2008, Social Media, And Beyond January 2, 2008
Posted by Reginald Johnson in Business, Culture, Social Media, Technology.add a comment
In a year of ups and downs, 2007 may be remembered as the year Facebook came into the limelight and mainstream. Even with the success of Facebook, the social media entity didn’t have enough steam to mow down Google. Google started the year with its stock being listed at $437.00 and now boldly stands at $687.00. At one time the stock crossed over the $700.00 bar…and reached as far as $747.00.
Google is now worth $215 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion with a ‘B’. The company made $15 billion in sales for 2007. Many people had finally jumped on the Google bandwagon, me being one of them.
In 2006, Google had $10.6 billion in revenue. The jump from 2006 to 2007 is very impressive. Many believe that Google is in a league of its own. So much so that some people in the social media industry and government sectors want to place new guidelines on Google.
Why is that you ask? Let’s take a look at some of the other companies and see…
Yahoo! – Yahoo is no longer the ‘go to’ company it once was. It’s going through a ‘phase’. In the marketplace they do great work; but they no longer are king of the mountain. Yahoo is in a perfect position in the broader context of where media, marketing and advertising are headed in the 21st century.
AOL – Basically, the company just imploded. With the arrival of Randy Falco, everyone expected things to change. No one, not no one would have expected things to go this bad. AOL has been known to have many layoffs; but nothing was expected more than the record number of people to get a pink slip.
IAC – This company cracked under pressure too. The company was dismantled by Barry Diller. Well, dismantled is too strong of a word; let’s say they RESTRUCTURED the company. The restructuring was colossus and confusing. So much so, that many believed they were doomed to fail.
Amazon.com and Apple – These two are indeed Internet and technology companies who can be broadly lumped in the same category. And two companies that on the upswing.
Microsoft’s MSN – The company continued to face challenges. The internet unit of the company is effectively losing money. MSN could do so more. The $6B acquisition of aQuantive is interesting. It’s uncertain what it will do for MSN.com/Live.com. There could be a merger of web operations with Yahoo!.
CNET – CNET was having a crossroads kind of year. No one is sure if they are going to be eaten by a larger company or rise above. They have credit facilities of over $200M - and the recent sale of Webshots – they will have even more money. More importantly, they brought in more lifestyle-oriented talent to diversify away from tech. The big question is: “Will someone like MSFT or Yahoo! buy CNET, or will CNET be taken private?”
CBS - Last.fm was a great addition to CBS Radio and Web assets. The company made small and large investments and made numerous acquisitions. CBS, of course, is coming across as the un-News Corp. in the way they’ve embraced the distribution over destination mantra.
Walt Disney – Bottomline, Disney has continued to build a very profitable web operation.
Viacom – The company is slowly but surely coming around. They eventually dropped Google/Doubleclick in favor of MSFT’s aQuantive.
GE’s NBC – The company is experimenting. They have been disappointing with some of their overall work. Thankfully, Hulu, which they own 50%, has launched in beta and once it goes live should change everyone’s perception. But NBC’s iVillage unit is flagging – it may not last. Its competition: Glam Media, Sugar Publishing and Scripps, are stealing iVillage’s business.
This upcoming year is fresh and brand new. You will probably see more changes, but I; like many people; wonder who are the smaller named companies that you expect to make a difference in 2008.
