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valleylist Monday 4.28.2008 v 17.0
high tech products companies consumers > newsgroup > Valleylist Network NING new! > subscribe pub@thevalleylist.com
HIGH TECH PRODUCTS
+ no economic slowdown on the internet
+ Silicon Valley - - Conferences
+ Chief Yahoo Jerry Yang: Valley Internet ?
INTERNET SOCIAL NETWORKS hit the front page and became a new silicon valley success story. Facebook's Marc Zuckerberg is the youngest rich person on the Forbes 500 list of the wealthies in the United States. The latest big news was Bebo social network acquired by AOL for $850m. Before that it was MySpace acquired for $580 by Newscorp. My favorite is NING a service that let's people "grow their own" . Very much in the tradition of Yahoo! where anybody can buy a dot - - Your domain name is out there. Go get it. - - for $2.00 and just "grow their own" . NING has it's roots in the deep dark early days of the internet with the people who created "Mosaic" and "Netscape" and set the standard for "Microsoft Internet Explorer" . As usual my entire thing is keeping very busy with internet news. There's a lot that can be done to improve zip code 95128. It's up to Mayor Reed who inherited the city from his predicessor. It's still far behind all the other top 10 cities in the US in standard of living and available services and new business start-ups. Good luck Chuck ?
IT NEEDS TO BE A MEETING - - final verdict came in for Heather Smith and the infamous "group of people from San Francisco" . They thought they'd come up with a new way of doing business - - yet after 5 years it's still "market research" . First it was Hitachi's response "No meeting No Nookie" and then after weeks and weeks Hitachi also still needs a meeting. Blame Hitachi for laying down the law - - the "traffic noise" or "whisper net" or "close line" approach to business is a dismal failure. So is the "walk away" project. So is the infamous "do the same thing at the same time" version of how to close on important business. Just endless torture then it's a meeting later on anyway. These are a few of the weird ideas around town lately.
The San Jose police agree and they still need a meeting as well. They finally threw in their towel and said "yes virginia it needs to be a meeting" . For the latest on this odd controversy contact the "valleylist networkNING" . Yet again "valleylist" was totally correct - - no meeting no nookie. And worst of all no decision and most certainly no new business. The "infamous group from San Francisco" missed their window of opportunity according San Jose authorities politicians and business people and most importantly the Santa Clara County board.
MAYOR OF THE WEEK - - Tony Spitari Sunnyvale Mayor adopts pro-labor initiatives decided to go into a 21st century meeting and actually close out the old agenda and put the focus on the people who work for living. Somebody out to develop a new fantasy game came up with the interesting idea "if only my email messages all came true" - - an odd concept to begin with. They could if you could make it legal. It's the fantasy game version they are stuck with and a symbolic win. Occasionally odd prizes on the side. Like a game show.
Who else is into NING ? City Year NING
Firefighter Nation - - a network for firefighters
Hashspace - - a running club with a drinking problem private network
NING Network Creators
A Netflix Community
Ask A NINJA Fans
Trekspace
Yahoo! latest news is that business leaders want to keep the internet pioneer independent however the microsoft offensive is still underway. An unwelcome kind of sitution. Google and Yahoo enter the social network group. Yahoo's social network of choice is - - mosh. Google new social network is orkut - - already underway.
EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNET and money has to be the driving force behind the new phenomenon - - clumsily called internet social groups. This "valleylist" list of the new darlings - - the oldest of which was founded in 2002 - - and the total value of the entire new group is most likely around $27 billion so far. They are all getting top notch reviews. The "valleylist" reviews of each social network include
VALLEYLIST NETWORK & GRILL
date founded - - 2008
number of members - - a few hundred so far
target audience - - valleylist subscribers
revenue - - sponsorship meetings in progress
source of revenue - - sponsorships
latest news - - "valleylist" network NING launched 4.28.2008
parent company - - independently owned
description of service - - high tech products companies and consumers post their news and opinions and latest activities for the rest of us to be part of.
"valleylist" point of view - - needs a lot of work.
what are they up to really - - totally top source of information about silicon valley products companies and consumers.
> date founded - - October 2004
> number of members - - 100,000 NING networks
NING comments
> target audience - - "Marc and I founded NING in October 2004 to give everyone the opportunity to create your own social networks for anything. Today NING powers the largest number of social networks on the internet."
> revenue - - not disclosed
> source of revenue - - advertising sponsorships and developer fees and value added services
> parent company - - independent company
> description of service - - allows people to create their own social network and build them yourself or "grow your own"
> "valleylist" point of view - - the best however needs to bring in more content feeds and information sources
> what are they up to really - - it's not quite as big as Mark Andreesen's first big success "mosaic" which created the browser industry and Netscape that set the standard for Microsoft Explorer and other companies in the "browser" business.
