(* Source: Paul Isakson *)

Resonance from Continuum on Vimeo.

"As important as understanding what to do next is having the confidence in being right to make it real."

As I was catching up on Design Sojourn the other day, I came across this great video on Continuum's approach to and beliefs about design strategy. It's a very worth-while watch - providing a lot of good things to think about.

When you step back, it's really about putting people at the center of the approach, rather than profit or your own desires as a company. Not only is this relevant to design, but it is also paramount to creating great advertising.

One of the things that could easily get lost in this, but I think is important to call out, is our role as creative thinkers and strategists - to find ways to surprise and delight people. When you think about what makes a great product or a great ad great, it's often that there is something, or multiple things, about it that surprise and delight people.

That's why having a smart insight is one thing, but bringing an idea to life that addresses it in an interesting and relevant way is much harder, often takes more time, and really is something that not everyone can do.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Brian Solis *)

Twitter connects people through a rich and active exchange of ideas, thoughts, observations, and interests in one, highly collaborative and promising ecosystem. The Twitterverse advances micro interaction and connections through an expanding network of applications, engendering the potential for macro reach and resonance online and IRL (in real life).

Posted by brian tiong at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: eMarketer *)

Whe-e-e-ere are you?

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MG Siegler says... Time Magazine recently called YouTube one of the of the past decade, which was hilarious. Hilarious in that the site is by far and away the most popular site for video on the web, and has revolutionized the way we view videos, period. Today brings another amazing stat about the site: Every single minute, over 20 hours of video are now uploaded to YouTube.

Think about that for a minute. In that minute, nearly a days worth of footage will have been uploaded. And the pace is quickening. Back in 2007, shortly after Google bought the service, it was 6 hours of footage being uploaded every minute. As recently as January of this year, that number had grown to 15 hours, according to the YouTube blog. Now it’s 20 — soon it will be 24. That’s insane.

It’s true that YouTube is not making Google any money, but when a site has this much dominance over a market, one way or another, there will be a way to effectively monetize it. The big Hollywood studios are already showing an increasing interest in using the platform, as are others — like ESPN.

Meanwhile, YouTube continues to become a bigger part of Google’s larger social picture. Today, the service added a way to immediately record a video response to a video after you watch it. Sure, this is basically what Seesmic has been doing for a while now — but Seesmic doesn’t have 20 hours of video being uploaded every minute.

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What The Trend? is a personal web experiment by Matt Mayer, a Shanghai-based British web developer for RIA agency ReignDesign.   Find out what's trending on Twitter and why. For each trend, Matt will give you a quick explanation of WHY it's trending (these blurbs are edited by you!) You can also see the latest tweets, Flickr photos and news stories.

Click here to see it in action.

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More than a social phenomenon, Facebook harbors a lively and growing ecosystem of game and other application makers, ad networks and retailers of virtual goods. What happens when businesses running on Facebook become bigger than Facebook itself?

Not all the developer revenue is from advertising. San Francisco-based Zynga, the top developer on Facebook with more than 41 million users, according to AllFacebook.com, makes much of its revenue from the sale of chips for its Texas HoldEm Poker or weapons in Mafia Wars. Zynga is expected to break the $100-million-sales mark in 2009, split between Facebook and MySpace. In addition to Zynga, there are at least a half dozen other companies in the $10 million to $50 million range, as well as many smaller players.

"It wouldn't surprise me if apps on Facebook generate more revenue this year than Facebook," said LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy, whose app is Facebook's most popular at the moment, thanks to its "Pick Your Five" feature. "The overall platform is in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

Lisa Marino, who runs West Coast business development for RockYou, estimates developers will earn $300 million from Facebook this year primarily from three streams: virtual currency, branded sponsorships and ad-network inventory. "These are three strong revenue models that Facebook isn't participating in but that might overall be bigger than what Facebook brings in revenue," she said.

No charge for developers
Unlike News Corp. unit MySpace, which took a hard turn toward commerce in 2008, Facebook has stressed ubiquity of its platform over revenue. Its strategy is to become a conduit for as much of the world's communication as possible and part of that has been to not charge developers to use the platform, no matter how much revenue they generate from it.

That's about to change. Facebook is testing a payments system with some of its developers that would enable one-click buying of virtual goods and services on the Facebook platform, with Facebook taking either a percentage of the transaction or a flat fee. In addition, Facebook is testing a service to allow users or advertisers to buy and trade "credits" or a virtual currency to facilitate commerce. Spokesman Brandon McCormick said three tests of the system will commence in the coming weeks.

