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Until then, cheers!

Library Spending

Library-interior

Today’s market size is the dollar amount spent, worldwide, by libraries on content. “Content” in this context refers to all material, physical or digital, purchased by libraries to become a part of their offerings.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2011 and estimates for 2013
Market size: $23.78 billion and $24.79 billion respectively
Source: Andrew Neilson, “Content Spending by Library Type and Geography, 2011,” The Rise of eBooks: Global eBooks Trends, Elsevier, June 23, 2013, available online here. The photo comes from this web site and is an interior shot of the Washington State Library.
Original Source: Outsell, Inc.
Posted on February 27, 2014

Athlete Endorsements

With the end of the 2014 Winter Olympics having been celebrated yesterday, we turn our attention today to the subject of how much is spent every year paying athletes to endorse products. By its very nature, the endorsement of an athlete requires that the athlete be a super star, at least within his or her own sport. Thus, it will come as no surprise that 70% of the earnings from athlete endorsements in 2013 were earned by the top 100 such spokesmen and women.

The top three earners included two golfers and a tennis player, in order; Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Phil Mickelson. Also of interest, only four woman made the top 100 list, each is a tennis player. When the top one hundred athlete endorsement deals of 2013 are analyzed by sport, one sees that basketball has the largest number of players on the list and earns the largest total of the athletic endorsement pie (15%). A full breakdown by sport is provided in a detailed table on the source web site, a link to which is provided below.

Today’s market size is the approximate value of all athlete endorsements, worldwide, in 2013. We give a tip of the hat to the Ghulf Genes blog for a link to the source of today’s market size.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2013
Market size: $1.1 billion
Source: “Top 100 Highest-Paid Athlete Endorsers 2013,” Opendorse, available online here.
Posted on February 24, 2014

Refugees

The number of people in the world who have been displaced from their counties due to war, persecution, or natural disaster is hardly what one might think of as a market. And yet those involved in helping this unfortunate population—as it awaits the opportunity to return home or seeks a way to resettle in a new home—may view it in ways quite similar to a growing market.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, the total number of refugees in the world at the end of 2012 was 45.2 million. This included 28.8 million people displaced within their own countries, 15.4 million international refugees and nearly one million people in the process of seeking asylum. This figure represented a 20 year high, however, it has done nothing but rise ever since. The ongoing civil war in Syria has lead to a massive exodus from that country, a flow which has only increased since the end of 2012.

Today’s market size is the approximate number of Syrian refugees being housed in Turkey as of the middle of 2013 and a projected figure as of the end of 2014. Already in 2012, Turkey supplanted the United States on the list of top ten nations by number of refugees hosted, taking over the tenth spot on that list.

Geographic reference: Turkey
Year: mid 2013 and a projection for the end of 2014
Market size: 400,000 and 1.5 million respectively
Sources: (1) Mac McClelland, “Container City,” New York Times Magazine, February 16, 2014, pgs. 24-31. (2) “Statistics — 2012 UNHCR Statistics Yearbook,” a summary online at this UN web site.
Original Source: United Nations Refugee Agency
Posted on February 19, 2014

Classic Car Bubble?

ClassicCar

The classic and collector car market in the United States has been strong for many years, slowing during the recession of 2007–2009 but recovering quickly thereafter. In fact, in the summer of 2013 an all-time record was broken, surpassing the prior record by $13 million dollars when a Mercedes W196 sold at auction for $29.6 million. But any market for collectibles fluctuates, such markets are, by definition, speculative. What concerns some in the trade is the overall supply and demand balance.

The concern has to do with the fact that approximately 58% of the classic cars in the United States are owned by baby boomers. It is anticipated, based on historical ownership patterns, that baby boomers will begin to sell off their collections over the next twenty years. Thus, the question arises, is there a strong enough market for these cars, one that can withstand a flood of mid 20th century American cars without causing prices to fall sharply?

