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A personal weblog of work and musings by Jason Bergman
URL: http://jasonbergman.me
Updated: 13 min 2 sec ago

What the F**k is Social Media NOW?

Mon, 07/19/2010 - 14:17

From Espresso: It’s that time again! Time for another asterisk-ridden diatribe on the state of the state in social media (for those of you who prefer asterisk-free diatribes, here’s a cleaner version)! Except this year, we’re not merely asking “What the F**k is Social Media?” We’re asking “What the F**k is Social Media NOW?” In 2008, when we published the original What the F**k is Social Media, the statistics were impressive and our message was clear: This is not a fad. It’s a revolution. Two years later, the stats don’t just speak for themselves—they literally boggle the mind. Five hundred billion minutes per month spent on Facebook alone? My brain hurts just typing that number. Even the staunchest luddites out there can no longer deny that social media has become pretty darn ubiquitous. To emphasize this point, we asked a handful of super-smarties to contribute their interpretation of what social media is now, but we also want to hear from you. What do you think social media is now?Don’t be shy, tell us!

Related posts:

  1. The Social Media Revolution
  2. What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
  3. Social Media Tracker - Wave 4

iPhone: The Art of the Launch

Thu, 07/08/2010 - 13:56

Over the years Apple has taken product launches to new heights. Whether it’s due to hype, technological breakthroughs, or simply a loyal fan-base, Apple has, indeed, perfected the art of launching a new product. Thanks to the good folks at GigaOm we have breakdown of one of Apple’s most successful products, and launches… the iPhone. It happens every year and every year it gets bigger, with the latest version iPhone 4 launch selling 1.7 million units in just 3 days… Apple’s biggest product launch to date.

Other points to note:

infographic via GigaOm

Related posts:

  1. ‘New Creation’ Launch + Earnings = Big Week For Apple
  2. The New iPhone 3G[s]
  3. WWDC 2010 Keynote Takeaways

The Facebook Economy: Economics of The Ecosystem

Wed, 07/07/2010 - 12:54

There are 550,000+ apps that are used on Facebook. Seventy percent of users engage with apps each month. There are one million app developers. Zynga, the top app developer, made $250 million in 2009. Of that amount, $80-$150 million is estimated to be profit, more net profit than Facebook itself made.

The most popular Facebook apps are:

Zynga

Rock You!

Electric Arts

CrowdStar

Playdom

Causes

Slide

6 Waves

Topzy

iLike

MindJolt

RIM

Facebook Pages

There are 1,500,000 active Facebook pages. The average value per fan is $136.38. Extrapolating on that, many celebrity pages would be worth enormous sums:

Michael Jackson, with 13.3 million fans, would have a page worth $1.8 billion. Family Guy has 9.5 million fans for a worth of $1.3 billion. Lady Gaga and Barack Obama each have 9.1 million fans, worth $1.2 billion each. Vin Diesel has nine million fans, worth $1.1 billion. Starbucks has 8.2 million fans, worth $1.1 billion. South Park has 6.2 million fans for a worth of $845 million.

Popular Facebook pages include:

Barack Obama

Lady Gaga

Michael Jackson

Family Guy

Vin Diesel

Megan Fox

House

Twilight Saga

Starbucks

Users

There are 500,000,000+ users of Facebook. Of those, 200 million users use it daily for an average of 55 minutes a day. If those users were all working for $5 an hour instead of going on Facebook, they would collectively earn $916,000,000 a day.

Advertisers

In Q1 2010, 176 billion display ads were posted on Facebook, 16 percent of the display ad market. Facebook says its advertisers have quadrupled since 2009.

