I recently read two interesting news releases and one associated article that I wanted to discuss in today’s blog. First, the Conference Board released its Consumer Confidence Index for November showing a rise to 54.1, the highest level in 5 months. Second, Coremetrics released a report showing that this year’s Cyber Monday sales were up 19.4% over last year’s levels. An additional point in Coremetric’s report was that 4% of the online transactions taking place on Cyber Monday were conducted via a smartphone or other mobile device. These two news releases point to a general belief amongst consumers that the economy is showing signs of recovery. The Consumer Confidence Index provides a strong indication of this belief while the increase in Cyber Monday spending is a reflection of this higher level of consumer confidence. From a macroeconomic perspective these are positive signs and hopefully we will see these extend into 2011. From an analytic perspective it is exciting to see the growth of online sales and even more exciting to see that mobile devices are making up a growing percentage of this activity. Given Quaero’s expertise in online and mobile analytics this news makes 2011 prospects look strong.
The article I read summarized a report released by Panda Security, a provider of Malware and Spyware security software. Panda Security reported that there have been over 20 MILLION new strains of malware created in 2010, more than were created in all of 2009. The report points out that on average 63,000 new strains are created every day! Imagine the vast amounts of creativity and mental energy wasted in the creation of these malware strains. If these authors could channel their ingenuity towards more positive endeavors just think of what could be accomplished. This notwithstanding, the three stories above really point out the ever-increasing cat and mouse game between online sales activities, the bad guys trying to take advantage of this trend via malware and spyware, and the companies working to protect online consumers.
