Gawker
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trendwatch
How Facebook, Google, and Yahoo Are Making Ads Part of Your Life
The Valley's biggest players are all racing to be the center of your online life, collecting your photos, blog posts, Twitter messages, and comments into one stream — and then dosing it with real-time ads. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Greg Lenz: Why do Facebook's expenses groww with every user it adds? 5 Responses | Other threads
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commenter of the day
Antilles_Prime
Did you copy an existing popular website and sell it off to a big corporation too dumb to realize what's going on? Twice? Xochi Birch did, first with Ringo and then Bebo. Today's featured commenter, Antilles_Prime, explains the kudos she's earned: More »
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Comment by Pragmatic: zuckerburg just hit the lotto on timing On timing what? Venture captial bailouts? Facebook is just as usefull(less) as myspace, and... more » | Other threads
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xochi birch
Bebo founder admits her fortune came from ripoffs
Imitation is the sincerest form of getting rich. MySpace got bought early, on the cheap; Facebook has yet to cash out. Michael and Xochi Birch's sale of Bebo, a social network more popular overseas than in the U.S., to AOL for $850 million has been the best social-network cashout to date. And how did they manage it? Shamelessly copying other sites, Xochi Birch admits to the BBC. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by HardyEurytus: Xochi is the most endearing person you may ever meet. And what's so surprising about copying other sites? ... more » | Other threads
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real estate
Bebo cofounders buy $29 million cabin on a hill
Well, it's on a hill, but it sure ain't a cabin. Instead, Bebo cofounding couple Michael Birch and Xochi Birch have purchased a $29 million manse in Pacific heights on the corner of Broadway and Broderick. It looks like the Birches purchased the property from one William Mathes, a managing partner at Behrman Capital. Mathes originally purchased the lot for a mere $3.25 million back in 1998.
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By Jackson WestComment by Lawrence: For 29MM, this building looks like a craphole - at least in this shot, that is. But it's SF, so I... 1 Responses | Other threads
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bad ideas
5 social networks Yahoo couldn't befriend
The soon-to-be-shuttered Yahoo Mash is not Yahoo's first failed social network. It's also not its second, third, or fourth. It took one whole hand for us to count Big Purple's failed attempts to get social, either through mergers or in-house development, below. More »
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Comment by Shadowlayer: Considering yahoo's current state of affairs, not buying FB for a billion was an EPIC FAIL. 3 Responses | Other threads
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social networks
Science says poking won't make you more slutty
Using social networks to find sex only make kids these days look sluttier. The reality? A new study of 2,000 MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo users aged 16 to 24 finds they're not happy about the reputation. A full 69 percent believe the media portray them unfairly as "sex maniacs." Those surveyed will be happy with the study's results: More »
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Comment by tiffanyrules: Hahaha that's amazing. I was looking up ebooks about Facebook (and yes, there are a surprising number out right... 1 Responses | Other threads
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jackpot
Barely legal billionaires insist there's tons more money to be made
21-year-old billionaires in the making? To tell the truth, the youngest Forbes has come up with in the past decade was Elon Musk at 27. That was back in 1998, with only $22 million. Musk's face is more lined, but he still isn't a billionaire, even after cashing out from PayPal's sale to eBay. Forbes at least has some standards — only reason I can imagine Zuckerberg isn't in the piece is because his share of Facebook's valuation is still mostly theoretical. As for Bebo's Michael and Xochi Birch? They're back to their birthday announcement and e-card concern BirthdayAlarm.com, not content with a cabin in the hills at all. (Photo by Ryan Anson/Bloomberg News/Landov)
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By Jackson WestComment by Carlos: @Arlo_G: Too true, two of the wealthiest guys I know in SV are so inconspicuous it's hilarious. They just... more » | Other threads
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the chart
Worldwide visitors to Facebook up 153 percent in a year
Metrics firm ComScore reports that 132 million unique visitors logged onto Facebook in June 2008, up from just 52 million in June 2007. 117 million worldwide users visited MySpace during June 2008. Its Facebook's first definitive traffic victory, from a source advertisers actually pay attention to, over MySpace. Way down on the list at No. 6 — past the fast-growing Hi5, past still-kicking Friendster — there's AOL CEO Randy Falco's $850 million social network, Bebo, which saw 24 million visitors in June.
