First Meta – Aileen Sim – Singapore’s own Succesful Female Entrepreneur in Virtual World’s – itsReal

“…the rise of social networking. Virtual worlds are the ultimate social networking tools, allowing for rich, interactive and immersive communication and experiences. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have grown tremendously popular and I believe that they will spill over into virtual worlds.” comments Aileen Sim of First Meta, Singapore

Read more at SGentrepreneurs

MySpace.com tops the rankings of top US social-networking sites with 58.6 million visitors in September

MySpace.com continues to sit comfortably atop the rankings of top US social-networking sites  with 58.6 million unique visitors in September, according to a custom list of top US social networking sites and blogs compiled by Nielsen Online. Google’s Blogger remains the top blog site with nearly 29.6 million visitors.

In a distant second place among social-networking sites, Facebook increased the number of visitors to 18.1 million, growing some 133% year over year. MySpace visitors increased 24% year over year.

The top 3 social networks’ number of visitors decreased slightly from August, whereas those ranked 3rd through 6th increased visitor numbers from the previous month. (Compare with August data.)

Among blog sites, Blogger increased its visitors a significant 50% from the year-earlier period, with second-place Six Apart Type Pad also growing – 46% – to nearly 11 million visitors in Sept.

The most significant year-over-year growth, however, came from third-place WordPress, which increased unique visitor some 290%, from a mere 2.7 million in Sept. ‘06 to more than 10.4 million this September.

More at: MarketingCharts

MySpace so 2006 – itsReal

MySpace, the website that redefined the meaning of friends in cyberspace, is showing signs of fatigue, with latest figures indicating that Australians – or at least hip ones – are deserting it for rival Facebook.

 Facebook is becoming increasingly trendy, Ms Court said. “It’s where more of the thought leaders and influentials go.”

MySpace Snaps Up Photobucket: $300M

Social-networking site locks up photo-sharing site’s 40 million users.
Red Herring
 

Social-networking behemoth MySpace has agreed to acquire photo-sharing giant Photobucket for as much as $300 million, according to a source familiar with the deal.

 

Final details were still being ironed out, but MySpace has agreed to pay $250 million for Photobucket, plus as much as $50 million more if certain performance targets are met, the source said.  

 

The deal represents a tidy return for the four-year-old startup’s most recent investors. Trinity Ventures led a $10.5 million second round in May 2006. Should MySpace wind up paying $300 million, Trinity and other second round investors were expected to see a return of about three to four times their investment.

 

“In less than a year—that is pretty good,” said the source familiar with the deal.

 

Photobucket was seen as a significant score for MySpace because the photo site is compelling as both a widget on the social-networking site and a website destination with loads of traffic.

 

The photo site boasts 40 million users, according to the company’s web site. That has given Photobucket about 40 percent of the U.S. photo-sharing website traffic based on number of visits, according to analytics firm Hitwise. Yahoo Photos was a very distant second, with less than 6 percent of the market, while Slide and Flickr each had less 5 percent.

 

The acquisition was also somewhat of a defensive move for MySpace. Snapping up the photo site will enable it to stem the flood of users leaving MySpace to visit Photobucket. Almost 59 percent of Photobucket’s traffic came from MySpace’s community of users, according to Hitwise.

 

The deal could leave photo-sharing startup rivals RockYou and Slide out in the cold if MySpace decides to offer better support for Photobucket at the expense of other photo-sharing sites.

MySpace and Paris Hilton…will u Sign…

Paris Hilton is backing an online campaign to request California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issue a pardon following her 45-day prison sentence for driving on a suspended license.

In a blog posted on her homepage at social networking website MySpace.com on Tuesday, Hilton urges fans to sign a petition being organised by a supporter calling for the socialite to be spared jail time.

Read More at source HERE

 

 

Paris Hilton leaves the Los Angeles Municipal Court after her sentencing last week.
Photo: AP

Virtual Worlds – A Positive MTV & Pepsi Report from CNET News

MTV goes ‘4D’ with virtual-worlds push

At N.Y. marketing conference, the cable network touted its game plan for melding content from MTV shows with fully 3D virtual worlds.

By Daniel Terdiman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: March 29, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT

NEW YORK–It already has one of the most valuable brand names in television. Now MTV is hoping it can repeat that success as a marketing leader in virtual worlds.

That was the cable giant’s message during a three-part keynote address Wednesday morning at the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference here.

