If you are the social media news hound types, you must have lapped up some of the interesting snippets on the the social networking juggernauts. For the benefit of the readers, let me make an attempt to quickly round up a clutch of the more interesting ones in my view.
Linked In was recently assessed to be the most valuable network and having crossed the 100 million accounts milestone, is well on the way to an IPO as well. Read More
Back in the 1400s, Constantine battled vainly to cling onto a crumbling, outdated empire that had finally lost its way in a modern and evolving world. Like Constantine, many marketers also remain in the past, burying their heads in the sand and trying desperately to cling onto past glories. Are they all doomed? Or does the traditional marketing empire simply need to refresh its politics? Read More
Ahead of a relaunch of MySpace, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has announced that its Digital Media Group, which houses the social network, haemorrhaged $174m (£109.5m) in the fourth quarter of its 2009 fiscal year, which brought the division’s full-year operating loss to $575m. Read More
How to monetising social networks, and social media, is one of the biggest discussion points for entrepreneurs and marketing agencies operating in the space. Most aim to fund themselves through advertising models, but this is becoming more of a challenge. Facebook appears to be managing it and claims are that it turned a solid profit in 2009. But Bebo is set to close its doors after failing to find the scale needed for an ad funded model failed and with Myspace’s user base declining they could be next on the list. Read More
AOL offloaded Bebo this week, less than to two years after buying it for $850m (£417m), a huge chunk of cash. It was bought by little known US investment company, Criterion Capital Partners, for a paltry $10m, the monetary equivalent of a smack in the face. But the big question here is, what does the future hold for Bebo? Can a relatively small company like Criterion bring the much-maligned social network back from the brink? Read More
UPDATE 19:00 Reports are saying that AOL has found a buyer for its troubled social network site Bebo — the price is now said to be as little as $10m and the is reported to venture capital firm Criterion Capital Partners. Read More
AOL will shut down or sell Bebo, the social media network it paid $850m for in 2008, by the end of the year, with sources close to Bebo saying that the “shut down” option is more likely, according to the Silicon Alley Insider.
An AOL spokesperson replied to the rumours, saying: “There is a very active and structured process being run – both reacting to queries that have come in and reaching out to potential players.
“To be fair, it probably is 75% reacting to queries and 25% reachout. But I don’t think it’s fair to say [AOL is not] trying.”
The source said AOL is only just now going through the processes associated with potential buyouts, like Bebo did months in advance before the AOL acquisition.
Last month, TechCrunch reported that AOL could potentially save $380m a year in taxes by shutting down Bebo, which dropped from 22m monthly unique visitors when it was acquired to just 14.6m today.
Silicon Alley Insider’s source said employees accept Bebo’s eventual fate: “Given the way AOL has totally ignored Bebo for the past 6+ months, no one was surprised by the announcement. Most [employees] are relieved, as they can now hunt for new opportunities without any guilt for thinking to leave a project they invested so much time and effort into.”
The popularity of Facebook, which recently crossed the 400m user mark, has been well documented, but the scale in which the social network is pillorying its rivals needs to be seen to be fully appreciated.
Social networking research from SharesPost shows that Facebook‘s unique visitors more than tripled to more than 490m since March 2008, succeeding where other social networking sites, MySpace in particular, have struggled.
The latest saga from the Silicon Valley rumour mill says that Yahoo! is interested in buying Foursquare, the up and coming location-based social network for $100m, a lowball deal given Foursquare’s latest investor valuation.
Silicon Valley Insider reports that Yahoo! dealmakers are debating whether or not to buy Foursquare, which has seen its user base grow rapidly since launch last year (faster to one million users than Twitter) and has venture capitalists falling over each other, looking to invest in the next big thing. Read More
The sale of Bebo announced this morning has been a long time coming. It started coming almost as soon as AOL bought the site and it started to lose ground in March 2008.
As long ago as January 2009 there was talk that Bebo was worth as little as $200m less than a year after AOL had bought it for a whopping $850m (£417m). At the time Bebo spokespersons called the rumours “ridiculous”.
It turns out they were just talking about the bigwigs at AOL who failed to act sooner to offload the site while it was still worth something. Read More
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