Here are a few of the top stories in which eMarketer data and analysis were featured this week:

9/1: WSJ.com – What Bubble? Google’s Ex-China Chief Raises $180 Million for Tech Incubator
Kai-Fu Lee, former China chief for Google Inc., raised $180 million from a group of prominent investors for his company aimed at helping Chinese tech-industry startups, a sign of continued interest in the sector despite a range of recent challenges that have pushed down share prices for Chinese Internet firms listed in the U.S. Read more.

9/1: TechCrunch.com – Mobile Ads Could “Theoretically” Absorb Online Display Spending This Year, But They Won’t
With more than 600,000 apps available for an estimated 350 million Apple and Android mobile devices, it’s not difficult to see how mobile app advertising could soon eclipse online display advertising. Read more.

9/1: MediaPost.com – Mobile Ad Networks Scramble To Save Biz
Velti Mobclix Exchange, MdotM, Jumptap, InMobi and other mobile ad networks are collaborating on developing a strategy to track impressions and target advertisements on devices running Apple iOS 5. Read more.

8/30: paidContent.org – Older Facebook Users Click On Ads, Younger Ones Only ‘Like’
A good deal of the double-digit growth rates behind display dollars this year and next is due to rising interest in Facebook as an ad medium. Clearly, Facebook’s growing member base of 750 million users is even greater than the kind of mass that advertisers are accustomed to through TV and magazines. Read more.

8/30: Forbes.com – Google+ to Use Personal Data in Services
Google intends to use personal information gleaned from Google+ to add value to other products, including advertising, sparking debate among privacy advocates. Read more.

8/30: MediaPost.com – TV’s No-Freeloader Manifesto
To all you advertisers, marketers and media buyers out there — Have you ever considered the fact that at least a portion of your audience hates you? Read more.

8/30: VentureBeat.com – Index shows that cost of acquiring new mobile users dipped slightly in July
The cost of acquiring a new user for iPhone mobile apps declined slightly in July, according to an index monitored by mobile app user acquisition platform Fiksu. Read more.

8/29: paidContent.org – The End Of Social Media 1.0
I would like to talk about an inflection point in social media that requires pause. I am not suggesting that there will be a social media 2.0 or 3.0 for that matter. Nor do I see the term social media departing our vocabulary any time soon. Read more.

8/29: ClickZ.com – Using Mobile Applications to Improve Email Acquisition
The pervasive presence of smartphones in our society today presents the email marketer with new opportunities to improve email acquisition. Explosive mobile device adoption with its ubiquitous array of applications is swelling mobile advertising spending, which eMarketer predicts to reach $1 billion in 2011 in the U.S. Read more.

For more of eMarketer’s recent news coverage, click here.

A few weeks ago eMarketer introduced Executive View, a new app for iPhone that provides essential digital marketing insights on the go, and already we’re seeing exciting usage rates and great feedback:

“Executive View is great. It’s bite-sized and allows me to quickly digest information on-the-go. I feel I can manage the wealth of information that eMarketer provides because I can read it when I have down time away from my inbox and computer.”
– Charles Voon, Strategy, Blast Radius

“My phone is often my desk these days. Executive View delivers eMarketer’s wealth of information on digital marketing trends directly to me in an easy-to-read format—it’s perfect for all the running around I have to do.”
– Gordon McLeod, Digital Media Consultant

We will be rolling out Executive View over the next few months to eligible clients. Apps for Blackberry and Android are coming soon!

Is your company an eMarketer Total Access client? Click here to download the app.

Not an eMarketer client? Click here to learn more about what eMarketer has to offer.

Shopkick, the location-based mobile rewards app, appears to be gaining momentum as the holiday shopping season cranks up, recently signing up Target and The Wet Seal. They are the latest retailers to jump on the location-based shopping app bandwagon joining American Eagle Outfitters, Best Buy, Macy’s, Simon Malls and Sports Authority in deploying the app that delivers location-based rewards to shoppers just for walking into the store.

Speaking with Cyriac Roeding, Shopkick CEO, in August, I mentioned reserving judgement but clearly, the app is being legitimized by the power retailers signing up to try it. Roeding told me last week that American Eagle installed the technology in 50 stores for starters, then chose to deploy it in another 150 stores.

Target has a pilot with Shopkick that will roll out in 242 stores in the Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City and San Francisco/Silicon Valley markets, and The Wet Seal plans to use it in more than 500 stores. Signing Target is something of a coup d’etat since it has a strict policy about third-party vendors and technologies in its stores. “We recognize our guests are connected, through a multitude of mobile and social networking technologies. Innovative mobile applications, like Shopkick, provide a fun and engaging way for our guests to connect with Target, while earning valuable rewards which can be easily redeemed for future in-store purchases,” Molly Koenst, Target spokeswoman, told me. “Target’s partnership with Shopkick is another example of how we continue to innovate in the mobile space,” she added.

In a handful of stores, Target will test special promotions when customers walk into select areas of the store, Koenst says. For example, last week Target layered on $5 off a Rubbermaid Reveal spray mop and 20% off individual holiday ornaments. When customers accumulate enough kickbucks, Shopkick’s rewards currency, they can redeem them for a Target mobile GiftCard, which can be used from within the Shopkick app. Target plans to dangle offers via Shopkick on a range of everyday items like food and cleaning supplies, electronics and toys. The chain is the only current Shopkick partner able to deliver scannable mobile coupons to customer for redemption at checkout.

