BloggingStocks

Google's Efforts in Social Search Could Enhance Market Share

Trefis — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST

Google (GOOG), which competes with Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Aol (AOL) and Facebook in the search advertising market, has been working to increase its penetration in social networking. It started with Google's foray into social applications like Google Wave and Buzz, which did not meet initial expectations. Google then made a number of acquisitions for the development of its major upcoming social networking project named Google Me.

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Google's Efforts in Social Search Could Enhance Market Share originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter Claims Its New Ad Model Is Different

Tom Johansmeyer — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:30:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Starbucks (SBUX), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Best Buy (BBY), Media World

When Twitter announced its search-based advertising model, little more than a Google (GOOG) knockoff, the market yawned. It didn't seem like much after months and months of speculation, not to mention Twitter's promises that this was something "we would love and would be awesome."

Now, the details are out, and it could be more interesting than expected. On Twitter's blog, Biz Stone lays out "Promoted Tweets," ending the jokes such as Stephen Colbert's, "So, I assume that 'Biz' in 'Biz Stone' does not stand for 'Business Model."

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Twitter Claims Its New Ad Model Is Different originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Five Reasons Twitter App Developers Fear Twitter

Tom Johansmeyer — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:20:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Technology

Life was so much easier when Twitter wasn't worried about making money. Some spectacular venture capital deals propelled the company's value to over $1 billion, and user trends shot bragging rights up proportionately. Its ascendancy resulted in large part from the efforts of the Twitter ecosystem where companies developed 70,000 applications that have made life easier or more measurable for Twitter users. It's easy to lose track of how much of our Twitter interaction lies on third-party apps - from photo sharing to smartphone applications to URL shortening.

As long as Twitter's functionality ambitions remained modest, the ecosystem knew it would thrive. As we head toward the Chirp conference for Twitter application developers concerns over the future of the ecosystem abound. Here are five reasons why the companies around Twitter may start to worry about the microblogging juggernaut.

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Five Reasons Twitter App Developers Fear Twitter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Four Implications of the Leaked Twitter Redesign

Tom Johansmeyer — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:40:00 EST

Filed under: Consumer Experience, Internet, Competitive Strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Technology

Twitter's new look won't be limited to the redesigned Twitter home page. Doug Bowman, creative director at the social media company, posted a screen shot of a refreshed design for Twitter Thursday, according to SocialTimes. Of course, the whole screen isn't even shown because, as Bowman wrote in a comment, "Working on what may end up a significant redesign. Not final yet. What we can show without giving away the farm."

It looks like quite a bit is going to change, and as usual, even the smallest of updates could carry a significant revenue implication for Twitter. Here are four implications of a screen redesign for Twitter (and, more important, its investors):

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Four Implications of the Leaked Twitter Redesign originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter Acquires Tweetie, Loren Brichter

Tom Johansmeyer — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:40:00 EST

Filed under: Deals, Internet, Apple Inc (AAPL), Technology

Last year, Twitter said it had two goals for 2010: generate revenue and make acquisitions. At the time, the company was still sitting on a significant portion of its last round of capital, and given the $20 million annual burn rate revealed late last year -- plus the revenue it's generating -- it's unlikely that Twitter has had to deplete its coffers. So, Twitter has cash to put to work, and now we're seeing what that means.

On its blog, Twitter announced Friday that it has entered into an agreement with Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, which is one of the top Twitter clients for the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. In addition to acquiring the application, Twitter is also picking up talent. Brichter's efforts were good for a 2009 Apple Design Award, and he'll be part of future efforts to get Twitter for the iPad off the ground.

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Twitter Acquires Tweetie, Loren Brichter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LinkedIn Says Ninjas Are on the Loose in the Jobforce

Tom Johansmeyer — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Technology

Have sword, will travel.

The number of ninjas on LinkedIn is on the rise. According to the latest post on the company's blog, new job titles are popping up on the popular business social networking site. From 2002 to 2007, the percentage of job titles including the word "ninja" spiked, according to LinkedIn. The company is quick to explain that these people aren't the assassins of old. "They are more likely to throw Java exceptions rather than steel stars," writes Monica Rogati.

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LinkedIn Says Ninjas Are on the Loose in the Jobforce originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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International Growth to Fuel Twitter Revenue

Tom Johansmeyer — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Media World, Technology

More than half of Twitter's users aren't from the U.S. Matt Sanford, lead engineer or the company's international team, writes on Twitter's blog that 60% of its user base comes from outside the U.S. This reflects steady growth from June 2009, when just over 55% of Twitter's users were domestic.

Big-name advocates in foreign countries have bolstered technical developments, such as the release of the platform in Spanish, with Colombian registrations up 300%. Those in India are gaining close to 100% thanks to adoption by high-profile politicians. Further, overseas partnerships, like the one with Bharti Airtel, have made Twitter viable overseas. Early on, international growth prospects were a concern, given mobile carrier rates and texting charges.

