It was founded as Skylist back in 1996, then acquired by digital marketing company PulsePoint in 2005. At the beginning of this year, it was acquired by Transition Capital Partners and Petra Capital Partners, turning it into what CEO Tony D’Anna described as an “independent private software company” (albeit one with private equity ownership) that’s “laser-focused” on email. This year’s report is by far the biggest collection of data and trends that we’ve ever published, and that increased breadth and depth is all thanks to the support of our amazing partners. The biggest disadvantage is that most advertising emails are sent to the spam folder. The fowls are all lean and hungry. Indeed, our careful analysis of data published by Google Trends reveals that today’s internet users are 80 percent more likely to search for Dogs than they are to search for Cats. Indeed, our analysis of the most recent data indicates that internet users have actually only grown by 98 million over the past twelve months. However, a far more storied battle has been taking place across the internet over the past 12 months. If the sun is shining, and there are no clouds in the sky, the singing of the birds and the smell of hay make a more vivid impression, and this reminder of spring sets one thinking and carries one’s fancy far, far away.
Cats appear to have the upper hand paw when it comes to Wikipedia though, and the number of people visiting the main page for Cats outnumbers those visiting the main Dog page by a ratio of more than two to one. Perhaps surprisingly though, the Dog page appeared on Wikipedia before the Cat page did – by a whole 34 days. Why was the health condition of Steve Jobs former Apple CEO, front page news in the tech world? There are 5.16 billion internet users in the world today, meaning that 64.4 percent of the world’s total population is now online. A total of 5.44 billion people use mobile phones in early 2023, equating to 68 percent of the total global population. But digital use still varies meaningfully around the world. The time that internet users spend online varies meaningfully by geography and demography, but similar declines are visible throughout the data.
However, the recent relaxation of China’s “zero COVID” policies may result in the country’s internet users spending more time out in the wider world over the coming weeks, potentially resulting in them spending less time online. In many ways they’re right – they grew up with the technology no other generation had and saw some incredible world events. We saw a jump in that average in Q2 2020, when lockdowns drove many people to rely on the internet for almost everything in their daily lives, but the downward trend that we saw before COVID has since returned, and the current average of just over 7 is the lowest it’s ever been. However, as restrictions have eased and people have ventured back out into the world, many of those “pandemic habits” have waned, and in many cases, people have returned to patterns of behaviour that closely resemble those that we saw before the pandemic.
There are now 4.76 billion social media users around the world, equating to just under 60 percent of the total global population. Furthermore, Northern America only accounts for 6.7 percent of the world’s total internet population. The world’s population passed 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and has reached 8.01 billion at the start of 2023. Just over 57 percent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. The average amount of time that people spend using the internet hasn’t changed over the past three months though, so it’s unclear whether we’ll see these figures fall further. A similar decline is evident in the types of websites and apps we use too, with the average number of options chosen by GWI’s survey respondents falling by 3.5 percent over just the past five quarters. Use email marketing, be creative and enjoy the experience. The best marketers today are strong across all areas of marketing, and have deep skills in two or three disciplines.