Open Password – Wednesday 13th S 2021
#985
Cover stories: Convergence Monitor 2021 – Podcast usage – Online banking – Online shopping – Kantar – AGF video research – Kerstin Niederauer- Kopf – Smart speaker – Amazon Echo/Alexa – Google Nest – Radio programs – Music streaming – YouTube – Fitness bracelets – Internet television – Investments – Social media – instant messaging – WhatsApp – Facebook – TikTok – Xing – LinkedIn – online video – YouTube – TikTok – Twitch – entertainment – sports – age groups – video clips – videos in social networks – WhatsApp – Facebook – media libraries – ARD – ZDF – TV Now – Joyn – Big Screen – PC – Laptop – Smartphone – Netflix – Prime Video – Disney+ – Sky – DAZN – Sky – Eurosport Player – Magenta – Television – Games consoles – Internet capability – HbbTV services – Red Button
Recommendations of the week: Robin Alexander – Merkel Approach – Tactics, Strategies and Goals – AI Ethics – Berlin as a model for Germany – History of the Index – Nadia Vancauwenberghe – WELT – Beacon of the Liberal West – Eurozone – Prime Minister’s Conference – Corona – Vladimir Putin – Jacqui Ayling – Adriane Chapman – Predictive Models – Data-driven Innovation – Ethical Frameworks – Best Practices – Gaps in Ethical Tools – Risk Assessment – Alexander Wendt – Dennis Duncan – History Extra Podcasts – Academic Rivalries
- Cover stories
– Convergence Monitor (1): Podcast usage is rising sharply again – Online banking is becoming more popular – The hype around online shopping is cooling down
– Convergence Monitor (2): Online video is not a question of age – Ypu-Tube falls below the 90 percent mark – TikTok and Twitch on the rise – Media libraries are becoming more relevant
- Outside the box
Recommendations of the week
Robin Alexander: “The Merkel Approach
has come to an end” – The Queen of Tactics?
Putting AI Ethics to Work: Are the Tools fit for Purpose?
Berlin is a 3D model for Germany:
Why it’s worth visiting and what it costs
A Surprising History of the Index
Convergence Monitor (I)
Podcast usage is rising sharply again;
online banking is becoming more popular; the hype surrounding online shopping is cooling down
(Kantar) And the winner is …. Podcast! After video-on-demand offers in particular recorded strong gains in the Corona year 2020, this year the trophy for the strongest increase in usage goes to digital audio content. Compared to the previous year, the use of podcasts increased significantly again at 42.6 percent (2020: plus 34.1 percent; 2019: plus 44.4 percent). This is the result of the CONVERGENCE MONITOR 2021, which was collected by the market research institute Kantar on behalf of AGF Videoforschung. The study has been carried out for 14 years and thus provides valuable time series comparisons on trends and developments in media use among Germans .
17.4 percent of those surveyed now say they listen to a podcast at least once a month. Of the 14 to 29 year olds it is already 26.0 percent. “With the increasing range of offerings and interesting content, podcast usage is also steadily increasing,” says Kerstin Niederauer- Kopf, chairwoman of the management board of AGF Videoforschung.
When using smart speakers such as Amazon Echo/Alexa or Google Nest, playing music, radio plays and similar content is the most popular feature (70.6 percent). The second most popular usage is radio programs (54.3 percent), followed by weather reports or time information/timers (44.0 percent each). Smart shopping, i.e. ordering and shopping via the digital voice assistant, only ranks in ninth place with 7.5 percent. Overall, the use of smart speakers grew by almost 50 percent in 2020, albeit at a comparatively low level: 11.7 percent of those surveyed said they personally used such a device. Alexa & Co. can be found in 11.4 percent of households – 31.0 percent more than in 2020.
Music streaming also continues its constant growth path. 30.7 percent of respondents use this offer at least once a month (2020: 28.5 percent). In return, YouTube has become slightly less attractive as a music playback platform and has lost 4.6 percentage points compared to the previous year’s survey.
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Fitness bracelets and Apple Watch continue to grow – communication and media drive internet usage
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When Germans upgrade their households with media devices, they are currently purchasing smart watches and fitness bracelets in addition to smart speakers. These can now be found in 18.4 percent of households, which corresponds to a significant increase of 34.3 percent. Looking at people, 15.3 percent say they use such a device – an increase of 62.8 percent.
At around 90 percent, internet usage remains at a high level. The TV set is becoming increasingly important. Internet usage on televisions has almost doubled since 2016, rising to 30.0 percent in 2021 (2020: 16.1 percent). When Germans are online, then – as in previous years – it is primarily about communication (88.4 percent) and media use (83.2 percent).
