The Facebook Stats Game...

Facebook says  that it generated half of its revenues outside of the U.S. and Canada in the first quarter of 2012, and some numbers out today underscore just how extensive its reach is in different markets, with active usage in some countries outstripping that of Facebook in its home market. According to figures from Nielsen — some of the latest numbers to come out in the battery of data that is being fired out in the final day before Facebook goes public – Brazil has the highest active reach of Internet consumers using the social network from home/work computers. Some 38.1 million Brazilians visited Facebook during March 2012, equivalent to 76.7 percent of all people who were active online that month from home and work computers in the market. When you take into account people accessing Facebook from other sources like tablets and mobiles, Nielsen says New Zealand has the highest active reach, with nearly 80 percent of all consumers accessing Facebook in one format or another. However, when you look at actual numbers, the U.S. is still running away with the most users: Nielsen reports the figure in the U.S. 152.8 million users — which it bases on usage from computers as well as mobile devices. The active reach in that market is 69.6 percent, it says. Nielsen notes that Facebook’s active reach in Japan is only 24 percent, with “blog sites” proving more popular in the country. Today Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten announced that it was leading on a $100 million investment in Pinterest , which it noted was picking up huge traction in the country: Rakuten wants to ride that wave with e-commerce integration. Facebook’s low-ish reach in that country underscores the opportunity for another social network to come in and make a mark. But while it can be useful to see what percentage of active Internet users are accessing Facebook, Nielsen’s numbers, rather confusingly, do not tally exactly with those released by Facebook itself. Facebook in its latest S-1  does not break out many individual countries but it does point to numbers for a few: it says that it had 45 million monthly active users in Brazil as of March 31, 2012 (Nielsen’s figure: a lower 38 million). Facebook also points out it had 51 million MAUs in India — a country not included in Nielsen’s numbers. The U.S., Facebook says, had 169 million MAUs (again, Nielsen’s numbers are lower, this time by nearly 17 million). Confused? Another analysis group, Social Bakers , also breaks out country numbers — and cities, too. It notes that Bangkok is currently the Metropolis with the most Facebook users: according to its latest figures, Thailand’s capital had 8.7 million active users in the last month. While Nielsen ranks countries based on the active reach among active Internet users, Social Bakers seems to look at overall penetration, and so the numbers become significantly lower for some of the brightest stars in Nielsen’s rankings: Brazil, for example, has Facebook penetration of 23.4 percent of the population; New Zealand has penetration of 51.4 percent. The very highest penetration for Facebook in Social Bakers’ rankings is for Monaco, with penetration of 124 percent (more than one account?) but representing only 38,000 users. Overall, Facebook’s own, most current figure puts its global active monthly users at 901 million.

YesterdayMe: A Site Tha...

Every few days something really amazing dumps over the transom here at TC HQ. Today it was YesterdayMe.ru . Built by Vladimir V. Tuporshin and partner, Ilja Razinkov, the site essentially allows you to enter yesterday’s alcohol consumption. Why? Because, that’s why. While the Russians are known for their heavy-duty drinking – although they’re moving from vodka to beer and wine these days, perhaps to prevent liver death – this site is ingenious in that it offers a very simple, hangover-proof interface for registering how much you sucked down. By sliding little drink indicators back and forth, you can tell the world or just yourself that you had too many beers. The site existed as a Russian-only tool until yesterday. Tuporshin wrote: “It was 1312’s hobby project, which we thoroughly developed during its first year, and then switched to the Pocket Lists project. Now we are dating with YesterdayMe again!” The company, incidentally, has an interesting post about selling a simple To-Do list app on their blog as well, so you can come for the booze tracking and stay for the analysis. Sadly, the sliders on the site only go up to 10 shots, which suggests that they may need to offer a freemium “bottle drinker” offer for folks like me.

Cloud Emailer Mailjet H...

