Angie’s List’s Woes

Local business reviews have a significant influence on a consumer’s decision about a local service provider. A survey conducted by UK firm BrightLocal found that 55% of consumers in the U.S. rely more on a local business if they read a positive online review of it. In fact, 67% of users trusted online reviews as much as a word-of-mouth recommendation for a local business. But while consumers may be willing to trust online reviews, firms such as Angie’s List (Nasdaq:ANGI) are still struggling to turn the concept of a reviews engine into a profitable business.

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SurveyMonkey Holds Off On IPO

Industry research firm IBISWorld recently found that the online survey software industry grew 9.3% annually over the five-year period through 2011. The industry was estimated to be worth $2 billion in 2011. The researcher expects growth to continue. By 2016, the market is projected to be worth $3.1 billion, with an average annual growth rate of 9.6%.

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Amazon to Get Exclusive Streaming License for “Downton Abbey”

According to eMarketer, worldwide ecommerce sales crossed $1 trillion last year. E-commerce sales were driven by growth in North America and Asia Pacific, where sales grew 14% and 33%, respectively. The North American market remained the leader with sales of $365 billion, but Asia Pacific markets are catching up and reported sales of $332 billion for the year. The researcher estimates global e-commerce sales to grow to $1.3 trillion this year. Sales in the U.S. are projected to grow to $385 billion in 2013 from an estimated $343 billion last year.

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Cvent: A Turnound Story Looking for an IPO

According to the Trade Show and Conference Planning Market Research report by IBIS World, despite continuing pressure on margins, organizations are spending more on organizing marketing events and conferences. Within the U.S., the industry was estimated to grow 3% over the year to $13 billion in 2012.

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Apple Faces Competition

Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) delivered a mixed first quarter performance. Analysts were worried that Steve Jobs’s death in October 2011 would hurt the tech giant, and some of their worries seem to be justified. Apple’s stock has fallen 35% since it touched its peak last fall. New products have done well in terms of reporting sequential and annual growth, but some of them, such as Apple’s tablets, are losing market share to competition. For the health of the industry, competition is good.  >>>

Facebook’s Series A Crunch Acqui-Hiring Party

According to eMarketer, U.S. display advertising grew 22% last year to $14.98 billion. Google remains the leader in display advertising with 15% of market share. But Facebook is gradually catching up. The social networking site saw display advertising market share grow from 14.1% in 2011 to 14.4% last year.

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Market Likes Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo

Yahoo’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, seems to be doing well at the helm of the troubled company. For the second quarter since her appointment, Yahoo has delivered strong results.  Yahoo recorded its first revenue growth in the past four years. It looks like Yahoo may finally be on course to a positive turnaround.

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Can Lumia Help Nokia Remain Relevant?

Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) woes continued during the last quarter. According to an IDC report, in the December quarter sales of smartphones reached 219 million worldwide, compared with 161 million a year ago and 180 million a quarter ago. But Nokia is not enjoying this increase: researchers estimate that for the year 2012, Samsung’s smartphone market share grew from 20% to 30%, with shipments of more than 213 million units. Apple’s share remained constant at 19% of the market, but Nokia’s share dropped sharply from 15% to 5% during the year.

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Netflix’s Stellar Quarter

Till a year ago, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) seemed to be going downhill. A hasty decision by the management to increase prices and split streaming and DVD rental services was not well received by either subscribers or the stock market. Netflix subsequently recalled its decision to raise prices. The decreasing pace of new subscriber additions, rising content costs, and continuing losses incurred on account of expansion in new markets did not bode well for the stock. But within a year, the story seems to have taken a positive turn. In fact, after the announcement of the company’s quarterly results earlier last week, the stock jumped 42% within a day.

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Microsoft’s Products Disappoint

According to the recent Gartner report, worldwide PC shipments fell 5% over the year to 90.3 million units during the final quarter of 2012. The decline in PC sales was attributed to the growing adoption and availability of low-cost tablets that replaced the PCs. Analysts were expecting Windows 8 to impact PC shipments during the final quarter of 2012, but the new software has failed to live up to expectations.

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