2011 World Digital Economy - Mass Adoption of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Channels

Consumers around the world embrace online and mobile commerce channels

E-Commerce and m-commerce have become very competitive areas of focus in 2011 and the digital economy is again in a growth phase. With high speed broadband connections increasing and smart phone use continuing to rise; we are at last seeing significant adoption of e-commerce and m-commerce services.  The digital economy will also play an important role in the overall Internet of Things concept which is emerging around the world.

We have come a long way from dial up Internet and 2G phones. The fact that new global fixed and mobile investments are measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars show how big this business is and what commitment there is to a first class infrastructure for the digital economy. The growth in m-commerce over the last two years in particular has surpassed all expectations. While there has been a pent-up demand for these services for some time; it wasn’t until the iPhone arrived that the potential of this market was finally revealed. Once again the international companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, eBay, Twitter, PayPal are leading the way and showing the potential opportunities presented by this emerging sector.

The enormous success of social networks and services like eBay and Amazon are an indication of where commerce will go; already these companies have a huge presence on mobile and are expecting this revenue stream to continue growing. Facebook has moved into the e-commerce sector and is also well positioned to capitalise on mobile commerce via its Facebook mobile app and services such as Facebook Places.

Near-Field Communication (NFC) technology has received a lot of attention from the mobile operators, and over the past few years there have been many m-payment trials and services based on NFC occurring around the world. M-payment initiatives are not just limited to the mobile operators however and the 2011 launch of Google Wallet confirmed that the Internet Media players will also be competitive in this area.

While consumers are embracing mobile and online channels to buy physical goods; there continues to be a number of digital products which also remain popular. Purchasing and accessing online music has been very widespread for a number of years and was one of the key drivers behind the early developments in digital media. In 2011 cloud-based music on offer by services like Apple iTunes is gaining popularity as a way to deliver music anywhere, anytime over-the-air. With service providers like Grooveshark or Spotify also providing free access to over 10 million tracks interspersed occasionally with ads, business models like these will be hard to contend with.

Online advertising is a key source of economic revenue for Internet players, with Google attracting the largest market share of advertising spend. This market is becoming more competitive however with popular sites like Facebook now gaining advertisers attention. This is at the expense of other Internet heavyweights however, with Yahoo in particular suffering recent losses in revenue and company instability.

The financial downturn has presented many positive opportunities for e-commerce and m-commerce, with consumers often turning to these purchasing channels as a way to save money during difficult economic times. This has coincided with increasing uptake of smart phones and broadband penetration. The future growth of this sector lies in further improvements to infrastructure, with around 40 countries around the world already indicating that broadband is seen as a national infrastructure and is critical to the development of the digital economy.

BuddeComm’s new report, World Digital Economy – Mass Adoption of E-Commerce and M-Commerce Channels, gives the latest insights into the developments occurring in these increasingly important sectors. It explores key issues and opportunities and provides analyses, statistics, forecasts and trends. The report includes broad statistical information and insights into the key trends impacting upon the industry including social media developments, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and digital advertising. It explores the key digital media leaders participating in this industry such as Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, eBay and PayPal.  The report also includes a unique perspective into how the e-commerce and m-commerce sectors are unfolding differently around the world by incorporating case studies from around the world, written by BuddeComm’s senior analysts.

Examples of key insights:

• In June 2011 the OECD highlighted that the strength and dynamism of the Internet depends on its ease of access to high speed networks, openness, and on user confidence. For this to happen it agreed upon a number of basic principles for Internet policy; making this an important step in ensuring that the Internet remains open and dynamic.
• E-commerce and m-commerce have become very important areas of focus for mobile operators, Internet media players, financial institutions and payment processing firms alike.
• There have been a number of key developments recently, particularly in the mobile digital wallet space.
• By 2014 over $1 trillion in revenue is expected to be generated by e-commerce.
• Websites which offer “deals of the day” such as Groupon have become popular. BuddeComm is following these developments with great interest and note that Google has another initiative underway called Google Offers.
• In the USA, close to $1 of every $10 dollars on discretionary spending is now spent online.
• Digital music sales generate billions in revenue worldwide each year and now accounts for around 30% of music companies' trade revenues.
• In its legislation of the National Broadband Network (NBN); the Australian government has made provision for the development of the Internet of Things.
• One fifth of Kenya's entire GDP now passes through the M-Pesa mobile money service in the form of person-to-person transactions.