13% Quarterly Increase Reported for US Digital Ad Spend Driven by Social

The economic turmoil that has immersed the world has put a lot of industries in jeopardy, but in spite of the fact that this is the case digital marketing has managed to weather the storm for the most part. It turns out that digital ad spending in the US increased by as much as 13% in the fourth quarter of 2022, and a big chunk of that growth came from increased investment in social media.

This represents a $3 billion increase quarter over quarter, and it should be mentioned that ad impressions are also on the rise. They were sitting at around the 2.5 trillion mark in the third quarter of 2022, but by the fourth quarter of 2022 they had risen by 8.6% to reach 2.7 trillion with all things having been considered and taken into account.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that 63% of this ad spending is going towards social media. 22% goes towards display and video, with the final 15% being taken up by OTT channels and platforms.

TikTok is having an especially good time of it based on the findings in this report. Ad spending on the platform grew by as much as 62%, which meant that it got the highest growth rate out of every single media channel that gets used by digital advertisers these days.

By comparison, ad spending on Facebook grew by 14% and TikTok’s main competitor Instagram only saw spending increase by approximately 15%. Snapchat did far better, although its 29% increase still fell way short of what TikTok saw, and it suggests that the growing short form video platform has a lot more to offer in the long run.

Twitter did not have a very good quarter, with ad spending on the platform only growing by 9%. Some might call Elon Musk’s leadership into question because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making it harder for him to keep the momentum going as CEO than might have been the case otherwise.

We also received some data pertaining to the top advertisers in the US, and it turns out that Amazon was far and away the highest spender by a very large margin. The ecommerce juggernaut spent close to half a billion dollars on advertising in the US in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone. This is despite Amazon slashing its digital ad spending by 6.3%, which just goes to show how big of a player Amazon is in this arena.

Following Amazon we saw P&G with a healthy $280 million, followed by Walmart with an even $200 million. The fact that Amazon is nearly the combined total of the next two advertisers on the list reveals the enormous level of influence the ecommerce giant has, and it also suggests that Amazon is quite critical to the advertising industry as a whole.

Amazon was the biggest advertisers on all major social media platforms save for Snapchat. Meta ended up being the advertiser that was putting the largest amount of spending into digital marketing on the Gen Z centered app.

H/T: Sensor Tower Blog

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The List For Downloaded Apps December 2022 And the List of Apps With the Most Revenue in December 2022 is Here

Ranking the most downloaded apps in December 2022, TikTok has once again come to the first spot. TikTok was downloaded on almost 600 million new devices in 2022 alone which says a lot about how people love consuimg short-form content. However, as the app is banned in India, Instagram got the second spot overall. Instagram was the most downloaded app in Google Play in December 2022 with 36 million downloads. TikTok only ranked as the most downloaded app on Google Play Store in June 2022 and now it has gotten the third spot after Facebook. CapCut, a video editing app, was the third most downloaded app in December 2022, where it took the second spot on IOS App Store and fourth spot on Google Play Store's most downloaded apps list.

Overall, Facebook and WhatsApp took fourth and fifth spots as the most downloaded apps in December 2022. The top ten most downloaded apps in the world in December 2022 had 319 million downloads in total, which is much lower than in November 2022. Maybe it's because December was the holiday season and everyone was too busy with their families and stuff.

If we talk about the highest-earning apps on Play Store and App Store, TikTok still got the first spot with $55 million in revenue. It got $52 million just from IOS App Store while $3 million from the Play Store. Lite and regional versions of the app were also included in its revenue. Youtube came in the second spot with $50 million in revenue in December 2022, just from the App Store alone. Youtube didn't make the top 10 list on Google Play Store. Lensa took the seventh spot with $26 million in revenue on the list of the apps with the most revenue in December 2022 on IOS App Store. It wasn't seen on Google Play and hence, we can see that the trend of Lens is almost finished and that it couldn't make it to the list of top 10 apps with the most revenue in December 2022.

Life360, Fitbit, and Disney+ were the apps with the most revenue on Google Play with $4 million revenue.

