SAI

Tumblr Users Are Already Revolting Over The Potential Yahoo Buyout (YHOO)

Kevin Smith — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:29:00 GMT

News broke this morning that Yahoo's board approved a $1.1 billion all cash deal to acquire blogging site Tumblr.

Tumblr users are notoriously vocal and the platform's Yahoo keyword search has erupted in posts protesting the acquisition. One user even started a petition to stop Yahoo from buying Tumblr.

Here's a look at what members of the Tumblr community are saying:

But one user optimistically looked at the possible benefits:

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Yahoo Wants To Pay $1.1 Billion For Tumblr's Mind-Blowing Traffic (YHOO)

Steve Kovach — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:24:00 GMT

According to Quantcast, which has direct access to Tumblr's traffic data, the site now has about 184 million unique visitors per month and 12.1 billion page views.

Of those 184 million unique visitors, 36 million come from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

That's huge, and it all falls in line with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's strategy of buying companies with tons of users and a strong mobile presence. According to multiple reports, Yahoo's board just approved the $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr, but Tumblr still has to formally accept the offer.

To the charts!

Here's Tumblr's traffic for the last month:

And here's Tumblr's traffic growth since 2009:

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Why Yahoo's $1.1 Billion Tumblr Buy Is A Great Idea (YHOO)

Jay Yarow and Nicholas Carlson — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:05:00 GMT

It's all but official.

Yahoo's board has reportedly approved the plan to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash. Tumblr's board has reportedly agreed to the deal, too.

So, unless something goes wildly wrong, then Yahoo is going to own Tumblr, the simple blogging/social network site.

According to Quantcast, Tumblr had 184 million unique visitors, and 12.1 billion pageviews last month.

Despite those impressive numbers, it's light on revenue, which is making a lot of people question the wisdom of spending $1.1 billion in cash on the site.

We think this is a win for both Tumblr and Yahoo. Yahoo gets a big, young audience. Tumblr gets a more money, and time, to figure out its business.

Here's the longer explanation of those two points, from our previous report on the deal:

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is perfectly positioned to give Tumblr CEO David Karp what he wants.

You might think David Karp would sell Tumblr to Yahoo for $1 billion because it would put $250 million in his pocket.

You would not be stupid to think this.

$250 million is a nice incentive for anyone, let alone a first-time entrepreneur in his 20s, like Karp.

But…

Karp has gotten lots of offers to sell Tumblr at prices that would make him rich over the years, and he's resisted them all.

Why would he sell this time?

Easy: Karp and Tumblr have problems like never before…

Tumblr does not have a COO and the board wants him to hire one,
Tumblr is light on revenues. (Karp disputed this in an earlier story, but sources told us Tumblr is doing OK on revenues – it's marginally behind plan.)
Tumblr needs cash to keep running and growing.

Selling to Mayer solves all those problems.

To keep Tumblr's servers going, Yahoo has billions of dollars in cash. As for revenues and a COO?

Mayer, we're guessing, will tell Karp not to worry about either for now.

Mayer, according to lots and lots of sources who have worked with her, is not concerned with things like "revenue" and "money." She's much more focused on "product" and "user-growth."

Right now, Yahoo shareholders are happy to let her do that. That's because Yahoo shareholders are not shareholders because of Yahoo's core business or core products.

They are Yahoo shareholders because owning Yahoo is the only way to make a pre-IPO bet on Alibaba, a successful Chinese Internet company that Yahoo owns a big stake in.

So Mayer is perfectly able to spend a billion dollars on Tumblr and allow Karp to keep running it relatively ad-free. This in turn, should keep Tumblr growing, since users hate ads.

Buying Tumblr helps Yahoo solve one of Yahoo's biggest problems: mobile.

Sometime in the next couple years, more people will be accessing the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs.

This trend is bad news for Yahoo, which has limited mobile reach and even more limited mobile usage.

(Its reach numbers get a boost because Yahoo gets credit for having a weather app installed by default on every new iPhone. This is despite the facts that the Weather Channel provides the data for the app, Apple built the app, and Yahoo sells no ads in the app.)

Tumblr, despite a rocky start in mobile, now has TONS of mobile users.

Check out this table from ComScore, which shows that Tumblr is, relatively speaking, about as strong as Facebook in mobile, and much stronger than Yahoo:

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

80% Of Media Buyers Think Google UK Isn't Telling The Truth About Ads

Gordon Young — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT

A poll organised by The Drum seems to suggest that the UK digital and media buying community disagree with Google’s assertions that its UK team is not engaged in advertising sales.

Google claims that its UK staff do not sell advertising but provide sales and marketing support to those dealing with its Dublin office.

The distinction is a key part of a strategy which has reduced its tax exposure in the UK. Between 2006 and 2011 the company has paid just £10m on British revenues of £11.5bn. If HMRC were to deem that UK based employees do sell to UK clients the company could face larger bills as it might be considered to have tax residency.

The controversy gained momentum after an investigation by Reuters found that many statements on Google’s own website and the social media profiles of London staff were inconsistent with its tax position. The LinkedIn profiles of 150 staff were analyzed and it found that many claimed to be involved in the sales process.

Yesterday, The Drum sent out a questionnaire to those involved in the other side of the sales equation – buyers- to get their take on the issue.

By noon today 29 responses had been received from media buying and digital agencies with the majority saying they considered Google’s London office to be very much a sales operation.
The main findings include:

• Almost 80 per cent of respondents said they dealt with London when buying Google advertising. Around 14 per cent said they used Dublin, the remainder said they did not know.

• When asked what they considered was the primary role of Google’s London advertising team 80 per cent said it was sales. 17 per cent said it was support.

• When asked what they considered they were doing when dealing with Google’s London team 76 per cent said they considered they were buying from them. 17 per cent said they were receiving general advice in order to buy through Dublin

When asked whether they believed Google should pay more tax in the UK 83 per cent said they should. 3 per cent said they shouldn't and 14 per cent were undecided.

Said one respondent: “It is worth noting that the huge majority of Google ads are bought through self-serve and so with this in mind there is only a small percentage that is actually bought directly with either the UK or Dublin team. In this case, the teams are very much there for support. However, when it comes to direct buying of ads the majority happens in the UK.”

Said another: “The London teams are the ones putting forward the proposals and the briefs, they therefore should be considered to be the ones who are actually doing the selling. The only interaction we have with Dublin is when we want to confirm a buy and then we are sent over an invoice. But in terms of selling the actual product in, that is entirely the London office.”