The real question, of course, is whether shoppers will make Shopkick part and parcel of their lives. Downloads are one thing, usage is another. And, Shopkick is a different animal than say, Foursquare and Facebook Places, which offer consumers a chance to flex bragging rights.

Just 7.8% of retailers surveyed by Shop.org reported investing in location-based services such as Foursquare and the same 7.8% for mobile text notifications for the holiday season.

Shopkick and its partners will pay close attention to consumer interaction with the app during the holiday season. “We are offering rewards just for walking into the store. We set out to show that the app drives foot traffic and that the cost for the walk-ins is lower than the gross margin,” Roeding tells me. The capital cost for installing boxes that read a consumer’s smartphone signal when they enter the store is $100. Typically, a retailer needs one for each entrance.

Shopkick is experimenting: “We have recently, for example, doubled the rewards or kickbucks you could get for walking in from 75 to 150. We did it to measure the impact. The most tangible result is that American Eagle added more stores.” Doubling the kickbucks significantly increased foot traffic, Roeding says. He adds that retailers can and should layer on promotions on top of the walk-in rewards. For example, American Eagle offered extra kickbucks when customers scanned the barcode on a poster in the fitting room.

The draw for shoppers–they earn “kickbucks” each time they walk in the store and can spend them anywhere. During the holiday season, Roeding expects retailers will offer special deals on top of the kickbucks apps users earn for entering the store.

In addition to its availability on the iPhone–the App store is promoting it on the home page. The app launched on the Android platform on November 18. Google is promoting it on the Apps Marketplace. Next up: Look for a huge promotion from Shopkick and its participating partners on Black Friday.

The summer of 2010 is emerging as a time of major moves in the UK’s online grocery sector.

In early July, Amazon UK surprised many observers by entering this market, offering 22,000 popular grocery items and household goods. Delivery options include those already familiar to Amazon customers, such as express, super saver and evening rates. Amazon Prime, which provides unlimited free one-day delivery for an annual fee of £49 ($77), can also be used for the grocery service.

Amazon’s move is a clear signal that the internet grocery business is ripe for growth. Another sign is the proliferation of mobile apps and website improvements from leading players. In fact, mobile platforms look set to be a crucial battleground for grocery retailers, as smartphone use continues to rise in the UK.

At the end of July, Waitrose unveiled a new iPhone app and mobile site. The app is free, and can be downloaded to the iPod Touch and iPad as well as the iPhone. The mobile website will showcase in-store offers, and recipes from two celebrity chefs, Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal, who are already associated with the Waitrose brand. Both app and website incorporate location-based technology enabling users to find convenient stores.

Not to be outdone, the retail giant Tesco—which saw £136 million ($217 million) in profit from online sales last year—announced on August 4 that its first fully transactional mobile app would launch on Nokia’s Ovi Store within a week. Registered members of Tesco.com will be able to browse a full list of goods available in store, and update their shopping lists.

As of May 2010, groceries had barely registered on the radar of most mobile phone users in the UK. A YouGov poll for Brandbank found that just 17% of smartphone users said they were likely to buy groceries via their handsets—compared to 26% who said they were likely to purchase clothing or accessories, and 53% who said they were likely to buy CDs, computer games or other physical entertainment products.

But grocery buying via mobile has enormous potential in the UK. The country’s leading grocers hope to boost take-up of their new services with highly visible promotion and word-of-mouth, and clearly expect significant growth in the number of mobile buyers during the next year. As Nic Howell of nma magazine commented on August 5: “When mobile becomes a story about the weekly shop, rather than trendy people becoming mayors of their favorite Soho bars, then it gets interesting.” In turn, mobile purchase of groceries should reinforce ecommerce as a growing habit among UK consumers.

For a current overview of online shopping and buying in the UK, see the eMarketer report “UK B2C Ecommerce: Consolidating the Gains.”

The iPhone has been slowly losing its dominance in the minds of marketers as Google’s Android operating system gained share over the past year or so. The complication of creating apps for multiple operation systems has been an issue for marketers for some time, but as Android becomes a major player in the app world marketers may also have to start thinking about the way those apps are monetized and how that fits in with the norms of different user groups.

There is evidence across several studies that Android users are somewhat less willing to pay for apps than their iPhone-loving counterparts. AdMob found in February that while 50% of iPhone owners worldwide purchased at least one paid app each month, just 21% of Android users did the same. Credit Suisse reported that less than 70% of Android users had paid for apps in the month prior to being surveyed, compared with nearly 80% of iPhone owners.

According to a May 2010 report from Distimo, an analytics tool for mobile developers, the Android Market is the only store with a majority of free apps.

That could mean Android users are simply responding to supply—a large base of free apps means less need to purchase them. Credit Suisse also found that Android users spent slightly more on average than iPhone owners did on mobile applications, suggesting that they are willing to open their wallets as well.

But the rise of an operating system whose owners are used to relying on free apps could mean a user base that is more open than average to receiving the advertising support necessary to support those apps. In-app advertising and app sponsorships tend to be especially effective forms of mobile marketing, and are also found less annoying or intrusive by mobile users. An expanding base of Android users may mean not only a larger audience of smartphone owners, but also a growing share of that audience receptive to marketing messages that support their app habit.