Facebook’s embedded option
The best way to think of Facebook’s stock is as the sum of two businesses: the existing display ad businesses, and a probability-weighted option on a new line of business. This is how Wall Street views it. For example, here is a section of a recent Goldman Sachs analyst report on Facebook:
Optionality not in the model: further potential upside
While not in our model, as [Facebook] has not publicly expressed pursuit of these areas, we believe there are three obvious opportunities that the company could leverage its platform to capitalize on:
- Developing an external ad network
- Monetizing paid search
- Entering China
http://cdixon.org/2012/09/16/facebooks-embedded-option/
Shazam now lets you tag any TV show on any channel, hits 250 million users
Music-tagging app Shazam today announced that it’s expanding its functionality to let you tag any TV show on any channel in order to find out what music is playing, who’s acting on screen, and more. The company also announced that it now has a mind-boggling 250 million users, which makes it one of the top ten most downloaded apps of all time since it debuted back in 2008. “Each week we get more than two million users. People think it’s magical,” Chief Revenue Officer Doug Garland says. “But the reason people come back is because there’s an amazing degree of utility.”
http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/17/3344706/shazam-for-tv-any-channel-250-million-users
Everything’s broken and nobody’s upset
Software doesn’t work. I’m shocked at how often we put up with it. Here’s just a few issues – literally off the top of my head – that I personally dealt with last week.
My iPhone 4s has 3 gigs of “OTHER” taking up space, according to iTunes. No one has any idea what other is and all the suggestions are to reset it completely or “delete and re-add your mail accounts.” Seems like a problem to me when I have only 16 total gigs on the device!
The Windows Indexing Service on my desktop has been running for 3 straight days. The answer? Delete the rebuild the index. That only took a day.
I have 4 and sometimes 5 Contacts for every one Actual Human on my iPhone. I’ve linked them all, but duplicates still show up.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/EverythingsBrokenAndNobodysUpset.aspx
The Return of Facebook’s Winklevoss Twins
The Winklevoss twins lost the biggest social-network showdown ever when their rival, Mark Zuckerberg, walked away with Facebook. Now they are trying again—with a social network for professional investors.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10000872396390444433504577651750662070974-lMyQjAxMTAyMDEwNjAxODY3Wj.html
Disruptions: Let Silicon Valley Eat … Ramen Noodles?
You don’t have to spend much time in Silicon Valley to start hearing that the people don’t care about money. People here are just trying to make the world a better place. Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists eat ramen noodles for dinner and drive old, clunky Hondas to work. If they do make money, that’s just a tiny cherry on top of their altruistic Tofutti soy whip sundae.
That’s what people here would like the world to think. Let’s be realistic, these start-ups aren’t nonprofit organizations.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/disruptions-let-silicon-valley-eat-ramen-noodles/
Twitter To Remove Third-Party Image Services From Its Apps
Twitter will soon remove support for third-party image hosts, such as Twitpic and yfrog, from its official apps, according to a person who was briefed on the company’s plans. The changes will be coming fairly soon — likely in the next updates to each client.
Companies that will be affected by the change have been contacted by Twitter, perhaps in an effort to preempt a harsh reaction similar the one the company received from app developers after instituting a client user cap last month. At the moment, there are six upload options in the official Twitter app for iPhone. (Though one, Posterous, is owned by Twitter.)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jwherrman/twitter-is-removing-third-party-image-services-fro
4 Reasons Facebook Dumped HTML5 And Went Native
Facebook made quite a splash when they released their native iOS app, not because of their app per se, but because of their conclusion that their biggest mistake was betting on HTML5, so they had to go native.
As you might imagine this was a bit like telling a Great White Shark that its bark is worse than its bite. A common refrain was Facebook simply had made a bad HTML5 site, not that HTML5 itself is bad, as plenty of other vendors have made slick well performing mobile sites.
http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/9/15/4-reasons-facebook-dumped-html5-and-went-native.html
Samsung to unveil Galaxy S4 in Feb 2013
Samsung Electronics plan to unveil the latest in its Galaxy line, S IV, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February next year, company officials and its local part suppliers told The Korea Times on Sunday.
A company official who declined to be named, told the daily news site the company is “ready” to unveil the Galaxy S IV in Barcelona next year, and the new device is expected to hit shelves globally a month later at the latest.
http://www.zdnet.com/samsung-to-unveil-galaxy-s4-in-feb-2013-7000004329/
How Eric Hippeau Powers New York’s Surging Tech Scene
Eric Hippeau has invested tens of millions of dollars into 80-plus startups, roughly two-thirds of which call New York City home. And if the French-born, English-raised, Brazilian-trained, Silicon Alley-bred media exec had his way, he’d probably still be running one.
http://adage.com/article/digital/eric-hippeau-powers-york-s-surging-tech-scene/237221/
iPhone 5: Customers in the Big Apple camp out 8 days early
In the popular imagination — and in Samsung TV ads — the people willing to wait in line for days to buy the newest Apple (AAPL) gewgaw are hopeless fanboys and fangirls who need to get a life.
That attitude is so 2007.
Today, occupying a space near enough to the front of an iPhone queue to draw media attention is a commodity with tangible commercial value.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/09/16/iphone-5-customers-in-the-big-apple-camp-out-8-days-early/
