The social blogging site Tumblr has seen its unique user base soar in the last year, gaining 183 percent from May 2010 to May 2011, according to the Nielsen Co. “State of the Media: Social Media Report Q3 2011.
Nielsen says Tubmbr enjoyed 11.9 unique visitors in May, up from 4.2 million just a year ago. The site averages 21,280 messages and links posted daily.
Tumblr surpassed the number of blogs hosted by WordPress in June. It currently hosts 29 million blogs.
Just over 57 percent of Tumblr user are under the age of 34.
Tumblr is very visually oriented. Its easy-to-use system also makes it ultra simple to reblog posts from those followed on Tumblr. It hosts many fashion oriented blogs, personal blogs, food blogs, many film or film star focused blogs, media outlets galore, and a significant number of porn blogs.
It can be searched by tags and users can place tags they follow (such as “tech” or “business” or “news”) on a sidebar of their dashboard. Many users create multiple blogs and it is very easy to follow other blogs, although not so easy, always to find individual users or blogs as one might wish. Like most social networks, users do a lot of carping on the site about how it does or does not work, changes and so on.
EMarketer speculates that as more marketers join the site and figure out how to use it best, it is poised to become a major player in the social space, which some would argue, it already is.
We enjoy Tumblr, which makes it easy to scroll through many blog posts from a huge variety of sources in a minimum of time, stopping where interest clicks. We’re not sure how good it will be as a marketing vehicle, but it provides a way to reach a substantially young audience with the right type of dynamic, visually oriented content.
It’s uniquely effective for visuals, from photographs to inforgraphics. –Allan Maurer
Social media users posted more positive than negative opinions on gaming consoles in the last 12 months, but became much more negative than positive in the last few months, according to a new social media analytics report from Amplicate.
The report found that 64% of all opinions on gaming consoles posted on social media in the last 12 months were positive. But less than 50% of opinions were positive from May 2011 onwards thanks to a deluge of negative comment on the closing down of Sony’s Playstation Network in late April. The negative press resulted from Sony’s decision (SNE) to close down its console network for over a week following a hacking attack.
Playstation most loved
Despite the controversy, the Playstation 2 was far and away the most loved gaming console on social media over the 12 months, with 92% of comments expressing love for the world’s best selling console.
The XBox 360, on the other hand, was the most hated gaming console. Only 50% of comments about the XBox successor were positive over the 12 months, with the Microsoft console (MSFT) only managing to avoid slipping into negative territory for the year thanks to a spike in positive opinions in February.
Amplicate’s new report, ‘Public Opinion on Gaming Consoles on Social Media‘, also reveals that the selection of games and the gaming experience were the most important criteria for social media users when they were rating gaming consoles.
Amplicate’s new report is part of its new social analytics reports service. Amplicate offers in-depth social media analytics reports on every imaginable topic. Reports explain what people have been saying about a product or industry, when and where they’re saying it and why.
Since the launch of the “Like” and “Share” buttons, links to the front pages of the top 1,000 sites on the Web have been liked and shared on Facebook more than 65 million times, according to BrightEdge, an enterprise SEO firm.
The SocialShare analysis also looked at these top 1,000 sites to learn which Facebook share buttons have gained the most ubiquity. BrightEdge for the first time was able to rank Facebook’s many share buttons in a top 10 rank based on usage on the Web’s largest and most trafficked sites.
Changes to Facebook social plugins may be imminent
“Changes to Facebook social plugins may be imminent and this analysis shows how significant these features have become on the Web today,” said Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge. “Very few features have achieved the massive scale of adoption that Facebook ‘Like ‘and ‘Share’ buttons now see across the Internet. And the usage of these buttons is unprecedented in the history of the Web.”
The BrightEdge SocialShare Engine also was able to learn for the first time ever that 25 percent of the top 1,000 web sites have adopted Facebook plugins. The “Like” Button is the most utilized share feature that Facebook offers. It lets users share pages from a site directly on their Facebook profile with a single click of a button.
The report states that Facebook plugins are offering increased insight into user interest, rapidly transforming Facebook from a social graph of connections between people to an interest graph that reflects the social signals about interests, opinions and desires.
BrightEdge says this transition creates opportunity for marketers to understand and utilize signals to drive traffic in the face of increasing adoption of social buttons (see September SocialShare). Facebook is now offering marketers increased relevance with which to measure and take action on this social signal stream.
Marketers continue to look for ways to capitalize on the trend of user driven marketing, where billions of potential customers are searching, sharing, wanting and subscribing to products, services and brands.
This is the edge of marketing’s funnel, where users are in control of their search and social activity, and marketers look to understand and convert prospective customers based on the signals they are sending.
Popularity Rank
Name
Definition
1
Like Button
The Like button lets users share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click.
2
Like Box
The Like Box enables users to like your Facebook page and view its stream directly from your website.
3
Activity Feed
The Activity Feed plugin shows users what their friends are doing on your site through likes and comments.
4
Recommendations
The Recommendations plugin gives users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like.
5
Login Button
The Login Button shows profile pictures of the user’s friends who have already signed up for your site in addition to a login button.
6
Comments
The Comments plugin lets users comment on any piece of content on your site.
7
Facepile
The Facepile plugin displays the Facebook profile pictures of users who have liked your page or have signed up for your site.
