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TELECOM TV -- Aug 31 -- Facebook isn't looking to sell or IPO anytime soon. Is this wise given the fickleness of social networking users? In 2003, Friendster turned down Google's $30 million offer and today is worth less than 1/20 of its 2003 valuation. Facebook, which could be valued at about $1 billion, will likely pay attention to Classmates' upcoming IPO. FULL ARTICLE @ TELECOM TV
E FLUX MEDIA -- Aug 30 -- YouTube, which has been attacked for copyright issues on its site, has signed a license agreement with the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the UK group that collects royalties for more than 50,000 composers, songwriters and publishers. YouTube users now will be able to incorporate any of the 10 million copyrighted British songs in their amateur or professional videos. YouTube will pay a flat fee, and the MCPS-PRS will be responsible for splitting the money between its members. FULL ARTICLE @ E FLUX MEDIA
PRESS RELEASE -- Aug 30 -- DirectMatches – the fastest-growing, most popular business network, especially in the small- and home-based business markets – has announced their intent to go public and investors are clamoring for a piece of the action. The company, founded in 2005, already has turned down multimillion-dollar offers. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Mark Brooks: This site has a long way to go before matchinging the functional brilliance of LinkedIn. Reid Hoffman is no slouch. When LinkedIn IPO's the event will pave the way for many more niche business networks.
CNET NEWS -- Aug 30 -- CNET News has picked 10 social networking sites, ranging from party hubs to academic resources, that fit right into a college lifestyle. Blackboard's social-bookmarking site Scholar, Zoho with its collaborative document system, social sites Going and Upcoming, and CouchSurfing, which lets you literally find a couch to crash on, are but some of them. FULL ARTICLE @ C NET NEWS
PR NEWSWIRE -- Aug 30 -- The Chinese SNS dating blog and community site iPart has been selected as one of Red Herring's Top 100 IT companies in Asia. The site, which was first launched in Taiwan in 2002 and China in 2005 and boasts 8.3 million registered members between the two, was ranked among the top 2 in the industry and top 100 in Chinese websites in terms of number of visitors. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS CON MEDIA
Mark Brooks: iPartment is doing very well! Its young users set up imaginary online homes and move in with their imaginary husbands/wives.
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ADOTAS -- Aug 30 -- After a failed attempt at creating their own social network called the Hub, Wal-Mart has created a group on Facebook called "Roommate Style Match" so college roommates can discuss decorating options and college life. The majority of the comments seen on the group's page, though, have been negatively aimed at the company's business practices. FULL ARTICLE @ ADOTAS
Mark Brooks: Wal-Mart has a lot of work to do both with its practices, and with building its online reputation. 'Advertising' through social media doesn't work when your audience despises you.
THIS DAY ONLINE -- Aug 29 -- In an attempt to compete with Baidu – which dominates the Chinese search market with a 58.1% share – Google has acquired an unspecified stake in Chinese community website Tianya.cn. Google, with its 22.8% share, also has won preliminary approval from Beijing to provide Internet content in the country. With about 162 million web users, China is the world's second-largest Internet market after the U.S. FULL ARTICLE @ THIS DAY ONLINE
TECH CRUNCH -- Aug 30 --Microblogging platform Jaiku has added Jabber-based instant messaging capabilities to its service that allow those using Jaiku's Web, iPhone, and Nokia Series 60 smart phones to communicate with users on Jabber-based IM networks, including Google Talk. Features include the ability to instantly add and read new posts, comments, and channel messages, and receive notifications of inbound responses directly. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
ADOTAS -- Aug 29 -- Plaxo has made the source code for its "Online Identity Consolidator" available to the general public. The code can detect all of the social networking accounts for a user and embed any related RSS feeds onto the user's Pulse profile. The move is an effort on Plaxo's part to maintain the company's original goals of creating a user-customizable, open network. FULL ARTICLE @ ADOTAS
MEDIA DAILY NEWS -- Aug 29 -- A beta version of Hulu, the joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal, went live this morning. The potential YouTube killer will offer full episodes of network and cable hits, plus movies. The ad-supported site – whose content will be distributed via AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo, CNET and Comcast and reach 98% of the U.S. Internet audience – will go live in October. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA DAILY NEWS
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