VirtualWorld.ca
Should Groupon have taken the $6 billion dollar buyout offer from Google?
It might be looking so, as the group buying market doesn't seem to be picking up steam anymore.
Click here to see the chart which explains the high and low lights of the Groupon story, and how it all seems to be slowly falling apart. (Click on the chart if you need to increase the size).
Thanks to CreditScore.net for this chart.
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Monday, November 5, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Kevin Systrom of Instagram
VirtualWorld.ca
If you are one of the millions of faithful users of the mobile photo sharing and editing network called Instagram, then here is an article you'll enjoy. Forbes just published a piece about Kevin Systrom, the original founder of Instagram. It gives a good discussion about his background, how he came to start Instagram, and who he encountered along the way. Even though Instagram was sold to Facebook for $1 billion, Systrom will be staying on to run it. It is still early days for Instagram, and they haven't even started trying to earn money with it, so we should see a lot of changes over time. I think Instagram is so popular right now, it should be around for a while. I don't use it myself, but one of my kids loves it. When I upgrade to a smartphone I'll probably sign up for an account then.
here is the link to the article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/08/01/instagrams-kevin-systrom-the-stanford-millionaire-machine-strikes-again/
If you are one of the millions of faithful users of the mobile photo sharing and editing network called Instagram, then here is an article you'll enjoy. Forbes just published a piece about Kevin Systrom, the original founder of Instagram. It gives a good discussion about his background, how he came to start Instagram, and who he encountered along the way. Even though Instagram was sold to Facebook for $1 billion, Systrom will be staying on to run it. It is still early days for Instagram, and they haven't even started trying to earn money with it, so we should see a lot of changes over time. I think Instagram is so popular right now, it should be around for a while. I don't use it myself, but one of my kids loves it. When I upgrade to a smartphone I'll probably sign up for an account then.
here is the link to the article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbertoni/2012/08/01/instagrams-kevin-systrom-the-stanford-millionaire-machine-strikes-again/
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Facebook IPO - a Virtual Fail?
VirtualWorld.ca
I'm lucky enough to be driving a truck that has XM satellite radio in it right now, and in the past two weeks I've been listening to channels 112 and 113 while driving. Those are the channels for CNBC and Bloomberg business news. And both of those channels have been talking a lot about the Facebook IPO. Probably too much.
Sure, the stock exchange had troubles in the first half hour. But a lot of people are talking about how the IPO price isn't up, how Facebook is overvalued right now, and how some people got too many shares.
First off, a company should price the IPO at a level that will sell all the shares offered for the highest price it can get. This money is going to the company, and if the IPO is priced too low then they are missing out on funding. If the share price had flown up after the IPO, analysts would be complaining about how the IPO was priced wrong. At $38, it was priced right.
Yes, Facebook is highly valued now compared to other tech companies. Will Facebook last? Will it face competition? Being the first mover into real social networking, and having almost 1 billion users, makes me think they will continue to be to social networking like eBay is to online auctions, and Amazon is to online retail. Facebook just has too much of a head start in their space. They are still figuring out ways to make money, especially in mobile which is becoming huge. Their value is their user base, if you have the eyeballs then you can figure out the rest as you go. You can have the best monetization scheme in the world, but if you don't have the users it's useless. Give me the eyeballs anyday and I'll figure it out.
Prior to the IPO, some people put in for more shares thinking they would only get a low % of them. Simply, it's their own fault if they got all the shares they asked for. Many of these people probably hoped to flip the shares for a quick buck, but got caught when the shares went below the IPO price. Too bad, but that's the game you decided to play.
So Facebook is now a public company. It is down in share price, but I've seen many more stocks fall by a lot more in share price in the last few years. It still has some upside as it figures out it's monetization. Now let's move on and stop talking so much about the Facebook IPO, it's in the history books.
I'm lucky enough to be driving a truck that has XM satellite radio in it right now, and in the past two weeks I've been listening to channels 112 and 113 while driving. Those are the channels for CNBC and Bloomberg business news. And both of those channels have been talking a lot about the Facebook IPO. Probably too much.
Sure, the stock exchange had troubles in the first half hour. But a lot of people are talking about how the IPO price isn't up, how Facebook is overvalued right now, and how some people got too many shares.
First off, a company should price the IPO at a level that will sell all the shares offered for the highest price it can get. This money is going to the company, and if the IPO is priced too low then they are missing out on funding. If the share price had flown up after the IPO, analysts would be complaining about how the IPO was priced wrong. At $38, it was priced right.
