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I've been toying around with Office Live recently -- Microsoft's web-based collaboration tool and today Google announces an addition to it's Google Apps package that will let people build Web sites where they can post anything from contact information to presentations to videos. Google says this will make it easier for workers to collaborate on projects.
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And this from CNET gives another take on the Google tool as wiki.
Google is finally launching the wiki it's been promising since the company acquired Jotspot, 14 months ago (see Dan Farber: JotSpot reincarnated as Google Sites). The service, now called Google Sites, will be rolled out to Google Apps users starting tonight. Oddly, nowhere in the press materials does Google use the word, "wiki." Read more
Two reports are out today on the size of the Internet advertising market. The Interactive Advertising Bureau has a preliminary estimate of $21.1 billion for U.S. Internet ads in 2007, a 25 percent increase over 2006. (For the fourth quarter of 2007, it is estimating $5.7 billion for the size of the industry, up from $5.2 billion in the third quarter).
Meanwhile, the Kelsey Group puts U.S. Internet advertising at $22.5 billion for 2007 (IDC, as previously reported, is at the high end with $25.5 billion).
The Kelsey Group also provides a global estimate of $45 billion for Internet advertising, which is 7.4 percent of the total $600 billion global advertising market. That compares to a 6.1 percent share of global advertising for online ads in 2006. And for what it’s worth (not much) it is forecasting global internet advertising to reach $147 billion in 2012. These forecasts are always wrong, but the 2007 numbers are helpful.
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Shares of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) have been on a sustained decline since late last year, when they briefly hit the $700 mark. They're now off about 35 percent from those highs, factoring in a decline today of more than 7 percent to $451.13 early this afternoon. The latest wave of fear seems to stem from a comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) report claiming a meaningful decline in click-through rates in January to 10.4 percent, from over 12 percent in the second half of 2007. Lehman's Doug Anmuth, who queried various advertisers and search engine marketers, pegs the blame on consumers. Advertisers aren't (yet?) pulling back from paid search, but searchers, perhaps because of the weakening economy, aren't clicking on ads as much they have been. As TechTraderDaily notes, a number of analysts are piling on today, to varying degrees. Though between the share decline and the company's mediocre quarterly performance reported in January, the market doesn't need to be told that the bloom has started to come off the rose.
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Written by tim · Filed Under Media
CBS (NYSE: CBS) has announced Q4 revenue of $3.76 billion, down 3 percent year-over-year from $3.88 billion. Net income fell 18 percent to $273.1 million, from $335 million, however this year's quarter included significant declines in the value of certain CBS investment. The decrease in the top-line was partly attributable to asset divestitures and lower political spend. Some highlights:
-- Television: Revenue fell 4 percent to $2.46 billion in the quarter. While overall ad spending fell for the above noted reasons, the decline was offset, in part, due to strength at Showtime and CSTV.
-- Radio: Factoring out divestitures, same-station revenue fell 7 percent due to an overall weak ad market.
Release | Webcast (8:30 AM ET)
Conference call: The first big matter of business CEO Leslie Moonves addressed on the call was the economy: "At CBS, we are not seeing a recession in our day-to-day operations." Sectors that have been hit the hardest have not been big CBS advertisers, he noted. As for the concluded strike, the company says it's come out of it unscathed: "Our financial pictures was not effected by the strike in any shape or form." There will be some changes to business though. This year's upfronts won't be as garish as in past years, although they'll still be held at Carnegie Hall. And the company will attempt to maintain some of the lower cost structure that the strike instigated. Much of the call was spent restating the argument that the network business remains strong, and that "the internet is truly an extension of (the) existing network business." The thesis is that good TV content will be the backbone of digital success.
-- Last.fm: In the company's earnings release, this was the only digital property that got a mention. On the call, the company also touted it as an example of its success in the online space, noting that usage is up 92 percent since it adopted limited full streaming.
-- NCAA Tournament: CBS is projecting digital revenues form the tournament of $21 million, up from $10 million last year. In 2005, using a pay model, the company generated revenue of $250k. Moonves noted that the cost structure of the operations has been the same throughout.
