nielsen

YouTube breaks records with 1 billion monthly users

What does 1 billion monthly YouTube users signify? It means that nearly one out of every two people on the Internet worldwide goes to YouTube.

That's a serious amount of people.

Google's video hosting service announced today that for the first time, it's driving these colossal numbers -- more than a billion unique users on the site, every month.

"If YouTube were a country, we'd be the third largest in the world after China and India," YouTube wrote in a blog post today. "Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly 10 Super … Read more

More Americans opting to cut cord on traditional TV

While the vast majority of U.S. residents own televisions and watch them regularly, more and more people are opting to toss their cable plans and use other devices for entertainment.

A new report by Nielsen finds that those people who have elected to go "Zero TV" have more than doubled since 2007. Currently, more than 5 million people don't have broadcast television in their home, while in 2007 just 2 million didn't.

Despite these numbers sounding big, cord-cutters are still just 5 percent of the U.S. population. And, as Nielsen wrote in a blog … Read more

Twitter confirms buying social TV analytics company Bluefin Labs

Twitter said today that it has bought Bluefin Labs, a company specializing in social TV analytics.

The deal, first reported by Business Insider, would give Twitter the inside scoop on information such as which Super Bowl commercials drove the social conversation. It would likely also help Twitter become more of a media company as it tries to bolster its advertising revenue by working hand-in-hand with brands and with TV networks.

In its blog post today, Twitter said, "We believe that Bluefin's data science capabilities and social TV expertise will help us create innovative new ad products and consumer … Read more

Smartphone makers, look to emerging markets -- Nielsen

If the mobile phone giants are looking to strengthen their revenue streams in 2013, developing markets could be the best place to spot.

According to a new report from Nielsen Wire, smartphones still have "room to grow" in several top emerging markets.

Specifically, Nielsen found that feature phones, which researchers defined as "devices with no touchscreen, QWERTY keypad or operating system" are far more dominant in India and Russia, covering 80 percent and 51 percent of mobile users, respectively.

That's definitely not the case in the United States. For example, in another report from Nielsen in 2011, … Read more

Here's why 2012 music sales don't tell full story

Nielsen Soundscan says that 2012 overall music purchases were up 3.1 percent and that's the news that most media outlets have focused on.

What they missed, however, is that overall sales of albums and track equivalents (albums typically have 10 songs) were down 1.8 percent. That's the figure that's much more reflective of whether the sector generated more money.

The truth is that neither number tells the complete story about the health of the industry. What Nielsen Soundscan's figures don't reflect is the money generated by Webcasters, satellite radio, and subscription services, such … Read more

Behold a new Nielsen rating: Tweet count

TV ratings agency Nielsen is teaming up with Twitter to create the first ever social media-based TV rankings, the companies announced today.

 Nielsen and Twitter will produce a "Nielsen Twitter TV Ranking," that will rank TV shows based on the Twitter activity of the micro blogging site's 140 million active users. Twitter users send 1 billion tweets every two and a half days, according to a press release. It will be available for marketers to tap into at the beginning of the 2013 fall TV season.

Chloe Sladden, Twitter's vice president of media, said in … Read more

Why Jakob Nielsen's Windows 8 critique is old-school thinking

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was once asked what market research went into the creation of the iPad.

"None," Jobs replied, in one of his most celebrated quotes. "It's not the consumers' job to know what they want."

I was reminded of that when I read usability guru Jakob Nielsen's recent criticism of Windows 8. Having studied "12 experienced PC users" fiddling with the new operating system on both PCs and Microsoft's new Surface tablet, Nielsen found the usability "disappointing."

There is a litany of concerns, but the biggest seems … Read more

iPads once again the top holiday gadget among kids, study says

Kids in the U.S. sure do like Apple gear, says a new study.

According to a recent poll of children ages 6 to 12 in the U.S. by research firm Nielsen, Apple's tablet once again came in first as the most-wanted gadget this holiday season, followed closely by iPods and iPhones. Of those polled, 48 percent said they wanted an iPad.

This is actually the third year in a row Apple's tablet has topped the list. Since 2010, the gadget has beat out computers, and Apple's own iPod Touch. This year's list also includes … Read more

Teens grab up smartphones faster than other age groups

Even though it doesn't really come as a surprise to hear that teenagers love smartphones, there's now new data to back up all previous assumptions.

Young adults aged 25 to 34 own smartphones more than any other age group with 74 percent of the market, according to a new study by Nielsen, which included interviews with 20,000 mobile users in July. However, teens aged 13 to 17 are grabbing up smartphones at a much quicker rate than young adults.

"Interestingly, teenagers between 13 and 17 years old demonstrated the most dramatic increases in smartphone adoption, with … Read more