Archive for the ‘Social media’ Category

The market for mobile social networking is poised to grow significantly over the next five years - bringing a host of advertising opportunities with it, ABI Research has said.

In its latest report on the sector, the market analysis firm said that more than 140 million people will access social networks via their mobile handsets by 2013, resulting in subscription revenues of about $410 million (£231.2 million).

Free browser-based access as used by Facebook and MySpace will be the model of choice for many social sites and the potential for advertisers is high, ABI Research explained.

However, research director Michael Wolf said it may be some time before a successful advertising model is established for the medium.

"The advertising isn’t that sophisticated yet. Social networking applications have to be uniquely mobile and not reliant entirely on advertising-based revenues, at least not initially," he remarked.

A Europe-based mobile website was recently unveiled by MySpace, New Media Age reports.

Facebook has started to roll out a new feature that allows users to keep up with their friends’ activities in real time.

The Live Feed offering is located in a tab on the homepage of the popular social networking website and automatically lists new stories from friends as they are posted on their respective profiles.

According to Harrison Hoffman of CNET News.com, the new feature is aiming to compete with emerging life-streaming services such as Twitter and FriendFeed, which also offer real-time updates.

"FriendFeed and Twitter are both very good at what they do, but have yet to gain the mainstream appeal that Facebook enjoys," he explained, adding: "By exposing its large user base to these features that FriendFeed and Twitter have perfected, Facebook poses a real threat."

Last week, Facebook announced in a blog post that it had broken the 100 million mark in terms of global users.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the milestone represented a "gratifying moment" for the website.

Video-sharing website YouTube is to see more of its homepage given over to advertising, according to a report on the Silicon Alley Insider (SAI) blog.

The Google-owned site is already experimenting with a variety of ads attached to its video clips in an effort to generate more revenue from the property’s popularity with web users.

Now advertising sources have told SAI that YouTube’s homepage is set to be redesigned to include a new banner ad that will stretch across the whole width of the page. When asked about the news, YouTube refused to comment.

"The YouTube homepage has until now had pretty minimal advertising, just the window in the upper right corner of the site. But it should be the easiest part of the site to sell," said SAI’s Michael Learmonth.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently told CNBC’s Mad Money show that the search engine’s homepage is unlikely to carry ads as users would not like the notion.

The market for mobile social networking is poised to grow significantly over the next five years - bringing a host of advertising opportunities with it, ABI Research has said.

In its latest report on the sector, the market analysis firm said that more than 140 million people will access social networks via their mobile handsets by 2013, resulting in subscription revenues of about $410 million (£231.2 million).

Free browser-based access as used by Facebook and MySpace will be the model of choice for many social sites and the potential for advertisers is high, ABI Research explained.

However, research director Michael Wolf said it may be some time before a successful advertising model is established for the medium.

"The advertising isn’t that sophisticated yet. Social networking applications have to be uniquely mobile and not reliant entirely on advertising-based revenues, at least not initially," he remarked.

A Europe-based mobile website was recently unveiled by MySpace, New Media Age reports.

Facebook has started to roll out a new feature that allows users to keep up with their friends’ activities in real time.

The Live Feed offering is located in a tab on the homepage of the popular social networking website and automatically lists new stories from friends as they are posted on their respective profiles.

According to Harrison Hoffman of CNET News.com, the new feature is aiming to compete with emerging life-streaming services such as Twitter and FriendFeed, which also offer real-time updates.

"FriendFeed and Twitter are both very good at what they do, but have yet to gain the mainstream appeal that Facebook enjoys," he explained, adding: "By exposing its large user base to these features that FriendFeed and Twitter have perfected, Facebook poses a real threat."

Last week, Facebook announced in a blog post that it had broken the 100 million mark in terms of global users.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the milestone represented a "gratifying moment" for the website.

Video-sharing website YouTube is to see more of its homepage given over to advertising, according to a report on the Silicon Alley Insider (SAI) blog.

The Google-owned site is already experimenting with a variety of ads attached to its video clips in an effort to generate more revenue from the property’s popularity with web users.

Now advertising sources have told SAI that YouTube’s homepage is set to be redesigned to include a new banner ad that will stretch across the whole width of the page. When asked about the news, YouTube refused to comment.

"The YouTube homepage has until now had pretty minimal advertising, just the window in the upper right corner of the site. But it should be the easiest part of the site to sell," said SAI’s Michael Learmonth.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently told CNBC’s Mad Money show that the search engine’s homepage is unlikely to carry ads as users would not like the notion.

The market for mobile social networking is poised to grow significantly over the next five years - bringing a host of advertising opportunities with it, ABI Research has said.

In its latest report on the sector, the market analysis firm said that more than 140 million people will access social networks via their mobile handsets by 2013, resulting in subscription revenues of about $410 million (£231.2 million).

Free browser-based access as used by Facebook and MySpace will be the model of choice for many social sites and the potential for advertisers is high, ABI Research explained.

However, research director Michael Wolf said it may be some time before a successful advertising model is established for the medium.

"The advertising isn’t that sophisticated yet. Social networking applications have to be uniquely mobile and not reliant entirely on advertising-based revenues, at least not initially," he remarked.

A Europe-based mobile website was recently unveiled by MySpace, New Media Age reports.

Facebook has started to roll out a new feature that allows users to keep up with their friends’ activities in real time.

The Live Feed offering is located in a tab on the homepage of the popular social networking website and automatically lists new stories from friends as they are posted on their respective profiles.

According to Harrison Hoffman of CNET News.com, the new feature is aiming to compete with emerging life-streaming services such as Twitter and FriendFeed, which also offer real-time updates.

"FriendFeed and Twitter are both very good at what they do, but have yet to gain the mainstream appeal that Facebook enjoys," he explained, adding: "By exposing its large user base to these features that FriendFeed and Twitter have perfected, Facebook poses a real threat."

Last week, Facebook announced in a blog post that it had broken the 100 million mark in terms of global users.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the milestone represented a "gratifying moment" for the website.

Video-sharing website YouTube is to see more of its homepage given over to advertising, according to a report on the Silicon Alley Insider (SAI) blog.

The Google-owned site is already experimenting with a variety of ads attached to its video clips in an effort to generate more revenue from the property’s popularity with web users.

Now advertising sources have told SAI that YouTube’s homepage is set to be redesigned to include a new banner ad that will stretch across the whole width of the page. When asked about the news, YouTube refused to comment.

"The YouTube homepage has until now had pretty minimal advertising, just the window in the upper right corner of the site. But it should be the easiest part of the site to sell," said SAI’s Michael Learmonth.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt recently told CNBC’s Mad Money show that the search engine’s homepage is unlikely to carry ads as users would not like the notion.

The market for mobile social networking is poised to grow significantly over the next five years - bringing a host of advertising opportunities with it, ABI Research has said.

In its latest report on the sector, the market analysis firm said that more than 140 million people will access social networks via their mobile handsets by 2013, resulting in subscription revenues of about $410 million (£231.2 million).

Free browser-based access as used by Facebook and MySpace will be the model of choice for many social sites and the potential for advertisers is high, ABI Research explained.

However, research director Michael Wolf said it may be some time before a successful advertising model is established for the medium.

"The advertising isn’t that sophisticated yet. Social networking applications have to be uniquely mobile and not reliant entirely on advertising-based revenues, at least not initially," he remarked.

A Europe-based mobile website was recently unveiled by MySpace, New Media Age reports.