The top 5 digital stories of 2009

Before we head in to 2010 and look at some of the potential trends for the year, I wanted to look back and review the top 5 digital stories of 2009. All of which have had a major impact on how we plan and use digital channels and technology, and all of which will undoubtedly form a significant part of the landscape and our thinking for next year. So in no particular order:

1. Facebook’s remarkable growth

Ah how predictable, but 2009 has been a quite phenomenal year for Mark Zuckerburg and team. They started the year with on-going negative press over the beacon debacle, and with 'only' 150m users worldwide. They end the year with over 300m and are still growing; despite the rise and rise of Twitter. The launch of Facebook Connect has further embedded Facebook in to the landscape, and that has over 60m users across over 10,000 websites.

We’ve also seen Facebook really take off as a branding and marketing tool, with Facebook pages replacing traditional websites, streamed live events, advertising explosion and perhaps most excitingly, the launch of a couple of ecommerce pages. The ecommerce opportunity in particular, could well be Facebook’s major revenue opportunity in years to come, as they take a % of the sales for brands selling on their platform.

2. Digital media $ overtakes Television in the UK

Ooh I couldn’t resist sneaking this one in, yes in July this year the advertising money spent online in the UK surpassed that on Television for the first time, the first market in the world for this to happen (the vast majority of the money was spent on Search - 60%). The UK market is particularly unique of course, you can’t advertise on the most popular Television channel, and super fast unlimited broadband for all.

All roads point to this occurring in Australia around 2012/2013, as Search grows ever stronger, our advertising continues to get more sophisticated in the digital space and KRudd rolls out the Broadband network.

3. Twitter bursts in to the mainstream

Wow! 25billion tweets sent a day this month, from around 5 billion in January tells us enough about Twitter's growth this year.

But it's the impact the service has had on customer service, journalism and real-time searching that I see as most significant. Many brands are now actively embraced Twitter to manage customer service (Optus has a team of 80 managing tweet complaints/comments). Today’s news is now breaking from the hands of the consumer who are at major events (e.g. Hudson river crash) and the Iran election was a seminal moment in Twitter moving from technology focused to mainstream news. But it is Twitter's ability to deliver real-time search that is most exciting, something that had led to a scramble from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to deliver real-time search from the likes of Twitter. Watch out for the real-time battle hotting up in 2010.

4. The iPhone

You only need to look round the 303 office to see the impact the iPhone has had on the mobile market this year. From 0 mobile sales in early 2007, to 30m+ in 2009 and a 17% share of the market, and rising - fast. Almost more important than the handset share is the remarkable difference in data usage between iPhone users and other handsets. We are now chewing 7x more data than standard phone users, and twice as much as the BlackBerry crowd.

The app store is a major part of the revolution, with over 90,000 apps and 2 billion downloads (and a tidy profit for Apple thanks very much). Apps range from the quite ridiculous (playing the flute) to the quite remarkable (the Tom Tom sat nav, photoshop and many more). All roads point to even more success for Apple with the iPhone in 2010, despite significant pressure from the Android.

5. The arrival of Bing

Finally! A proper threat to Google's utter dominance of the search market, and certainly something the industry needs. Bing 'the decision engine' has got some reasonable traction in the market since the launch in June, and some excellent reviews from people in the know.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, they’ve not eaten away at Google’s dominance just yet, but there is at least a platform to launch from, and with the deal with Yahoo struck – where Bing powers Yahoo search, Microsoft will have a 30% share of the Search market. A platform for which to try and eat away at Google’s phenomenal power.

So, there it is – some of the big stories in Digital in 2009. There were plenty more, notably Social Gaming, Augmented Reality, Susan Boyle, Android and online video - some of which form a significant part of the landscape for 2010 and beyond.

We’ll be back in the New Year, firstly with a look at some of the key trends for 2010.

Thanks for all your support this year.

Nic and team