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

comScore Acquires Latin American Web Measurement Company Certifica

TECH CRUNCH - Oct 29 - comScore, has acquired Certifica, a similar web measurement company based in Latin America. ComScore says the acquisition will help buid its presence in Latin America. ComScore did not disclose the terms of the acquisition. Certifica was founded in 2000 and publishes analytics and statistics on Internet usage in Latin America. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Layoffs Confirmed At 23andMe

TECH CRUNCH - Oct 29 - Personal genomics startup 23andMe has just gone through a round of layoffs. The company declined to comment on how many people were laid off, but offered this statement: "These cuts, which are a reflection of the current economic environment all companies are facing, will allow us to continue to invest in the growth of our Personal Genome Service and research endeavors." 23andMe was founded by Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki back in 2006. Investors include biotech powerhouse Genentech, as well as New Enterprise Associates. The company also has close ties to Google — Sergey Brin (who is Wojciki’s husband) has loaned 23andMe $10M, and Google also has a stake in the company. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Google Launches Music Search

MASHABLE - Oct 29 - Music-related searches currently make up ~6% of total queries on Google according to Hitwise. That's why Google has launched a major new feature that incorporates streaming audio previews when you search for an artist, album, or song using the search engine. When you enter a music-related query like the name of a song, artist or album, your search results will include links to an audio preview of those songs provided by Google's music search partners MySpace or Lala. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Social Network Zorpia To Provide Virtual Goods Via Viximo

PR WEB - Oct 29 - Viximo, the provider of a virtual goods solution designed for social networks,  online dating, and casual gaming, announced the next version of its virtual goods solutions and Zorpia.com as a new partner. The additions to Viximo’s economy tools provide a deeper set of analytics, currency management and aggregated payment providers. Viximo’s solution will provide Zorpia, one of the largest international social networks with ~16M members, the tools to quickly enable, manage, and optimize their virtual goods business. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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Friendster's Comeback Plan

ASIAMEDIA JOURNAL - Oct 28 - After losing ground to Facebook in many of its Southeast Asian markets, Friendster has embarked on a comeback plan, launching a payments platform to sell virtual items and games. Friendster’s payment platform will be extended to third parties such as advertisers, game publishers and apps developers, allowing Friendster to take a cut of purchases made with its own currency. Friendster remains the leading social network by total audience in the Philippines according to ComScore. While Facebook leads in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore meanwhile, Friendster is number two. FULL ARTICLE @ ASIAMEDIA JOURNAL

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MySpace Declines, Facebook And Twitter Grow

READ WRITE WEB - Oct 28 - According to Hitwise U.S. visits to Facebook have increased 194% from Sep 2008 to Sep 2009. However, it's Twitter that's seen the largest YOY increase in visits - during that same time period, they're up 1170%. Nearly 59% of all the social networking visits were visits to Facebook while only 30% were to MySpace - a 55% decrease in market share over the past year. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

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Flixster Crosses 8 Million Mobile Users

TECH CRUNCH - Oct 27 - Flixster, a social network for movie fans, is doing pretty well. Earlier this week, Flixster crossed ~ 8M users across their mobile app lineup. Of that 8M, 75% have used the app in the past 90 days. Users are currently rating one movie every 5 seconds, whilst watching ~140 trailers per minute, 24 hours a day. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Twitter Finds Growth Abroad

TECH CRUNCH - Oct 27 - Twitter’s growth these days seems to be coming from abroad. ComScore data shows a 6.7% jump from August to September in worldwide visitors to 58.4M (949% increase from a year ago). The 20.9M visitors from the U.S., in contrast, has remained flat since June. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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XING Launches Recruiter Membership

XING - Oct 26 - XING  launches its Recruiter Membership, that enables users to benefit from powerful new search filters optimized especially for recruitment purposes, such as “Career level”, “Professional experience”, “Company size” and “Industry”. Recruiter Membership is now available at an introductory price of 29.95EUR/month. FULL ARTICLE @ XING

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U.K. Online Display Advertising On Social Networks

PR NEWSWIRE - Oct 26 - According to Comscore, social networks accounted for 13.8 billion display ad impressions in August 2009, representing more than 25% of all display ads viewed online. Telefonica O2, Deutsche Telekom, and British Telecommunications, were the heaviest advertisers. Display ads on social networks skew toward younger users. 15-24 year olds were the highest indexing age segment, accounting for 29% of display ad impressions.  FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Social Networks Cost British Economy £1.38 Billion Per Year

SIFY NEWS - Oct 26 - A recent survey done in the UK by Morse, an IT services and technology company, has revealed that the cost to the economy due to use of social networks by office workers during office hours could be over £1.38 billion/year. More than 50% of office workers used social networks for personal use during the working day, and admitted to wasting ~40 minutes a week each. The figures also revealed that one in three people had seen sensitive company information posted on social networks, leading to fears about how workers use the Internet. FULL ARTICLE @ SIFY NEWS    

