Unite to Solve: October 2008

Thursday, October 30, 2008

SocialTimes.com

Xiaonei Launches Payment Platform for Applications

Posted: 30 Oct 2008 12:29 PM CDT

Xiaonei, the leading social network in China, and also a Facebook copycat, announced today that it has released a payment platform for applications. The China Web 2.0 blog reports that the system leverages the company’s Xiaonei Dou, which is a virtual currency that users can purchase via the mobile phone, Alipay, or Yeepay. For a year there has been significant buzz about the potential of Facebook launching a payment platform but nothing has been done yet.

As far as I know this is the first social network to officially announce a payment platform. While I have yet to look at the specifications of the system, this is a major announcement and I’d imagine that other platforms will follow suit. When it comes to virtual currency, Asia has been leading the pack for years, as they have been selling digital goods over social networks for users to customize their personal avatars.

The model has proven profitable. As we wrote back in May, 51.com, a competing Chinese social network, has achieved cash flows of over $44 million through the sale of virtual goods. The virtual currency model has been used through numerous offer exchange programs on Facebook applications, but so far, none of this has been tied directly to Facebook the company.

Earlier this year, Facebook posted on the developer forums that they were looking for developers that wanted to beta test their payment system. Unfortunately since then, there has been very little activity. As many have suggested some of this is due to internal conflict over whether or not a payment platform is even worthwhile. It looks like Xiaonei will be the first to test out whether or not this works. My guess is that we’ll see other social networks hop on board in the very near future.

-Xiaonei Screenshot-

D.C. Based SB Nation Gets a Big Round of Funding

Posted: 30 Oct 2008 10:20 AM CDT

Yesterday, D.C. Based SB Nation announced a “mid-seven-figure” funding round. The round was led by Accel Partners and included Allen & Co., Ted Leonsis, Brent Jones, who previously played for the San Francisco 49ers, Dan Rosenweig and Jeff Winer who were previous Yahoo! execs, and a few others. What is SB Nation? Ultimately, it’s a sports blog network.

The company is run by Jim Bankoff, who used to be the programming chief at AOL. The network includes a group of high quality sports blogs, each of which uses a similar design across the network. The company provides equity in SB Nation in exchange for full ownership of “the content, URLs, and related assets”. Bloggers also receive a portion of the ad revenue.

It’s great to see another D.C. based digital media company generate substantial buzz, but one has to wonder how the company will justify what can only be assumed as a sizable valuation. Then again, if we run the numbers, the company could easily come up with a nice exit. With 2 million unique visitors a month, and the average blog receiving less than 2 page views per visit, at a $20 CPM, that would result in monthly revenues of $68,000 per network ad spot.

With 4 ads on each site, the company could easily surpass $3 million in revenue per year. If a high traffic blogger received 1 percent of the company and it eventually is sold for around $30 million, each blogger might walk away with $300,000. Not exactly a large sum if you’ve been slaving away at your blog for a few years. Conversely, that’s at the company’s current size. If they can grow (as most networks do) significantly, there could theoretically be a much larger exit.

I don’t know any of the details though on how equity was swapped but networks tend to favor the owners of the networks and not the bloggers. In this complex new media landscape, it is pretty challenging to figure out a successful business model where the bloggers benefit. Creating a network definitely adds a lot of value for a potential acquirer though so at least it’s nice to see the creation of a valuable company.

The real question is when will we start seeing a large number of blog network acquisitions? As newspapers continue to decline, one can only assume that each company will expand their digital media presence. I’d guess that the next 12 to 24 months will be ripe for acquisitions in this space.

-SB Nation Screenshot-

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

SocialTimes.com

Google and Yahoo! Try to Make Facebook’s Advances Irrelevant

Posted: 29 Oct 2008 02:11 PM CDT

The battle for the social web has been playing out over the past few months but much of it has been invisible to those that are less technical. Today, Google announced that they will begin providing limited access to an API for an OpenID identity provider. This means Google users will be able to login to sites that support OpenID with their Google accounts.

