STREAMING . . . INSIDE THE NUMBERS:  Yesterday the research company Fluent released a comprehensive study on the state of streaming in the US.  What makes this report so interesting is that they combined all forms of audio streaming, like YouTube and GooglePlay Music, instead of just focusing on the pureplay streaming pubs.  They also went in depth on the breakout of free vs. subscription streaming, and even delved in to why listeners choose to subscribe or not.  It’s a lengthy report, so I’ll give you some of the highlights.  The younger demos are heavy streamers with 92% of Gen-Zs and 91% of Millennials listening to some form of “all in” streaming daily.  Fluent also estimates 25% of streaming listeners have a paid subscription, and provides a ranker of what percentage of the population listens to each streaming platform – image below.  This research definitely speaks to the popularity of audio streaming and helps validate the Triton and Edison numbers we regularly see.

TWITTER GETS “SIR MARTIN SLAMMED”:  There were some on-stage fireworks yesterday at the Dmexco media conference.  The source of the scrum was WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell’s live interview with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, as described in the following AdExchanger link.  Mr. Sorrell pressed Mr. Dorsey on the monetization aspect of Twitter’s business model, and he did it in a parental sort of way.  The basic line of questioning was why Twitter can’t be stronger in its ad business to compete with Google and Facebook.  WPP, like all agency holding companies, are wary of the power the Goo-FBoo duopoly now commands, and is hopeful that another publisher with global scale can become the third horse in the race.  For his part Mr. Dorsey stuck to the script by concentrating on Twitter’s positioning in the digital zeitgeist, but really didn’t address the ad platform criticism.  To me this feels more like Sir Martin’s overall challenge to the digital industry to disrupt the duopoly, and less about Twitter’s plan to turn its ad monetization around.  Regardless, it must of have been a fun show to watch unfold live in Cologne.

WHY TUESDAY WAS LIKE A HOLIDAY FOR ECOMMERCE:  You’ve probably never actually thought about this, but there’s an important difference in the way you can purchase products on Amazon vs. every other ECommerce site out there – the One Click shopping experience.  As described in the attached Digiday link, Amazon has held a patent on One Click technology since 1999, and on Tuesday that patent expired.  Besides just a convenience for shoppers One Click is an important business advantage, because to solves the “shopping cart abandonment” issue of consumers beginning to shop but then never actually completing the purchase.  And just like patent expirations in other industries, the nanosecond the patent window ends the invention is fair game for other competitors.  So what can we anticipate?  I’d expect a bum rush towards new One Click interfaces from every savvy ECommerce site out there.

Have a great Thursday guys!