Another respondent agreed, “Our sign offs go to a London fax number so however the initial sale is completed, for larger brands the money goes to the London office, or at least through it.”

As a result of the row Google’s head of northern European operations Matt Brittin is to be recalled by the Public Accounts Committee, who are looking into the company’s tax status. He told them when he last appeared that “nobody (in the UK) is selling.”

It is a position the company is sticking too. In a statement yesterday Peter Barron, its director of external relations, said "The Reuters article is wilfully misleading. As we told them in our statement, Matt Brittin clearly explained the roles of UK staff in hours of evidence to the Public Accounts Committee.

“He said: ‘if [customers] want to buy advertising from us they are encouraged to do so by our people in the UK - they will buy it from our expert team in Dublin... the people on the ground [in the UK] are helping people make the most of the web and the people in Ireland are helping to operate the systems and sell advertising to the businesses that want to work with us.’”

However, several respondents to The Drum survey remain to be convinced. One said the issue, “has has tarred their otherwise very clean image for me.”

Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Yahoo's Board Approves $1.1 Billion Purchase Of Tumblr (YHOO)

Jay Yarow — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:19:00 GMT

Yahoo's board approved the plan to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash, Kara Swisher at All Things D reports.

Previous reports said that Tumblr's board had OK'd Yahoo buying Tumblr, so it looks like it's a done deal.

Marissa Mayer has made her first big move as CEO of Yahoo. She's buying a social networking site with a younger audience, and a ton of page views. Now it's time to monetize the thing.

Tumblr has just $13 million in revenue right now. It should be able to increase that revenue following the model of Twitter and Facebook.

People who use Tumblr follow other Tumblrs through a "Dashboard." This works like Twitter or Facebook with other Tumblr blog posts flowing through a timeline. Presumably, Tumblr can start inserting ads between users posts like Twitter inserts sponsored posts.

Tumblr has raised $125 million in funding. It's last round of funding reportedly valued the company at $800 million. It was looking for more funding when Yahoo stepped in.

Reports on the deal say that Tumblr's 26-year-old CEO David Karp will be able to operate fairly autonomously. Karp will be locked into a four-year deal to stay at Tumblr, All Things D reported. That should assuage the fears of any Tumblr users about how things could change (for the worse) under Yahoo.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Hilarious Things Passengers Say On Virgin Airlines

Dylan Love — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:09:41 GMT

Someone at Virgin Airlines had the foresight to install seat-to-seat chat capabilities to let passengers write messages to each other while in flight.

Imgur user MangoMuffinz posted screenshots of some of the funnier conversations that passengers have had with each other.

We can't confirm that these are genuine and at least one or two are probably fake, so take these for what they're worth – an innocent chuckle.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Here's What You Need To Do Today If You're A Victim Of Revenge Porn

Dylan Love — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:22:33 GMT

The anonymous person behind EndRevengePorn.com was recently revealed to be a woman named Holly Jacobs.

Jacobs herself was a victim of revenge porn, the act of posting sexual or otherwise intimate photographs online. Sometimes these pictures are accompanied by people's addresses, links to social networking profiles, and other identifying details.

After living through what we can safely assume was a trying experience, Jacobs has filled her site with resources and advice. Some of the more pertinent tips appear below.

1. Check out federal and state cyber-stalking laws to see if there's anything you can act on.

Take some action! Read your state's cyberstalking laws here and the federal laws here. If they describe anything that happened to you, you may have some legal recourse.

2. Find a lawyer who is actively looking to help revenge porn victims.

There are many lawyers around the country well-versed in the minutiae of the laws surrounding revenge porn. If your situation merits going to court, they'll be your biggest advocates. Browse this list and see if any of them are near you,

3. If the situation is especially troubling you, get professional help.

As explained on Without My Consent, "it may be wise to seek a clinician who has experience working with trauma, harassment, or abuse. But what is most important is that you are able to find someone with whom you feel safe enough to you for you to be able to talk about what has happened." Find a counselor or therapist near you if you think you need it.

As a last-minute added thought, you may want to lock down your Facebook account and other social media profiles. Your privacy has already been abused enough. You should lay low online and set up your social networking profiles such that your information is visible only to people you know.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Microsoft Gets Ready To Launch The Next XBox As Console Gaming Goes Down The Tubes

Malathi Nayak and Bill Rigby, Reuters — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:42:27 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO/SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is set to make a splash this week with the eagerly awaited unveiling of its new Xbox game console, eight years after the last version, as it seeks a larger share of the $65 billion a year global computer gaming industry.

But the small device faces some big competition from the PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp and the Wii U by Nintendo Co Ltd in a shifting market.

Gamers are gravitating to online play - suggesting the hey-day of console games are over - while Microsoft wants its sleek new toy to finally cross the bridge to the mainstream and become the family's entertainment center.

"Core gamers are very hungry for a new machine but the difference between 2005 and now is that the stakes are so much higher," said Ryan McCaffrey, executive editor at entertainment website IGN.com, harking back to Microsoft's last Xbox release. "The entire Xbox experiment from Microsoft was for it to be the center piece of your living room."

To that end, industry-watchers are expecting a raft of improvements from the new Xbox, when Microsoft unveils it at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters on Tuesday, from closer integration with the TV and link-ups withmobile devices to access to new and even exclusive content.

Console gaming still takes the lion's share of a growing gaming market - about 42 percent of the $65 billion world market, according to Microsoft. But playing games on smartphones and tablets, or as an offshoot to online social networks, is gaining ground fast.

Console sales have been in decline for the last four years, chiefly because of aging devices, but the first of the new generation of machines has not reignited the sector.

Nintendo's Wii U, launched in November, had sold only 3.45 million units through the end of March, well below the company's initial forecast of 5.5 million. Hopes for Sony's PS4, teased in March, are low key.

"The next wave crest isn't as high as the previous one," said Lewis Ward, research manager at International Data Corp, who calculates that about 250 million Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii units were sold between 2005 and 2012.

"I do think that consoles as a product category have peaked and the next gen devices won't match those totals," he said.

LOW MARGINS

The Xbox itself is not a key financial factor for the world's largest software maker. Its Entertainment & Devices unit is set to break $10 billion in sales for the first time this year, but that's half the sales of its Windows unit, and a lot less profitable, averaging less than 15 percent margin compared to 60 percent or higher for Windows or Office.

