Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AT&T, EBay, Facebook, Lil Wayne, Netflix, Skype, Social network, Yahoo
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Yahoo released its fourth quarter 2008 earnings today. Its non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.17 a share, above the $0.13 consensus. (Yahoo lost $0.22 a share on a GAAP basis due to restructuring and impairment charges). Total revenues came in at $1.8 billion, with net revenues (after what Yahoo pays to network partners) coming in at $1.375 billion. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/yahoo-ceo-bartz-i-did-not-come-to-yahoo-to-sell-the-company 1/27)
Facebook will feature a live worldwide performance of Lil’ Wayne’s new single “Prom Queen,” on two AT&T pages tonight at 9:30PM PST, streamed live on both AT&T’s Freedom of Choice page as well as its Mobile Music page. Fans will be able to purchase ringtones or mp3s of the full track following the performance. Lil Wayne is the logic choice for the experiment; he sold more ringtones than any other artists last year on the AT&T network and attracted more visitors to his Facebook page than any other artist. (Cynopsis 1/27)
Time corrected from Cynopsis.
eBay has signaled its intent to sell its Skype internet telephone division after reporting weak Q4 profit, reports The Times (UK.) The auction site acquired Skype 4 years ago for a princely sum of $2.6 billion but has struggled to effectively monetize its massive subscriber base. (Cynopsis 1/27)
The troubled economy doesn’t seem to be hampering Netflix, which just announced fourth-quarter profit was up 45%, to $22.7 million, on revenue of $360 million, a 19% bump from the comparable period in 2007. The company reported 9.39 million subscribers by the end of the quarter, which exceeded the high end of its previous range forecast. The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (subscription required) (1/27)
If you want to track the most popular fan pages on Facebook, AllFacebook pushed out a new Facebook Pages Tracker
last night that keeps stats on 611,213 fan pages on the social network. Only about 57,000 of those pages have more than 1,000 fans. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/facebook-users-are-becoming-big-fans-of-masturbation-and-other-fan-page-stats 1/27)
Both sales volume and online CPMs are down significantly in the display ad market according to an informal survey of publishers and advertisers conducted by Ad Age. The low end of the ad market – the kind of products aggregated by remnant ad networks – continue to drag down the rest of the market as the average CPM on ad networks has dropped from $1.10 to only 60 cents/thousand impressions. (Cynopsis 1/27)
Hulu, the joint video venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., will be running a commercial during this Sunday’s Super Bowl. The big game airs on NBC, one of Hulu’s corporate parents. Hulu’s announcement of the spot promises that the ad will “reveal the secret behind Hulu.” (Iwantmedia 1/27, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10150197-36.html 1/26)
MTV Networks has signed on to be the exclusive ad sales rep for comedy Web site JibJab.com, a deal that also includes brand integrations and custom sponsorships on JibJab. The site had about 105 million visitors last year and maintains more than 6 million registered users. ClickZ (1/27) , The New York Times/Gigaom (1/26)
Fox Interactive Media is eliminating more than just free lunches. News Corp’s digital arm is trimming nearly 100 jobs across several business units, including Photobucket, MySpace, Scout Media, Rotten Tomatoes, and corporate. The total comes to a little under 5 percent of FIM’s domestic U.S. workforce, and about 3 percent of its global workforce of 2,900. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/26/fim-trims-about-100-jobs-mostly-at-photobucket-and-corporate 1/26)
YouTube uploads for the week ending 2009-01-24
1. CNN (205)
2. Fox News (196)
3. MSNBC (132)
4. ABC (125)
5. CBS (54)
6. CNBC (39)
YouTube views for the week ending 2009-01-24
1. ABC (780,302)
2. CNN (602,095)
3. MSNBC (544,343)
4. Fox News (470,993)
5. CNBC (106,257)
6. CBS (65,208)
7. AP (1,063)
Source: Affine Systems
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Break.com, Dailymotion, EBay, Google, Hulu, John McCain, Skype, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Although eBay beat its downwardly-revised earnings
numbers today, its earnings call was filled with glum news for investors. (Full earnings slides embedded below). After three flat quarters, revenues declined 3.6 percent from the second quarter to $2.2 billion. Free cash flow has been going down each of the last four quarters, and so has the total value of goods traded over the auction and e-commerce site. eBay is leaning much more heavily these days on merchant-dominated categories like autos than on auctions between ordinary people. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/15/as-ebays-core-business-hits-hard-times-skype-begins-to-shine 10/15)