Today’s market size is the number of classic and collector cars in the United States in 2013.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2013
Market size: 5 million cars
Source: Rob Sass, “For Sale by Boomer,” Car and Driver, March 2014, pgs 76-79.
Original Source: Hagerty Group
Posted on February 14, 2014

Soft Veneer and Plywood

Today’s market size is the value of soft veneer and plywood consumed in the United States in 2007 and 2011. This figure is referred to as apparent consumption as it is the result of the following calculation: the value of U.S. made product shipments, less exports, plus imports. In the case of soft veneer and plywood, as in the case of all construction materials, the years since 2007 have been very difficult as the industry works through the collapse of the housing market and… builds back very slowly. Production fell over this period by 23% while exports grew by the same percentage and imports dropped by 42%.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007 and 2011
Market size: $4.28 billion and $3.09 billion respectively
Sources: (1) “Value of Exports, General Imports, and Imports by Country and by 6-digit NAICS,” U.S. International Trade Statistics, a data set kept by the U.S. Census Bureau and made available online here. (2) “Manufacturing: Subject Series: Industry-Product Analysis: Industry Shipments by Products, 2007,” 2007 Economic Census, data on NAICS 321212, available online with all the Economic Census reports from the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder web site here. (3) “Value of Product Shipments: Value of Products for Product Classes, 2010 and 2011,” Annual Survey of Manufactures, available online through the American FactFinder site but more specifically, here
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census
Posted on February 11, 2014

Oranges

Today’s market size is the total production of oranges worldwide in 2013, broken out into those harvested for consumption as fresh fruit and those harvested for processing. In the United States, production was down in 2013 due in part to Citrus Greening disease which has been killing trees in the nations largest orange producing state, Florida. Over the last six years, 2008–2013, U.S. orange production accounted for an average of 15% of world production. In 2013 that figure fell to 13%.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2013
Market size: 51.8 million metric tons, 59% harvested for fresh consumption and 41% for processing
Source: “Oranges, Fresh: Production, Supply and Distribution in Selected Countries,” Production, Supply and Distribution Online, December 24, 2013, USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service, available online here. The USDA reports on the production and supply of many agricultural products through its Foreign Agricultural Service, the main web site for which is here.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS)
Posted on February 7, 2014

Super Bowl TV Ads

SuperBowlAds

The Super Bowl is one of the big, annual TV events in the United States and as such it draws a large number of views. As a result, those wishing to reach a broad audience and having lots of money to spend, like to advertise during the Super Bowl. In fact, for many viewers, the advertisements themselves have become part of the attraction of the event.

The pie graph we present here shows ad spending by industry category in 2003 and 2013. Clearly, the auto industry has decided that the Super Bowl is a great way to grab attention for new cars and trucks. In 2013 that industry accounted for 33% of Super Bowl ad spending, up from 7% in 2003.

Today’s market size is the total spent on TV advertisements during the Super Bowl in 2003 and 9in 2013. The source we link to below provides a very interesting, interactive graphic with details on each Super Bowl from 2000 through 2013 as well as links to videos of memorable advertisement broadcast in each year.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2003 and 2013
Market size: $130 and $292 million respectively
Source: Andrew Garcia Phillips and Willa Plank, “Super Bowl Spending Driven by Automotive Ads,” Wall Street Journal, available online here.
Original Source: Kantar Media
Posted on February 5, 2014

Diamond Rings

An article about wedding jewelry caught our attention. In a New York Times article over the weekend the subject of how much is spent in the United States annually on diamond engagement and wedding rings was presented. According to the article, couples paid an average of $4,000 on engagement rings in 2012 and another $1,000 for her wedding band, $500 for his. Now, averages, as we know, can be deceptive. What we were unable to find are statistics on just how many of these rings were purchased, which would be nice to know since the range in price for a diamond ring can be quite large. What we can say, by way of putting today’s market size into some context, is that in each year between 2000 and 2011 the number of marriages in the United States was between 2 and 2.3 million.

Today’s market size is the total value of diamond engagement and wedding jewelry sold in the United States in 2012.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2012
Market size: $11 billion
Source: Tara Siegel Bernard, “With Engagement Rings, Love Meets Budget,” The New York Times, February 1, 2014, page B1, available online here.
Original Source: Bain & Company
Posted on February 3, 2014