The company has more than 46 million members who subscribe to its online gaming and digital entertainment service Xbox Live, but that's still a fraction of the people who pay for its software.

However, the Xbox is still a key weapon in Microsoft's strategic battle with Google Inc, Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and others for a central place in consumers' lives.

"This (the new Xbox) is of massive importance to Microsoft. It is a piece of a larger war for the consumer that it is battling. They want to be fully integrated with the consumer whether it's in the living room or mobile," said P.J. McNealy, CEO and founder of Digital World Research. "Arguably the battle against both Apple and Google for dominating a consumer's time share more so than taking on Sony and Nintendo directly."

That means Microsoft will be aiming for many markets at the same time, from the core and casual gamer to the TV watcher and music fan.

To do that, industry watchers expect Microsoft to integrate the new Xbox much more closely to the TV and cable or satellite box, perhaps allowing users to change channel or buy movies with a wave of the hand through its motion-control Kinect sensor. They also expect to hear more about SmartGlass, Microsoft's app that lets you link an Xbox to a tablet or smartphone.

Users can already get Netflix through the Xbox, and Microsoft recently started its own studio to produce exclusive content, meaning the new device is a gateway to much more than games.

"I think they're going to try to have their cake and eat it too - they will try to get casual people for entertainment while keeping the hardcore gamers interested," said McCaffrey at IGN.com. "They want their console on all the time, whether it's a mom watching Amazon video, the son playing a game and the dad watching (Major League Baseball) TV on another app - that's their goal."

(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Google Glass Is Both Cool And Creepy

Alexei Oreskovic — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:35:09 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google staged four discussions expounding on the finer points of its "Glass" wearable computer during this week's developer conference.

Missing from the agenda, however, was a session on etiquette when using the recording-capable gadget, which some attendees faithfully wore everywhere - including to the crowded bathrooms.

Google Glass, a cross between a mobile computer and eyeglasses that can both record video and surf the Internet, is now available to a select few but is already among the year's most buzz-worthy new gadgets. The device has geeks all aflutter but is unnerving everyone from lawmakers to casino operators worried about the potential for hitherto unimagined privacy and policy violations.

"I had a friend and we're sitting at dinner and about 30 minutes into it she said, 'You know those things freak me out,'" said Allen Firstenberg, a technology consultant at the Google developers conference. He has been wearing Glass for about a week but offered to take them off for the comfort of his dinner companion.

On another occasion, Firstenberg admitted to walking into a bathroom wearing his Glass without realizing it.

"Most of the day I totally forget it's there," he said.

Many believe wearable computers represent the next big shift in technology, just as smartphones evolved from personal computers. Apple and Samsung are said to be working on other forms of wearable technology.

The test version of Glass looks like a clear pair of eyeglasses with a hefty slab along the right side. Since it began shipping to a couple thousand carefully selected early adopters who paid about $1,500 for the device, it has inspired a bit of ridicule - from a parody on "Saturday Night Live" to a popular blog poking fun at its users.

Other industry experts take a more serious tack, pointing out the potential for misuse because Glass can record video far less conspicuously than a handheld device.

Glass also has won many fans. Google and some early users maintain that privacy fears are overblown. As with traditional video cameras, a tiny light blinks on to let people know when it is recording.

Several Glass wearers at the developers conference said they whip the device off in inappropriate situations, such as in gym locker rooms or work meetings. Michael Evans, a Web developer from Washington, D.C., attending the Google conference, said he removed his Glass when he went to the movies, even though the device would be ill-suited for recording a feature-length film.

"I just figured I don't want to be the first guy kicked out of the movies," he said.

NO GLASS ALLOWED

A stamp-sized electronic screen mounted on the left side of a pair of eyeglass frames, Glass can record video, access email, provide turn-by-turn driving directions and retrieve info from the Web by connecting wirelessly to a user's cell phone.

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt dismissed concerns about the brave new world of wearable computers during a talk at Harvard University's Kennedy Schoolof Government in April.

"Criticisms are inevitably from people who are afraid of change or who have not figured out that there will be an adaptation of society to it," he said.

Schmidt acknowledged that there are certain places where Glass will not be appropriate but that he believed new rules of social etiquette will coalesce over time. Firstenberg said it will take time for all sides to get comfortable with the new technology.

"I don't think we should go into the conversation assuming that Glass is bad," he said.

Indeed, previous technology innovations such as mobile phones and wireless headsets that initially raised concerns are now subject to tacit rules of etiquette, such as not talking loudly on the bus and turning a ringer off in a meeting.

Still, some have decided to leave nothing to chance.

Casino operator Caesar's Entertainment recently announced that Glass is not permitted while gambling or when in showrooms, though guests can wear it in other areas. In March, Seattle's Five Point Cafe made headlines for becoming the first bar to ban Glass. "Respect our customers privacy as we'd expect them to respect yours," says a statement on the café's website.

The California Highway Patrol says there is no law that explicitly forbids a driver from wearing Glass while driving in the state. But according to Officer Elon Steers, if a driver appears to be distracted as a result of the device, an officer can take enforcement action.

PRIVACY TRACK RECORD

Lawmakers are beginning to consider Glass.

On Thursday, eight members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to Google Chief Executive Larry Page, asking for details about how Glass handles various privacy issues, including whether it is capable of facial recognition.

According to Google, there are no facial recognition technologies built into the device and it has no plans to do so "unless we have strong privacy protections in place."

During one of this week's conference sessions - an open discussion about Glass - members of the Glass team answered a question about privacy by noting that social implications and etiquette have been a big area of focus during the development of the product, which is still a test version.

Some of the Glass-phobia may stem from Google's own track record on privacy. In 2010, Google revealed that its fleet of Street View cars, which criss-cross the globe taking panoramic photos for the Google Maps product, also had captured personal information such as emails and web pages that were transmitted over unencrypted home wireless networks.

"The fact that it's Google offering the service, as opposed to say Brookstone, raises privacy issues," said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a non-profit privacy advocacy group, citing Google's history and its scale in Internet advertising.

Rotenberg says his main concern centers on the stream of data collected by the devices - everything from audio and video to a user's location data - going to Google's data centers.

Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor who specializes in privacy and technology, said Glass is not very different from other technologies available today, whether it is a smartphone or "spy" pens that secretly record audio. But Glass is on people's faces, so it feels different.

