Link to full story is here.
Two key Twitter executives got new titles today as the company moves toward its highly anticipated IPO. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo confirmed that Mike Gupta has taken over as CFO from Ali Rowghani, who is leaving that position to assume his new role as Twitter’s chief operating officer.
Both Rowghani and Gupta have prior experience as key executives at publicly traded companies, which will be key to steering the course as Twitter works toward its first public offering. Rowghani was formerly the CFO and senior VP of strategic planning at Pixar Animation Studios. Since joining Twitter in 2010, he has been instrumental in monetization efforts such as the microblogging platform’s Promoted suite of ad products.
Gupta was Zynga’s treasurer before leaving in November as part of an exodus of high-level executives at the beleaguered gaming company. He joined Twitter immediately as its vice president of corporate finance and treasurer. Before arriving at Zynga in May 2011, Gupta was a strategy and corporate finance exec at Yahoo, where he worked for eight years.
Twitter’s press office had no comment beyond Costolo’s tweet.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Twitter Is Already Winning The Social TV War, But It Will Soon Do More
The link to the full story is here.
The past few years have been a rollercoaster ride for the social TV market. Driven by the growth of smartphone and tablet usage while viewers watch television, dozens of companies have emerged in that time to aggregate audiences who wish to share what they’re watching on TV with other, like-minded viewers. But for all the startups that have emerged to tackle the issue of social TV, only one seems to be thriving — and that’s Twitter, a social network that (paradoxically) hasn’t been focused uniquely on the social TV problem.
We’re already seeing the early signs of a shakeout in the social TV marketplace, as startups are being acquired or silently disappearing from the scene. Not too long ago, Socialguide was acquired by Nielsen. And last month, Viggle and GetGlue announced plans to merge (although those plans are contingent on Viggle securing more financing). At the same time, other competitors — like, for instance, Miso — are pivoting to try new things or moving into adjacent markets.
Much of the reason these new, TV-centric social networks are failing to catch on is that there’s already a place where people share their feelings about what’s on TV: Twitter. And while Twitter hasn’t been terribly aggressive thus far in taking advantage of that, you can expect to see it do more over the coming year.
The past few years have been a rollercoaster ride for the social TV market. Driven by the growth of smartphone and tablet usage while viewers watch television, dozens of companies have emerged in that time to aggregate audiences who wish to share what they’re watching on TV with other, like-minded viewers. But for all the startups that have emerged to tackle the issue of social TV, only one seems to be thriving — and that’s Twitter, a social network that (paradoxically) hasn’t been focused uniquely on the social TV problem.
We’re already seeing the early signs of a shakeout in the social TV marketplace, as startups are being acquired or silently disappearing from the scene. Not too long ago, Socialguide was acquired by Nielsen. And last month, Viggle and GetGlue announced plans to merge (although those plans are contingent on Viggle securing more financing). At the same time, other competitors — like, for instance, Miso — are pivoting to try new things or moving into adjacent markets.
Much of the reason these new, TV-centric social networks are failing to catch on is that there’s already a place where people share their feelings about what’s on TV: Twitter. And while Twitter hasn’t been terribly aggressive thus far in taking advantage of that, you can expect to see it do more over the coming year.
With A Flick Of The Wrist, Facebook Could Destroy Current Advertising Models
Link to full story is here.
Advertising is something that we’ve all grown accustomed to in today’s society. For companies that provide free services, it’s an important part of keeping those services free for everyone to use. But are ads even working on us anymore? That’s up for debate and discussion, and those are decisions everyone can make for themselves.
One of the biggest companies ever facing the conundrum of introducing advertising is Facebook. The social network is inherently made up of people, and in turn, their content. There’s private content, personal content and public content. Facebook is trying to monetize as much of it as it can to keep its shareholders happy, the service free, and its users from leaving for another option, of which there are none to speak of at the moment.
No matter where the advertising is placed, it’ll either rub people the wrong way, or will be ignored completely. Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has been quoted as saying regarding ads:
Advertising works most effectively when it’s in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook – they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing – so there’s really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that.
Advertising is something that we’ve all grown accustomed to in today’s society. For companies that provide free services, it’s an important part of keeping those services free for everyone to use. But are ads even working on us anymore? That’s up for debate and discussion, and those are decisions everyone can make for themselves.
One of the biggest companies ever facing the conundrum of introducing advertising is Facebook. The social network is inherently made up of people, and in turn, their content. There’s private content, personal content and public content. Facebook is trying to monetize as much of it as it can to keep its shareholders happy, the service free, and its users from leaving for another option, of which there are none to speak of at the moment.
No matter where the advertising is placed, it’ll either rub people the wrong way, or will be ignored completely. Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has been quoted as saying regarding ads:
Advertising works most effectively when it’s in line with what people are already trying to do. And people are trying to communicate in a certain way on Facebook – they share information with their friends, they learn about what their friends are doing – so there’s really a whole new opportunity for a new type of advertising model within that.
Your Facebook Pokes Are Stored For Two Days, Then Their Encryption Keys Are Deleted
Link to full story is here.
Facebook Poke messages self-destruct after a few seconds, but is Facebook saving these potentially embarrassing photos and videos? No. It’s deleting them. Pokes are encrypted, and Facebook deletes the encryption keys two days after they’re read so they’re unreadable. Key backups are destroyed within 90 days, making a poke completely inaccessible. So send those silly, racy messages with confidence.
Normally, Facebook stores everything you share until you delete your account. This lets it mine your photos for location data, track what sites you share links to, and collect other information that can help it improve the site or better target its ads.
