Digital ViceGrip

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine sits down at...

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:44:27 -0700

Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine sits down at the Los Angeles Public Library to talk about his concept and book “FREE: The Future of Radical Price.” Good Listen.

This is pretty damn cool if I do say so myself.

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:40:00 -0700

This is pretty damn cool if I do say so myself.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg celebrates with the founders of...

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:24:01 -0700

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg celebrates with the founders of Friendfeed after they ink their $50 million deal.

Be Very Careful What You Post on Facebook

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:54:52 -0700

by Anthony Idem Jr.

Remember in the olden days, when you wanted be entertained you would tune into your favorite television show or go see a movie? That would usually do the trick. But now that the age of the social network is upon us you have no further to look than good ole Facebook for this same entertainment value. Whether you want to see drama or some comedy, it’s all there. What is unfortunate is that many people are unknowingly becoming the source of this entertainment by their foolish behavior online.

The constant viewing of the status update stream has become a consistent part of the lives or most of us who use social networks such as Facebook. And lets not even begin to talk about the constant viewing of friends profiles and pictures. It gives us the power to take a peek into the lives of our friends and family and also lets others do the same with us. But, with any great power comes great responsibility. This responsibility belongs to you, the Facebook status updater and the profile picture adder.

Let me first go on the record in saying that you should never post just “anything” up on Facebook (or anywhere else on the web for that matter) because it can leave an indelible stain on your reputation. Shoot, you might even lose your job. As the rules of social media continue to evolve, you need to be aware of your use of sites like Facebook.

Here are some tips that should help to keep you from embarrassing yourself or make you an example on how not to use social media:

1) Never bad-mouth ANYONE. This includes your current place of employment

Think about it. Didn’t mama always say, “if you don’t have something nice to say about someone else, don’t say anything at all?” The same rings true when using social media. When those feelings of ill-will fade away, the impression will linger on in digital form.

2) Don’t tag your friends in pictures that may get them fired

I hope that this is pretty self-explanatory. That picture of your homie Angela doing a keg stand while simultaneously taking a hit from a six foot bong can definitely be left off Facebook. Seriously.

3) Don’t broadcast your emotional state after a rough “situation”

Hey, I know that break up was pretty rough on you but posting the intimate details about it on Twitter or Facebook is in bad form. And depending on those details, it can make you look downright crazy.

4) Keep the sex talk to a minimum (like zero)

I feel just as silly writing this as you feel being told it. But, sigh, I’ve seen it more than once. Unless you are a professional madam or mister of the night, you should tone down the sexual innuendo on your Facebook status update. It might seem cute and innocent to you but as for the rest of us, we just think you’re a whore.

5) If you are going to use an aggregator like Ping.fm to post to all of your social media status updates, don’t make your posts look like they are just meant for Twitter

We have all seen this. You check out the status updates and see and update looking like this “#kickingpuppies RT @puppykicker I’ve got mad field goal range with these pups. I’m bout to boot a boxer 40 yards…” While this may be perfectly fine on Twitter, it makes no sense whatsoever on Facebook. Some posts can travel seamlessly across social networks while others, like the aforementioned Twitter, employ language or symbols that are unique to that particular platform.

6) No weird writing

WhIlE YoU MaY ThInK It’S cUtE oR ClEVeR To WrITe LiKe ThIs, the rest of us think it f@&ing annoying. Please stop.

7) Don’t post a bunch of updates in a row

Just to be fair, when I was first starting out social networks, I used to be guilty of this a lot. I know how it feels to have sooo much information in front of you that obviously needs sharing immediately. But, what you fail to consider is that your manic ways take status update real estate away from other people and make you look like a glutton for attention. A (now) good friend told me to cut that stuff out and now I am telling you.

8) USE COMMON SENSE

This is a summation for rules 1-7. THINK rationally about things before you post them on Facebook. Ask yourself these questions: Will posting this affect my job? My family? Embarrass me? Embarrass my friends/family? Cost me my job? Who will see this? Do I want everyone to see this? Will this hurt anyone? Will this make me some enemies? Apply common sense to that rational thought and you will save yourself from some very regrettable moments.

The point of all this is simple: Be very careful what you post online. Be it Facebook, Twitter or any of the other social media sites out there you must be cognizant that there is an audience that is watching, reading and being entertained. Act accordingly.

