Click to Watch Video: Recommendation Engines - Part #1 - Major Trends





The Paradox of Choice – human beings lack the cognitive resources to maximize decisions: we can rarely evaluate all outcomes with sufficient precision, and our memories are weak and unreliable. (Herbert Simon, 1975 Nobel Prize in Economics)

Apple iTunes contains over 10,000,000+ songs and 100,000+ mobile applications





Beyond the Browser – the use of a recommendation engine was popularized by Amazon.com based on previous work by Vucetic and Obradovic (2000) for item centric recommendations. Consumers have insatiable appetites for content and they desire choice in their consumption format, recommendations must move beyond the browser.

  • The average American watched 31 hours of TV per week, with 31 minutes in playback mode on DVR.

  • Each week the average consumer spent 4 hours on the Internet and 22 minutes watching online video.

  • The average consumer spent 3 minutes watching mobile video each week.






  • Virtual Merchandising – the concept of Plan-o-Gram, a diagram that illustrates where products should be displayed, usually in the store shelf in order to increase consumer purchases is being adapted for use in digital content. This concept is key to maximize potential returns from limited screen real estate

    Place the milk and eggs at the back of the store so consumers have to browse thru the store to obtain staples


    Three Screen Report: TV Remains Strong as DVR and Online Video Show Most Growth | Nielsen Wire

    Three Screen Report: TV Remains Strong as DVR and Online Video Show Most Growth | Nielsen Wire

    What We Watch Weekly

    For the first time this quarter, Nielsen reports how much time the average American spends in a typical week with TV, Internet and mobile devices. Without a doubt, consumers of all ages spend the majority of their video time (nearly 99%) in front of the television, while DVR and online video are becoming more widely used.

    In 3Q09, the average American watched 31 hours of TV per week, with 31 minutes spent in playback mode with their DVR. In addition, each week the average consumer spent 4 hours on the Internet and 22 minutes watching online video. The average consumer spent 3 minutes watching mobile video each week.


    The TV and Internet figures in this report are calculated using Nielsen’s National TV and Internet panels, which are measured electronically and reported on a regular basis. The Mobile phone figures are collected by Nielsen via a quarterly survey and give a firsthand look at how early adopters self-report their usage of mobile video.

    Other Highlights of the Report

  • Almost 99% of video content watched in America is still done on traditional television

  • DVR and Online Video continue to show solid growth – up 21.1% and 34.9% respectively in time spent from Third Quarter 2008

  • Teens continue to watch mobile video the most, at just over 7 hours per month, though mobile video is not just a young medium, as mobile users Adults 45-54 report viewing nearly 3 hours of video on their mobile phones
  • Mobile Facebook as hot as the PC...

    UK mobile consumers who access Facebook via their mobile phone spend, on average, 24 minutes on the site daily, just shy of the 27.5 minutes that PC-based Internet users spend daily on Facebook; mobile users of Facebook average 3.3 visits per day versus 2.3 visits per day from PC users.13 Consumer-facing firms are now interested in these types of statistics. Companies ranging from banks to airlines, media firms, CPG firms, and healthcare providers are spending time developing mobile strategies for consumer services via the mobile, with the aim of gaining a significant mobile presence.

    SOURCE: Forrester August 28, 2009
    Western European Mobile
    Forecast, 2009 To 2014