Social Network Updates A Friend To Charities

SF CHRONICLE - Oct 26 - Social networks have quickly become a powerful yet inexpensive tool to raise money and awareness for charities. A week ago, a record number of status updates on Twitter and Facebook using the phrase "#BeatCancer" helped raise $70,000 for four non-profit cancer organizations. Meanwhile, sales of a virtual crop for the popular Facebook game FarmVille raised  $500 000 to feed poor children in Haiti. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

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Facebook Wins Legal Victory Over Power.com

MASHABLE  - Oct 25 - The Power.com lawsuit against Facebook has been dismissed by a US District Judge. It’s been a back-and-fourth mélee with Facebook first filing suit against Power.com for allegedly using Facebook user data without authorization. Then in July, Power.com counter-sued Facebook with claims of unfair competition, and stopped supporting the site as part of their social media aggregating service. Today the Power.com counter-suit has been dismissed, though a Facebook representative assures us that their original legal matter against Power.com is still pending. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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This post also appears at the SNC Forums.

Chia Hwu, Community Manager At 23andMe.com

SNW INTERVIEW - Oct 26 - 23andMe on its Web site calls itself “a Web-based service that helps customers read and understand their DNA.” As Community Manager, Chia Hwu oversees all of the company’s social networking initiatives. – Jenn Rubin

 Listen to the interview

What does your organization do?
23andMe is a personal genome company. What that means is we will actually take your DNA, analyze it and tell you what your risk factors are for things like diseases. We’ll also tell you your deep ancestry. So if you’re really interested in where you’re from, you can find that out from our service.

Why the name 23andMe?
There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in most people.

Walk me through exactly how the DNA-testing process would work. I go to 23andMe.com. What would I do next?
You come to our Web site and purchase the kit. It’s a one-time fee of $399. There is a fairly intensive form that you have to read through before we’ll sell you our service. We want to make sure you know that you’re getting your genetic data and what that might mean.

We find out your DNA through a non-invasive test. You spit into a tube. You don’t have to get blood drawn. The other thing I have to say is this is not a clinical test. It is something for your own education.

So, you get the results of your data. Is this where social networking comes into play?
The social aspect is that you can share your genome with others. We have a tool called “Family Inheritance,” where you can see if you have similarity between you and someone else.

So if you do the test and you’re sharing with a cousin, you’ll see like a certain amount of similarity in your genome. If you do it with a sibling, you’ll have regions where you’re completely identical.

What are some of the other community-building features on the site?
We have a forum where you can talk to others about your results. We have a lot of people who want to talk about, for example, “Oh, we’re both haplogroup R1b1a. Can we talk about where your family is from, and do we all come from the same area of Europe?”

There is also a health part. Someone will say, “I have had this weird toe, and I want to know if there is something that is genetic about it. Can we compare our genetic data and see if we can find something?”

Tell me about the company’s relationship with Google.
They are an investor. Google has also invested in Navigenics, which is one of our competitors.

Why is Google looking to invest in this sector?
Google is interested in how we index the massive amounts of data we work with.

Who is 23andMe designed for?
We are going after people who are interested in their own health. That is a big market, like I want to know what my risk factor for something like prostate cancer for men would be genetically. We have a list of 116 different health traits that we look at.

We also can look at drug interactions. There is a very popular blood thinner that a lot of people take called Warfarin. It’s also known as Coumadin. There is a genetic test that will tell you if you’re more sensitive or less sensitive to it. The reason that’s important is because if you take a little too much for your system, you will end up what they call bleeding out.

Any new social networking features you are planning for the site?
We have one coming up. It’s an interactive feature where you can determine from genes very distant relations. It’s not just are you my 2nd cousin, but are you my 7th cousin?

Why would one want to pick 23andMe over other health-related sites for social networking?
I don’t think any other site has social networking, not in the same way. On our site, if you know the e-mail address of a person who has tested with us, you can say I want to share genetic information with you. With one click, you can look at each other’s data.

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Nokia’s Looking To Sell Off Dopplr

TECH CRUNCH - Oct 23 - Nokia is quietly looking for a buyer to take Dopplr, the travel social network, off their hands. According to our source, all Nokia really wanted from the acquisition was the team, particularly CEO Marko Ahtisaari and CTO Matt Biddulph. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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More Signs Hulu Subscription Service Is Coming

CNET NEWS - Oct 22 - Chase Carey, News Corp.'s deputy chairman, suggested that it's just a matter of time before Hulu, the video service founded by News Corp. and NBC Universal, launches a subscription service. The move would likely be made in 2010. Charging for content online may not solve Hulu's revenue problems. Subscription video-on-demand services have to compete with a score of sites that offer pirated content to consumers for free. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

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