Mailjet , a cloud emailing service for tracking marketing and transactional emails, has just launched a mobile application for its business customers offering real-time email tracking. Within the mobile application, users can monitor email deliveries, plus keep an eye on metrics like bounces, opens and clicks. The company, which just rolled out a new version of its platform a couple of weeks ago, is also announcing today that it nearing 1 billion emails served. For those unfamiliar with Mailjet, the startup is taking on more established and VC-backed players like SendGrid , Postmark , and  Mailgun , to name a few. The service targets businesses who need to buy or rent SMTP email servers, by offering a cloud-based solution. Emails sent out through Mailjet are tracked in a number of ways, including through the use of specialized links, transparent images that tell Mailjet how many times it was displayed, through the analysis of SMTP exchanges for bounces and deliveries, and more. Mailjet is one of the first companies in this space to add a mobile app (for iOS and Android ) which allows customers to track their emails while on the go. The app requires a Mailjet account to use, of course, but it’s a freemium service if you’re interested in testing it out. Included in the app are tabs featuring the email feed, campaign activity, analytics and personal settings. The company, based in France, also recently went global, with the opening of offices in San Francisco, London, Berlin and Madrid. Mailjet raised a small round of  180,000 euros  from Brussels-based  eFounders  back in December and now reports having nearly 10,000 active users on its platform (up from 3,000+ in December). Correction: Mailjet is nearly at 1 billion emails, but hasn’t quite hit the number yet.

The Future Of Content: ...

