Many in Developing Nations Struggle to Afford Food

With the industry buzzing about Yahoo!’s recent acquisition of popular blogging network Tumblr, there have been a variety of reasons cited as motivations behind it. One of the more interesting...

US consumers are watching more streaming and online video content, and as they do, cable is losing viewers. And while more than one out of five consumers report cutting their cable subscription, over-the-top (OTT) content is only getting more popular.

According to a new eMarketer report, Germany and France lag far behind the UK in ad spending devoted to mobile, but outlays will increase fast over the next few years. Improved measurement should help more marketers make the mobile leap, and a focus on leveraging mobile’s potential role in the purchase funnel will also drive greater ad spend.

US kids as young as elementary-school age are increasingly picking up smartphones, with research finding 19% of this demographic use the devices. Among the devices owned and used by school-age children, smartphones see penetration levels just behind PCs.

Over the past year or so, several dozen business owners have sued the federal government over a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act that requires many employers to include free coverage of contraceptive services in their employees’ health insurance plans.

According to eMarketer estimates, 36.6% of mobile phone users ages 0 to 11 used smartphones in the UK in 2012, and this is expected to almost double by 2017. Kids are increasingly utilizing the device’s full capabilities, making limited-function mobile phones a potentially tough sell.

Ad agency executives expect strong growth in their use of both online and mobile videos in 2013, likely because they now consider these channels equally or more effective at reaching audiences than traditional television. Agencies have also seen an evolution in the way clients are measuring the success of online ads.

Smartphone users in China are by no means cynical about apps. Users in the country were more likely to download and try out new apps than those in the US. China’s smartphone users were also more likely to make in-app purchases.

Travel is already a mature online sector in the US and digital sales will continue to rise at a healthy clip, even as travel’s share of total ecommerce sales begins to decline, according to a new eMaketer report. Mobile will be a big part of the continued growth story.