by admin at Sunday, November 11, 2007 in Internet
Tags: Facebook, Facebook New Ad System, Privacy
Facebook has a clever, new Ad system that could bring them a potentially massive amount of revenue. Leveraging on the trust friends have between each other, it is almost like the most powerful force in marketing – word-of-mouth. Basically, a user who carries out an action that has a relation to an advertiser’s product will have a sponsored advertisement placed in that user’s news feed or profile, which will be exposed to the entire person’s friends.
The problem lies in the fact that they are using the person’s photograph and name, which will appear along with the advertisement. Facebook has an option for the user to decide on whether he or she wants to “share their information” to others. The general question seems to be too vague for the over-zealous lawyers who are complaining about this system. They base upon the aggressive marketing pitch to the advertisers to further comment about Facebook’s possible abuse of the users’ information for the benefit of themselves and the advertisers.
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by admin at Thursday, October 25, 2007 in Google,Microsoft,Technology
Tags: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Tech, Technology
Microsoft has recently purchased 1.6 % stake in Facebook for $240 Million. A surprising fact here is that Facebook, about 3 ½ years old, doesn’t have annual revenues of even $200 Million.
This is believed to be Microsoft’s response to Google’s recent major acquisitions of YouTube and DoubleClick Inc. However, it turns out that the other side of the coin has a lot to do with Microsoft internet advertising plans. Also, this investment by Microsoft just goes to say that social networking – dating, friendship, photo sharing, etc. is valuable and is here to stay.
It’s amazing to note that Facebook, which started in a dorm room in Harvard University, has been valued at $15 Billion, thanks to Microsoft. One more important thing to note here is that Facebook is the second largest social networking website, after MySpace, which was acquired by News Corp. a couple of years ago, for $580 Million.
Microsoft is relying on Facebook’s reach and popularity, which it believes can help them sell more ads online, something Google is better than them at. In June 2007, online advertising revenues of Microsoft stood at $1.84 billion, an annual rise of 21 percent. During the same fiscal year, Google’s online advertising revenues rose to $13.3 Billion, a good 64 percent rise.
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