"The face is a really intimate place and to have a piece of technology on it is unsettling," Calo said. "Much as a drone is unsettling because we have some ideas of war."

For all the hand-wringing, some early adopters are sold.

Ryan Warner, who recently graduated from college and who has developed a recipe app for Glass with Evans, said he was surprised by the reaction he got when he went to a bar.

"I was like, ‘I don't know if I should have it on or not.' I was kind of in that phase," he said, "and the bouncer was like, ‘Oh, my god, is that Google Glass?' He was excited."

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic, with additional reporting by Susan Zeidler in Los Angeles and Aaron Pressman in Boston; Editing by Bill Trott)

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

These College Students Shot A Movie Entirely With An iPhone 4

Brandon Oland — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:31:38 GMT

WESTMINSTER, Md. (AP) — When McDaniel College senior Ashley Hopkins graduates later this month, she will be able to tout the filmmaking skills she developed in college.

She can shoot, edit and upload videos. All she needs is an iPhone and a few apps to make it happen.

Hopkins, of Baltimore, was enrolled in the inaugural offering of Cell Phone Cinema, a course that debuted at McDaniel College in Westminster this spring.

In the course, students created their own 12-minute film. They shot the entire film using only an iPhone. No expensive cameras needed. The film was shot in high-definition. A tripod was used to reduce camera shake.

Their short, called "(ctrl)-(alt)-(delete)," follows the story of a young man who finds a cellphone in a public restroom. It debuted at Videopalooza, an annual end-of-semester film premiere at McDaniel's Decker Auditorium where students showcased what they created.

McDaniel College is one of the first colleges in the country to offer a cellphone cinema course. New York University and Boston University do as well. The class was taught by Jonathan Slade, an associate professor of communication and film studies.

He felt compelled to offer the course because more college students than ever have access to smart phones. A recent University of Colorado survey indicated 53 percent of students use a smart phone daily.

"We need to start teaching these kids to use cellphones as a story-telling tool if they have access to this kind of technology," Slade said. "We are trying to teach them to use the equipment they have to become cinematic storytellers."

Hopkins, a communication major, did not have prior experience editing or acting.

"It was intimidating at first," she said.

But once she got used to the technology, the medium and the flow of the creative process, she learned a skill that could make her stand out to future employers.

The students used the iPhone app FilmicPro to shoot the film's scenes. It costs $4.99 to download. After shooting their scenes, the students rendered their files to the Final Cut Pro editing program. While the students edited via computer, that process can also be done via a cellphone as well.

All filmmakers really needed was a smart phone. Even the audio turned out better than expected without the aid of new lavalier microphones that have recently reached the marketplace.

The external microphones plug into iPhones and are available for $60 on Amazon.com.

"I was not expecting to get such pristine audio quality in all our shots," junior Brandon Boatman said. "I thought you would have to be right up against the microphone to hear everything clearly, but it picked up well."

When Boatman chose to attend McDaniel, he traveled across the country to do so. He transferred from a school near Seattle and came to McDaniel specifically because the liberal arts college offered a film and cinema studies major.

He was intrigued to discover McDaniel offered a cellphone cinema course and was eager to learn more about the emerging technology.

He has a filmmaker friend that occasionally eschews his $15,000 professional camera and uses his iPhone for some documentary scenes.

"It will definitely widen the opportunities for independent filmmakers," McDaniel College junior and Winters Mill High School graduate Jennifer Bock said. "I think it will open it right up."

The process isn't perfect. The iPhone did not offer ideal color balance for all scenes. Transferring the files from phone to computer was cumbersome.

But, for the most part, the process was a seamless one. The same device used for phone calls, web browsing, video chatting and photo taking can also be used to film quality videos.

"Now more than ever, cinema is more about great stories and not access to equipment," Slade said. "If you want to tell a story, you probably have the means to do it."

___

Information from: Carroll County Times of Westminster, Md., http://www.carrollcounty.com/

Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use. Users may not download or reproduce a substantial portion of the AP material found on this web site. AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Social Media Advertising Ecosystem Explained

Josh Luger — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:20:00 GMT

The media constellation has become increasingly fractured. The Web produced the initial fissure, but mobile created new cracks in the landscape. Today, no single medium earns more than 45% of our media consumption.

How can you solve this problem? Social media offers a solution.

Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are daily destinations for millions of consumers. Increasingly, their ad products offer targeting according to specific demographics, social connections, interests, and habits.

In a new report from BI Intelligence, we analyze the state of social media advertising and where it is heading, offering a comprehensive guide and examination of the advertising ecosystems on Facebook and Twitter, offer a primer on Tumblr as an emerging ad medium, and detail how mobile is an important part of this story as mobile-friendly as native ad formats fuel growth in the market.

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Here's an overview of some major players in the mobile advertising ecosystem:

The lure of social media advertising is massive: As brands look across a fractured media landscape, social networks offer them an interesting proposition. Social networks have scale - enormous user bases and deep databases. They have high engagement - Americans were spending an average of 12 hours per month on social networks as of July 2012, with 18-24 year olds averaging 20 hours. And potentially, social media gives brands offer a uniquely captive audience for their content.
Guaranteed placement is getting advertisers to pay up: Brands are paying to get their content or copy in front of a quantifiable audience, an increasingly rare feat in an era of scattered consumer attention. This desire for guaranteed attention also helps to explain social media's move away from traditional display ads — like Facebook's right-rail ads — and toward so-called native ads that surface in a user's stream, either as a tweet or a Facebook post. A consensus seems to be forming around in-stream advertising as the most promising social advertising format.
Social media advertising is set to explode: Social media advertising is a young market and so far, it only represents 1% to 10% of ad budgets for a wide majority of advertisers. There's significant opportunity for that share to grow. BIA/Kelsey recently came out with a study that offers one view - forecasting $11 billion of social ad spend in 2017, up from $4.7 billion last year. That estimate is large - but still seems pessimistic, because...
Increased mobile usage will be a huge growth driver: The BIA/Kelsey prediction calls for mobile to account for only $2.2 billion of that in 2017 - a 20% market share. This could easily be surpassed. Both Twitter and Facebook have passed the 50% mobile usage mark and, given the continued growth of mobile devices, it will only rise. Mobile accounted for 11% of Facebook's ad revenue last year even though it didn't release mobile ads until the tail end of the second quarter. By the fourth quarter, it was up to 23%. And now, Twitter is reporting that its mobile ad revenue now regularly outpaces its desktop ad revenue. Social media advertising is therefore uniquely positioned to grab an increasing share of the fast growing mobile advertising market.