Written by tim · Filed Under TV
If you are looking for some stock videos to add to your blog or Website, Mochila just added about 800 clips from the BBC Motion Gallery, the licensing arm of the BBC. It doesn’t include news clips unfortunately, but there are plenty of science and culture videos. If you need a nicely produced video of striped fish or how to make a Singapore Sling, you can find it on Mochila and embed it on your blog. You will have to sign up first and agree to Mochila’s licensing terms.
Mochila offers a large syndication library from 350 different content partners, including news articles, photos, and videos. You can find content from Reuters, the AP, Hearst and Getty Images and put it in a post, or mix and match items to create your own customized channel that appears in a constantly changing widget. Mochila serves ads in the widget and splits the proceeds 40 percent to the content owner, 30 percent to the Website or blog that publishes it, and keeps 30 percent for itself.
We are seeing more and more of these types of syndication platforms for spreading traditional media content out to the Web. ClipSyndicate, for instance, does something similar for news video clips from ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates, as well as Bloomberg and AP video. Mochila cuts the licensing deals with the big media companies on behalf of bloggers and Websites, and gives them legal access to the content, with a little rev-share of the advertising proceeds thrown in. Says CEO Keith McAllister:
The core technology is around licensing. We allow content owners to set custom content licensing around their content down to the asset level.
So the BBC can set parameters around what types of sites can show its videos, and even block specific sites it does not want to be associated with. And blogger scan create their own custom content channels. It is a good model. All it needs is better content.
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Written by tim · Filed Under Open
Yahoo may have beat them to it with the launch of its Digg clone, but MyPunchbowl too wants to announce a product called “Buzz”, this one a Facebook News Feed clone of sorts for party planning.
MyPunchbowl Buzz will give hosts and guests alike a way to keep track of what’s going on with the party scene as organized through the site. Initially it will consist of the onsite info stream shown below, but there are plans to expand its scope to include RSS, instant messaging, and SMS-based notifications as well. An API will eventually be provided for developers to leverage the Buzz data for whatever purposes they desire off-site.
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Social news aggregator Mixx has raised $2 million from earlier backer Intersouth Partners, as it limbers up against Digg, VentureBeat reports. Based in McLean, VA, Mixx only went in to beta in September 2007, but got an undisclosed amount from Intersouth a month later and an investment from the LA Times in December. Founded by former USA Today VP Chris McGill, Mixx is going for news industry partnerships more than the tech geek crowd - it's got carriage for its Mixx button on LA Times and Reuters (NSDQ: RTRSY) amongst other sites. Whilst there are big parallels with Digg and Reddit, Mixx also adds news personalization options.
All the ad networks are filling their coffers before the recession spreads to the online advertising industry, or at least that's the reasoning most of them are giving. Now, Adconion, the UK-based online ad network which is also now expanding into U.S., has raised a big second round of $80 million, led by Index Ventures and previous investor Wellington Partners. Adconion plans to use a quarter of its new funding to expand its U.S. operations—half to invest in new technology and the rest for acquisitions, reports WSJ. Adconion announced its first round last year in April.
The company was founded in 2004, and sells ads on about 350 publishers sites, including the Drudge Report, Sony's (NYSE: SNE) video site Crackle, and Demand Media. There was a rumor doing the rounds last year that Fox Interactive was in talks with Adconion to buy it, but seems like it didn't pan out, or tat the rumors were false.
European online advertising network and marketing firm AdLink Group, part of Germany's ISP firm United Internet, has been put up for sale, possibly to a U.S.-based company, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, picked up by AFX. (The German language story is here). The story says UI is hoping for a triple digital millions from the sale...Adlink is valued at about 400 million Euros, while 84.3 percent is owned by United Internet.
AdLink also owns Sedo, the online marketplace for buying and selling domain names and websites; and Composite Digital, a provider of e-mail data and profiling tools.
The company has hired Morgan Stanley, the U.S. investment bank in a deliberate attempt to find an American buyer, the story says. My guess is AOL, which has been trying to buy a European online ad operation for a while, might be a buyer. It tried to buy TradeDoubler for $900 million early last year but withdrew its bid after shareholder opposition. Then later it bought Adtech AG, an international online ad-serving company based in Frankfurt, Germany, and then earlier this year announced buying UK-based affiliate marketing network Buy.at.
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