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

XING Increases Revenue By 28%

XING - Mar 30 - XING AG increased its revenues by 28% from €35.3M in 2008 to €45.1 M in FY 2009. The key growth driver here was an increase in paying Premium customers by 25% to 687,000 (550,000 in 2008). Overall, in 2009 XING had 8.75M members worldwide. FULL ARTICLE @ XING

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Facebook Files For “Developer Garage” Trademark

TECH CRUNCH - Mar 30 - Facebook has lately been ramping up efforts to obtain registered trademarks in the US and other countries and regions for a number of products and services it offers or intends to offer in the future. Fresh off the heels of applying for a trademark for Credits, its virtual payment system, the company is now attempting to gain exclusive rights to the use of the term “Facebook Developer Garage”. Facebook Developer Garage events are developer get-togethers hosted all over the world, which are being described as “a place to explore, get gritty, tinker, experiment, and test out ideas for Facebook Platform”. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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LinkedIn Launches Blackberry App

TECH CRUNCH - Mar 29 - LinkedIn has consistently updated its iPhone app, recently launching a new version. Last fall, LinkedIn announced that a powerful BlackBerry app would be on its way. And the app is an important connector to the enterprise crowd, which generally tend to use BlackBerry devices. Tonight, the new app officially launches. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Nearly Half Of U.S. Businesses Have Become Anti-social

THE SPOKESMAN REVIEW - Mar 29 - Companies block Facebook, MySpace and in some cases, YouTube, because they can affect productivity. Nucleus Research concluded earlier this year that U.S. companies would see a productivity gain of 1.5% if Facebook were blocked on work computers. One in five U.S. companies allow Facebook for strictly business use. FULL ARTICLE @ THE SPOKESMAN REVIEW

Canada Key Link In LinkedIn Growth

FINANCIAL POST - Mar 28 - LinkedIn is going global. Arvind Rajan, as the VP international, is responsible for helping LinkedIn expand its footprint beyond its home base of Mountain View. LinkedIn is expected to announce as early as today plans to set up shop in Canada, adding this country to a list of international offices that includes Australia, Ireland, The Netherlands, India and the UK.

Q: What sort of challenges have you encountered while taking LinkedIn international?

A: The change we've experienced in the last six to nine months has been expanding our physical presence around the world in terms of personnel, but the network itself has always been global.

Q: What's the strategy behind the international offices? Are they primarily sales facilities?
A: What we're doing is not only trying to spur membership growth and engagement in those markets, but also drive revenue opportunities in those markets. 

Q: Why has LinkedIn decided to go with a three-pronged approach and are you open to adding other revenue-generating businesses in the future?
A: Yes, there are a lot of other revenue opportunities we're going to pursue over time. 

Q: How important is localization for LinkedIn?
A: We know that every market has a set of unique needs and one of the goals of our local team is to help provide a sense of those needs to the development team here in Mountain View. One of the great things about the LinkedIn app platform is that it allows third parties to develop a lot of those unique solutions for local markets. 

Q: How how does LinkedIn plan to integrate itself into the Canadian market?
A: To be successful in Canada you really need a Canadian presence. 

Q: What did the downturn do for LinkedIn?
A: We definitely saw a real spike in growth as the downturn began. 

Q: How do you convince users, many of whom have other online profiles, to sign up for LinkedIn as well?
A: We view LinkedIn as something different from the other, broader social networks out there. The reason people should use LinkedIn is that it allows you to maintain a network of professional relationships and cultivate them. But it also allows you to establish your professional brand online.
FULL ARTICLE @ FINANCIAL POST

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Why Chatroulette Is More Than Just Penises

MASHABLE - Mar 28 - When the New York Times talked to the 17 year-old Ternovskiy, he confessed that, “Last month I saw 30M unique visitors and 1M new people visit each day. It continues to multiply and I just couldn’t stop it from growing.” Ternovskiy’s gone on record to say that investors and buyers are more interested in him than he is in them. Apparently he could sell for $1M today if he wanted to. Even if Chatroulette is relegated to the entertainment-only realm of the Web, that could very well be all it needs to continue to thrive. Chatroulette is testing custom roulettes which could offer a more structured experience for those with particular interests. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

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Thanks To Our Sponsors

The Top Viral Video Ad Campaign, Updated Mar 23, 2010

Brand: Doritos
Campaign: Viralocity
Agency: BBDO
Source: VisibleMeasures.com

Quarter of 8-12-year-olds On Facebook, MySpace Or Bebo

GUARDIAN.CO.UK - Mar 26 - Young UK internet users creating social network profiles despite official age limit, annual Ofcom survey finds. A quarter of UK internet users aged 8 - 12 had profiles on Facebook, Bebo or MySpace last year, although the lowest minimum age set on any of the sites is 13. Among parents of those eight- to 12-year-olds who had social networking profiles, 17% said they were unaware what their children were doing. Of the 83% of parents who said they did know what their kids were up to on the net, 9 out of 10 check what their children are up to. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

