Tuesday News Roundup
Lots of interesting things have happened so far this week, mostly in the online video, social networking, and online news and classifieds spaces. Here is a quick recap:
—Many of the monetization challenges that face MySpace (analyzed in yesterday's post) also face video sharing site YouTube, as explored in this CNET News.com article (interestingly, both sites have also succeeded in rapidly ramping up their traffic with similar viral marketing strategies).
—As we recently explored the potential social networking bubble that could lead to consolidation in the space, this CNNMoney.com article analyzes a parallel trend in the online video space.
—The L.A. times has an interesting article on television networks' online distribution and branding strategies. Lost Remote has a similar piece here.
—Comcast is taking steps to expand its VOD content and to attract advertisers to buy accompanying ad space.
—USC Annenberg's Online Journalism Review looks at newspapers' abilities to establish and sustain successful blogs. Some interesting comments are included from journalists nationwide.
—Washington Post tech columnist Leslie Walker provides a good overview of the online classified market and the challenges facing newspaper publishers, which have traditionally owned the space. We'll explore this topic further in the second installment of our recent White Paper, "Newspapers 2.0: The Competitive Dynamics and Challenges Facing Newspapers in the Online Economy." A summary of the first installment is here (Kelsey Group clients can log in to view it in full).
—According to Search Engine Journal, Yahoo! has added a button to its toolbar for online photo sharing service Flickr. For more, see our Advisory on portal and IYP toolbar strategies, "Toolbars, Traffic and Consumer Traction."
—Some interesting data from Mediamark Research about media use among kids between the ages of 6 and 11.
—Many of the challenges of building out a municipal Wi-Fi network are explored in this article.
—Lastly, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported late last week (I'm a bit late on this one) that online advertising revenues grew 30 percent in 2005 to US$12.5 billion. This marked the third consecutive year of growth. Search accounted for US$5.1 billion (41 percent) of this total.
