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New Media News Every Morning

MySpace goes to China

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MySpace announced its launch in China, officially taking on the nation’s 137 million Internet users.

MySpace China introduced itself as a “locally owned, operated, and managed company” in which News Corp. was only one among several investors. Other investors include International Data Group and China Broadband Capital Partners, the investment company of former China Netcom Group Corp. chief executive Edward Tian.

“Based on the MySpace global brand and technology platform, we will develop products and features that are tailored to today’s Chinese citizens,” said MySpace China CEO Luo Chuan, a former Microsoft executive.

The MySpace China community is still in its test stage, adapted from the US version, but will gradually be developed to meet the needs of Chinese users, the company said in a statement.

Originally posted on April 27, 2007 @ 9:05 am

Clear Channel launches own social network

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Clear Channel launched its own social networking sites for seven of its radio stations’ websites. The sites include “The Wild Space,” for KYLD-FM (San Francisco); “The Hot Spot,” for WIHT-FM (D.C.); and “The Z-Zone,” for New York’s WHTZ-FM.

Users will be able to create profiles, and add photos, widgets, videos from YouTube, and music videos from Clear Channel’s library of 6,000 licensed videos.

Clear Channel is expected to roll out five more social networking sites in June for CHR KIIS/Los Angeles and WFLZ/Tampa, Rock KTBZ/Houston, Urban WWPR (Power 105.1)/New York City and News/Talk KTRH/Houston.

Originally posted on May 1, 2007 @ 10:01 am

2006 Canadian online advertising tops $1 billion

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The Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada (IAB) announced that 2006 Canadian Online Advertising Revenues surged to an unprecedented $1.01 billion dollars for the year. The 2006 actuals represent a 26% increase over the $801 million originally estimated by the IAB for 2006; and an 80% increase over the 2005 actuals of $562 million. Of the $1.01 billion, approximately $208 million or 21 percent of ad dollars were allocated to the French Canadian Online market, representing growth of 68% over the 2005 actuals of $124 million.

And there’s still more growth to come. IAB Canada’s projected total for 2007 Online advertising in Canada, is estimated to be $1.337 billion – a full 32 percent more than the 2006 actual of $1.01 billion. “It’s interesting,” says Gignac. “While it took us 13 years from when the first banner was served on the Internet, until now, to reach the billion dollar mark in Canada, it may only take us another two to three years to reach the second billion.

Originally posted on April 30, 2007 @ 8:27 am

Visible Path launches social network for business professionals

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visiblepath.jpgVisible Path announced a new, free version of its business networking service, for business professionals. Anyone with a company email address can start an individual or company network powered by Visible Path.

The free service, available in a beta, is built on a new technical foundation that incorporates Visible Path’s legacy of supporting private corporate networks and introduces features aimed at individual subscribers. In particular, subscribers can: Launch their private social network within minutes from www.visiblepath.com; Connect with other work colleagues; Invite close contacts outside their company into their network; Control their individual privacy settings; Scan relationship data from emails, contact cards, calendars and more; View “first degree” relationships ranked by relationship strength; Lookup contacts in a intelligent address book that aggregates contact information; Search for meaningful connections through the network to people they’d like to reach and; Request introductions or background info from people connected to people they want to reach.

Unlike most social networking sites and business networking communities, Visible Path is a service to help business people manage their real-life network and apply their network to their daily work. Visible Path applies unique social network algorithms that automatically rate relationship strength to drive new levels of success, efficiency and trust in professionals’ social networks. Connections are limited to contacts and colleagues that know each other well; introductions and requests are optimally routed through the strongest paths.

Originally posted on April 23, 2007 @ 11:38 am

Yahoo to acquire Right Media

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The New York Times reports that Yahoo plans to acquire Right Media, a privately held company that runs an advertising marketplace.

Yahoo will pay approximately $680 million, in equal parts of stock and cash, for the remaining interest in the company.

“The acquisition, to us, is a key step toward executing our long-term vision to build the leading advertising and publisher ecosystem both on and off the Yahoo network,” Terry S. Semel, Yahoo’s chief executive, said in the Times report. The deal is expected to close in three months.

Originally posted on April 29, 2007 @ 10:51 pm