That the developer community will soon overshadow the platform in revenue is a sign that Facebook is growing up as a platform, but it also presents a conundrum as it attempts to develop its own advertising business. Facebook profile pages, and the stream of social connections and information they contain, have proven a tough environment for advertising. Display ads in social networks are some of the cheapest inventory in the business. Facebook is pushing "engagement ads" -- surveys, quizzes or games that encourage interaction, but a big chunk of its revenue comes from a pre-existing ad deal with Microsoft.

Applications, on the other hand, have proved fertile ground for commerce. "Once the user goes from their profile into the app platform, whether to play a game, send a virtual gift or check stocks, then its not about connecting with people; it's about having fun or saving time and money," said Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow. "There are a lot of different ways to monetize that."

Pennies add up
While there are plenty of ad networks and companies making branded applications and games, the biggest source of revenue in the applications come from small payments people make, say in games like Mafia War to restore health more quickly. Unlike advertising, the payments business has grown internationally along with Facebook's audience. Players in Singapore are plunking down pennies along with users in the U.S. As a game gets big, it starts to add up. The top five "megahit" games make between $1 million and $3 million a month.

Adding a payments system would allow Facebook to dip a toe in the developers' strongest source of revenue, and for the first time create a business relationship between Facebook and its developers. "In the past they've made it hard to give them money even if we wanted to," Mr. Lazerow said.

Max Levchin, founder and CEO of Slide, creator of SuperPoke, Top Friends and Funspace, believes there probably should be a commercial relationship between Facebook and the developers that rely on its platform for their business. "As long as they add to the bottom line, developers will pay the price."

Posted by brian tiong at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Seth Godin *)

Seth says...

Luxury goods are needlessly expensive. By needlessly, I mean that the price is not related to performance. The price is related to scarcity, brand and storytelling. Luxury goods are organized waste. They say, "I can afford to spend money without regard for intrinsic value."

Posted by brian tiong at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 (* Source: Alison Driscoll *)

Alison Driscoll is an interactive copywriter and social media consultant who specializes in Facebook. She authors a blog at alisondriscoll.com.

Not even a year ago, Facebook was still being dismissed as a silly site intended to help college kids slack off. Indeed, that is what helped the social network take hold with a large number of users, but it has proven its worth in business and by now, nearly everyone is on board. Companies of all sizes are scrambling to get on the site and reach both new and current customers with a Facebook Page, the Facebook preferred method for user interaction with a brand, company or public figure.

An effective Facebook Page not only attracts fans, but is sticky so that fans keep coming back and may even share the content on the Page. To do that, you need a well thought out Page that has some great applications supported by good, relevant content. Here are eight essential apps for your brand’s Facebook page:

Applications

1. Facebook Notes

This app was originally a Facebook feature that they then converted into an application; as such, it is sponsored and maintained by Facebook and less likely to break or be abandoned. Set this application up to pull in the RSS feed from your blog or other content source and it will automatically bring everything into Facebook and show all of your friends that you’ve posted a new Note.

This notification system is important for staying on their radar and is more visible than an RSS Reader, or mini-blog as I like to call it, but lacks many formatting capabilities; it’s best to think of Notes and an RSS Reader as working hand in hand. Start here to get content coming into your Page, then move on to the RSS Reader.

2. Blog RSS Feed Reader

I may have jumped ahead a bit with the Notes recommendation, but I am assuming that most companies have, or could have, a blog. If you don’t, work on that before Facebook, for many more reasons than I could get into here. But if you already have a blog, good news: there are tons of blog and RSS apps out there, but I’ve done the leg work and I found this one offered more functionality, better customization (you can pick an image to make your Facebook mini-blog look more like your actual blog) and a greater sense of control. It can be a bit buggy, but it’s worth persisting for the level of customization, and therefore attention grabbing potential.

3. Twitter App

Again, this assumes that you have a Twitter account, but if you’re reading this and working on a Facebook Page, my guess is you do. Or you at least know you should have one. If not, set one up before adding this application to your new Facebook Page. This will automatically pull your tweets into your Facebook status, and it puts a cute little Twitter-themed box on your profile, so everyone knows you’re cool enough to be on Twitter. It also saves you time in updating AND ensures profile activity to keep you relevant.

