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A recent ComScore report found that over 35 million Brazilians watched online video in July this year, making an average of 93 videos per viewer. The figure represents approximately 85 percent of the total online population of Brazil.

During the World Cup months of June and July, Brazilian’s watched a whopping total of 6.7 billion videos online.

Google sites were the favourite first choice for watching videos, with around 70 views per video watcher in July. Megavideo followed with 31 video views per watcher, and LiveStream.com with 22.

“Brazilians are highly engaged Internet users who actively seek out entertainment online, so it is no surprise to see online video catch on the way that it has recently. As broadband penetration continues to increase, it will only lead to more online video viewing in Brazil, opening up valuable new marketing channel for advertisers.” said Alex Banks, ComScore managing director for Brazil and vice president for Latin America.

Source: www.comscore.com

The UN has unveiled figures which show the disparity in broadband access and costs across the world.

The statistics were announced just before the UN 2010 Millennium Development Goals Summit in New York, which is to be held on the 19^th of September. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of targets which aim to reduce global poverty and improve overall living standards by 2015.

Macao in China is the cheapest place to access broadband, costing 0.3% of the average monthly income, whereas the Central African Republic is the most expensive. Costs are around 40 times the average monthly income there.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) estimates that broadband penetration is below 1% in many of the world’s poorest countries, whilst access costs can be more than 100% of monthly average incomes.

In comparison, in many of the world’s developed countries, around 30% of people have access to broadband at a cost of less than 1% of their income. The figures demonstrate the global inconsistencies in broadband access.

The internet is seen as a vital tool in improving education and healthcare systems – top priorities for the MDGs.

“Access to broadband – access to information – should be a universal human right,” said Doctor Toure, Secretary General of the ITU.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11162656

The average shopper spent £81 online in July, totalling a massive £5bn. This was a growth of 18% on the same month in 2009 a report by the IMRG has stated.

The rise is online sales marks the recovery of the financial crisis, and the unpredicted high growth rate is the fastest it has been since 2007.

The travel sector was the most profitable online purchase sector, up by one third compared to June 2010 and 18% on July 2009, which the IMRG have related to the Brits wanting to escape the dreary weather for hotter climates.

The clothing and accessories sector saw the biggest rate in growth, jumping up by 64% since 2009, and alcohol sales rose by 22% year on year; however they had dropped since June caused apparently by England’s unsuccessful World Cup attempt.

“It is really encouraging to see growth levels returning to those seen pre-2007 and before consumer confidence was knocked by the financial crisis and the recession.” said Chris Webster, the head of retail consulting and technology Capgemini, which publishes the online sales index with IMRG.

Most of North Korea’s 23 million citizens don’t have access to the internet, but that hasn’t stopped the North Korean government from creating their own Twitter account.

The @uriminzok account (translating to a shorter version of the term ‘our people’) already has nearly 9,000 followers, and comes after last month’s launch of the North Korean Youtube channel.

Unsurprisingly, the social media platforms are being used to launch propaganda, and in one Tweet the South Korean government were referred to as ‘a prostitute’ for the US, and in some of the eighty Youtube videos the US and South Korea are called ‘war mongers’.

South Korea have already tried to ban the Twitter feed from their Northern nemesis, and the South’s Unification Ministry has warned local web users of possible punishment for seeking to “reply” and “retweet” on the Twitter page.

At the moment the Tweets are only in Korean, as are the Youtube videos, however it’s believed that the government may start communicating in English in order to get their message across.

A ComScore report announced yesterday the worldwide growth of  Twitter, and there were some very interesting discoveries.

The global Twitter audience has more than doubled in the past year, with 93 million people visiting the site in June 2010 (excluding visits via Twitter applications), 109% more than in 2009. The site experienced strong growth across all regions.

Indonesia was top of the list with a reported 20.8% of internet users visiting Twitter that month. Brazil followed with 20.5%, and Venezuela with 19%. The success in Venezuela has been attributed to the fact that the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez joined the social network in April.

Out of the five major global regions analysed, Latin America experienced the biggest growth in Twitter usage, growing 305% since 2009. In Europe Twitter usage grew by 106% to 22.5 million visitors. In North America, usage went up 22% to nearly 25 million visitors in June.

Here is a list of the top twenty Tweeting countries in terms of reach:

Baidu’s CEO Robin Li made a rare media appearance this week and discussed the company’s plans for international expansion, the effects of Google’s move away from China, censorship and the ‘revolutionary’ product Baidu has up its sleeve.

At the moment Baidu holds a vast proportion of the search market share in China, and also operates in Japan, although Baidu Japan is nowhere near as successful as its Chinese counterpart, and is reportedly losing revenue for the company. How Baidu would compete on international territory against the Google’s and Microsoft’s of the world is something yet to be seen.

