Karol Severin

Karol is a co-founder and Research Director at MIDiA. With over a decade of experience in consumer research, industry analysis, and consulting, Karol oversees the direction, coverage and quality of all MIDiA’s research output. Prior to co-founding MIDiA, Karol gained experience in TMT market research and consulting, as well as an entertainment industry startup founder. He holds a business management degree from Queen Mary, University of London, with specialisation in strategy, quantitative methods, and entrepreneurship.

Snapchat Leaps From Social Media Hype To Messaging Life Companion

Karol Severin

31 Mar 2016

Snapchat rolled out a new set of features to its chat capabilities yesterday. Besides adding direct voice and video calling capabilities, the ‘Chat 2.0’ now offers a seamless way to switch between various types of communication within a chat session.

min read

Decoding The Adblocking Threat
Key Players, End Games And Implications

Cover image for Decoding The Adblocking Threat

Karol Severin

March 2016

adblocking

mobile advertising

adblockers

The desktop right now is undoubtedly where there is the most lost ad revenue due to adblocking. Adblocking on mobile may currently be smaller but this should not be an excuse for complacency and allowing the problem to acquire desktop adblocking proportions before serious notice is taken.

Could Apple Become ‘What The Doctor Ordered’?

Karol Severin

22 Mar 2016

Apple Special Event

Besides the anticipated device shrinking , Apple made another important announcement at its Special Event yesterday. After recapping the tremendous success ResearchKit has had with improving medical research, Apple launched CareKit, a new software framework designed to help developers enable people ...

min read

Apple Shrinks The Kids

Karol Severin

21 Mar 2016

Apple Special Event

A number of signals were sent by Apple during the Apple Special Event in Cupertino today. Tim Cook started off by sharing that there are now 1 billion Apple devices in use around the world. Furthermore, Apple is now 93% energy renewable, with 100% in the US, China and other 21 countries.

min read

Guardian Circle Taps Into The ‘Light Emergency’ Opportunity

Karol Severin

11 Mar 2016

mobile strategy

Guardian Circle is a new app, which allows you to build groups of ‘guardians’ consisting of personal contacts that you wish to rely on. You cansendalerts to these groups immediately bringing your guardians into an ‘alert room’, where they see your location and can chat with you to figure out...

min read

Vertical Video Will Rule On The Smartphone - Embrace It

Karol Severin

4 Mar 2016

One of the key changes stemming from the evolution of desk/laptop content consumption to smartphones is that the native operational mode of the latter is vertical. The only reason to turn it sideways is when there’s no way of enjoying the full experience vertically.

min read

Mobile Market Country Profile: France
A Maturing App Market On The Brink Of MNO Consolidation

Karol Severin

February 2016

France

mobile apps

mobile

France is one of the leading European app markets. Like other key markets in the region, the French app market is already maturing with annual revenue and app buyer growth set to slow to single digits by 2020. With this shift in market dynamics, average revenue per user (ARPU) will gain importance.

How YouTubers Monetize A Shift in Social Dynamics: And Why You Should Too

Karol Severin

25 Feb 2016

Content strategy

YouTubers have become some of the biggest reach content creators out there. The likes of Marcus Butler, Zoella and Pewdiepie are living proof that it is completely possible today for a single YouTuber to supersede the reach of large traditional content creators and their programmes for a fraction of...

min read

Why SMS on Messenger Is Key For Facebook’s Mobile Messaging Journey

Karol Severin

15 Feb 2016

Media and Marketing

Facebook is testing a way for users to receive, read and respond to their SMS conversations in its Messenger app . Facebook had gone back and forth on its SMS integration in the past, but it is becoming clear thatits best chance to make the phone number disappear (as it set out in its 2016 vision st...

min read

Quick Take: Instagram Removes Friction For Super-Users

Karol Severin

8 Feb 2016

audience metrics

engagement metrics

Instagram started testing a functionality that allows switching seamlessly between multiple accounts on mobile. While this might sound like a minor improvement for most casual single-account users, the move directly caters to the demographic segment, which plays a key role in Instagram’s monetizat...

min read

How Ad-blocking Spreads Conflict In A Free For All Ecosystem

Karol Severin

4 Feb 2016

Last year in September, the release of iOS9 shifted the ad-blocking debate to a new level, not only because general public is becoming increasingly aware of ad blockers, but also because one of the world’s largest tech giants openly supported ad-blocking by implementing the functionality.

min read

Why Apple Will Win The Smartphone Market Maturation

Karol Severin

1 Feb 2016

Apple is expecting iPhone sales to drop in the next quarter, for the first time ever. Apple’s stock has plummeted more than 6% since the announcement. The iPhone represents the majority of Apple’s revenue and any slowdown in this stream naturally spooks investors.

min read

The Third Screen Revolution
The Explosion In Mobile Video

Cover image for The Third Screen Revolution

Karol Severin and Tim Mulligan

January 2016

Content strategy

mobile video

content format innovation

Mobile might be eating the world, but is it eating video? The rapid uptake of mobile video consumption in recent years has captured the attention of many as it raises questions about where the future of video consumption is headed. Though it might cannibalise some TV and online viewing time, mobile video is here to co-exist alongside its large-scre...

WhatsApp Drops Annual Fee As It Hits 990 Million Users – Next Stop: Monetization

Karol Severin

18 Jan 2016

The CEO of WhatsApp, Jan Koum, announced in Munich that WhatsApp now has 990million users. There have been many talks about Facebook overpaying for WhatsApp. However, it managed to double its user base since the acquisition and played a significant role in helping Facebook dominate the mobile messag...

min read

Periscope’s About To Change Twitter Forever

Karol Severin

15 Jan 2016

mobile content strategy

Periscope now plays live streams directly in Twitter feeds on iPhones, with Android and desktop functionality to come. It is a move that will change the way Twitter works and its audience uses it. Though integrating the two was a long anticipated and easily predicted, its potential impact is huge.

min read

Facebook Doubles Down On Messaging With Messenger Bots

Karol Severin

7 Jan 2016

Facebook released a Chat SDK to a limited group of developers allowing them to build official bots on Messenger. When users message these ‘official accounts’, bots can immediately reply with further product information, pricing, location, buy buttons etc.

min read

Quick Take: New Facebook Events

Karol Severin

21 Dec 2015

facebook events

Facebook launched a new event browsing experience on iOS. It suggests and allows users to look for events on specific days as well as to adjust their location to see what events are going on anywhere in the world.

min read

Why Reddit Has To Get Mobile Right

Karol Severin

15 Dec 2015

app monetization

mobile app strategy

Reddit has had a tough time going mobile. Their initial attempt at an official app failed in 2011. Since then, a plethora of independent Reddit apps emerged, capturing a part of Reddit’s potential mobile audience.

min read

MIDiA Research Predictions, 2016
Video Eats The World

Cover image for MIDiA Research Predictions, 2016

Karol Severin, Mark Mulligan and Tim Mulligan

December 2015

Streaming Music

Streaming video

digital music

This decade has been defined by accelerating innovation and disruption. With the majority of consumers now digitally connected in one way or another, new technologies have the ability to utterly transform existing models with a swiftness and totality not previously possible.

The Mobile Web
The Lean Back Legacy

Cover image for The Mobile Web

Karol Severin

December 2015

lean back

Mobile content

mobile web

Mobile is changing the face of web browsing with a sizeable portion of monthly unique website visitors having already migrated to mobile. This divides between those who visit sites from mobile apps and those who choose a mobile web browser instead. User data around this migration reveals significant differences between the type of consumer engageme...

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Showing 341 to 360 of 402 results.