Advertising has long been the lifeblood of Facebook, and now, the company is hoping small businesses will also find use for its ad platform, a new report claims.
Facebook is looking to partner with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) to inform small businesses on the value of Facebook advertising, and educate them on why they should buy spots on the site
Facebook plans to announce the agreement today.
When the program starts in October Facebook and folks from the U.S. Chamber and the NFIB will head to local chambers of commerce around the country to teach small businesses the most effective ways to advertise on the service. And to help coax those firms into trying out some of the techniques they've learned, Facebook plans in January to give away $50 in advertising rebates to 200,000 small businesses.
Advertising is extremely important for Facebook. Earlier this month, research firm eMarketer revealed that the social network will generate $4.27 billion this year, including $3.8 billion in advertising worldwide. That figure is up a whopping 104 percent compared to its 2010 ad revenue of $1.86 billion.
But even though more companies are putting ads on Facebook, eMarketer says that the world's largest social network has hit a point where it needs to show value in its service. Debra Aho Williamson, a principal analyst at eMarketer, said that Facebook needs to "show advertisers that advertising on the site is effective even without a click or other action." The issue, Williamson says, is that many companies that have "amassed a large of quantity of 'likes,'" feel that they can simply market to customers through their own Pages, rather than through ads.
That might be a problem for Facebook's push to small businesses, as well
small businesses have 9.2 million Pages on the site.
But it's the ad sales pitch Facebook wants to make clear. Speaking to the Journal in an interview published today, Facebook vice president of advertising and global operations, David Fischer, said that the social network can see a way "to give small businesses a boost" with its ads.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Apple: Samsung got 'caught' mimicking iPad
Samsung has been accused by Apple of intentionally designing the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with the Apple iPad in mind.
Presenting arguments to the New South Wales Federal Court today, Apple's lawyers alleged that Samsung has designed its Galaxy Tab 10.1 to look, feel and operate like the iPad and iPad 2 and, in this instance, has been caught in the act. Samsung will "have a go at launching a product and if they get caught out [infringing patents], they'll design around it," Apple's legal counsel said.
Apple originally took Samsung to court in Australia in August, claiming that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed on patents used for the creation of the iPad. Samsung, for its part, claims that Apple was basing its case on the U.S. version of the device and offered up three Australian models for study, agreeing to push back the release of the device to market. Apple claims that the devices it received were hurriedly stripped of contested features in an attempt to dodge the litigation and enable the release of the product.
Presenting arguments to the New South Wales Federal Court today, Apple's lawyers alleged that Samsung has designed its Galaxy Tab 10.1 to look, feel and operate like the iPad and iPad 2 and, in this instance, has been caught in the act. Samsung will "have a go at launching a product and if they get caught out [infringing patents], they'll design around it," Apple's legal counsel said.
Apple originally took Samsung to court in Australia in August, claiming that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed on patents used for the creation of the iPad. Samsung, for its part, claims that Apple was basing its case on the U.S. version of the device and offered up three Australian models for study, agreeing to push back the release of the device to market. Apple claims that the devices it received were hurriedly stripped of contested features in an attempt to dodge the litigation and enable the release of the product.
Apple: Samsung seeks 'excessive' price for patents
Samsung is reportedly looking to exact a hefty price on Apple in their patent dispute.
Samsung wants to charge Apple 2.4 percent of its chip price for every patent, according to Andreas Udo de Haes, an editor at Dutch publication Webwereld, who was tweeting today from one battleground: a courtroom in the Netherlands where Samsung is demanding a ban on the iPhone and iPad in that country due to 3G patents held by Samsung that Apple allegedly is infringing upon.
The demands were supposed to be confidential, Haes tweeted, but were revealed by Apple's counsel. In addition, Apple said that it had purchased chips from Infineon, which was acquired by Intel last year, and as a result doesn't have to pay a royalty to Samsung.
Haes also tweeted that Apple called Samsung's demands "simply excessive."
The revelation of the demands is just the latest in an ever-expanding conflict between the two technology titans. Patent infringement lawsuits span courts in the U.S., Australia, Asia, and Europe, and underscore the growing friction between Apple and the coalition of companies that use Google's Android platform.
A Samsung representative wasn't immediately available to confir
the 2.4 percent figure. An Apple representative wasn't immediately available to comment.
