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Google Quietly Invests Over $100 Million in Zynga, Readying Google Games

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5584118/google-quietly-invests-over-100-million-in-zynga-readying-google-games

Google Quietly Invests Over 0 Million in Zynga, Readying Google GamesWhoa. TechCrunch reports that Google has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, the social gaming behemoth behind Farmville, Mafia Wars, and others, in preparation for the launch of Google Games later this year.

TechCrunch’s “multiple sources” say that Google itself, not its venture capital division Google Ventures, has invested between $100 and $200 million in Zynga, a huge power play presumably with the aim of eroding Facebook’s social media dominance.

It seems that Google sees Zynga as the best way to hit the ground running with Google Games, a social gaming service from the search company that’s set to launch later this year. TechCrunch points to this job opening for “Product Management Leader, Games” at their Mountain View campus as proof that we’ll be seeing a lot more about Google’s move into gaming in the near future.

With Google Me, the company’s purported Facebook killer, continuing to take shape, this major investment in Zynga is just further proof that Google is making a very serious effort to hit Facebook where it hurt, namely, the farms. [TechCrunch]

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Monday, July 12th, 2010 news No Comments

On Facebook, A Wal-Mart Employee Is More Valuable Than A Goldman Sachs Employee

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-facebook-ads-2010-6

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In the real world, using salary as a measure, a Goldman Sachs staffer is worth much more than a Wal-Mart employee. An average Goldman Sachs employee is paid a bonus of $500,000, while the average Wal-Mart employee salary is $20,000.

On Facebook, the opposite is true. In the eyes of an advertiser, a Wal-Mart employee is worth nearly twice as much as a Goldman employee, according to Facebook’s suggested advertising bid prices.

Kim-Mai Cutler at VentureBeat looked at Facebook’s suggested advertiser bid price on per category basis. What she found is pretty interesting. 

As you can see in this chart, the most expensive company to target is Facebook. The next most expensive is Wal-Mart. Goldman and Bain employees are duking it out for the cheapest.

chart of the day, suggested bids to reach facebook users employees of companies, june 2010

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Monday, July 5th, 2010 news 1 Comment

Only 40% Of Web Ads Use Adobe Flash (ADBE)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-display-advertising-creative-by-format-2010-6

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When the iPad was first announced by Apple, ad people moaned that without Flash many websites would lose a valuable source of revenue.

Ian Schafer, CEO of marketing agency Deep Focus, wrote “ads are almost 100% rendered in Adobe‘s Flash.” Because Apple wouldn’t support Flash, it would be screwing web publishers.

Turns out that’s not exactly true. New data from comScore reveals that just 40% of ads on the web are based on Flash or Rich Media. Plain old images in the form of jpegs are just as popular. And those jpegs show up anywhere.

chart of the day, Display Advertising Creative by Format, may 2010

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Monday, July 5th, 2010 news No Comments

iPhone Owners Download Twice As Many Paid Apps As Android Owners (GOOG, AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-apps-iphone-ipod-android-2010-6

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Apple iPhone owners are downloading almost twice as many paid applications as Google Android users, according to data from Google‘s mobile ad company AdMob. AdMob included this chart in its monthly mobile stats report.

AdMob doesn’t provide any explanation for this phenomenon, so here are our guesses:

  • iTunes has a smooth purchasing/payment process. Google’s marketplace might not be as good.
  • iTunes does a good job of highlighting popular paid apps. Android isn’t as good at that.
  • There are probably more paid apps on a relative basis for iPhone than Android.
  • The iPhone is positioned as a premium phone. Verizon offers some Android phones for free, same with T-Mobile. If you get your phone for free, you might be less willing to spend for applications. (Or be the type of users who buys paid apps.)

chart of the day, apps on iPhone, iPod, Android, 2010

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Monday, July 5th, 2010 news No Comments

Facebook’s Oversized Economy Visualized

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5578544/facebooks-oversized-economy-visualized

Facebook's Oversized Economy VisualizedWhat if Facebook were a country, and all its apps and fan pages were its fiefdoms? It would look a little something like this. Oh, and it would be filthy, filthy rich.

Because Facebook’s a private company, it’s impossible to know how much the site itself makes. But the value of fan pages alone is staggering, to say nothing of app giants like Zynga and CrowdStar.