8
Send
The Send Button allows your users to easily send your content to their friends.
9
Registration
The registration plugin allows users to easily sign up for your website with their Facebook account.
10
Live Stream
The Live Stream plugin lets your users share activity and comments in real-time as they interact during a live event.
Source: BrightEdge SocialShare
The BrightEdge analysis examines and analyzes the front pages of the world’s 1,000 most trafficked sites. The analysis seeks to measure the presence of social plugins on these large web properties and the presence of links to social pages. The monthly SocialShare Analysis provides an important window into the growth and utilization of social tools by the world’s most well known brands.
Half of US information workers now split their time between the office, home, and other remote locations, according to Forrester’s Q2 2011 US Workforce Technology And Engagement Online Survey of 4,985 US information workers.
The study, which sheds new light on today’s increasingly mobile and distributed workforce, was published today in conjunction with the first day of Forrester’s Content & Collaboration Forum.
The report also reveals that workers are untethered from the office as they rise in rank. Fifty-three percent of individual workers are office-bound, but that number drops to 35 percent among managers and supervisors, and plummets to just 10 percent among directors and executives.
“Looking out five years, Forrester sees three technology ‘trains’ impacting the future of workforce productivity, innovation, and advocacy. All three of these trains have left the station: enterprise mobility, enterprise social, and cloud services for business,” Matt Brown, vice president and practice leader at Forrester Research, said during his opening remarks at the Forum.
The Workforce Technology And Engagement Survey, which enables Forrester clients to make fact-based decisions about which technology to invest in and why, also revealed the following:
BlackBerry still has the largest installed base of smartphones for work — but Android and Apple devices combined lead the workplace. While 42 percent of workers use RIM BlackBerry, IT departments are supporting more devices, and Apple and Android are starting to cut into RIM’s enterprise dominance: 26 percent of workers now use Android smartphones, and 22 percent use iPhones. “We expect a tsunami of mobile user demand for access to portals, productivity tools, and back-end transactional and reporting systems as these devices make it into the hands of the broader workforce,” Brown said.
Gen Y (age 18-31) is almost twice as likely as boomers (age 56-66) to use social tools — but adoption of enterprise 2.0 technologies is still nascent. Only one in six Gen Y professionals uses social tools. Despite significant and ongoing investment in enterprise social technologies, their roughly seven-year lifespan within enterprises has yielded a maximum of 12 percent adoption within the overall workforce. This market has failed to displace traditional collaboration technologies like email as a preferred way to communicate at work.
The use of tablets in the enterprise is exploding. Eleven percent of information workers are using tablets to do their jobs. “Despite a tablet market that’s barely a year old, this is astounding growth,” Brown said.
Andover, MA, the only U.S. city with a global top ten Internet speed
The average worldwide download speed is 580KBps with South Korea leading the list with a blazingly fast average speed of 2,202KBps. Only one U.S. city broke into the top ten globally, and only two of the top ten were outside South Korea.
That may not come as much of a surprise, but the small eastern European nations of Romania (1,909KBps) and Bulgaria (1,611KBps) unexpectedly claimed the second and third highest speeds. In fact, eastern European nations dominated the top of the list with Lithuania in fourth at 1,462KBps, Latvia in fifth at 1,377KBps and Ukraine in eighth at 1,190KBps.
The completion rate for measured downloads closely correlates with average speed, South Korea again taking top prize with a 94% completion rate and most of the other speedy countries not far behind.
Other notable countries studied included the USA with an average of 616KBps, Germany at 647KBps, Australia at 348KBps, and China at 245KBps.
The fastest six cities were located in South Korea. Andover, Massachusetts (USA) (2,801KBps) and Bucharest, Romania (2,665KBps) are the only cities outside of South Korea to break into the top 10. The slowest measured city was Algiers, Algeria at 56KBps followed by Itapema, Brazil at 61KBps and Santa Cruz, Bolivia at 62KBps.
Average download speeds varied by ISP. In the United States, Verizon Internet Services provides the fastest service, averaging 1,056KBps due to their widespread FIOS network. In Great Britain, Virgin Media is the fastest choice with average speeds of 612KBps while Dacom Corp. takes the top spot in speedy South Korea with an average of 5,151KBps.
“The disparities we found were striking. While, in general, developed economies outpaced the developing world in average download speeds, big names such as the US, UK, France, China and Canada were not even close to being the fastest,” said Robert Levitan, CEO of Pando Networks.
Specific city and country-based data and infographics are available on request from pando@triplepointpr.com.
RatePoint, the simplest way for local businesses to track and improve their online reputation, reports results of A consumer survey shows that 70 percent say they would appreciate being asked to write a review by a local business while only six percent say they would rather not be askedm according to atePoint, an online reputation management firm.
The RatePoint study, which asked 185 consumers about their perceptions of online reviews, revealed that without prompting from a business, consumers may be more likely to post reviews about their negative experiences. More than 40 percent said they were very likely to post a review after experiencing poor service, while 32 percent were very likely to post after good service.
“Local business owners who turn a blind eye or don’t ask for reviews are simply missing out,” said Keith Cooper, CEO of RatePoint. “Consumers appreciate being asked and are waiting to post reviews about their positive experiences. If local businesses never ask for reviews, they are missing out on a wealth of positive feedback that will attract new customers.”