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International Growth to Fuel Twitter Revenue originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Off-Platform Key to Social Media Survival and Success

Tom Johansmeyer — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, News Corp'B' (NWS), Technology, AOL (AOL)

Twitter has struggled to bring more users onto its website. Approximately 70% of end-user interaction with the microblogging service takes place away from Twitter.com. As the company moves toward its search-based ad model, expected to be released later this quarter, website traffic is becoming increasingly important. Yet, it's this gap between use and on-site action that might protect the company going forward ... at least if Facebook can be used as an indicator.

With Facebook Connect, members of the social networking site can interact with their profiles "remotely." If you want to share this blog post on Facebook, for example, you can do it without opening a new browser, plucking www.facebook.com on the keyboard and pasting the URL into the status field. This connection, even though it costs Facebook a pageview or two, reinforces the user's relationship with the site, increasing the likelihood that he or she will remain active overall. It also provides fodder for other members, fueling more clicks, comments and likes ... and ultimately cash in the Facebook till.

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Off-Platform Key to Social Media Survival and Success originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Latest Zynga Valuation Estimate: $5 billion(!)

Tom Johansmeyer — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:30:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Technology

I already had trouble wrapping my head around a $3 billion valuation from Zynga back in February. But the latest big number is just inconceivable. SecondShares, which is run by former private equity analysts to determine how much private equity companies would be worth if they went public, pegs the value of this social games company at $5 billion, approximately 75% above its current trading in illiquid secondary markets for private companies.

Several factors are used to determine a private company's valuation, including prices for employee stock options. Of course, private company valuation can be squishy under any circumstances, but fast-moving social media companies with penchant for secrecy make the process more difficult.

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Latest Zynga Valuation Estimate: $5 billion(!) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Businesses to Twitter: Give Us More than Analytics

Tom Johansmeyer — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:20:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Technology

Twenty-six percent of businesses using Twitter say they'd pay for the right services, and that might just be good enough.

WebBizIdeas.com polled 850 Twitter business users about what services would lead them to pry open their wallets. Three quarters of them said they either weren't crazy or were unsure about paying for additional features like analytics (31% and 43%, respectively), which sounds like a menacing amount. Yet, the size of this social media environment may make the 26% sufficient.

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Businesses to Twitter: Give Us More than Analytics originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook to Block Pre-IPO Trading

Tom Johansmeyer — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:20:00 EST

Filed under: Internet

Facebook is putting the brakes on early employee stock sales. The social media company implemented a new policy last Friday, claiming that the prohibition on trading the company's pre-IPO shares is intended to keep employees out of legal trouble, reports Inside Facebook.

This may come as an unfortunate development to employees eager to get a taste of publicly traded riches in advances, as Facebook's shares have been shooting higher in the secondary markets where they can be traded.

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Facebook to Block Pre-IPO Trading originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Four Twitter Home Page Features Designed to Make Money

Tom Johansmeyer — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Media World, Technology

Twitter may say that a new, redesigned home page reflects an attempt to provide more immediate visibility into what's happening on Twitter... but it's really a revenue play.

The new home page does a great job of providing the information hooks that would get a prospective user to click to learn more and ultimately open an account. Its clear objective is to increase the user base, a challenge that Twitter faced in the second half of 2009, after experiencing explosive growth in the two preceding quarters.

More users means more traffic. More traffic means more revenue.

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Four Twitter Home Page Features Designed to Make Money originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Private Start-Up Market Heats Up

Tom Johansmeyer — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST

Filed under: Deals, Private Equity

Speculation about the future valuations of companies like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter has undoubtedly driven interest in private markets where early shareholders can turn for a taste of liquidity before the big day. SharesPost, which has been a source of information on the likely IPO implications of these companies, has been among the beneficiaries: membership has doubled ... since November. According to a statement by SharesPost, "over 15,000 buyers and sellers of private equity" belong to the site.

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Private Start-Up Market Heats Up originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook Worth $35 Billion?

Tom Johansmeyer — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:40:00 EST

Filed under: Google (GOOG), Apple Inc (AAPL)

Somewhere, someone is buying into a $35 billion valuation for Facebook, if it were to go public. I'm struggling with this. Let's be realistic. Google, Inc. (GOOG) has a market cap of $137 billion. Apple, Inc. (AAPL) comes in at almost $210 billion. Does Facebook really have 25% of the "goodness" (that hard-to-pin-down quality that translates to value) of Google? 17% of the goodness that is Apple?

That's a hard one to swallow.