Me? I’ll just take some oceanfront property in Causes. I hear the winters are incredibly mild. [Visual Economics via The High Definite]

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Friday, July 2nd, 2010 news No Comments

Google Rolling Out "Google Me," Their Facebook Killer, Very Soon [Unconfirmed]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5573953/rumor-google-rolling-out-google-me-their-facebook-killer-very-soon

Well this is kinda wacky. Citing a “very credible source,” Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted that Google is readying “Google Me,” a social service intended to go toe-to-toe (face-to-face?) with Facebook. It’s like Google stalking, but official, and thus marginally less creepy!

Google Buzz, their most recent foray into social networking, was not a resounding success (read: total privacy shitshow) and I imagine there’s some lingering skepticism about Google’s ability to actually keep all of its users information on lockdown.

Then again, they already know just about everything there is to know about you, so maybe it’d be easier to forget Facebook altogether and just click a button in Gmail that says, “Yes! Cull your extensive records to make a “Google Me” profile in my best image, selectively including the photographs and personal interests likeliest to get me laid.” Kidding, kidding, I promise that’s not what I’m all about. Seriously! Google me! [Kevin Rose via Runnin Scared and SF Weekly]

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Sunday, June 27th, 2010 news 1 Comment

Popular Posts – Week of June 7, 2010.

  • HP Mini 311 Nvidia ION Netbook Hackintosh’ed
  • Facebook advertising metrics and benchmarks
  • Contextual Help Bubble – Dictionary, Thesaurus, Wikipedia, Amazon, Google Translate, Clip2Send
  • How-To View Gmail for iPad on Your Regular Computer – Chrome and Safari
  • A sure sign Facebook’s already in trouble – meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming
  • What is Web 3.0? Characteristics of Web 3.0
  • social media benchmarks
  • Apple vs Microsoft vs Sony [Graphs]
  • The JKWeddingDance video was real; the viral effect was MANUFACTURED – Post 1 of 2
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    Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 Uncategorized No Comments

    The Half-Life Of A YouTube Video Is 6 Days (GOOG)

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-the-lifecycle-of-a-youtube-video-2010-5

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    A video on YouTube gets 50% of its views in the first 6 days it is on the site, according to data from analytics firm TubeMogul. After 20 days, a YouTube video has had 75% of its total views.

    That’s a really short life span for YouTube videos, and it’s probably getting shorter. In 2008, it took 14 days for a video to get 50% of its views and 44 days to get 75% of its views.

    Why? In the last two years, YouTube has improved its user interface, which helps videos get seen early on. Also, the world has gotten more adept at embedding and sharing videos in real-time via Twitter and Facebook. (And there’s probably more video to choose from.)

    What’s this mean for publishers? For one thing, publishers should have advertising/monetization schemes ready to go for their videos right when they’re published, because the hits come early.

    It also means companies should be actively uploading videos to YouTube, says David Burch, a rep at TubeMogul. He notes that major companies like the NBA have been good at getting clips on YouTube quickly. If they didn’t act fast, then they could miss an opportunity to get eyeballs.

    chart of the day, youtube video lifecycle, may 2010

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    Friday, May 28th, 2010 news No Comments

    A sure sign Facebook’s already in trouble – meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming

    Facebook Suicide is on the rise (people leaving Facebook and not coming back)

    facebook suicide A sure sign Facebooks already in trouble   meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/well-these-new-zuckerberg-ims-wont-help-facebooks-privacy-problems-2010-5

    According to SAI sources, the following exchange is between a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg and a friend shortly after Mark launched The Facebook in his dorm room:

    Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

    Zuck: Just ask.

    Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

    [Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How’d you manage that one?

    Zuck: People just submitted it.

    Zuck: I don’t know why.

    Zuck: They “trust me”

    Zuck: Dumb fucks.