The online review dialogue isn’t limited to just asking for reviews. Sixty-six percent of survey respondents stated they would be likely to consider a business that publicly responds to positive online reviews, while 40 percent indicated they are likely to consider a local business that responds to a negative online review.
“Sometimes a negative review can turn off a customer, but our consumer behavior study shows a public response from the business can win back a customer who might have otherwise taken their business elsewhere,” said Cooper. “It’s essential for local businesses to participate in the online review conversation, including asking for reviews and responding publicly once reviews, positive or negative, have been posted.”
In August, RatePoint announced the beta launch of RatePoint Review Report. Local businesses can get a free report assessing their business and comparing their online reputation to one other local business by going to http://www.ratepoint.com/. RatePoint Review Report automatically gathers information from the top sites for reviews and ratings and provides a single, comprehensive evaluation and Reputation Score to assess the business’s reputation compared to local competitors.
Providing the right message to the right target audience is a critical goal for online advertisers. As viewers are exposed to an ever-increasing volume of ads, this challenge becomes even more demanding. In a recent study for KAYAK Eyeview -a provider of personalized online video advertising – produced results that demonstrated how effective personalized online video can be.
The research, conducted by third-party research company Knowledge Networks (KN), divided a sample of online users into two equal parts. It then presented the groups with the same online content, albeit with two different pre-rolls: Traditional TV spots vs. Eyeview’s personalized online videos. After ad exposure, respondents in both groups were asked the same questions about the viewed video ad.
The Knowledge Networks study showed that the personalized video ads delivered:
A 37% increase in Purchase Intent
A 100% increase in Brand Favorability
A 73% increase in Brand Loyalty
When respondents were asked their opinion of personalized video ads, 90% had favorable comments, and 69% said they would want at least half of the ads they see to be personalized.
The study also shows that viewers of personalized ads were 40% more favorable to the notion that this advertising is “fair payment” for viewing online content.
By personalizing video ads with Eyeview’s technology, advertisers can now use multiple sources of data to create and generate varied online video ads, each targeted to specific viewers.
Oren Harnevo, CEO of Eyeview, said “Our proprietary technology proved to be an effective tool for brand advertisers to optimize their campaigns and lift their brand measurements.” He added that he was “proud of the research results which illustrate the power of personalized online video. The metrics measured in the KN study are all critical to the success of a client’s video campaign.”
The hardcore social gamer, players who play strategy, RPG, or other ‘core’ segment games (MMO, action, FPS, MOBA) on a social network site, is taking time and money away from traditional game platforms such as consoles, according to the Social Game Study by Kabam, a developer of social games.
The nationally representative research survey, conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of Kabam, found that these hardcore social gamers are younger and mostly male, very much in line with traditional gamer demographics. This stat dispels the commonly held belief that social gamers are predominantly middle-aged women with little to no past game-playing experience.
One key finding is the high level of overlap between social gamers and other gaming platforms. Hardcore social gamers are highly active in console gaming (82% play console games) and tend to play a larger number of social games for a longer period of time than casual social gamers.
Furthermore, the increasing level of gameplay on social networks is disrupting this audience’s gameplay habits on traditional platforms such as Xbox 360 system, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.
The research shows that the growth of social games is resulting in gamers spending less time and money on other gaming platforms. Approximately 27% of social game players who played games on other game platforms report a decline in the amount of time they are playing on those platforms, with a corresponding 50% average decline in the amount of money they spent on console games.
Kabam game players demonstrate an even greater commitment to hardcore social games — 55% report a decline in their gameplay on other platforms with an accompanying reduction in console purchases of 65%.
“Kabam was the first gaming company to focus on creating hardcore games on Facebook and other social platforms,” said Chris Carvalho, COO of Kabam. “The research conducted by Information Solutions Group clearly demonstrates the disruptive effect hardcore social gaming is having on the gaming industry. Gamers are migrating their playing time and the dollars they spend to social games at the expense of console and other traditional gaming platforms.”
Other noteworthy findings from the research include:
The social gamer sector is a large, and growing, market: Forty-one percent of all U.S. Internet users have played social games. That amounts to 98 million in the U.S. alone.
Hardcore Social Gamers resemble traditional core gamersdemographically: While a majority of casual social gamers are women (61%) and over 40-years-old (62%), the reverse is true for hardcore social gamers: 55% of hardcore social gamers are male and 57% are under the age of 40 (with an average age of 37).
Hardcore Social Gamers are playing lots of games: Hardcore social gamers tend to play multiple games simultaneously (76% playing two or more). In fact, nearly half (47%) of hardcore social gamers are playing three or more social games, while 28% are playing 4 or more social games concurrently. Clearly, these are dedicated game enthusiasts.
Hardcore Social Gamers exhibit greater level of gameplay engagement: The level of commitment and engagement of gamer segments varies. When it comes to amount of gameplay time, hardcore social gamers far exceed casual social gamers. This research indicates that 68% of hardcore social gamers are playing three or more hours per day of any game, with 30% playing social games for more than an hour per session. By contrast, only 43% of casual social gamers spend three or more hours daily playing games of any type. And, they play social games in short bursts – 54% indicate their typical session length is 30 minutes or less.