If You Tweet it, They Will Come

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:48:12 -0700

by Anthony Idem Jr.

Yesterday I attended the very first Silicon Valley Tweetup put together by social media aficionado Michael Brito in partnership with the Anissa Lopez Foundation at Rosie McCann’s in San Jose, Caifornia. Still wondering what a tweetup is? Find out here.

Let me just say that this was a very successful gathering on just about every level you can think of. The event raised about $650 in donations for the charity and more than 80 people showed up. One of the more impressive things about the event (besides the free Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka…many thanks guys!) was not just the amount of people who showed up but also the quality. Now let me clarify before I get myself in trouble.

Anyone who wants to attend a tweetup is welcome of course but being a tech enthusiast myself I like to mix it up with other peeps who work in the world of technology. What better place than Silicon Valley, right? And at this event, you would be hard pressed to find someone who did not have a tech bone somewhere in their body.

As the evening wore on, I was able to make some great contacts and meet some cool ass people from all walks of tech life. From internet entreprenuers to tech staffers, every one was having a great time eating, drinking and socializing. It was a beautiful thing.

Attending an event like this also allows one to take in the amazing power of Twitter first hand. All it took to get all of these people in one room was for one smart guy to find a venue, get on Twitter and ask people to show up. And show up they did indeed.

In a place like Silicon Valley which has consistently been the home to innovation in technology for decades now, this event was definitely a long time coming. And if the future Silicon Valley Tweetups are as fun and well done as this one, I and many, many others will definitely be back for more.

PLAYSTATION®NETWORK EXPANDS DIGITAL OFFERING WITH A VARIETY OF ENTERTAINMENT

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:22:22 -0700

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, Calif., June 2, 2009 – Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. (SCEA) announced today major enhancements to PlayStation®Network, expanding on SCEA’s commitment to give users a comprehensive entertainment experience. The video delivery service for the PSP® (PlayStation® Portable) system launches today in coordination with a new line-up of premier Hollywood, Anime and Sports partners. In addition, Media Go, a free application that makes it easier to manage digital content including games, photos, videos and music for the PSP system through a PC will also become available. These enhancements give new entertainment possibilities for PSP system owners, providing direct downloadable access to games, demos and trailers, as well as movies and television shows via the PlayStation®Store on PlayStation Network. New game content will also be added to an existing library of more than 200 downloadable games on the PlayStation Store today, including much anticipated titles Fat Princess: Fistful of Cake,Gravity Crash™, Hustle Kings™ and more than 60 PS one® Classics hitting the PlayStation Store by the end of the year.

“PlayStation Network has experienced a high growth year and today we’re excited to add new content partners such as Showtime, G4 & E!, Magnolia Films, and TNA to our family. In addition to extending our content offerings and expanding with new features like Media Go, we continue to bring relevant and compelling content via original games and programming to our users,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president marketing and PlayStation Network, SCEA. “Gamers will be pleased to find new games for all genres and interests with original titles Fat Princess andGravity Crash, in addition to many PS one Classics such as Final Fantasy VII coming to PlayStation Network this year.”

Video Delivery Service

PSP system users now have direct access to PlayStation Network’s video delivery service, where they can download their favorite movie and television programs and take with them on-the-go. In addition, the video delivery service is announcing content from 16 new premier partners in Hollywood, anime and sports. Hollywood content partners include Showtime Networks Inc., Starz Media, – for Film, TV and Manga Anime, G4 and E!, Summit Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, HDnet and Magnolia Pictures. Anime partners include, Anime Network, Media Blasters, Right Stuf’s Nozomi Entertainment, Starz Media’s Manga Entertainment, Toei Animation, Viz Media and WEP. FUNimation Entertainment will also be a part of a new anime category on the video delivery service. Sports partners include HDNet Fights, UFC, Wrestling from TNA and Video Action Sports.

