The Media Blog is being run by Sebastian Aulich, our Editor-in-Chief. In here you will find his commentary/op-eds and links to interesting articles on the web about new online trends in the media industry and implementation of digital technologies. Traditional printed media are facing many new challenges from numerous online blogs, websites and social networks. Slowly but inevitably the old media business models are becoming obsolete. This blog focuses on the area of transition from the old media business to new online models, which are still developing and evolving.
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- One of the toughest careers out there is being an entrepreneur VentureBeat.com: "How JackThreads grew from a bootstrapped bedroom startup to 2M members" Link...
- Wow! #Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion VentureBeat: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced Facebook is acquiring Instagram. The photo-sharing startup recently passed 30 million members. Particularly since picking up a slew of new users with its Android app launch, Instagram has bec...
- New York Times has over 500K paying subscribers after introducing a paywall last year A year after launching a controversial pay wall, The New York Times revealed Tuesday that it has nearly half a million paying subscribers for its flagship paper. The company also said it will make it harder for people to read web publications without p...
- Our BabyBluu.com gets its first star on eBay for superb customer service Our daily deals division - BabyBluu.com recently got its first (yellow) star for the superb customer service. While other daily deals companies are closing down their doors, BabyBluu.com has finished 2011 on a very positive note. The revenue growth is cur...
- Zynga moves its future away from Facebook, launches its own gaming platform Zynga Inc is launching a new games service that allows users to play on the company's website instead of Facebook, potentially driving traffic away from the world's No. 1 social network that is its biggest partner. The service is the online game compan...
- Yelp Prices IPO Valued at $900M Yelp Inc priced its initial public offering of class A common stock at $15 a share, above the expected price range, valuing the U.S. consumer review website at nearly $900 million. Link...
- Groupon captures 76% of daily deals market in Poland According to Poland's Gazeta Prawna, Groupon has captured 76.08% of the daily deal market in Poland with 286,6 million of PLN ($91 million) in sales in 2011. The next largest competitor is a local clone of Groupon - the Gruper which captured 12,13% of th...
- Analyst: Facebook Will Make $1.2B Annually From Mobile Ads Fox Business: "No, Facebook is not advertising yet on mobile devices. Yes, that hasn’t stopped people from speculating on what it will mean when it does. The latest: an estimate of how much the social network stands to make from mobile advertising: m...
- Magazines to redesign their print editions to look like iPad apps Fox Business published a story that some of the printed magazines intend to redesign their print titles to fit the tablet format. The main reason for the change would be that creating and running separate apps for every title and every device is getting e...
- Facebook once again copycats Twitter, will introduce verified accounts for high-profile members VentureBeat: "Facebook will soon begin rolling out verified accounts for high-profile members with large numbers of subscribers, and it will give verified users the option of a pseudonym for their name." Link...
- #Groupon looking for new revenue sources after miserable earnings report for last year VentureBeat.com: "Groupon is in the process of testing a new VIP service that will cost $30 per year and give users early access to deals, easy refunds, and more, according to a Business Insider report. The company reported poor-to-mixed results with...
- Groupon becoming the new Amazon: Offering Deals With No Time Limits According to Fox Business, Groupon is currently testing an idea of offering discount deals without time limits. Well, we already tested it at BabyBluu.com and it works better for us than the time limited approach. As far as Groupon is concerned, the new s...
- The app economy created 466K jobs in America already Report: A research by TechNet shows that the app economy in the United States already created over 466.000 jobs. According to the report, the estimation is rather conservative, meaning that the 446K number would be actually lower than the real number of j...
- Zynga loss jumps to $435 million, stocks down Fox Business: "The San Francisco-based company reported that it swung to a loss of $435 million in the quarter ended in December, compared to a profit of nearly $43 million in the period a year earlier. Sales rose to $311.2 million. On an adjusted basis, ...
- Groupon Shifting Strategy toward Customer Retention DailyDealMedia: "Almost all companies that profit from marketing to consumers have to debate between the relative values of customer retention and acquisition. Depending on various circumstances such as the social, economic, and personal behavior of consu...
- Analysts: It's time to sell Groupon's stocks MoneyShow.com: "While Groupon (GRPN) has quickly made a name for itself, this recent IPO appears ripe for selling. The company does not appear to have an economic moat, and even after falling after the IPO, the stock still looks richly valued. Caveat em...
- Fab.com: How a gay website transformed into a daily deals powerhouse Inc.com: "It's the overnight success story heard 'round the start-up world: In June 2011, serial entrepreneur Jason Goldberg and interior designer Bradford Shane Shellhammer relaunched their struggling social network as Fab.com, a flash sales site promot...
- AOL to transform HuffPost into an Internet TV network VentureBeat: "AOL is planning to launch a new streaming video network branded under its Huffington Post web news site, the company announced Thursday. The new network will feature live streaming video content 12 hours a day during the week from 9 a.m to ...
- Facebook to reach 1B active users in August, that’s 14% of the world VentureBeat: "Facebook is soon to have 14 percent of the world’s population all to itself. A new study says the social network will hit one billion users this year. Gregory Lyons, a senior analyst at digital marketing firm iCrossing, ran the number...
- Yahoo revenue down 13 percent in Q4 VentureBeat: "Yahoo‘s revenue dropped 13 percent compared to the same period last year, the company reported today. In its quarterly earnings’ announcement Tuesday, Yahoo reported $1,324 million in GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011, while co...
- Facebook to go Public on the NYSE – Shares Priced Between $38 and $40 DailyDealMedia: "PrivCo, a New York firm and ‘The Private Company Financial Data Authority’ that tracks private companies, believes that Facebook plans to file IPO documents as early as late Tuesday (1/31) or early Wednesday (2/1). This makes total s...
- 10 Daily Deal Sites that Received Big Cash Funding in 2011 DailyDealMedia.com: "Despite the down economy there seemed to be no shortage of venture capital and other forms of investment within the daily deals and group buying industry for 2011. Some companies pulled in some pretty big bucks this year to keep their...
- The Gilt Groupe May Approach $1 Billion in Revenues in 2012 DailyDealMedia.com: "Kevin Ryan (CEO of Gilt) commented on and addressed many concerns with The Financial Times. Ryan insists the economy impacts Gilt “less than you’d think … a recession is slightly more helpful for me.” Ryan expects Gilt’s ann...
- Did you invest in Groupon's stocks? You must be an idiot: Groupon’s valuation drops by $5.7 billion in just 3 days DailyDealMedia.com: "The weak close in GRPN is a bad omen for Friday. Shares of GRPN continue to trade lower in the aftermarket. The only bright spot today is that markets are closed tomorrow. At least we get a reprieve for 24 hours from more market bleed...
- Salman Rushdie attacks Facebook via Twitter Reuters: "At least that’s what Salman Rushdie did when he discovered Facebook had deactivated his account because they wanted further proof of his identity. When the esteemed writer found out, he began tweeting up a storm, asking Facebook co-founder an...
- These Two Companies Won’t Last Another Five Years Wall Street Daily: "Later this week, daily deal juggernaut, Groupon (Proposed Ticker: GRPN), is scheduled to go public. The company plans to price shares between $16 and $18 and raise $510 million. But I wouldn’t invest in the deal at any price! ...
- Boston's daily deal site BuyWithMe.com goes under the bus BostonHerald.com: "Gilt Groupe subsidiary Gilt City, a website that offers discounts on luxury products, has acquired the assets of embattled daily deals site BuyWithMe, for an undisclosed amount. Those assets primarily consist of BuyWithMe’s member li...
- SEC filings: Groupon has not yet made a $1 of profit, maybe it will.... by 2013 Monringstar: "Not surprisingly, Groupon GRPN has cut a deal with potential investors. It has indicated that it seeks a $10.1 to $11.4 billion valuation with a $16 to $18 per share offer range, a valuation that approximates a 50% discount to the $20 billio...
- Facebook Sued For Violating U.S. Wiretap Laws AllFacebook.com: "A class-action lawsuit alleges that Facebook violated federal wiretap statutes by tracking people’s Internet browser history even when they are not logged in." Link...
- Merchants using #Groupon and #LivingSocial get downgraded fast on Yelp by their customers The New York Times: "And the long-term reputation of the merchant may be at risk, according to a new study by researchers at Boston University and Harvard that analyzed thousands of Groupon and Living Social deals. The researchers found that fans of dai...
- Research: LivingSocial, BuyWithMe offer discount deals which are more expensive than regular market price of the same products and services DailyDealMedia: "When BuyWithMe offers house cleaning in San Francisco for $60 – a stated discount of 57% – or Livingsocial offers interior painting in Kansas City for $89 – a stated discount of 56% – are consumers really saving money?" Link...
- #Groupon cost of acquiring one customer = $23.46, marketing expenditures in 1-2Q '11 = $378.7 million Wall Street Journal: "Groupon, the daily-deals market leader that filed to go public in June, spent about $7.99 to acquire each subscriber who actually redeemed a daily deal in the first quarter of 2010, according to regulatory filings. By the second quar...
- Big brands are still skeptical about using daily deals websites for sales or marketing purposes The Washington Post: "Businesses that can afford an advertising agency tend to be skeptical about the value coupon sites can offer their brands. Area advertising executives say they pitch the sites as another channel to reach customers, but so far clients...
- SEC demands #Groupon change its creative accounting practices if it wants to do an IPO... and its official revenue drops by 54.8% The New York Times: "The change is one of the biggest included in the latest version of Groupon’s prospectus, which has been amended several times since May. Groupon’s earlier way of reporting revenue has now been labeled “gross billings.” For exa...
- #Facebook vs. #Google rivalry grows Forbes: "Google+ has finally opened its doors to the public. You might notice the huge blue arrow on Google.com that takes up nearly a quarter of the page. This is a timely distraction to show users that Google is actively expanding into social." ...
- Associated Press teams up with 40 newspapers to offer daily deals PCMag.com: "In an effort to boost the floundering newspaper industry, the Associated Press is teaming up with 40 papers for a mobile coupon initiative. Dubbed iCircular, it will offer deals in a special section within the iPhone apps of various papers." L...
- Companies developing Facebook apps created 182,000 jobs so far PCMag.com: "According to a study from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, the Facebook App Economy created 182,000 jobs and contributed between $12 and $15 billion to the economy this year." Link...
- Google Buys Another Daily Deal Site PCMag.com: "Perhaps in an effort to boost its struggling Groupon competitor Google Offers, Google has snapped up another daily deals site. According to The Next Web, Google has acquired German company DailyDeal." Link...
- Overview of financing options for daily deal start-up companies Here is a good overview of financing options for daily deal start-up companies by DailyDealMedia.com: "So you decide you like the daily deal site idea. Perhaps you worked as an account executive for Groupon or LivingSocial and feel you have a great idea f...
- Coupon sites that could save you hundreds Christian Science Monitor has a good slideshow with the best daily deals and coupon websites, which can save you a lot of money. Unfortunately they forgot to mention our BabyBluu Deals, probably because we don't sell yoga classes as 100 other daily deals ...
- More and more companies go into bankruptcy after working with #Groupon and #LivingSocial ABC News: "But as this burgeoning virtual marketplace has blossomed over the past three years, so has criticism. Some businesses have been so overwhelmed by the sheer volume generated by a mass coupon exchange that they have almost been driven into bankru...
- Facebook becomes a marketing failure for brands More and more companies are complaining how Facebook is becoming a waste of money for them because the social network is not delivering expected marketing results. Skyttle Friends, a company providing Facebook analytics, published a survey showing how reg...
- Print media ad revenue declines by -8.9% Forbes: "Print media continues to suffer from declining advertising trends, putting pressure on digital platforms to pick up the slack. According to a recent note by UBS, print ad growth came in at negative 8.9%, below estimates of a 7.7% decline, to th...
- The New York Times sacrifices revenue from paywall to defend sales of printed papers The Atlantic: "Today the Boston Globe launched a new site, and unlike at its old home at Boston.com, visitors to BostonGlobe.com will have to pay a fee to get behind the site's paywall and read the newspaper's stories. But make no mistake: This payw...
- Scared #Facebook is copying Google+ and #Twitter The Washington post: "Mike Schroepfer, Vice President of Engineering at Facebook, spoke with Jason Kincaid at this morning’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference. The topic of the conversation focused on many of Facebook’s newest features, including the rece...
- AmazonLocal to begin serving up deals on Kindle DailyDealMadia: "AmazonLocal, the daily deals service started by Amazon a few months ago, will soon be hawking their deals on the discounted kindle and Kindle 3G. AmazonLocal, while offering a similar service as Groupon and LivingSocial, did not jump into...
- Companies start to look at Return on Influence on Twitter and Facebook Christian Science Monitor: "Musicians Taylor Swift and Kanye West have millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. But there's a difference between their abilities to get people to buy something or believe in something, just as there's a diff...
- LivingSocial deal offering $20 worth of Whole Foods groceries for $10 has become an online hit Statesman.com: "A LivingSocial deal offering $20 worth of Whole Foods groceries for $10 has become an online hit. The deal, which is still ongoing, has set a record for the daily deal site. LivingSocial said it was selling roughly 115,000 an hour, whic...
- U.S. daily deals market to reach $4.17 billion by 2015 Bloomberg/BusinessWeek: "Groupon Inc., LivingSocial and other daily-deal websites will generate $4.17 billion in U.S. sales in 2015, more than double the amount this year, research firm BIA/Kelsey estimates." Link...
- New Daily Deal Loyalty Program Introduced by Monster Offers and Fanminder News release: "By combining the social and mobile sharing capabilities of Fanminder with the Daily Deal expertise of Monster Offers, the new loyalty program will allow small businesses to easily create and publish enticing Everyday Promotions™ that are ...
- Lashou.com - a Chinese daily deals website - to do an IPO in the U.S. Bloomberg: "Lashou could become the first daily-deal startup to go public in the U.S. now that Groupon, the biggest online coupon company, postponed its planned $750 million IPO amid market swings. Beijing-based Lashou would also test U.S. investor appeti...
- Companies: Facebook is a failure at customers acquisition Social Media Today: "According to a recent study by DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research (as reported by Ad Age), 84% of a typical brand’s Facebook fans are existing customers. The implied meaning is that Facebook, while an incredibly effective cust...
- LivingSocial, Groupon are ripping off and destroying small businesses Courier Post Online: "A graduate of Philadelphia’s Restaurant School, Powell was overwhelmed by calls. When coupon holders could not get reservations in her restaurant that is open only four nights a week, they waited in long lines outside. Her biggest...
- The most popular coupon in America is for toilet paper MarketWatch: "ShopAtHome.com, the largest free coupons and cash back site on the web, today released its 2011 Coupon Trends Report in celebration of National Coupon Month, according to which... the most popular coupon in America is for toilet paper." Link...
- Top 10 daily deals websites Below are top 10 daily deals websites according to Experian Hitwise company. Top visited daily-deals and group-buying websites: Rank Website Share of all visits1 1 www.groupon.com 47.6% 2 www.livingsocial...
- Daily deals sites were a good idea in 2010, not in 2011 Boston Herald: “Daily deals were a good idea in 2010,” said Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe. “But they might not have as much lasting power as we thought. It was kind of cool when Groupon came along and you’d get one e-mail. Now that you get 10, no...
- Google acquires digital couponing comapny ZaveNetworks.com Looks like Google is making serious inroads into the digital couponing industry. That's interesting considering that Facebook has just recently decided to close down its Facebook Deals platform. The below is what ZaveNetworks published at their company's ...
- Sharp declines in daily deals market in America It looks like the daily deals industry is going through some serious turbulences and the future of the Groupons of the world may not be as bright as many expected. Yipit just recently published a report showing that industry’s revenue dropped by 7% in J...
- Yelp to scale down its Yelp Deals as the revenue drops Venture Beat: "Dwindling sales numbers and (slightly) fewer participants signal the daily deal industry is hitting some speed bumps. The best daily deal companies, not just Groupon and Livingsocial, are going to come out on top of the heap. Yelp’s move ...
- DailyFlash.com acquires San Diego-based DailyGroupSavings.com Daily Deal Media: "California-based Daily Flash, a site that focuses on offers for the 20’s and 30’s age bracket, has announced the acquisition of San Diego’sDailyGroupSavings.com. This new acquisition will allow Daily Flash to offer 50-90 percent ...
- RapidBuyr starts B2B deals in Beantown Daily Deal Media: "RapidBuyr has launched local daily deals in its hometown of Boston. The site, which caters specifically to small and mid-sized businesses, has signed on a number of prominent area businesses help kick off the launch. Initial deals incl...
- LivingSocial to reach $1 billion in revenue in 2011... after merely 2 years in daily deals business WSJ has an interview with LivingSocial's CEO. The company is just a two years old start-up but is projected to reach $1 billion in revenue this year. It currently employs 3,500 workers and is hiring 6 new employees a day. Check out the interview, it's qui...
- Facebook closes down Facebook Deals - it didn't work.., PC Mag: Facebook confirmed it is closing down Facebook Deals. The company said: "After testing Deals for four months, we've decided to end our Deals product in the coming weeks," a Facebook spokeswoman said in an email. "We think there is a lot of power ...
- 13% of Facebook users smoke dope on a regular basis Family Practice News: "Substance abuse is a bigger problem for adolescents who daily spend time on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, as 70% of American adolescents say they do, according to a survey released Aug. 24 by the National Cen...
- Forrester Research: daily deals market will die by 2016 "In its report "U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 to 2016," Forrester analysts describe a scenario whereby marketers and consumers alike will become addicted to Groupon-like daily deals and essentially overdose on them. "Consumers will grow so co...
- The first B2B daily deals website launched by FireRescue1 Deals "FireRescue1.com, a site that provides information and online resources for the fire service, has announced the launch of a group buying program for firefighters and departments. FireRescue1 Deals is said to be the first in this particular niche market,...
- Extreme couponing saves newspapers sales in America The Guardian: "Newspapers appear to be growing in popularity once again in the United States - but not because of their editorial content. People are buying them, and even stealing them, because they contain bundles of money-off retailing coupons. It's pa...
- Amazon launches Kindle Daily Deals PaidContent.org: "Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) is bringing flash sales to the Kindle Store. Today the company launched Kindle Daily Deal, which offers a discount on one Kindle book each day. The first chosen title, a children’s book, could hint at Amazon’s up...
- Lot18.com receives investment from founders of Diapers.com DailyDealMedia.com: "Lot18, a members-only website for wine and gourmet products, has announced an investment by Marc Lore and Vinit Bharara, founders of Quidsi, possibly best known for Diapers.com, a site that was acquired by Amazon last fall for $545 mi...
- Groupon's problems continue: company closes down 10 offices in China, lays off hundreds of employees Wall Street Journal: "Groupon Inc.'s joint venture in China has closed offices in some cities and laid off hundreds of employees, according to people familiar with the situation, raising questions about the online coupon company's strategy in a big market...
- Miramax partners with Facebook to offer movies, rentals and games to be accessible through cloud services Miramax: "Today we are launching our first digital App on Facebook. We call it the Miramax eXperience and you can check it out at http://apps.facebook.com/miramaxapp In addition, you’ll notice we launched the App first with just rental VOD —...
- Facebook to acquire 20 companies to be able to compete with Google+ Bloomberg: "Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social network, is planning acquisitions that will improve site design, keep its service reliable and advance mobile features to stave off competition from Google Inc. (GOOG) and Twitter Inc. The company...
- Zynga secures $1 billion credit line, contemplates delaying IPO if market turbulences continue Wall Street Journal: "Zynga Inc. raised a $1 billion line of credit in July from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and other banks, according to a Thursday filing with securities regulators. The move could give San Francisco-based Zynga—a startup that pro...
- Zynga sued for copying creative ideas and game designs from other game developers Law.com: "According to a report in PC Magazine, "Agincourt Gaming claims that 'Zynga's remarkable growth has not been driven by its own ingenuity or innovations.' The company accused Zynga of copying 'creative ideas and game designs from other game deve...
- LivingSocial becomes a market leader in Australia PR Wire: "For the second consecutive month, LivingSocial leads the daily deals market in unique browsers, widening the gap from its nearest competitor by 70%: from a lead of 153,000 unique visitors in June to 217,000 in July (source: Nielsen Netview July ...
- CrowdSavings.com buys daily deal sites, almost daily, wants to become next Groupon All Things Digital: "CrowdSavings, a Tampa-based daily deals site, is nowhere near as large as Groupon. It operates in 14 markets, has raised $1.9 million in capital and has 22 employees. Still, it may be one of the most active acquirers of daily deal co...
- New business models in the daily deals market: Merchant Sourcing, Inventory Management, Consumer Distribution VentureBeat.com: "Merchant Sourcing. Merchant advocates (like Signpost) believe they can more efficiently reach merchants and manage their offers. Because they’re not limited to a single distribution channel, these companies are able to serve a wide va...
- The fall of Groupon: company owes $392 million in past dues to its merchants The Atlantic: " The company still owed $392 million to merchants for Groupons that had already been sold and used up by its customers. While it's assumed that the company could raise more capital on the private markets if it needs it, Groupon's accountin...
- TipsyDevil.com opens daily deals website for people immersed in active nightlife DailyDealMedia.com: "TipsyDevil.com announced their launch earlier this week, offering deals on discounted gift certificates redeemable at local Arizona bars and other nightlife entertainment locales. Founded by a local ex-Groupon employee and a former ni...
- Twitter surpasses Facebook as the most popular network used by financial services companies Financial Times: "Twitter, the microblogging service, has now surpassed Facebook, the social networking market leader, as the most popular third-party network employed by financial services companies, according to a survey conducted by Corporate Insig...
