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 event will be held in Beverly Hills and is scheduled for June 20-22 2012.
http://www.socialmediaconference.com
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:~ TOP SOCIAL NETWORKING WATCH NEWS ITEMS, AND WEEKLY INTERVIEW ~:
Interview With Social Media Pro, Ben Stroud
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/interview-with-social-media-pro-ben-stroud.html
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The Top Viral Video Campaign, Updated January 20th, 2012
http://tinyurl.com/adcampaign144
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FTC Blasts Facebook, Google Over Violations Of Privacy
TALKING POINTS MEMO – Jan 26 – Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill spoke Tuesday morning at a cybersecurity forum in Washington D.C. and blasted both Google and Facebook for violating user privacy, saying they “learned it the hard way” not to change user privacy settings without express approval from users. In 2011, both Google and Facebook reached separate but similar agreements with the FTC to undergo 20-years of independent privacy audits. Both companies have been found guilty of violating user privacy agreements and managed to dodge fines and penalties, but have been required by the FTC to develop their own internal privacy programs, which will then be checked periodically to ensure compliance. Brill dodged questions about Google’s latest privacy policy change that will create one policy across all of its products.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/ftc-blasts-facebook-google-over-violations-of-privacy.html
Zynga Gets Boost In Stock Rating And In Traffic
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 25 – Since going public in the middle of December, Zynga has been in a quiet period, but with that now lifted, five banks who underwrote its IPO and two independent analysts have chimed in on stock ratings and traffic. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, and Barclays Capital all expect the stock to rise from its current $9.53 to somewhere in the $11-14 range, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggests a $10.50 target. Independent analysts are expecting Zynga to rise to the $11-12 range. In addition, newly launched games Scramble with Friends and Hidden Chronicles are bringing in 1.2M DAU and 1.7M MAU, and 5.9M DAU and 11.1M MAU respectively. Overall user counts are 55.6M DAU and 230M MAU, Zynga’s best showing in the last six months.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/zynga-gets-boost-in-stock-rating-and-in-traffic.html
Japanese Mixi & DeNA Announce Partnership
PENN-OLSON – Jan 26 – Japanese social networking site Mixi and social gaming platform DeNA have announced that they will partner up in the field of social commerce to open an online mall within Mixi. While Facebook is reigning number one in social networks across the world, it has yet to overtake the hold that Mixi has on Japan, with some 25M users as of September 2011. Mobile users accounts for 80% of the total traffic. DeNA, on the other hand, operates a huge shopping and auction site that sells over 8M items, ranging from fashion to gourmet food. Users are able to shop using points and coins they collect from the gaming platform Mobage. The partnership is hoped to bring more commerce and buying to Mixi, which has already signed big companies such as Lawson, Sanrio, HMV Entertainment and Cecil McBee to its online mall.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/japanese-mixi-dena-announce-partnership.html
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Tagged Begins Transformation Of Acquisition hi5
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 26 – Following December’s announcement of its acquisition of struggling social network hi5, Tagged now says it’s ready to begin the transformation to “a Tagged.com experience with a hi5 wrapper.” Though the changes are still another six to eight weeks away, hi5 users will begin receiving emails later today notifying them about the plans. The biggest impending change will be the removal of the platform’s third-party game developers and replacing it with games developed in-house by Tagged. For the foreseeable future, Tagged has no intention of merging the two sites but intends to keep them as separate but similar entities.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/tagged-begins-transformation-of-acquisition-hi5.html
Google’s 79 Acquisitions In 2011 Cost Nearly $2 Billion
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 27 – Yesterday, Google its 10-K with the SEC and revealed that in 2011, the company spent $2 billion in cash and stocks on completing 79 acquisitions during the year. Several of the larger purchases included ITA Software for $676M in cash, Clever Sense, Katango, and Apture. In the filing, the company states “Acquisitions will also remain an important component of our strategy and use of capital, and we expect our current pace of acquisitions to continue”, so it is not expected for Google to slow down in 2012. In addition, their full-time employee count grew 33% from 24,400 to 32,467.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/googles-79-acquisitions-in-2011-cost-nearly-2-billion.html
Mail.Ru's Social Network Mulls Selling 3% Stake Pre-IPO
TOTAL TELECOM - Jan 25 - Vkontakte.ru part-owned by Russian Internet company Mail.Ru Group confirmed reports that is looking for a minority investor prior to a possible IPO. Vkontakte.ru founder, Pavel Durov, considers an IPO a possible option in 2012 or 2013 and that the company isn't in talks with Mail.Ru and search engines Google or Yandex over the sale of any stake pre-IPO. "But we may sell a small share - about 3%- prior to the IPO to increase market capitalization before the IPO," he said.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/mailrus-social-network-mulls-selling-3-stake-pre-ipo.html
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VKontakte Donates $1 Million To Wikipedia
NEWS.AM - Jan 25 - Head of the Russia’s VKontakte social networking website Pavel Durov donated $1M to the Wikipedia. Wikipedia launched an annual campaign to collect donations for the maintenance of efficiency of the resource in November, 2011.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/vkontakte-donates-1-million-to-wikipedia.html
Twitter Acquires Malware Protection Company
MASHABLE - Jan 24 - Twitter company announced its acquisition of spam and malware protection service Dasient. Dasient will be integrated into Twitter’s “revenue engineering team because they have a deep understanding of advertising-platform security issues,” says Rachael Horwitz, a spokesperson for Twitter. The team will be very valuable as Twitter continues to expand its ad products.
http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/2012/01/twitter-acquires-malware-protection-company.html
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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