Yes, Facebook is highly valued now compared to other tech companies. Will Facebook last? Will it face competition? Being the first mover into real social networking, and having almost 1 billion users, makes me think they will continue to be to social networking like eBay is to online auctions, and Amazon is to online retail. Facebook just has too much of a head start in their space. They are still figuring out ways to make money, especially in mobile which is becoming huge. Their value is their user base, if you have the eyeballs then you can figure out the rest as you go. You can have the best monetization scheme in the world, but if you don't have the users it's useless. Give me the eyeballs anyday and I'll figure it out.
Prior to the IPO, some people put in for more shares thinking they would only get a low % of them. Simply, it's their own fault if they got all the shares they asked for. Many of these people probably hoped to flip the shares for a quick buck, but got caught when the shares went below the IPO price. Too bad, but that's the game you decided to play.
So Facebook is now a public company. It is down in share price, but I've seen many more stocks fall by a lot more in share price in the last few years. It still has some upside as it figures out it's monetization. Now let's move on and stop talking so much about the Facebook IPO, it's in the history books.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
How Much is Pinterest Worth?
VirtualWorld.ca
I've blogged about Pinterest.com before, but since the recent sale of Instagram for $1 billion many are wondering how much Pinterest is worth.
Pinterest is gaining a lot of popularity and especially among women in North America. It allows people to share photos and images from across the web (or your own photos) of things they like. You can create 'pin boards' to organize the images, and people can re-pin your images to their own boards if they like them. There is a lot of commercial possibility with Pinterest, because people can share images of products with links to websites where they can be bought. If your company has an item that gets popular on Pinterest, you will likely have more sales.
So how much is that worth?
The internet is all about traffic and how long users stay on your site. What they do while they are there is also important, which brings me back to my earlier comment on the commercial potential of Pinterest. While Pinterest is way behind Facebook in number of visitors, it is closing on Twitter.
From those numbers, my guess would be that you are talking in the billions of dollars in value, though probably not more than $10 billion (yet).
According to the scoreboard from Experian Hitwise data from March 2012, Pinterest is the third-most-popular social media platform in the United States. It is running close behind Twitter in the number of total visits. Facebook is the big beast at 7 billion total visits, Twitter while very far behind, is logging 182 million visits. Pinterest is next with 104 million and gaining quickly.
Here is an article you can read on the potential value of Pinterest:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/is-pinterest-really-worth-77-billion/article2403746/
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I've blogged about Pinterest.com before, but since the recent sale of Instagram for $1 billion many are wondering how much Pinterest is worth.
Pinterest is gaining a lot of popularity and especially among women in North America. It allows people to share photos and images from across the web (or your own photos) of things they like. You can create 'pin boards' to organize the images, and people can re-pin your images to their own boards if they like them. There is a lot of commercial possibility with Pinterest, because people can share images of products with links to websites where they can be bought. If your company has an item that gets popular on Pinterest, you will likely have more sales.
So how much is that worth?
The internet is all about traffic and how long users stay on your site. What they do while they are there is also important, which brings me back to my earlier comment on the commercial potential of Pinterest. While Pinterest is way behind Facebook in number of visitors, it is closing on Twitter.
From those numbers, my guess would be that you are talking in the billions of dollars in value, though probably not more than $10 billion (yet).
According to the scoreboard from Experian Hitwise data from March 2012, Pinterest is the third-most-popular social media platform in the United States. It is running close behind Twitter in the number of total visits. Facebook is the big beast at 7 billion total visits, Twitter while very far behind, is logging 182 million visits. Pinterest is next with 104 million and gaining quickly.
Here is an article you can read on the potential value of Pinterest:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/is-pinterest-really-worth-77-billion/article2403746/
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Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Instagram Sold for $1 Billion to Facebook
VirtualWorld.ca
The virtual world keeps getting more expensive!
Facebook buys photo sharing site/app Instagram for $1 Billion in stock and cash.
I think that this is a good buy for Facebook because Instagram is becoming very popular. 30 million users already and only on the Apple iOS. Instagram just launched an Android app which should get it more users. Young people especially love sharing and liking photos, and following others. Instagram also allows you to edit your photos with different effects; to make them look old, shiny, cartoonish, etc. It is fun and easy to use, which is probably why it's becoming so popular. They are riding the mobile trend and the fact that every mobile device now has a camera.
If Facebook hadn't bought Instagram, someone else probably would have. Although Instagram doesn't have any revenues and is barely one year old, it shouldn't be hard to monetize with all the photos having keyword hashtags. Facebook likely won't change too much right away in order to keep users happy. It is a good purchase for them; they keep Instagram from their competitors and gain from the growing user base of photo sharers.