Editor’s note:  Contributor  Ashkan Karbasfrooshan  is the founder and CEO of  WatchMojo , he hosts a show on business and has published books on success .  Follow him @ashkan . “I thought the analysis of content vs other video companies very convincing. But I’m curious: the content game hasn’t worked out so well for AOL and Yahoo. Audiences are fickle. Are you predicting a rosier future?” – reader comment in Is Tech a Zero-Sum Game? . Infrastructure, Platforms & Content Today, the Web’s infrastructure is built, the platforms have emerged; we’re now filling the pipes with content; mainly free, ad-supported content. Anyone who’s worked in user-generated/appropriated content aggregation recognizes its limitations: marketers want professional content since publishers filter audiences for advertisers. Tim Armstrong left Google (the mother of all aggregators) and joined AOL to remake it into the Time of the 21 st century.  He didn’t double down on Bebo. Content is marketing; Marketing as content Content – video in particular – may be promotional or commercial , in either case it’s a means to an end. Traditional Media Companies (TMCs) need to make their content commercial; new media producers are leveraging their content as promotional, sometimes giving it away to build value.  The genie is out of the bottle according to Seth Godin : “Who said you have a right to cash money from writing? Poets don’t get paid (often), but there’s no poetry shortage. The future is going to be filled with amateurs, and the truly talented and persistent will make a great living. But the days of journeyman writers who make a good living by the word — over.” TL;DR Content isn’t only increasingly free, it’s also short .  Godin clarifies : “Shorter, though, doesn’t mean less responsibility, less insight or less power. It means less fluff and less hiding.” With 60 minutes of content uploaded every 60 seconds on YouTube, producers face three challenges : -          25% of views come in the first 4 days; -          Viewers only watch the first 30-60 seconds; -          The average video generates 500 views throughout its life time. You might be able to buy a cup of coffee.  It’s no longer enough to be a good storyteller; you have to cut through the clutter and make the numbers work. The Economics of Content “Network television costs $50,000 – 100,000 per minute to produce. Reality shows can be cheaper, with the lowest-end costing $6,000 – 8,000 per minute”, according to GRP venture capitalist (and occasional TechCrunch contributor) Mark Suster.  New media producers leverage deflationary economics to produce shows for $500 – 1,000 per minute, on average. My company does it for $100/minute ; the real challenge is revenue. Fred Wilson’s piece on The Future of Media suggested to: 1 – Microchunk it - Reduce the content to its simplest form. 2 – Free it - Put it out there without walls around it or strings on it. 3 – Syndicate it – Let anyone take it and run with it. 4 – Monetize it - Put the monetization and tracking systems into the microchunk. 5Min borrowed a page from Google’s AdSense playbook, implemented this on its way to a $65 million exit to AOL. “But content doesn’t scale!” Bad content scales, good content doesn’t scale – the scale comes from distribution and monetization .  Demand Media’s “content farm” model scaled but it has since moved upstream to win over Madison Avenue, realizing that unless your clients are on Wall Street or Sand Hill Road, quality trumps quantity. Profit is a Short-Term Move; Value is a Long-Term Focus Content was an art. Today it’s a science as well. It will always be about Influence and Authority. Bloomberg will lose $20 million on BusinessWeek , Washington Post sold Newsweek for $1 (plus the assumption of debt).  That doesn’t imply that there’s no money in content, it’s a reminder that disruptive innovation can come from new content creators who can be more disruptive to TMCs than any technology ever will.  TechCrunch, for example, generated less revenue than BusinessWeek and Newsweek combined but sold for more. Revenues come and go, after all, but typically managers don’t care that much about long-term value creation because their compensation is tied to short-term profits. Goodwill is the Driver of ROI The best storytellers realize content is about Authority, Influence and building a brand.  VCs that made their fortune on software and semiconductors can’t wrap their minds around content (“it’s a hits business”); if they could, they would private-label their family to scale revenues. But despite the 1% annualized return that VCs have generated, they will continue to invest in the latest mouse trap and shun content, despite what the experts say . The Worst-Kept Secret in the Publishing Business The Web doesn’t just shrink markets , it also kills sacred cows, in particular Warren Buffett’s argument that “the most important news in the newspaper are the ads”.  Indeed, Google outsold U.S. newspapers $37.9 billion to $34 billion in 2011. I know, those are global Google revenues; give it a couple of years. So yes, content may be king, but it’s the throne that retains the value, even if the throne was seized under dubious circumstances, according to an anonymous publisher : “Many of the big wins in digital content have gotten big by stealing other people’s content, and, once they get big enough, they build an original content layer (…) You can make money with quality content on digital. The challenge is it requires expertise in more than just content development.” Of course, once you build your audience you realize you don’t need to create content; licensing it is a more profitable short-term bet, but it creates less long-term value.  Ad networks have successfully intermediated between advertisers and publishers, but commoditized themselves in the process. Why Content Has Stumbled The TMCs actually get it : online remains small, the faster they embrace it they faster they die.  The issue is how management has a short-term outlook to maximize profits instead of being focused on long-term value creation. The irony is that over time, technology plays come and go: One winner emerges from within a given category and largely kills off its competitors.  The real threat to content creators may in fact be emerging content companies with no traditional business to defend; after all, journalism is stronger than ever while newspapers are dying. But for TMCs that have their own content catalogs, producers and brands, they may not see much value in emerging companies, which remain small until they become category killers, just adding to the tragic fate reserved for most. While we live in a world of “good enough”, ultimately the company that can i) create the best content at ii) the lowest cost possible will create most value over time. Disclaimers: -          AOL is the owner of TechCrunch -          I am not an employee of AOL -          AOL acquired 5Min -          My company WatchMojo has a distribution deal with AOL/5Min and YouTube.

Proxy Fight Looms As Ya...

