Social Networking Watch: News on the Social Networking and Social Media Industry

Twitter Makes The Noise, Second Life Makes The Money

GUARDIAN.CO.UK -- July 31 -- The consultancy kzero.co.uk reports that membership of virtual worlds grew by 39% in the Q2 '09 to 579M. Almost all of the 39% growth came from children. Facebook and Twitter are lauded to the skies, but neither has found a way to make money – whereas virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin and Second Life are all profitable because their business models are based on the digital elixir of subscriptions and micropayments. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

See all posts on Facebook       See all posts on Club Penguin
See all posts on Twitter           See all posts on Second Life

Airlines Follow Passengers Onto Social Media Sites

NY TIMES -- July 29 -- When United Airlines damaged Dave Carroll’s $3,500 guitar, he tried to get his restitution from the airline the old-fashioned way. But after months of phone calls, the airline refused to accept his claim. So Mr. Carroll, a professional country singer, channeled his frustration into a song and a video, which he posted on YouTube. “Thanks to social computing, travelers’ tales are no longer confined to what they tell to their coworkers and neighbors,” said Henry H. Harteveldt, a VP and airline and travel industry analyst at Forrester Research. Also airlines use social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to forge deeper relationships with passengers and spread the word about fare sales or to make announcements about new routes or services. Carriers like Southwest Airlines, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines are among the most active users. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Do It Yourself Ads, Frienster’s Next Big Strategy?

SOCIAL TIMES -- July 29 -- Friendster is launching a new DIY advertising option for local businesses that would like to market on its site. The new DIY program is being offered through the support of ZEDO, an ad serving company for web publishers. To start, Friendster DIY Ads will be available globally in 75+ countries, though targeted ads are only supported in the US, Canada, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. FULL ARTICLE @ SOCIAL TIMES

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AOL Appoints New CEO Of Bebo

CNET NEWS -- July 29 -- AOL has promoted Stephane Panier to the role of president at Bebo, which it acquired last year for $850m. Panier, who joined AOL in January after six years at Google, had previously been serving as COO of Bebo. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

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WorldFriends Networks Launches Trips & Cities Feature

WFN -- July 29 -- WorldFriends Networks, an international social networking service, has launched Trips & Cities – a new feature that enables users to input and share their journeys, follow friends’ adventures and make new friends with people at past and future travel destinations. FULL ARTICLE @ WFN

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Viximo Finds Content Is King For Virtual Goods

PR WEB -- July 29 --  Viximo, has released data from a study, exemplifying the effects content has on virtual goods revenue.  Virtual gifts were ranked using criteria such as production value, subject relevancy, and interactivity on a 1 – 5 star scale. 3* gifts, being the average, represented a quality similar to Facebook virtual gifts. Sales and conversion data were compared between the ranked goods, finding that 5* gift content drove 3.7x the revenue of 3* content.  Conclusion: the quality of goods has a profound effect on perceived value. Publishers selling virtual goods sell more and fetch higher prices by well designed merchandise tailored to their sites. FULL ARTICLE @ VIXIMO

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Niche Social Sites Seek Growth Under Facebook's Shadow

REUTERS -- July 28 -- Ning.com, which allows users to build their own social networks, has shown triple-digit growth and notched up a few million users very quickly. "There will always be a place for niche sites that have a focus", Gartner analyst Ray Valdes said, though he added that does not see them becoming as big as Facebook. "The promise of niche social networks and social networking apps is a more targeted audience around a specific interest that will be extremely attractive to advertisers," IDC analyst Caroline Dangson said. But advertisers go where users are, and it is no easy task to amass an audience. So some Internet startups have chosen to become an app provider rather than try build a site. App maker Slide had an audience of 32M in the U.S. in June; Rock You had 26M according to comScore. Zynga provides social gaming applications. The three have a strong presence on Facebook. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

See all posts on Ning           See all posts on Rock You
See all posts on Facebook    See all posts on Zynga
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Facebook Gets Facebook.ir In Iran With Help From UN