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Zynga Rolls Out Pre-Paid Game Cards

TECH CRUNCH - Mar 26 -  Zynga is now selling pre-paid game cards at a number of major retailers in the U.S., including 7-Eleven, Best Buy, GameStop and Target. Gift certificates to spend money on Zynga games, FarmVille, Mafia Wars and YoVille, will be sold at more than 12,800 stores. The game cards are designed to make it easy for consumers who don’t have access to credit cards or bank accounts to buy in-game items. The $10 or $25 cards can also be purchased as gifts and can be redeemed for in-game currency to get items like tractors, energy packs and furniture. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Social Network Ad Revenue To Double In 2010

MOBILE MARKETING WATCH - Mar 25 - Social network ad revenue will reach $ 421 M marking a 50% increase overall according to Informa. The U.S. mobile social networking market will continue it’s robust growth into 2013 when it’s projected to breakthrough the $1 billion revenue mark. FULL ARTICLE @ MOBILE MARKETING WATCH

MyTown Hits 1.5 Million Location-Based Gamers

TECH CRUNCH - Mar 26 - MyTown is as a sort of real world Monopoly for the iPhone. You travel around your city and check-in places, gain points, and then decide which properties to virtually buy. Another important social element is the ability to send virtual gifts to friends. Virtual items are a big part of MyTown, and the service offers a unique blend of items you can buy with virtual (fake) currency, as well as real currency via in-app purchases. It was only this past January that MyTown announced they had hit 500,000 users. Now just two months later, they’ve tripled in size. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

China's Social Gaming Landscape

READ WRITE WEB - Mar 25 - In 2009, China's online gaming industry earned ~$4 billion, growing 39.5% from 2008. RenRenWang (formerly Xiaonei), Kaixin001 and Tencent's QQ Xiaoyou are leading SNS portals, and are the go-to sites to access China's most popular gaming apps. Happy Farm is the most popular Chinese social game to date. Created by 5 Minutes, the game is similar to Zynga's FarmVille. 5 Minutes was founded in 2006 by three college students.  At the end of 2009, 5 Minutes received $3.5M in venture capital funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Other successful game developers are: Rekoo, IsMole and Kingnet Games. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

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Chatroulette May Be "Nexted" By Investors

REUTERS - Mar 25 - Connecting webcam users around the world at random has turned Chatroulette into an overnight media darling. Most Chatroulette interactions last milliseconds because users can be "nexted". And wherever there are eyeballs amassing in high concentrations, there are investors looking to capitalize. Ternovskiy is reportedly in the U.S. this month exploring his opportunities; Facebook investor Yuri Milner of Digital Sky Technologies has already come knocking. But there are obstacles. All that sleaze could repel advertisers. Do brands really want to associate themselves with whatever comes onscreen? Few believe Chatroulette in its current form could sustain a business model other than advertising. Subscriptions, freemium or virtual currency are unlikely alternatives. FULL ARTICLE @ THE US DAILY

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Moshi Monsters Surpasses 15 Million Players

REALWIRE - Mar 24 - Mind Candy, the developer of the children’s free-to-play social online game Moshi Monsters, has exceeded 15M registered players at moshimonsters.com. The game, which launched its subscription service just over a year ago, allows children to adopt their own pet monster to play mini-games, customise their homes, explore the in-game world, and solve educational puzzles. FULL ARTICLE @ REALWIRE

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LifeStreet’s Ad Network On Facebook Grows Fast

SF BUSINESS TIMES - Mar 19 - LifeStreet claims to have become the largest advertising network on Facebook with a $40M run rate. LifeStreet raised ~$3.5M from Exigent Ventures and other investors. Globally, LifeStreet reaches more than 100M people. Last month, LifeStreet bought the SocialCash ad network, its main competitor, for an undisclosed price. FULL ARTICLE @ SF BUSINESS TIMES

Twitter Is Winning Its Fight Against Spammers

READ WRITE WEB - Mar 23 - Not too long ago, spam on Twitter was quickly becoming a serious issue that made searching for any popular topic on the service's own search engine almost pointless. Spammers would regularly hijack popular terms by polluting the search results with nonsensical tweets that included the popular keyword and a link to a spam site. Since Twitter started implementing better spam controls last year, however, the number of spam messages has gone down dramatically. The percentage of spam tweets per day is now down to under 1%. FULL ARTICLE @ READ WRITE WEB

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Military Announces New Social Media Policy

NEW YORK TIMES - Feb 26 - The Department of Defense on Friday issued a new policy that, on the surface, seems likely to expand access to popular social networks by troops using military computers. The development is considered a step forward by advocates of social networking in the military. Those advocates have complained for years that local commanders, sometimes for vague or arbitrary reasons, have shut down personal blogs or restricted access to social networking sites that an increasing number of troops use to maintain contact with friends and families. FULL ARTICLE @ NEW YORK TIMES