of choice. This is due to continual growth of professional content in video sites (legal and illegal), the rise of ‘real-time’, and the growth of packaged platforms.

These trends will revolutionise our view of the internet. In particular, the packaged internet will transform the way we get online, the content we consume, and the ways we can create, share and communicate. Going forward five years it is clear that many people’s internet experience will not be through a browser, but through some form of packaged platform. While many ‘internet purists’ will bemoan their lack of openness, the creation of barriers to entry, and shift in control to small numbers of gatekeepers, packaged platforms crucially enable professional media to create sustainable businesses online without having to change the way that the open web works.

This is as important, if not more important, for a healthy society as enabling consumers to publish and share their opinions or content. The open browser based internet has failed to create the economics to deliver professional media business online, as advertising could not demand the premiums needed and consumers are unwilling to pay for content delivered through a browser. These changing commercial opportunities will capitalise on the consumer demand for social entertainment online. They will however have to change the way that they create and deliver content and make sure they integrate social technologies into their product.

Increasingly ‘real-time’ social will be integrated with the traditional content experience. Imagine live Twitter style messaging around major TV events or programming recommended by your social network. This will extend the impact of social media outside of the browser as well as surpassing the old models of delivering media, such as cable TV, satellite, radio or newspaper

2011 and beyond is a promising to be an extremely interesting period of innovation. Next year the GlobalWebIndex will track these shifts through 26 countries, 3 waves of research and 90,000 surveys.

Here in the UK, airports and airlines are using Twitter to communicate real time information to travellers. Both Heathrow Airport (@heathrowairport) and British Airways (@british_airways) have more than 30,000 followers each and their streams are being updated several times a hour. Nevertheless, hundreds of passengers are camping at the airports wondering when they’ll be able to leave.

Clearly the this real-time information is extremely valuable in these situations. Most people have the same questions and needs and by making open this type of conversation, everyone benefits.

However only 6% of British web users use micro-blogs (99% Twitter in the UK).
If we consider only people who recently purchased a holiday abroad, this figure increase to 7%. This raises questions on whether it is right to rely to heavily on Twitter and external services as being the lead method of communications in this situation.

For comparison we have the same data for the USA: while the average penetration of micro-blogs is slightly higher, what really stands out is the percentage of international travellers who use Twitter: 13%. This is probably explained by the fact that in Europe it’s very easy to cross a country border and therefore, being an international traveller doesn’t really differentiate much from the country average. While to cross the border of the United States takes some serious hours of flying and therefore it might appeal more to an affluent, up to date kind of audience that is more likely to use advanced web services like Twitter.

Making “Real-Time” accessible

“Real-Time” information needs to be taken to the masses, Twitter is limiting the delivery of this information. The method  of delivering information is extremely valuable and clearly of value to all  flyers.

At a minimum airlines and airports should be incorporating Twitter content into their primary websites, so people who do not use Twitter or don’t know what it is can get value from the “real-time” updates.

We would also like to see the integration of this technology in a bespoke way. The posting of live messages and questions could be made open and visible to all, with anyone able to post question and staff at the airport being able to answer in a public and open way.

The networked dynamic of Twitter, is not the valuable asset here. In reality there is little value in this information being networked, you don’t need to know if you contact has been able to find out about a flight, however people who visit the website would find this very valuable – the live and open conversation, is very valuable.

“Real-time” is the future of the internet, we need more avenues and technologies to make it mass market.

Google has built its business on the economics of the open internet. By being the entry point to the browsing experience and providing an advertising solution (AdSense) so cheap to administer (even over billions of web pages), they have been able to drive massive profits by aggregating all those billions of “cents” payments.

However as we know the packaged internet changes everything.

