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New Media News Every Morning

PodTech’s John Furrier steps down, announces new CEO

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What are the chances that two very prominent new media companies lose their founding CEO in one day?

While some of us is still trying to absorb Technorati founder David Sifry’s resignation, we hear that Podtech‘s founding CEO John Furrier has just stepped down too. In a statement in his blog, Furrier announced that the company he founded two years ago is taking it to the next level with James McCormick, PodTech’s former Chief Operating Officer.

“James has demonstrated the operational leadership to take PodTech to the next level,” said Furrier. “I look forward to continuing to work together, to build on our market position and capitalize on the growth and opportunity in new media.”

While Furrier is stepping down as CEO, he will be taking a more low-profile position and will remain the founder and an employee of Podtech.

Originally posted on August 17, 2007 @ 5:06 am

Symantec launches emoticon look-alike photo challenge

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On to the lighter side of things, here’s a fun and unique photo challenge that anyone from around the world can take part of.

Symantec, a global leader in infrastructure and security software, launches Norton 360 Emoticon Look-Alike Competition, giving everyone a chance to bag the grand prize worth $10,000, and 5 consolation prizes worth $1,000 each.

Contest mechanics is simple. Just snap a picture of your best expression of an emoticon, be it yourself or someone else, and then upload the photos to Symantec’s contest page.

This photo challenge, that runs from today until September 30, hopes to document the feelings and expressions of Internet users from around the web and to boost up their latest security solution product, the Norton 360. Everyone who joins gets free coupon which entitles them to 15% off Norton 360 or 15% off Norton Save and Restore.

Know more about this photo contest here.

Originally posted on August 17, 2007 @ 5:59 am

Google buys stake in Chinese online community Tianya.cn

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TianyaWith recent reports about Google‘s interest in investing more on China’s online market, it’s not surprising to hear about the web search giant acquiring a stake in Chinese social community web site Tianya.cn.

Reuters reported that a Google spokeswoman confirmed this in an email, without further disclosing details. Web analysts, meanwhile, can only speculate on how big the investment is, ranging from 10% to 60%.

With China being the second largest internet market today next to US, Google is certainly making its way to expand its services in China. Now, a stake investment. Up next, more acquisitions. Perhaps it’s pretty obvious to say that when Google aims to dominate, it usually succeeds.

Originally posted on August 20, 2007 @ 12:43 pm

Universal McCann survey shows mobile advertising turns users off

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While mobile startups and networks are fast proliferating, a new study made by communications company Universal McCann shows that advertising on mobile Internet is a turn off to about 61% mobile users.

Tom Smith, Universal McCann’s research manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, stated that people often get irritated when being interrupted, and that this applies to traditional media as well. Hence, if consumers don’t like the content that’s being fed to them, they go elsewhere.

Even more interesting is that, in a sample of 9,500 mobile users in 21 countries, 71% would opt to shell out money on licensed music, videos and games, instead on those social network functionalities (podcasts, shared photos, and other user-generated content).

I’m gonna have to agree — given this study, social networks might have to rethink of other ways to monetize their mobile services.

Via MocoNews.

Originally posted on August 17, 2007 @ 4:11 am

MySpace gets largest mobile network in US & UK, M:Metrics says

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MySpace has the largest mobile network in US and UK with 12.3 million users accessing the social networking site using their mobile devices, a recent M:Metrics study shows.

From the 12.3 million MySpace mobile subscribers, America happens to be the largest market with 7.5 million users; followed by Italy with 1.3 million; UK with 1.1 million; and Spain, 751,000. Subsequently, Facebook follows MySpace in the mobile realm, garnering 2 million users in America and 307,000 in UK.

“Nearly every online social networking site has added the ability to connect to these communities with a mobile phone, allowing people to access profiles and share content while they’re on the go. With the mobile phone playing a central role in people’s social lives, it’s only natural that social networking sites are working to bridge the gap between the online and mobile worlds,” said Mark Donovan, senior analyst, M:Metrics.

True enough, social networking and web 2.0 startups continue to proliferate around the web and into our mobile devices. Twitter and Pownce, for example, have their own mobile way of updating, too. With this recent findings by M:Metrics, one shouldn’t be surprised that soon enough, other social networks will eventually add mobile functionality to their services also.

Originally posted on August 16, 2007 @ 4:23 am