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Comment by raincoaster: I only joined up a week and a half ago. No WAY did I hit it that much! Maybe just... more » | Other threads
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online video
Vogue's new reality show hopes to bedazzle the Internet
Every print publisher, and especially the glossies, want in on the online-video game. Unlike the text-and-photos Web, where there are more pageviews than media buyers know what to do with, there's not enough slickly packaged content that big brands deem safe enough to advertise themselves on. Condé Nast's Vogue has a new reality show for the Web, Model.Live, which "tracks three models as they navigate casting calls, catwalks and airports for fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris." It debuts August 19. What you won't see? Drinking and smoking. What you will see? Eating disorders confronted "head-on." That's because this an attempt to reach out to a younger demographic on behalf of the sponsor, aspirational mall brand Express — which sells American women the sequined, screen-printed jeans they love. What's all this going to cost Express? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by WagCurious: This is actually an IMGWorld production made for Condé Nast. Now if either Brian Weiss or Jim Gallagher at IMG... more » | Other threads
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social networks
British gossips may lose access to juicy stories sourced from Bebo, Facebook
Amanda Hudson allowed teenage daughter Jodie Hudson to throw a birthday bash at the British family's £4.4 million ($8.7 million) villa in Spain, but when pictures like this of underage drinkers passed out on the floor and accounts of stolen jewelry appeared in Blighty tabloids, the elder Hudson brought suit, alleging defamation under the U.K.'s strict libel laws. The fishwraps will hide behind local "fair comment" provisions, which indemnifies the retellers of factual accounts — the problem is, the accounts posted by daughter Jodie and friends to social networks like Bebo and Facebook may have been less than strictly factual. And, of course, the photos are protected under copyright provisions. Which may mean that British hacks might have to factcheck anything gleaned from websites. I can only hope this is one legal precedent that they don't export to the colonies.
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By Jackson WestComment by search.scientist: Jackson I disagree. Basic things like fact checking and say........doing your own work should be a minimum standard. What they... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
AOL can guarantee your widget 0.04 cents per pageview
For the makers of widgets, those annoy-your-friends applications littering social networks, it's fractions of pennies from heaven: AOL ad network Platform-A has promised Facebook and Bebo widget developers that it can guarantee them "one of the industry’s highest" CPM — cost per thousand pageviews — rates if they sign up for its Widgnet publisher network. A Platform-A source says widgetmakers will get about 40 cents per thousand pageviews. Which is, of course, terrible. "Most [widgetmakers] won't sniff $1 CPMs," AdWeek's Brian Morrissey snarks.(Photo by MrVJTod) -
bebo
Fretful developers aside, the competition knows Facebook is the widget platform that matters
Developers upset with Facebook's antiviral measures tell us enthusiasm for Facebook's platform is waning. Nonsense, says Steve Cohen, the head of platform engineering at Facebook rival Bebo. Earlier this year, Cohen built a platform for Bebo that was entirely compatible with apps built for Facebook. Cohen told Silicon Alley Insider that Bebo's big worry right now isn't that Facebook's redesign will kill developer enthusiam for the shared platform, but that a new Facebook platform will leave Bebo a step behind. Said Cohen: “Facebook really threw a monkey wrench in the whole compatibility thing. If we’re not compatible with Facebook, no one is going to develop for our platform.”
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Comment by Shadowlayer: "If we're not compatible with Facebook, no one is going to develop for our platform." Thats because Bebo sucks and nobody... more » | Other threads
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strategery
Bewkes to shareholder: Just pretend Bebo is MySpace
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes's oops-did-I-Bebo-that tour continues. Yesterday at the Deutsche Bank Media & Telecom conference, a shareholder asked Bewkes how $850 million for a third-place social network jibed with Bewkes's claim that disciplined capital allocation is a key priority for Time Warner. According to PaidContent, Bewkes said, “We did make a bit of a stretch." He then tried to reassure the worried shareholder saying, it was the “same thing when News Corp. bought MySpace.” More »
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Comment by Tim Faulkner: If Parsons can beat off Carl Icahn and then turn the company over to Bewkes, Jerry Yang still has hope? more » | Other threads
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crash this bash
You're invited to Michael and Xochi Birch's Bebo farewell party
Bebo founders Michael and Xochi Birch cashed out in the nine figures with the social network's $850 million purchase by AOL. According to the invite for their farewell party, they'll be retiring to a humble, quiet cabin (which, in the Bay Area housing market, should set them back a million or two). What they aren't spending their windfall on? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Big John: not reinvesting the windfall in another startup? more » | Other threads
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ringo
Michael Birch's first social networking sellout a blowout
In 2003, social networking was not yet faddish. Michael Birch sold his self-admitted Friendster clone, Ringo, to online dating site Tickle for a pittance. He came to see that as a mistake, and went on to found Bebo, which he sold to AOL for a giggle-inducing $850 million. A cautionary tale for AOL: Tickle, now a unit of online jobs site Monster, laid off most of its employees in April, and informed its users by email over the weekend that Ringo was shutting down for good. (Photo by Michael Birch) -
mysteries
Did AOL buy Bebo to tempt Yahoo into a merger?
