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Posts Tagged ‘Massive Amounts’

Facebook on Track for $1 Billion Revenue This Year

According to figures released today by the singularly focused blog Inside Facebook, the ubiquitous social network made upwards of $700 million in 2009 and is expected to reach a phenomenal $1 billion in revenues in 2010.

Year over year, Facebook’s revenues have typically doubled, from $150 million in 2007 to around $300 million in 2008 and so on.

The breakdown of revenue streams is fascinating, showing the extent to which well-targeted ads based on massive amounts of user data still drives how we monetize the Web.

These data also show how much some have underestimated the market for virtual goods and the real-world value of virtual currency – as much as $10 million in 2009 alone, still in beta and just for one social network.

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Last year, brand advertising and performance advertising are estimated to have netted $225 million and $350 million for the company, respectively. Microsoft ads alone brought in $50 million.

All this cash flow makes the $10 million Facebook earned from its still-in-beta Facebook Credits system seem puny. We wonder how much this figure will increase when Credits are rolled out for all users and all applications.

A common rumor about Credits is that this virtual currency will become the mandatory, de facto method of purchasing virtual goods – from Gifts to in-game accessories – on Facebook. If that were to happen, Facebook (which takes a 30 percent cut of all Credits revenue) stands to make a great deal more than $10 million as it takes on the role of virtual currency exchange.

Facebook has stated it will not comment on these figures or speculation about future revenues. However, it is completely clear that this company has found a way to make the Web dramatically profitable. They’ve done so by honing their revenue streams, getting creative with brands, tweaking their UX to maximize time and money spend on the site and targeting ads based on user data. And these revenues will only continue to grow as Facebook edges out competing networks for users’ attention and brands’ ad spend.

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Business Intelligence and Analytics Hot Topics at IBM Information on Demand Conference

Business intelligence, analytics and the demand for process optimization are the big draws here at the IBM Information On Demand Conference in Las Vegas.

As one executive said on stage, its not enough to react quickly to what is happening but to predict it.

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According to IBM’s CIO Global Study, 83 percent of respondents said business intelligence and analytics are a top priority. IBM sees business analytics as the next mega trend, growing twice as fast as the rest of the IT industry.

For example, Cognos, acquired by IBM in 2007, is now a hub for IBM’s business intelligence offerings.

Cognos announced its Content Analytics product at the conference. With the addition, Cognos is putting an emphasis on combining a client’s internal data with external information to provide a more complete picture of the market and how to optimize marketing and processes within the organization.

This may be used to correlate transaction information with unstructured information that the client collects from the web.

Applications may include using analytics for sales purposes to get a better understanding and deeper insights into trends that come as trickles from actual purchases. The information can be analyzed with other data from sales reps about the products they are selling. This information can then be used by sales executives to predict trends and ready the rest of the organization for changes in the marketplace.

But though this conference is about information on demand, there is little talk about the real-time web. We asked IBM executives if they can integrate activity stream information, such as a Twitter search pertaining to a company name or product. They said it was possible though it is unclear exactly how this would be accomplished.

Most of the examples we saw with Cognos Content Analytics focused on massive amounts of form data that can be viewed in a dashboard. That’s impressive but we would like to see how IBM is leveraging the social web and how they plan to compete against the number of lightweight social technologies that are filling the market.

[Disclosure: IBM paid for a plane ticket and hotel room for Alex Williams to attend the IBM Information On Demand Conference.]

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Snow Leopard review

Snow Leopard. Even the name seems to underpromise — it’s the first “big cat” OS X codename to reference the previous version of the OS, and the list of big-ticket new features is seemingly pretty short for a version-number jump. Maybe that’s why Apple’s priced the 10.6 upgrade disc at just $29 — appearances and expectations matter, and there’s simply not enough glitz on this kitty to warrant the usual $129.

But underneath the customary OS X fit and finish there’s a lot of new plumbing at work here. The entire OS is now 64-bit, meaning apps can address massive amounts of RAM and other tasks go much faster. The Finder has been entirely re-written in Cocoa, which Mac fans have been clamoring for since 10.0. There’s a new version of QuickTime, which affects media playback on almost every level of the system. And on top of all that, there’s now Exchange support in Mail, iCal, and Address Book, making OS X finally play nice with corporate networks out of the box.

So you won’t notice much new when you first restart into 10.6 — apart from some minor visual tweaks here and there there’s just not that much that stands out. But in a way that means the pressure’s on even more: Apple took the unusual and somewhat daring step of slowing feature creep in a major OS to focus on speed, reliability, and stability, and if Snow Leopard doesn’t deliver on those fronts, it’s not worth $30… it’s not worth anything. So did Apple pull it off? Read on to find out!

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Software

Snow Leopard review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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