X 2. MySpace - - the largest
Mountainview CA
> date launched - - 2003
> number of members - - 110,000 million active monthly users
> target audience - - "Create a community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends! See who knows who, or how you are connected. Find out if you really are six people away from Kevin Bacon. MySpace is for everyone - - "
> revenue - - $271m
> source of revenue - - advertising sales sponsorships and value added services
> latest news
#3. AOL's Bebo 415.243.4365 sara@bebo.com
Bebo, Inc. 795 Folsom Street 6th Floor
San Francisco CA 94107
> date founded - - 2005
> founders - - Michael and Xochi Birch
> number of members - - 40 million
> target audience - - "audience aged under 30, with the > core of 16-24 year olds spending 2.14 billion minutes on the site per month"
> revenue - - $20 million 2007 Silicon Valley Insider Scoop
> source of revenue - - promotional deals with entertainment music and lifestyle companies
> latest news - - Bebo Chooses Gap Year Traveler For Interactive Reality Series
> parent company - - acquired by AOL on March 13 2008 $850m
> description of service - - " Bebo is the next generation social networking service where members can stay in touch with their College friends, connect with friends, share photos, discover new interests and just hang out."
> "valleylist" point of view - - the most interesting and content rich of all the internet social networks however they boost from AOL will certainly smooth out the innovative and very "happening" feel that people find when they log onto bebo.
> what are they up to really - - bebo has a few pop culture type mainstays and has unfortuantely gone into the very ordinary kind of programming and content. the difficulty with the internet and elsewhere is developing and publishing content that can not be found elsewhere. Most of the information is great, however they're still going after new members which is the big interest behind the $850m AOL acquisition.
4. LinkedIn
Mountainview CA
> date founded - - 2002
> founders - - Dan Nye and Reid Hoffman
> number of members - - 20 million
> target audience - - business people and their fans
> revenue - - $100m
> source of revenue - - advertising sponsorships and value added services
> latest news - - "company profiles"
> parent company - - independedly owned investors are Sequoia Capital, Greylock, the European Founders Fund, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
> description of service - - Linkedin "professional network online, giving you access to people, knowledge, jobs and opportunities like never before. Built upon trusted connections and relationships, LinkedIn has established the world’s largest and most powerful professional network. "
> "valleylist" point of view - - I really like linkedin however it's a very difficult service to use and they are way too serious about what they are doing. Most importantly however is they seem to be the only big company in the business side of the social network equation. They need to have more fun with their members.
what are they up to really - - Get there first and keep running however they rely on a traditional management structure.
5. Plaxo
Plaxo, Inc.
203 Ravendale Drive
Mountain View, CA 94043
Main: (650) 254-5400
Fax: (650) 254-1435
number of members - - around 15m in 2006
target audience - - all ages and members of exisiting social networking services
revenue - - not disclosed
source of revenue - - advertising sponsorship and value added services
latest news - - Plaxo Introduces Lifestreaming Widget
parent company - - independly owned investors "Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, Harbinger Venture Management, DAG Ventures, and Cisco Systems"
description of service - - "Plaxo helps millions of people around the world stay better connected with the people they know and care about. Serving customers since 2002, Plaxo is a privately held company, funded by leading investment and technology firms ?Sequoia Capital, Globespan Capital Partners, Harbinger Venture Management, DAG Ventures, and Cisco Systems and by individual investors Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle. The company offers services directly to consumers - - "
> "valleylist" point of view - - what can anybody do but try to have Plaxo be the service that is too generic to be interesting with a new angle - - aggregate and try to attract people from other social network services.
what are they up to really - - PLAXO Pulse wants to be part of the "open id" and "aggregator" and "plug in" services for social networks of all kind.
6. Facebook
Palo Alto CA
> date founded -- 2004
> founders - - Mark Zuckerberg and Matt Koler
> number of members - - 64 million
> target audience - - young people and high school students
> revenue - - undisclosed
> source of revenue - - advertising sponsorships and product related programs
> latest news - - Facebook Chat
> parent company - - privately owned "$500,000 from Peter Thiel, Summer 2004; $12.7 million from Accel Partners, April 2005; $27.5 million from Greylock Partners leading the round, Meritech Capital Partners participating, and Accel Partners and Peter Thiel increasing their investment in the company."
> description of service - - "Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet."
> "valleylist" point of view - - the hot new service these days and mostly because their members appear to feel very loyal to the service for some reason.
what are they up to really - - from a new idea to a very serious business interest the facebook team is keeping way in front of the rest of the pack in member related activities.
7. YouTube
San Bruno CA
> date founded - - 2005
> founders - - Chad Hurley and Steve Chen
> number of members - - 64 million
> target audience - - "Our user base is 18-55, spanning all geographies. With such a large and diverse user base, YouTube offers something for everyone."
revenue - - undisclosed
> source of revenue - - advertising
> latest news - - YouTube and Cspan launch nationwide voter project
> parent company - - "YouTube is an independent subsidiary of Google, Inc., having been acquired by the leader in search and online advertising services in November of 2006."
> description of service - - video and reallyall kinds of video on the internet, how new even in the 21st century.
"valleylist" point of view - - nobody else has anything in that space. a big win for google.
> what are they up to really - - building a fun community however they don't have the entire production network or video value chain trademarked or branded or under the YouTube brand yet - -
It's a big new business and it's a dramatic departure from the "search" business that got most of the big players started. However the big barrier to growth here is amazingly enough the technology. Who's the new high tech business person to trancend the limits of search and HTML with a technology innovation? Post candidates on "valleylist network NING" .
additional resources and articles:
USA Today
Latest SNS Numbers - - MySpace Streaks Ahead
Mashable Social Network News
content and design exclusive to valleylist
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Greg McKenna
publisher
valleylist
2910 Stevens Creek Blvd. #109-503
San Jose, CA 95128
408.649.1614
pub@thevalleylist.com Received on Mon Apr 28 19:23:59 2008
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