• However, four Facebook-owned social platforms appear among the top six, with a combined figure of more than two billion downloads

• This accounts for almost half of the Top 10’s global download figures

A new study shows that while TikTok has been revealed as the world’s most popular and downloaded mobile app, social media giant Facebook dominates the market with four of its platforms.

Research conducted by app development company Bacancy Technology outlines that social video-sharing platform TikTok was downloaded a total of 850 million times last year, receiving 250 million more downloads than the second most popular app on the list, WhatsApp.

However, having acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, Facebook takes up four spots in the Top 10 most popular apps of 2020, with a combined total of more than two billion downloads. This figure accounts for 46% of the total download figures within the top 10 list.

Following last year’s increase in remote working, conference call platform Zoom – which ranks fifth on the global list – received 477 million downloads last year, coupled with an increase in revenue of 317% over figures from 2019.

Top 10 Global Apps of 2020

Assessing a number of the most popular social platforms, the United States – which has the third largest population count in the world – ranks as the country with the highest active user counts for Tiktok, Instagram and Snapchat. India, with the second highest population in the world, has the largest amount of users of both WhatsApp and Facebook.

Country with highest users counts for Apps (raw user figures)

However, analysing an app’s number of users as a percentage of each country’s population reveals that TikTok has the highest penetration in the Netherlands with 22% of its population using TikTok. This is followed by the US (19%) and Norway (18%).

Read More: The Most Popular SMEs Industries Booming On TikTok

Seven in 10 Spanish citizens are actively using Whatsapp, while three quarters of the population of the Philippines have active profiles on Facebook – a figure that trumps both America (57%) and the UK (55%).

Half of the Turkish population are active on their Instagram accounts – representing the country with the highest usage, and the same can be said of Snapchat’s popularity in Saudi Arabia, with 50% of the population holding active user accounts.

Naturally, these figures do not factor in fake accounts or users that may have more than one social media account, though they show an interesting indication of each app’s global popularity.

Country with highest users counts for Apps (as a percentage of population)

TikTok triumphs once again as the world’s highest-grossing app, with reported revenue of 540 million USD last year. Despite lockdown restrictions limiting face-to-face contact, online dating platform Tinder lands in second place with 513 million USD, and streaming video giant YouTube rounds off the top three, snatching up 478 million USD.

Highest grossing app of 2020 (Global)

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for Bacancy Technology said: “Lockdown restrictions and the ‘stay at home’ mantra of 2020 caused many of us to turn to the internet and various apps for entertainment and to indulge in some level of human interaction. TikTok’s seemingly endless library of entertainment has clearly captured the attention of millions of people, while the staple social media apps continue to be an integral part of our daily lives.”

This research was conducted by app development company Bacancy Technology, an exclusive hub of top software developers, UI/UX designers, QA experts and more, offering development services aimed at the creation of high-end, enviable applications.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Facebook Dominates App Market During Lockdown appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Recruit Affiliates

In case you haven’t heard about online affiliate marketing yet, you might be missing out on an important tool. You are not only going to get sales, but the affiliates you recruit will create a buzz about your brand left, right, and center. Even if they don’t make a sale, the content and the links they place online will help you get better ranking on search engines and improved visibility at the same time.

Create a Solid Sales Funnel

If you only have individual websites and social media profiles, and they don’t work well together to drive visitors to your offers, chances are that you need to create a sales funnel. You can skyrocket your conversions using marketing funnels and improve your customer and lead engagement. From newsletter sequences to retargeting ads, popups, upsell and downsell offers, you will be able to do more while spending less time.

Schedule Your Social Media

Social media schedulers and managers are a part of the essential marketing tactics of the 21st century. You don’t want to sit by the computer or browse different social media platforms to find out what works and create content all day. Instead, it is important that you save time and manage your campaigns. You can’t manually follow up every lead you generate on social media, but you can certainly improve your communication by staying engaged.

Get Coaching

It might also be a good idea to update your knowledge on the latest digital marketing and sales trends. You can find a sales consultant who will help you identify the best opportunities and eliminate the weaknesses of your strategy. Sometimes changing one word in your headline or altering the intro of your follow-up call will transform your results.

Measure And Tweak to Improve ROI

The latest social media and SEO tools will allow you to manage your campaigns from everywhere. However, you can also see the statistics of all pages and posts, and find out what is doing well in your market, so you can create more content that is similar. Once you learn how to track your visitors and conversions, you can make small tweaks to your marketing campaigns that will save you time and money, increasing your return on investment.