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Facebook Worth $35 Billion? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Social Games Player Zynga Is #2 on PayPal

Tom Johansmeyer — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:40:00 EST

Filed under: eBay (EBAY), Citigroup Inc. (C)

The fact that eBay (EBAY) is PayPal's largest merchant isn't exactly surprising. The auction market is huge, and it's also the online payment company's parent. Yet, the word out of the 2010 Media Summit in New York last week is that Zynga, the social media games company, is the second largest merchant for the payment environment. Social games are growing rapidly, bolstered in large part by the rise of Facebook, which now boasts around 400 million users.

As social media companies realize they need to move to the next level -- from adoption to revenue -- the virtual goods market has emerged as a substantial revenue stream, and Zynga's environment appears to have been designed to capitalize on it. According to an estimate by Citigroup (C) analyst Mark Mahaney, PayPal took care o$500 million in virtual goods payments last year.

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Social Games Player Zynga Is #2 on PayPal originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter May Chirp Its Commercial Accounts Next Month

Tom Johansmeyer — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:40:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Competitive Strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Starbucks (SBUX), Best Buy (BBY)

Twitter's a pretty lucky company. Few get two bytes at the hype apple in rapid succession, but this social media platform has found a way to make up for its disappointing announcement about its advertising model. According to VentureBeat, Twitter might unveil its long-awaited, heavily-hyped and possibly investor-satisfying corporate accounts. Next month, at its inaugural Chirp developer conference, we could finally see what might just be the foundation of Twitter's business model.

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Twitter May Chirp Its Commercial Accounts Next Month originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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News Corp. Not Having Fun with MySpace

Steven Mallas — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Walt Disney (DIS), News Corp'B' (NWS), Media World

Do you remember when MySpace was all the rage? Of course you do. Then came Facebook; then came Twitter. Something else will come along, too. Unfortunately, though, News Corp. (NWS) committed itself to MySpace by buying it back in 2005. What a mistake that was.

I'm sure everyone knows about the growth problems at the social-networking site. This recent article at Reuters discusses them. Morale at the company appears to be waning. Unique visitors aren't what they used to be. An ad agreement with Google (GOOG) is about to expire; any new transaction on that front may not be as valuable now that MySpace has been relegated to not-as-cool-as-it-used-to-be status.

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News Corp. Not Having Fun with MySpace originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter Getting Six Figures a Month for Data

Tom Johansmeyer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Media World, Technology

Nobody's naming names right now, but Social Times reports from SXSW that "a number" of companies are paying Twitter hefty fees for unrestricted access to the "firehose." While some Twitter data is accessible free through the company's developer program, the full data set is only available to those willing to write a check - and, it turns out, a substantial one.

Back in October, Twitter inked high-profile data-licensing deals with Google (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), which brought in $25 million and put the social media service on the revenue map. Since then, it has brought more clients into the fold through its data-licensing program, including Kosmix and Scoopler, by opening up what it calls the "firehose"; i.e., unfettered access to the Twitter data stream.

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Twitter Getting Six Figures a Month for Data originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook Growing, Not Killing, Foursquare

Tom Johansmeyer — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:20:00 EST

Filed under: Google (GOOG), New York Times'A' (NYT)

When Facebook announced its new location-based capabilities after Twitter has already enabled it, the future looked pretty grim for Foursquare. Though wildly popular with the nerd crowd (of which I'm a member ... the nerd world, not Foursquare), could a year-old location-based game go head-to-head with the 400 million-user-strong behemoth of the social media industry? In a strange twist, Facebook is actually breathing life into the killer app many expected it to kill.

Thirty-three percent of Foursquare's traffic comes from Facebook, according to data from Hitwise (EXPN), followed by Google (GOOG) at 22% and Twitter at 8%. The remaining one third of traffic, from everyone else, is fed in part by partnership with major brands such as the New York Times (NYT), Bravo and Zagat.

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Facebook Growing, Not Killing, Foursquare originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zuckerberg in 'No Rush' for Facebook IPO

Tom Johansmeyer — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Intel (INTC), Oracle Corp (ORCL), Initial Public Offerings, Technology

It's not just Digital Sky Technologies that is in "no rush" for Facebook to go public -- Facebook's founder says he's happy to take his time, too. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, according to the Wall Street Journal is putting his head together with those of Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel (INTC) and Charles Phillips, president of Oracle (ORCL) to gain insights on running his company, over which he'll have more control as a result of Facebook's dual-class share structure. If Zuckerberg gets his way, he'll run Facebook for a while before taking the dive into public capital markets.

Zuckerberg tells the Wall Street Journal(subscription required), "We're going to go public eventually, because that's the contract that we have with or investors and our employees." Doubtless, these two parties are eager to experience a liquidity event, particularly those from the company's earliest days and preliminary financing rounds.

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Zuckerberg in 'No Rush' for Facebook IPO originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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