Facebook Poke messages self-destruct after a few seconds, but is Facebook saving these potentially embarrassing photos and videos? No. It’s deleting them. Pokes are encrypted, and Facebook deletes the encryption keys two days after they’re read so they’re unreadable. Key backups are destroyed within 90 days, making a poke completely inaccessible. So send those silly, racy messages with confidence.
Normally, Facebook stores everything you share until you delete your account. This lets it mine your photos for location data, track what sites you share links to, and collect other information that can help it improve the site or better target its ads.
Facebook Makes Big Last-Minute Holiday Drive To Sell Gifts With Banners Atop The Web And Mobile Feeds
The link to the full story is here.
Touting its ability to notify someone immediately that you bought them a present, Facebook is showing large banners atop the web and mobile news feed telling people to buy Gifts. Facebook hopes tardy shoppers will purchase through its e-commerce arm because presents bought elsewhere wouldn’t arrive before Christmas. Facebook’s won’t either but at least friends would know they have a gift on the way.
Facebook debuted Gifts in September to give people an easy way to buy a wide variety of presents for friends on special occasions like their birthdays, engagements, or graduations. It’s since rolled out Gifts to all U.S. users who have been starting to see these banners over the weekend.
Gifts uses data on who you’re closest to and what a recipient likes to make intelligent suggestions for who you should give to and what you give them. Gifts range from physical goods like flowers, chocolate, and stuffed animals to digital gifts like Starbucks, iTunes, and Uber credits. Digital Gifts are delivered immediately, which makes them great last-minute presents.
Touting its ability to notify someone immediately that you bought them a present, Facebook is showing large banners atop the web and mobile news feed telling people to buy Gifts. Facebook hopes tardy shoppers will purchase through its e-commerce arm because presents bought elsewhere wouldn’t arrive before Christmas. Facebook’s won’t either but at least friends would know they have a gift on the way.
Facebook debuted Gifts in September to give people an easy way to buy a wide variety of presents for friends on special occasions like their birthdays, engagements, or graduations. It’s since rolled out Gifts to all U.S. users who have been starting to see these banners over the weekend.
Gifts uses data on who you’re closest to and what a recipient likes to make intelligent suggestions for who you should give to and what you give them. Gifts range from physical goods like flowers, chocolate, and stuffed animals to digital gifts like Starbucks, iTunes, and Uber credits. Digital Gifts are delivered immediately, which makes them great last-minute presents.
It’s A Facebook And Google World On Apple’s App Store, Poke Hits #1 A Day After Its Release
The link to the full story is here.
Remember all of this excitement hoopla over Facebook’s latest standalone app, Poke, yesterday? You aren’t the only one that is interested, apparently. As The Next Web reports, Poke by Facebook has hit the No. 1 free app spot on Apple’s App Store, just a day after being released.
Make no mistake about it, the big companies like Facebook and Google are going to have the best holiday season ever thanks to Apple and iOS. It’s very rare to see utility or social apps hold the top free app spot like Google Maps has over the past week, and like Facebook Poke probably will. It’s usually a game, or a boogers app that holds that down.
And they get massive downloads because of it, especially during this time of the year.
What does this mean for consumers…and for Apple? Most iOS users who are getting new devices, or even first-timers, are swayed by what’s hot on the App Store. The leaderboard is very important to onboard new users into the app ecosystem. Apple likes to highlight the best and brightest that shows off their technology, but the leaderboard shows what users are really interested in. Today, it’s all about Poke.
Remember all of this excitement hoopla over Facebook’s latest standalone app, Poke, yesterday? You aren’t the only one that is interested, apparently. As The Next Web reports, Poke by Facebook has hit the No. 1 free app spot on Apple’s App Store, just a day after being released.
Make no mistake about it, the big companies like Facebook and Google are going to have the best holiday season ever thanks to Apple and iOS. It’s very rare to see utility or social apps hold the top free app spot like Google Maps has over the past week, and like Facebook Poke probably will. It’s usually a game, or a boogers app that holds that down.
And they get massive downloads because of it, especially during this time of the year.
What does this mean for consumers…and for Apple? Most iOS users who are getting new devices, or even first-timers, are swayed by what’s hot on the App Store. The leaderboard is very important to onboard new users into the app ecosystem. Apple likes to highlight the best and brightest that shows off their technology, but the leaderboard shows what users are really interested in. Today, it’s all about Poke.
Facebook Temporarily Disables New Year's Messages After Privacy Snafu
The link to full story is here.
Facebook was forced to temporarily disable its "Midnight Delivery" New Year's messages feature after a privacy flaw was exposed by an information technology student early Monday morning.
Facebook quickly took note of the problem and brought Midnight Delivery offline for maintenance. It has since been fixed and is available for use.
Midnight Delivery, which was introduced this year, was designed to allow you to write a message to friends or loved ones that will be delivered exactly as 2012 ends and 2013 begins. However, student and blogger Jack Jenkins noticed a problem: he easily exposed private messages and photos sent via the Facebook app by simply modifying the URL of his own messages.
Facebook was forced to temporarily disable its "Midnight Delivery" New Year's messages feature after a privacy flaw was exposed by an information technology student early Monday morning.
Facebook quickly took note of the problem and brought Midnight Delivery offline for maintenance. It has since been fixed and is available for use.
Midnight Delivery, which was introduced this year, was designed to allow you to write a message to friends or loved ones that will be delivered exactly as 2012 ends and 2013 begins. However, student and blogger Jack Jenkins noticed a problem: he easily exposed private messages and photos sent via the Facebook app by simply modifying the URL of his own messages.
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