This is a significant announcement for Google and for the open web. While I could attempt to place some sort of arbitrary divider between the open web and the social web, for discussion purposes, the social web is working to make the internet more open. As such both are substantially integrated and can be used interchangeably.

How Does Google OpenID Compete With Facebook?

The battle over single sign on is a significant one. If you haven’t been following OpenID and the single sign on trend over the past couple years, here’s a brief summary: users are finding it hard to remember the logins for every site they register for. As such, companies are racing to provide services that make it easy for users to login with their regular email address.

Facebook is preparing to launch their Connect service to the masses, making it possible for users to register for a site by using their Facebook account and without disclosing any personally identifiable information.
The Pros
There are some clear benefits from using Facebook Connect. For one, websites get access to a user’s news feed and the ability to virally distribute content and user activities through that feed. Second, companies get the “benefit” of placing a Facebook login button on their site. Why is this beneficial? Well, Facebook is rapidly becoming one of the most recognized brands on the web.

The Cons
For any company, using Facebook Connect doesn’t solve all your problems. The primary downside of using Facebook Connect is that you don’t get access to personally identifiable information of that user. I want to have access to a user’s email address so I can contact them in the future. Unfortunately Facebook prevents that. If you want to read more on this check out my article from July about Facebook Connect as OpenID without email.

There Can Only Be One Login

-Single Login Screenshot- So I really haven’t answered my last question which was: how does Google OpenID compete with Facebook? Well it’s in an abstract sort of way. When you go to register for a site, you are only going to register with one account. Soon enough, you will be able to select from a number of sites that you specify as the center of your identity. As pictured in the image to the left, this is how a theoretical registration form would look.

No longer will you have to enter all your information into fields, instead, that information will come from your identity provider. OpenID is supposed to tie your identity back to a URL but Google has implemented their own version in typical Google style. The point being here is not to debate Google’s implementation of OpenID though, instead to illustrate that your identity can be tied to external accounts.

We’re In it For the Long Haul

In November of last year, I wrote that the email would become the center of social networks. One year later we are seeing this happen as Google and Yahoo! implement new services for the open web. Yesterday Yahoo! announced their open platform which includes a single sign on-like feature and today Google has announced their own version of OpenID support.

This is just the beginning though and ultimately, much of this will require user adoption. I’m guessing that there will soon be a registration “widget” similar to the way that Disqus handles my comments, another party will handle my registrations. As long has I get to have my own database filled with user data, that’s all that matters.

It’s going to take some time but I’d imagine in the next 12 months there will be a huge shift toward a centralized registration system that everybody can use and developers can quickly implement. It’s exciting to see the big players getting involved and while each step can be criticized for its imperfect implementation, I’d assert that this is once again a big step in the right direction.

Meebo Launches Community IM on Flixster

Posted: 29 Oct 2008 01:23 PM CDT

Last night Meebo announced that it rolled out the first live version of its Community IM service on Flixster, the movie social network. Back in July I wrote about Meebo’s new service and called it a “Userplane-like platform”. Ultimately it is very similar in that both Userplane and Meebo have ultimately launched a Facebook-like chat platform available for third-party sites. This one looks pretty cool as displayed in the video below.

When it comes to the social web, it’s pretty clear that Facebook has been leading the pack for the past year and a half. Even Yahoo! duplicated many of the features provided by the Facebook platform and Facebook Connect in their new services announced last night. This new chat platform also includes updates and notifications.

One of the cool features of this new service is that if you want to continue a conversation but don’t want to stay on the site you are at you can pop-out the conversation to another window on Meebo.com. I’m not quite sure how valuable this component actually is to be honest since you are still going to need at least one browser window open.

Either way, the trend toward new types of internal community chat platforms is an interesting one and over the past 6 to 12 months there have been some significant releases by the largest players. We will continue to follow the chat space as it evolves over the coming months.