No one can make sense of AOL's $850 million Bebo buy, not even Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, who is dropping hints that his company overpaid for the social network. AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant, shown here in a deliciously awkward moment with Bebo president Joanna Shields, negotiated the deal in secret, to the disbelief of their underlings. But there's one strategic way in which the Bebo buy makes sense. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Niemal: Since mergers and acquisitions have seemingly devolved into a revenue tug-of-war over the same stupid ads, at least there's hope... more » | Other threads
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facebook
Facebook users wreck $8.7 million Spanish beach house
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told the D6 conference crowd that Facebook is about allowing people to "share information and share themselves." British 16-year-old Jodie Hudson took the lesson to heart. The Times of London reports Hudson posted open invitations to her 16th birthday party on social networks Bebo and Facebook, advertising it as the""party of the year" with "a lot of alcohol [and] an amazing DJ." The party's location? Hudson's parents' $8.7 milllion Spanish vacation home. From across Spain's Costa del Sol, the people came. They didn't behave nicely. One partygoer told the Times:Somebody said that we were allowed to wreck the house because the birthday girl's parents were getting divorced and there were kids behaving like gangsters from a rap video, throwing stuff around and smashing things. There were chairs, tables, even a TV in the pool.
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Comment by BobDope: And on the spinsters for temperance website: 'Alcohol users wreck blah blah blah' more » | Other threads
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online advertising
As AOL-Bebo closes, Yahoo loses its answer to Google-MySpace, Microsoft-Facebook ad deals
As AOL closes its $850 million Bebo acquisition today, the biggest loser in the deal — other than the many Time Warner execs who hate the acquisition — has to be Yahoo, which is losing its answer to the partnerships between Google and MySpace and Microsoft and Facebook. When Yahoo won the deal to manage social network Bebo's display and video advertising in the U.K. and Ireland last September, part of Yahoo's triumph was getting an inside shot at Bebo's global business. Bebo CEO Joanna Shields said she was keen to see it happen. Not anymore. Don't expect Bebo to renew its current deal with Yahoo, which expires in September 2009, either. -
social networks
Researchers say the kids are alright
Mandatory age checks aimed at verifying users may not do much to protect children on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and other social networks. A task force on the behavior of teens on social networks found that the majority of young people who've actually had sex with adults they met online did so without any sort of deception. Does this mean that men in their fifties no longer have to go about pretending they like Hannah Montana if they want the affections of the underaged? No, it just means they're already onto you, dude. (Photo by generated)
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Comment by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: @sample032: I already told you how I feel about underage ass. more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Bebo employees claim to welcome AOL bosses, but secretly fear them
Vested employees at social network Bebo, anticipating the massive stock-options payday they'll get when AOL finalizes its $850 million purchase of their employer, have been passing around stickers that read "I, for one, welcome our new AOL overlords." One was so excited that he sent it to Valleywag — and then rapidly thought better of it, fearing that this leak of sensitive information would somehow jeopardize the merger. Such typical Valley groupthink: Yes, little programmer, the fate of the entire company is riding on your shoulders! Loose lips sink acquisitions! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by johnallen27: maybe "overlords" was a semi-veiled reference to Smithers and Burns? more » | Other threads
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michael birch
Even Bebo's cofounder thinks AOL's $850 million is a joke