MASHABLE -- July 28 -- Facebook controls practically every Facebook domain from nearly every country. Facebook didn’t own Facebook.ir – the top level domain for Iranian websites. Majid Karimian of Yazd, Iran owned it until recently, when the United Nations told him to give up the domain to the social networking giant. Karimian, who claims that he wanted to use Facebook.ir to sell books, lost a claim with the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Friendster Shopping Itself Around In Asia

TECH CRUNCH -- July 27 -- Friendster is actively looking for a buyer and has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to find a party interested in acquiring the company or at least some of its assets. The fact sheet that we obtained shows that Friendster/Morgan Stanley are gunning for a buyer who wants to gain quick access to the Asian social networking scene. One thing we couldn’t gather from the documents is the price Friendster is hoping to get. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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This post also appears at the SNC Forums

ITV Faces £160m Loss On Friends Reunited

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK -- July 25 -- ITV is close to selling Friends Reunited to entrepreneur Peter Dubens in a deal worth about £15M - a massive £160M loss on its investment. The broadcaster bought the business in Dec '05 for £175M. But the site, which has 19M registered users, has since been overshadowed by rivals such as Facebook and is thought to be suffering from a slowdown in online advertising due to the recession. ITV's revenues from Friends Reunited were £18M last year, down from £22M in 2007. FULL ARTICLE @ DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

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Nokia Acquires Cellity's Social Network

MOCONEWS -- July 24 -- Nokia has agreed to acquire certain assets of Germany-based cellity, a social networking software company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nokia said it will acquire the company's 14 employees to "strengthen its competencies in the area of social networking," but will discontinue the service. Currently, cellity offers a solution to collect and securely store users' contacts in one place, and allows people to connect over a phone and the web. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

Breaking The Ice With A Virtual Gift

ZOOSK -- July 24 -- Zoosk conducted a survey among one thousand Zooskers to learn more about their thoughts on virtual gifts.

- 76% would be more likely to respond to a potential match if they received a virtual gift from that person
- 15% have ever sent someone a virtual gift
- 37% send “traditional” virtual gifts, such as digital flowers or a box of chocolates
- 27% show off “wild side” by selecting virtual gifts like a martini or a strawberry dripped in chocolate
FULL ARTICLE @ ZOOSK BLOG

This post also appears on OnlinePersonalsWatch.

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News Corp Sees MySpace As Place For Videogames

REUTERS -- July 23 --  News Corp hopes to transform MySpace, which has been losing users to Facebook, into a stronger online videogaming platform. Facebook had more than 307 million unique visitors in April, while MySpace had less than 125 million, according to comScore. "If you look at the big activities online, games right now is number three," said News Corp digital head Jonathan Miller. "Communications, search, games. So it's clearly going to be a major focus." FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

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Social Networks Not Much Of A Marketplace

RESEARCH BRIEF -- July 23 -- A study, released by WorkPlace Media, found that 55% of office Internet users maintained at least one social networking account. However only 43% reported accessing their accounts at work and 78% spend less than 30 minutes per day on their site(s). The overall impact of a brand's presence on social networks was shown to be minimal in terms of impact and perception. 96% of respondents said their opinion of a product brand did not change if that brand had no presence on a social network, and only 11% are following any major brand through a social network. FULL ARTICLE @ CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Mark Brooks: Stop the press. "11% are following a major brand through a social network." That's huge!

‘How To’ Video Site 5min Raises An Extra $7.5 Million

TECH CRUNCH -- July 23 -- Instructional video site 5min has raised an additional $7.5M in a round led by Globespan Capital Partners and joined by previous investor Spark Capital. This brings the total of capital invested in the startup, founded in 2006, to $12.8M. 5min is in essence a syndication platform for instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos, both professionally produced and user-generated. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Founder Of Social Networking

LA TIMES -- July 23 -- Within a year after its launch in March 2003, Friendster had defined social networking as we know it today. The concept inspired hundreds of websites, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Jonathan Abrams, founder of Friendster, takes pride in his claim to inventing the idea of requesting and accepting friendships online. But because he's been around it longer than anyone, he's also getting sick of all the friend requests. What he's promoting is his new start-up, Socializr. A sort of social calendar, the website is a direct competitor of Evite. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES

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