Well, it’s been an eventful last few months for Yahoo, hasn’t it? Remember it was just six months ago that Carol Bartz was fired from her position as CEO, and the Yahoo Board created a circle of elders to decide the company’s fate . Then, early this year, Scott Thompson (formerly of PayPal) was appointed CEO, and Yahoo Co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down from the board in mid-January. Then, a month later, Yahoo officially announced its plans to go after Facebook, letting the la. Today, the activity continues, as Yahoo has announced that it is appointing three new independent board directors, whose roles become effective on April 5th. This is all in spite of the fact that Dan Loeb and Third Point have been trying to drum up shareholder support in favor of their own roster of board members — they don’t think Yahoo’s current board has what it takes to pick the right people to turn the company around. Today’s new appointees include: John D. Hayes, EVP & CMO of AmEx, Peter Liguori, former COO of Discovery Communications and Chairman and President of Entertainment at Fox Broadcasting, and Thomas McInerney, the outgoing CFO of IAC. Why this move? Well, here’s the statement from Chairman of the Board, Roy Boystock: Yahoo! is moving aggressively to increase shareholder value. We have appointed a capable and dynamic CEO who is driving the business towards its next era of success. And we have reconstituted the Board of Directors with the right mix of experience and expertise to help Yahoo! build upon its very strong assets and brand base to take advantage of the opportunities ahead. But, really, this is a result of the board taking an aggressive stance on the actions of “activist shareholder” Dan Loeb, who has been trying to push his way onto the board — and has previously spent $1 billion to own 6 percent of Yahoo. Loeb proposed his own four board members, which the board has now basically rejected. The board then, wanting to avoid a proxy fight, agreed to take on Harry Wilson and another member which they would work out with Third Point, but according to the statement, Loeb rejected that offer and tried to place himself on the board instead. So, Yahoo’s board is apparently moving on and saying, “tough luck, Dan”: Based on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee’s thorough review of a broad range of candidates and their qualifications, including Third Point’s nominees, the Board determined that other candidates were more qualified for the position. The three new appointees join Fred Amoroso, the former Rovi CEO, and LiveOps Chairman Maynard Webb (former COO of eBay), to round out Yahoo’s five open board spots. Obviously, this includes the recent resigning of Jerry Yang, and apparently Chairman Roy Bostock will also be stepping down. Now it’s up to the new board to decide who’s going to become Chairman. It will also be up to them to deal with the proxy fight that’s coming, as Kara Swisher has pointed out t hat Loeb has indeed filed preliminary proxy statement with the SEC . Third Point thinks that Yahoo’s hand-picked new board members aren’t going to help the company turn itself around, and a proxy fight is likely just getting started. Oh, Yahoo. Here’s the rest of the board’s statement below: Yahoo, the premier digital media company, today announced that its Board appointed three new independent directors, effective April 5, 2012: John D. Hayes, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of American Express Company; Peter Liguori, former Chief Operating Officer of Discovery Communications, Inc. and former Chairman and President of Entertainment of Fox Broadcasting Network; and Thomas J. McInerney, the outgoing Chief Financial Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp. “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” “Each of these individuals impressed the search committee with their demonstrable records of significant accomplishment at the highest levels of media, advertising and marketing, finance, including corporate finance and restructuring, and further insight into customers’ perspectives. Together, they bring a powerful mix of exactly the right ingredients to fuel Yahoo!’s forward momentum. Having thoroughly reviewed a broad range of highly qualified candidates and sought input from a number of major shareholders, the Committee enthusiastically recommended to the full Board the appointment of these three excellent directors,” said Patti Hart, chairman of the Board’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, which conducted the search process. Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Board, added, “Yahoo! is moving aggressively to increase shareholder value. We have appointed a capable and dynamic CEO who is driving the business towards its next era of success. And we have reconstituted the Board of Directors with the right mix of experience and expertise to help Yahoo! build upon its very strong assets and brand base to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.” The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee conducted the search process in conjunction with a leading professional search firm and identified, interviewed and evaluated a wide range of candidates, including Third Point’s nominees. Following completion of the Committee’s evaluation process, the Committee and the Board determined that the group of candidates announced today were the best qualified, based particularly on their individual accomplishments and records of value creation in other positions with specific relevance to Yahoo!’s business and its opportunities. At the same time, in view of Third Point’s significant ownership position and the qualifications of Harry Wilson, the Board concluded that it was appropriate to propose that Mr. Wilson and a second individual mutually acceptable to both Third Point and the Yahoo! Board of Directors, outside of the other Third Point nominees, join the Board in settlement of Third Point’s solicitation. In addition, the Board believed that there