Marketing your business manually can be time consuming and exhausting. Take advantage of the help and tools available out there, and you can get more value for your invested time and money.

This is an article provided by our partners network. It might not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of our editorial team and management.
Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post No Time for Marketing Your Business? Use These Hacks appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

The rapid growth of these channels, such as Twitter and Facebook as well as the proliferation of corporate blogging (which, while still a force, has been stalled by the social media rise), is indicative of a broader, sweeping change in the ways that businesses are using these tools to connect and engage with their customers.

This infographic from Go Gulf takes a closer look at the social media statistics of Fortune 500 companies.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Social Media Statistics of Fortune 500 Companies appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Why Google and Facebook are the biggest Open Research platforms?

When thinking about open research one might look primary at Universities: MIT, Standford, Cambridge,  Oxford, CBS and many other top universities worldwide. When looking at open research one can have a look at sophisticated innovative platforms getting real time data using very advanced software.

But after some time thinking one understands that the largest direct research and marketing platforms in the world are software companies, websites and social media platforms. Indeed, the most important research and data can now be found in massive platforms such as the search engine  Google; the multiple product platform that recently embarked into social media as well. Also, not forgetting  the massive Social media platform – Facebook. If you have some doubts I will try to explain why I have this conclusion.

Defining Open research

Defining Open research as an activity conducted in the spirit of free and open source software brings us to the idea of looking at both platforms in which most of the data is based. When not based there the data somehow is agregated and united there. Much like open source schemes that are built around a source code that is made public. Both Google and Facebook are at the moment matrix places and destinies for where the main drivers for research somehow can be found and data mined.

Having considered that the central theme of open research is to make clear accounts of the methodology freely available via the web, and online devices along with, any data or results extracted or derived from them of course one needs to bare in mind these two platforms as the main central platforms of research. Looking at these platforms as  matrix places of research that permit a massively distributed collaboration, and one in which anyone may participate at any level of a research project.

Dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software is keyto research and business

At present the world is in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift where software companies, namelly web based or somehow powered by social technologies and venture international capital are poised to take over large sections of the economy. This creates new oportunities and challenges for old business models and changes the way research has been conducted. In this landscape the paper of research is still in its premium form based in Universities, research centers and scholar organisations of course. However the shift is that these places and the premium global centers for research have to look at the real time data of search engines and the social media web to be on the top of what are the trends and new developments. It is in here that Open research is taking its place and becoming the only way to go in parallel with ways of looking into change management and open business. Also it is here that Facebook and Google have been increasingly being part of the picture. But we can add as well other online critical tools for Open Research: Wikipedia, Amazon, LinkedIn, Slideshare, Twitter, Apple iTunes and Apps, open source tools and so forth.

A blurred world where economy works in parallel with crisis innovation: Open Research is  the new driver

Major businesses and industries are increasingly being run on as online services based on software. Most industries are shifting to this format: from entertainment, agriculture,  national organisations such as finance and banking to defense or any other area that can vary from B2B to B2C. Many of the winners in this new blurred world where economy works in parallel with crisis, innovation and research are somehow Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next years many more industries will be disrupted by fast research and new developments in software, online services, social business trends and data. It is in here that Open reserach can have and needs to be present as a driver of accelaration for knowledge learning and map new trends, oportunites and solutions to problems and issues.

Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago. Facebook reach is getting close to one billion users and it is expected at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones; giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet and Google hegemonic search results (and also Baidu and Yandex) every moment of every day.

On the back end Open Research needs to aim at making the world of information, knowledge and science more visible and accessible pooling together pieces of information from multiple platforms namelly Google and Facebook that constitute a vast knowledge base about who we all are, and what moves the world forward.

Maria Fonseca

Maria Fonseca is the Editor and Infographic Artist for IntelligentHQ. She is also a thought leader writing about social innovation, sharing economy, social business, and the commons. Aside her work for IntelligentHQ, Maria Fonseca is a visual artist and filmmaker that has exhibited widely in international events such as Manifesta 5, Sao Paulo Biennial, Photo Espana, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Joshibi University and many others. She concluded her PhD on essayistic filmmaking , taken at University of Westminster in London and is preparing her post doc that will explore the links between creativity and the sharing economy.