“This research goes further in segmenting and identifying the gameplay habits of hardcore and casual social gamers than any previous study,” said Carll Frye, Director at Information Solutions Group. “While casual social gamers skew female and older, hardcore social gamers skew male and younger, in line with typical core gamer demos. Based on these survey results, hardcore social games are increasingly stealing play time from core games.”
Buckle Up was founded by Kory Sherman and Chris Snyder while studying in the game program at Wake Technical Community College. As part of Joystick Labs, they will develop “Flipped”, a puzzle game for mobile devices that takes advantage of the accelerometer and physics to create a unique gameplay mechanic. The game was originally conceived and prototyped as a class project at Wake Tech.
Joystick Labs, founded in 2010, provides startup video game entrepreneurs a unique mix of early-stage seed funding, mentorship, services, and networking. Seven teams have been funded and the first games developed by Joystick teams will ship in Q4 2011.
“We had a great idea for our game, but did not have the resources to focus on full-time development or the business expertise to form a studio,” said Kory Sherman, Buckle Up Game Studios co- founder. “The Joystick Labs program provides opportunities and resources that will accelerate the development of our studio and our first title.”
Joystick Labs next session will begin in Q1 2012 with an application deadline in December, 2011. Joystick Labs looks for teams who possess an entrepreneurial spirit and an innovative game concept.
DC-based LivingSocial, Groupon’s largest competitor, may delay plans to file for an initial public offering of stock and take a new $200 million financing round instead, according to Bloomburg, which sites anonymous sources.
The round would value LivingSocial at $6 million and might include equity and debt the report says. It has raised $632 million in backing so far.
The company was discussing a potential IPO of more than 10 billion, but a delay may be prudent in the current volatile market for both it and Groupon.
Jon Carpenter, Director of Marketing, LivingSocial, will be at TechMedia’s upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
GrubHub grabs whopping $50 million for mobile restaurant ordering service
CHICAGO -GrubHub, a web and mobile service that connects diners to restaurants and simplifies online ordering for delivery and pick up, has raised $50 million in Series E funding to aggressively focus on its mobile development and acquire New York-based Dotmenu, the parent company of Campusfood and Allmenus.
This Series E funding is led by Lightspeed Ventures with Mesirow Financial, Benchmark Capital, Greenspring Associates and DAG Ventures participating. Terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.
“Since starting GrubHub with my partner Mike Evans in his apartment in 2004, we’ve sent over $200 million in delivery and pick up orders to independent restaurants across the country,” said Matt Maloney, GrubHub co-founder and CEO. “With our unwavering focus on providing the best service to diners and the most efficient technology to restaurant owners, we have grown to become the leader in the online ordering space.
“It is precisely for this reason that we are acquiring Dotmenu. Dotmenu has shown great expertise in servicing the college market, and by combining our extensive networks, we will become the foremost resource for diners and restaurants for their online ordering needs.”
The Series E and Dotmenu acquisition comes just six months after GrubHub raised $20 million in funding led by DAG Ventures. The funding rounds, coupled with the acquisition, strengthen GrubHub’s position as the category-defining leader in the industry.
Largest restaurant listing in the country
Through the acquisition, GrubHub will have the largest restaurant listing in the country with 250,000 restaurant menus in over 50 major cities and countless college towns across the US. The two companies are projected to send over $225 million in combined order revenues to independent restaurants in 2011, and will continue together to achieve more aggressive growth in the years to come.
“GrubHub has a strong presence in the top US markets,” said Michael Saunders, Founder and President of Dotmenu. “This, combined with our network across more than 300 college campuses, allows us to build upon the strong relationship we have with our diners long after they graduate. The acquisition will enable us to make an immediate impact on our restaurants by sending more orders their way.”
GrubHub is free for diners who order and pay for their meals with cash, credit or PayPal. Restaurants pay commissions for each online order they receive from GrubHub, and every order is supported by GrubHub’s 24/7 customer service. Restaurants that do not currently partner with GrubHub can still list their telephone numbers and menus for free.
Visitors to the site or mobile users enter their address to see every local restaurant that delivers to them. Diners can view menus and coupons, read reviews and order for free online, by phone or through the GrubHub iPhone and Android apps.
There are more than 300,000 delivery and takeout restaurants in the country. On average, GrubHub users order out more than 10 times a month and over 22 percent of GrubHub’s revenues come through mobile orders. Pickup and delivery are the fastest growing segments in the restaurant industry, which is one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy. With more people searching for restaurants and ordering food on-line and through smartphones, the opportunity for continued growth is substantial.
Facebook changes
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergy disclosed huge changes to the social network, which he says now has a record billion visitors a day.
They include a new feature called Timeline, which curates news, apps and visuals. The feature, which sorts content with an algorithm.
While Zuckerberg and Facebook made a lot of hoopla over the Timeline changes to users’ profiles, it is sure to stir up more controversy among users, who have been notoriously unfriendly toward the continual alterations Facebook makes to the site.
The company also added a lightweight status steam called “Ticker.”
One user told us recently, “They just don’t know how to let it alone.”
On the other hand, perhaps it will quell the Facebook fatigue that more than a few of our friends show signs of experiencing.
