Tuesday 5 February 2008
Vizeum Digital Newsletter - January
Welcome to the First edition for 2008 of the Vizeum digital newsletter. Today it’s all about Mobile; a media/advertising format, that until recently has promised and inspired but was yet to be exploited or utilised to its full potential. From portals fighting over Also, digital radio has gone quite since it’s much anticipated and advertised launch, what’s happening? Using YouTube as a source of income and Carmen falling in Love with you sums up the first Vizeum morsel of the year.
Connecting People or Power?
It looks like Europe is in love
with Facebook…First the
Samwer Brothers invested in
the company, and now reports that
Nokia is joining the round, too. Paid Content is quoting sources that claim that Facebook and Nokia may be close to a deal which sees Facebook offered on Nokia phones as a default and in return Nokia may take a stake in Facebook.
On the content side, offering a Nokia mobile specific version of Facebook will be a positive in driving Facebook use on the mobile web. MySpace has gone down the path of carrier deals, where as a Facebook/ Nokia deal would be carrier agnostic, and given that Nokia is still the largest cell phone provider worldwide the deal would spread Facebook into new markets.
The investment side isn’t that surprising given how many companies have now bought into the Facebook phenomenon. The remarkable part is how many companies are willing to invest in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation. At best Facebook may be worth even more than that, particularly when you consider sites like Baidu have a market cap in excess of $9 billion.
We don’t know when Facebook may move to an IPO; in his 60 Minutes interview a week ago Mark Zuckerberg said that it might be this year, or next year, or even 2010. What we do know is that an IPO in the current market will unlikely provide a strong valuation for Facebook. Since the beginning of year markets worldwide have taken a hammering, with the market in Australia at least recording its worst new year drop in history according to some reports. Google stock is down from its $741 peak to $600 a share.
My prediction is that unless the market picks up (and that’s unlikely given all the US recession talk) Facebook wont IPO this year. 2009/ 2010 at the earliest, presuming that the market eventually recovers.
with Facebook…First the
Samwer Brothers invested in
the company, and now reports that
Nokia is joining the round, too. Paid Content is quoting sources that claim that Facebook and Nokia may be close to a deal which sees Facebook offered on Nokia phones as a default and in return Nokia may take a stake in Facebook.
On the content side, offering a Nokia mobile specific version of Facebook will be a positive in driving Facebook use on the mobile web. MySpace has gone down the path of carrier deals, where as a Facebook/ Nokia deal would be carrier agnostic, and given that Nokia is still the largest cell phone provider worldwide the deal would spread Facebook into new markets.
The investment side isn’t that surprising given how many companies have now bought into the Facebook phenomenon. The remarkable part is how many companies are willing to invest in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation. At best Facebook may be worth even more than that, particularly when you consider sites like Baidu have a market cap in excess of $9 billion.
We don’t know when Facebook may move to an IPO; in his 60 Minutes interview a week ago Mark Zuckerberg said that it might be this year, or next year, or even 2010. What we do know is that an IPO in the current market will unlikely provide a strong valuation for Facebook. Since the beginning of year markets worldwide have taken a hammering, with the market in Australia at least recording its worst new year drop in history according to some reports. Google stock is down from its $741 peak to $600 a share.
My prediction is that unless the market picks up (and that’s unlikely given all the US recession talk) Facebook wont IPO this year. 2009/ 2010 at the earliest, presuming that the market eventually recovers.
Digital killed the analogue star?
17% of UK radio listeners tune in
via a digital platform, according to
the latest radio audience data from
Rajar.
The figures for Q4 2007 revealed that overall radio listeners remained stable at 45m listeners or 89% of the UK population. While weekly listeners decreased year-on-year by 93,000 to 44,952,000 in Q4, 2007 from 45,045,000 in Q4, 2006, digital listening hours for the quarter increased by 10% to 169m hours per week.
Listening via digital-only services, such as BBC 6 Music and Smash Hits Radio remained stable at just over 6m weekly listeners.
Listening via DAB showed significant increases - up 16% to 14m hours quarter on quarter.