Premier Hollywood content will include hit films such as Overture Films “Righteous Kill,” Summit Entertainment “Twilight” and The Weinstein Company “Zack & Miri Make a Porno.” PlayStation Store will also feature TV shows such as Showtime Networks Inc.’s “Dexter,” E!’s “The Soup,” G4’s “X-Play” and Starz Media’s “Painkiller Jane.” A new anime channel will also launch in both the TV and film sections of the video store and will feature the best in anime content, including Anime Network’s “Appleseed,” Starz Media Manga Entertainment’s “Dead Space.” Toei Animation’s “Fist of the North Star,” Viz Media’s “Naruto” and WEP’s “Voltron.” Some of the new sports content will include bouts from HDNet Fight’s “Inside MMA,” wrestling from TNA’s “iMPACT!,” UFC PPV events and Video Action Sports’ “That’s It, That’s All.”

With the addition of these new partners, the video delivery service will have nearly 1900 movies and 9400 TV episodes, covering reality, mixed martial arts, sports, anime, manga and animation genres. For one price, PlayStation users can watch standard definition (SD) video content from the comfort of their home television on the PS3 system or at their convenience on-the-go with the PSP system. PlayStation Store offers a combined total of nearly 9,000 hours of video content, with more than 35 % percent of the movies in High Definition. Through the PS3 and PSP systems users can access a unique three-in-one entertainment package unlike any other – the ability to enjoy high-definition Blu-ray movies, groundbreaking games, and downloadable video content from one platform and one service.

With the launch of the video delivery service for the PSP system, Media Manager for PC is being replaced with Media Go. Media Go is a free application that makes it easier and more convenient for consumers to manage their PSP games, photos, videos and music on their PC and provides access to PlayStation Store.

Games

Several PlayStation Network titles for both the PS3 and PSP systems were announced at E3, adding to the robust lineup of over 200 downloadable games available for PlayStation Store. For the PS3 system, Gravity Crash from developer Just Add Water melds a vintage gravity based arcade shooter with High Definition (HD) graphics, and Hustle Kings, from VooFoo Studios, is the PS3 system’s first photorealistic billiards simulator. For the PSP system, Fat Princess: Fistful of Cakebrings a fun and strategic medieval battle royale unlike anything seen before on the portable system. In addition, the PlayStation Store will deliver more than 60 PS one Classics by the end of the year and will launch Final Fantasy VII and Medal of Honor on PlayStation Store today.

Starting this fall, many PSP titles that will be launched on UMD will also be offered digitally on PlayStation Store in North America. This will add nearly 300 games from the PSP system’s library available for download through PlayStation Network.

PlayStation Network is built on a legacy of gaming and continues to expand into a premier entertainment platform with innovative and compelling content options for people to enjoy on multiple devices.

About PlayStation®Network

PlayStation®Network is an entertainment network that unites people and innovative entertainment to deliver captivating experiences worldwide. In addition to offering new and original forms of entertainment, PlayStation Network supports free and community-centric online gameplay, communication tools, and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PLAYSTATION®3 systems connectivity. As of the end of May 2009, PlayStation Network has more than 24 million registered accounts worldwide.

About Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. continues to redefine the entertainment lifestyle with its PlayStation® and PS one® game console, the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, the ground-breaking PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system and its digital services PlayStation®Network and PlayStation®Store.

Recognized as the undisputed industry leader, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. markets the PlayStation family of products and develops, publishes, markets and distributes software for the PS one game console, the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, PLAYSTATION 3 and the PSP systems for the North American market. Based in Foster City, Calif., Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. serves as headquarters for all North American operations and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

# # #

PlayStation, PLAYSTATION, PSP and PS one are registered trademarks and PS3 is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Contacts: Abigail Murphy – 650.655.5510

Abigail_Murphy@playstation.sony.com

Ron Eagle – 858.824.5585

Ron_Eagle@playstation.sony.com

BLACKTREE TV RANKS AMONG YOUTUBE’S TOP 25 MOST-VIEWED CHANNELS

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:58:40 -0700

BLACKTREE TV RANKS AMONG YOUTUBE’S TOP 25 MOST-VIEWED CHANNELS

Urban Entertainment Content Provider Reaches Major Milestone with 175 Million Video Views Worldwide and Launches Content on Sprint TV

LOS ANGELES (May 28, 2009) – BlackTree TV, an online urban entertainment content provider and subsidiary of BlackTree Media, is quickly emerging as a bona fide player on the digital media scene. The Los Angeles-based entertainment website is now ranked among the top 25 most-viewed channels found on YouTube, with more than 175 million video views of BlackTree TV content (www.youtube.com/blacktreemedia). YouTube is the leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos.

