Research round-up: 18th November

Forrester names top online video companies

Forrester has named Ooyala and Brightcove as its top online video platform vendors. A 37-criteria evaluation concluded that those two companies currently lead the pack with their end-to-end technologies for organizations of all sizes. VMIX and Kaltura are considered their closest challengers while Twistage and Fliqz, which serve more narrow segments of the market, and considered to be ‘Contenders’.

The report stated: “Brightcove and Ooyala offer the most complete solutions and consistently scored well across all of our evaluation criteria. Brightcove separates itself from the pack with leading scores in distribution and integration, while Ooyala earns its highest marks in monetization and analytics. Each platform is fully capable of serving all segments of the video market on a global basis.” The research only took into consideration US vendors. Product evaluation took place in August 2009.

Domain name sales increase by 15%

Domain name marketplace Sedo the global, today announces findings from its latest Quarterly Domain Market Study, highlighting the continued growth of the online property market.  The last quarter has witnessed a 5.5 per cent increase on the number of domains changing hands on the Sedo marketplace, compared to Q2 2009 with a total of 9,928 domains changing hands for more than £14 million.

Despite the introduction of new domain extensions, .com remains the most po­pular top-level domain accounting for more than 45 per cent of all sales on the Sedo market­place and approximately 80 per cent of all gTLD sales. The average sales price for a domain name has also increased by 37 per cent from £1,031.17 to £1,412.

Additional findings from the Sedo report include:

·          The top domain name sales of the past quarter saw the sale of Call.com for £678,750, Server.com for £478,144 and Christian.com for £366,917

·          The .com extension remains the most po­pular top-level domain accounting for more than 45 per cent of all sales on the Sedo market­place

·          The average sales price for .co.uk, .es, and .at domains have seen a decrease while some extensions like .de and .fr have seen significant rise of late in the average sales prices

To view Sedo’s latest domain market study, please visit:  http://www.sedo.co.uk/press/domainmarketstudyQ32009-uk.pdf

www.sedo.com.

Online shopping to boost Near Field Communications mobile devices

A new analysis from Juniper Research of the $110bn NFC opportunity forecasts that one in every six mobile subscribers globally will have an NFC enabled device by 2014. Currently adoption is centred on the Far East, with use very limited outside of this region.   The NFC report determined that payments and retail transactions such as coupons would combine to transform the phone into not only a payment tool but also a retail tool in addition to its many current functions.

Further findings from the NFC research include:

•        NFC/Felica payments are already established in Japan but by 2014 North America and Western Europe will be experiencing high growth

•        By 2014, NFC global gross transaction value will exceed $110bn

•        Retailing ARPU from NFC coupons and smart posters will exceed ARPU from NFC payment transactions

www.juniperresearch.com

Slower broadband speeds could hinder UK house sales

The results from 721 respondents to ISPreview.co.uk's latest survey reveal that 75% of people would not buy a house, even a lovely one, if the best broadband ISP speed it could achieve was just 1Mbps. In addition, 51% would be willing to pay more for a house with "faster" broadband.

Some 61.7% of those surveyed said that the minimum broadband speed they require would be "More than 4Mbps", with just 20.8% voting for 4Mbps itself, 10.8% voting for 2Mbps and a measly 6.6% saying they'd settle for 1Mbps. Failing that, the most attractive alternative method to a fixed land-line broadband connection was found to be a Fixed Wireless (Wi-Fi) service (52.5%), followed by Mobile Broadband (28.4%) and Satellite on just 19%.

www.ispreview.co.uk

Brits most likely to resell unwanted Christmas gifts online

Less than half of UK consumers would keep unwanted gifts, but they give them to charity as often as they resell them online. Twenga, the most comprehensive shopping search engine, asked internet users what they would do with Christmas gifts they don’t want. The results show that only 49% of British consumers would keep such presents. This compares with 78% of the French, 68% of the Spanish and 63% of the Italians.

Importantly, 25% of British and German users are willing to use auction and marketplace sites to sell on gifts they don’t like. This is in contrast with southern Europe, where 13% of the French and a mere 7% of the Spanish do the same thing. Do the British act out of thriftiness? Certainly not, as shown by the fact that they are also the most likely in Europe to give such gifts to charity.

Twenga

International mobile money transfer services to exceed $65bn by 2014

International mobile money transfer market will be worth in excess of $65bn by 2014, based on gross transaction values – driven principally from migrant workers based in developed countries.  Juniper’s new report - ‘Mobile Money Transfer & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Strategies 2009-2014’ -  however also identified a number of inhibiting factors such as rising global unemployment and increased immigration controls by governments which will hold back the market until the recession is over.  

The mobile money transfer report also revealed a new emerging sector for microcredits, saving accounts and insurance payments. Known as “sophisticated financial services” these services are entirely focused on developing countries where users do not have access to traditional banking or financial services or simply use alternative means of payment traditionally such as physically transporting cash, or storing cash savings at home. The report found that is new market for financial services on the mobile, can add to the attractiveness of mobile money services, and help to reduce mobile operator churn.

Juniper research

Times Online announces record user comments

Times Online has announced a 30 percent increase in user comments on articles since it implemented the Pluck® social media platform this summer. Pluck, part of Demand Media, the leader in distributed social media, began working with Times Online in July 2009 and has seen more than 170,000 user comments over the first three months of implementation.

www.demandmedia.com