As our research shows, consumers are shifting from the open internet to packaged platforms in their hundreds of millions. Apps, TV, e-readers, games consoles, mobile etc have exploded in the last 12 months and will exponentially grow in the next few years (check our upcoming report: 2011: Welcome to the age of social entertainment). This is bad news for Google:

• Search is not a core dynamic or point of entry: Content is often guided and limited in nature in the packaged internet
• Internal search doesn’t need Google: if you search inside a website, you don’t care what underlying technology delivers those results – this is the same in the packaged internet. We use Google as a point of entry, however the need for Google to help us navigate specific platforms or applications is redundant
• Packaged is one dimensional: Apps or platforms have limited purpose and the requirement for search to link and take us to other content and services is not needed
• Limited or no inventory: Google exists on aggregating unlimited inventory. The packaged web is limited and closed
• Professional / Media driven content: Big media is driving much of the packaged web, they won’t want AdSense on their pages
• Branding: the packaged Internet is more of a visual and branded environment. Google has existing on simplicity and a lack of real brand identity.
• Paid for: If you buy an app, the last thing you want is AdSense on it
• Your social network: Increasingly we will follow the recommendations of your network, contacts or a wider set of users. These networks are being integrated into the packaged internet

There is also a major challenge to YouTube. YouTube is built on the open internet and the principle of allowing anyone to upload – great for traffic, but not so good when you want to turn a profit.  The professional content that YouTube is hoping they can drive revenue from, will also be delivered across a mass of packaged video platforms that do not have the commercial challenge of proving unlimited bandwidth and hosting to the world and their videos.

This is why Android and the upcoming Google TV are so crucial to the future of Google.

Traditionally Google have failed to develop successful commercial models outside of search. Android looks good so far and industry and consumer adoption is high. Google TV and the level of competition from big media players, content companies and the technology companies in that space, will prove to be a tough one.

If we look back, will 2010 be seen the peak of Google? Only time and their adoption of the packaged Internet will tell.

The other big question of course, is whether consumers will continue to turn their back on the open internet. We will be focusing very closely on that other the next 12 months at the GlobalWebIndex.

This is old thinking. The Internet today streams video and TV media content on demand; it powers my radio; it provides access to films, books, magazines or news.

Now the browser based Internet is being replaced by “packaged web” platforms that source their content and information from the web, or are connected by the web, but the front end is nothing like a browser.

 Already in our research, we can see massive consumption outside the browser based environments. As of September 2010, over 37% accessed the web via mobile (normally for most consumers, a limited browsing or app experience) on a monthly basis, 10% via games consoles, 4% through a TV and 2% via an e-reader. This particularly pronounced for high earning, professional segments in saturated web markets like the US. For example, 8% of Senior Managers / Corporate Executives had accessed the web via an EReader in the last month, compared to 4% for the market and 2% globally. Impressive reach. We also know that 39% of web users are interested in adopting, a demand that is consistent across age groups, although peaks for high earners, a demand that shows, we’re just at the beginning of the app economy.

We also see a massive growth in “packaged web” with internet enabled applications that allow access to different types of media. Already today, 25% downloaded an application in the last month, 27% watched TV shows through an on-demand service (much higher in the UK, where iPlayer has transformed the market), while 18% have listened / watched a Podcast and a massive 30% have listened to live radio online, all points that make the concept of the Internet as a singular media meaningless.

The Impact

This is important for brands, because it demands that we don’t just think about “putting some budget in the Internet”. The way that agencies and brands approach the web, should be focused on content types, in a platform agnostic way. It also means advertising through Internet enabled platforms will be less about optimisation of an unlimited pool of inventory online, and more about creating content, or buying media space in a more traditional way (e.g from a limited pool of higher rate inventory).

It also makes it really complex! While marketing investment might move out of broadcast TV and grow in “online”, it can still be TV advertising. Who manages investments in advertising or sponsorship for television content that makes it across the web?

It all points to needing a much stronger strategy and one that focuses on the full communications mix. 

On the other side of the fence, it is a massive opportunity for content producers, primarily because it is much easier to charge for content. As our research shows, there is far greater appetite to pay for online content in closed packaged systems (keep an eye out for a major Visualisation on this later in the year).