Google, who’s stock is down 45% this year, announces third quarter financial results tomorrow, and Silicon Valley will be watching. Analysts expect revenues of a little over $4 billion and EPS of $4.79 – and most have price targets for the stock, which closed yesterday at $363, to bounce back up to the high 500’s. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/15/all-eyes-on-google-today 10/15)
Lil’ Bush creator Donick Cary is at it again with The Adventures of John McCain and the Straight Talk Express, a new website premiering this week on Hulu, YouTube, Break.com, Dailymotion and MySpaceTV. (The Straight Talk Express is the name of the candidate’s talking bus.) (Cynopsis 10/15)
Ahead of Thursday’s earnings announcement from Google, comScore just released its search market share figures for September. Google’s overall share of search queries in the U.S. dipped from 63% in August to 62.9% 62.2%. Yahoo and Ask (whose search is powered by Google) saw the biggest gains. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/14/comscore-googles-search-volume-accelerates-in-september-but-market-share-dips 10/14)
Liberty Media-owned Starz Media has inked a digital-distribution deal with Xbox Live that will bring titles in the company’s movie library to viewers in the U.K., Ireland and Canada. The deal was announced by Marc DeBevoise, Starz Media’s senior vice president of digital media and business development, who added that the company had other overseas deals in the works. Broadcasting & Cable (10/14) , TVWeek.com (10/14)
Cablevision has expanded its wireless Internet coverage throughout its New York tri-state region, adding high-traffic areas such as commuter rail stations and business districts in Connecticut, Long Island and select suburbs north of Manhattan. The service, free for subscribers to Cablevision’s Optimum Online broadband service, more than doubles the company’s previous wireless net. Newsday (Long Island, N.Y.) (10/14)
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Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: App Store, Apple, Blackberry, BlackBerry Application Center, Fring, Google, iPhone, Skype
By using some fairly interesting IMEI collection, the folks at Mac Observer have found that Apple sold 10 million iPhones in 2008, reaching and potentially surpassing Steve’s original stated goal. By looking at phones sold over the last few months, Mac Observer’s “Apple Finance Board”
found that the phone has gone through nine 1 million unit runs. Adding this to the known sales they found the total number was far above analyst expectations. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/06/apple-sold-10-million-iphones-in-2008 10/6)
After 6 months of not-quite-official availability for those of us with jailbroken iPhones, Fring, a free mobile Voice-over-IP service, has made its way to the App Store. With that, a day that some said would never come has arrived: Skype calls can now be made on the iPhone, no hacks required. (http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/10/03/fring-brings-skype-and-other-voip-services-to-iphone 10/3)
You’re looking at the BlackBerry Application Center, RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market. Same basic concept as the other two—you browse and buy applications that enhance your BlackBerry experience. The Application Center—we’re running out of variants of the term “application store!”—is set to debut with the BlackBerry Storm software version 4.7. (http://www.crunchgear.com/2008/10/06/the-blackberry-application-center-is-rims-answer-to-the-iphone-app-store 10/6)
GameFly, which is perhaps most easily explained as the NetFlix of the gaming world, today launched a new version of their site specifically optimized for mobile handsets. (http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2008/10/06/gamefly-launches-mobile-optimized-site 10/6)
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Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Buena Vista Social Club, China, Hong Kong, Mobile phone, Skype, World Wide Web
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Deepak Nayar, a producer of such films as “Buena Vista Social Club,” and Sandy Grushow, the former chairman of Fox Television Entertainment, are launching Filmaka.com. The new site solicits video clips for a content judged by industry biggies as well as regular Web users. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2033439320080421 4/21)
Users of Internet-based phone service Skype will be able to make unlimited calls to international landline phones in 34 countries for $9.95 a month, under a new plan the company is introducing today. The package will include all domestic calls as well as those to mobile phones in Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. (
ClipSyndicate/Associated Press 4/21, The New York Times/Associated Press 4/21)
In a new deal, NBC News and MSNBC.com will provide political news and other content to the social-networking site MySpace. However, content from News Corp. siblings including Fox News Channel won’t be included. MySpace says there is nothing unusual about not going with Fox News. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/business/news/e3icbb206706db0dba2396a23ba5600d8a5 4/21)