Here’s a video showing an overview of what Timeline looks like:
People don’t get up at 3 a.m. and search for cruise vacations, says Search Engine Marketing expert Kevin Lee, CEO of Didit and first chair of SEMPRO.org. “Marketing initiatives – including paid advertising – stimulate search,” Lee says.
Getting the right marketing mix to drive search interest and harvest the resulting demand requires some “high level communication between search marketing, public relations, paid marketing and social media teams,” Lee adds.
Otherwise, “You can end up shooting yourself in the foot.”
If a company ships a million product catalogs, for instance, “Search goes through the roof,” says Lee. If the people doing the catalog were not part of a wholistic campaign, he notes, “The company may not have enough staff budget to harvest the demand created by other marketing activity.”
Speaking at Digital East
Lee will be discussing how to create media mix models, given any size budget, to create demand and interest the way traditional media does at TechMedia’s upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
Lee’s Didit was part of the 2007 Inc 500 (#137), and has received a #12 position on Deloitte’s Fast 500 for 3 years in a row. Kevin authors a “Paid Search Strategies” column for ClickZ and has written several books, his most recent is Search Engine Advertising. Kevin was recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008
A set of strategies and tactics for a marketing media mix “Boils down to applying economic theory to media and advertising,” Lee explains.
Strategic thinking required
In the end, though, he says, “Trying to allocate a marketing budget across options is a mathematical challenge, although it is more of a process than a formula. You may end up with a formula that does a good job for each marketer, but the way you arrive at it is different depending on what business you are in. The way a person makes a decision to buy flowers is different from the way they decide to buy an automobile.”
So, he says, “Someone in charge of the media mix model needs to understand the buying triggers and the processes people go through for each purchase. You can’t build a buying crescendo to get someone to buy a dozen roses. It’s an impulse decision made in the hour of purchase. But the process of buying a car or deciding where to go on a honeymoon may take a month or more.”
It requires a lot of strategic thinking, Lee says.
He adds, however that companies with smaller marketing budgets – under $4 million a year or so – may not have enough resources and data to accomplish that, but “If you have a couple million a year in your marketing budget, you need to figure this out.”
A new study by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget finds 93 percent of Facebook users click the “Like” button at least monthly, but the meaning behind “Like” varies considerably by age and context.
Featured in The Meaning of Like, the latest in ExactTarget’s Subscribers, Fans and Followers research series, the study found the most common uses of “Like” related to posts made by friends, followed by clicking the “Like” button on sites outside of Facebook as a form of ‘social bookmarking.’
“With Facebook such a vital part of the online social fabric, marketers need to be smart and strategic when developing campaigns on Facebook,” said Jeff Rohrs, vice president, ExactTarget’s Marketing Research and Education Group.
“A click of the ‘Like’ button means different things to different people. It creates an opportunity for further engagement, but it is merely one step toward the types of meaningful, cross-channel relationships marketers need to succeed.”
According to the research, a universal meaning of “Like” has yet to emerge largely because a click depends on the individual consumer and the context in which the “Like” button is used, Rohrs said.
Key findings of the research include:
45 percent of Facebook users say they “Like” a company at least monthly, while 35 percent say they never “Like” a company.
44 percent “Like” something posted by a company on Facebook at least once a month.
“Like” is not the same thing as permission – 15 percent say “Liking” a company’s Facebook page should “Always” be interpreted as permission to post marketing messages that appear in a user’s news feed, while 39 percent say their “Like” should “Never” be interpreted as permission.
People who “Like” a lot of brands (11 or more) are more likely to be motivated by rewards in the form of coupons or exclusive deals in exchange for their “Like.”
Younger consumers (age 18-26) tend to use “Like” for self-expression and public endorsement of a brand.
Consumers 27 and older are more likely to expect something of value in exchange for their “Like.”
Among people that have “Liked” at least one brand, 31 percent have avoided “Liking” more brands because they do not want to push things into their friends’ newsfeeds.
The average U.S. Facebook user “Likes” an average of 14 companies/brands.
Social networking will soon become a predominantly mobile activity. The number of people accessing social networks from mobile phones will exceed 550 million in 2011, and that figure will more than triple to over 1.7 billion by the end of 2016. In other words, over two-thirds of the global user base of social networks will use smartphones and other mobile handsets to access the services.
For Facebook, the growing importance of mobile is both an opportunity and a serious strategic challenge. On one hand, mobile allows the world’s leading social network to engage with millions of new consumers, but on the other hand its ability to make money from mobile users remains untested.
Senior analyst Aapo Markkanen says, “A huge problem for Facebook is that while on the web it is a platform, on mobile it’s just another application. To strengthen its hand in the short term we expect Facebook to aggressively take advantage of HTML5, but in the longer term it should absolutely become a mobile operating system of its own.”
The symbiosis of social networks and mobile phones can also be seen in recent moves by Google and Apple. Google’s attempt at social networking, Google+, has been designed to benefit from deep integration with Android, which is likely to go down well with application developers. Meanwhile, Apple has teamed up with Twitter and built the microblogging service into the iOS 5.
According to practice director Dan Shey, “The interesting aspect in Apple’s and Twitter’s partnership is how it can provide iPhone users with a verifiable social identity for websites and apps. That gives developers a lot of scope to innovate in areas such as authentication, personalization and advertising. It’s a hint of things to come.”