Transactions such as online banking or shopping have become even more relevant (80.6 percent). “While the increase in transactions last year was due to an increasing desire to shop online, this year it is primarily the result of an increase in online banking,” says Kerstin Niederauer- Kopf. The proportion of those who use online banking has increased, particularly among 30 to 49 year olds, from 68.5 percent to 80.9 percent. “It is possible that the topic of investments has become more of a focus due to the pandemic and people have become more concerned with alternatives to branch banking, contactless payments, the topic of investments, negative interest rates or possible inflation.”
Social media and instant messaging play an important role in digital communication. There has been no change in the usage ranking compared to the previous year: WhatsApp leads confidently with 80.5 percent, ahead of Facebook (46.9 percent), Instagram (27.2 percent) and Snapchat (11.0 percent). The dynamically growing video portal TikTok has increased significantly to 10.3 percent. When it comes to B-to-B networks, Xing comes in at 5.8 percent, just ahead of its international competitor LinkedIn (5.2 percent).
The CONVERGENCE MONITOR has been collected annually by Kantar since 2008, making it one of the few long-term studies on media use in Germany. Since 2020, the study has been carried out under the umbrella of AGF Videoforschung (AGF). Kantar surveyed 1,569 people between the ages of 14 and 69 for the study this year. After only telephone interviews (CATI) were possible in 2020 due to corona, this year the surveys could again be carried out via face-to-face interviews (field time: March 30 and May 16, 2021). The base population is the German-speaking resident population or households with at least one person between the ages of 14 and 69 in Germany.
Convergence Monitor II
Online video is not a question of age
YouTube falls below the 90 percent markTikTok and Twitch on the riseMedia libraries are becoming more relevant
(AGF) It’s time for entertainment: If Germans access moving image content according to their own taste, i.e. on demand, then they most often look for entertainment in paid video-on-demand offers: at 33.9 percent, the use of series, Films and documentaries are clearly at the top (2020: 30.7 percent). Sport is now becoming increasingly important: 7.2 percent (2020: 4.9) of video users are enthusiastic about video-on-demand content about football or Formula 1 – greetings from Dazn, Sky, Eurosport Player and Magenta Sport. These are the results of the CONVERGENCE MONITOR 2021, which the market research institute Kantar also collected this year on behalf of AGF Videoforschung.
As in the previous year, when Germans use the Internet, they consume video content a third of the time – the younger, the more. The proportion of 14 to 29 year olds remains stable at just over 40 percent, and of 30 to 49 year olds it is 35.2 percent (2020: 33.7 percent). Among older target groups over 50, video consumption fell slightly again after a strong Corona effect last year. Overall, the online use of videos has stabilized: around three quarters of Germans watch video content at least once a month.
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YouTube falls below the 90 percent mark – TikTok is on the rise
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Video clips continue to be very popular (52.6 percent), followed by videos via social networks (44.9 percent). For users who use video clips/videos for free via social networks at least once a month, YouTube ranks by far in first place, although the network has currently fallen well below the 90 percent mark at 84.5 percent (2020: 91.2 Percent). This is likely to reflect the strong growth of new competitors: Newcomer TikTok came in fifth in the first survey with 16.0 percent, while Twitch has 5.1 percent. Videos via WhatsApp are stable at 68.6 percent, Facebook at 54.7 percent (plus 1.8 percentage points).
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Media libraries are becoming more popular.
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The media libraries of the classic TV providers – ARD Mediathek, ZDF Mediathek, TV Now or Joyn – are enjoying growing popularity and have again increased and their monthly usage is now at 29.9 percent (2020: 28.5 percent). This means that media libraries are continuing to advance. The values of the current CONVERGENCE MONITOR show an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to 2020. Overall, 57.2 percent of those surveyed said they had already used media libraries (2020: 54.1 percent). Almost every second person has already selected program content from more than one media library. By far the most well-known are the offers from the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, each with over 90 percent. Two thirds of users know TV Now from the RTL Group, while Joyn from ProSiebenSat.1 and Discovery Deutschland, which was launched later, has 58 percent.
With increasing enthusiasm, the accessed media library content is consumed on the big screen (42.5 percent), while the proportion of use via PC and laptop, but also smartphones, is declining slightly. _____________________________________________________
Media libraries with a balanced age structure
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The private broadcasters’ media library offerings tend to have a younger user base, with a peak among 14 to 29-year-olds, while the public broadcasters are used across all age groups. When it comes to paid video-on-demand platforms, Netflix is still ahead. 33.9 percent of respondents use the service, followed by Prime Video (26.8 percent), Disney + (7.9 percent) and Sky (4.6 percent). When it comes to sports content, DAZN leads the field (5.0 percent), ahead of Sky (4.3 percent), Eurosport Player (2.2 percent) and Magenta Sport (0.8 percent). Whether Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney + – 14 to 29 year olds make up the main clientele, while Sky has its strengths in the 30 to 49 year old segment. _____________________________________________________
Saturation in televisions
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Televisions (94.3 percent) and smartphones (92.2 percent) are and remain popular among Germans. However, the stable values for household purchases suggest that the level of saturation has gradually been reached. The equipment rates correlate strongly with the use of the devices. At 93.9 percent, watching TV on a TV set remains at the top, ahead of smartphone use (91.5 percent).