Robin Li also spoke of Google’s highly publicised move away from the Chinese search market and the effect it had on Baidu.  Being sure to point out that Baidu held a large majority share before the Google re-direct, he spoke positively of the publicity surrounding Google in China, and how it highlighted the importance of search to marketers and advertisers.

The ‘Firewall’ issue was also covered, with Li speaking of the financial consequences for Baidu. The search engine has a strict screening and editing procedure in order to ensure any un-censored web content doesn’t filter through into search results.

Finally, Mr Li left internet buffs with a cliff hanger by speaking of Baidu’s ‘revolutionary’ new product; however he gave little more away. Li refused to expand on the topic, and didn’t hint at whether it was a browser or mobile operating system when asked, but he did leave plenty of room for speculation.

Any ideas as to what Baidu’s mystery product is? Answers on a postcard please!

A recent report has provided some interesting insight into internet speeds around the world.

Akamai Technologies Inc. revealed how different countries across the globe compare in terms of internet speeds, based on data collected on vast amounts of internet traffic from across the globe.

The city with the fastest average internet speeds was (unsurprisingly) Masan in South Korea.

Unlike most countries which have gotten faster in terms of internet speed, the UK dropped from 23^rd place to 27^th out of the 201 countries analysed since Akamai’s last report, with an average speed of 3.8 Mbps. Ofcom had previously predicted the UK to have an average of 5.2 Mbps.

In South Korea, super-fast broadband is available; however it is often too expensive for the average household to afford. 100 Mbps broadband can cost hundreds of dollars per month. The average maximum speed in South Korea stands at 33 Mbps.

The countries with the highest average internet speeds are:

South Korea 12Mbps

Hong Kong 9Mbps

Japan 7.8Mbps

Romania 6.3Mbps

Latvia 6.3Mbps

Sweden 6.1Mbps

Netherlands 5.9Mbps

Czech Republic 5.4Mbps

Denmark 5.3Mbps

Switzerland 5.2Mbps

In terms of cities with the fastest broadband connections, more than half of the top 100 cities were in Japan. Out of the top twenty, Umea in Sweden was the only city which wasn’t in South Korea or Japan.

Not one UK city made it in to the top 100.

Yahoo Japan has announced it’s to use Google search technology instead of Microsoft Corps Bing service.

The move shuns a deal made last year which saw Microsoft agree to provide Yahoo Inc with search engine technology. The agreement didn’t include Yahoo Japan, of which only 35% is owned by Yahoo! Inc. In turn, Yahoo Japan were free to choose between Google, MS and domestic search engine providers.

Yahoo Japan will also be using Google’s paid advertising system in the move, which is set to take place by the end of this year.

According to Yahoo Japan, they currently hold around 57% of the market share in Japan, and Google controls around 38%.  By joining forces the two will hold a near monopoly in the search engine market in Japan. Microsoft holds a mere 3% share.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10773532

Broadband access is now a legal right for Finnish citizens. As of the 1^st of this month, Finns have the right to access a 1Mbps (megabit per second) broadband connection. The move came as the Finnish government identified broadband access as a priority, and has stated that it aims to provide the whole population with 100Mbps by 2015.

96% of the Finnish population already has access to the internet. The new law will mean internet providers will be expected to fit Finnish households who aren’t already connected with broadband lines. Before the law was implemented, certain parts of Finland were restricted in terms of internet access. Now more rural parts of the country will be able to experience the same kind of connection speeds that the other parts of Finland already has.

The view that fast internet is a necessity for everyday life is shared by other nations too; in fact the USA is the only industrialised country which doesn’t have a policy to promote high speed internet access to all of its citizens. The British government has made a promise (though not a law) to supply all homes with connections speeds of 2Mbps by 2012.

Brighton, 14th July 2010. The world leading international search engine optimisation and marketing agency, OBAN Multilingual, have launched their International SEO News channel on Youtube, the first of its kind to provide exclusive and in-depth insight into internet, search and social media trends across the globe.

OBAN Multilingual have been at the forefront of multilingual search strategies for over almost a decade, and have worked with a vast range of prestigious clients in researching and developing SEO and SEM strategies on an international platform. Now they have decided to share their findings and knowledge with the rest of the world.

The ‘International SEO News’ channel delves into the World Wide Web, looking at how the internet and search varies from place to place, and provides valuable and thought-led insight into cultural differences and search engine marketing.

“We carry out extensive research into internet trends and search in a number of different markets, and we often discover some interesting and unexpected facts and figures, the sort of things we wouldn’t want to keep to ourselves. Our short videos cover some of these findings, as well as some general multilingual SEO tips.” says Greig Holbrook, MD, OBAN Multilingual Strategies.

There are currently three films on the channel, the first providing some valuable insight into international SEO from Greig, the second covering SEO in China, and the third Russia. OBAN plan to release several more over the coming months, with each covering a different market.

The videos can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/InternationalSEONews.