If Facebook grew up on dorm room — and later family room — laptops, Instagram's success was firmly based on mobile devices, and although its 30 million-strong user base is a mere drop in the bucket compared to Facebook's 850 million-plus, CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw the writing on the wall: His about-to-go-public company is vulnerable to smaller, more agile, mobile-based apps and services, and it makes more sense to buy them than fight them.
to read the full article, click below:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/facebook-acquires-instagram-behind-bold-billion-dollar-buy-121857870.html
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The virtual world keeps getting more expensive!
Facebook buys photo sharing site/app Instagram for $1 Billion in stock and cash.
I think that this is a good buy for Facebook because Instagram is becoming very popular. 30 million users already and only on the Apple iOS. Instagram just launched an Android app which should get it more users. Young people especially love sharing and liking photos, and following others. Instagram also allows you to edit your photos with different effects; to make them look old, shiny, cartoonish, etc. It is fun and easy to use, which is probably why it's becoming so popular. They are riding the mobile trend and the fact that every mobile device now has a camera.
If Facebook hadn't bought Instagram, someone else probably would have. Although Instagram doesn't have any revenues and is barely one year old, it shouldn't be hard to monetize with all the photos having keyword hashtags. Facebook likely won't change too much right away in order to keep users happy. It is a good purchase for them; they keep Instagram from their competitors and gain from the growing user base of photo sharers.
If Facebook grew up on dorm room — and later family room — laptops, Instagram's success was firmly based on mobile devices, and although its 30 million-strong user base is a mere drop in the bucket compared to Facebook's 850 million-plus, CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw the writing on the wall: His about-to-go-public company is vulnerable to smaller, more agile, mobile-based apps and services, and it makes more sense to buy them than fight them.
to read the full article, click below:
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/facebook-acquires-instagram-behind-bold-billion-dollar-buy-121857870.html
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Sunday, March 11, 2012
Pinterest.com - Popular Social Network and Growing
VirtualWorld.ca
I first learned about Pinterest.com about one or two years ago when someone I follow on Twitter posted a link to their Pinterest profile. I didn't think much of it then because Twitter was more my focus. I wasn't really even sure what it was other than a way to share interests.
Today, Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks and is quickly following in the steps of Facebook and Twitter.
How does Pinterest work?
You request an invite from their homepage, and can join when it's emailed to you, usually in a day or so. Pinterest apparently has only 20 employees managing a site that now has over 10 million users. You can join with your Facebook or Twitter account info which will link your accounts and fill in some of the info.
Once you're in, you can create 'Pin Boards'. You upload a Pin button to your computer, and while you surf the net you can click the Pin button. It will give you photos from the page you are looking at, and you can decide which to pin to your boards. Over time, you collect a bunch of photos and website links you are interested in, and can share with others. You can share photos of fashion, people, home wares, recipes, sports, etc. You can create a board around your interestes, such as home improvements, my clothes, cars and so on.
So far, Pinterest is being heavily used by women in North America and is growing fast. It looks like a good way for people to share pictures from websites about their interests. It is still early, so we'll have to watch how the site develops. So far, the owners of Pinterest must be very encouraged by the activity.
Instagram is another social network that is growing, but you need to do your own photos and have an ipod/iphone type device. The whole point of the site is to upload your photos and share them, get 'likes' and 'followers', etc. Though I still think it will grow, the fact you need to have a mobile device and participate via photos restricts it for many people.
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I first learned about Pinterest.com about one or two years ago when someone I follow on Twitter posted a link to their Pinterest profile. I didn't think much of it then because Twitter was more my focus. I wasn't really even sure what it was other than a way to share interests.
Today, Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social networks and is quickly following in the steps of Facebook and Twitter.
How does Pinterest work?
You request an invite from their homepage, and can join when it's emailed to you, usually in a day or so. Pinterest apparently has only 20 employees managing a site that now has over 10 million users. You can join with your Facebook or Twitter account info which will link your accounts and fill in some of the info.
Once you're in, you can create 'Pin Boards'. You upload a Pin button to your computer, and while you surf the net you can click the Pin button. It will give you photos from the page you are looking at, and you can decide which to pin to your boards. Over time, you collect a bunch of photos and website links you are interested in, and can share with others. You can share photos of fashion, people, home wares, recipes, sports, etc. You can create a board around your interestes, such as home improvements, my clothes, cars and so on.
So far, Pinterest is being heavily used by women in North America and is growing fast. It looks like a good way for people to share pictures from websites about their interests. It is still early, so we'll have to watch how the site develops. So far, the owners of Pinterest must be very encouraged by the activity.
