Archive for the 'Web 2.0' Category

Study: Time Spent on Content is Rising

Published
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Marjorie Kase
on August 14, 2007
in Video, Web 2.0 and Social Networking
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Content consumption now accounts for half of users’ Internet time

The Online Publishers Association today released a study stating that consuming content (reading news, watching video, social networking, etc.) now accounts for 50% of the time users spend on the Internet. This would mean that the time spent consuming content online has increased 37% over the last four years.

Pam Horan, president of the OPA, cited “the online transition of traditionally offline activities, such as getting news, finding entertainment information or checking the weather” as part of the reason for the increase in consumption. The popularity of social networking and video streaming sites may also be affecting this change in time demographics.

Considering how many networks have invested in online video recently, along with the outpouring of social networking, the idea that half of users’ time online is spent consuming content doesn’t seem so far off the mark. For the next generation, online media may even replace books, TV, and newspapers as the norm. Scary thought?

(Source: Online Video Watch)

Hearst Acquires UGO Networks

Published
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Marjorie Kase
on July 24, 2007
in Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Online media co. part of new demographic draw

Hearst Interactive Media is currently in the process of acquiring ad-supported UGO Networks, an online media company geared mostly toward a young male demographic that recognizes 28 million users worldwide per month. The video games, movies, and attractive women that make up the core of UGO’s content will be a first step for Hearst toward interesting a new demographic: young males, who may not have been interested in Hearst’s traditional media.

Hearst, originally known for its large collection of newspapers and magazines, has been shifting focus to the digital even before their bid on UGO. Hearst previously acquired the media companies Brightcove (video-based) and Pandora (music-based), and also owns stakes in ESPN, Lifetime, and A & E.

Within the Hearst conglomerate, UGO will operate essentially independently, rather than being meshed with the rest of Hearst’s media. About this independence, UGO CEO J. Moses said the following:

“Having our brand be the lead brand here is worth a lot to us. This business is now in a very serious period of maturation and consolidation. We need to invest and Hearst wants us to.”

Hearst will continue to look for other male-oriented media companies to build the strength of their young men-demographic appeal.

(Source: Variety)

The Changing Influence of Bloggers

Published
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Marjorie Kase
on July 19, 2007
in Blogging, Web 2.0 and Social Networking
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How social networking is giving bloggers even more clout

What’s the fastest way to spread your opinion across the Web, and catch as many ears as possible while doing it? If you answered blogging, you’re only half right.

That bloggers have an influence on the tide of opinion surrounding companies or products is nothing new. A blog with a lot of regular readers can reach as many people as a TV or magazine spot, and the blogger’s opinions can spread much quicker than broadcasts in traditional media. Still, the nature of bloggers’ influence is shifting, becoming what Thomas Hawk calls “bifurcated”: split between the blog itself and other parts of the Web.

Largely, this second kind of influence is based around social networking, which can be used to get even more attention for your blog or a particular post. By using social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Pownce and others to advocate your blog - or to advocate streams on other social networks themselves - you can get your posts more attention, higher ratings, and greater influence overall.

In the ever-changing Web 2.0 landscape, one form of communication can be dropped as soon as a faster, better way comes along. By taking Thomas Hawk’s observations under consideration, on the other hand, bloggers don’t have to abandon their media: they can use the newer, faster, better ways of communicating to strengthen the blogs they’ve worked on, and extend their overall influence at the same time. Who doesn’t want that?
(Source: Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection)

ICanHasCheezburger: A Blogger’s Success Story

Published
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Marjorie Kase
on July 18, 2007
in Blogging and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

When the wired world turns little laughs into big business

In the short time since its inception, blogging has become an incredibly widespread fixture of the Internet, infiltrating both the personal and the professional realms of the Web. But what happens when a blog that started personal turns into a full-time occupation? For a select few, the result may follow Eric Nakagawa’s ICanHasCheesburger.com.

ICanHasCheezburger.com started, in January of this year, when Nakagawa, a software developer working in Hawaii, posted a picture of a smiling cat captioned “I Can Has Cheezburger?” on his Web site. As his posts continued along a similar trend, he turned the site into a blog, giving viewers the chance to rate and comment on his images. Against Nakagawa’s expectations, the site’s traffic doubled each month, and in May Nakagawa quit his job as a programmer so that he could focus solely on the business venture he’d never anticipated.

Now ICanHazCheezburger.com gets approximately 500,000 hits a day, and has expanded its offerings so that users can submit images, caption them, and post these modified images on the site for all users to see, share, and rate. The ad money the site brings in is nothing to scoff at, either: $500 for a week-long ad is as cheap as it gets on ICanHasCheezburger.com.

Who would have guessed that a site founded on a simple joke would become such a successful, user-based community? Certainly not Nakagawa, who remarked of the site’s unexpected popularity:

“We just thought, okay, [the posts are] funny. Suddenly we started getting hits. It was like, where are these coming from?”

ICanHasCheezburger’s ascent from private pastime to a full-on business says something about the power of bloggers and the blogging community in the Web 2.0 era, when a site with largely user-generated content can skyrocket to the top of the popularity sphere. Perhaps it’s this community that will determine the success of blogs and the businesses they spawn in the years to come.

(Source: Business Week)

Friendster Grows at 40%

Published
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Marjorie Kase
on June 27, 2007
in Web 2.0 and Social Networking
. 0 Comments

Widening market keeps social network site moving
In an online era dominated by Facebook, veteran social networking site Friendster saw an unheard of 40% increase in page views in May. Although, the startup still ranks fourth in the social networking hierarchy Facebook, MySpace, and Hi5, Friendster is quickly gaining momentum.

Web 2.0 talking head Michael Arrington, attributes the dramatic rise to users’ unwillingness to give up their old profiles as well as a steady increase in broadband and social networking site use in highly populated countries like China and India.

Friendster growing is good for the entire Web 2.0 industry. There can be no downturn without a broad decline in user numbers across many sites. Friendster proves that despite strong, and some would argue superior competition, there’s still room for any Web 2.0 startup to grow, even in a crowded vertical marketplace.

(source: TechCrunch)