LinkedIn Announced Their Application Platform

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 09:53 PM CDT

In today’s spirit of openness, LinkedIn has announced details on the opening of their platform. According to Reid Hoffman, the initial rollout will be focused on “productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively.” There are currently 9 live applications from Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit, and Wordpress.

We will be posting more after we get to try out the platform.

Yahoo! Launches Facebook Connect Competitor

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 08:26 PM CDT

-Yahoo! Logo- A few months back, Yahoo! announced that it would be opening up the site’s services to developers in a significant way. This afternoon the company rolled out a big iteration which has a massive social component. The service has a bunch of features that developers can use to detect any individual web user’s “social presence”. So what are the new component of this open platform and what does it mean for developers?

What’s Being Offered?

First, let’s take a look at what exactly Yahoo! is offering as part of the Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS) 1.0 platform launch:

Yahoo! Social Platform - “The Yahoo! Social Platform (YSP) consists of a suite of REST-based social APIs from Yahoo! including: Profiles, Connections, Updates, Contacts and Status.” Sound familiar? It should. The service enables users to develop a new form of social application similar to Facebook applications or MySpace applications. From a technical standpoint the applications are much more similar to MySpace applications because they take advantage of OAuth and REST. They’ve also announced a PHP SDK that developers can use to start programming today.
Yahoo! Query Language (YQL) - Remember FQL? If you don’t, it’s the language that developers can use to send SQL-like queries to Facebook instead of making standard API calls to retrieve user information. Yahoo! is releasing a very similar service but they are calling it the “command line version of Pipes.” Whatever they are calling it, this sounds to me a lot like FQL.
Yahoo! Application Platform - Wait didn’t we just go over the Social Platform? Yes we did! The main purpose of the Application Platform in contrast to the Social Platform is that it provides a centralized distribution point for applications to Yahoo! users. Back in September I wrote that platforms are the new software distributors and this further supports my assertion. Applications will have canvas pages, landing pages, invitations, notifications, a chrome, updates, and a few other features.

Yahoo! Social Platform is an “Open” Facebook Connect Competitor

Facebook Connect appears to have the best odds of succeeding so far as they have had the most partners roll out sites for any company that we’ve seen so far. Honestly at this point much of the “success” will be determined by a PR battle since none of the technology has been rolled out except for Yahoo! which has now released what appears to be a terrific platform.

It’s clear that many of the features of the Yahoo! Social and Application platforms take cues from Facebook aside from the user interface which for now appears to be completely non-existent outside of the Yahoo! chrome. Just the other day I posted about John McCrea’s lessons from attending the User Experience Summit, which was make things look good (as well as a few other key components ;)).

Yahoo! has a solid chance at boosting their developers to the forefront with critical integration points which could in the future include a link to applications directly on the Yahoo! homepage, something any developer would die for. With so much potential, social application developers are now going to be pushed to their limits.

One additional interesting factoid about Yahoo’s new platforms is that they will be leveraging OAuth and OpenSocial, each open standards for the social web. At this point, Facebook is standing alone and while they still have substantial leverage, if Yahoo! can pull all the right strings, Facebook may be forced to comply. As the Facebook platform becomes more limiting, and social application developers are stretched thin, they are rapidly searching new opportunities for growth.

The Yahoo! platforms could very well be that next place they are looking for.

What Does This Mean for Businesses?

Your in the midst of planning the social media strategy for your company and you just learned about Yahoo!’s new Open Strategy platform. While you may not understand everything that it offers, it sounds a lot like Facebook Connect and now you are forced to take this into consideration when suggesting something to the boss. Or perhaps you are the boss but being an intelligent individual that takes all options into account, you are now considering Yahoo! as a distribution channel for your brand.

