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

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus On Charlie Rose

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 30 - Charlie Rose welcomed Zynga CEO Mark Pincus on his show last night for a 15 minute interview. Pincus says 60-70M people a day are playing social games on Facebook and MySpace, and 1%-2% are willing to shell out actual cash to enhance gameplay. Zynga is behind some of those popular apps for games including Farmville, which allows users to manage a virtual farm and counts 66M monthly active users with farms. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Virtual Goods Give Web Firms New Revenue In Ad Slump

REUTERS - Dec 30 -  90% of new online game start-ups sell virtual goods, estimates Jeremy Liew, managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners. In November, video game publisher Electronic Arts paid $275M for Playfish, which makes games for social networks such as Facebook, which sell virtual goods. A month later, a group of investors poured $180M into Zynga, another social networking game company. Virtual goods account for 90% of Zynga's revenue. For social networks like Ning, which introduced virtual goods in October, digital wares will remain one of several revenue-generating businesses, including ads and premium services, said COO Jason Rosenthal. Ning will introduce new types of virtual goods in 2010 that could double as promotional coupons, allowing the recipient of a virtual handbag, for example, to get a discount or a bonus item in the real world. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

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Twitter Acquires Mixer Labs To Step Up Geo-Location

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 23 - Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs, creators of GeoAPI. GeoAPI provides developers with the ability to query the world through services which include a reverse geocoder; deep data about 16M businesses and tens of thousands of points of interest; a writable layer for developers to annotate the world and do complex geo-queries; and location-enabled media layers. GeoAPI will be integrated directly into the Twitter API, speeding up Twitter’s efforts in the geo-location space. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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23AndMe Completes $27.8 Million Series B Round

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 23 - Personal genomics startup 23andMe has recently raised another $14.2M to close out its $27.8M Series B round. 23andMe is one of the first personal genomics companies, allowing customers to have portions of their DNA analyzed for ~$400. After completing a test, customers can log into the site to get reports on their genetic makeup, including a listing of some diseases they may be at risk for. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Facebook's Online Identity War

 BUSINESS WEEK - Dec 28 - Almost any online activity leaves traces of your identity, from a Google search (what you're looking for) to an Amazon.com visit (what you're buying). Facebook argues that most services on the Web become more useful when they know something about users. One early example is Facebook Connect, a program that lets users log into their profile and interact with Facebook friends on more than 80,000 Web sites. On Dec. 2, Yahoo! announced a partnership with Facebook that will let users of the social network identify themselves on Yahoo sites and share articles, photos, and other content with friends. In part of the agreement, Yahoo intends to tap Facebook user data to place display ads targeted to individuals on its own pages. Those are the kinds of deals that make privacy advocates and individuals skittish. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

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The Top Viral Video Ad Campaign, Updated Dec 21, 2009

Brand: Evian
Campaign: Live Young
Agency: BETC Euro RSCG
Source: VisibleMeasures.com

Jajah Sold For $207 Million

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 23 - The reports from a few days ago that the Jajah deal with O2 closed at $200M were correct. Telefonica just announced that it bought Jajah for 145M Euros ($207M. Jajah will continue to operate under its own brand. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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O2 Rings Up Jajah For $200 Million

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 20 - Last month, we wrote about Jajah being the target of a bidding war. Today, it appears that war is over, with the winner being O2, and the price being $200M. Microsoft and Cisco were two other companies that were vying to get the company. Back in June, the company served up its 1 billionth VoIP call. While the company has some 15M subscribers of its own, many of the calls originate from Yahoo Messenger, which has used Jajah since 2008 for its VoIP calls. They also have a deal in place with Microsoft. The company has raised over $30M in funding over four rounds. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 20 - Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars. The deal was in the later stages of negotiation. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Twitter App Store Oneforty Raises $1.6 Million

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 18 - Twitter app directory oneforty has raised $1.6M. Oneforty currently lists ~2,000 Twitter apps and ranks them based on both their popularity on the site and across the Web. The company makes affiliate revenues for paid apps (mostly on the iPhone). FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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The Top Viral Video Ad Campaign, Updated Dec 14, 2009

Brand: Evian
Campaign: Live Young
Agency: BETC Euro RSCG
Source: VisibleMeasures.com

Google Really Purchases Yelp

ECOMMERCE - Dec 18 - Many sources confirm that Google is in advanced talks with Yelp over the acquisition deal which is likely to close soon. The transaction price will be at least half a million dollars. Over 25M people access Yelp's website each month, putting it in the top 100 of U.S. web sites. The revenue of the company are expected ~$30M in 2009 and $50M or so in 2010. FULL ARTICLE @ ECOMMERCE JOURNAL

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MySpace Citizen Journalist Competition

PRESS RELEASE - Dec 18 - MySpace today announced its second annual “MySpace Citizen Journalist” program in partnership with The Wall Street Journal and the World Economic Forum giving one MySpace user the opportunity to become a special correspondent at the world’s most prestigious conference, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. The “MySpace Citizen Journalist” winner will join the Davos press corps and leverage the MySpace platform to report on conference news and interview world leaders about issues relevant to the global MySpace community. The “MySpace Citizen Journalist” competition encourages users in the US and the UK to upload a video at http://www.myspace.com/myspacejournal  explaining why they should be chosen to travel to Davos and represent the global MySpace community as the special correspondent. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS BLAZE

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This post also appears at the SNC Forums

talki Named Best Consumer VOIP And Messaging App

PRESS RELEASE - Dec 18 - Talkster announced today its talki™ mobile software took top honors in the eighth annual Mobile Star Awards™ program, winning the Superstar award in both the Consumer App: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Consumer App: Email or Messaging categories. Other nominees in the Consumer App: VoIP category included Skype, Skype Lite and Fring. In the Consumer App: Email or Messaging category, nominees included Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway, emoze and Momail.

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Sonico Receives $1.7 Million Funding

PRESS RELEASE - Dec 18 - Sonico, the Latin American social network that organizes people's lives online, announced that DN Capital and other major national and international investors have provided an additional $1.7M to the $4.3M raised during last year's round of financing. Founded in July 2007, Sonico has ~43M registered users and was elected by BusinessWeek as the 5th tech startup with the highest global growth potential. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE   

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IMVU Launches A Virtual Branded Storefront For Charlotte Russe

PRESS RELEASE - Dec 17 - IMVU, an avatar-based social network and virtual world where people meet and interact in 3D, has launched a virtual branded storefront for clothing retailer Charlotte Russe, a growing, mall-based specialty retailer of fashionable, value-priced apparel and accessories.

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Russian Investment Group DST Ups Its Facebook Stake To 5%+

TECH CRUNCH - Dec 17 - Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment group, has increased its stake in Facebook to more than 5% of the American company. Furthermore, DST is looking to increase its stake in Facebook even more. DST earlier this year invested $200M in Facebook, giving the company a $10 billion valuation. Additionally, DST at the time had the option to buy another $100M worth of common stock from existing employees and investors, which is exactly what it ended up doing last July (under unfavorable terms for former Facebook employees). FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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