Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

First off, let me start by saying that I love Mark Cuban. I love him as a business man and I love him as a sports franchise owner. Whether you agree or disagree with what he does or what he says you have to admire anyone who speaks their mind. Recently, Mr. Cuban made some comments at a conference about how the Internet is dead and boring…well this past Friday he decided to elaborate what he meant on his blog - BlogMaverick.com. So I gave his post a read and another read and then another…I might have to read it yet again because I just don’t get what point he is trying to make. Below are some excerpts that I found to be the most interesting / confusing - then with a few of my own comments. What better way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon!

"Every generation has its defining breakthrough. Cars, TV, Radio, Planes,highways, the wheel, the printing press, the list goes on forever. I’m sure in each generation to whom the invention was a breakthrough it may have been heretical to consider those inventions "dead and boring". The reality is that at some point they stop changing. They stop evolving. They become utilities or utilitarian and are taken for granted." -  I get the point he i trying to make that the internet will and has stopped evolving but is it fair to say that it is dead? Take TV or even Radio, i see those information mediums as having gone through numerous changes since their inception. Is TV the same as it was 5, 10, 20 years ago? No its not, we have seen the "evolution" in the form of color, cable channels, satellite services, HD, On demand…the list goes on. If such an archaic technology like Television hasn’t stopped evolving how could something as dynamic and global as the Internet?

"Some of you may not want to admit it, but that’s exactly what the net has become. A utility. It has stopped evolving. Your Internet experience today is not much different than it was 5 years ago." - I for one think that my internet experience is very different now then it was 5 years ago, at least I hope it is. Do I surf the same sites? For the most part yes, but how I interact with them has changed drastically.

Ok, that is enough of that, I am getting a headache. Cuban says that the Internet is becoming a platform, a utility. Yes. So? Universal adoption of anything, especially if it is tech related doesn’t mean innovation will die…I think it will make it evolve even more.  

Read his blog post yourself and see what you make of it. 

Bebo, a leading social networking website, announced yesterday that they will be launching a Microsoft powered IM platform this fall. This is the first major announcement regarding Microsoft’s new initiative of letting external businesses integrate its Windows Live Web services. The shocking aspect of this deal is that Microsoft is not requiring Bebo members to have a Live / Passport / Hotmail ID to use the service.

The Bebo IM platform will have limited access to Microsoft’s broader Messenger platform as they obviously want to control IM communications as much as possible. I will be curious to see if this leads to more social media websites partnering with existing services rather then building their own solutions.

Financial details of the deal have not been released.  

Parks Associates, a research and analysis company, sent out a report last Friday stating that online games are still the most popular internet activity in America. The report, "Casual Gaming Market Update", shows that 34% of adult internet users play online games each week , compare that to the 29% who watch online videos and 19% who utilize social networking sites…take that YouTube and Facebook! However the most interesting bit of information was that online gaming jumped up from 19% in the second quarter of last year, that is a huge increase for an area of activity that doesn’t have the buzz of social networking or online videos.

Research Analyst James Kuai said in a prepared statement, "Despite the growing popularity of YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, gaming remains the king of online entertainment, driven largely by casual gaming activities. Unlike sites for social networking and video streaming, which rely solely on advertising revenue, casual gaming has more mature and heterogeneous revenue models, including Web-based and in-game advertising, try-before-you-buy, subscriptions, and micro-transactions."

So once the coolness of social networking wears off and watching the same skateboarding dog starts to bore people to tears, online gaming will still be around kicking ass…sweet.

Everyone’s favorite Social Networking destination Facebook just launched iphone.facebook.com, a website designed just for Apple’s iPhone users. Facebook for iPhone is the second mobile site for launched by Facebook, the first being m.facebook.com.

Here is what Joe Hewitt, a Facebook engineer had to say: "Facebook for iPhone not only looks wonderful on that big touch screen, it makes it easier than ever to stay connected with your friends wherever you are. If you are like me you may find yourself updating your status a bazillion time a day once you have Facebook in your pocket everywhere you go. The site lets you search for people with just a few quick taps and call your friends directly from their profile. Facebook events become even easier with your iPhone, as you can quickly look up maps and directions on the go."

Customizing websites for specific devices is something I always thought should happen more often. still waiting for treo.facebook.com to launch!

Classmates Media, a division of United Online, filed for a $125 million IPO yesterday - so how many Social Media companies will be watching this with a nervous anticipation? Classmates.com has been around long before the term "social networking" became hip and companies like Facebook ruled the scene. By filing this IPO it seems as though Classmates could steal some of the buzz that has circled sites like Facebook, Linkedin and Bebo in recent months. Classmates.com has always been one of the largest advertisers online and has over 50 million registered users - with 2.7 million of those being paid accounts.   

The IPO will be backed by some big names, including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and the proposed symbol would be "CLAS". If things go well, it will open the floodgates for other Social Media sites big and small to jump into the IPO waters.