MarketMe 2.0

Among all the discussion of the opening of the social web, one thing continues to be a sticky issue for social networks: the lack of a revenue model. While there is advertising revenue being generated on social networks, it is still a fraction of the amount being generated on sites like Yahoo! and Google. Om Malik points out that the lack of a solid revenue model comes with continued signs that the social networking space is slowing domestically.

While there is continued growth abroad, it is much harder to monetize foreign inventory. As such, the social networking industry is in an interesting position. Social platforms have helped generate more inventory but it has also made it more challenging to monetize that inventory. There are people that have developed creative ad campaigns but unfortunately that’s not filling their entire inventory for an extended period of time.

While Facebook and MySpace have been working on targeted ad solutions to help increase their effective revenue generated per active user, there is still too much inventory and extremely low CPMs for the majority. Either social network inventory will continue to attract cheaper advertising or a new advertising model will be developed to increase the effective CPM.

Other variations of advertise include attempts at monetizing “engagement” but really nothing has been developed to increase returns. Among all the buzz, the limited domestic social network growth means that it’s time to start focusing on new solutions for revenue generation. Do you think the industry will find any new solutions or will social networks continue to generate less valuable inventory?

Social Times

Nearly three-fourths of U.S. cell phone users recently surveyed don’t want to ride in airplanes with passengers talking on phones.

The results dovetail with what several airlines have apparently decided already as they prepare to roll out wireless in-flight services such as e-mail, text and instant messaging access from user devices. Those services, however, apparently will not include wireless talking.

Bruce Stewart, vice president of Connected Life Americas at Yahoo Inc., which commissioned the survey, said in a statement that the findings show that users want in-flight wireless connections. But they “don’t want to be forced to listen to the conversation of the passenger sitting next to them,” he said.

The online survey of 2,033 adults was conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. on behalf of Yahoo Mobile between April 29 and May 1. Of those who responded, 1,778 were cell phone owners who have flown on an airplane.

Nationwide, 74% of respondents said cell phone use on airplanes should be restricted to silent features. In western parts of the U.S., that number increased to 83% who wanted no talking.

As for silent features, 60% said they would want to use them. Of that group, 38% said they would use text messaging, 28% said they would access e-mail, and 29% would play games.

The survey also found that if voice capabilities are allowed in-flight, 69% want a designated area of a plane for people to talk. Yahoo has already begun offering mobile applications for consumers, including Yahoo Go 3.0, which provides mail, news and finance content with access to third-party widgets.

Earlier this year, American Airlines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. announced testing of in-flight Wi-Fi; both said they would ban voice calls because of passenger concerns. Other airlines testing or planning to launch in-flight Wi-Fi in various forms include Virgin America, JetBlue Airways, Deutsche Lufthansa and Qantas Airways.

Computer World

Nick O’Neill over at AllFacebook reports that Robert Scoble has posted an interesting yet somewhat off the wall post suggesting that once Microsoft acquires Yahoo’s search technology, they will then acquire Facebook for $15 to $20 billion. The acquisition of Facebook has already been discussed among a number of people previously but Robert’s rationale seems a little bit ludicrous.

Why does Robert thing that Microsoft will buy Facebook? Simply because Google can’t currently crawl through Facebook’s website. Facebook can then use Yahoo’s search technology to search within Facebook once it has both groups under its control. While the combined forces makes sense, this is an old way of thinking.

Robert suggests that “we will never get an open Web back if these two deals happen.” Are we really going to turn back the clocks and pursue an AOL walled-garden strategy? It has been proven that this model fails and people end up going elsewhere on the web. Why would it suddenly work this time?

Robert’s apparent conclusion is that search is the killer feature missing from Facebook and once it has it, there is no need to open up. Noticing that Robert’s post was made after 4 AM, I think he may have stayed up a little too late while planning Microsoft’s world domination.

Surprise! Yahoo doesn’t agree with Carl Icahn’s assessment that “it is unconscionable that you have not allowed your shareholders to choose to accept an offer that represented a 72% premium over Yahoo’s closing price of $19.18 on the day before the initial Microsoft offer.” Those were the words used by Icahn in a letter he wrote this morning announcing his intentions to nominate a dissident board of directors at Yahoo’s upcoming annual meeting - presumably one that would be more than willing to accept a new bid from Microsoft.

In a letter/press release issued this afternoon, Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock defends his company’s decision, writing “we do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control of Yahoo! for the express purpose of trying to force a sale of Yahoo! to a formerly interested buyer who has publicly stated that they have moved on.”

Bostock goes on to give a blow-by-blow account of meetings his company held with Microsoft, and how they arrived at the conclusion that going it alone was a better idea than accepting Microsoft’s $33/share offer. Unfortunately for Bostock and his Yahoo cohorts, it’s doubtful that they will win this battle through a war of words.

Along with launch partners Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket, and Twitter, MySpace has announced “Data Availability,” an initiative to allow users to share their profile data across all of the sites that they visit. By all signs, this means we’ll have an actual, tangible implementation of Data Portability up and running within the next few weeks.

Specifically, Amit Kapur, COO of MySpace outlines four pieces of data that MySpace users will be able to manage:

* Biographic information – user profiles and interests

* MySpace photos

* MySpace videos

* Your MySpace friend’s list

To actually use the service, there will be a centralized location (”Central Data Control Panel”) on MySpace where users can manage what is shared, and on which sites. When signing up for other services, such as eBay, users will be able to enter their MySpace credentials during the process to have their MySpace data imported. Once this has been done, whenever you update your profile or add content on MySpace, those updates will be reflected across all of the services you are managing through your MySpace profile.

MySpace As Center of the Social Universe

In effect, by moving first to offer a legitimate implementation of Data Portability, MySpace is making a play to become *the* centralized social profile. And while those of us in the so-called early adopter crowd may have long-since moved to Facebook, the participation of massive, mainstream partners like Yahoo and eBay will keep MySpace in the #1 social network position, at least with the average Web user (let us not forget, MySpace is owned by the same company that produces American Idol). On a conference call today, Chris DeWolfe of MySpace said we can expect to start seeing Data Availabilty in action “within the coming weeks.”

Any Web Site Can Participate And Leverage MySpace Data

While the company is launching with some huge partners, any web site will be able to participate. MySpace will offer both a light integration (JavaScript) and a more involved one (PHP, Rails) to integrate directly with MySpace’s REST APIs. There is no business development deal involved - just agree to MySpace’s TOS and you’ll be able to allow users of your web site to import their MySpace data. This should be great news for application providers, who will be able to let MySpace users import their friends, photos, and videos.

MySpace Joins Data Portability Too

Finally, as part of today’s announcement, MySpace is also officially becoming part of the Data Portability project, joining just about every other major Web company who has gleefully announced their involvement, but done little so far in the way of launching actual products people can use. The company describes “Data Availability” as the first step towards MySpace’s overall Data Portability plan.

Mashable