Articles of the Day
Google Still Has Uphill Climb In Growing Chinese Market - Google still struggles with lower user awareness in China, according to consulting firm Pearl Research. China is an important market for Google and other U.S. Internet companies with its steadily growing number of users. Chinese government Internet research agency CNNIC said Thursday that the country now has 163 million broadband users and 50.4 million mobile Internet users.
YouTube Continues To Grow Video Share - For all the hype surrounding audience segmentation, YouTube and its parent Google continue to take an ever-larger share of U.S. Web video watchers, according to comScore’s latest Video Metrix report. In November, more than 75% of U.S. Web users watched a video online, comScore reports.
AdBrite Snags Spot As Fourth-Largest Ad Network - ADBRITE IS THE FOURTH-LARGEST AD network in terms of page views, according to new comScore MediaMetrix stats. Only Yahoo, Google and AOL’s Advertising.com scored more page views. The company reports that it reached some 79 million unique users in the month.
Video Games Sales Surged 43% in ‘07 - Video games had a monster year in 2007, according to annual sales figures from NPD Group, with retail sales $17.94 billion thanks to high-demand for games like “Halo 3″ and next generation consoles like the Nintendo Wii. Video game sales grew 43 percent, up from 12.53 billion in 2006. In December alone, Americans spent $4.82 billion on games, up 28 percent from a year earlier and 83 percent from November.
Sundance Behind the Online Times - “Webolution” will no doubt be one of the most closely watched panels at this year’s Sundance Film Festival as the independent film industry struggles to tackles the prospect of reinventing itself through the Web. That struggle is best exemplified by the festival’s own online offerings, which have been slashed this year, even as video takes off on popular sites like YouTube and MySpace.
Google Eyes Yell - Rumour - Rumours of a possible takeover of Yell by Google are resurfacing after Yell shares soared by 4.4%, to USD6.48, in their biggest increase since Dec. “Yell has lost almost half its value in the last 11 months and certainly looks more attractive now as a takeover candidate,” Jimmy Yates, a London-based trader at CMC Markets, tells Bloomberg. Speculation about a possible buyout by Google previously surfaced last May, seeing Yell’s stock soar from USD0.3 to USD9.8 a share.
Microsoft looks to buy Limelight Networks - Rumour - Microsoft is interested in acquiring content delivery network, Limelight Networks, according to rumours on tech blog, Silicon Alley Insider. The site claims a CDN industry insider, unconnected with Limelight, as its source. However, other online sources claim the software giant is using Limelight, which it signed a partnership with in Aug 2007 to develop its own CDN system. No official statement has been made from either firm.
Facebook may acquire Plaxo - Rumour - Facebook may be looking to acquire Plaxo, a social community and online address book, according to VentureBeat, which cites an unnamed source who says the social network is “100 per cent” buying Plaxo. Tech Crunch shot down the rumour immediately, saying its sources consider such a move “very unlikely”. At the beginning of Jan, the online address book said it was looking to sell up and shortly afterwards claimed it had already received an offer of more than USD200m.
IAC’s Ticketmaster (IACI) Buys TicketsNow For $265 Million - Interactive Corp’s (NYSE: IACI) Ticketmaster bought TicketsNow, the country’s second-largest site for reselling sports and concert tickets, for $265 million. This means Ticketmaster will now compete head on with eBay-owned StubHub.
AOL in Talks to Buy Social Travel Site WAYN - Rumour - Social travel site Where Are You Know (WAYN) is rumoured to be in negotiations with AOL over a USD200m buy-out deal, according to TechCrunch UK. The tech blog cites three “well placed sources” who claim an official announcement has been delayed because talks have stalled over a proposed WAYN pay-out clause. However, WAYN’s marketing manager, Anika Erskine explicitly denied the rumour, saying the company is “absolutely not for sale.”
Amazon’s IMDb Buys Online Film Distributor, Withoutabox - The Amazon-owned online film site, The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), is acquiring online independent film distributor Withoutabox. The deal, agreed for an undisclosed sum, allows LA-based Withoutabox to continue to operate as a standalone operation. The agreement promises to extend IMDb’s online reach and adds to its related film ventures. These include IMDbPro, a site aimed at entertainment industry professionals, and IMDb Resume, a service that lets actors and film crew workers promote themselves to film professionals.
