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| Slide, Hulu, and Others Sign Major Agreement Posted: 01 Oct 2008 03:16 PM CDT
Thanks to a new agreement announced today between Slide, Warner Brothers, News Corp, CPS, and Hulu, Slide is now one more step closer to their vision. On Thursday Slide will launch “FunSpace Channels” which will provide them with a platform for distributing the video content. Back in November I called social networks the new t.v. and this further suggests this as a continuing trend. Given that the company has the most popular application on Facebook it will surely drive a lot of traffic. While Bebo has continued to release original content, most other social networks are opting for the partnership agreement route. While not video content, MySpace Music is another example of the partnership model. Unfortunately for Facebook, the company now has two of the largest applications profiting from music and video content. All Facebook gets is more page views which isn’t exactly the worst thing but it may not be the most profitable. It will be interesting to see how the conflict between applications and platforms plays out over the coming months as mainstream media moves on to the platforms. |
| The Social Web Economy: Social Web Agencies Posted: 01 Oct 2008 09:53 AM CDT This is a continuation in the series “The Social Web Economy” Social web agencies are the companies that help develop branded products on the social web. Currently large traditional media companies are the most prevalent organizations on social platforms and elsewhere on the social web but that is slowly beginning to change. These agencies specialize specifically on leveraging the distribution platforms for exposure and the product companies to purchase reach. The social web agencies sell the development of a product and user exposure to those products as advertisements. This is because there is no way to guarantee that an application (product) is going to succeed in the long-run. In the best case an application will take off and maintain and active user base. How that works for the brand beyond their initial install buy will depend on how the contract between the agency and the brand was structured. There are some fundamental challenges facing the social web agencies though including those suggested by Seth Goldstein this morning. When advertisers and brands are used to buying IAB-standard ads it's an uphill battle in convincing them to build custom, non-standard applications. Thankfully large brands and advertisers in general are willing to experiment. The agencies have tension on two fronts: distribution platforms and ad networks. The reason for tension is that these companies are taking away ad buys directly from the platforms as well as the ad networks. While some agencies combine ad buys with development, there are many clients that simply seek the development of high quality applications. That’s not to suggest that there isn’t enough room for all companies to exist but in many circumstances each company is offering an advertising option that can be substituted for the other. Next in this series: “The Social Web Economy: Ad Networks & Sales Teams” |
Max Levchin has been trying to build Slide TV for a while now. From people that have spoken with him it appears that his focus has been to build out channels through slide that give users access to premium video content. The only thing standing in the way of the company’s (or Max’s) vision has been the lack of premium content on any of their channels. | 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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