The report is full of charts and data that can be easily downloaded and put to use.

In full, the report includes:

To access BI Intelligence's full reports on The State Of Social Media Advertising, sign up for a free trial subscription here.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Thanks To Apple And Google, Wearable Technology Is On Track To Become A $50 Billion Market (GOOG, AAPL, BRCM)

Megan Rose Dickey — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:09:00 GMT

Credit Suisse released a massive report on Friday detailing the outlook of the wearable technology market.

The main takeaway: wearable tech is already a $3- to $5 billion market today. In the next two to three years, it could skyrocket to $30- to $50 billion.

That means more smartwatches, fitness monitors, shoes, and headsets.

Smartphones are one of the key driving forces behind the expected growth in wearable tech, acting as a hub that keeps all of our devices connected. Over time, wireless devices will become even more popular as hardware improves, and sensors and batteries get better.

With Apple and Google dominating the install base of smartphone operating systems — iOS and Android respectively — they are in two of the best positions to leverage the wearable tech market.

Here are some key stats and info from the report:

There are more than 250 million installed mobile operating systems that can support wearable technology.
An iWatch could generate $10 billion a year in revenue with an EPS of $3.30. There are currently only nine smartwatches available today.
Watches are a $56 billion market.
Regarding retail impact, Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour have best leveraged wearables to enhance the fitness experience and efficacy of their products.
The health and fitness market is about $2- to $3 billion.
By 2020, batteries are expected to be 2.2x more powerful.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Google Glass: Cool Or Creepy?

Alexei Oreskovic — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:50:31 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google staged four discussions expounding on the finer points of its "Glass" wearable computer during this week's developer conference. Missing from the agenda, however, was a session on etiquette when using the recording-capable gadget, which some attendees faithfully wore everywhere - including to the crowded bathrooms.

On another occasion, Firstenberg admitted to walking into a bathroom wearing his Glass without realizing it.

"Most of the day I totally forget it's there," he said.

Other industry experts take a more serious tack, pointing out the potential for misuse because Glass can record video far less conspicuously than a handheld device.

Glass also has won many fans. Google and some early users maintain that privacy fears are overblown. As with traditional video cameras, a tiny light blinks on to let people know when it is recording.

"I just figured I don't want to be the first guy kicked out of the movies," he said.

NO GLASS ALLOWED

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt dismissed concerns about the brave new world of wearable computers during a talk at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in April.

"Criticisms are inevitably from people who are afraid of change or who have not figured out that there will be an adaptation of society to it," he said.

"I don't think we should go into the conversation assuming that Glass is bad," he said.

Still, some have decided to leave nothing to chance.

PRIVACY TRACK RECORD

Lawmakers are beginning to consider Glass.

According to Google, there are no facial recognition technologies built into the device and it has no plans to do so "unless we have strong privacy protections in place."

Rotenberg says his main concern centers on the stream of data collected by the devices - everything from audio and video to a user's location data - going to Google's data centers.

"The face is a really intimate place and to have a piece of technology on it is unsettling," Calo said. "Much as a drone is unsettling because we have some ideas of war."

For all the hand-wringing, some early adopters are sold.

Ryan Warner, who recently graduated from college and who has developed a recipe app for Glass with Evans, said he was surprised by the reaction he got when he went to a bar.

"I was like, ‘I don't know if I should have it on or not.' I was kind of in that phase," he said, "and the bouncer was like, ‘Oh, my god, is that Google Glass?' He was excited."

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic, with additional reporting by Susan Zeidler in Los Angeles and Aaron Pressman in Boston; Editing by Bill Trott)

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Computer Industry Pioneer: I've Figured Out The True Creator Of Bitcoin

Joe Weisenthal — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:45:00 GMT

Nobody knows who invented the digital currency Bitcoin.

The developer used a pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto, and since then there's been a lot of inconclusive internet sleuthing.

Ted Nelson, a computer scientist, has posted a video to the web claiming that he's figured it out, and that it's Kyoto University math professor Shinichi Mochizuki.

Shinichi Mochizuki gained fame last year for figuring the famous ABC Conjecture.

Our Walter Hickey explained what this was all about last year.

In short, the ABC Conjecture — proposed in 1985 — explores the relationships between prime numbers.

It's been described as the most important unsolved problem in Diophantine Analysis, a branch of mathematics that — by working with some of the most simple number systems (like ax + by = 1 or xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ) explores some of the deepest relationships in math.

So if you're looking for an instant "real world application," hit the back button — but if you want to see why one equation can tell us so much about how numbers work, read on.

The ABC Conjecture is as follows:

Take three positive integers that have no common factor and where a + b = c. For instance, 5, 8, and 13.

Now take the distinct prime factors of these integers — in this case 2, 5, and 13 — and multiply them to get a new number, d.

In most cases, like this one, d is larger than c. The conjecture states that in rare instances where d is smaller than c, it is usually very close to c. The conjecture also shows that there are a finite number of instances where d is smaller than c.

Mochizuki claims to have cracked this conjecture in a 500-page proof.

As for his background:

He went to Philip Exeter Academy, one of the most prestigious High Schools in the country, and graduated in a brief two years. He entered Princeton University at age sixteen and left with a Ph. D at 22. He was a full professor by 33, an absurdly young age for academia. And now, this mathematical rock star may have just cracked one of the most important problems in his field.

Anyway, Ted Nelson's conclusion is somewhat circumstantial, but mainly revolves around the idea that Mochizuki perfectly fits the profile of the Bitcoin creator (a total genius who delivers a flash of something amazing, and then goes quiet again).

The Register summarizes Nelson's three points:

Mochizuki can rightfully be identified as being smart enough to have conceived of Bitcoin;
Mochizuki doesn't use the conventional scientific peer review process. Rather, his habit is to publish, and leave it to other mathematicians to sort their way through his reasoning; and
Bitcoin would fit Mochizuki's work-rate.

We've reached out to Mochizuki to see if he really is the Bitcoin creator.

Here's Nelson's video:

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Former Amazon Employee: Working On Amazon's Cloud Can Be A Dull Job (AMZN)

Julie Bort — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:30:00 GMT

When it comes to cloud computing, there's no bigger name than Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Yet the company is surprisingly tight-lipped about its cloud. It doesn't disclose revenues. It will only let a scant few top-level AWS execs talk to the press and only on rare occasions.

