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| CurrentTV: “We’re Profitable”, Twitter: “We’re Not” Posted: 06 Nov 2008 02:34 PM CST
Later in the conversation, Evan made suggestions of what their future business model would be. “Our revenue is not advertising per say, Twitter’s model is very different. Our system is entirely opt-in.” He continued to state that if users want commercial content, they’ll opt-in for it, if they don’t, they won’t. We can provide a very valuable communication channel for these groups and charge for it. Evan Williams statements provided a stark contrast to Joel Hyatt, CEO of Current TV, who proclaimed, “We’re profitable.” Hyatt stated that the company has been operating profitably on an EBITDA basis since their first year of operations. They have a traditional business model in which revenue is generated from cable company licensing fees and advertising fees. There are user-generated advertisements that are being created for CurrentTV and most advertisers prefer these ads over agency created advertisements. The discussion eventually turned to the transformation of media but what struck me the most was the contrast between the two companies: one a revenue-less startup and the other a rapidly growing (and profitable) media company. There has been a never-ending discussion about Twitter’s revenue model and it increasingly clear that the company plans on providing a premium version for corporate clients. While it has been rumored to be rolled out next year, Evan Williams provided no guidance. For now, speculators will have to wait and see what the company comes up with. |
| LinkedIn Isn’t Recession Proof Either Posted: 06 Nov 2008 11:58 AM CST
Now 10 percent is being chopped. While we may have a new President-Elect, the economic conditions still appear to be worsening for the time being. As such startups are tightening up, cutting back on hiring, and an increasing percentage are reportedly firing anywhere from 5 to 20 percent of their staff. We have no reason to believe that this trend won’t continue. Just this morning Peter Kafka reported that News Corp is experiencing a softening in their display advertising on MySpace. They are expecting that to continue into the first two quarters of next year. Also this morning, while being interviewed by John Battelle at Web 2.0 Summit, Paul Otellini of Intel suggested that general consensus is the first two or three quarters next year will be hard. It’s clear that no companies, including social networks, are immune to recessionary pressure. As companies push through the next three quarters, there is a very good chance that we’ll see cutbacks continue. |
| MySpace Music CEO Announced Tomorrow Posted: 05 Nov 2008 06:33 PM CST
The service has been successful as the company streamed over 1 billion songs in just the first few weeks after launch. I question what that number really mens though considering that MySpace has offered streaming music via user profiles and band profile pages for years now. This new service is focused on distributing licensed music in an ad supported environment. Currently those songs are available via Amazon’s MP3 service. Ultimately MySpace Music appears to be a large scale experiment as music industry executives struggle to find a successful business model dues to widespread pirating and sharing of content. Earlier this week MySpace announced a partnership with Auditudewhich enables video content owners to monetize the audience-uploaded content. Unfortunately that model cannot be as easily converted to their music service. This news also comes as rumors of a Facebook Music revival have been sprouting up. While we’ve occasionally heard chatter about Facebook speaking with music industry executives, so far it has been little more than that. We’ll keep an eye on the MySpace Music and will make updates as news occurs. |
| MySpace Posts Impressive Election Stats Posted: 05 Nov 2008 04:36 PM CST
MySpace had over 300,000 more pageviews over the previous week. Unfortunately we don’t have statistics that reveal the number of users. Less than an hour ago I posted Facebook election statistics which were also impressive. One thing that has become clear is that social networks have become an integral component of the U.S. election process. As social networks and politics becomes further entwined, politicians are paying significant attention to this space. Additionally, ignoring the space can significantly damage campaigns. People want to communicate about politics and social networks are helping them do that. It will be interesting to watch how the relationship between politics and social networks become more entangled. |
Sporting the standard geek suit (jeans, blazer, black shoes, and collar shirt) Evan Williams, CEO of Twiter, told Ken Auletta of the New Yorker, that he doesn’t think making money is that big of a dilemma. In response to a question about how Twitter plans on making money he said, “Ummm”, followed by silence and laughter in the crowd. He continued, “I don’t think it’s that big of a dilemma.” 
Last night Techcrunch 
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