Poor AOL CEO Randy Falco. He believes that acquiring the social network Bebo for $850 million put AOL in a "leading position" in social networking. Everyone else thinks the buy was a joke — including Bebo cofounder Michael Birch. Asked at an event yesterday about the purchase price, Birch said, "850 million is an interesting number. It's a lot bigger than some numbers and a lot smaller than some numbers. It's not a prime number." Asked how AOL bid itself up to $850 million, Birch said $800 million of it was due Bebo's popularity in Fiji. "Fiji is an up-and-coming market," the Birch told the crowd. Don't wonder why he's so giddy. Birch and his cofounder, his wife Xochi, earned $595 million on the deal. -
venture capital
Ron Conway and Marc Andreessen love Lonelygirl15
EQAL, the L.A. Web-video studio which first brought you Lonelygirl15's bedroom antics, today announced it's raised $5 million in funding. The moneymen backing Bree's braintrust include angel investor Ron Conway, Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen, reality-TV producer Conrag Riggs, former Google exec Georges Harik, and Spark Capital. Bree, who made the cover of Wired is gone from Lonelygirl15, having been killed off, but the series continues, as does EQAL's KateModern, which now runs on Bebo. EQAL CEO Miles Beckett and president Greg Goodfried told the Wall Street Journal the company is already profitable, having earned money with product placements woven into plotlines. Sounds more plausible than selling online ads. -
music
Billy Bragg argues for musicians' cut of Bebo deal
"The musicians who posted their work on Bebo.com are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise. Their investment is the content provided for free while the site has no liquid assets. Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend." [NY Times] (Photo AP/Cheryl Gerber)
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By Jackson WestComment by ImmanuelCan: "The musicians who posted their work on Bebo.com are no different from... all of the other morons that bought into... more » | Other threads
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bad ideas
AOL brass frankly embarrassed by Bebo buy
Why were AOL CEO Randy Falco and COO Ron Grant so secretive about buying Bebo? Because they knew much of AOL management hated the deal, Silicon Alley Insider reports. Executives from AOL subsidiaries Advertising.com, Platform A and Userplane would all have worked to kibosh the $850 million deal if they'd known more about it, so Falco and Grant kept them out of the loop. Supposedly, Grant and Falco pushed ahead with the deal because they think Bebo makes AOL a more attractive acquisition target. One source called the buy "Grant's last stand." Below, SAI's account of precisely what's to hate about Bebo, according to AOL execs. More »
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Comment by eze: i think what happens to companies this far behind is that they go out of business. their healthy units go... more » | Other threads
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bebo
Bebo buy was AOL CEO's super-duper secret
AOL CEO Randy Falco and President Ron Grant — check out the photo and you'll see why the rank and file call them "Smithers and Burns" — kept plans to buy fourth-place social network Bebo secret from AOL's other top execs. Acquisitions talks are often kept quiet, but BoomTown sources say Falco and Grant were more secretive than usual. Can't say we blame them. The exchange — "We're targeting Bebo." "Who?" — has to get old.
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Comment by Davion: Holy shit they really do look like Smithers and Burns. How does anyone take them seriously? more » | Other threads
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jackpot
Bebo founders earn $595 million, enough to buy a haircut
Michael and Xochi Birch met in a London pub back in 2005. Later, the pair decided to launch a social network from their San Francisco living room. About 40 million people signed up and two years later, AOL plunked down $850 million to buy the site. The Birches, who reportedly owned a 70 percent stake in the company, walk away with $595 million. Our advice for the first few dollars spent, below. More » -
bad ideas
Time Warner shareholders, blame LonelyGirl15 for the $850 million Bebo buy
If not in traffic or revenues, where has Bebo leapt ahead of MySpace and Facebook? In turning its social network into a TV channel, says NewTeeVee's Liz Gannes. She credits Bebo president Joanna Shields with figuring out the LonelyGirl15 phenomenon in 2007 and hiring the show's creators. Thus was born KateModern, which has been seen some 30 million times, earning exactly $405,000. Expect more of that, the pro-Bebo argument goes, now that the company is tied up with media giant Time Warner. With 2,099 more hits like that, and the deal might pay off.
