Lead Generation and Internet Marketing in Israel

Advanced Internet Population

The State of Israel is the world’s only Jewish-majority state and is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system where the Prime Minister is the head of government. It has a population of 7.7 million people and a GDP per capita of $29,404. Israel is a developed country that ranks the highest amongst Middle Eastern countries in terms of its position in the UN Human Development Index. Lead generation in Israel can benefit from a highly educated majority of internet users and there are 5.2 million internet users in Israel which represent 67.5% of the total population. Israel also has one of the highest broadband penetration rates in the world that had already reached 77% by mid 2009 and 82.5% of Jewish households have internet access. It also comes in an amazing second place worldwide for the amount of time that internet users spend online per month at an average of 38 hours. This is 60% above the worldwide average of 24 hours a month.

Social Bookmarking and the Mobile

Israeli internet users love social bookmarking and it was reported that 76% of internet users had a profile on at least one social bookmarking site by 2011. This is echoed by Israel reaching second place worldwide for Facebook penetration in February 2011 at 89.9%. Facebook is the second most visited site behind Google and Facebook receives 4.8 billion page views over 130 million visits a month from Israeli surfers. Mobile users in Israel number approximately 9 million which represents 117% of the population. It is reported that the Israeli lifestyle is very much about keeping abreast of the latest news and updates immediately as opposed to waiting the entire day until one reaches home from work, so internet on the move has become compulsory for many Israelis. This trend has been attributed to Israel’s unsettled political climate where anything can happen at any time regarding national security and unrest. Many Israeli families have people in the army and instant news about their condition has become a way of life that has developed into socializing and the next most likely thing to do whilst online is to stay connected to friends and research business ideas. Twitter usage reveals trends that are less obvious through other media channels and shows a high interest in affiliate programs and marketing. This suggests an advanced internet advertising market where many social bookmarking apps useful to internet marketers are available and Israel already has a high number iphone app developers.

Search Engine Market Share

Search engine is similar to most developed countries with Google leading by a huge majority of 97.69%. Bing follows with 1.53% and Yahoo with a 0.52% share. Users of Bing display a preoccupation with various types of games and suggests that each search engine have their strengths or that users are more likely to use Google for serious money making activities and turn to the lesser search engines for healthy distraction. Interestingly Yahoo reveals a heightened interest in Nepal, the Philippines and South Asia in general, where Israel is actually based. Most people in the western hemisphere would not normally associate Israel with Asia but Israelis appear to be conscious of their Asian identity according to internet interests. Theses observations could be helpful in promoting enhanced relations between Israel and the rest of Asia as a part of an internet marketing campaign for the promotion of Asian goods and services.

Instant Messaging and the Internet Ready Economy

To show the advanced position of Israel in instant messaging one should be aware that ICQ (instant messenger software launched in 1996) was developed by an Israeli start-up called Mirabilis. There is an amazing potential in Israel for internet marketing that utilizes instant messaging and/or mobile apps that can plug into social networks and virally spread brand awareness and content. Israel has a well developed economy with high levels of production and exports (exports reached $42.86 billion in 2006) which include diamonds, software, chemicals, military equipment, fruit and vegetables. The internet economy is healthy and wealthy and Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies after the United States. It also has the second largest number of business start-ups in the world next to the US. It has been reported that two thirds of the top 20 visited internet properties in Israel are owned and run by Israeli companies which signals a healthy understanding of the digital landscape.