The national health insurance brokerage market is worth $18 billion.
$4 bln spent on prepaid debit cards in 2008
The Mercator Advisory Group estimated that the volume of transactions on general-purpose prepaid cards totaled more than $4 bln in 2008. It forecasts an increase to $7.2 bln in 2009 and $10.8 bln in 2010.
3 bln person-to-person financial transactions in 2008
US noncash person-to-person market in 2008 was $1.1 trln in over 3 bln transactions. Checks are in decline, but they remain the most significant person-to-person payment method, amounting to over $1 trln of the noncash P2P payments volume. In 2008, checks represented over $1.013 trln of the noncash P2P payments in the United States and cost financial institutions what TowerGroup estimates as $255 mln to process.
European mobile services penetration to reach 135% by 2012
Europe as a region has the highest adoption of mobile services at 121% penetration and this is expected to rise to 135% by 2012. At these high penetrations, overall service revenue growth through the handset is expected to decline. However, ARPU is expected to continue growing among business users. In a new market data product from ABI Research, overall business revenue is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 4%, a significant statistic considering that ARPU from consumer mobile services will stay flat at a CAGR of 0.1%.
Top movies in 2008
| Rank | Title | Distributor | Total US$ | Open Date |
| 1 | THE DARK KNIGHT | Warner Bros. | 530,540,885 | 07/18/2008 |
| 2 | IRON MAN | Paramount | 318,313,199 | 05/02/2008 |
| 3 | INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL | Paramount | 317,023,851 | 05/22/2008 |
| 4 | HANCOCK | Sony | 227,946,274 | 07/02/2008 |
| 5 | WALL-E | Disney | 223,704,223 | 06/27/2008 |
| 6 | KUNG FU PANDA | Paramount | 215,434,591 | 06/06/2008 |
| 7 | MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA | Paramount | 165,653,852 | 11/07/2008 |
| 8 | DR. SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO | Fox | 154,529,439 | 03/14/2008 |
| 9 | SEX AND THE CITY | Warner Bros. | 152,647,258 | 05/30/2008 |
| 10 | QUANTUM OF SOLACE | Sony | 151,620,134 | 11/14/2008 |
| Source: Nielsen | ||||
77% of Americans think media is making economic situation worse
77% of Americans believe that the US media is making the economic situation worse by projecting fear into people’s minds. Here are highlights of note:
- Household Income $25k – $35k – 79% answered YES
- Household Income $35k – $50k – 88% answered YES
- Household Income $50k – $75k – 76% answered YES
- Household Income $75k – more – 78% answered YES
- 85% of young adults (18-24 yrs old) answered YES
- 77% of males and females alike answered YES
- 65% of blacks answered YES
1.3 mln fleet management systems deployed in Europe
According to Berg Insight, the number of fleet management systems deployed in commercial fleets in Europe was 1.3 mln in Q4 2008, an increase of 23.8% YTY. Growth is expected to continue in 2009 but the annual growth rate is projected to decrease to 15.4%.
7% of 401k assets are in lifecycle funds
More than 7% of 401(k) assets at year-end 2007 were invested in lifecycle funds and one-quarter of 401(k) participants held lifecycle funds, according to Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and the Investment Company Institute (ICI).
20% of teens have sent naked or semi-naked photos of themselves
About a third of young adults 20-26 and 20% of teens say they’ve sent or posted naked or semi-naked photos or videos of themselves, National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. A third of teen boys and 40% of young men say they’ve seen nude or semi-nude images sent to someone else; about a quarter of teen girls and young adult women have. 39% of teens and 59% of those ages 20-26 say they’ve sent suggestive text messages.73% said they knew sending sexually suggestive content “can have serious negative consequences,” yet 22% said it’s “no big deal.”
Thin-film photovoltaics to generate $14 bln in 2015
NanoMarkets projects that after a few lean years in 2009 and 2010 for the TFPV business higher growth rates will return in 2011. The firm’s analysis projects revenues of $4.6 bln in 2011 that will grow to just over $14 bln in 2015.