DAB sets continue to be the most popular digital platform with 9.9% of listeners - 3.1% tune in via DTV and 1.9% via the internet.
Rajar research also revealed a 40% year-on-year increase in DAB set ownerships to 22.3% of adults in Q4, 2007 up from 16% in Q4, 2006. Radio listening via mobile phones continues to grow with 9.4% of adults (aged 15+) tuning into radio via a mobile phone in Q4 2007 - up 21% on the same quarter in 2006.
Mobile listening remains strong among 15 to 24-year-olds 22.6% tuned in, in Q4, 2007 up 13% from 20.4% in Q4, 2006.
via a digital platform, according to
the latest radio audience data from
Rajar.
The figures for Q4 2007 revealed that overall radio listeners remained stable at 45m listeners or 89% of the UK population. While weekly listeners decreased year-on-year by 93,000 to 44,952,000 in Q4, 2007 from 45,045,000 in Q4, 2006, digital listening hours for the quarter increased by 10% to 169m hours per week.
Listening via digital-only services, such as BBC 6 Music and Smash Hits Radio remained stable at just over 6m weekly listeners.
Listening via DAB showed significant increases - up 16% to 14m hours quarter on quarter.
DAB sets continue to be the most popular digital platform with 9.9% of listeners - 3.1% tune in via DTV and 1.9% via the internet.
Rajar research also revealed a 40% year-on-year increase in DAB set ownerships to 22.3% of adults in Q4, 2007 up from 16% in Q4, 2006. Radio listening via mobile phones continues to grow with 9.4% of adults (aged 15+) tuning into radio via a mobile phone in Q4 2007 - up 21% on the same quarter in 2006.
Mobile listening remains strong among 15 to 24-year-olds 22.6% tuned in, in Q4, 2007 up 13% from 20.4% in Q4, 2006.
Youpound.com
Contributors to YouTube are set to earn a slice of the advertising revenue sold around their video clips.
The move sees the existing US partnership programme extended to the UK as the Google-owned video sharing site starts paying selected members who upload videos. The ads will appear within the bottom 20% of the video for the first ten seconds. If a viewer clicks on it a portion of the money generated will go to the owner of the video.
With the most popular clips on the site receiving millions of views, some content owners stand to make thousands of pounds.
The move sees the existing US partnership programme extended to the UK as the Google-owned video sharing site starts paying selected members who upload videos. The ads will appear within the bottom 20% of the video for the first ten seconds. If a viewer clicks on it a portion of the money generated will go to the owner of the video.
With the most popular clips on the site receiving millions of views, some content owners stand to make thousands of pounds.
Portal-Combat
Search giants prepare to fight for off-portal mobile Google and Yahoo! are preparing for a new battle to power off-portal search on publishers' mobile sites. Emerging off-portal publishers like Eurosport and The Sun have started to include Yahoo!'s Onesearch service on their mobile sites. News Of The World, Reuters and Teletext are among those planning to offer search services soon. Online third-party search has proved a highly lucrative and fiercely contested market, with both Google and Yahoo! competing for each site that becomes available.Now they're heading for a similar land grab on the mobile platform as Google also develops its mobile search offering, which is already live in the US. EMarketer predicts mobile search will be worth $715m (£363.5m) by 2011. Geraldine Wilson, VP of Connected Life for Yahoo!, said that as publishers increasingly adopted mobile she was keen to work with them to complement their strategy."With the launch of services and big-brand internet services moving onto mobile, mobile internet use is going up at a significant rate."Publishers are given a slice of the revenue generated from clicks on sponsored keyword links.“It's a traffic driver and delivers ad revenue as another way to monetise the site," he added.
Carmen wants us all….well, me first
To aid the launch of Fox’s new spoof flick ‘Meet the Spartan’ Carman wants to, or more accurately is dating you (and your mates unfortunately).
Only avaliable as of yet in America, but is awaiting release on our shores soon.
I won’t give away too much, but it’s a viral with a twist.
http://www.carmenhasacrushonyou.com/
Only avaliable as of yet in America, but is awaiting release on our shores soon.