Max Levchin, the cover boy of Conde Nast Portfolio‘s May “Brilliant Issue,” is building something even bigger than Facebook. His software firm, Slide.com, creates widgets people use to personalize their online social network profiles, which are set to become the industry standard. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2008/04/14/Brilliant-Issue-Upstarts#page2 5/08)
Warner Bros. Television and Time’s Essence Magazine are teaming up for a series of new African American women-targeted multiplatform content initiatives, including a new video-centric Essence.com planned for this summer that will serve to incubate new shows for television under the Telepictures banner. An original digital daily entertainment news show for Essence.com called Extra on Essence will kick off the partnership. (Cynopsis 4/22, http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/FREE/171678698/1040 4/21)
Revision3, the home of original web shows like Diggnation, signed distribution deals with Hulu, Joost, Tivo, Break.com and Revver. (Cynopsis 4/22)
Writers are pushing for legislation to guarantee the Internet’s status as an open forum for communication. Patrick Verrone, head of the Writers Guild of America – West, will appear today before a U.S. Senate committee hearing entitled “The Future of the Internet,” supporting network neutrality. (Iwantmedia 4/22, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080422/ap_on_hi_te/internet_regulation 4/22)
Online video contextual ad platform Adap.tv launched an open source video ad platform to try to simplify online ad buys across multiple sources and formats. The company’s OneSource platform offers an interface allowing publishers to manage both in house and third party ads from more than 50 ad networks. (Cynopsis 4/22)
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Sites (Week ending April 12, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 FOX American Idol 37.49%
2 CBS Big Brother 9 8.00%
3 ABC Dancing with the Stars 5.83%
4 NBC The Biggest Loser 5.69%
5 NBC Deal or No Deal 5.03%
6 FOX America’s Most Wanted 3.56%
7 CBS Survivor: Micronesia 3.23%
8 NBC The Office 1.74%
9 ABC The Bachelor 1.44%
10 The CW One Tree Hill 1.21%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Websites (Week ending April 12, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 NBC www.nbc.com 30.80%
2 FOX* www.fox.com 27.52%
3 CBS www.cbs.com 19.15%
4 ABC www.abc.com 18.50%
5 The CW www.cwtv.com 3.68%
6 MyNetworkTV www.mynetworktv.com .35%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com.
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: AIM, Fring, Google Talk, ICQ, iPhone, MSN Messenger, Skype, Yahoo
As Techcrunch reported earlier today, Fring is launching a downloadable app for the iPhone that will allow people to make Skype and other VoIP calls over the data connection instead of using up talk minutes. Fring supports Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo and AIM services. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/15/update-frings-jailbroken-iphone-app-now-live 4/15)
Fring Demo
With 89% of U.S. adults signed up for cellphone service, carriers are trying to boost revenue by getting customers to receive more data on their phones — and nothing contains as much data as video. Sales of video subscription services jumped to $308 million in the last quarter of 2007. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-mobiletv15apr15,1,5994888.story 4/15)
Samsung’s video-enabled Instinct mobile phone will be distributed by Sprint Nextel. Content companies hope wireless customers know such services are available.
Owners of more than 800 local U.S. television stations are forming a group, the Open Mobile Video Coalition, to test standards for sending local digital TV signals to cell phones, laptops and other mobile devices, aiming to tap into the booming market for mobile advertising. (Iwantmedia 4/15, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080414/mobile_tv.html 4/14)
The Associated Press is testing a mobile news platform for a possible summer deployment that would feed national and local news to smart phone users. The Mobile News Network, made up so far of Advance, Hearst, Lee, McClatchy, MediaNews and Rust Communications, is designed to distribute multimedia news to iPhone users along with local and national advertising, split 50/50 between content providers and sellers. (Cynopsis 4/15, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_bi_ge/ap_annual_meeting 4/14)
Describing it as an evolutionary step forward in delivering downloadable content over broadband networks, MobiTV introduced its new Optimized Delivery Server. “MobiTV allows carriers and operators access to this next-generation media distribution solution on their terms,” said Charlie Nooney, the company’s chief executive officer. “Whether they want a fully managed, end-to-end hosted network solution or the ability to license components of our system that can interoperate with their existing infrastructure, the choice is now theirs.” (CED Magazine 4/14)
MTV and French telecom SFR have announced that on April 23 they will begin offering 3G MTV 3.3, a mobile network aimed at young French users. The service will include access to MTV’s four French channels as well as two channels being developed for 3G MTV 3.3, “MTV Scan” and “MTV Shake ton booty.” (The Hollywood Reporter 4/14)