After several years of working to build the brand and develop the site’s offerings, the executive team at BlackTree couldn’t be more thrilled to reach this important milestone.

“We’re delighted that online viewers are really connecting with our content. The company has come a long way in a relatively short time and it’s just the beginning of our growth strategy,” said Jamaal Finkley, President of BlackTree Media. “2009 is a breakout year for BlackTree Media. In addition to business relationships with companies such as Google and YouTube, our content is available on mobile phones. Now, we’re working on forging new partnerships that will extend our reach online and across more new media platforms.”

One such example is the site’s new partnership with technology company Vidiator to create the “Urban Stylez” channel on Sprint TV. Sprint customers looking for exclusive urban entertainment news and original programming can access this channel on select video-enabled Sprint cellular devices by clicking on the Sprint TV icon and finding BlackTree TV in the entertainment folder.

“BlackTree Media is quickly becoming an emerging player in the new media landscape,” said Connie Wong, Vidiator CEO. “Their unique and highly-targeted urban content combines with the Vidiator platform to enable high quality broadcasts to mobile phones. Vidiator is very happy to be the technology enabler for BlackTree and we look forward to their continued success,” added Wong.

BlackTree TV content ranges from coverage of celebrity parties, fashion events, award shows and red carpet events such as movie premieres, the BET Awards, MTV VMAs, American Music Awards, Academy Awards®, Grammy Awards, Fashion Week and others, to original programming such as popular series “Hobbies and Hustles,” which covers successful business ventures and careers that began as sidelines; “Monday Night Conversation,” featuring one-on-one interviews with today’s hottest celebrities discussing current events, their latest projects and all things pop culture; “Test Drive,” which takes a spin in the latest cars from high-end luxury to eco-friendly, giving a behind-the-wheel perspective on cool gadgets and features; and “Pure Logic,” a politically-charged, humorous take on the issues and topics of the day hosted by former news anchor Anthony McLemore.

BlackTree TV’s engaging, skillfully produced content and desirable traffic metrics have also generated attention from the advertising community. Marketers looking to gain visibility for their brands with Blacktree’s trendsetting, multicultural viewership have included companies such as Universal, General Motors, Land Rover, Sprint and The Weinstein Company.

About BlackTree Media
BlackTree Media is a leading distributor of online urban entertainment content and lifestyle information. In partnership with Google and YouTube, the BlackTree Broadcast Network (B2N) has branded BlackTree TV (www.blacktreetv.com). It is ranked among YouTube’s top 25 content channels and is featured on over 3,000 websites, including popular urban sites AllHipHop.com and XXLmag.com. BlackTree TV can also be found on the ‘Urban Stylez’ channel on the Sprint TV mobile phone network. BlackTree TV supplies advertisers with the ideal avenue for reaching multicultural consumers with an affinity for urban-oriented lifestyle, music, entertainment, products and information.

About Sprint TV
Sprint TV is included at no additional charge in Sprint’s Everything plans starting at $69.99, including Simply EverythingSM, which combines unlimited voice, messaging and extensive data services – such as Sprint TV – for just $99.99 per month. With other Sprint plans, customers can get Sprint TV by adding a Data Pack, starting at $15 per month and it can also be accessed with casual data charges on a per data byte basis. Sprint TV can only be accessed on Sprint video-enabled phones and is available on most Sprint handsets.

About Vidiator
Vidiator is changing the way people use mobile with technology that helps carriers and content providers deliver live and on-demand TV, music and 3G multimedia services and content to mobile devices. Vidiator is deployed in 20+ countries on four continents, with customers like AT&T, Sprint, NTT DoCoMo, “3,” Vodafone, PCCW and Alltel. Vidiator is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, USA, with offices in England, China, Korea, Spain and Italy. For more information please visit www.vidiator.com.

About YouTube
YouTube is the leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, blogs, and e-mail.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Tosha Whitten Griggs
FrontPage Communications
213/351-0042
twhittengriggs@sbcglobal.net

Caught up with my man Joe Clair at Digital Hollywood a few weeks...

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:33:23 -0700

Caught up with my man Joe Clair at Digital Hollywood a few weeks back. We talked about staying relevant and some of the lessons he learned early on in his career from being persistant.