is value in avoiding the cost and distraction that inevitably accompanies a proxy fight, and determined that this proposal was in the best interest of all of its shareholders to avoid that expenditure of resources. Third Point founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Loeb rejected this proposal and declined to end Third Point’s solicitation with respect to its own four candidates unless he personally was appointed to the Board. Based on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee’s thorough review of a broad range of candidates and their qualifications, including Third Point’s nominees, the Board determined that other candidates were more qualified for the position. The Board remains open to hearing Third Point’s ideas and to working constructively with Third Point, but believes that appointing Mr. Loeb to the Board is not in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders. The Board continues to believe that the Company needs to move quickly to implement change and improve its performance. The Yahoo! management team is moving with a sense of urgency to reshape and refocus the Company on its core strengths, with an emphasis on redeploying resources to the most productive areas and equipping the Company to invest in growth and innovation. As now constituted, the Board has a well-rounded combination of financial, media, advertising, marketing, operating and technology expertise necessary to bring the right leadership to build value for all Yahoo! shareholders. Mr. Hayes, one of the nation’s most innovative marketing executives with an expertise in digital marketing, has served as Chief Marketing Officer at American Express since 2003, overseeing that company’s marketing strategies and product development, as well as its global marketing, market research and publishing organizations. Prior to that, he served for eight years as American Express Executive Vice President, Global Advertising and Brand Management, responsible for brand marketing worldwide. He began his career in the brand and advertising industry and, among his senior positions, he served as President of Lowe & Partners where he led that firm to unprecedented growth through the development of product position and global campaigns for several major corporate clients. Mr. Liguori served as Chief Operating Officer of Discovery, the leading non-fiction media company in the world, through 2011. Prior to that, he served as Chairman and President of Entertainment for Fox Broadcasting Company. Previously, he was President and CEO of FX Networks, NewsCorp’s flagship entertainment cable network. He also served in a series of positions with Home Box Office, including as Vice President, Consumer Marketing where he had responsibility for marketing efforts supporting the HBO brand and HBO original movies. He began his career in the advertising industry, including positions at Saatchi & Saatchi, Compton and Ogilvy & Mather Advertising with clients such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever. He currently serves on the boards of The Topps Company, Inc. and MGM Studios. Mr. McInerney served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of IAC from January 2005 to March 2012. From January 2003 through December 2005, he was Chief Executive Officer of IAC’s Retailing sector. Prior to that time, Mr. McInerney served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ticketmaster and its predecessor company, Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch, Inc. He also worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley for 11 years, working with a wide variety of public companies across several industries, advising on restructuring, M&A, IPO and other capital-raising activities. He also serves on the boards of HSN, Inc. and Interval Leisure Group, Inc. Earlier this year, independent directors Alfred Amoroso and Maynard Webb were appointed to the Board. With today’s appointments, the Board has added a total of five new highly qualified independent directors this year. It is expected that the majority of directors will be new to the Board in 2012 following this year’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders, and that the entire Board will be new since January 2010. As previously announced, four directors volunteered not to stand for re-election at the next annual meeting, and an additional director resigned from the Board earlier this year. Important Additional Information Yahoo! will be filing a proxy statement with the SEC in connection with the solicitation of proxies for its 2012 annual meeting of stockholders. Stockholders are strongly advised to read Yahoo!’s 2012 proxy statement (including any amendments or supplements thereto) when it becomes available because it will contain important information. Stockholders will be able to obtain copies of Yahoo!’s 2012 proxy statement, any amendments or supplements to the proxy statement, and other documents filed by Yahoo! with the SEC in connection with its 2012 annual meeting of stockholders for no charge at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Yahoo!, its directors, executive officers and certain employees may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies from stockholders in connection with Yahoo!’s 2012 annual meeting of stockholders. Information concerning the ownership of Yahoo! securities by Yahoo!’s directors and executive officers is included in their SEC filings on Forms 3, 4 and 5, and additional information is also available in Yahoo!’s proxy statement for its 2011 annual meeting of stockholders filed with the SEC on April 29, 2011. Information regarding Yahoo!’s directors, executive officers and other persons who may, under rules of the SEC, be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies for the 2012 annual meeting of stockholders, including their respective interests by security holdings or otherwise, also will be set forth in the definitive proxy statement for Yahoo!’s 2012 annual meeting of stockholders when it is filed with the SEC.