25% of Internet users bought DVDs/Videos online in Q4 2007, with UK users topping the list (44%), followed by South Africans (38%). The US was 5th at 31%, according to Nielsen.

The consumer goods category once again saw significant growth gaining 23% to nearly 36 mln visitors, according to comScore. OfficeMax led the category with 15.3 mln visitors, up 170%. Other consumer goods sites achieving growth included QVC Sites, up 3% to 6.1 mln visitors, and Hammacher Schlemmer’s site Hammacher.com, up 9%to 807,000 visitors. The retail - music category posted a 17% increase to nearly 28 mln visitors, led by Barnes & Noble with 9.3 mln visitors (up 20%), CDUniverse.com with 3.5 mln visitors (up 4%) and eMusic with 3.4 mln visitors (up 89%). December saw shipping sites jump as consumers shipped and anxiously awaited their holiday deliveries. The category rose 21% to 37 mln visitors for December, with UPS Sites leading the category with 18.3 mln visitors (up 34%), followed by USPS.com with 16.8 mln visitors (up 19%) and FedEx with 12.3 mln visitors (up 28%).

Playing games for kids is the most prevalent activity on the four key devices: 84% are gaming on a computer, videogame system, portable digital music player (PDMP) or cell phone, according to NPD. Also, more than 50% are listening to music, and one-third are communicating with images or interacting with various video formats. 46% of kids download ring tones/ring tunes, 43% of them sharing pictures/images account for 46% and 43%.

Acision announced that according to their figures, global SMS traffic over the 2007/2008 New Year period increased by 30% compared to the same period in 2007. Around the world, phone users sent a staggering 43 bln text messages to wish their loved ones a happy New Year – of which more than 23 bln were successfully processed through Acision’s systems.

CenterBlog.net was the top gaining property in France in December 2007, growing 38% to 1.8 mln visitors, followed by genealogy property, Notrefamille.com sites, also up 38% to 1.7 mln visitors. 40% gaining properties came from the online retail sector. Shopzilla.com Sites enjoyed a 32% increase to 1.8 mln visitors, Groupe LDLC.com grew 13% to 3.2 mln, Amazon Sites grew 13% to 6.8 mln, and Ciao Sites also grew 13% to 3.8 mln visitors.

Source: comScore

Holiday travel plans and winter storms sent Americans searching for weather forecasts, resulting in a 14% increase in visitors to weather sites, according to comScore. The Weather Channel topped the category with 40.7 mln visitors, up 19% from November 2007. Sites experiencing significant growth included Yahoo! Weather (up 23% to 12.5 mln visitors), AOL Weather (up 52% to 6.3 mln visitors) and MSN Weather (up 34% to 5.8 mln visitors).

The Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market grew 20.9% to reach 66.6 mln units in 2007, according to IDC. In Q4 2007 PC market grew 1% sequentially and 21% year-on-year to reach 18.1 mln units. Singapore PC market continued to meet expectations in Q4 2007 with 22% growth YTY. Hong Kong’s PC market continued to do well, beating forecasts by 7%.

On average, kids $6-12 on some type of digital content each month and between $13 and $18 on physical content, according to NPD.

In December 2007, MySpace received 95% of its share of traffic from returning visitors. Among the top five social networking websites by market share, Facebook and BlackPlanet.com followed with 93 and 89%, respectively, of traffic returning from the previous month, according to Hitwise.

YouTube captured the largest share of user-generated video comments, with 79.9% in 2007, followed by MySpace TV with 13%, according to AccuStream iMedia. MySpace TV averaged 36.9 comments per video throughout 2007. Metacafe’s library generated an average of 32.3, followed by YouTube at 25.4.

2007 television revenues were $22.2 bln - a 2% decrease from $22.7 bln in 2006, according to BIA Financial Network. In 2007 there were sales of 294 stations for an estimated $4.6 bln, compared with 202 sold in 2006 for a price of $18.1 bln.

NPD Group finds that while most teens and tweens are using paid music download services these days, they’re also still using pirate sites at a high rate. Up to 70% of U.S. kids aged 9 - 14 download music in a given month. Almost half, or 49% use iTunes, while another 26% use Limewire. MySpace was listed as the third most popular site for sharing music, at 16%.

Globally, the most popular and purchased items over the Internet are books (41%% in Q4 2007), clothing/accessories/shoes (36%), videos / DVDs / games (24%), airline tickets (24%) and electronics(23%), according to Nielsen. The number of Internet consumers buying books over the Internet has increased 7% in 2006-2007 but the biggest increase has been in Clothing / Accessories / Shoes which increased from 20% to 36%.

Source: comScore

Online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60% saying they buy mostly from the same site. In selecting sites on which to shop, 33% used a search engine or just surfed around to find the best online store. 25% relied on personal recommendations, according to Nielsen.

The top five Super Bowl advertisers of the past 20 years have spent $659 mln on advertising during the game, accounting for 36% of total advertising dollars spent in the game, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Anheuser Busch and Pepsico, which have appeared in every game during this period, lead the pack, followed by General Motors, Time Warner and Walt Disney.

For the full year 2007, total worldwide PC processor shipments grew 12.6% compared to 2006, according to IDC. Total revenues grew 1.7% to $30.55 billion. The disparity of unit growth and revenue growth indicates the degree of price erosion that occurred early in the year 2007.

Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 3.6 mln in 2007, a record year for the industry and an increase of more than six percent over 2006 numbers, according to Newspaper Association of America (NAA). Monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged 62.8 mln in Q4 2007, a record number in itself and the largest in any quarter since NAA began tracking online usage in January 2004.