Apple has sued various Android partners as it looks to maintain its leadership in the smartphone business. Android has since overtaken Apple in total market share, but the iPhone remains the top-selling single smartphone and continues to be the leader among high-end handsets.
Tumblr raises $85 million as growth continues
Microblogging provider Tumblr has raised $85 million in a new round of financing.
Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners led the financing round,
Virgin Group chief Richard Branson, along with Spark Capital and Sequoia Capital, also contributed to the round. Tumblr did not disclose its valuation, but the company said that it plans to use the cash to "continue to scale our business and give real focus to the further development of Tumblr."
Tumblr's $85 million in new cash is a major step up in investment for the company. Prior to this round, the firm had raised about $40 million in several different rounds of financing. Its last major round came last November when it raised $30 million From Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital, among others.
Since its launch over four years ago, Tumblr has watched its growth rates soar.
Tumblr generates 13 billion page views each month. What's more, the company is closing in on 30 million blogs, and has seen over 45 million posts added to the site today alone. Recently, Tumblr announced that it reached 10 billion posts since its inception.
Nielsen earlier this month helped shed even more light on Tumblr's growth, saying that the company is an "emerging player in social media." In the past year alone, Nielsen said, Tumblr has nearly tripled its "audience."
Android use surges on mobile ad network
Android continued to scoop up a healthy share of users on Millennial Media's mobile ad network in August, while growth for Apple's iOS was relatively flat.
For the month, Android ad impressions jumped 48 percent over July, giving Google's mobile OS a 54 percent slice of the ad network
In contrast, Apple's iOS failed to gain much ground from July, leaving it with a 28 percent share.
The new market share figures actually showed a decline for Google and a gain for iOS from July. However, the August numbers included both smartphones and connected devices, such as tablets, whereas past rankings covered only smartphones. So the strong demand for the iPad and the lackluster sales for Android tablets certainly played a role in the latest results.
Looking at other mobile platforms, ad impressions for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion grew 10 percent from July, while those for Nokia's Symbian were relatively flat. And though Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 still grabbed only 1 percent overall share from Millennial Media, its ad impressions grew 48 percent from July.
From the hardware side, Apple continued to retain its top perch as the leading mobile device maker with 23 percent of all impressions. The iPhone was also by far the leading mobile phone with a 13 percent share.
HTC shot up to second place in August from fourth place the prior month with more than 16 percent of all impressions. The company saw 5 of its mobile phones on the top 20 list, including the Desire, Evo, Droid Incredible, MyTouch 4G Glacier, and Thunderbolt.
Altogether, Android devices accounted for 15 of the top 20 mobile phones, capturing a collective share of 32 percent among all 20 phones last month.
Smartphones in general continued to inch up in popularity, as measured by the report. Growing 6 percent from July, smartphones grabbed 72 percent of all ad impressions last month, compared with 14 percent for connected devices and 14 percent for feature phones. Those numbers show a dramatic difference from August 2010 when smartphones held 51 percent of the market and feature phones 33 percent.
For the month, Android ad impressions jumped 48 percent over July, giving Google's mobile OS a 54 percent slice of the ad network
In contrast, Apple's iOS failed to gain much ground from July, leaving it with a 28 percent share.
The new market share figures actually showed a decline for Google and a gain for iOS from July. However, the August numbers included both smartphones and connected devices, such as tablets, whereas past rankings covered only smartphones. So the strong demand for the iPad and the lackluster sales for Android tablets certainly played a role in the latest results.
Looking at other mobile platforms, ad impressions for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion grew 10 percent from July, while those for Nokia's Symbian were relatively flat. And though Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 still grabbed only 1 percent overall share from Millennial Media, its ad impressions grew 48 percent from July.
From the hardware side, Apple continued to retain its top perch as the leading mobile device maker with 23 percent of all impressions. The iPhone was also by far the leading mobile phone with a 13 percent share.
HTC shot up to second place in August from fourth place the prior month with more than 16 percent of all impressions. The company saw 5 of its mobile phones on the top 20 list, including the Desire, Evo, Droid Incredible, MyTouch 4G Glacier, and Thunderbolt.
Altogether, Android devices accounted for 15 of the top 20 mobile phones, capturing a collective share of 32 percent among all 20 phones last month.
Smartphones in general continued to inch up in popularity, as measured by the report. Growing 6 percent from July, smartphones grabbed 72 percent of all ad impressions last month, compared with 14 percent for connected devices and 14 percent for feature phones. Those numbers show a dramatic difference from August 2010 when smartphones held 51 percent of the market and feature phones 33 percent.
