Social media has been in full swing this week, from Google Wave to Susan Boyle. Both Google and Microsoft decided to launch new products, while the social media starlet Boyle sang her heart out on the finale of Britainís Got Talent. There has been no shortage of social media buzz.
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It’s a simple idea, really: Nonpremium ad inventory can be worth more by increasing the odds buyer and seller find each other in an open, real-time market. It’s one that made Michael Walrath’s Right Media worth more than $850 million to Yahoo, which recently acquired the 80% share of the company it didn’t already own (Yahoo spent $40 million on a 20% stake last year). (http://tinyurl.com/mj9245)
One of the largest online interactive ad agencies in the world, Razorfish, was sold by Microsoft for between $500 and $600 million. With offices on four continents and a presence in the seven biggest markets for digital, it’s no surprise Razorfish services is leading multinational brands. (http://tinyurl.com/nunytj)
The modern web and the future of the music industry seem almost inextricably intertwined in terms of marketing, listening, communicating, and purchasing. Twitter is one of the many ways for people to instantly and quickly communicate, and artists are taking advantage of its vast potential. (http://tinyurl.com/n2npcc)
According to TwitStat, UberTwitter now accounts for 1.26 percent of Twitter users, beating out TwitterBerry’s 0.87 percent penetration. The private beta SocialScopeSocialScope sits at 0.35 percent, while the recently released TweetCaster doesn’t yet register. (http://tinyurl.com/nfl7qh)
Rooftop Comedy, the publisher of the best clips from stand-up comedy videos from around the nation, has raised $2.5 million in its first round of funding, led by Azure Capital Partners. Rooftop is a site that aims to bring you comedy clips of comedians you know, and others that are promising.
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NationalBanana is a video site that has recently received $1 million in funding from US Venture Partners. The video site is for professionally produced clips of a comedy series. With the success of video-sharing sites as well as the creatives behind viral videos, the ongoing integration of new and traditional media is seeing a great deal of funding go into the promotion of sites such as NationalBanana that are dedicated to a professional production studio, but geared towards the user-generated crowd. (http://tinyurl.com/37cxkg)