The company is calling its new cross-platform strategy “4D.” Essentially, the approach will attempt to combine content from MTV Networks’ television shows with fully 3D virtual worlds and then put it all through a feedback loop in which people can interact with TV personalities and create content that becomes part of the shared experience.

“We really believe that this is going to profoundly change the ways that brands like MTV interact with their audience,” said Matt Bostwick, senior vice president for franchise development at MTV Networks’ Music Group. “There’s no tight storyline you’re following. It’s an open experience.”

Velvet Puffin NOT quite there yet…gossip at E27 Event in Sentosa

Yesterday at a gathering in Sentosa of extremely talented people from E27, Velvet Puffin was discussed, if only briefly. It was concurred by all that Velvet Puffin is not quite ready yet for the public. I for one have downloaded the IM software and have no idea what to do with it, rumors were circulated they are getting into bed with a TELCO but nothing happening 2moro. It is Awesome how Velvet Puffin has received excellent media coverage, but what a shame for the user who wants an experience but upon registration (which is a chore on any website) there is nowhere or nothing you can do, was the release a few weeks TOO early. Please anyone correct me if I am missing something with my experience.

SINGAPORE–Velvet Puffin could well be the next MySpace, if its creators have their way.

Velvet Puffin: the next MySpace?
By Aaron Tan, ZDNet Asia

SINGAPORE–Velvet Puffin could well be the next MySpace, if its creators have their way.

Launched on Monday 5th March 2007 by Singapore-based mobile software provider Radixs, Velvet Puffin is a free integrated online service that marries social networking and instant messaging, says Radixs co-founder and CEO R. Chandrasekar.

Users can download the PC and cell phone clients and get the same social networking experience via a mobile phone or desktop computer. They can chat over multiple IM networks such as MSN and Yahoo, share photos and videos, as well as create and update their blogs over either platform.

Most of Velvet Puffin features, except IM chats, can be accessed via its Web site, though a software client will provide a better user experience, according to Chandrasekar.

“The social networking experience you get on the mobile phone is stripped down in nature–and the experience is poor,” he explained. “Velvet Puffin is ‘social networking meets instant messaging’…[where] we’re using instant messaging environments to invoke social networking,” he added.

Jill Aldort, senior analyst at the Yankee Group, said in a statement: “Velvet Puffin breaks down the ‘walled garden’ experience that has traditionally characterized consumers’ mobile Web and community experiences.

“The application provides a clean, user-friendly and totally functional interface for IM, as well as [for] sharing user-generated content across the PC and the mobile phone,” Aldort added.

Until now, Chandrasekar noted, other sites have attempted to capture single features of desktop-based social networking sites on the mobile platform. By aggregating all features associated with social networking, Radixs hopes to create a “holistic” mobile social networking experience.

For example, he added, Velvet Puffin’s Java-based mobile client allows users to search and view all videos available from YouTube on their handsets–a subscription-based service that has only been available to Verizon Wireless customers in the United States since last December.

Chandrasekar says Radixs is able to stream YouTube videos to Velvet Puffin users because the publicly available videos are not owned by YouTube. The streaming technology is based on Radixs’ Motion Experience Interface (MXI) operating system that allows existing full-fledged desktop applications to run on mobile devices without any source code redevelopment.

According to Chandrasekar, MXI-based devices were to be launched by 2005 but the deal with a handset manufacturer fell through earlier that year after both companies disagreed on the “go-to-market” strategy.

“Operators were willing to work with us, but things didn’t move on due to the lack of devices,” he said. “We then decided to go client-agnostic.”

Because it is offered as a free service, Chandrasekar said some revenues will be generated from contextual advertisements that will be introduced on both Velvet Puffin desktop and mobile clients. He assured users, however, that the ads will not be intrusive in nature.

Radixs will also partner mobile operators, which will distribute Velvet Puffin’s software, Chandrasekar said, adding that the company will receive a cut of operators’ data revenue generated from the Velvet Puffin service. He said operator partnerships will be announced in due course.

“More importantly, they will provide users with price packages that include the Velvet Puffin service,” he added.

For now, however, Chandrasekar does not expect the bulk of the revenues to come from deals with mobile operators. “The direct model will still drive revenues in the shorter term because when you work with one operator, [the partnership] is only in a particular country with limited numbers of subscribers,” he said.

“But, within the next 12 to 18 months, that will change as we strike deals with more operators,” he revealed.

Chandrasekar was unable to reveal how much was spent on developing Velvet Puffin, but noted that Radixs had received US$10 million in funding from investors for developing MXI.

Source: ZDNET Asia