LensaAI can be barely seen in this revenue list so it is almost impossible that it will make it to the top 10 list in January. So we can see that the craze for LensaAI was only till December and now people are almost bored with this app. Let's see what the list of apps with the most revenue in January 2023 will bring.

H/T: App Figures.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Almost Half of Brits Don’t Trust Meta Anymore

Privacy scandals have rocked the world of tech one after another these past few years, and it is resulting in the industry suffering from a crisis of trust among consumers. Forbes Advisor recently conducted a survey of 2,000 British people, and this revealed the extent to which public trust of social media platforms has ended up eroding so far.

Meta ended up being the least trusted app developer of all, with 48% of the people who responded to this survey saying that they really don’t trust anything that Meta might have to offer. That’s not surprising considering the shocking revelations that have come out about Meta’s algorithm and how it manages the data of its users, but in spite of the fact that this is the case other social media platforms aren’t all that widely trusted either.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Twitter and TikTok have miserably low trust scores as well, with 41% of people not trusting the former and 42% not trusting the latter. That seems to suggest that social media in general is not seen as trustworthy by a decent chunk of the British populace.

As for what app developers Brits trust the most, that honor belonged to PayPal. Amazon and Microsoft were also included in the list of most trusted. It bears mentioning that nine of the ten app developers that got the highest level of trust were established prior to the year 2000, so this crisis of confidence seems to be impacting recent brands more than older ones.

With 90% of British people scared of being hacked, it’s quite understandable that social media is where they are aiming their mistrust. Personal and private data has to be managed effectively, and most social media platforms have failed at that.

Youngsters seem to trust TikTok and Instagram more. That bodes well for the future, since it suggests that these apps will have fewer trust issues and will get their hands on more data once their target demographic becomes the majority in the world.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

How to Keep Kids Safe from the Harmful Effects of Screen Time

One of the primary concerns for parents happens to involve attempting to reduce the screen time that their children end up using, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it can be challenging to reduce screen time since the use of smartphones is so indispensable. Research from Japan has confirmed that too much screen time can have a definite negative impact on the cognitive development of children.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there are a few things that parent can do to keep these harmful effects at bay. For one thing, playing outdoors was noticed to be a strong way to prevent the damage and make it less severe than might have been the case otherwise.

More specifically, encouraging children to play outdoors could improve their daily living skills by up to 20%, and it could help repair much of the damage within the span of 16 months with all things having been considered and taken into account.

This is an especially important thing to consider given the detrimental impact that the pandemic had on children. They were forced to stay indoors, and that left screen time as the only real way to keep them engaged.

Incorporating techniques that can rectify this damage is essential because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up getting children back on track. Research such as this is pivotal to discovering the right strategies to deploy, so it’s fair to say that there might still be some hope on the horizon.

Communication skills can also be improved in this manner. The key here is to avoid restricting screen time unnecessarily, and instead try to supplement children’s routines through outdoor play and socialization.

In a world where screens are increasingly becoming the only concrete way to receive information, many are trying to look for methods to keep things on an even keel. This research will likely be the first of many to come in the long run.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Yahoo Impersonated in 20% of Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks have been a thorn in the side of the average internet user for quite a long time. In spite of the fact that this is the case, they continue to rise unabated, and the malicious actors behind these attacks seem to come up with new and better ways implementing them on a regular basis.

Check Point Software Technologies just published a new report that highlighted trends in phishing attacks for the fourth quarter of 2022. One of the things that this report revealed was which brands end up getting impersonated the most often in phishing attacks, and it turns out that Yahoo is a prime candidate for malicious actors who want to make their phishing attacks more successful than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Yahoo was impersonated in around 20% of the phishing attacks that were noted in the Q4 2022. Most of the phishing emails that are impersonating Yahoo appear to claim that the recipient of the email has won some kind of prize, even though no such program is being offered by Yahoo as of right now.

Yahoo is not the only major corporation that sees itself getting impersonated time and time again in phishing emails. DHL has also been a popular choice, with 16% of Q4 2022 phishing attacks impersonating the freight and delivery service.

