Social Networking Watch
no ads, no fluff, just social networking news summaries and social media ceo interviews
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Jajah Could Fetch $400 Million In Escalating Bidding War
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 10 – Jajah, a VoIP startup founded in 2005, is now at the center of a bidding war between Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Telefónica Europe with offers ranging from $200M to $400M. Jajah's numbers are impressive: $28 million in VC funding, 25 million users across 122 countries and …
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Playfire Secures $2.1M In Funding
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 10 – Playfire, a social network built for gamers, has secured an important round of Series A funding from an impressive list of investors, including Atomico Ventures. Playfire allows gamers to track scores on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3 platforms, in addition …
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Virtual Goods Market Flourishes During Retail Decline
PR NEWSWIRE – Nov 10 – The virtual goods market is projected to do very well this holiday season; a stark contrast to the weak forecast in the retail market. Cellufun, a mobile virtual goods vendor, is posting some impressive sales. From July 2009 to October 2009, Cellufun users purchased 2.5 mi …
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Yahoo Rolls Out Meme In Indonesia
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 10 – Yahoo has officially launched a native version of Meme, their new microblogging platform, in Bahasa Indonesia, the country's national language. The Republic of Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. Meme's top competition, Twitter, is also actively …
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XIHA Life Passes Half A Million User Milestone
PRESS RELEASE - Nov 10 – Xihalife.com now has more than 500,000 users in over 200 countries. No single country accounts for more than 5% of the multilingual and multicultural social network. Users of XIHA Life can read and write in multiple languages. The site was launched in 2007 and has ga …
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Hitwise Social Networking Rankings Update
SNW - Nov 10 - Friendster has clearly found some new pals up in Canada, as the site rocked from #16 to #8 on Hitwise’s monthly social networking rankings list. hi5.com also cracked the top 10, coming in at #9 for October.In the United States, Yahoo! Answers rose to #5 and bumped Twitter down a spot. …
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Tagged Fined By Texas For Misuse Of User Data
WALLET POP – Nov 10 – Social networking site, Tagged, Inc. must pay $250,000 in an agreement reached with the Texas Attorney General. The site was accused of deceiving users into providing access to their address books. Once access was granted, the site sent messages that appeared to come fr …
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Twitter And LinkedIn Sync Up
CNET – Nov 9 – The highly popular microblogging service, Twitter, has partnered with LinkedIn, the business networking service. This deal will allow users to simultaneously update their LinkedIn status when updating their Twitter status. This is a very smart move by LinkedIn and another win …
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EA Acquires Playfish
MASHABLE - Nov 9 - Video gaming giant Electronics Arts (EA) has acquired the social gaming company Playfish for a deal that could be worth up to $400M. EA will pay $275M in cash and $25M in equity for the company. In addition, if Playfish achieves certain “performance milestones” (aka contin …
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Zynga To Remove All In Game Offers
TECH CRUNCH - Nov 8 - Last week Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said that they would take steps to remove scammy advertising offers from their social games. And today Pincus has announced that the company will remove all offer advertising from their games. Offers account for 1/3 or so of Zynga’s rumor …
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Real Business: Selling Virtual Goods
BOSTON GLOBE - Nov 8 - Virtual worlds have been generating lots of buzz since Second Life launched in 2003 and is expected to hit $1 billion in the US. Pano Anthos flew out to San Francisco to unveil his new start-up, Hangout Industries, at TechCrunch50. Hangout intended to attract young Int …
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Business.com Social Media Study
PRESS RELEASE - Nov 8 - Business.com the ally for people interested in making more informed and effective business purchasing decisions, unveiled results of its 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study. Key survey findings include: - Webinars and podcasts are top social media resources …
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Skype Founders Settle With eBay
TECH CRUNCH - Nov 6 - eBay has reached a settlement with the founders of Skype, clearing the way for the sale to a consortium formed by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The original Skype founders, Niklas Zennström an …
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Steve Odom, Founder Of Gelato
OPW INTERVIEW - Nov 9 - Gelato combines online dating and real-time search. Profiles are created by pulling information from members’ accounts across Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and other commercial sites. I spoke with founder Steve Odom about Gelato’s revenue model, the site’s API usage and …
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The Top Viral Video Ad Campaign, Updated Nov 2, 2009
Brand: VolkswagenCampaign: The Fun TheoryAgency: DDBSource: VisibleMeasures.com
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Ning Continues Impressive Growth, Announces App Contest
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 5 – Ning's COO, Jason Rosenthal, announced that the company has reached an impressive milestone of 37 million users and 1.6 million social networks using its platform. Growth continues at the rate of one million users every two weeks. 20% of these networks are running at le …
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Cyworld Shutters US Site
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 5 – Korean based CyWorld, a massive virtual world, is closing down its site in the U.S. For unknown reasons. The service was first launched in the U.S. in 2006 and is estimated to be the 12th most valuable social network in the world, though its U.S. operations catered to …
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Eventbrite Secures $6.5 Million In New Funding
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 4 – Eventbrite, a popular online event site, has received a $6.5 million investment from Sequoia Capital which brings the company's total funding to over $8 million. Eventbrite provides online event management and ticketing services. Their services are free if your event is free. I …
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Second Life Goes To Work
READ WRITE WEB – Nov 4 – Second Life has rolled out an enterprise solution designed to run behind a corporate firewall. This new version of the service will enable companies to facilitate collaboration and training in a secure 3D virtual environment. The servers are installed in a company's data cen …
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Offerpal Names A New CEO, Shukla Is Out
TECH CRUNCH – Nov 4 – George Garrick will replace Anu Shukla as the CEO of Offerpal Media, the leader in virtual currency monetization for online games, virtual worlds and social networks. Offerpal has been a key actor in the recent controversy over lead-gen scams in social gaming. FULL ARTICLE @ TE …
Social Networking Watch