It also has an impact on the consumer. Packaged web platforms focus on enabling the consumer to distribute content, not create it. If this trend continues, the consumer will replace the network, but not it’s content.

All in, it’s safe to say in ten years that the concept of a browser will look a bit antiquated.

Perhaps even five.

This is simply a projection of how many people, in real world numbers, our sample equates to.

For example, in the table above we see that 1158 males in all 18 markets of our sample would pay for online sports hi-lights.
Now if we scale that figure to real world numbers it would give you 75 million males (from our sample of active online users) are willing to pay for an online sports hi-lights service. It’s quite an impressive number to put in a presentation.

How do we calculate it?

First of all, we collect from independent sources the total number of active internet users in each country, adding them all together we have a total of 1,046,000,000 internet users in the 18 markets of our sample.

With a simple proportion we then calculate that, on average, each of our 17,500 respondents represents 59,798 people in real world numbers.

Now, the actual procedure is slightly more complex because it is done on a country basis to take into account differences in the population of each country. For example, each respondent in the Netherlands represents 17,911 Dutch web users while each respondent in China represents more than 300,000 Chinese web users but the main concept is the same.

What about the totals?

You may notice that in the above table the totals go well above 100%. This happens because respondents could select more than one option in that question. You can find details of which questions allow single or multiple answers in our Categories and Questions document.

In this case, the total percentage (300%) means that on average male respondents selected 3 options each. The responses total is the total number of options clicked by all respondents in that question.
If you look at the total male respondents in that table and divide it by 3 you will get the total male sample for that block of questions which is 9346.

We all know the value of targeting people based on their wealth or social status. Unfortunately, the definition of status varies largely across the world making it impossible to introduce that kind of variable in the Globalwebindex.
To overcome this limit, since wave 2 we’ve had data on personal income that together with the statements on attitudes can help you to define audiences based on perceived social status.
Until now, the data about personal income was only available as a country-specific variable therefore it was impossible to use it across countries.
For example you might have wanted to compare affluent audiences around the world based on  incomes, struggling for one hour with the exchange rates only to find out that even the highest income people in China earn less than the lowest income people in the USA – (yes, the world is that diverse!)
Now, unless you wanted to use complex formulas like the purchasing power parity, it was impossible to select relatively wealthy people across all countries.

To simplify this task we’ve created a new global variable that segments income in three approximate groups: lower 25%, middle 50% and higher 25%. So it is now very easy to select relatively low, medium or high income people.

You can find the new Global Income variable in the Audience definition page in the demographics box and you can also use it to cut your audience in Topline analysis.

For example, in this chart, we see that medium income people enjoy having the latest technological gadgets while high income people tend to think of technology as a tool to complicate lives.

We have added this variable for Wave 3 only so keep it in mind when selecting your audience (it will make your sample smaller).

Also, note that the percentiles are approximate and that about 10% of the sample didn’t report their income so they’ve been automatically excluded from this variable.

Based on your feedback, we might consider adding the Global Income variable for wave 2 and/or introduce an option to select respondents who didn’t disclose their income in the first place.

A number of questions were incorrectly ordered in the data collection, consequently we have had to remove the questions below from the tool for French data. All of the other questions are absolutely correct and will be left in the tool for you to analyse. This does not affect any other market.

We are now working with Lightspeed Research to re-field the French market and we will publish this updated data set next week. We apologies for the inconvenience.

If you have any specific questions please contact support@trendstream.net

The affected variables are the following

WEB BEHAVIOUR / ACTIONS
45. You will now see a list of items that represent different activities you can do online. Please read each one
carefully and then indicate whether you have done that in the past month, or whether you have done it longer
ago. If it is unfamiliar or you are unsure then please select “never done” or “heard of”.  (scale)

BLOG BEHAVIOUR
60. Which of the following platforms or sites do you currently use to write your blog on?