A former AWS engineer recently conducted an Ask-Me-Anything session on Reddit, something the company would certainly not approved of if he was still working there.

One of the most surprising things he said was that working as a software engineer on the world's biggest, most prestigious cloud can be a super boring job.

The ex-AWS engineer had been asked a question about job interviews at Amazon. Someone wanted to know why Amazon asks programmers technical questions about 1990's-era computers when computers have changed a lot since then.

The former engineer replied:

"Amazon is a product of the past laying the groundwork for the future. One of my friends who was a SDE (Software Development Engineer) had the most mundane tasks ever. He actually quit as well and went to work somewhere for a little less money, but doing some far more rewarding work.

"Putting Amazon SDE on your resume is quickly turning into the same thing as putting Google SDE on your resume. So, while you may feel it's boring, the real reward will be the job opportunities in the future."

For what it's worth, Amazon employees rated the company 3.3 stars out of 5 in terms of overall job satisfaction, slightly lower than Microsoft's rating (3.6 stars) and quite a bit lower than Google's rating (4.1 stars).

And obviously, not every Amazon engineer feels that way. Distinguished engineer James Hamilton has a great life in his role keeping AWS running smoothly. He often works remotely from his yacht from Hawaii.

Please follow SAI: Enterprise on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Now You Can Make An App For Google Glass In Just 15 Minutes (GOOG)

Megan Rose Dickey — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:26:00 GMT

Google is gradually increasing the number of official Glass apps with the recent launch of Evernote, Facebook, Twitter, CNN, Elle, and Evernote.

But now almost anyone can make a basic app in just 15 minutes.

Typically, it could take days of coding to build a Glass app, depending on how sophisticated it is.

That's no longer the case thanks to New York-based developer Chris Maddern. He's the same guy behind Apps for Glass, the site that serves as a Glass app discovery channel.

Based on the template provided via GitHub, Maddern built this Facebook for Glass app in just 15 minutes. The template is designed to let you turn any service with a website into an app for Glass.

Meanwhile, there's also a tool kit to help developers prototype for Google Glass. GlassSim allows you to create a visualization of what your app would look like.

GlassSim gives those who lack technical expertise to envision how Glass apps can chance how people interact with the world around them.

Already, people have dreamt up how Glass could provide detailed information about animals at the zoo, notify you if you've had too much to drink, and identify cars for sale.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

These Are Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer's Favorite Designer Labels (YHOO)

Megan Rose Dickey — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:09:00 GMT

Marissa Mayer is known for her poise as a leader, formerly at Google and now as CEO of Yahoo!

But she's also known for her fashion sense.

She's has made appearances at New York Fashion Week, for instance, and at Glamor magazine's Woman of the Year event.

We gleaned a fair amount of Mayer's fashion preferences from Vogue's 2009 profile on Mayer. We pieced together the rest from posts on Twitter and Instagram.

Mayer is a self-proclaimed Oscar de la Renta addict. She owned four of these cardigans in various colors as of 2009.

Here, Mayer is rocking some Oscar de la Renta at Glamour's 2009 Women of the Year Awards

Mayer wore a Reem Acra gown to her wedding in 2009.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Top Silicon Valley Advisor Explains The Key Rules Behind Every Great Startup Idea

Megan Rose Dickey — Sun, 19 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

There's a common misconception floating around Silicon Valley that ideas mean nothing, and execution means everything.

But the reality is much less binary and much more nuanced, The Founder Institute maintains.

Founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi, The Founder Institute is an early-stage startup accelerator that works with companies from the idea stage to fruition.

"What we have found is that if an early-stage founder can check off the ten items below, they have a solid foundation by which to start a company," Jonathan Greechan, a partner at The Founder Institute, tells Business Insider. "You are absolutely not assured success if you can check off these items (nor are you assured failure if you can’t), but your chances of success are much, much higher if you can."

Here are some rules to keep in mind when brainstorming ideas for a startup.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Big International Social Networks Are Closing In On Facebook

Ryan Holmes — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Last year, Facebook marked a new milestone in its nine-year history.

It lost users.

While the network did pass the 1 billion monthly active user threshold globally in 2012, Facebook also lost 1.4 million U.S. monthly active users late last year, a small but symbolic decline. Nor was it the only network experiencing a slowdown.

After years of double-digit expansion, social media use in the U.S. leveled off markedly last year. American social media users grew an estimated 6.8% in 2012, a far cry from 30 percent growth rates just a few years ago. With so many of the country’s 221 million netizens already logging into social networks, growth is forecast to slow to a trickle in the years ahead.

Overseas, however, the social media landscape is entirely different.

In India, social media users grew by an estimated 51.7% in 2012, no small change in a country of 1.25 billion people. Indonesia followed closely behind with a 51.6% growth rate. China’s social media user base expanded 19.9%. Latin America grew at a 16.3% clip, while Russia grew by 11.1%.

To be sure, an ever-growing number of these international users are turning to Facebook. In fact, Facebook is now estimated to be the most popular social network in all but 10 countries.

But there are numerous and notable holdouts. Around the world, localized, country-specific social networks are expanding, commanding the attention of billions of users in some of the planet’s fastest-growing economies. For global companies willing to dive in, the rewards are sizeable. But so are the risks.

International Social Media Giants

Perhaps nowhere are stakes higher than in China, where the blocking of Facebook and Twitter has given rise to wildly popular homegrown alternatives. By some estimates, nearly half of the country’s population of 1.3 billion is online and active socially.

The Chinese social media landscape, however, is far from settled. The most popular networks are complex hybrids, combining the functionality of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and instant messaging in one platform. Dozens of sites vie for supremacy, and millions of “zombie accounts” make it difficult to pinpoint where users are most active.

The aging Goliath of Chinese social media is QQ, an instant messaging platform started in 1999 that claims some 800 million monthly active users. Nowadays, users treat QQ as a jumping off point to access a range of popular networking sites controlled by its parent company, Tencent Holdings.

Arguably the most important of these is WeChat, a mobile platform similar to WhatsApp that mashes up instant messaging and video calls with photo sharing and status updates. Launched in January 2011, WeChat (known as Weixin in China) already counts 190 million monthly active users (nearly as many as Twitter) and is growing at an astounding clip of 25 million users per month. Brands like Starbucks, Nike, and Durex are just beginning to test the waters.

