10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week

Here are some of the most interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week.

Stats include how Australian's use QR codes, the top brands on LinkedIn, the popularity of Wi-Fi instead over 3G, connected TV, and mobile use in France.

For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.

Two-thirds of Australians don’t know what QR codes are

• A new survey by Econsultancy and Toluna has revealed that 62% of Australian consumers don’t know what a QR codes are, or how to use them.
• Just over half (51%) of the 18-34 age demographic can recognise QR codes.
• Proportionately, 44% of males know what a QR codes are and how to use them, compared to 35% of females.
• Across all consumers who knew what QR codes are, nearly half (51%) had used one in the last three months.

Two seconds to playback

• According to a study conducted by computer science professor Ramesh Sitaraman, user expectations are extremely high for online video.
• In looking at some 23m video views generated by 6.7m unique users, Sitaraman found that users, not surprisingly, have no qualms about abandoning a video if it takes too long to play.
• Just how long is too long? By five seconds, 20% of users will leave for short-form video; purveyors of long-form video have a few seconds of wiggle room.
• All told, each second of delay after the first two seconds increases the abandonment rate by nearly 6%.

Affiliate Window’s mobile traffic

• Affiliate Window's latest mobile and m-commerce figures show that 10.7% of all sales were through mobile devices (including tablets) – up from 9.98% in September.
• Furthermore, 13.25% of traffic came through mobile devices - up from 12.79% in September. This falls to 7.76% if tablet traffic is stripped out - up from 7.48% in September.
• Mobile traffic is converting at 3.2% - up from 2.60% in September.

IBM and Coca-Cola are top brands on LinkedIn

• IBM, Coca-Cola and Hewlett-Packard are the top brands on LinkedIn in terms of driving engagement, according to a study by DigiDay.
• IBM generated 1.8m interactions on the social network last year and has accrued 779,000 fans. 
• Coca-Cola claimed second place in the rankings, again securing 1.8m comments, likes and shares from its 129,000 followers.

Red Bull is top for social video

• The first goviral Social Video Equity Report shows that Red Bull tops the list for the 100 most powerful brands in branded content in 2012. 
• The drink brands beat technology giants Google (2nd) and Samsung (5th), with Apple and Microsoft both failing to make the top ten, coming in at numbers 11 and 37 respectively.
• The top 10 was Red Bull, Google, Disney, Nike, Samsung, Old Spice, Prada, Coca-Cola, Nintendo and Adidas.

Wi-Fi delivers over three-quarters of all UK smartphone data

• UK Android smartphone owners transfer more than three-quarters (78%) of their internet content using Wi-Fi rather than 3G, according to data from Nielsen. 
• Wi-Fi usage increases each hour after 5pm, building to a peak between 11pm and midnight, when 90% of data transferred is via Wi-Fi. 
• Conversely, 3G data transfer tends to peak just before the working day starts, again at lunchtime, and finally during the early evening commute when users cannot rely so much on a Wi-Fi connection.

More than half of Brits have connected TV sets to the internet?

• Over half (55%) of people in Britain have connected their TV sets to the internet, according to a new study from YouGov.
• The study found that more than one in ten (11%) Brits intend to purchase a Smart TV in the next year and that the optimal price for a 32 inch HD Smart TV – based on the average amount this group is willing to pay – is £440. 
• The optimal price for a 42 inch version is £550. According to YouGov projections, sales of Smart TVs over the next year could equate to nearly £2.54bn.

PayPal and eBay predict m-commerce boom in Australia

• A new report from eBay and PayPal has predicted that m-commerce sales will reach A$5.6bn in Australia this year due to the rapid proliferation of smartphones and tablets.
• This is a massive growth from the total of just $155m in 2010.
• Based on a poll of 3,200 people, the study forecast that 64% of Australians would own a smartphone by the end of 2012, compared to 51% in 2011. These totals hit 39% and 18% respectively for tablets.

Majority of consumers are aware of online tracking

• A new survey by TRUSTe has found that 86% of respondents in the Netherlands were aware of internet browser cookies compared with 81% in Great Britain, 78% in Germany and 59% in France.
• The top 50 French websites are dropping nearly twice as many third party cookies (434) as Dutch websites (237).
• 71% of French respondents were very concerned about their privacy online compared with 69% in Great Britain, 62% in Germany and 48% in the Netherlands.
• The study included over 4,000 consumers (conducted online via Ipsos MORI’s iOmnibus survey in France, Germany, Great Britain and the Netherlands) and 200 top websites.

Vive le mobile revolution

• More than four in ten consumers now access the mobile internet in France, with growth driven by women and older users, according to a study by Médiamétrie.
• It found that 22.3m people went online via a mobile browser or app in Q3 2012, equivalent to a penetration rate of 41.2%.
• Some 23.8m consumers, or 46.6% of the population, now own a smartphone, up from 17m in Q3 2011.
• The market share of Apple's iPhone has declined from 26.6% to 21% during this period, while Android’s market share increased from 33.2% to 45.1%.