ABI Research’s “Mobile Social Networking” studies how mobile usage is influencing the ways in which consumers access and interact with social networking services. It analyzes the industry’s most decisive business, competitive and technological issues. The report also includes forecasts of user bases and revenues, broken down to regions and 20 different countries, and provides relevant findings from ABI Research’s recent consumer surveys.
SAN FRANCISCO - Twilio Fund says it will launch a second $250,000 fund focused on companies using Twilio Connect, which was launched at the Twilio Conference.
The fund is appropriately named Twilio Fund CONNECT and is run by Dave McClure of 500 Startups, an early-stage seed fund and incubator, who will invest $125,000 in the winning startups. Each investment will be matched dollar-for-dollar by Ron Conway of SV Angel.
The Twilio Fund is a microfund created by 500 Startups and launched in September 2010 to provide seed capital to startups built on the Twilio cloud communications platform.
Twilio says it is merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio hosts a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate phone calls, text messages, and IP voice communications into their web, mobile, and traditional phone applications
“Twilio has always done a brilliant job empowering developers to build amazing products,” said McClure. “With Twilio Connect, Twilio helps developers keep their pricing simple. As an investor, I’ve witnessed firsthand how much entrepreneurs struggle with pricing, so I love that. I’m immensely excited to see what the next batch of Twilio Fund startups comes up with. We’re also thrilled to have SV Angel as a co-investor, and welcome their extensive experience in early-stage investing.”
“At SV Angel, we have a chart of ‘mega-trends’ that we follow closely,” said Conway. “The biggest mega-trend we see is social, which is exactly what Twilio Connect enables — connecting people through next generation communications. I see a huge opportunity to invest in entrepreneurs who are taking advantage of the scalable tools Twilio offers.”
The previous investment of $250,000 by Dave McClure for Twilio Fund has since gone on to fund 10 companies to date: Callyo, FastCall411, KnockKnock, Magnolia Prime, Order Mapper, Proven, Qwipd, Textaurant, Voicendo, and Volta.
The fund will open for submissions October 15th, 2011, and close January 1st, 2012, at www.twiliofund.com
Nokia Siemen’s Network points out that mobile broadband usage is “set to explode. The company created an infographic to illustrate by just how much. It shows that mobile broadband” will go from 15 MB per user today to 1 GB by 2020. That’s the equivalent of 1000 e-books or 4000 Facebook photos or 50,000 emails.
By 2015, voice calling will shrink to just 0.4 % of our usage. While video will skyrocket to nearly 65%. As a result, mobile broadband traffic will increase by 2600%.
Demonstrating the increasing role of the network in people’s lives, an international workforce study by Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) revealed that one in three college students and young professionals considers the Internet to be as important as fundamental human resources like air, water, food and shelter.
The 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report also found that more than half of the study’s respondents say they could not live without the Internet and cite it as an “integral part of their lives” — in some cases more integral than cars, dating, and partying.
These and numerous other findings provide insight into the mindset, expectations, and behavior of the world’s next generation of workers and how they will influence everything from business communications and mobile lifestyles to hiring, corporate security, and companies’ abilities to compete.
The second annual Cisco Connected World Technology Report examines the relationship between human behavior, the Internet, and networking’s pervasiveness. It uses this relationship to provoke thoughts around how companies will remain competitive amid the influence of technology lifestyle trends.
The global report, based on surveys of college students and professionals 30 years old and younger in 14 countries, provides insight into present-day challenges that companies face as they strive to balance current and future employee and business needs amid increasing mobility capabilities, security risks, and technologies that can deliver information more ubiquitously — from virtualized data centers and cloud computing to traditional wired and wireless networks.
Key Findings
Internet as One of Life’s Fundamental Resources
Air, Water, Internet: One of every three college students and employees surveyed globally (33%) believes the Internet is a fundamental resource for the human race — as important as air, water, food and shelter. About half (49% of college students and 47% of employees) believe it is “pretty close” to that level of importance. Combined, four of every five college students and young employees believe the Internet is vitally important as part of their daily life’s sustenance.
Life’s Daily Sustenance: More than half of the respondents (55% of college students and 62% of employees) said they could not live without the Internet and cite it as an “integral part of their lives.”
The New Way to Get Around: If forced to make a choice between one or the other, the majority of college students globally — about two of three (64%) — would choose an Internet connection instead of a car.
The New Social Life: Internet over Love and Friendship?
First Love: Two of five college students surveyed globally (40%) said the Internet is more important to them than dating, going out with friends, or listening to music.
Social Life 2.0: Whereas previous generations preferred socializing in person, the next generation is indicating a shift toward online interaction. More than one in four college students globally (27%) said staying updated on Facebook was more important than partying, dating, listening to music, or hanging out with friends.
The Use of Mobile Devices for Accessing Information…andthe End of TV and Newspapers?
Importance of Mobile Devices: Two-thirds of students (66%) and more than half of employees (58%) cite a mobile device (laptop, smartphone, tablet) as “the most important technology in their lives.”