The fact that the need for entertainment has increased during the lockdowns is shown by the increase in game consoles, which can now be found in a third of all households. These are also increasingly being connected to TV sets, making TV sets Internet-enabled that were not previously online. 55.2 percent of all households now have TV sets that can be connected to the Internet (2020: 52.0 percent) – and the trend continues to rise. This means that the use of Internet offerings on televisions is also increasing and is currently around 36.7 percent. 6.7 percentage points of these exclusively use HbbTV services that are accessed via the red button.
Outside the box –
Recommendations of the week
Robin Alexander: “The Merkel Approach
has come to an end” – The Queen of Tactics?
Putting AI Ethics to Work: Are the Tools fit for Purpose?
Berlin is a 3D model for Germany:
Why it’s worth visiting and what it costs
A Surprising History of the Index
Nadia Vancauwenberghe, Robin Alexander: “The Merkel approach has come to and end” – Interview with the deputy WELT editor and bestselling author Robin Alexander, who covered Angela Merkel for twelve years, in: https://www.exberliner.com/features/ people/robin-alexander-interview/ .
Excerpts: “Because the last chapter of Merkel’s story is has she personally bought into this overseas perception of her being the beacon of the liberal West. It’s mostly an Anglo-American perception, and she likes it. That is why, two years later, she delivered the most important speech she has delivered in the past five years – not in the Bundestag or at a CDU rally, but at Harvard, in front of an American audience. It makes no sense for a German audience. … So corona is like a spotlight on German deficits. And people understood that. But sure, they still love her style. … She tried to rule Germany like she rule the eurozone. They invented the Prime Minister’s Conference. Basically the equivalent of the European Council, and those guys didn’t deliver. …On tactics, Merkel scores great. On strategy, she’s very flexible. But in terms of goals? She’s got no defined ones… For many years she enjoyed dealing with Putin. That only stopped with the Minsk pece process, not with the Ukraine crisis itself. She’d run to Minsk with a super sophisticated deal like: “Move these arms 10 kilometers west and move that thing there.” This is a war, it’s big thing, and her solution was, like, in millimeters. This is typical Merkel – she likes fixing things in details. But Putin cheated. …
We (Germans after Merkel): “have to address problems before they occur. We have to talk about refugees before they are here. Tackle climate change before it’s too late, and so on.
Jacqui Ayling and Adriane Chapman, Putting AI ethics to work: are the tools fit for purpose?, in: AI and Ethics – https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43681-021-00084-x.
Bias, unfairness and lack of transparency and accountability in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, and the potential for the misuse of predictive models for decision-making have raised concerns about the ethical impact and unintended consequences of new technologies for society across every sector where data -driven innovation is taking place. This paper reviews the landscape of suggested ethical frameworks with a focus on those which go beyond high-level statements of principles and offer practical tools for application of these principles in the production and deployment of systems. This work provides an assessment of these practical frameworks with the lens of known best practices for impact assessment and audit of technology. We review other historical uses of risk assessments and audits and create a typology that allows us to compare current AI ethics tools to Best Practices found in previous methodologies from technology, environment, privacy, finance and engineering. We analyze current AI ethics tools and their support for various stakeholders and components of the AI development and deployment lifecycle as well as the types of tools used to facilitate use. From this, we identify gaps in current AI ethics tools in auditing and risk assessment that should be considered going forward.
Alexander Wendt, Berlin is a 3D model for Germany: why the visit is worth it and what it costs, September 28th, in: https://www.publicomag.com/2021/09/berlin-ist-ein-3 -d-model-for-germany-why-the-visit-is-worth-it-and-what-it-costs/
Forget the wrangling over the election results: if you want to understand the country, you have to go through the theme park around the Reichstag. This text serves as an essential travel guide.
History Extra Podcast: Dennis Duncan, A surprising history of the index, in: https://play.acast.com/s/historyextra/asurprisinghistoryoftheindex , 37 minutes.
The index, the bit at the back of a book you mostly only turn to for reference, has a bit of a dowdy reputation – and it’s an unfair one. Dennis Duncan discusses the index’s surprising history – one that has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from office and proved a battleground for snarky academic rivalries.
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