Gallery: Adding Up the Year: 2012 by the Numbers
Zef Nikolla01facebook-public-offering
The past year was supposed to be a period of recovery, but for a lot of people it didn’t feel that way. Bookended by a deepening European debt crisis and the United States' own fiscal cliff, global markets and economies shuddered and jerked through 2012 trying to find an equilibrium. Even China, the growth story of the past decade, wasn’t immune to the economic drag, slowing its march toward dominance. And yet in the white-hot world of mobile apps and consumer software, hard times seemed to be something that was happening to other people somewhere far away. Twitter arguably went mainstream in 2012, as did payments upstart Square, and the highly visual and addictive services from Pinterest and Instagram (until Instagram tried to change its terms of service). When Instagram sold for $1 billion to Facebook – the final value was $715 million due to a slumping Facebook stock price – "it’s a bubble" talk began in earnest. Facebook’s IPO, the most anticipated market debut since Google, finally arrived and disappointed everyone. But the world’s largest social network wasn’t the only recently public tech company to struggle, just ask Zynga and Groupon. For the most part, the IPO class of 2012 had a tough time with investors. Apple was the opposite story, engaging in a virtual love-fest with Wall Street for three quarters of the year, and becoming the most valuable company on the planet. As the year came to an end, old-line computer companies like Dell, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft showed their age. Dell and HP seemed increasingly irrelevant in the world of the iPad and iPhone. But even Apple, the company that launched the smartphone revolution, came under pressure. The iPhone 5 didn’t sell as fast as everyone had expected. The high end of the smartphone market was saturated, and Apple’s next big hit was still hidden from sight. Until next year. Here are the highlights (and lowlights) of 2012 by the numbers. __Above:__ -28% ---- It was supposed to be this once-a-decade event that demonstrated the power and broad appeal of the Silicon Valley way of building companies, as well as the arrival of Facebook and social networks as the next big phase of technology. Except that when Facebook debuted on the public stock market in May, it didn’t rocket to the stars like everyone in the echo chamber of the Valley – from real estate agents, to car dealers and would-be Mark Zuckerbergs – expected. Not even passing the 1 billion-user mark impressed investors. Facebook shares are down about 28% since their debut, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up almost 9% over the same period. *Photo: AP/Nasdaq via Facebook, Zef Nikolla*
Ariel Zambelich/Wired02gadget-usage
520 Billion Minutes ------------------- Were spent on mobile gadgets and PCs in the month of July alone in the United States, 21% more than last year, according to a recent survey by Nielsen. Among the social network set, 2012 was the year Pinterest became a force, with time spent on the “pinning” site growing more than 6,000 percent over the year to 721 million minutes. (No. 1 social network Facebook by comparison logged 27 billion user minutes and grew a healthy 61%). *Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired* [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/about/#faq13)
03newt-gingrich
14 Days ------- About the amount of time in 2012 Newt Gingrich was the Republican front-runner before reality, and Mitt Romney, set-in. The GOP had all but a meltdown before landing on Romney as its candidate. Romney was touted as the candidate of business, and when Barack Obama finally claimed his second term, stock markets plummeted. From January 2011 through the presidential election in November, Romney, the Republican party, and his primary “super PAC” spent $992 million on his bid for the White House, according to the New York Times. The Obama spent $986 million on his successful campaign. *Photo: [Gage Skidmore](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/6266104452/)/Flickr*
04amazon-gun-safe
1,672 pounds ------------- That’s the weight of a 48-gun safe that its maker says is the heaviest item Amazon will ship for free. Amazon “lost” $2.8 billion on free shipping over the most recent four quarters, which is a big chunk of change, but also tells you how much electronics, sports gear, books and other stuff it sells, about $48 billion-worth. Amazon, had a great run this year, seemingly the engine behind every internet company, as well as it’s own growing collection of businesses. Amazon shares soared 50 percent for the year. *Photo: Amazon*
05instagram
*Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired* [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/about/#faq13)
06john-carter
132 minutes ------------ Of your life you’ll never get back if you sat through the entirety of John Carter. The sci-fi stinker of a movie cost an estimated $350 million to produce, that’s about $2.6 million per minute. With marketing costs thrown in, it would have needed to pull in an estimated $600 million in box-office to break-even. It didn’t, and in May Disney wrote down $84 million blaming it primarily on John Carter.
07microsoft-surface-tablet
1.3 million ----------- Research firm IHS iSuppli projects sales of 1.3 million Microsoft Surface RT tablets by year's end, and that is at the high end. Other analysts have low-end estimates of 500,000. The Surface tablet, along with Windows 8 (and Windows Phone) was supposed to be Microsoft’s big response to an Apple dominated consumer world, and a stab at relevance in a post-PC landscape. It doesn’t seem to be working. For the same period, sales estimates for Apple’s various flavors of iPads are 23 million. *Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired* [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/about/#faq13)
Petros Giannakouris08greek-debt
25% --- That is the rate of unemployment in Greece, one of several European countries including Italy, Spain and Portugal that kept global markets volatile for all of 2012. The Greek economy has all but collapsed, as the nation and Euro-zone lenders have imposed a series of austerity measures in exchange for bailout cash. The situation in Greece is still far from solid; with some warning the Greek economic slump could accelerate next year. Stateside unemployment finally started to tick down, below 8 %, not too far and not fast enough, but it was something. *Above: Pedestrians read Greek newspapers posted in front of the Academy building in central Athens. Photo: AP/Petros Giannakouris*
Bryan Derballa09apple-stock
$705 ---- The price of a single share of Apple stock at one point during the trading day on September 21, the day Apple started to sell the iPhone 5. It would close the day at $696, which still made Apple the most valuable company on the planet by a big margin with a market capitalization of $626 billion. Apple stock has slid 25% since then, as has its market cap to $490 billion, though it’s still enough to trump the $405 billion market cap of No. 2 most valuable company Exxon Mobil. *Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired*
10star-wars
35 Years -------- The film that changed lives and merchandising forever, Star Wars, turned 35 in 2012. Maybe its creator, George Lucas, thought that had been enough of a run. Around Halloween, Lucas sold the entirety of Lucas Film, Indiana Jones and special effects shop Lucas Arts included, to Disney in a deal worth $4 billion. Lucas says he plans to put the bulk if his gains toward funding education initiatives through his foundation.
11twinkies
150 calories ------------ After 83 years in business Hostess Brands, the peddler of Twinkies (7% of those 150 sugary calories are from fat) shut down amid a labor dispute. Fans of the spongy little, yellow missiles panicked and ransacked stores. A pricey secondary market for the snacks rose and fell on eBay, while bids for the assets of Hostess were being considered. According to Bloomberg Walmart and grocery chain Kroger are among the bidders going after Twinkies, Ding-Dongs and the other Hostess products. If all goes well, Twinkie the Kid and his buddies could be riding again by spring. *Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired* [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/about/#faq13)