4. Static FBML

Neither Facebook Pages nor Profiles allow any type of HTML in the main content section, but you can add FBML and HTML applications to add more stylized elements to a Page, like clickable images, anchor text and interactive content. The Static FBML app allows you to add advanced functionality to a page by placing a customizable box in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language), giving you free reign over the space to add images, video, stylized text and almost whatever else you want. This app was developed by Facebook, so it’s fully supported and not prone to the problems of some third party applications.

5. Extended Info

In the Extended Info box you can use HTML to customize any kind of content and create numerous fields beyond the standard Information categories; you can also name the box anything you want so it matches your page perfectly. This app works much like the Static FBML application but is slightly easier to use. Although not developed by Facebook, it is highly ranked and provides a nice alternative or second customizable box option on a page.

6. Flash Player

This Flash application, also developed by Facebook, will add a box to your Page in which you can upload your own Flash files to achieve advanced customization and play any kind of Flash video, widget or game. It can be renamed to maintain the integrity of the page and keep the look and feel consistent with your brand.

7. Posted Items Pro

With Posted Items Pro you can embed multiple YouTube, Yahoo, and Google Videos, music mp3s, sites, files, and more onto your profile and Facebook pages. You can add any variety of these elements, making it great for a media center or press section.

8. Something Unique

If you have the resources, add some personality to your profile with a fun, irreverent application that you create just for your Page. This could be tied into your brand in multiple ways; try to think of something that people outside of Facebook would appreciate or enjoy that will remind them of who created it and keep them coming back, like a game or contest.

Brands that get it right

In order to stay relevant on Facebook, you need to continually update your Page and use the site. The more actions you take, the more you appear in a fan’s News Feed. This keeps you in their mind, and in their friend’s Feeds when they interact with you. But updating content will do more than keep you on the News Feed; it will also help make your Facebook Page sticky by offering fans an incentive to remain a supporter and come back more than once; one of the best way to do that is to provide some unique benefit to fans: exclusive content, secret contests or insider access to information before non-fans.

If you have a good brand, product or service with a strong website behind it, building a Facebook Page should be fairly easy. But if you need a few examples or inspiration, check out these Pages that definitely get it right:

VS Pink Victoria’s Secret

PINK collection is aimed at college girls, so Facebook is a natural fit, and this Page nails it. They are my most frequent example when explaining effective use of Facebook. This Page makes good use of HTML and FBML apps and provides lots of contests and exclusive stuff for Facebook fans.

Britney Spears

A childhood favorite of many avid Facebook users, Britney is taking Twitter by storm and her Facebook Page is not far behind. Britney sends out tons of Updates to fans and posts plenty of sneak peeks on Facebook.

Zappos

Lots of videos means plenty of opportunity for laughing and sharing. Zappos is almost always mentioned as a social media success story, and they’re working on making their Facebook Page meet the brand image.

Target

Target has managed to break free of the Wal-Mart stigma and position itself as a hip and budget conscious alternative to mall stores. They’ve chose to direct visitors to their “Vote” tab, where not only is Target donating to a good cause, it’s encouraging fans to participate and spread the word to their friends with interactive voting.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source:  Ben Parr *)

Name: AudioBoo

Quick Pitch: AudioBoo is social audio. An iPhone app & platform that effortlessly records audio to the cloud.

Genius Idea: AudioBoo is a platform that I’ve been waiting to review ever since I discovered it several months ago. It’s essentially a way to create and share podcasts and audio clips, but with a simplicity that has attracted some big names like UK actor Stephen Fry and The Guardian newspaper as users.

First, the iPhone app: it’s very simple to use. The most important feature of the app is that you can record audio and upload it to the AudioBoo server and your account. This makes it very simple to create, publish, and broadcast your most recent podcast (also known as a boo). The second feature is the ability to listen to the most recent boos from other users.

Yes, the iPhone app is very simple, but that’s the goal: to make podcasting really easy. Audioboo definitely succeeds in that regard. With very little fuss you can be up and running with your own podcast that can be distributed via social media - you can have AudioBoo automatically update your Facebook and Twitter with new Boos - and even iTunes.

The website itself is also pretty basic. You can only listen and subscribe to boos (although you can sort boos by popularity and time). But once again, this is the point: it’s the Twitter of podcasts - simple to use, easy to distribute. Its focus on simple audio is superb and perfect for anyone who wants to try podcasting without all of the fuss.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kumegirl *)

Kumegirl says...

