Online Real Estate Sector Benefits from Housing Market Improvement

Market reports confirm that the housing market in the U.S. is beginning to show signs of improvement. According to the National Association of Realtors, in January sales of existing homes grew 0.4% over December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million. The housing inventory also shrunk to its lowest since December 1999, with inventory falling 4.9% over December and 25.3% over the previous year to 1.74 million homes. At the current selling pace, the inventory is expected to be exhausted within four months. Low inventory levels and 40% growth in buyer interest is also helping drive prices upward. The median national price grew 12% over the year to $173,600 in January. The median listing time for sales also fell 28% to 71 days in January. Improving housing market conditions are helping the performance of the online real estate sector.

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Dell Goes Private to Reinvent Itself

Gartner’s worldwide PC shipment report for the final quarter of last year showed that PC shipments fell 4.9% over the year to 90.3 million units; the decrease was driven by increasing adoption of tablets. PC shipments in the U.S. fell 2.1% over the year to 17.5 million units in the quarter. The EMEA region did not fare any better, as PC shipments fell 10% to 28.1 million units, and shipments in Asia Pacific fell 1.8% to 29.9 million units. Gartner believes that the decline in computer sales was accelerated by the availability of low-cost tablets during the previous year. PC sales refused to pick up during the holiday season as consumers preferred to give tablets instead of PCs as gifts. Earlier, analysts were hopeful that the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8 would help drive growth in PC shipments. However, the muted reaction received to the new OS did not do much good for the industry.

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Disney’s Digital Growth

According to a report by the Digital Entertainment Group, the U.S. home entertainment market grew 2.5% a year ago to $4.5 billion during the first quarter last year. The home entertainment market includes purchases, subscriptions, and rentals of DVDs, Blu-ray discs and online content. For the 12-month period, sales for the market were down 2.1% to $18 billion. But the quarter was the second consecutive quarter of growth, suggesting a recovery on the way. Twenty-three percent growth in sales of Blu-ray discs was offset by the continued decline in DVD sales. Overall, sales of both Blu-ray and DVD packages fell 0.6% over the year to $2.1 billion. The biggest growth was seen in revenues from online subscriptions for services such as Netflix and Hulu, which reported a fivefold increase to $548.6 million. Entertainment giant The Walt Disney Company is also rapidly adapting to digital trends.

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OpenX’s Growth Story

Research firm Informa Telecoms and Media estimates that the worldwide mobile advertising market was worth $8 billion last year, and it is projected to grow to $12.8 billion during the current year. This rapid growth represents a major opportunity for platform providers as well. Here is a quick glance into the performance of one such company, OpenX.

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Viadeo Is Acting Local, Thinking Global

According to an eMarketer report published earlier last year, the number of social network users globally was projected to grow 19.2% over the year to 1.43 billion in 2012. Growth in social network use is estimated to be driven by the increasing adoption of Facebook worldwide. But besides personal use, social media is also gaining popularity in professional networks. LinkedIn remains synonymous with professional social networks. Another lesser known professional network, Viadeo, has also built a strong base.

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Infusionsoft Growing Steadily

According to a TechNavio report, the worldwide marketing automation market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 8.2% from 2011 through 2015. Growth is driven by the increasing availability and adoption of SaaS-based marketing tools that help companies, both big and small, to automate their marketing solutions. While the market is dominated by offerings from giants such as Salesforce.com, there are also plenty of smaller vendors that are focusing on providing access to the SMB segment and seeing rapid expansion themselves.

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AppGratis’s Inventive Offering

A research conducted by MarketsandMarkets estimates the global mobile applications market to be worth $25 billion by 2015, compared with $6.8 billion in 2010. The app market is dominated by North America, which contributes 42% of the market share. But European markets are projected to grow more rapidly than North America to $8.4 billion, making Europe the biggest market by 2015.

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FireEye Prepares for IPO

According to market reports, the global cyber security market is projected to grow annually at 11.3% to $120 billion by 2017. Growth is projected to be driven by the emerging markets of Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Cyber security startup FireEye is counting on these market opportunities for growth.

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Indian IT Outsourcers Continue to Grow, Way Past $100 Billion

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian IT industry is expected to grow 11%-14% over the year during the current year after surpassing the $100 billion mark last year. Recent results announcement by leading IT players in India saw more mixed results. Players are looking at global expansion of operations and talent pool while focusing on product growth to capture the high-growth market.

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Vantiv’s High Growth Rate

According to The Nilson Report, personal consumption expenditures in the U.S. using credit and debit cards and other electronic payments amounted to $4.48 trillion in 2009. Consumption is projected to grow annually at 8% over the year to $7.23 trillion in 2015. Payment processing firms are intermediaries that help complete electronic transactions between the merchant and the financial institution in return for a transaction fee.

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