Gartner Media estimates that by 2011, 80% of Internet users worldwide will have an avatar, making animated online personas as common as screen names.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) announced that the 2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report shows Internet advertising revenues in the US continued their upward climb. For the full year 2007, revenues totaled $21.2 bln, exceeding 2006 performance by 26%, itself the former record year. Q4 2007 Internet advertising revenues hit $5.9 bln, representing historic revenues for a single quarter and a 24% increase over the same period in 2006. This is the fourth consecutive year and 13th consecutive Q of record results.

eCPMs for large Web sites (more than 100 mln page views per month) dropped dramatically by 52% from 38 cents in March 2008 to 18 cents in April 2008. Medium Web sites (1 mln to 100 mln page views per month) were nearly flat, with monetization dropping from 34 cents in March 2008 to 33 cents in April 2008. Small Web sites managed to improve their monetization, increasing from $1.18 in March 2008 to $1.29 in April 2008, Pubmatic says.

Americans spent $1.23 bln on video games, hardware and accessories in April 2008, up 47% from April 2007. Total hardware sales grew 26% to $426.2 mln, with the Wii selling 714,200 units, followed by the handheld Nintendo DS at 414,800. Software sales surged to $654.7 mln from $389.4 mln in April 2007. Grand Theft Auto IV was April’s best-selling game. In the US, GTA IV sold about 2.9 mln units in April 2008 for the Xbox 360 and the PS3. Of this, nearly 1.9 mln copies went to the Xbox, NPD says.

Largest cable companies in the US added 1.19 mln broadband subscribers in Q1 2008, according to Leichtman Research Group. Phone companies added 1.01 mln DSL customers in Q1 2008. Since Q3 2004, phone companies had been adding subscribers faster than cable, closing in on cable’s lead in total subscribers. But that lead is now widening, with cable companies having a total of 34.7 mln subscribers compared with 29.5 mln at the phone companies.

Both the inkjet and laser multifunction peripherals enjoyed a healthy growth of 11% and 13% respectively in Q4 2007 in China, according to IDC. The demand from the public, education and financial sectors increased the sales of the SDM (Serial Dot Matrix) printer, resulting in a 16% increase in Q4 2007. IDC expects demand for SDM printers to continue through 2008.

In 2008, radio is mentioned as the medium “you turn to first to learn about new music” by about half of consumers (49%), with internet at 25%, according to Edison Media Research. In 2002, radio was mentioned by nearly two-thirds of consumers (63%) and only 9% mentioned internet.

18% of consumers have ever listened to an audio podcast; up from 13% in 2007. 9% have listened to an audio podcast in the past month (an estimated 23 mln) , according to Edison Media Research. For the third straight year, awareness of XM and Sirius hovers around 60%. 16% nonsubscribers are very/somewhat likely to sign up for satellite radio in next year.

72% of teens who write for personal reasons say they usually write longhand, similar to the 65% of teens who usually write by hand for school, according to Pew Internet Project. However, teens are much more likely to write only by hand when doing non-school writing. 32% of teens never use a computer at all when writing for their own personal enjoyment; by contrast, just 9% do their school writing by hand only. Whites and older teens are again the most prolific computer users when it comes to nonschool writing.

The weekly online radio audience increased in the past year to an estimated 33 mln. 13% of the US population age 12 and older have listened to online radio in the past week; up from 11% (approximately 29 mln) in 2007, according to Edison Media Research. On a weekly basis, online radio reaches more than one in seven 25-54-year olds (15%). AM/FM radio continues to have a big impact on people’s lives. 21% of consumers said radio is the audio platform/device that has the biggest impact on people’s lives, second only to mobile phones (33%).

The number of social network users in five major Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) more than doubled from January 2007 to to January 2008 - it was up 103% - according to an Analytics 2.0. During the same period, the number of US Hispanic and Puerto Rican social-network users increased 48%.