The post Are Google and Facebook the biggest Open Research platforms? appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Monetary rewards as necessary condition and signal for ethics and commitment

In my last post I talked about the importance of monetary and rewards and non-cash prices in social business as it attracts extrinsically motivated people and it shows the company’s attitude, recognition and commitment towards collaboration with external stakeholders. Attractive rewards signal that a business, company or organisation doesn’t want to exploit consumers but appreciates the effort that participants invest and the (potential) value that their submissions can create.

Social and Digital Co-creation experiences as sufficient condition

But everyone who has experience with co-creation projects knows that the key for a successful co-creation project lies in attracting and engaging intrinsically motivated people. Thus, if we want to increase the value for Co-Creators we first have to understand what motivates Co-Creators besides monetary rewards. What are their underlying intrinsic motives and what do they expect from co-creation initiatives in terms of the process and the outcomes.

I think Clay Shirky give some great insights into the role of intrinsic motivations on our behaviors. Clay Shirky has written a great book on “Cognitive surplus”.

And I think the phenomenon of “cognitive surplus” explains pretty good what is happening in social media and why consumers are willed to participate in co-creation. In his book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age and his TED Talk How cognitive surplus will change the world he is making the point that “people are now learning how to use more constructively the free time afforded to them since the 1940s for creative acts rather than consumptive ones, particularly with the advent of online tools that allow new forms of collaboration. But while social technologies enable creative activity, the underlying motives for work we do with our spare brain cycles aren’t fueled by external rewards but by intrinsic motivation—the joy of doing something for its own sake.”

The open source movement – with prominent examples like Wikipedia, linux or apache – is a great example that shows the power of intrinsic motivated people enabled and leveraged by social technologies. But why do consumers contribute to co-creation projects initiated by producers? In contrast to open source software where users immediately benefit from using their programmed code, consumers participating in virtual new product development will hardly ever be able to immediately benefit from using “their” innovation. If at all, the co-created products will be available on the market 6-12 months later at the earliest. Working on co-creation projects together with profit-oriented firms may further crowd-out voluntary participation. As motives depend on context, exploring who and why one engages in virtual cocreation projects initiated by producers is worthwhile.

Recent research from Johann Füller (CEO of HYVE and assistant professor at the University of Innsbruck) shows consumers’ motivations indeed determine their expectations towards the co-creation design. He highlights the differences between extrinsically and intrinsically motivated consumers as follows:

Proposed Impact of Motives on Expectations (Source: Füller 2010)

Results show that consumers engage in virtual co-creation for several reasons. He identifies six main co-creation motives:

• curiosity
• dissatisfaction with existing products
• intrinsic interest in innovation
• gain knowledge
• show ideas
• get monetary rewards

Cluster analysis further revealed that consumers differ in the motive structure that drives them to engage in virtual co-creation

• Reward oriented consumers (19,9%)
• Need driven consumers (26,3%)
• Curiosity-driven Consumers (27,8%)
• Intrinsically interested consumers (26%)

Cluster Means of the Four Different Consumer Types (Source: Füller 2010)

“The results indicate that, with the exception of reward-oriented consumers, monetary incentives are not as important for engagement in virtual co-creation. For participants, intangibles such as feedback or recognition as well as the interaction experience itself are amply rewarding. … Monetary rewards may be necessary, especially to avoid the impression that a successful company is ripping-off consumers’ creativity for free, but they are not sufficient if other incentive mechanism like feedback, recognition, or compelling experience are missing. The asserted legal rights should also be taken into consideration when determining the amount of the monetary compensation.”

As I said earlier and similar to Johann’s implication, I think monetary rewards are a very important aspect of co-creation in that case as it shows the company’s attitude, recognition and commitment towards collaboration with external stakeholders. Attractive rewards signal that the company doesn’t want to exploit consumers but appreciates the effort that participants invest and the (potential) value that their submissions can create. Nevertheless, if the intrinsic motives are not addressed and the interaction and resulting co-creation experience is not perceived as rewarding the project will fail. As I wrote in my prior post, I think rewards in terms of monetary and non-cash prices will become a more important factor that signals the ethics and commitment of the co-creation initiator (Necessary condition). But the commitment and quality of interaction between the participant and the brand will create a rewarding co-creation experience and valuable outcomes (Sufficient condition).