If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populous in the world after China and India. Today’s valuation of Facebook is $7.9-$11 billion.

via VisualEconomics

Related posts:

  1. March 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings - comScore
  2. Online Video Continues To Surge
  3. Social Networking and Blog Sites Capture More Internet Time and Advertising

The New Xbox Experience: E3 Keynote

Thu, 06/17/2010 - 16:43

It’s official, Project Natal has moved beyond its codename pseudonym and received its official name… Kinect. I think it’s perfect. Combining the key aspects of the Xbox 360 add-on: Being virtually connected to our consoles with the physical kinetic attribute of how we will be controlling them in games, entertainment, and more.

One of the coolest things about what the new Xbox 360 Experience is bringing to the table is that it is truly going to transform the living/family room. Not just by its unique gaming experience, and the ability of families being able to play together but… also by offering something unique for every member of the household. The overall strategy and direction Xbox has taken is pure genius. If they keep this up, Microsoft may well become one of the major players in our living room in the coming years.

From a gaming perspective Kinect for Xbox 360 is poised to open up entirely new audiences for Xbox - those that, up till now, have been accustomed to the Wii - families. Entire families. And they’ll move from the Wii too. Here why:

For Kids:

For Women:

For Families:

For Sports Fans:

For Gamers (Who, at this time, still need a controller):

With everything Kinect for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live has to offer, it will soon become a household appliance, as opposed to just another gaming console.

Watch a replay of the Xbox 360 live keynote from E3 2010.

Related posts:

  1. Project Natal - The Innovation Journey
  2. Project Natal - The future of gaming
  3. Xbox Live Update Preview II Review

WWDC 2010 Keynote Takeaways

Thu, 06/10/2010 - 10:35

Apple’s iPad has sold over 2 million units in less than 2 months, selling 1 iPad every 3 seconds.

Proving that Steve Jobs really knows how to pick his catch-phrases (in a classic Jobs moment) he opens the Keynote with a customers email to Jobs claiming that he has experienced the truly “magical” powers of the iPad …

Of course, the big news of the day was the new iPhone 4. True to (Apple’s) form, the latest iPhone is a gorgeous piece of equipment. While slightly heavier than its previous siblings, it’s nearly 25% thinner and packs some serious hardware. Sporting Apple’s new silicon, A4 chip that equip iPads, HD Video Recording (720p), 5-megapixel camera, front-facing camera, 802.11n networking, and the remarkable Retina Display. (Check out the cool interactive comparison of the Retina Display vs iPhone 3GS Display. You can also find the full specs here.)Some more interesting things to note:

FaceTime, Apple’s new platform for mobile video calling, is a tremendous leap forward in mobile computing. It may take a little while for it to catch on and become wide-spread but… there’s is no doubt in my mind that this will revolutionize the way we communicate. Considering the fact that Apple is making it open source will provide some tremendous opportunities for future growth of the platform and will contribute to the ability of breaking barriers between operating systems.

The App Store:

Just last week, Apple surpassed 5 billion downloads from the App Store.

For me, the most inspiring news of the day was what Jobs also claimed to be his favorite stat of the show: Apple has paid over $1 Billion to developers (their 70% of the app store price).

One point that Jobs wanted make clear with respect to App submissions: upon 15,000 apps submitted a week, from 30 countries, 95% of them are approved within 7 days. Of those rejected, the top reasons are:

  1. The app doesn’t function as advertised
  2. Use of private APIs - as Jobs states, “We’re very clear on this, we do not accept private APIs” - and goes on to explain why
  3. Crashes (the App simply crashes at start-up or too often)

There were a couple of other points Jobs wanted to make perfectly clear. iOS fully supports two platforms:

and

Highlighting some apps:

“We launched eBay application on the iPhone last year - 10 million downloads. It did $600 million of volume in its first year. It’s going to do $1.5 billion to 2 billion  this year.” - eBay CEO John Donahoe

While there was a lot more to cover… there just isn’t enough time. But luckily, you can find all the iPhone 4 goodness your heart desires, before the big day arrives on June 24th, right here on the Apple site.

Related posts:

  1. WWDC 2009 Keynote Takeaways
  2. iPhone: The Art of the Launch
  3. Apple’s New Baby: The iPad

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