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Comment by longtimereader: Has no one has figured out that LonelyGirl15 was lifted from the Sony Pictures online serial Rachel's Room that ran... more » | Other threads
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nerdfight
Michael Arrington desperately wants you to know TechCrunch broke the Bebo story
Head TechCruncher Michael Arrington noted three separate times on Twitter today that TechCrunch had "broken" the AOL buys Bebo news last month. Then he zings BoomTown's Kara Swisher, who'd dismissed the rumors earlier: "hmm didn't someone say Bebo wasn't for sale? http://tinyurl.com/2t5mch" That's great, Michael, but don't break your arm patting yourself on the back. You might need it to write more Twitters. It's also worth noting that Eric Eldon at VentureBeat broke the Bebo story months before Arrington's "exclusive" when he reported that Bebo had hired a bank. See Arrington's entire Twitterpated output below: More »
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Comment by ryanmerket: Jordon, your posts go past "whiney", straight into "little girl, bitchin" more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
In Bebo, AOL landed what News Corp., Google, Yahoo and CBS didn't want
Before agreeing to sell to AOL for $850 million, Bebo president Joanna Shields tried to sell the company to News Corp., Google, Yahoo and CBS. Didn't happen. Bebo gets too little traffic in the U.S., sources from those companies told BoomTown. Microscopic revenues probably didn't help Bebo reach its hoped-for $1 billion pricetag, either. In 2006, Bebo revenues were $7 million, with just $3 million in EBITDA — Wall Street's favored measure of operating profit. Last year, total revenues climbed to $20 million, $5 million in EBITDA. So that's a price-to-earnings ratio of 160. Oh, maybe AOL CEO Randy Falco's valuing it on growth, you say? Let's run those numbers. More »
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Comment by JDone: Maybe they can do an ad deal with GlaxoSmithKline.... anti-depressants are big business. more » | Other threads
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the chart
Does Bebo brag prove AOL CEO's a liar, or just unable to read?
AOL CEO Randy Falco said the $850 million Bebo acquisition put his company in "a leading position" in social networks. Too bad his claim doesn't jibe with ComScore's chart comparing Bebo's traffic to social networks MySpace and Facebook, above. Where was "human computer" Ron Grant when Falco needed him to do some math? Below, more damning stats from Hitwise. More »
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Comment by Tiltawhorl: @bileblaster: 1. AIM and ICQ are instant messenging tools. Not Facebook or Myspace-type products. And they don't make money. 2. AIM... more » | Other threads
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aol
AOL buys Bebo for $850 million, delusional Falco claims "leading position"
AOL CEO Randy Falco just announced to employees that AOL will buy the social network Bebo. News.com reports AOL paid $850 million. In the memo, Falco claims the acquisition "puts us squarely in a leading position in social media at a time when it's growing at a fantastic rate." Incorrect. We may not know what "social media" means, but we know how to define "leading." And the only thing Bebo leads in is down time. As of February 26, Bebo led all social networks with 12 hours and 28 minutes of down time since the beginning of 2008. Here's Falco's delusional memo in full. More »
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Comment by schvitzatura: @eire01: Evidence of the 'ol glazzies: West Staines Massive more » | Other threads
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the chart
Bebo needs cash to keep its servers running
Now we know why Bebo's so eager for more cash. It needs more servers. According to Pingdom, Bebo has already been down for 12 hours and 28 minutes so far this year. Check out the full chart to see how 13 other social networks have fared so far.
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Comment by el_googlo: err.. who designed this chart? shouldn't linkedin go before reunion.com?.. and WTF is reunion.com? never heard of them. also, consumating will... more » | Other threads
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geeks gone wild
Bebo execs, lawyers throw down in London
Why is Jordy Mont-Reynaud, the 24-year-old "mobile guy" for social network Bebo, partying in London with strategy director Evan Cohen, marketing VP Ziv Navoth, and two lawyers? Bebo is rumored to be exploring a sale or investment. Did Bebo just score some dollars from a big wireless company? -
nerdfight
TechCrunch's Bebo rumor sends Kara Swisher spinning
Bebo had found potential buyers in Microsoft and Yahoo, sources told BoomTown's Kara Swisher, not Google or News Corp. as TechCrunch reported. These facts were "easy to find out about by anyone who can pick up a phone and ask around like a reporter is supposed to," WSJ vet Swisher writes on her blog. Then she goes on to slam Michael Arrington's TechCrunch some more.BoomTown is simultaneously incredulous and in awe of the way TechCrunch's fanciful story on the Bebo sale yesterday managed to both loudly hawk the rumor and also madly back-pedal away from it: "We put the chances of this rumor being true at a solid 50 percent.