Well, the reality is that all of the things need to be taken into consideration. I wish I could say it’s more easy than that. The primary factors driving this decision should be:

How large is your company? - If you are a large company, you should be able to come up with the funding to have a Facebook application, iPhone application, Android Application, MySpace application, Yahoo! application, and any other large platform application. Small businesses obviously can’t do that and that’s why they need to consider other factors.
Who’s your target market? - In the U.S., the majority of Facebook users are still 18-25. That demographic begins to skew somewhat when you start looking at the other platforms. Considering the demographic biases of each platform is important.
Ease of development - It’s easier to develop a Facebook application than an iPhone application. If you happen to have iPhone developers on staff though, it’s obviously a better decision to build on that platform. For those without resources, it’s clear that easier platforms will make it possible to make an application for less money.
Other Options - Sometimes you may not have the budget at all and instead it would be best to figure out how to leverage the social features of these platforms at minimal cost. One option would be to integrate social features into your company’s website. For those with less resources it may be useful to examine all the other options out there.

It’s clear that the trend is toward an open web and any company standing in the way of that is not likely to survive in the long-run. Whatever your company decides to do, Yahoo! has just made your decisions just a little more complex.

Yahoo! Application Canvas Screenshot
-Yahoo! Canvas Screenshot-

Yahoo! Application Invite Screenshot
-Yahoo! Application Invite Screenshot-

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

SocialTimes.com

MTV Brings Back Music Videos With MTVMusic.com

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 02:27 PM CDT

I typically don’t write about general media stuff but this one was hard to resist. I was reading Caroline McCarthy’s article about MTVMusic.com and went to go check out the site. The site essentially archives all the music videos that have ever been displayed on MTV. I haven’t been able to not find any of the videos that I can remember.

This site is amazing. The best part of the site? They let you embed the music videos anywhere! While there are no advertisements being displayed currently, I’d imagine that the service will soon become ad supported. However the company plans on paying for this, it is genius. MTV is known for not playing music videos anymore, but this service brings back MTV into the music video space in a big way.

While I’m not sure when this site was officially release, it appears to have gone live in the past few days as there is very little traffic data on public traffic tracking sites. There is no doubt in my mind that this site is going to be a massive hit. Go check out MTTMusic.com and start embedding your favorite music videos! In the Halloween spirit, I’ve embedded a copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video below.

SNAP Summit 3 Streaming Live

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 01:46 PM CDT

SNAP Summit, a conference focused on social networks and advertising, which is based out in San Francisco, is going on today. Thankfully, for those that weren’t able to make it, they are streaming it live. We’ve embedded a live stream of the event for those interested in watching.

Free Videos by Ustream.TV

Bloggers More Influential Than Friends for Purchase Decisions

Posted: 28 Oct 2008 09:46 AM CDT

According to a new study published by BuzzLogic, “consumer purchases are more likely to be influenced by bloggers’ recommendations than what friends or other members of their social networks tout.” Does that mean game over for social shopping? Not really but it does suggest that including blogger recommendations into social shopping sites may not be such a bad idea.

Another interesting finding of the reports was that “blogs are becoming trusted guides, steering users who are seeking very specific information to places of interest online”, according to Rob Crumpler, CEO of BuzzLogic. Unfortunately the study didn’t provide much insight as to what sort of influence peers have on social networks as BuzzLogic doesn’t appear to have much data on that issue.

Honestly, aside from the article title there was little data to backup the claim that blogs are more influential. There was a ton of data suggesting that blogs have substantial influence though. Technology blogs are the most influential for purchase decisions, followed by media and entertainment, games/toys/sporting goods, travel, and automotive.

Apparently ads on blogs were also on par with sponsored search results. If you want to advertise then, feel free to contact us! Seriously though, there is very little data supporting the argument that blogs are more influential than friends for purchase decisions. The one thing that the study suggested was that avid blog readers are more influence by blogs then by friends. I’m not sure that is really all that surprising.

It would be interesting to see data on purchase decisions based on the recommendations of friends within social networks. Do you find blogs or your friends to be more influential? Have you made any purchase decisions based on the recommendations of either?