Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

Dell has generated sales of over $6.5m via its presence on Twitter, the microblogging service. Dell also employs a service in the US called BrandAnswers, provided by Bazaarvoice, which collates questions posted by shoppers on the websites of various retailers, so that companies can deliver information directly to their potential customers.

The Twijote project aims to publish over 470 pages of the first volume of Don Quixote’s adventures using just 140-character blocks of text allowed by Twitter. The 8,200 tweets must come from one-off visitors to the site and the founders believe the project will take around a year to complete.

Four Hollywood teenagers are appearing in court charged with robbing celebrities whose houses they cased via the internet. The gang are believed to have bagged over $3m worth of loot by consulting gossip websites to check the latest designer jewellery worn by the stars. They would then use social media tools like Twitter to see if their potential targets were out of town. They also used a website alled celebrityaddressaerial.com, which shows photographs of celebrity houses.

Chinese internet star Tencent offers a stark lesson to other social media companies on making money from users. The company’s shares have rise 215% to over HK$150 in the past year as it cleverly generates user revenues from a portfolio of services. These include instant messaging service QQ, which has 500m users and allows users to upgrade to premium packages and purchase virtual products. Today the company has a service modelled on Facebook, a music download service, a video sharing site, a news portal, an e-commerce platform, a virtual worlds site, as well as desktop and online games.

15% of kids aged 6-14 use their mobiles to access social networks, a figure that rises to 20% of boys and 12% of girls, according to research by Intuitive Media. Nearly a fifth (19%) spend between one and two hours a week accessing social networks SuperClubsPlus and GoldStarCafe on their mobile and 10% admit to accessing social networks in class.

YouTube is poised to introduce live sports coverage with a cricket annual tournament. It will show 60 matches from the Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts in March and features English players like Graeme Swann. YouTube is now hunting for a global sponsor as part of its strategy to make money from the coverage.

Ricky Gervais has plucked up the courage to say what nobody else dares to say. He doesn’t like Twitter. “I just don’t get it. I’m sure it’s fun as a networking device for teenagers but there’s something a bit undignified about adults using it, particularly celebrities who seem to be showing off by talking to each other in public.”

Google’s dispute with China over censorship and spying could see the listed company write off billions of dollars in revenue. The company has said it will only operate its Chinese language service Google.cn if it was no longer subject to censorship by the authorities.Google’s Chinese revenues are estimated at $350m yet China’s growth prospects, vast population and soaring appetite for search makes the business very valuable.

CNN and other news organisations have embraced social media to enrich coverage of the Haiti earthquake. CNN’s website, with its section called iReport where people can upload video material, has nearly 250 Reports from Haiti, with several iReporters conducting live interviews for the news organisation. It works. Last week, CNN’s iReport had 1.4m page views, a 240% increase over the usual traffic of 200,00-400,000 daily page views.

Alibaba, Yahoo’s Chinese partner, has criticised the US technology firm, calling it “reckless” for supporting Google’s threat to leave the country in protest over Chinese cyberattacks. Yahoo owns 40% of Alibaba Group, which represents the company’s only real presence in China. Alibaba said it had, “communicated to Yahoo that Yahoo’s statement that it is ‘aligned’ with the position Google took last week was reckless given the lack of facts in evidence. Alibaba doesn’t share this view”.