I had the chance to sit down and chat with actor, activist and...

Tue, 19 May 2009 21:58:55 -0700

I had the chance to sit down and chat with actor, activist and author Blair Underwood during the Digital Hollywood conference and discuss his work in bringing awareness to the AIDS epidemic and more. He then graciously agreed to allow me to interview him. (perks of owning a media company) Seriously though, I am inspired by his work. Lets all do what we can to shine light on AIDS awareness and help to eradicate this terrible disease from existence.

Please help Blair as he does his part help educate others. Follow him on:

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/blairunderwood

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blair-Underwood/48683677654

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/blairunderwoodmyspacepage

Until next time,

Be Bold and Blessed!

Anthony.

Hulu Shakes Up the Online Video Scene

Sun, 03 May 2009 23:18:30 -0700

Not that long ago, online video was sort of a toy, a somewhat geeky, somewhat mainstream add-on to the real business of the Internet: reading information.

Then came YouTube. And now here come the pros.

According to MAGNA Global, a research division of the Interpublic Group, online video ad spending in the US will pass the $1 billion mark in 2011.

MAGNA estimates that the market for online video ads will reach $699 million this year, a 32% increase over the $530 million spent on online video in 2008.

A MAGNA spokesperson asserted that interest in the online video ad space was being driven not merely by the increase of broadband connectivity, but also by the growth of professionally produced video content.

A migration of viewership is occurring online from the user-generated content that “accounted for a significant volume of potential advertising inventory in the past,” to professionally produced online video, which grew in terms of time spent by 24% in 2008, after a 50% increase in 2007.

“Over the next few years, we expect traditional TV content, and traditional TV suppliers, to account for the bulk of online video budgets,” Brian Wieser of MAGNA told Dow Jones Newswires.

It should be noted, however, that while the new MAGNA forecast calls for a 32% gain in online video ad spending in 2009—to roughly $700 million—in July 2008 the firm forecast 45% growth this year to $800 million. But, as reported by Adweek, “As with many projections made last summer, the subsequent escalation of the recession has put a damper on budgets.”

Growth in the category is still robust—and taking some surprising turns.

According to tracking figures from comScore, in March 2009, Google sites once again ranked as the top US video property with 5.9 billion videos viewed and a 40.9% online video market share. YouTube.com accounted for the bulk of that viewing, with more than 99% of all videos viewed at the property.

Fox Interactive Media ranked a distant second with 437 million videos viewed, 3%, but—and here’s the surprise, confirming Mr. Wieser’s contention—for the first time Hulu cracked the top three, moving past Yahoo! and Microsoft sites, with 380 million videos viewed for 2.6% of the total.

comScore reported that Hulu’s total video streams grew 14.3% in March, and the number of unique viewers was up 19.7% in the same period. But, in an odd jiggle of the figures, the amount of time users spent on Hulu dropped—about 10% from February.

Nevertheless, Hulu still accounted for 4.9% of all minutes spent watching online video in March, and the average viewing time per user was almost an hour: 57.9 minutes.

Overall, the average US online video viewer watched 327 minutes of video in March, nearly 5.5 hours.

Update: More Shaking Late last week, The Walt Disney Co. announced it had reached a deal to buy nearly a 30% stake in Hulu. Disney plans to run full episodes of ABC TV shows on the site, joining the lineup of NBC and FOX television shows currently available.

*THIS ARTICLE IS FROM EMARKETER AND CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007070

Another of my forays into the world of red carpet hosting. This...

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:28:14 -0700

Another of my forays into the world of red carpet hosting. This time at the Pre-Grammy Party put on by Ne-YO a few months ago. Enjoy

YouTube Gasp Undergoes a Re-design?

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:48:00 -0700

by Anthony Idem Jr.

The big news of the week was the announcement that YouTube will be redesigning its site to be more advertiser friendly. They are adding new “show” tab that leads to a portal featuring more professionally produced content. This is no doubt an appeal to the major motion picture studios, TV and other “pro” content publishers and the ad dollars that the can potentially command.

The move comes as no real surprise. I mean, they had to do something. A recent analysis of its business revealed losses of around $470 million as the cost of broadband for its billions of monthly streams continues to take its toll on the online video juggernaut. Figuring out a good monetization model seems to have been the Achilles heel for the site for a good long while now.

