6 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes

"The iTunes Store has now sold 6 billion songs, according to data shared Tuesday at the Macworld Expo. The accomplishment comes nearly six years after the "iTunes Music Store" first opened in early May of 2003.
Apple was not specific on the exact date of the milestone, though the threshold comes nearly 7 months after the announcement of 5 billion in mid-June. It also comes roughly one year after the 4 billion threshold, announced in January of 2008.
The 6 billion mark reaffirms fears of an iTunes Store plateau, one leveling at roughly 2 billion annually."
Source: Digital Music News, 6th January 2009, quoting Apple

Facebook now has 150m active users

"Today, we reached another milestone: 150 million people around the world are now actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using Facebook every day. This includes people in every continent—even Antarctica. If Facebook were a country, it would be the eighth most populated in the world, just ahead of Japan, Russia and Nigeria.
When we first started Facebook almost five years ago, most of the people using it were college students in the United States. Today, people of all ages—grandparents, parents and children—use Facebook in more than 35 different languages and 170 countries and territories."
Source: Mark Zuckerberg, writing in the Facebook blog, 7th January 2008

The BBC iPlayer now gets more traffic than ITV.com

From the latest comScore figures for the UK in November 2008:
BBC iPlayer - 5,026,423 unique visitors (13.7% reach)
ITV.com - 4,872,570 unique visitors (13.3% reach)
The BBC iPlayer is blocked for users outside the UK.
Source: comScore MediaMetrix, November 2008 data, measured on all adults aged 15+

Sales of physical albums fell by 18% in the US in 2008

"Album sales dropped a gaping 14 percent in 2008, according to figures shared by Nielsen Soundscan. Specifically, physical and digital albums collectively moved to 428.4 million units in the United States, from 500.5 million in 2007. The downward driver was the physical album, down 18.2 percent on the year. Digital albums jumped 32 percent to a record 65.8 million, though the gains failed to compensate for the broader physical declines."
Source: Digital Music News, 4th January 2009, citing data from Nielsen Soundscan

70% of Twitter users joined in 2008

"70% of Twitter users joined in 2008
An estimated 5-10 thousand new accounts are opened per day
35% of Twitter users have 10 or fewer followers
9% of Twitter users follow no one at all
There is a strong correlation between the number of followers you have and the number of
people you follow"
Source: State of the Twittersphere Q4 2008 (page 2), produced by Hubspot.com

Internet users in China spend 44% of their leisure time online

Internet users in China spend 44% of their leisure time online.
Other countries:
Korea - 40%
Japan - 38%
Italy - 31%
US - 30%
Other countries also listed.
Source: Chart on page 3 of TNS Global 'Digital World, Digital Life' report, December 2008, based on adults aged 18-55. Full pdf here

18% of American homes have a mobile phone but no landline

"The portion of homes with cell phones but no landlines has grown to 18 percent, led by adults living with unrelated roommates, renters and young people, according to federal figures released Wednesday.
An additional 13 percent of households have landlines but get all or nearly all calls on their cells, the survey showed. Taken together, that means about three in 10 households are essentially reachable only on their wireless phones.
The figures, covering the first half of 2008, underscore how consumers have been steadily abandoning traditional landline phones in favor of cells. The 18 percent in cell-only households compares with 16 percent in the second half of 2007, and just 7 percent in the first half of 2005."
Source: US federal figures from the National Health Interview Survey, Jan-Jun 2008, cited by Associated Press, 17th December 2008