Several years ago a lot of pundits were discussing generation C. Jake Pearce wrote in idealog in 2006;

“Trendwatching.com says it’s C for ‘content’, meaning Gen C are defined by their production of original material. The bloggers at Digital Hive say it’s all about ‘creativity’—that Gen C want to become co-creators of their world (“Don’t just sell me a car—involve me in designing it”). Tomi Ahonen, a Swedish telco consultant and author, has another definition: C is for ‘community’. He says young consumers walk around with “a gang in their pocket”, continually txting, phoning and pxting their friends and families. “No decision is now made as individual, everything is done in community. Tom Eslinger, Saatchi & Saatchi’s worldwide interactive creative director, says it’s all the above but is also C for ‘channel’. “You can have all the digital devices and creative skills you like, but opening a channel to reach millions of customers and fans marks out Generation C.”” Whatever people thought that C stood for ( the generation that had to deal with climate change, or generation cash) - there was an acknowledged shift.

How that shift has panned out has been best expressed by Nick Gadsby of the blog Dark London in a cluetrain related post

“It seems that rather than businesses becoming more like consumers, consumers were becoming more like businesses. Thanks to the communicative and distributive tools of the internet anybody could advertise themselves and lots of people did. This trend has only accelerated – players of online games form hierarchical top-down organisations, techies develop apps in their spare time, ebay and amazon encourage people to become virtual stores. Even the less commercially minded will cumulatively spend hours updating profiles and uploading photos. If the sprawling chaos of the Myspace profile was the infomercial, Twitter is the streamlined 30 second ad where detail is less important than impact. ”

This is the dynamic that now lies behind what is being referred to as The 4 C’s. Here the 4 c’s include converation, collaboration, crowdsourcing, co-creation, or here or here content, context, continuity and connectivity. Either way, c words are current in web 2.0 discussions.

The final comment from Dark London, “I think when businesses start aiming to be the experts again that then they will be ready to have a real conversation with consumers about what they are doing and what they should be doing because they’ll have an opinion and the confidence to debate its worth.”

Posted by brian tiong at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Jason says...

Earlier this year Pinch Media released a report on the state of the App Store, describing some of the trends it had seen as developers tried to monetize their apps. The verdict: advertising on free applications simply can’t match the payoff from even the least expensive ‘paid’ applications, and would require an unobtainable $8.75 CPM to reach the same income per install.

AdWhirl, the iPhone advertising platform formerly known as Adrollo, begs to differ. Since launching last month, the company has signed on over 10% of the top 50 applications in the App Store and is serving 250 million ad impressions per month. And their data tells a different tale.

According to co-founder Sam Yam, one of the fundamental flaws in the Pinch Media report is that it assumes that applications only show a single ad impression per user interaction (in other words, every time you open a free app, you only see one ad). Yam says that applications actually tend to serve 3-5 impressions each time a customer interacts with them, with even higher figures for some especially engaging applications. And when you divide that $8.75 CPM by 5, things become much more reasonable.

The AdWhirl report, embedded below, says that applications that crack the top 100 in the Free Apps list make $400-$5000 a day - a wide range to be sure, but even at the low end that works out to around $12,000 a month. Among these top apps, AdWhirl is reporting an impressive $1.90 eCPM and 2.6% CTR. And while applications that do reach the peak position in the App Store eventually lose steam, revenue tends to remain consistent over time after the initial dip (see the graph below). Of course, making it to the top of the Free Apps list is easier said than done, and most developers make far less than $400 a day. But the same is true of the vast majority of paid applications too - in fact, there’s actually less competition on the Free side of the store.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Robin Wauters *)

Robin reports...

Sharing links on Twitter can be quite a pain when you need to input a web address that consumes most of the space you have at your disposal for your micro-message. The startup realized that quickly and automatically started shortening long URLs to make its users save on space for their 140-character updates.

To get this implemented, Twitter went with TinyURL, a service that shortens URLs down signficantly (but not extremely) and at the time had been around for years already. It never gave a reason for this choice, but it did provide TinyURL with a lot of exposure and a lot of extra traffic.

Those days are over. Apparently, Twitter has silently replaced TinyURL as its default URL shortening service with bit.ly, a competing service that launched quite recently and not too long ago raised $2 million from several prominent angel investors.

This is actually not that much of a surprise. Betaworks, the startup accelerator behind Twitter related companies such as Summize (acquired by Twitter in July 2008), is also behind bit.ly, and it just happens to also count early Twitter investors and advisors Chris Sacca and Ron Conway as their own backers.