I won’t give away too much, but it’s a viral with a twist.
http://www.carmenhasacrushonyou.com/
Vizeum Digital Newsletter - November
Welcome to the November edition of the Vizeum digital newsletter where it’s all about social networking; the tools that are at the forefront of digital media, capability and expression. From a Facebook first, the possibilities of targeted advertising to MSN’s portals going green. This edition will illustrate the current trends in our digital environment.
The upswell of concern relating to
Facebook’s Beacon advertising program,
including a campaign from Moveon.org may have been successful ,with BusinessWeek reporting that Facebook discussed changes to the program as recently as the 29th of Novemeber
Facebook executives are said to “deep talks over proposed changes late into the afternoon on Nov. 28.”
Despite its possible lack of concern to the wider community, Facebook’s Beacon program has become a major issue in the tech community, many users are voting strongly in concern over Facebook’s current practices.
Moveon has previously reported that the ability to opt-out of the program was available in early tests of the program, but strangely dropped when it was fully released. Facebook indicated earlier this week that it was “listening to feedback from its users and committed to evolving Beacon so users have even more control over the actions shared from participating sites with their friends on Facebook,” so the BusinessWeek story would seem likely to be true.
What form these changes will take is yet to be disclosed, but more importantly it will be interesting to see whether the changes go far enough to appease the growing chorus of anti-Facebook rhetoric.
When news hit last week that Facebook was publishing user information gathered from third party sites (like ecommerce purchases) and publishing in the news feed, the assumption was it would quickly blow over. Facebook is continuously pushing the envelope with new features, and there always seems to be short term backlash when they try something new.
But it isn’t clear that the new Beacon controversy is going to blow over so easily. First, MoveOn.org has made this their Cause Du Jour and seems hell bent on forcing Facebook to change its policies.
Rumors surfaced that Facebook was censoring search results that included the MoveOn.org privacy group (flatly denied, privately, by Facebook).
However, Facebook already has made changes to ensure that no information is shared unless a user receives notifications both on a participating website and on Facebook.
It would be in Facebook’s best interest to make the new Beacon service opt-in only. But that reduces the value of the service to third parties who supply the information to Facebook, and get free links in return.
Watch this space!
Facebook’s Beacon advertising program,
including a campaign from Moveon.org may have been successful ,with BusinessWeek reporting that Facebook discussed changes to the program as recently as the 29th of Novemeber
Facebook executives are said to “deep talks over proposed changes late into the afternoon on Nov. 28.”
Despite its possible lack of concern to the wider community, Facebook’s Beacon program has become a major issue in the tech community, many users are voting strongly in concern over Facebook’s current practices.
Moveon has previously reported that the ability to opt-out of the program was available in early tests of the program, but strangely dropped when it was fully released. Facebook indicated earlier this week that it was “listening to feedback from its users and committed to evolving Beacon so users have even more control over the actions shared from participating sites with their friends on Facebook,” so the BusinessWeek story would seem likely to be true.
What form these changes will take is yet to be disclosed, but more importantly it will be interesting to see whether the changes go far enough to appease the growing chorus of anti-Facebook rhetoric.
When news hit last week that Facebook was publishing user information gathered from third party sites (like ecommerce purchases) and publishing in the news feed, the assumption was it would quickly blow over. Facebook is continuously pushing the envelope with new features, and there always seems to be short term backlash when they try something new.
But it isn’t clear that the new Beacon controversy is going to blow over so easily. First, MoveOn.org has made this their Cause Du Jour and seems hell bent on forcing Facebook to change its policies.
Rumors surfaced that Facebook was censoring search results that included the MoveOn.org privacy group (flatly denied, privately, by Facebook).
However, Facebook already has made changes to ensure that no information is shared unless a user receives notifications both on a participating website and on Facebook.
It would be in Facebook’s best interest to make the new Beacon service opt-in only. But that reduces the value of the service to third parties who supply the information to Facebook, and get free links in return.
Watch this space!
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