How is it that such a popular site that is head and shoulders above the competition in terms of video consumption finds the need to adjust its site (and business model) for that matter? The answer is simple: The unpredictability of most user generated content. If you are an advertiser you are extremely wary of attaching your “precious” brand name to a profanity-laden clip of some teen using home made explosives to demolish an old car. There is just too much variability in user generated content as it stands today.

So, YouTube has borrowed the model of its much, much smaller rival Hulu.com that has been thriving precisely because it focuses on distributing more professionally created content that has been vetted and deemed attractive to most advertisers. I AM NOT MAD AT EM. This is business and those that figure out how to bring in revenue will survive. Period. They just cannot stray too far from what has been bringing them their viewership in the first place. It’s a damned if you do and damned if you don’t situation for them.

As someone who has a healthy YouTube partnership with YouTube now with my company, BlackTree Media, I am happy to see the change being made. BUT, in following the Hulu.com model I hope to high heaven that YouTube continues to acknowledge and treat the its content partners fairly and with the respect we have earned. We have proven that our content is not only viable but in VERY high demand and that, if given the opportunity, we can not only play with the big boys but also win big.

I’m gonna keep it all the way real. I jacked this picture...

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 20:00:59 -0700

I’m gonna keep it all the way real. I jacked this picture from someone else’s site but hey, it was not theirs either. Either way it shows a young and single Steve Jobs in his very first office in 1982. No money. No furniture. Nothing but determination and vision. Begs the question, do you really need anything else?

But I will give away where I found it: http://www.myeoffice.com/2009/04/steve-jobs-office-back-in-1982/

I’m really feeling this right now…not sure why

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:26:33 -0700

I’m really feeling this right now…not sure why

Taking a break from lounging behind the camera…Fun night.

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:48:48 -0700

Taking a break from lounging behind the camera…Fun night.

Social Media and Car Insurance: A Match Made in Heaven?

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:56:08 -0700

Social Media and Car Insurance: A Match Made in Heaven?:

Michael Litman is a Social Media Strategist for Consolidated PR in London, UK. He is a lover of all things Twitter, social media and online tech. His blog can be found at LitmanLive and…

With Inbox Clogged With Admirers, Twitter Should Ignore the Hype and Get Back to Work [BoomTown]

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:08:19 -0700

With Inbox Clogged With Admirers, Twitter Should Ignore the Hype and Get Back to Work [BoomTown]:

The hubbub that was created around a rumor that was floated late last week that Twitter was in “late-stage” negotiation to be acquired by Google–which BoomTown reported was premature…

A Picture Is Worth A Thousands Tweets: Pixim And TweetPhoto Emerge

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:57:58 -0700

A Picture Is Worth A Thousands Tweets: Pixim And TweetPhoto Emerge:

There’s been a proliferation of photo sharing apps tied to Twitter, including TwitPic, Twitxr (review), and Yfrog (review), giving users a vast amount of choice when it comes to…

Chinese Social Networks ‘Virtually’ Out-Earn Facebook And MySpace: A Market Analysis

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:57:00 -0700

Chinese Social Networks ‘Virtually’ Out-Earn Facebook And MySpace: A Market Analysis:

Editor’s Note: Social networks are taking off in China. The following guest post by George Godula. David Li, and Richard Yu explores how Chinese social networks are pursuing different business models than their American counterparts, relying more on micropayments and the sale of virtual goods. George Godula is the founder of Web2Asia, an East Asian incubator and also a consultancy for Western startups trying to enter markets in China, Japan and Korea. David Li is a developer of social networking applications such as Growing Gifts, and he also was the developer of OnChat, an early in-browser graphical avatar chat system. Richard Yu is a Seattle native living in China, where he consults for Shanghai-based web startups while writing his blog.

Despite China’s massively growing internet market, international giants like Google and Facebook are having trouble making gains with the 300 million Chinese online users. China’s netizens are on average very young – 66.7 % of them are younger than 29 years old and 35.2 % of them are teenagers—with social networking and entertainment applications being the most popular.