Google+ officially tops 10 million users
Google's latest social-networking experiment is officially 10 million users strong.
That number, which appeared earlier this week as a third-party estimate, was confirmed today by Google CEO Larry Page, who spent the first few minutes of the company's second-quarter earnings call talking up Google+ and its features.
"I'm super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share just like in real life," Page said in a statement ahead of the call. Page then kicked off the call by talking up the new property, saying that it's a good representation of the kind of clean and easy to use products he wants the company to be making. Page also noted how features like circles and hangouts mimic real-life human interactions.
Google launched Google+ late last month not even in beta, letting in only a handful of users, who could later invite their friends and family. Page noted that the service remains in a "field trial" mode, and with "a lot of barriers" to use it right now, but that the company is continuing to expand how many have access to it. Page referred to the 10 million benchmark as "a great achievement" for the team that worked on the product.
Beyond raw user numbers, Page said the service has received "a ton of activity" with more than 1 billion items shared and received each day. That's been bolstered by the +1 button, which Page said is now being served up around the Web 2.3 billion times a day.
"We want to make products that everybody uses twice a day, like their toothbrush," Page said during the earnings call. "We certainly think about Plus that way, and just generally having a shared identity experience across Google and its products."
Page is currently the second most followed user on the new service
a third-party analytics tool that's currently tracking more than 28,000 profiles on the service. Page is second only to Facebook's CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has approximately twice as many followers.
That number, which appeared earlier this week as a third-party estimate, was confirmed today by Google CEO Larry Page, who spent the first few minutes of the company's second-quarter earnings call talking up Google+ and its features.
"I'm super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share just like in real life," Page said in a statement ahead of the call. Page then kicked off the call by talking up the new property, saying that it's a good representation of the kind of clean and easy to use products he wants the company to be making. Page also noted how features like circles and hangouts mimic real-life human interactions.
Google launched Google+ late last month not even in beta, letting in only a handful of users, who could later invite their friends and family. Page noted that the service remains in a "field trial" mode, and with "a lot of barriers" to use it right now, but that the company is continuing to expand how many have access to it. Page referred to the 10 million benchmark as "a great achievement" for the team that worked on the product.
Beyond raw user numbers, Page said the service has received "a ton of activity" with more than 1 billion items shared and received each day. That's been bolstered by the +1 button, which Page said is now being served up around the Web 2.3 billion times a day.
"We want to make products that everybody uses twice a day, like their toothbrush," Page said during the earnings call. "We certainly think about Plus that way, and just generally having a shared identity experience across Google and its products."
Page is currently the second most followed user on the new service
a third-party analytics tool that's currently tracking more than 28,000 profiles on the service. Page is second only to Facebook's CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has approximately twice as many followers.
Google+ users up 30 percent since going public?
After opening its doors to the public last Tuesday, Google+ may now have more than as 43 million users.So says Ancestry.com co-founder and Google+ unofficial statistician Paul Allen, who's been keeping a running tally of how big the social network is growing.
Compiling his regular series of stats based on surnames used around the world, Allen said last Thursday that Google+ witnessed a 30 percent jump in users in the two days following its official opening to all users on September 20.
In just those two days, the growth rate skyrocketed to that only seen during the first week of the network's "field test" in late June, according to Allen, who's unrelated to the Microsoft co-founder of the same name.
Projecting the figures over the past few weeks, Allen's model came up with 28.7 million users on September 9. Last Thursday morning, that number had swelled to 37.8 million, with most of the growth coming from the prior two days. And accounting for a fudge factor and other elements, the unofficial statistician came up with an estimate as of last Thursday of 43.4 million users.
Over the past couple of months, Allen has been busy projecting the ongoing growth of the social network. From 1.7 million users on July 4, about a week after Google+ kicked off, Allen's estimate rose to 4.5 million on July 9, 10 million on July 12, and 18 million on July 20.
Google itself has generally been mum about user counts as its social network has grown, though it did cite 10 million users on July 14, not too far off from Allen's projection at the time.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for more current figures or a comment on Allen's estimate.
Despite the ongoing growth in overall users for Google+, a report from Experian Hitwise earlier this month claimed that the number of weekly visits to the service has been dropping since mid July.
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