Continued Rise of Smartphones and Mobility: Smartphones are poised to surpass desktops as the most prevalent tool from a global perspective, as 19% of college students consider smartphones as their “most important” device used on a daily basis, compared to 20% for desktops — an indication of the growing trend of smartphone prominence and expected rise in usage by the next generation of college graduates upon entering the workforce. This finding fans the debate over the necessity of offices compared to the ability to connect to the Internet and work anywhere, such as at home or in public settings. In the 2010 edition of the study, three of five employees globally (60%) said offices are unnecessary for being productive.
TV’s Decline: Both surveys indicate that the TV’s prominence is decreasing among college students and young employees in favor of mobile devices like laptops and smartphones. Globally, fewer than one in 10 college students (6%) and employees (8%) said the TV is the most important technology device in their daily lives. As TV programming and movies become available on mobile devices, this downward trend is expected to continue.
Paper Route’s Dead End? Only one of 25 college students and employees (4%) surveyed globally said the newspaper is their most important tool for accessing information.
Saving Trees: One of five students (21%) have not bought a physical book (excluding textbooks required for class) in a bookstore in more than two years — or never at all.
Influence of Social Media — And Distractions in Daily Life
Facebook Interaction: About nine of 10 (91%) college students and employees (88%) globally said they have a Facebook account — of those, 81 percent of college students and 73% of employees check their Facebook page at least once a day. One of those three (33%) said they check at least five times a day.
Online Interruption or Disruption? College students reported constant online interruptions while doing projects or homework, such as instant messaging, social media updates and phone calls. In a given hour, more than four out of five (84%) college students said they are interrupted at least once. About one in five students (19%) said they are interrupted six times or more — an average of at least once every 10 minutes. One of 10 (12%) said they lose count of how many times they are interrupted while they are trying to focus on a project.
Work Is Life: In a sign that the boundary between work and personal life is becoming thinner, seven of 10 employees “friended” their managers and/or co-workers on Facebook, indicating the dissolution of boundaries separating work and private life. Culturally, the United States featured lower percentages of employees friending managers and co-workers — only about one in four (23%) — although two of five friended their co-workers (40%).
The Work Grapevine: Of employees who use Twitter, more than two of every three (68%) follow the Twitter activity of either their manager or colleagues; 42% follow both, while one-third (32%) prefer to keep their personal lives private.
About the Study
The study was commissioned by Cisco and conducted by InsightExpress, a third-party market research firm based in the United States.
F-Secure today announced a new, free Facebook beta application, ShareSafe, that protects social network users against spam and malicious links on their news feed and wall. It can also be used to scan links before posting them to a user’s own wall, making sure visitors are safe, too.
Facebook’s popularity has made it a major target for online criminals who are posting malicious links to lure visitors to websites that spread viruses, scams and spam. Until now, there has been no way of knowing whether a Facebook link goes to a legitimate website or to something that has been set up by criminals.
ShareSafe uses patent-pending technology for detecting spammy or malicious posts in Facebook. It is designed to stop people spreading links to malicious websites. Other users can see when a link has been sent through and checked by ShareSafe.
Sean Sullivan, Security Advisor from F-Secure, said, “Facebook is a global phenomenon and its dramatic growth during the last couple of years has significantly changed how people share information with their friends and family. People now share via social media more than by any other method.
“Online criminals and tricksters are exploiting this to make money from spam, scams and malware. ShareSafe is a fun application that also provides a useful service for family and friends, making Facebook a safer place for everyone.”
ShareSafe is also a great way to discover new, interesting links from the ShareSafe community thanks to the “Top Links” feature. ShareSafe incorporates ideas from hit social games on Facebook to turn safe sharing into a fun activity by rewarding users for sharing safe and high quality content.
“Users of ShareSafe can earn points and badges, which can be redeemed for rewards. Points are earned every time you scan and share a link with ShareSafe, and when others like or click your links.
Earned points can currently be redeemed for free licenses of the following products:
F-Secure Internet Security
F-Secure Online Backup
F-Secure Mobile Security
More rewards will be added in the future.
Because ShareSafe is still in development, F-Secure is offering the beta version of the application for free as a way to get feedback on the application to help improve it.
The global WiMAX Equipment market is expected to grow from $1.92 billion in 2011 to $9.21 billion in 2016. This represents a CAGR of 36.83% from 2011 to 2016. Saturation in the existing 3G networks, quest for higher data rates, and the need for spectral efficiency are the prominent factors triggering the demand for global WiMAX deployments.
The inexhaustible need for bandwidth is one of the major drivers of the WiMAX market, not just in the broadband segment, but also in the cellular space.
The gradual saturation of 3G networks has given way to the emergence of the 4G market, constituent of LTE and WiMAX. Although LTE is currently being deployed by many cellular operators, there still exists a need to optimize the bandwidth efficiently, to reduce the high operating expenses (OPEX) borne by the operators.
Considering the growing customer base demands, deployment of additional resources in terms of bandwidth is necessary, that too, at optimized OPEX. In such a scenario, WiMAX is being considered as an alternate broadband backhaul solution to help operators in offloading their voice and data traffic.
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is the fourth generation mobile broadband system defined by the IEEE standard. The WiMAX Forum regulates this technology, while the IEEE monitors its standardization. The global WiMAX market is segmented into equipment, services, and end-user devices market.
The services market captures the largest market share in terms of revenue, followed by the equipment market. In order to meet the rising demand for high broadband access, operators are in constant search for high speed network technologies.