Implications:

• Different types of Co-Creators have different motives and expectations
• Extrinsic, monetary rewards are not the dominant driver of co-creation, but act as hygiene factor signaling the firm’s ethics and commitment towards co-creation (Necessary condition)
• Commitment and quality of interaction between the participant and the brand will create a rewarding co-creation experience and valuable outcomes (Sufficient condition)

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post What drives Co-creators beyond monetary rewards? appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Online Activism interview with Greenpeace Social Media Team

The organisations that will succeed will use their available resources to discover people who care about the same things they do and bring them together to achieve shared goals. Charities demonstrate the model. The cause-related enterprise, the belief-driven business – an organisational model which places the customer at the heart rather than at the end of the line. Belief delivers life-long and inter-generational affinity, passionate activism harnessed for common goals. Open Business Council interviews Laura Kenyon from Greenpeace and goes through these topics.

Interviewed with Greenpeace’s Laura Kenyon

Laura Kenyonis the Digital Communications Specialist at Greenpeace, whose use of social media has caused some of the largest companies to reverse their policies whilst knocking size-able figures off their share-value. If you haven’t seen any of their work check it out. I’ve listed some in the ppt above.

openbusinesscouncil.org: What you think the consequences of social media are to corporations today?
Greenpeace’s Laura Kenyon: Just as corporates are establishing large social media presences, activists are also establishing online spaces to hold them to account. Social media empowers people and amplifies their voices – this can take the form of demanding change from corporations whose business practices or policies are environmentally destructive. Corporations need to be accountable to society and their customers, and therefore they need to listen, respond and engage with people’s desire for a green and peaceful future – both online and offline.

openbusinesscouncil.org: How do you see your role and that of Greenpeace in this context? 
Greenpeace’s Laura Kenyon: Greenpeace aims to be an agent of change, we want to enable people to demand a better world and social media helps us do that. Millions of people have been able to participate in our campaigns online, and the personal actions of a motivated online supporter base were vital to successes such as Nestle’s commitment to changing its palm oil sourcing policies, or Apple’s agreement to remove toxic substances from its products.

openbusinesscouncil.org: What conclusions do you make for the future?
Greenpeace’s Laura Kenyon: Greenpeace will maintain a strong presence in social media – using the latest tools and communication channels where it is effective to challenge those who are involved in environmental destruction. We hope to empower more people to have civil courage and to amplify their voices when they speak out against injustice or for a better world. We are facing huge challenges in the environmental movement and will need every person and every tool available to us to keep moving forwards. Social media will no doubt continue to have an important role to play.

Many companies will and should be worried by this language. It may cause them to shift more spend into social media to combat it. But there is no company with enough money to beat the voice of the Internet just like there is no Government powerful enough.

So this is the new reality large companies are facing. But its clear the opportunities far outweigh the challenges. This is no longer about spending your way to a better reputation. It’s about building a better company – with your customers.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Open business: Online Activism interview with Greenpeace Social Media Team appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Research is critical for business. The systematic investigation about what is necessary for a given business, product, audience is something that any organisation needs to bear in mind, namely in a social media world. This can also be done though a concept of Open Research: a study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach the necessary conclusions about business.

Open Business Council in the ever increasing competitive landscapes, blurring and with bigger consumer demands is working and defends an open business approach with focus in agility. This is the only way for business’ capability to adapt rapidly and cost-efficient to that landscape and its target audiences. This is a critical area where the enablers – social media and co-creation – fuel business agility through continual innovation.

Social media as a doorway for opening up business

y using social media as a doorway and opening up business, entities that actually force/create the changes in demands are involved, to swiftly act and react with them and their intelligence. This applies to any supply- and value chain. When speaking about intelligence, this can be consumer insights (their needs and current experiences, market intelligence and competitive intelligence.

As resources spend in digital peer-to-peer environments rise, it is necessary a rapid and consequential change in the digital and social marketing way of management for organizations. Business needs to be open and to take control – to get serious with his propositions and efficient. The organization as a whole: infrastructure, work flows, stakeholders, technologies and so on, needs to be reconfigured and enhanced where needed for cost-efficient and effective social media usage. As soon as as the groundwork has been laid, it’s time to bring in the continual innovation process.

Continual innovation as the driver for business

Continual innovation “may be the most powerful of any competitive advantage for a business. It creates game-changing breakthroughs. Along parallel lines, bit by bit, it also tweaks improvements in existing products, chips away at costs and debugs processes — in every corner of the company, all non-stop. In a turbulent business environment like today’s, it’s essential for helping a business move from playing defense to playing an aggressive, and winning, offense.” Take this and overlay it with social media and co-creation, real-time consumer insights that can be extracted, molded and poured back into the right supply chain.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Open Research: consumer demand and business agility appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.