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| Location-Based Social Networks to Generate $3.3 Billion in 2013 Posted: 01 Aug 2008 02:14 PM CDT According to a new report released to day by ABI Research today, location-based social networks will generate a whopping $3.3 billion in revenue by 2013. This comes from companies like GyPSii, Pelago and Loopt a few of the new location-based offerings that are now also available on the iPhone. While the report didn’t say it, the iPhone is a likely catalyst for the growth. As Dan Frommer at Silicon Alley Insider points out, “It’s hard to put much weight in pie-in-the-sky predictions like this: It’s one thing to take an existing market and plot out a growth chart. But right now the industry is a goose egg, give or take a couple million.” I decided to have a little fun and plotted out what that growth chart would look like below. As you can see much of the absolute growth comes in 2011, 2012 and 2013. We were able to generate this chart by looking into our crystal ball which has in the past been extremely efficient at generating accurate predictions. While this chart could change in the next 6 to 12 months we figured that this is good enough guidance to include in your upcoming business plan for a location-based social network. In all honesty though, there is a lot of potential for location-based social networks. The theory is that users of the networks can get extremely targeted local ads. This idea has been around for years but thanks to new advances in mobile technologies (within the U.S.) the ability to create locally targeted advertisements is now a reality. It still remains to be a test of time to see if these ideas will be put into practice. These “pie-in-the-sky” predictions resemble forecasts of socially relevant advertising technology generated over the past couple years. While the technology that increases conversions based on social relevance has yet to be developed (as far as we know), it’s still possible to make ridiculous predictions of the future. Do you think location-based social networks will meet the breathtaking forecasts generated by this study? |
| Posted: 01 Aug 2008 08:26 AM CDT Yesterday one of the biggest news items on the social web was about the del.icio.us site redesign. I was grateful because this site premiered on the front page of the new site driving a substantial amount of traffic this way. Aside from that I wasn’t too emotional about the redesign unlike a substantial number of people who thought that the new redesign was apparently a godsend. Not everybody was ecstatic about it though. Prior to jumping into the new design and whether bookmarking is relevant, I think it’s important to mention that many people still don’t even know what del.icio.us is. It may be surprising for many readers of this blog but the reality is that most people still don’t use the site. So for the few readers that are unaware of del.icio.us, let me give you a brief overview. What is del.icio.us and Why Use It?del.icio.us is simply a bookmarking utility that enables users to keep all of their bookmarks centralized in one place. No matter what computer you are on you can always keep the same set of bookmarks. That’s the primary benefit of using the site. The site can also be used as a tool for social discovery. In fact, del.icio.us was one of the first sites to offer social discovery making it one of the most popular and most hyped Web 2.0 properties on the web. If you visit a number of aggregation services across the web (e.g. Popurls), you will see the top del.icio.us items included on the site. It is a ubiquitous source for monitoring “what’s popular” on the web right now. That emphasized by visiting the site’s homepage as all of the links on that page are the most recent popular items. If you haven’t done so yet and are using Firefox to browse the web, I highly suggest downloading the Firefox Delicious add-on. The tool has become my default bookmarking tool and you would be smart to do the same if you haven’t already done so. What’s Does the Redesign Offer?If you want to know what the redesign offers, the easiest way is to watch the video below:
As the video illustrates, there have been some substantial changes that emphasize an improvement in usability. The most significant change is that the domain has switched from the immensely confusing “del.icio.us” to delicious.com, making it easy to tell all of your friends how to get to the site (if you ever need to). The other significant changes is browsing sites via multiple tags. Aside from that, this is pretty much the same delicious.com that you were used to back when it was del.icio.us. Is Bookmarking Relevant Anymore?Many people around the web are now asking if bookmarking even matters anymore. Let’s be honest, if you use del.icio.us you probably have over 1,000 bookmarks and still might obsessively bookmark sites that you don’t plan on going back to or may like to later. As Matthew Ingram points out, the unfortunate truth is that most people don’t go back to any of the sites that they bookmark. I differ from Matthew in that I regularly return to my bookmarks to find a site that I had looked at previously, especially if it is a reference guide. The reality is that most discovery online has shifted for many of us to social discovery. For instance, you may log into Facebook first thing in the morning and see a website that has been shared by one of your friends and you navigate to it. For those that are on FriendFeed or Twitter, there’s a good chance that you find a large portion of your content through those sites. I know I do. These tools have made the initial forms of social discovery less relevant. Digg, delicious and similar offerings were early attempts at cracking the social discovery nut. Today, it appears that personalized feeds are most relevant and help us find the best content. I think we are still in an exploratory phase of social discovery and as humans adapting to this digital age we are still trying to perfect the process of social discovery. I continue to use del.icio.us for tracking my personal items on the web, how about you? Do you use delicious? Do you even bookmark anymore? Where do you find your most relevant content? |
| What Exactly are Social Games? Posted: 31 Jul 2008 08:56 PM CDT When the Facebook platform launched over a year ago, many observers of the new platform quickly realized that gaming was quickly becoming one of the most popular category of applications on the site. What appeared to be revolutionary about this new series of games was the turn-based model that was seamlessly integrated into the Facebook experience. Once other platforms launched, this “new” genre of games quickly followed. At the time, I think many people were simply amazed at the sheer number of users playing extremely simple games like “Scrabulous” (which was recently shut down). What many began to realize was an explosion of casual gaming through which I believe the awareness of each others’ gaming activities was a catalyst for. More recently I’ve been wondering about the concept of a “social games” segment as part of the general gaming industry. Prior to sharing my personal thoughts on the matter, I thought it would be best to give a general overview of social games and the companies behind them. What are Social Games?Within months of the platform there was an explosion of “social gaming” and soon enough, many people (including myself) were convinced that social games were the next big thing on social networks. So what exactly makes a social game different from other games? I believe that there are a few factors which differentiate social games from the others:
So for the purpose of this article I’ll go ahead and put forth a definition of social games. As you will see toward the end of this article, there is still room for debate over whether or not such forms of classification are justified. So here is my best definition of social games: Social games are a structured activity which has contextual rules through which users can engage with one another. Social games must be multiplayer and have one or more of the following features: turn-based, are based on social platforms for providing users with an identity and are casual. What Are the Leading Companies Creating Social Games?Since the launch of the Facebook platform a little over one year ago, a new set of companies have emerged to tackle the social gaming market. Each different in their approach, a number of companies have begun developing a wide range of games that target a broad audience of users. Below are a few of the leading companies that are involved in social gaming in one form or another. If I miss any, please feel free to let me know. Zynga Gaming Network The company has raised a number of rounds of funding, the most recent one bringing in a whopping $29 million. Zynga is a company to keep you eye on as they have a killer set of investors and advisors and continue to grow at a steady pace. Social Gaming Network While the company has been building and acquiring games, making them the 4th largest network on Facebook in terms of installs, none of the games continue have the same sort of blockbuster quality that a number of Zynga’s games have. That’s not to say that this company is out of “the game” (pardon the pun), they are far from it. This company definitely needs to start launching new games though. While speaking with Shervin Pishevar at last week at f8, it sounded like launching a number of new games on multiple platforms is part of the short-term game plan. With this company’s team of advisors and investors, there is a ton of potential moving forward. Kongregate Kongregate attracts a network of game developers and helps them promote their games through their site. The company also occasionally develops games of their own. So far their model has been effective at generating a substantial amount of traffic. Whether or not the company can translate that success onto social platforms has yet to be seen but as long as the company keeps innovating it doesn’t matter where they decide to position themselves. Gaia Online Playfish The company’s most popular game is Who Has the Biggest Brain? and it has been around for months as it continues to attract the attention of Facebook users. I’d keep your eye on this company as it looks like they have some big plans cooking. Serious Business The company became serious about social gaming when they raised $4 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners back in April. They have yet to release a second game yet but if the second game is anywhere near as popular as their first one, this company could become a serious force to be reckoned with. They already have the 9th most popular application on Facebook so the company has a lot of opportunity to extend that success to future projects. Are Social Games Really That Much Different?One key thing that I’ve been trying to determine over the past couple weeks is if “social games” should really be granted their own category. While there is a new set of companies that have emerged as a direct result of the opening of social platforms, most social games mimic the features that make other multiplayer games successful. Personally, the launch of the iPhone has transformed my idea of “social games”. There are now a number of games that I can play at dinner with my friends and family such as Connect Four, Tic Tac Toe and a number of others, all of which I would consider “social games”. While the users I’m playing against may be physically present and don’t have an identity tied to an online social network, it’s inherently a social activity. As such, I believe that the “social gaming” networks will slowly begin to mimic traditional gaming companies and simply become part of the group. Those that don’t adapt quickly will slowly drift into oblivion while those that do adapt will quickly become leaders in the gaming industry, not just in this newly created category of “social games”. Do you believe that social games deserve their own category? How would you define social games? Is there any important points that I missed? |
I’ve written about 
Social Gaming Network was founded by Shervin Pishevar and was an outgrowth of Webs.com (formerly Freewebs) after having a successful launch of what remains to be one of their cornerstone games: Warbook. Since the launch the company has raised a number of rounds of funding including a recent round from Jeff Bezos. 
When it comes to social gaming, Kongregate was in this space before it was defined “social gaming”. The company’s largest presence is their destination site but back in May the company made a play for building their presence on social platforms with the launch of the 
Gaia is one of the other large social gaming companies that doesn’t have a substantial presence on social networks. The company has developed a site in which users interact via their own custom avatars. Those avatars can then choose to participate in games, watch movies and simply participate in the community. 
Playfish is a more recent company on the social platforms but they have a solid team of developers and management. The CEO of the company has a history in mobile gaming and is trying to convert his lessons learned to the social gaming sphere. Right now it looks like the company is doing an amazing job. They only have three games so far but each of them have over 200,000 active daily users and appear to be growing.
Serious Business is best known for their immensely popular Friends for Sale application, written by Siqi Chen. The application was so popular that it has since been duplicated on the MySpace with great success by other companies that ripped off Siqi’s idea. One of those companies (or individuals) now has the most popular application on Facebook. | You are subscribed to email updates from The Social Times To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner |
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