Next time, Kara, save yourself the mental agony and just publish your exquisitely sourced story first. (Photo by Joi)
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Comment by DaveMcClure500Hats: @everyone: for clarification, the TC story about Plaxo was by Erick Schonfeld, not Mike Arrington. you folks might want... more » | Other threads
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rumormonger
MySpace, Google stalking Bebo for $1 billion-plus
The rumor mill is always churning on San Francisco-based Bebo. Now Google may be interested in acquiring the social network for $1 billion to $1.5 billion. That's a lot of cheese for a smallish social network that has almost no presence in the U.S. Why would Google want it? More »
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Comment by babyjesus: or maybe trade a couple pairs of hammer pants for some equity? -mike more » | Other threads
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stats
ComScore says social networks' growth is slowing
Creative Capital got ahold of the December 2007 ComScore numbers for the top social networks in the U.S. — and they are, on the whole, not good. Engagement — average minutes spent on the site per visitor — is down for MySpace and Microsoft's Live Spaces, but up for almost all the other sites. Unique visitor growth is ominously low for MySpace and, in the last three months, LinkedIn. Hit the jump to see the numbers for yourself. More »
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Comment by BobDope: Facebook gonna crumble too, just a matter of time. Buy the racehorse while you can, kids. more » | Other threads
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kthanxdie
Seven Kids Hang Themselves In The Name Of "Networking"
How about a MySpace suicide story seven times more depressing than Megan Meier? Because there's been a spate of hangings in Brigend Wales. It starts with Dale Crole, a 20-year-old straight from juvi who hanged himself in a warehouse and was found a year ago. A friend of Dale's named David hung himself next, and a friend of David's went next, and four more boys followed before last Thursday, when 17-year-old Natsha Randall hung herself in her family basement. Now cops seem to be wondering whether Randall spearheaded some sort of vapid suicide cult. It's hard to say. All the members of the suicide ring had heavy internet habits. A story about Natasha "sxiwildchild"'s page on the social networking site bebo in the Daily Mail portrays her as one of those teenagers whose inability to distinguish right from wrong seems palpably traceable to an inability to distinguish real life from the internet. (The story notes that "Will you have sex with me?" is the fourth question she asks prospective friends on the site. [Jezebel] -
the chart
Why a little Bebo wouldn't be so bad for MySpace
Yesterday, we reported that MySpace continues to beat Facebook soundly in traffic. But some, including Silicon Alley Insider's Henry Blodget, reject the U.S. numbers we cited from Hitwise, saying worldwide traffic indicates "Facebook is coming up behind MySpace like a Ferrari about to blow past a bus." And how could we ignore such a simile? It's totally awesome, dude! So here's a chart comparing worldwide traffic for Facebook and MySpace, from ComScore. More »
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Comment by Ron-Mexico: Bebo's layouts have too much personality. We'd much rather have the cold, sterile-looking, MS Office-like layout of Facebook any... more » | Other threads
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venture capital
After MySQL, will Barry Maloney see a Bebo payday, too?
You likely haven't heard of Balderton Capital, Benchmark's former affiliate in Europe. But Barry Maloney, a partner at the VC firm, is crowing after the $1 billion sale of MySQL to Sun. Balderton owned a 15 percent stake in MySQL. It owns a similar share of Bebo, the social network which Rupert Murdoch reportedly paid a visit to recently. Bebo denies Murdoch's interest was related to an acquisition. But Bebo's U.K. market share is a coveted prize. Were Bebo to sell, so soon after MySQL's exit, Maloney would have even more reason to brag; he's on Bebo's board.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Owen Thomas: @jashed: $800 million in cash, $200 million in stock to assume MySQL's employee stock options. more » | Other threads
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the chart
MySpace still slapping Facebook around
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg may be getting all the money and media attention lately, but News Corp.'s MySpace still dominates when it comes to traffic. The site commands more than 70 percent of visits to social networks, according to this latest chart from Hitwise. Still, its share declined 8 percent in the last year. Which might explain why News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch was rumored to be poking around runner-up social network Bebo recently. Oh, and by the looks of things, maybe Barry Diller should have acquired MyYearbook for IAC back when he reportedly expressed interest.
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Comment by macbeach: I couldn't find a world view of this. I'd be interested to know how that stacks up considering Orkut... more » | Other threads
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