Following that we had Microsoft which has impersonated in 11% of such attacks, and these three companies collectively account for just under half of all phishing attacks. By comparison, Google is only impersonated in about 5.8% of phishing attacks, at least as far as Q4 2022 is concerned.

Users should receive some kind of training or education that might enable them to better recognize phishing or other forms of malicious emails and avoid interacting with them entirely. If an email is offering something that seems too good to be true, it’s fairly likely that you are about to get phished and it would be better to delete the email and ideally report it for spam.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Hybrid Work Might Not Be Suitable for Introverts According to This Report

Hybrid work is an exciting new prospect because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping people take advantage of working from home as well as from the office. In spite of the fact that this is the case, hybrid work might not be ideal for everyone with all things having been considered and taken into account.

A survey that was conducted by Canon USA revealed that 46% of hybrid workers prefer to start their work week from the office, whereas just 20% liked to do so from home. That might be because starting the work week at the office can help them to get their productivity on track, and they can then spend a few days finishing things up in a home environment.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that hybrid work might be more suitable for extroverts than introverts. 82% of extroverts said that hybrid work was helping them to improve their communication skills, whereas only 62% said the same.

More specifically, 80% of introverts said that the hybrid work model was liable to make them more stressed out and overwhelmed than might have been the case otherwise. By comparison, 64% of extroverts said the same.

It bears mentioning that the difference is not that high, but it is still significant enough that extroverts might be able to settle into a hybrid work routine more easily than their introverted counterparts. 32% of introverts said that communication gaps are a major source of concern for them in a hybrid work setup, since they desire more communication than such a system can provide.

All in all, there will be some growing pains as hybrid work starts to become commonplace. We may even find lots of individuals choosing to work entirely from the office or from home. The fact that there are so many options now is a heartening sign, and it will very likely do a great deal to boost worker productivity down the line.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Here Are the Most Visited Websites in the World

Most analysts agree that there are at least two billion unique websites up and running with all things having been considered and taken into account. However, it bears mentioning that a huge chunk of these sites receive barely any traffic. Data from SimilarWeb and VisualCapitalist can help us to understand which sites end up getting the highest number of visitors.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Google’s search engine ended up being at the top of the list. This should not come as a surprise, since Google has been the starting point for people’s internet access for quite a long while. Google receives over 85 billion hits per month, which gives it a comfortable lead over pretty much every other site.

Another thing to note here is that the second most visited site is also owned by Google, namely YouTube, which has received approximately 33 billion hits every month. Following that we finally break out of the Google ecosystem with Facebook coming in second place with 17.8 billion hits per month.

Twitter and Instagram follow up in fourth and fifth place respectively, and they have similar site traffic levels to with the former receiving 6.8 billion and the latter 6.1 billion site visits on a monthly basis. This shows that social media companies are still major players, although Instagram’s focus on its smartphone app may make these rather low numbers less concerning than might have been the case otherwise.

Moving on, once we exit the top five we finally start to see a website that does not belong to an American company. The Chinese search engine Baidu comes in sixth with 5 billion hits, although Wikipedia is close on its heels with 4.8 billion.

The Russian search engine Yandex ranked eighth on this list with 3.4 billion hits, followed closely by Yahoo with 3.3 billion hits. Rounding off the top ten is WhatsApp Web with just under 3 billion site visits or 2.9 billion to be precise.

Overall, the US has 30 sites in the top 50, Russia has 5, China has 4, Japan and South Korea have 3 and 2 respectively, and then Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France and India have 1 site in the top 50 apiece. This indicates the high level of dominance that American sites tend to see, and it reveals the enormous influence that these sites tend to have on the world wide web.

Interestingly, Walmart as well as PayPal found themselves knocked out of the top 50 for the first time. Samsung and the New York Times ended up replacing them, which also means that South Korea got its second entry into the top 50.

The control that American tech companies have on the internet does not look like it is going to abate anytime soon. Chances are that we will only see their influence continue to grow, since other countries are not really able to make sites that can compete with American ones. The Chinese social media platform TikTok is giving most social media sites a run for their money, but TikTok is primarily used via the app so its website does not receive that many hits.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World