Another Tencent offering is microblogging platform Tencent Weibo. A fusion of Twitter and Facebook, it counts 277 million monthly active users, with a strong base in smaller cities and less economically developed areas.

As on Twitter, messages on the network and other weibos like are limited to 140 characters. But, since each Chinese character represents an entire word or phrase, users have significantly more room for expression than afforded by a standard Tweet.

Outside of the Tencent universe, the key fixture on the Chinese social media landscape is Sina Weibo, a similar microblogging service with 287 million monthly active users.

Popular in larger cities and among educated users, Sina Weibo has drawn significant attention from international businesses, with 25% of Fortune 500 companies already onboard. It’s China’s original weibo and remains perhaps the country’s most important social network overall.

The presence of so many competing networks, not to mention regulatory and censorship hurdles, poses distinct challenges for global companies wading into Chinese social waters. But rewards are just as great. Chinese netizens made a staggering $160 billion worth of online transactions last year, closing in on the estimated $226 billion spent in the U.S. Half of this sum was spent by just 17% of buyers, a coveted demographic known collectively as the “golden shoppers.”

Russia offers another case of social exceptionalism. With a reported 100 million monthly active users, VKontakte, popularly known as VK, is the country’s most popular social media network.

VK's functionality is reminiscent of Facebook, with the familiar news feed and Like button, as well as Public Pages specifically for businesses. But VK also has hashtags like Twitter and photo filters like Instagram, and it’s used for music and video storage and content sharing.

Demographically, VK users have traditionally been on the younger side, with professionals increasingly migrating to Facebook. In fact, VK is often looked at as the network of the people, useful for generating buzz but not necessarily for pitching high-end products. However, it is a paradise for millions of small businesses and serves an important niche reselling goods from Chinese online giant TaoBao. Not to mention that international brands including the BBC, National Geographic, Victoria Beckham and Tom Cruise have all plunged into VK with active ad campaigns.

Slightly less popular is a site called Odnoklassniki, Russian for “classmates.” (While monthly active users aren’t disclosed, the network claims 148 million total registered users.) Positioned as a network for finding relatives and schoolmates, Odnoklassniki skews toward an older crowd and is particularly popular in less economically developed regions.

In appearance, it resembles Facebook. However, a popular paid feature also enables users to assume “invisible status” and visit other users’ pages without being noticed. While officially Russia’s “second network,” Odnoklassniki enjoys widespread cultural cachet, as evident in this popular music video, showing a schoolgirl singing about the network and the joys of “online communicating.”

Cultural Challenges

While global companies willing to look beyond Facebook and Twitter have a chance to reach billions of social media users, gaining a foothold isn’t necessarily easy.

English may be the international language of business, but it’s hardly the language of choice for online commerce and socializing. A recent European Union study showed only 18% of web surfers would make purchases from sites not in their native language. For social networking, users are even more inclined to communicate in their native tongue. Tapping country-specific networks, therefore, starts with effective translation.

Social media etiquette and expectations also vary from country to country. International marketing giants Lewis PR recently ventured a few ground rules. The Dutch are notoriously averse to self-promotion, while in Russia puffery is par for the course. The Brits admire cheekiness done right, while Singaporeans are straight-laced. Privacy is paramount in Germany, while anonymity is often key in China. While these social types are obviously generalized, they do reveal that social media mores are far from universal.

Social media users’ need for speed presents other challenges. If a company plunges into social networks halfway around the world, will representatives be able to respond in real time? What happens if a customer in Beijing complains and staff in New York are already fast asleep? A minor issue left unattended overnight can can grow into a viral nightmare by the morning.

The right technology is also critical. Social media management systems - software for monitoring multiple social networks at once from one page - can help. Some systems are already incorporating country-specific sites into their lineups. At HootSuite, for example, we allow users to move between Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and local networks in China and Russia, not to mention Latin America and Western Europe, from a single dashboard. The means less time spent navigating exotic interfaces and more time spent communicating directly with users.

Ultimately, however, global success on social networks - whether localized platforms or transnational giants like Twitter and Facebook - comes down not to equipment but to local knowledge and sensitivity, plus a little common sense.

Just ask Kenneth Cole.

During Egypt’s revolution in 2011, the clothing designer reached out to his tens of thousands of followers around the world with this message of inspiration. "Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online . . . .”

Here’s guessing sales in Egypt haven’t exactly been brisk since.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

FACEBOOK IS NOT GOING TO BID FOR TUMBLR: Tumblr Is Yahoo's For The Taking, Say Sources

Nicholas Carlson — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:27:00 GMT

There have been reports that Yahoo's board will meet tomorrow to decide whether or not to make a $1.1 billion cash offer to buy Tumblr.

There have been other reports that Facebook may swoop in with its own offer.

After having conversations with two sources, we believe Facebook is not going to make an offer.

There is speculation that Tumblr's banker, Frank Quattrone, leaked word of Facebook's interest in hopes of starting an auction and driving up Tumblr's price with Yahoo.

We're told no such "auction" is happening.

Tumblr could threaten to walk away from Yahoo's $1.1 billion, and force a higher bid that way, of course.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The Fabulous Life Of David Karp, 26-Year-Old Founder Of The $1 Billion Tumblr Empire

Alyson Shontell — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:54:00 GMT

In 2007, David Karp started a creative blogging platform, Tumblr.

Now it's a behemoth, home to more than 86 million blogs, with about 5 billion monthly page views, according to Quantcast. Recent reports state that Facebook and Yahoo are both interested in acquiring Karp's company for $1 billion.

For a 26-year-old who's already worth more than $200 million on paper, Karp lives a modest life. He prefers a night in with his girlfriend to a crazy night out. Most days, he rides a Vespa or walks to Tumblr's headquarters.

But he's also traveled the world and enjoys taking fancy cars for weekend getaways.

What's it like being the 26-year-old founder of Tumblr? Here's a look into Karp's life as depicted (how else?) in his Tumblr blog.

David Karp was born and raised in Manhattan. He dropped out of high school with his parent's blessing at the age of 15, was home-schooled for three years, and joined the work force.

By the time Karp's friends were off to college, he was Head of Product at UrbanBaby, a site CNET acquired in 2006.

