statistics

Virtual-goods resellers on the rise

Gamers are not just making purchases to enhance their gaming experience but also selling virtual assets to other players, according to new research from video game market research firm VGMarket.

Sales of virtual goods are expected to reach $1 billion this year and already generate near $4 billion annually in China. But there are some challenges, primarily the fact that once you convert your real money to virtual cash you can't readily get the dough back out.

The research revealed that in-game currency is the most frequently sold digital good from player to player and that two out of three sellers sold in-game currency in the last 12 months, earning a median of $22. PlaySpan, a provider of monetization and payment solutions for games and virtual worlds and sponsor of the research, considers that to be good news as its platform enables game developers to provide player to player marketplaces for their players. In addition, the PlaySpan Marketplace currently provides a secondary market for IMVU players to buy and sell goods as well.

One out of two sellers made a sale in a social network game over the last 12 months and earned a median of $50, while one out of four sellers made a sale in a free-to-play game over the last 12 months, with their median earning being $98, or nearly double that on social networks.

Eric Hartness, chief marketing officer at PlaySpan, told me that the secondary market is a boon for games, adding value, real and perceived, to all players by associating a real world dollar value on their playing time, game accounts, and digital items. … Read more

Social media count shows how active the social web is

Gary Hayes little flash application shows how active the social web is. Hayes built the application based on data he pulled from a range of social media sources, which he compiled at the end of September 2009.  You can download his Social Media Count here.

Are small businesses chugging social media Kool-Aid?

In my in-box last week: "Citibank Survey Reveals Small Businesses Not Joining Social Media Conversation."

In my in-box on Thursday morning: "Survey: Nearly Half of Small Businesses Surveyed Have Profiles on Facebook and Twitter."

Um, do these add up?

Let's take a look. The first survey, conducted by Citibank and research firm GFK Roper, surveyed 500 small-business executives in the U.S. and found that 76 percent say they don't think social networks are helpful for "generating business leads or for expanding their business," and 86 percent "say they have not … Read more

VC investment momentum continues in third quarter

Things are getting better for entrepreneurs, according to data released Tuesday by information services provider Chubby Brain.

Venture investment hit a multi-year low in the first quarter of 2009, reaching $5.3 billion in the second quarter and jumping a respectable 14 percent to $6.1 billion in the third quarter of 2009.

Statistics in The Pulse of the Innovation Economy report for Q309 certainly help quantify a resurgence in Silicon Valley, but we can't forget that entrepreneurs drive innovation, while venture capitalists facilitate it. Yes, money is often necessary, but the entrepreneurial need to solve complex problems is what has propelled the information economy.

A few highlights:

Invested dollars went up by 14 percent, with an 11 percent increase in number of deals September seemed to be right time to raise money with 40 percent of third-quarter deals occurring in the month California, and specifically the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley is the most likely location to raise money. Health care investing saw the most activity while green investors sat on their recycling cans

It should come as no surprise that the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley is responsible for a large portion of third-quarter funding, taking 7 of the top 10 ranking spots. This is not a knock against other geographies, just a realistic recognition of how densely packed the valley is with VCs. … Read more

IDC: Spending on cloud services to hit 10 percent by 2013

New data from IDC's Cloud Services Forecast shows that cloud services will outpace traditional IT spending over the next five years and will represent $44.2 billion, or roughly 10 percent, of all IT spending by 2013.

However, the missing link in this data set is that these numbers account only for IDC's cloud services taxonomy (Application Software, Application Development and Deployment Software, Systems Infrastructure Software, and Server and Disk Storage capacity) and don't represent private clouds.

Private clouds--or at least internal enterprise applications that use the same principles--will undoubtedly become a major trend over the next … Read more

Survey: Over half of U.S. workplaces block social networks

A majority of U.S. workplaces block access to social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, new survey results commissioned by consulting firm Robert Half Technology indicate. Fifty-four percent block social networks "completely," while another 19 percent only permit it "for business purposes."

Only 10 percent of companies surveyed permit social-network use on the job for any kind of personal use; 16 percent allow "limited" personal use, according to the results released Tuesday.

The study, conducted by an independent research firm, surveyed about 1,400 chief information officers at U.S. companies with 100 or … Read more

Tennis stat compiler

OnCourt is a comprehensive program that tracks every conceivable angle of professional tennis to help you make predictions. It has incredible depth and could be a tennis lover's dream.

The interface is filled with so much tennis jargon we needed the Help file and its examples and definitions to walk us through. In no time, though, we were studying up on our favorite players, learning their strengths, weaknesses, and history on a layout that looked a little like a scoreboard. We easily jumped between helpful statistics on a player's ability to win on various court surfaces and against … Read more

Football spread predictor

NFL Forecaster helps users predict weekly professional football games. While its depth is impressive, the amount of manual input may scare off some.

The program's interface is a cluttered and confusing mix of charts and statistics. We did ourselves a favor and consulted the Help file, specifically its alphabetized topics list, whenever a hurdle presented itself. The program excels at showing the current week's professional football match-ups and giving the spread (how many points the winner will win by). We were unable to know how accurately the program predicts scores since this was tested before the season, but … Read more

Get your sports fix here

If it's a crisp-looking score-tracking app you're looking for that follows major international sports associations and leagues, you've come to the right place. The free Sportacular is abound with current standings and scores that automatically update every 30 seconds when there's a game on. The flood of stats is easily navigated and read thanks to well-placed tabs and menus. You can view updated stats by player and by team, and you can even create and track your own fantasy team.

Sportacular also keeps you up-to-date on the sorts universe with RSS feeds from ESPN, Yahoo, and … Read more