Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

In what was the hottest rumor the past week or so, MSNBC announced today that they have bought social news service Newsvine for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition by MSNBC was the first in its 11 year history and one of the few times a major news site has bought a social media player. MSNBC plans on keeping the Newsvine brand and website separate from MSNBC.com. But, obviously expect to see certain components of each website integrated into the other.

Newsvine is one of the better sources for new - both regional and international - and has always been viewed as a “grown-up” version of Digg / Reddit / Stumbleupon, etc. Newsvine also allows its visitors to write articles, comment and post links - all of which make it more of a community than a news aggregator. The acquisition will also give MSNBC.com some much needed traction in their competition with leading news sites CNN.com, USAToday.com, Yahoo News, etc.

Adweek put out an article yesterday that hits home for most social networking services - how do we go global? For social networking behemoths like Facebook, one of their biggest challenges is to expand beyond the English speaking market. In fact Facebook Founder / CEO Mark Zuckerberg said last week that “global expansion and being able to handle it” is his companies biggest challenge. As you can tell from my post from July 31st (world map of social networking) most major social networking services have a global presence, but there is not one true global dominate force. Outside of North America each country has its own favorite - whether well known like Orkut in Brazil or unknowns like Skyrock Network in France.

“Social networking sites are founded on their ability to allow Internet users to communicate quickly and informally with one another,” said Delphine Gatignol, comScore’s business development manager for France. “The dominance of Skyrock Networks in France is a strong indication that language is a key factor.”

So all a company has to do to gain traction in another country is translate the site? Not quite. Social networking means different things to different people all over the world. What might work for Facebook in the US might not work in countires in Asia. Every aspect of a Social Networking site, features, “widgets” and even design has to be targeted to the demographic and have a true understanding of what is going on in that country. Of course that is where things get difficult. Does a company open up shop in every country they want to enter? Probably not, but they do need to work with local developers / marketers in defining what should and shouldn’t be done.

The Wall Street Journal has a great article that discusses the challenges the current Internet infrastructure faces as it continues to grow exponentially. The article talks with such online luminaries like Larry Roberts and Len Bosack about how we are currently using “last-generation” technology that has gone virtually unchanged for over 40 years and how the explosion in broadband content could slow down or even cripple the Internet as we know it. A definite must read…

ZenithOptimedia released a forecast Monday stating that online video and local search will drive 30% growth in online ad spending this year. ZenithOptimedia had this to say in their report: “We have revised our forecasts for Internet advertising upwards yet again, we now forecast 29.9% growth this year (up from 28.6% three months ago) and 85% growth between 2006 and 2009 (up from 82%). Online video and local search are the new, fast-growing segments, but display, classified and the rest of search are still growing rapidly as well.” The forecast goes on to point out that the share of worldwide ad spending for newspapers will decline, again

This report is only the latest I have read that predicts continuous growth in interactive ad spending. In fact I think that this report is conservative in its estimates. We are only starting to see the possibilities online video brings to advertisers with new technologies and ad opportunities popping up every month. Just think of all of the syndicated content that has yet to reach the public. User generated content has created the interest but professional shows will be the true driving force behind the innovation and growth that we will see in the future.

The good folks at on-demand IPTV service Joost announced today that they are coming out of their “private beta” and now allowing anyone to download their application and enjoy over 15,000 shows. Now of course for anyone that is familiar with Joost, you know that their “private beta” wasn’t that private - over 1,000,000 users signed up during this period. In what is becoming a crowded field, Joost stands out due to their quantity and quality of content, including deals with media giants CBS, Major League Baseball, MTV, Turner and Comedy Central.

I am a huge fan and you should be as well…so download it now!