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: Companies, EBay, Expedia, Google, News and Media, Search Engines, Searching, Skype
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Something big is brewing between Google and Ebay’s Skype, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Actually, for weeks now there have been low level rumors of the two companies talking, but nailing down any details was difficult. New information, however, suggests that they are in current talks and that a partnership or outright acquisition may be announced in the near future. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/01/googleskype-acquisition-or-partnership-imminent 4/1)
Shares in Expedia jumped more than 10% in Tuesday trading, after rumors swirled that the online travel agency was a takeover target by Google. The Bellevue, Wash., company’s shares rose $2.20 to close at $24.09 Tuesday, after speculation about “unsubstantiated rumors.” (Iwantmedia.com 4/2, http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2008/03/31/daily14.html?jst=b_ln_hl 4/1)
Google will announce layoffs Wednesday at DoubleClick’s New York City and San Francisco offices, sources say. Supposedly, the cuts will be focused on middle management, not sales staff. Google’s press office says the company doesn’t “comment on rumors or market speculation.” (Iwantmedia.com 4/2, http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/01/doublclick-layoff-announcements-coming-tomorrow 4/1)
Radiohead is using the Internet for another initiative built around its chart-topping album, “In Rainbows.” The rock act is allowing fans to remix the new single “Nude” by buying separate tracks from the recording — bass, voice, guitar, strings/effects and drums — from iTunes Plus. ((Iwantmedia.com 4/2, http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003783599 4/1)
Head to the site to listen to the top-rated remix. It’s been on repeat on my iTunes deck all day.
The Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held an invite-only hearing about virtual worlds yesterday which was simultaneously broadcast in Linden Labs’ Second Life, the leading virtual community with about 6 million registered users. The subcommittee, led by Net Neutrality advocate Ed Markey, wanted to explore some of the issues involved in virtual worlds such as, Can they be used to launder money? or Are the safe for children? So they figured, why not meet as avatars virtually? Rep. Markey also made headlines last December when he sent his chiseled avatar to attend a United Nations conference on global warming in Bali. But hey – at least it’s a way to save on jet fuel. (Cynopsis 4/2)
CBS Radio placed a giant web 2.0 foot forward announcing a deal to stream its stations to Last.fm listeners through a new online player coming out later this Spring. The deal follows CBS Radio’s recent agreement to offer live streaming on AOL and is similar to the Last.fm partnership struck with the BBC’s digital radio stations. (Cynopsis 4/2)
Sony Pictures Television joined the crowded comedic video space with C-Spot, an ad supported web comedy channel that will distribute short form sketches on Sony’s Crackle, YouTube, Hulu, AOL Video and Verizon Wireless’ VCast, (not to mention directly to Sony Bravia TVs via the Bravia Video Internet link.) C-Spot will try to tickle the funny bone with an initial 6 series, each of which will run for 13-weeks and debut a new episode a different day of the week: Hot, Hot Los Angeles, The Writers Room, Gaytown, The Roadents, Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, and Best of Penn Says. (Cynopsis 4/2)
Online video search company Blinkx plans to launch its own peer-to-peer Internet television service. Blinkx Broadband TV will initially offer independent films and news free of charge, delivered over the Internet but with picture quality on a par with ordinary TV. (Iwantmedia.com 4/2, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d6ee25a8-001a-11dd-825a-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 4/1)
Blinkx Broadband TV
Eh. . .so so selection of content and definitely not picture quality on par with TV. Mediocre quality at best in my very minimal usage.
A week after dozens of people ransacked an Oregon home in response to a Craigslist ad offering its contents for free, police have arrested a couple for orchestrating the hoax. After subpoenaing Craigslist records, investigators traced the online posting to the alleged perpetrators. (Iwantmedia.com 4/2, http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0401081horse1.html 4/1)
Dissident shareholders led by investment fund Jana Partners are belittling CNET Networks’s leadership as incompetent in their latest effort to steer the slumping tech news company in a new direction. Jana says it wants to deploy “better tools to sell more advertising.” (Iwantmedia.com 4/2, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_hi_te/cnet_investor_rebellion 4/1)
Music and video content streamed over the Web, IPTV networks and mobile handsets will generate $70 billion in total revenue between this year and 2013, according to a report from Insight Research. (InformationWeek 4/1)
