Infographic: Thanks for Sharing

Here's an interesting infographic on the state of online sharing in 2011 produced by the folks at Clearspring, makers of the social sharing platform AddThis. With the AddThis platform installed on more than 11 million domains and reaching over 1.2 billion users, the data below show some compelling insights on how we shared content across the web this year.

The Daily Stat: 1 million

Total number of mobile apps available across the major smartphone platforms
Source: Mobilewalla

"The growth of apps is the fastest growing consumer segment in the history of commerce."  

- Anindya Datta, founder of Mobilewalla 

Mobilewalla, a firm that specializes in mobile app analytics and provides real-time tracking, announced today that the total number of apps available from the 4 major smartphone platforms (Apple iOS, Google Android, Blackberry OS and Windows Phone) has surpassed the 1 million mark.

Drowning in the Sea of Big Data

To say that we are now swimming in enormous amounts of data is in itself an enormous understatement. To get an idea, this video from The Economist says we'll be creating 2,720 exabytes of data in 2012. With the sheer number of numbers being tossed around, it's no wonder why Big Data keeps CMOs up at night. As a result, we're now seeing a proliferation of research/analytics/datasolutions companies that aim to make sense out of Big Data for us. But will investing in Big Data really generate value for marketers?

The Daily Stat: 18%

% of Canadians planning to shop in the US for the holidays
Source: BMO

A survey conducted by the Bank of Montreal reveals that 18% of Canadians have plans to shop south of the border this holiday season. The percentage is up from 13% last year despite the slightly weaker Canadian dollar, currently hovering around US$0.95.

Infographic: What to Expect On Black Friday

♫ It's the most wonderful time of the year... for retailers!

It's Black Friday once again which marks the start of the holiday shopping season - retailers' favorite time of the year. Here's a neat infographic from Mashwork, a social media analytics firm, on what you can expect at this year's Black Friday.

The Daily Graph: How Do People Use Mobile Apps?

The exponential growth in the audience for mobile apps presents the next frontier in advertising.

The Daily Stat: 34%

% of social media users who 'follow' brands to get deals
Source: Nielsen Global Online Survey (Q1, 2011)

A study conducted by Nielsen reveals that most people 'follow' or 'like' a brand page on social networking sites are primarily looking out for the next hot deal.

The Daily Stat: 40 million +

Google+ users so far
Source: Google Q3 Earnings Press Release

In last month's quarterly earnings call Google CEO, Larry Page announced that Google+ now has over 40 million users with people flocking into the company's new social network at an "incredible rate".

The Daily Stat: 7 billion

The (estimated) world population
Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division

According to the UN, the world population reached the 7 billion mark on October 31, 2011.

For all the hype surrounding it, the reality is that the number is only an estimate (nobody can know the exact number for sure due to the practical challenges in gathering data). And yet it certainly is a compelling one. Our population is growing at such unprecedented rates, considering we've only just passed the 6 billion mark in 1998. In 13 short years, we now have 1 billion more mouths to feed on this planet. The next billion isn't that far off either - we're expected to reach the 8 billion mark by 2025.

Welcome to the Marketing Cruncher

Hello marketing community!

There are a lot of marketing blogs out in the blogosphere today, all with lots of great content about marketing's hot topics. This is not your typical marketing blog. This is one written by a numbers geek, which is to say one written with a unique perspective on data.