Which obviously prompts this inevatible question: does the move signal Twitter paving the way for an outright acquisition of the URL shortening service provider?

Posted by brian tiong at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jason says...

Ning’s social network-building platform is getting a huge boost today, with the private beta launch of Ning Apps, a new suite of applications and features that Network Creators will be able to deploy across their networks with only a few clicks. The news has been a long time coming - network administrators have long been asking for features that could enhance their networks. But because of the nature of Ning, which houses hundreds of thousands of unique social networks, Network Creators were often requesting totally different things. Now they’ll be able to make everyone (or nearly everyone) happy.

At launch, Ning Apps is offering 90 new features to Network creators, built by 52 different developers that encompass a wide variety of web services. Network creators will now be able to integrate live video chat through TokBox, condunct contests with Wildfire, and create Wikis. Even better: network admins will be able to easily integrate monetization options, selling merchandise through Cartfly and tickets through Amiando and other ticketing apps.

Ning is likely going to be a very enticing platform for developers, too. Unlike social networks like MySpace, when a Ning network creator chooses to deploy an application, they have the option of deploying it to all of their users at once. And with some networks reaching more than 500,000 members, that translates into a huge jump in users. The applications are based on the OpenSocial standard, with some modifications to make them suitable for network-wide deployments. Still, even these changes are pretty minor - Ning says that developers have been porting their applications from other social networks in just two to three days.

Access to applications is beginning to roll out to a small number of Network Creators tomorrow, and will be available to everyone by the end of the month. At launch, all of the applications will be free to install (though some of the apps that involve money, like Cartfly, will take a revshare at the time of transaction), but Ning may well decide to deploy premium applications in the future.

Before now Network Creators have had access to some added functionality through third party applications. But Ning didn’t support these, and some of them were eventually removed from the site entirely. CEO Gina Bianchini says that Network Creators installing applications through Ning Apps can have ‘absolute confidence’ that the applications will work as advertised.

Aside from the launch of Ning Apps, things seem to be going quite well for Ning. The site recently saw the creation of its 1 millionth network (of which 200,000 are active), and is seeing 85,000 to 100,000 new users per day across all of its networks.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Kumegirl *)

Now, some time after The Cluetrain Manifesto came out with “Markets are conversations”, conversation is in danger of being an overused word. Mary Goodyear is an astonishing thinker, and she said nearly ten years ago that marketing evolution is the increasingly sophisticated dialogue between the marketer and the consumer. Yet examples of mass brands holding a good conversation is less abundant than mass monologue.

Cluetrainplus10 is a celebration of the Cluetrain Manifesto 10 years on. Bloggers have been invited to write about one of the 95 Cluetrain theses. From Dan Wilson;
“The internet should make businesses and corporations more open, more communicative and transparent. But in the 10 years of the Cluetrain Manifesto we haven’t seen a great transformation. Sure, we have business blogs opening the lid, Twitter gives us insight into what businesses are doing, but the vast majority of this communication is broadcast. Marketing messages, positive spin and highly-controlled outward bound marketing are the disappointing norm. There are some wonderful examples of where the conversation is real. But play? We’re no closer to play than ten years ago.”

n 2007, editors, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan challenged bloggers around the world to contribute one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”. The resulting book, The Age of Conversation and in 2008 The Age of Conversation 2. Richard Huntington in his blog adliterate writes in defence of brand monologue. “The word monologue has acquired a rather pejorative meaning in the world of marketing. Monologue, where the brand addresses an audience and puts forward its point of view (as happens in traditional one to many advertising), is seen to be out of step with the idea that markets are conversations and depend on a dialogue of equals between brands and customers. More than that, brand monologues are assumed to narcissistic, self referential, and disrespectful of empowered consumers that don’t have to or want to take that kind of shit from anyone least of all businesses. Well I want to make a stand for brand monologues – right here and right now. Indeed I am going to insist that great dialogues start with a passionate monologue.”

In the following slide deck, David Alston refers to 10 conversations to watch out for in social media (which include the complaint, the compliment, the problem, the question etc).

