Today's Google doodle celebrates the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Faberge, best known for creating the famous Faberge Egg. The search engine has turned its logo into six beautiful gold eggs decorated in diamonds, precious metals and gemstones, with the first “G” and “e” popping out of their eggs.

At OBAN we are constantly on the lookout for changes in the online market place and for opportunities which may open up for our clients.  Our online task force are busy squirrelling away and looking at these new services and creating business cases to test the validity of the investments needed by our customers (Google +1 for instance).

We are often asked by our clients whether social media is worth the investment, what size the opportunity is in Europe and if is the right time to make the leap?

So, I have put together some of the key points regarding social media and why in 2011/2012 this can not be ignored by businesses- and for those that do they will be doing so at their own peril!

At the beginning of this year, we were mentioning that 2012 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac and its set to be a very successful year for international e-commerce. Now a couple of months later, a report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) announced that China’s Internet commerce market is expected to triple its value over the next three years reaching $360 billion.