Enterprises need enhanced efficiency in the existing real-time applications such as video conferencing, while the other users are keen to have television-like experience while browsing through high-bandwidth applications such as YouTube and social networking sites. This rising demand for higher speed with better user experience has compelled operators to go for further enhancements in the broadband space.
The WiMAX market has wide scope in terms of operability as it is capable of operating in both TDD and FDD modes, thereby giving flexibility to the operators.
With innovations such as network sharing and hybrid networks budding in the market off late, WiMAX players have immense opportunity; which still remains untapped. TDD is preferred over FDD for WiMAX operations, owing to its flexibility in handling both symmetric and asymmetric broadband traffic.
Moreover, TDD saves bandwidth since it uses half the spectrum, as compared to FDD. This, in turn, makes a TDD system cheaper and less complex. As most of the WiMAX traffic comprises asymmetrical data, major WiMAX deployments are being implemented in the TDD mode, thereby facilitating industry players with spectrally efficient alternatives, reducing their OPEX.
Spectrum licensing has various effects on technology; in terms of bandwidth, power, and interference. Since the licensed frequency bands are allocated only to licensees, the interference in these bands is relatively low, thereby benefiting the end-user. In such a scenario, WiMAX operators are at an advantage as they have the flexibility to invest in the licensed bands, thereby being facilitated with superior signal quality.
At the same time, licensed bands are usually expensive as they are auctioned out on a nationwide level. With 5 GHz being a globally recognized unlicensed WiMAX band, medium to small operators find it easier to venture into the license-exempt market as they are not required to compulsorily buy the spectrum, hence providing further flexibility to WiMAX operators. www.marketresearch.com/MarketsandMarkets-v3719/WiMAX-TDD-FDD-Spectrum-Global-6554671/
Globally, Facebook’s ad revenue is expected to soar 104 percent this year to $3.8 billion, according to eMarkerter.
The company, eMarketer notes, is also diversifying its revenue streams thought credits and other means.
The eMarketer projection is actually down slightly from its January estimate that Facebook ad revenue would hit $4.08 billion this year.
Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst, said the slight downward revision should not be taken as “a sign that Facebook’s overall business is losing momentum.”
She points out that ads on Facebook represent a decreasing total of the company’s revenue.
EMarketer says total Facebook revenue this year is projected to hit $.27 billion. Here’s the eMarketer story.
A few years ago, the idea of paying for virtual goods online with real currency seemed outlandish to some. “It blew people’s minds,” says Rogelio (Ro) Choy, COO of the question & answer social site Formspring. But game companies such as Zynga, creator of Farmville, among other popular Facebook games, are successfully using that model.
Choy is one of dozens of Internet mavens, social media experts, marketing gurus, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs participating in the upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
He’ll be discussing how to monetize social media efforts. He’ll address display advertising, brand advertising, performance advertising, social currency, mobile advertising and virtual currency. He’ll discuss each in some detail based on what he’s learned in a career packed with social media experience.
Choy was previously the CEO of Peerpong, a Q&A service using NLP/semantics for identifying interests and knowledge from social streams. Prior to Peerpong, Ro was Chief Revenue Officer for RockYou and responsible for leading all the business efforts for the company and Director at eBay Motors, leading the online parts business. Prior to eBay, Ro co-founded Cima Systems, a leading VOIP software provider for auto dealers.
Advisor on social media
Choy serves as an advisor to a number of social media focused startups including Applifer, Nanigans, Wildfire Interactive, Project Slice, Adnectar, 500 Friends, Guestmob, Facepad, Replybuy, J2Play, GamesthatGive and Groupcard.
We asked Choy to elaborate on using virtual currency to monetize social media.
“It’s a completely different way of imagining how people can make money on the web,” Choy says. It works because making social media platforms such as Facebook an intrinsic part of the game dramatically reduces the cost of acquiring customers.
In 2011, according to eMarketer, Choy notes, “27 percent of all Internet users were social gamers of some sort and 42 percent of all social networkers play games. In all 62 million people are playing social games of some sort. So a lot of people are playing games in a social network and buying certain types of virtual products.
Those virtual products are consumables tied to achievement in the games, not permanent objects, usually, Choy says.
Hooking people on achievement
“It’s the concept of hooking people on achievement within the broader concept of gamification. You get people used to making short goals,” Choy says. Then you present them with a longer, more difficult goal they may wish to attain, but they may lack the time to complete and want to speed up the process. “That’s where you monetize.Once they’re hooked on achievement, then you charge.”
The concept can be applied to anything, content, e-commerce, any experience that’s social in nature and involves friends, Choy adds. “Where people want to surpass time or material constraints, that’s where you monetize. Build achievement into how you think about offering your products or services on social media platforms.”
Choy says there are compelling opportunities in brand and performance advertising, social commerce and mobile marketing as well. Social commerce, for instance, “Is probably the least developed, but potentially the most compelling,” he says. We could tell from our interview that you’ll be hearing practical ideas that will get the gears of your mind cranking.
The social blogging site Tumblr has seen its unique user base soar in the last year, gaining 183 percent from May 2010 to May 2011, according to the Nielsen Co. “State of the Media: Social Media Report Q3 2011.