While companies like Facebook struggle to conquer market share in China and to create viable business models everywhere, their Chinese clones have built lucrative cash machines literally earning billions of dollars a year. Unfortunately, adopting Chinese methods may not help American social networks due both to cultural differences in Chinese user behavior and industry practices. Below is our analysis of the Chinese social networking scene.

Chinese Social Networking is Dominated by Local Players

Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) have long played the dominating role in Chinese Internet life and still continue to be one of the most popular online platforms for social interaction. Registered user accounts, which are mostly anonymous, surpass 3 billion (users have multiple accounts) and 80% of Chinese sites run their own BBS. However in the last year social networking services, most of which require real name registrations, have shown explosive growth in China with 19.3% of netizens using them regularly.

Despite the popularity of social networking in China, the social networking market is dominated by local Chinese players, and Western networks have trouble adapting to Chinese culture and user expectations. Facebook does not rank among the top 15 asocial networks in China while MySpace has only 6 million users (vs. the goal of 50 million users after 2 years initially proclaimed by Rupert Murdoch).

Meanwhile, China’s leading social network Qzone, which is targeted at teenagers, may even be the largest in the world. Tencent, Inc., the company that runs Qzone, recently announced group revenues of over $1 billion in 2008.

As ad sales slump in the recession, only approximately 12% of Qzone’s revenue stems from online advertising with the rest coming from virtual item sales such as applications and avatars. Internet ad spending in China is expected to reach $1.7 billion in 2009, which is about 4% of total ad spend. In comparison, the US is estimated to spend $25.7 billion reaching consumers online through advertising. These comparably low online budgets in China are largely spent at four large news portals, which earn the majority of online ad revenue. This forces most “smaller” portals to find more innovative ways to monetize their traffic.

51.com, which targets working class adults from rural parts of China, is the second most popular social network in China with 130 million registered users. Concurrently, Chinese students flock to Xiaonei with approx. 40 million users. It is backed up with $430 million in funding from its parent company Oak Pacific Interactive and investors like Softbank. Kaixin001, which skyrocketed out of nowhere to 30 million registered users from the middle of last year, targets white collar workers in China’s largest cities by employing controversial invitation techniques and copying apps directly from Facebook.

Yet the astronomical growth of China’s social networks can be attributed as much to its massive market size as to its cultural norms and values. Social networking apps can hit hyper-viral levels in China due to a higher tolerance of intrusive app invitations. It is not uncommon for apps to essentially force new users to invite people and perform tasks before being able to join their friends online. Once friends have joined they are required to interact much more with the apps and advertisements than on Western applications. While this model is not replicable for the US market, certain aspects of this strategy/cultural mindset are necessary if companies like Facebook or Myspace want to compete in China.

Open Social Networks are Not So Open in China

In the middle of 2008, Myspace was the only social network to support OpenSocial in China. Despite Google’s effort, the adoption of OpenSocial was slow among the major social networks. Eventually, other platforms caved into the partnership with Google and gave half-hearted support to OpenSocial. Apart from some of the large social networks mentioned previously this included City!N, Yiqi.com as well as the business network Tianji and BBS Tianya. Other social networks such as Douban, Hainei or news portal Sohu had originally announced to join OpenSocial but then never implemented it, choosing an F8 style API instead. Today, only one of the top 50 apps in China’s social networks runs on OpenSocial despite the hard work put in by the Google team in China.

When Xiaonei and 51.com at first opened their own platforms, their terms of services outraged the developer community with clauses that practically blocked all monetization opportunities and a shared user base with their own websites. The developers launched several public protests against the social networks including the website www.anti-opensocial.com to rebel against hypocritical support for these “fake open” platforms. The executives from these social networks did respond quickly to the developers demands and changed the terms of service to more reasonable terms, allowing limited monetization opportunities for the developers.

Unfortunately, most social networks continue to ignore “Open Social” practices, opting for the more familiar “Guanxi paradigm” in business practices with third parties. The term ”Guānxi” describes the basic dynamic of gaining influence and receiving favors within social relationships, and is a central concept in Chinese society. For social networks, this means that rather than developing an open ecosystem, they focus on dealing with third parties individually and face to face. New Open Social Networking platforms (or better put, “selectively opened”) such as Yahoo’s Guanxi, Tencent’s Xiaoyou and Tianya court established third party app developers like Five Minutes while largely ignoring the wider developer community.

