Metrics 2.0 Trends, Stats, Insights & Charts: October 20, 2006

Xbox Live surpassed 4 million members, targets 6 million by 2007

Xbox Live has surpassed 4 million members worldwide, four years after the launch. The service is available in 24 countries and the company expects it to surpass 6 million members by the summer of 2007.

More stats and facts:

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October 20, 2006 4:06 PM | Permalink

Cultured Dairy Market Set to Reach $15 Billion by 2010

Relatively new to the U.S. market, sales of the cultured dairy products are set to grow by 97.4% over a five-year period to $15 billion by 2010, according the latest market research from Packaged Facts. Probiotic shots, the single-serve dairy drinks loaded with gastrointestinally-good-for-you microorganisms, are primed to help push the cultured dairy market upwards.

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October 20, 2006 3:45 PM | Permalink

Foodservice market for Latin foods reaches $18 billion

The Latin foodservice market for Latin foods was worth $18 billion in 2005 and is expected to hit $25 billion by 2015, according to market research from Packaged Facts. As the fastest growing ethnic food category, Latin is second only to Asian. Growth in both Latin dining establishments and Latin menu items is expected to escalate, along with the growing buying power of Hispanics, which is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2010.

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October 20, 2006 3:36 PM | Permalink

Ethnic Spending on HBC Products Tops $8.4 Billion This Year

Overall purchases of both ethnic-specific and general-market hair, beauty, and cosmetic (HBC) products by Asians, African Americans, and Hispanics are set to top $8.4 billion by year’s end, according to the latest market research from Packaged Facts.

The report pegs the current market for ethnic-specific HBC products at nearly $1.9 billion, a 19% gain over 2001 figures. General-market HBC purchases ring up at about 3.5 times more than ethnic-specific, with this year’s general-market purchases expected to total over $6.5 billion.

October 20, 2006 3:29 PM | Permalink

comScore Top 10 Gaining Web Properties, September 2006

Online Gambling was the top gaining category in September, posting a 17% gain versus August, just prior to the landmark legislation passed by Congress in early October to stem gambling over the Internet, according to comScore. Leading the category was PartyGaming with 10.9 million U.S. visitors, a 75% increase, followed by SportingBet, the second-biggest gaining Web property during the month with 5.4 million U.S. visitors (up 194%).

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October 20, 2006 2:46 PM | Permalink

Top 10 TV Web Sites - MSN TV Leads with 12.7M Visitors

In the lead-up to the Fall television premiere season, sites dedicated to specific hit shows drove traffic to network TV sites, as the overall TV category traffic rose 5% to 76.5 million visitors, according to comScore. MSN TV leads TV sites overall with 12.7 million visitors, followed by Yahoo! TV with 9.8 million visitors and AOL Television with 9.6 million visitors. ABC.com gained 78% increase to 8.1 million visitors. TVGuide.com, traffic increased by 50% to 4.3 million visitors in September.

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October 20, 2006 2:36 PM | Permalink

VC Funding for Right Media, mVisible, KeyEye, VMLogix and more...

VC Deal Flow
	Narzana (India - mobile entertainment content): $1.5 million
	KeyEye (solutions to networking equipment makers): $16 million
	Atrenta (predictive analytics solutions): $16 million
	W5 Networks (wireless solutions for the retail):$12 million
	mVisible (mobile content delivery solutions): $3 million
	DeviceVM (virtualization software): $10.4 million
	VMLogix (virtual technology for software lifecycle): $3.5 million
	Right Media (online advertising marketplace): $45 million
	Experiencia (educational - immersive learning): $2.38 million
	NewStep (convergence s/w for carriers and enterprises): $7 million
	NComputing (low-cost computing): $8 million

More VC Insights at: PE Week, VentureBeat

October 20, 2006 12:28 PM | Permalink

Jobless Claims fell, Leading Indicators Rose, Philadelphia Fed Index Down

In the week ending Oct. 14, initial jobless claims for unemployment benefit fell 10,000 to 299,000, according to the Department of Labor. The 4-week moving average was 307,750, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average of 313,500.

The job market remains healthy as the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% in September, matching a 5-year low.

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October 20, 2006 11:57 AM | Permalink

Top 10 Sports Web Sites, Leader ESPN Counts 20M Visitors

Americans checked out more of sports Web sites in September, triggering a 7% increase to the sports category overall, according to comScore. Leading the category was ESPN with 20.4 million visitors, a 14% increase versus August, followed by Yahoo! Sports with 17.5 million visitors (up 27%) and FOX Sports on MSN with 16.5 million visitors (up 25%).

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October 20, 2006 10:56 AM | Permalink

U.S. Economic Calendar & Key Economic Indicators - Week of Oct.16

US Economic Indicators
Mon 10/16	NY Empire State Index (Oct): 22.9, up from 13.8
Tue 10/17	PPI (Sept): fell 1.3%
Tue 10/17	Core PPI (Sept): climbed 0.6%
Tue 10/17	Net Foreign Purchases (Aug): $116.8 billion
Tue 10/17	Capacity Utilization (Sept): 81.9%, down 0.6%
Tue 10/17	Industrial Production (Sept): down 0.6%
Wed 10/18	CPI (Sept): fell 0.5%
Wed 10/18	Core CPI (Sept): up 0.2%
Wed 10/18	Housing Starts (Sept): rose 5.9%
Wed 10/18	Building Permits (Sept): fell 6.3%
Thu 10/19	Jobless Claims (wk 10/14): 299k, down 10k
Thu 10/19	Leading Indicators (Sept.): up 0.1%
Thu 10/19	Philadelphia Fed Index (Oct.): fell 0.7
Thu 10/19	Money-Market Mutual Funds (10/18): down $3.23B

More Econ Insights at: Haver Analytics

October 20, 2006 10:26 AM | Permalink

WSJ By The Numbers - Top 10 for Oct.20

A compendium of revealing stats and the key leading economic indicators and business metrics based on today's Wall Street Journal article and reports:

Google Net Soars, Propelled By Overseas Growth: Google 3Q profit nearly doubled and revenue soared 70% to $2.69 billion. Excluding commissions paid to marketing partners, revenue was $1.87 billion. Google revenue grew 79% in 1Q'06, 77% in 2Q'06 and 96% in 3Q 2005. Yahoo Tuesday reported a 38% decline in third-quarter net income.

Google's international sales contributed 44% of its third-quarter revenue, rising from 39% a year earlier. Google posted net income of $733.4 million, up 92% from a year earlier. Google shares jumped $33.32 to $459.38 in after-hours trading, follwing the earnings results.

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October 20, 2006 9:44 AM | Permalink

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