    Source: http://gizmodo.com/5537408/the-devolution-of-facebook-privacy

    devolution of facebook privacy A sure sign Facebooks already in trouble   meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming

    Google Suggest — top searches starting with “how do i… “

    how do i delete my facebook A sure sign Facebooks already in trouble   meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming

    Ecosystem of Apps for Facebook is already overtaken by iPad Apps as evidenced by search volume around the 3 terms.

    iphone facebook ipad apps A sure sign Facebooks already in trouble   meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming

    NYTimes: chart of Facebook Privacy Options – too complex for most people to figure out and use appropriately.

    facebook privacy options A sure sign Facebooks already in trouble   meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming

    Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-diaspora-should-do-with-their-newfound-fkyoufacebook-money-2010-5#ixzz0oFA1oSKT

    Charlie O’Donnell: “By the time of this post is done, Diaspora, the web decentralization play from four NYU/Courant students in New York, will undoubtedly have $100,000 raised on Kickstarter.  Over and above that, it seems like they’re on a clear path towards a million dollars.  Think I’m poking the bear?  I’m dead serious.  You watch.  A week from now, they get to seven digits.  Why?  Because the ire over Facebook’s privacy issues, platform aggression, etc. is real.  If you’re concerned about Facebook, these guys are your heroes.”

    AdAge Poll from May 19, 2010.

    adage facebook poll A sure sign Facebooks already in trouble   meteoric rise and meteoric fall coming


    My Previous article:  Facebook is going down in unique users, visits, and time spent

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    Monday, May 17th, 2010 Uncategorized 1 Comment

    Twitter gains mass awareness but usage remains light

    AWARENESS

    2010 – 87% awareness

    2009 – 24% awareness

    2008 – 5% awareness

    USAGE

    2010

    - 1,500 million pageviews per month (71 pageviews per month avg)

    - 162 million visits per month (8 visits per month avg)

    - 21 million unique visitors per month

    Arbitron Figures

    2010 – 7% active users (use at least once per month)

    2009 – 2% active users

    Source: http://www.digidaydaily.com/stories/digital-content-today-arbitron-posts-twitter-numbers

    Digital Content Today: Arbitron Posts Twitter Numbers

    Media usage tracking company is reporting some surprising numbers on Twitter usage. According to a report in RadioInk, a webinar fromArbitron/Edison Research revealed that 87% of Americans are now aware of Twitter, up from 24% in 2009 and just 5% when the question was first asked, in 2008. But in looking at how many Americans are active users of Twitter — defined as using the service at least once a month — that figure came in at 7%, or about 17 million people, up from 2% in 2009.

    Those are huge numbers to be sure, but less that what the blogosphere and assumed ubiquity of Twitter actually seems to be. Edison VP/Strategy & Marketing Tom Webster said awareness of Twitter has soared over a very short period. Webster compared Twitter usage to that of Facebook, the “10-ton gorilla” of social networking, with about six times as many users as Twitter although awareness of the services is roughly equal, and said, “Given that awareness per se is not a constraint, I think the smartest thing you can say about this particular graph is that Twitter has yet to articulate its value to mainstream Americans.”

    Arbiron/Edson says that 18% of active Twitter users access the service several times a day and 15 % report they use it at least once a day, while 22% say they’re on Twitter at least once a month. But more than half — 53% — of active Twitter users don’t post tweets themselves and are instead, Webster said, “driven to go there as consumers of broadcast content.”

    Other data:
    •    About 51 % of active Twitter users are white, 24% are African American — about twice the percentage of African Americans in the general population. The study speculated that African Americans may use Twitter more “conversationally” than other users.
    •    About 19% saying they’re “among the first” to buy or try new products, compared to 10 % of the population as a whole. 25% say they buy or try products before others, but not first.
    •    They’re also inclined to access the Internet from several locations, and 63% access social networking from a mobile phone, compared to 35 % of all social-network users. And for Twitter users, Webster said, SMS is “pretty much like oxygen”: 92% use SMS, and 73% text multiple times a day.
    •    About 42% of monthly Twitter users say they use the service to learn about products and services, and 41% use it to post their own opinions about products, while 31 % seek others’ opinions.

    Active Twitter users report spending four hours a day online, compared to about two hours for the general population. But, Webster noted, “the other media here aren’t proportionately lower.” Twitterers spend two hours, 41 minutes a day with radio, compared to two hours, five minutes for the general population, and they spend three hours, 22 minutes with TV, compared to three hours, 25 minutes.

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    Monday, May 3rd, 2010 Uncategorized 1 Comment