Additionally, ad sales are also strictly controlled by the social networks themselves even though 51.com set a threshold of a $35k fee to be paid for app developers to operate their own ad revenue -based applications (which until now no developer was willing to pay).

Keso, China’s most widely read tech blogger, who we asked to contribute to this article through China’s online expert panel BloggerInsight, summed up the situation by saying “Despite an open platform strategy, Chinese SNS are still competing with each other on the application level”.

Imitation of Facebook was only a Launching Point

Chinese sites are notorious for their C2C strategy, or “Copy to China”. This applies to the app market in the same way as it did to the social networks and all other Web 2.0 and eCommerce services. A year after Facebook introduced the F8 open platform, Xiaonei.com followed suit and announced its open platform in July 2008. The developer group xCube on Xiaonei attracted individuals and companies interested in third-party apps. Yet Chinese outsourcing developers such as Apptz and Ismole armed with experience working on Facebook applications made significant inroads by launching several apps and attracting millions of users in just a few short months.

At about the same time, the apps space also felt the power of C2C with copies of popular apps on Facebook such as “Friends for Sale” and “Parking War” popping up on just about every social network in China. Other leading social networks such as 51.com and Comsenz!’s Ucenter Home (similar to Ning.com) launched their own open platform soon after Xiaonei’s effort.

Chinas 51.com first social network in the world to open up payment API

While Chinese social networks started out as mere clones of existing sites, they’ve managed to innovate the business models to create a very lucrative market by cementing the relationship between application developers and the site’s user base. Happy Farm, the most popular app in China reportedly collects well over $75k a month through installations on various platforms, and according to Chinese application tracker, Appleap, the value of the total social network’s apps install base is approx. $4.5 million.

Opening up the payment system was one of the most anticipated announcements from Facebook’s developer conference F8 2008 but the company failed to create an integrated ecosystem for users to buy and sell apps. China’s socail networks took the great leap forward in this area when 51.com became the first social network in the world opening up its payment system to third party developers in 2008. Users pay money to 51.com and receive virtual coins which they can then again spend on third party applications. The revenue is split 50/50 between the social network and the developer.

Facebook on the other hand currently does not offer developers access to its payment system. If a third party application redirects Facebook users to their own website and payment processor, they usually lose the advantage of Facebook’s trusted brand name and the majority of potential revenues.

At the same time, companies like Becomedia are cooperating with 51.com to bring OfferPal-style cost-per-click/cost-per-action (CPS/CPA) for virtual currency models to China. CPS/CPA is one of the fastest growing sectors of Internet ads in China. This means revenues for the developers by trading their virtual currency for hard cash.

Season Xu from Five Minutes, the maker of China’s most popular app, confirmed the three basic revenue models for apps in China: shared ad revenues, income through virtual currencies, and customized development for branded applications. However he and Herock, a leading figure in the Chinese tech blogosphere whom we also spoke to, expect a consolidation in the app development market soon with larger companies taking over and benefiting from effects of scale, rather than individual developers still being able to produce top apps.

What can Facebook and Western social networks learn, if anything?

If monetizing a social network is so easy, then why hasn’t Facebook opened up its payment API to third party developers? While the aggressive and intrusive hyper-viral aspects of the apps in China may not be replicable in a Western Market, the problems for creating a more viable business model run deeper. Western companies cannot innovate in the same way due to institutional problems stemming from their own struggle for an identity and revenue.

Facebook has just recently announced a “credits” system, but it seems to miss the mark. The new system demonstrates little incentive for users to shell over money, and does not speak to the same need as paying for a social application that all your friends are already on and talking about. Facebook may be afraid to become a marketplace for applications, because they are reluctant to be labeled as a social gaming network or a social app store. Instead, they are a self-styled guru of dynamic human interaction. If they opened up their platform to become an apps store, their major revenue streams would put them into a pigeonhole, calling their $15 billion valuation into question. They obviously don’t want to be labeled as a “gaming platform” either, and don’t want to fully depend on selling digital trinkets.

Like during the American gold rush in 1849, where Chinese merchants prospered while most prospectors went bust in search of striking gold, it appears that building viable, scalable businesses for Social Networking sites may still be an ancient Chinese secret for Westerners.

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Sun, 05 Apr 2009 07:57:41 -0700

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