Instagram is another social network that is growing, but you need to do your own photos and have an ipod/iphone type device. The whole point of the site is to upload your photos and share them, get 'likes' and 'followers', etc. Though I still think it will grow, the fact you need to have a mobile device and participate via photos restricts it for many people.
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Sunday, February 19, 2012
Soon You Can Advertise on Twitter
VirtualWorld.ca
Change is coming to the virtual world, as Twitter gets set to unveil its self-service advertising system. The system has been in testing for a few months with small businesses.
Twitter has always been under some pressure to show how it can turn a profit with its popular micro-blogging service, and this appears to be their next step to that end. If Twitter plans to do an IPO at some point, they have to show they can increase revenues and income.
To use the automated system at first, advertisers will have to use an American Express card. Later this year it will be open to everyone.
Click below to read more about Twitter's new ad service:
Twitter Unveils New Ad Service
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Change is coming to the virtual world, as Twitter gets set to unveil its self-service advertising system. The system has been in testing for a few months with small businesses.
Twitter has always been under some pressure to show how it can turn a profit with its popular micro-blogging service, and this appears to be their next step to that end. If Twitter plans to do an IPO at some point, they have to show they can increase revenues and income.
To use the automated system at first, advertisers will have to use an American Express card. Later this year it will be open to everyone.
The automated system will be similar to Google's. Advertisers will be able to specify how much they are willing to spend, pick the cities or regions where they want their ads to appear and write their own commercial messages, which will be confined to Twitter's 140-character limit per tweet. Twitter will only charge for ads that get a user response, such as when a viewer decides to follow the business, retweets the message or clicks on a link.
Click below to read more about Twitter's new ad service:
Twitter Unveils New Ad Service
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Facebook IPO filing imminent?
VirtualWorld.ca
The biggest virtual world, well, in the world, is getting ready to become public!
Buzz around the net is that Facebook is going to file the paperwork this coming week for an IPO to launch in the spring. It could value the company at close to $100 billion dollars. Two other online companies recently IPO'd and the shares haven't done much since. These are Zynga and Groupon. But Facebook is much bigger than those company and has millions more users.
If Facebook can afford to start new hires at $100,000 things must be going well!
Would you buy shares in Facebook?
Click here to read the article about the Facebook IPO.
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The biggest virtual world, well, in the world, is getting ready to become public!
Buzz around the net is that Facebook is going to file the paperwork this coming week for an IPO to launch in the spring. It could value the company at close to $100 billion dollars. Two other online companies recently IPO'd and the shares haven't done much since. These are Zynga and Groupon. But Facebook is much bigger than those company and has millions more users.
If Facebook can afford to start new hires at $100,000 things must be going well!
Would you buy shares in Facebook?
Click here to read the article about the Facebook IPO.
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Website Blackouts have effect on SOPA
VirtualWorld.ca
Yesterday Wikipedia.org and other websites went dark in protest of the planned SOPA legislation. It appears this tactic has worked, as support for SOPA is starting to fade.
Even though the biggest corporate opponents of SOPA and PIPA – Google, Facebook and Twitter, among others – didn’t go dark on Wednesday, the digital blackout appears to have prompted several key legislators to drop their support for the bills, in the process altering the political landscape and making it far less likely either bill will pass smoothly.
Click here to read full article
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Yesterday Wikipedia.org and other websites went dark in protest of the planned SOPA legislation. It appears this tactic has worked, as support for SOPA is starting to fade.
Even though the biggest corporate opponents of SOPA and PIPA – Google, Facebook and Twitter, among others – didn’t go dark on Wednesday, the digital blackout appears to have prompted several key legislators to drop their support for the bills, in the process altering the political landscape and making it far less likely either bill will pass smoothly.
Click here to read full article
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Steve Jobs action figure - very lifelike
VirtualWorld.ca
I just learned today that there is actually going to be a Steve Jobs action figure, if you can believe it!
It is supposed to be released in February and after seeing a preview picture, I can say it looks very life-like. Definitely the best action figure likeness to real person I've EVER seen. And I've seen lots of action figures for Star Wars, Wrestlers, hockey players, and super heroes.
I'm sure when it comes out it will get a lot of media attention.
If you want to see for yourself, visit:
Steve Jobs action figure
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I just learned today that there is actually going to be a Steve Jobs action figure, if you can believe it!
It is supposed to be released in February and after seeing a preview picture, I can say it looks very life-like. Definitely the best action figure likeness to real person I've EVER seen. And I've seen lots of action figures for Star Wars, Wrestlers, hockey players, and super heroes.
I'm sure when it comes out it will get a lot of media attention.
If you want to see for yourself, visit:
Steve Jobs action figure
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