This morning, July 24, 2014, Facebook stocks opened at over $76 a share, beating the record of $72 back in March 2014. Their shares increased 173% since since summer 2013. It’s also one of the most traded stocks on Wall St. today. While they’re soaring, other technology stocks have decreased nearly 20% since March. What’s the cause of this rally? Several factors contribute to this. Mobile ads are the fuel behind this record pace profit machine. Mobile advertising alone was responsible for nearly two-thirds of ad profits. Facebook offers more services than it used to. It has a video ad app. It’s newest acquisition, Live Rail, is expected to help with video promos. Facebook also acquired the What’s App and are rumored to start making headsets with Oculus VR.
There’s one more thing: more users. Facebook has 1.32 billion accounts. There’s 7.1 billion people in the world today. You do the math. The average US user spends 40 minutes a day on the social media website. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is involved with charitable ventures. One is getting Internet connection around the world. So these ingredients are taking Facebook from Wall St.’s laughing stock to Wall St.’s darlings in less than two years. Without sounding like an after school break special, this is perseverance, creativity, innovation and a never get up attitude. So congratulations to Facebook. Would you invest?
Do you know the age old saying, “A closed mouth is never fed”? You don’t need to tell that to the technology world; they know the importance of advertising and promotion. Well, most of them do anyway.
Google dominates the race in net digital ad revenue and net mobile ad revenue race. In digital ads, they own 31% of the spoils, while in mobile ads, they took home a whopping half of all revenue. Facebook places a distant second, raking in eight percent of digital ad revenue and nearly a fourth of mobile ad sales. Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting it out for third on the digital ad list, while Twitter is making quite the rising scene in the mobile ad market shares.
But what struck me was the number of companies that didn’t even make one percent of one or both charts. And I’m talking big name tech based companies. Companies like? AOL, Twitter, Amazon and Linkedin didn’t even one percent of digital ad revenue, but Google got nearly a third. Companies like Millennial Media, Yelp and Amazon don’t make one percent of the mobile ad market. Meanwhile, Google and Facebook has nearly three-fourth of that market under their control. So what’s going on here? I doubt Twitter and Amazon just don’t care about these ads, but these numbers are really disproportionate. I get that not all these companies have the same amount of revenue, or even will, for global ads, but for the numbers to be like this? What advantages do Google and Facebook have over the others in digital and mobile advertising?
The technology wearable contest intensifies. Samsung started the revolution. Then came Apple. Google and Android started collaborating. You knew it was only a matter of time before Microsoft was getting in on the action.
Some sources are saying Microsoft will release a fitness band with smartphone technologies. This isn’t expected to be a watch, just a wristband. This mystery device could be released in fall 2014. But here’s the advantage of a potential Microsoft wristband: It will work with all devices, not just click with the same brand. In addition to this, it will offer the same thing as other wrist technology does, checking heart rates, calories burned and other health apps. I’m sure they’ll be other cool apps coming. Remember, this is Microsoft here.
Maybe this is why they’re doing this spectacular move of all devices working with this potential wristband. That is a huge one up on the competition. Some say they’re giving too much away to their competitors, but this is genius. I’d love it to have a device that respects other companies. The price is expected to be the same as other fitness bands. And frankly, who cares if it doesn’t have a watch. It’s 2014. Aren’t there watches and clocks all around you now?
Songza is a free music streaming group, heavily based on consumers’ playlist. They could play anything from your favorite workout songs to your favorite decade. Now they’re playing to Google’s tune.
Google has purchased Songza. Rumors are flying about how much: some say $15 million and some say $39 million. What make Songza different from most online radio is that Songza uses lots of data about what people like to listen to, down to the time of day, location, even activity of the consumer. Some speculate Google had to increase their generosity because others are interested in this music streaming group. Google insists nothing will change about Songza…yet. But Songza is expected to supply their knowledge to Google franchises like You Tube. Songza has approximately five and a half million active users.
I find this intriguing they make this deal not long after Apple made it’s three billion dollar deal with Dr. Dre’s Beats. This goes to show you how competitive the music/social media avenue is getting. I think Google is doing a great thing here, and I don’t even like mergers very much. But this one makes a lot of sense. On my You Tube account, it recommends videos for me a lot, according to what I already subscribe to. So it makes perfect sense to hook up with a music streaming group that gives you playlist that does the same thing according to your music list. To me, that sounds like a combination that can’t be beat. Does this acquisition make you want to use Songza or avoid it?
I once heard a news report saying Facebook can make you more depressed. The reason is other people’s lives look perfect while your life seems to be falling apart. Is this report onto something?
In one week, a team of researchers led by psychologists Adam Kramer, studied Facebook accounts of over 600,000 people. They saw people who saw more negative posts tended to be more negative and those with positive posts tended to be more positive people. They studied these people for over a week. My question is: Is this ethical? I’m hoping they at least got the approval of the 600,000 people, or at least, these people knew they were being subjected to such an experiment. But you never know.
I’m wondering why Dr. Kramer and his team did this. I seriously doubt it was for the health and welfare of the Facebook users. I can see them using the information that was gathered for maybe marketing and promotional purposes. Oh, I almost forgot, the US government sponsor this study. Now I’m really skeptical.? Don’t get me wrong: I like Facebook. I’m thankful for the reconciliation that it’s gotten me with hundreds of people over the years. And in my three plus years of using this social medium, it has never made me depressed. But what’s the real purpose of this study?
In nine years, YouTube went from an start-up website of sharing videos to being the king of online viewership in the world. And they’re not stopping there.
At a meeting at YouTube headquarters, they’re coming up with ways to make You Tube more creative. Under YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, tools are being created in hopes of a better YouTube site and reach a wider audience (if that’s even possible). Let’s look at some of these new tools. The Creator Studio will help producers analyze and and manage their videos. The library sound effects will give video producers freedom to add cool special effects, royalty free, without the copyright police bearing down. Creator credits give your collaborators credit and possibly spin off another channel. And they plan to replace annotations with cards.
But the one that caught my eye is fan funding. Like Kickstarter, this app that allows people to donate to your YouTube video, project or cause. I want to believe this will be a great way to help struggling video producers get off the ground. This could fund someone’s dream of being the next YouTube star. I fear this could be take advantage of. But I’m liking all these changes. Most you have to wait for, but some are already running. Creator Studio is already available on Android, and coming out on Apple. Why they wouldn’t be released on both at the same time is beyond me. Do these changes make you want to watch more YouTube, or make videos through this medium?