What about Twitter and conversations? Can or should brands have conversations with consumers via Twitter. Conversation at brandchannel on this topic shows different viewpoints including:

“We feel that Twitter is essential to helping companies today provide a near real time conversation with their customers. We built Tweetbots (http://tweetbots.com/) and we are also involved in a number of projects that heavily leverage Twitter.To be honest, It’s hard for us to imagine starting something, and not registering the domain name as well as the name on Twitter. ”
Adam Stacoviak, Web Developer, Handcrafted, LLC - March 30, 2009

…”It means nothing to brands. In inserting a brand into my social networking is invasive, abusive and frankly spam. If I wanted to buy an item once, why do i need to hear about it every day? Explain to me why I care to “follow” a soft drink.. explain to me why it matters what’s on the scripted mind of a pro blogger hired by the manufacturers of over priced razors? Kill your idols and hold corporate america responsible for it’s attempt to tell you what to do and influence your decisions.. @run_rabbit_run”
- March 30, 2009

Jye Smith has a post about what inspires conversation

But qualitative researchers now face some a similar challenge. Running a successful community is not just asking a barrage of questions, but being able to start conversations (more in the style of a salon than a focus group). Plugged In talk about;

“One of the hardest things for me to learn initially was the idea of letting go of control of the conversation. As moderators we want to “ask, ask, ask,” but in communities it is really important to listen to the community and circle back on topics of interest. If there is a particularly interesting comment or user generated discussion, incorporating it into a future activity (and acknowledging the member that posted) reinforces the fact that you are listening to what the members are saying. Also, this approach is much more effective for “probes” and follow-up questions. Creating a new discussion and engaging the community as a whole is oftentimes more effective than trying to follow up inline with individual members, plus it opens up the opportunity to hear several opinions rather than one individual opinion. ”

And on the topic of jobs, Charlene Li has uploaded a deck on conversation in social media

How to Spark A Conversation Revolution - AND Keep Your Job

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Michael says...

SMSGupShup, a Twitter-like service in India, is getting a ton of buzz over here in the U.S., too. In an interview with CEO Beerud Sheth now says the service now has 20 million users (and that’s without an appearance on Oprah), nearly all of which are in India. That’s up from 7 million late last year.

The service can only be accessed via SMS, which works just fine for India’s 400 million mobile phone users (there are just 40 million broadband Internet users, Sheth says). Users sign up and use the service all via text messages. They never need to visit the website at all.

The service’s main variable costs are fees for text messages, and Sheth says that they’ve had to implement caps to keep costs under control. But as the service grows, says Sheth, they are able to negotiate much better pricing. Already SMSGupShup accounts for 400 million monthly text messages, around “5%-6%” of the total Indian market.

Three months ago the service added advertising to messages. Three months in and they’re making $150,000/month in revenue. Not bad for a SMS-based service.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jason reports...

You may have noticed over the last few weeks that TechCrunch links on Twitter have had a nifty custom URL, with links looking like tcrn.ch/1A’ instead of more generic codes from TinyURL or Bit.ly. This was due in no small part to the handiwork of our crack team of developers, but it was made possible by a new service launching today called Awe.sm.

There are countless URL shortening services available on the web, and they’re probably only going to become even more popular as Twitter continues to catch on with mainstream audiences. But these services come with downsides, like obscuring where a link is pointing to (which makes them a godsend for spammers). Awe.sm is looking to offer publishers an alternative to these generic services, while also offering a powerful analytics engine that offers much more insight as to how their content gets distributed across the web.

Every time we publish a post on TechCrunch, Awe.sm generates a handful of links specific to the service it originates on. For example, the shortcode link at the bottom of this post is different from the link that we send out on Twitter through the TechCrunch account. Awe.sm then tracks these links, analyzing how they’re spread and storing meta data on each. Even better, the links awe.sm creates are compatible with Google Analytics, so you don’t have to learn how to navigate yet another dashboard.

This means that we can get a feel for how our links are spreading throughout each service, quantifying just how effective each one is and adjusting accordingly. And for some services, including Twitterfeed, AddtoAny, and TweetFace, Awe.sm can work in tandem with the service to gather even more data. Readers benefit too - spammers don’t have access to tcrn.ch, so all URLs pointing to that domain can be considered trustworthy.

Awe.sm is available beginning today for $99/year, which includes 10,000 URL creations per month (more than most people will ever need) and the option to export your data at any time if you want to stop using Awe.sm. The company’s flagship product is this custom URL shortening service, but it is also going to provide publishers with more tools that will help distribute content across a variety of services to maximize their audiences. The service is also slowly opening up an API to developers, who can build their own applications off the platform.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)