Articles of the Day
Advergaming - The Interactive Advertising Bureau, in association with the Games Committee, has introduced the first in a series of papers that outlines a detailed overview of the various game platforms, primarily “console” and “personal computer (PC) online.” Subsequent reports are expected to address audience demographics, behavior, and best practices. Video Games have emerged as a main-stream entertainment medium that generates worldwide revenues of about $25 billion in hardware and software sales. Surpassing box office revenues, movie rentals, book and music sales, Video Game revenues reached $12 billion in the US in 2006.
About.com’s Upgrades Drive Revenues, Traffic For NYT - About.com posted Q3 07 revenues of $24.7 million on Tuesday, nearly a 35% increase year-over-year. At the same time, the online information resource’s operating costs hit $18.4 million–an increase of almost 55% from Q3 last year–pulling down the operating profit margin by 2%. The company employs over 600 industry experts to author, monitor and constantly maintain the topic-specific GuideSites, which also feature rich media and video content (powered by Brightcove).
Google, Nielsen Form Alliance: First Step Brings Demo Data To Google TV Ads - After months of angst concerning Google’s inroads into television, and potentially into television audience measurement, Nielsen Co. has entered into a strategic relationship with the online search giant. The first phase of the relationship will give Google’ access to Nielsen’s demographic data, which will be integrated with the digital set-top data Google currently gleans from the TV operators partnering on its Google TV Ads network.
Marketing Apparel on Social Networks - Heavy social networkers in the United States visit leisure-oriented retail Web sites more than average Internet users, according to comScore. Such Web sites include music, jewelry and luxury goods and accessories, consumer electronics and apparel. comScore found that more than 95% of heavy social networkers visited retail sites in August 2007, compared with 80% of the total US Internet audience. Heavy social networkers were defined as the top 20% of visitors based on time spent on social networking sites.
MPAA Enlists ISPs in Fight Against Piracy - The Motion Picture Association of America is now trying to enlist Internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T in its fight to curb rampant piracy on the Web. Now that network neutrality looks dead, the MPAA can bypass Gnutella, BitTorrent and other file-sharing programs by going straight to the source of Internet access. AThe MPAA has already gone to several ISPs to discuss adopting policies that keep discourage users from illegally downloading and sharing movies over their networks.
Yahoo’s “Openness” Strategy - Following an improved third-quarter performance, Yahoo Chief Jerry Yang made his first public appearance since reclaiming office, talking about the company’s growth strategy and its plans to compete with rivals Google and Microsoft. Whereas most Web publishers are focusing on the idea of “stickiness,” Yang said his goal is to turn Yahoo into a series of reference points that consumers use repeatedly. Its main services would be the My Yahoo homepage, Yahoo Mail, search, and its mobile platform.
EBay: Helps Poor Help Themselves - As opposed to simply giving money away to charity, the process of micro-lending has emerged as a popular way to help the world’s most impoverished countries. Lenders help would-be businessmen with a small cash investment, then collect repayments with an equally small amount of interest. The idea is to help create sustainable economic growth for third world countries.
Amazon Quadruples Profit, Shares Fall - As Amazon will tell you, Wall Street can be frustratingly tough to please. Despite quadrupling its third-quarter profit, the Web retailer saw its stock fall nearly 10% following its Tuesday earnings report. The reason: investors were already expecting a blowout quarter, but when the company announced a slight operating margin decline from the second quarter, they took that as a signal that the company’s boom days were coming to a close.
