That Facebook is in the top three of most visited websites in the U.S., and the most visited social media in North America does come as a surprise. But that Facebook tops the list of most visited in Africa (over 17 million users) is not as obvious. This fact, together with that the continent now has more than 600 million mobile phone users opens up for major opportunities for businesses using social media. Africa has had the highest rise of mobile Internet penetration in recent years and by 2016 it is estimated that there will be 1 billion phones in Africa*. Further sign of the Facebook’s significance is that it has already been launched in 3 of the major languages – Swahili, Hausa and Zulu.

Except for the extensive growth and future outcomes, one interesting thing with Internet usage in Africa is that it is currently used different as in rest of the developed world. In Africa Internet is primarily used for using social media and be entertained, whereas in the developed world Internet is used to find things, check e-mail, and do social media. In other words the increased usage of Internet in Africa is highly connected to use of social medias, namely Facebook. Moreover if knowledge sharing could be integrated into social media, not only using it for entertainment, could be the beginning of something big.

* Map shows social media area of usage in Africa (grey fields = no data)

 *http://www.screenafrica.com/page/news/africa/1402055-The-rise-of-social-media-in-Africa#.UKyuQqVnoTV

SAS’s risk for bankruptcy have dominated the Swedish newspapers the last couple of days, and caused a lot of worry for some of my Swedish friends here at UBC. Yesterday the announcements that everybody hoped for came; SAS managed to reach a deal with trade unions to avoid bankruptcy. SAS personnel have worked day and night to manage the crisis and one of the things that caught my attention was the great focus on how SAS successfully have managed to keep customer informed by being highly active on social medias, namely Twitter. Cecilia Saberi is responsible for the company’s online communication and she is the one who have been acclaimed for her heroic Twitter effort. Cecilia believes social media is a golden opportunity to account for the company’s motto “Service and simplicity”, and have therefore continued put effort into it after the success of reaching out to customers via social medias during last year’s ash-clouds crisis.

I believe this is a very relevant example that correlates to what we have learnt in class about how companies can leverage social medias. Customers have noticed that they can receive answers quicker by the use of social medias (compared to e.g. phone) and it is important for companies to recognize this, especially in crisis. SAS have understood that the key to effective customer support is on social media is response time, and this has led to loads of positive comments around the company after the crisis.

A friend of me recently posted Air New Zealand’s new in-flight safety video on my Facebook. Since I have never flown with them, a legitimate question would be – why? The answer is simple; it is not a regular safety video. Air New Zealand has a record of spicing up their videos for increased attention; in the past the national rugby team and Richard Simmons has starred in their videos. This time the video was Tolkien inspired, relating to the release of the new Hobbit movie. The movie manages to have a great deal of humour in it, and still be informative and professional. I find it interesting how Air New Zealand increases the passenger’s awareness of the safety concerns, Air New Zealand and the movie at the same time by only using a video. This shows how great power social videos has, and explains why they are on the rise.

eMarketer defines social videos as video advertising or content that easily can be shared on social medias, email lists etc., often being longer than traditional advertisements (15-30 seconds). In their recent article “Social Video: The Next Wave in Digital Advertising”, they show that 1,362,9 million social videos where viewed in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 773 in last years first quarter. Social videos has proven to be able to reach out beyond the original target audience, and makes it easier for the marketers to determine the return on investments, compared to traditional advertisements. This is something Air New Zealand is well aware of and is managing successfully. Who would have thought that an In-flight safety video ever would achieve viral success? Not me, but as the rise of social videos continues it probably won’t be long until next unexpected video advertisement pops up on my Facebook.

“An unexpected briefing”: http://youtu.be/cBlRbrB_Gnc

My university recently reached the next level in Dropbox’s Space Race, a competition that aims to refer Dropbox to classmates in order to get increased space. Thanks to my university’s great amount of referrals I know have 8 GB. Dropbox have been the only online cloud storage service for me since I first got introduced to the concept. It was not until Google introduced Google Drive that I started to reflect and further look into the alternative free cloud store services that are out there, and I discovered several services offering the same amount of space, or more, and that are seen to be better than Dropbox. Examples are Sugar Sync, File Savr, Glide and Google Drive. Glide having the impressing amount of 30GB available free.

I find it interesting that I always have had Dropbox without even considering looking into alternatives, which leads to the next question – how do they work to attract new and keep current customers? The two obvious and crucial factors are space vs. price. Dropbox was successful in managing the freemium model (basic features free, pay to get further benefits) in a time where there where not much competition. However, today there are a vast variety of different similar services, offering higher space limit than Dropbox without extra charge (e.g. Glide). Even among the most known services that aims at the consumer and home user (Google Drive, iCloud, and Microsofts SkyDrive) Dropbox is offering the least amount of space, 2GB. Dropbox’s Space Race is a sign that Dropbox feels threatened, and the competition makes the service superior in free space over Google Drive, iCloud, Sugar sync and SkyDrive. It is important to remember that Dropbox is a very strong brand, but so is Google which additionally offers popular connecting features as e.g. Google Docs, that ads value to its cloud service. Thanks to the success in the competition I have decided to stay with Dropbox for time being, but more and more of my files are added to Google drive. I’m looking forward in following the development of free online cloud services and see if for how long the companies will be able to charge for x amount of space.

In April 2011 Internet Explorer had a 57,8 per cent market share, in October 2011 it went below 50%, and earlier this year Google Chrome (who had about 18% market share in beginning of 2011) overtook Internet Explorer. Google’s web browser now has a market share of 35%, which is the largest share among the top 5 web browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Opera). After Chrome past Firefox in November 2011 it only took one year for Chrome to overtake Internet Explorer (IE). From the beginning of 2011 Chromes growth compared to IE:s decline is in a similar rate, while the other browsers remain fairly steady; showing that Chrome was stealing market share from IE. Some journalists earlier this year believed Chrome’s share will go beyond 50% in the end of this year, which is not impossible but having 35% last month I see it as unlikely. Even though Chrome is in the lead now it is an industry where a lot can happen in a short time. As more and more of our daily functions and data store requirements move to the Internet we are likely to see an interesting and highly competitive battle between the browsers in the near future.

I stumbled in to these figures when investigating my client’s compatibility to different web browsers, and I think it is fascinating how the domination of Google is found in so many different areas. I also find it interesting what makes people choose one browser over another. The main reasons behind my changes have been due to change of computer and referrals from friends, hence these are the two reasons that come to mind.  But I guess, as internet-usage increases people are getting more aware of what they are looking for in a good browser. It will be very interesting to see how the market share is distributed in two years from now, as the knowledge of the consumer increases.