TYPES OF CONTENT POSTED
61. Thinking about your blogging habits over the past month, which of the following have you posted? Please
select all that apply.

TOPICS OF CONTENT POSTED
62. Thinking about when you are writing your blog. What kind of topics do you cover? Please think about all
the topics that you covered in the past month, not just the main one. Please select all that apply

FREQUENCY OF UPDATE
63B. How often have you updated your blog in the past month?

MOTIVATIONS – WRITE A BLOG
89. You will now see a number of online activities that you currently take part in. For each one, please can
you select the main reason why you take part in that activity online?

MICRO-BLOG BEHAVIOUR
64. Which of the following micro-blogging services do you currently use?

ACTIVITIES
65C Which of the following have you shared on your micro-blog service in the last month?

FREQUENCY OF UPDATE
65B how often have you updated your micro-blog in the past month?

MOTIVATIONS – MICROBLOG
89. You will now see a number of online activities that you currently take part in. For each one, please can
you select the main reasons why you take part in that activity online?

PHOTOS
60.  Please think about where you have uploaded photos in the past month. Which of the following places
have you uploaded photos in the past month? Please select all the ones that apply, if you haven’t heard
of the site, please leave it blank.

MOTIVATIONS – PHOTO UPLOAD
89. You will now see a number of online activities that you currently take part in. For each one, please can
you select the main reasons why you take part in that activity online?

For the advanced economic BRIC countries, online use of social media shows huge growth, with our data showing 26% of internet users having micro blogged in the last month (a 44% increase wave 1 to 3).

What happened in Europe in the last year in terms of attitudes towards brands and what can we expect for the future but first of all a short introduction on the state of social media in Europe.

We see now that social media are becoming a mature market with no or little changes in terms of social networks, blogs and content sharing usage. Also, we see that social networks users are shifting to an older age range. Social networks is no more just students’ territory.

Especially when talking about blogging and social networking we se a steady growth in mature users (over 55) during the past year. Anyway, if we look at a country segmentation we see important differences across Europe, especially in terms of video/photo sharing and micro-blogging. In both these activities, Russia is the leading country, followed at a distance by Poland, Spain, Italy and the UK. Also, Russia, Spain and Poland seem to be the most active in posting comments on blogs and forums.

Speaking of social network, Facebook is by far the biggest player in the continent but its share is not equal across Europe. Netherlands, Russia and in a smaller measure also France, Germany, Poland and Spain resist to the advance of Facebook with local social networks. Meaning that in Europe there can’t be a standard social emdia strategy to fit all countries.

If Social networks are mature, Micro blogging and the so called real time web are still niche with very little signals of change. Except for this point, we can clearly say that the social web is becoming part of the mass market and the implication for business is that consumers communicate more with each other, even with strangers and most of all, they trust them.

If we exclude recommendations from family and friends, consumer reviews are the first source of trusted information on products. Even more, although on the low end of the scale, social network contacts not met in person are more trusted than celebrities and politicians.

This means that influencers are changing. In the past year, social network, blog and micro-blog contacts were the only sources to show an increase in the share of consumers trust while newspapers stood still and TV fell slightly.

Speaking of communications strategies this fit in a well estabilished trend now: the need for a real dialogue with the people inside corporations. As consumers get used to communicate with each other online they expect  the same transparency and dialogue from corporations.

Now, although this is clearly a worldwide trend, we also see some slight differences across different industries so before jumping on the bandwagon, think! Passive imitation is not the solution.

What does this all mean for web marketing professionals?

While user generated content might have reached its peak, we see a new form of packaged web rising fast. Mostly driven by consumer electronic devices alternative to the traditional personal computer. Think about people accessing the web from TV, games consoles or mobile phones. Most of these experiences are more likely to fit in the walled garden model where a little number of distributors controls the content and the advertising spaces seen by all its users.

While the open web is traditionally the reign of freedom, once exclusive to a technical audience, now everybody can potentially enjoy the packaged web delivered on mobile applications or next generation TVs.