Karp used the money from the sale to create Davidville, a consulting company, and to launch his own products. One of them was Tumblr, a simpler way to blog and share things online. More than 86 million blogs have been made on Tumblr and the site generates 5 billion page views each month, according to Quantcast.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

In One Paragraph, Ben Bernanke Explains Why The Future Is Going To Be So Amazing

Joe Weisenthal — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:59:00 GMT

Ben Bernanke has delivered the commencement speech for this year's graduates of Simon's Rock, a quirky college in Massachusetts.

The whole thing is here. It might be the only commencement speech all year to contain footnotes.

The speech is about economics, but rather than discuss the short- or medium-term, he talks about the very long-run, and whether things are likely to change a lot over the next 50 years, and what role technology or innovation will play.

And in doing that, he looks back at some of the amazing changes from the past centuries and decades.

A few of the facts that Bernanke cites:

Between 1700 and 1970, he notes, worker productivity has jumped approximately 30x.
Just in the last 50 years, life expectancy has jumped by 8 years, from 70, to 78.
In 1913, life expectancy was a mere 53 years.
In 1913, 60-hour work weeks at exhausting manufacturing jobs were the norm.

So then Bernanke asks whether the long-run will see massive changes in technology and life improvement like we've seen since 1913 and 1963.

Bernanke answers unequivocally yes, based on the fact that the world is seeing more and more innovators and geniuses working together in a way like never before:

...pessimists may be paying too little attention to the strength of the underlying economic and social forces that generate innovation in the modern world. Invention was once the province of the isolated scientist or tinkerer. The transmission of new ideas and the adaptation of the best new insights to commercial uses were slow and erratic. But all of that is changing radically. We live on a planet that is becoming richer and more populous, and in which not only the most advanced economies but also large emerging market nations like China and India increasingly see their economic futures as tied to technological innovation. In that context, the number of trained scientists and engineers is increasing rapidly, as are the resources for research being provided by universities, governments, and the private sector. Moreover, because of the Internet and other advances in communications, collaboration and the exchange of ideas take place at high speed and with little regard for geographic distance. For example, research papers are now disseminated and critiqued almost instantaneously rather than after publication in a journal several years after they are written. And, importantly, as trade and globalization increase the size of the potential market for new products, the possible economic rewards for being first with an innovative product or process are growing rapidly. In short, both humanity's capacity to innovate and the incentives to innovate are greater today than at any other time in history.

Read the full speech here --->

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Has Scheduled A Mysterious Press Conference For Monday (YHOO)

Julie Bort — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:35:00 GMT

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will make some kind of an announcement on Monday.

The press conference was first tweeted by CNBC, and confirmed by other publications.

Obviously, some people think that Mayer will announce that Yahoo is buying Tumblr for as much as $1.1 billion. Word has been circling that the deal that may get approved as soon as Sunday night, according to AllThingsD.

The billion-dollar price tag, if it proves true, seems shocking given that Tumblr has reportedly only generated $13 million in revenue in 2012, after taking $125 million in investor funding.

But, as Business Insider's Jim Edward's points out, Tumblr has become a cool tool among young people. They use it as a blogging platform, a custom-news feed and a social network and it would be easy to monetize with advertising in the right hands.

Then again, Bloomberg says that this hastily scheduled event will bring us news about updates to Yahoo's photo sharing service Flickr.

Stay tuned.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

The HTML5 Vs. Native Apps Battle Broken Down

Josh Luger — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:25:00 GMT

An HTML5 app is housed on the Web and runs inside a mobile browser. Unlike apps built specifically for Apple devices or Google's Android operating system, it does not need to be built from scratch for each OS. The promise is that it can be "write once, run anywhere."

It's true: In many cases, HTML5 can work just as well as a native approach. But it is not the silver bullet it is often made out to be, for several reasons.

So where are we in the HTML5 vs. native apps debate?

In a recent report, BI Intelligence breaks down this question, doing a head-to-head comparison of the two and looking at the current state of the performance gap between HTML5 and native apps.

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Take look at this table from our report:

As the chart illustrates, native apps still reign supreme over HTML5 in a few areas, including:

Rich user experience and performance: HTML5 still faces challenges in accessing device-native features across all mobile browsers, and in rendering graphically-rich user interfaces and data presentations.
Monetization: The native app stores — Apple's App Store and Google Play — win this one. There hasn't been a convincing model for HTML5 monetization beyond individual vendors selling their apps online.

But, HTML5 has a leg up in cross-platform deployment costs, update speed and distribution control, available programming expertise, and in solving fragmentation challenges. Both native and HTML5 face serious fragmentation challenges, but of different sorts.

Ultimately, as we detail in the report, it's more likely that HTML5 and its cross-platform potential will win out here.

To access BI Intelligence's full report on HTML5, sign up for a free trial subscription here.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

There Are Only A Few Hours Left For Facebook To Rush In And Break Up The Yahoo-Tumblr Deal

Henry Blodget — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:24:50 GMT

Yahoo's board is meeting Sunday evening to decide whether to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash, Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka reported last night.

So that means there are only a few hours left for Facebook to submit a compelling counter-offer.

Anecdotally, young people are deciding that Facebook is no longer cool and are decamping for Instagram and Tumblr.

Facebook already owns Instagram.

So now the question is whether it also wants to own Tumblr.

The man who broke the original Yahoo-might-buy-Tumblr story (along with Ms. Swisher), Peter Kafka, told us this morning that thinks the chatter that Facebook will swoop in with a massive wad of cash at the last moment is overblown.

Facebook has had plenty of opportunity to buy Tumblr, Mr. Kafka suggests.

If Facebook actually wanted Tumblr, in other words, Facebook would have already bought Tumblr.

So that leaves Yahoo.

According to Ms. Swisher and Mr. Kafka, the Yahoo-Tumblr deal is already fully baked, with Tumblr founder David Karp getting a four-year deal to stay on as Tumblr boss and grow the site independently from Yahoo. This may mean that Yahoo is not planning to aggressively "monetize" Tumblr after the deal, and that Yahoo will therefore not have to deal immediately with Tumblr's reported porn problem.

The $1.1 billion purchase price, meanwhile, will vaporize more than a third of Yahoo's cash balance, which will presumably leave some at the company wondering whether Yahoo should have spent so much money buying back its stock over the last couple of quarters.

In any event, we'll know in a few more hours whether Facebook really wants Tumblr or whether it's going, going, gone to Marissa Mayer and Yahoo...

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »