FBOOK
In-depth analysis and expert insight into the world’s most popular online social network and its value to marketers.Gowalla Update: Talent Acquisitions and Fiduciary Responsibility
Last week’s Gowalla acquisition illustrated another weird facet of talent acquisitions: the potential conflict that arises when a talent acquisition gives founders a good job, and investors a low payout. A Gowalla investor chimes in to say that, basically, he’s not upset enough to do…
How Search Engines Decide Whom to Trust
Bill Slawski does the usual patent deep-dive, evaluating how Google decides which writers to trust. As Google moves from domain trust to author trust, this will hurt the dwindling number of online media companies that rely on cheap, mass-produced content. (One surprising side effect: this will make…
Facebook just bought Gowalla . And they’ve announced a New York office.
These events aren’t specifically related, but they illustrate the same principle. Why would Facebook invest in:
Gowalla lost the checkin war. As Foursquare’s Engineering lead put it, “Once you’re beating someone by a factor of over 100:1 you move on…
Facebook is a profitable business, and it’s growing fast. But Facebook the business is just a day job—Facebook the product is where the action is. Facebook underscored that with their recent redesign and F8 announcements:
Their concurrent reading, watching, and listening features are almost certainly not what advertisers are clamoring for. But they are to…
Netflix Splits DVDs and Streaming
Netflix has split its DVD business from its streaming business, perhaps in anticipation of spinning off one or the other. In the announcement, Netflix’s CEO specifically calls out AOL, which is facing exactly what he wants to avoid: half of the business belongs in some kind of asset-stripping private equity…
Yahoo Update
As has been reported at length, Yahoo’s board fired the company’s CEO, who fired back with an infamous email and a furious interview with Fortune. Yahoo’s board is now rumored to be considering spinoffs, divestitures, or a buyout, especially with the encouragement of their 5.1% owner, the activist hedge fund Third Point.
As a…
Baidu’s Cargo-Cult OS Strategy
Google’s move into operating systems makes sense: reducing Microsoft’s leverage over them, and increasing the aggregate number of Internet users are both great for their business, and they both directly benefit Google over competitors. None of those advantages really apply to Baidu’s decision to enter the OS market.
Fortunately, Baidu doesn’t…
It’s natural to separate a company’s activity into two parts: the stuff they do to grow their competitive advantage, and the stuff they do to monetize it. For example, a company like Amex might run TV ads to make the Amex name more recognizable and synonymous with prestige—so when they send someone a targeted piece…
People Are Easy to Uniquely Identify
This research indicates that people can be uniquely identified with a tiny set of data: “87% of the U.S. Population are uniquely identified by {date of birth, gender, ZIP}.” That’s what you get as a proof of concept—imagine how much more precise it is when there are ad dollars at…
Zynga Delays IPO
Zynga is not likely to IPO on time, mostly due to the dicey market situation (though why they didn’t announce this during the diciness is a mystery). Dan Primack argues that it’s not a big deal.
Is Google+ an Identity Service?
According to BoingBoing, Eric Schmidt thinks so. If so, this is a more…
Digital Due Diligence Weekly