The SNW/SMC Industry Insider is the weekly news summary for the social networking industry
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~ SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE & STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE ~:
Next social media conference will be held in Miami and is scheduled for January 23-30 2012.
Register before December 15 and save $400.
http://www.socialmediaconference.com/form-1-miami.php
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:~ TOP SOCIAL NETWORKING WATCH NEWS ITEMS ~:
The Top Viral Video Campaign, Updated December 8th, 2011
http://tinyurl.com/adcampaign137
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Google To Add Local Deals To Google+ Mobile Check-ins
VENTURE BEAT - Dec 9 - A Google spokesperson confirmed that location-based deals will be coming to Google+ next week. The Google+ social network may be adding features to its mobile app that will allow users to claim deals when they check in at locations. One year ago this week, Groupon rejected a $6 billion buyout offer from Google. Even without the daily deals acquisition, Google has been attacking local commerce from all sides. Google Offers launched soon after the Groupon deal went pear-shaped, and the company continues to buy smaller deals sites, such as TheDealMap.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/google-to-add-local-deals-to-google-mobile-check-ins.html
Spotify Launches Spotify Radio
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 9 - Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has just announced its beefed up Radio feature. Ek however did not mince words when describing the feature, “It’s kind of like Pandora with unlimited skipping and unlimited stations.” Pandora, which is now an achingly public company, currently limits users to 100 stations and eight song skips.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/spotify-launches-spotify-radio.html
Zynga Said To Receive Enough Orders To Cover All 100 Million Shares In IPO
BLOOMBERG - Dec 8 - Zynga, the biggest maker of games on Facebook, received enough orders to cover all the shares being sold in its IPO. Zynga plans to sell 100M shares for $8.50 to $10 apiece, according to regulatory filings. The high end of that price range would value Zynga at $7 billion.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/zynga-said-to-receive-enough-orders-to-cover-all-100-million-shares-in-ipo.html
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US Virtual Goods Market To Hit $2.9 Billion In 2012
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 8 - The overall market for virtual goods in the US is headed towards $2.9 billion for 2012, according to the Inside Virtual Goods report. That’s up from $2.2 billion this year, and $1.6 billion in 2010. Virtual goods on Facebook are continuing to comprise more than half of that, going from $835M in 2010 to $1.2 billion this year to $1.6 billion next year. The report estimates that mobile virtual goods (for games only) made $350M this year, and will grow to $500M next year.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/us-virtual-goods-market-to-hit-29-billion-in-2012.html
LinkedIn Opens First Latin American Office
SOCIAL BARREL - Dec 6 - Professional social network LinkedIn, which staged its IPO in June of this year, opened its first office in Latin America, in Sao Paolo, Brazil. LinkedIn’s opening of its Sao Paolo office is part of broader efforts to expand internationally. The company started operations in Japan last month and in May launched its Asia headquarters in Singapore.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/linkedin-opens-first-latin-american-office.html
Gree Aims To Have 1 Billion User Accounts Within Five Years
BUSINESS WEEK - Dec 6 - Gree, Japan’s second-biggest social-network, aims to have 1 billion user accounts in 3-5 years. The Tokyo-based company acquired Burlingame, California-based online-games network OpenFeint for $104M in April as it seeks to expand overseas. Gree has 150M user accounts globally, with overseas operations in nine countries.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/gree-aims-to-have-1-billion-user-accounts-within-five-years.html
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Japanese Mobile Social Gaming Startup Gumi Raises $26 Million
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 5 - Mobile gaming publisher Gumi, which has been growing very rapidly lately, raised $26M last week in a series F round. Gumi has 140 employees. Its growth started taking off this year. The company expects to sell more than $50M worth of virtual in-game coins this year which can be used by players to outfit their characters and level up. The company currently has eight games, including Yakuza Wars, Pirate Wars, and FIFA World Class Soccer. It has 10M registered users in Japan, and 1M active users per month. The average revenue per user in Japan is between $2.50 and $4.00, with some players paying $50 to $100 a month in virtual goods.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/japanese-mobile-social-gaming-startup-gumi-raises-26-million.html
Facebook Has Acquired Gowalla
TECH CRUNCH - Dec 2 - Facebook has acquired location-based startup Gowalla. The terms of the deal haven’t been reported, and Gowalla declined to comment. Facebook says it doesn’t comment on rumor and speculation. According to CNN’s report, the Gowalla team will be working on Facebook Timeline, with most of the team moving to Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters and some remaining in Gowalla’s hometown of Austin, where Facebook has an office as well. Gowalla, which has raised $10.4M to date, first launched at SXSW 2009 — going head-to-head against Foursquare, with a stronger emphasis on virtual goods than their competitor.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2011/12/facebook-has-acquired-gowalla.html
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:~ DAILY DEALS OBSERVER ~:
Daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social are storming along. We thought it would be nice if there was a news illumination blog for the daily deals industry. So we created The Daily Deals Observer. We hope you like it, and it's useful for you.
http://www.dailydealsobserver.com
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Industry Message Boards @ mb.socialnetworkingonference.com
Conference Organiser, Marc Lesnick, marc@lesnick.net, 212-722-1744
Social Networking Watch, www.socialnetworkingwatch.com or snw1.com
Editor: Mark Brooks, mark@socialnetworkingwatch.com, 212-444-1636
