The Daily Stat: 1 in 4

Number of internet users who access unlicensed music
Source: IFPI Digital Music Report 2012

In their newly published Digital Music Report, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that 28% - roughly 1 in 4 - of active internet users globally use unauthorized services to access unlicensed music. According to the report, free music (unsurprisingly) continues to be an "irresistible magnet for consumers... undermining the incentive to obtain music using legitimate paid models". How can the industry continue to effectively market its products in the face of unfairly competing free products?

The Daily Stat: 5 million

Number of LinkedIn members in Canada
Source: LinkedIn

In a press release published yesterday, professional networking site LinkedIn announced that its Canadian membership has surpassed the 5 million mark. The site has shown remarkable growth, amassing 2 million members just in the last year.

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.