Social Media

Interview: People.com’s Golin, Hauser: Being More Aggressive By Being Soft; Games Channel Introduced - 1 Comment
Posted By David Kaplan - Wed 02 Jul 2008 03:14 PM PST

Celebrity-oriented news sites have grown substantially over the past year—*comScore* says the category’s traffic has grown 31 percent from May 2007 to May 2008. So while the space has been…

Giant Interactive Invests $51 Million in Chinese Social Networking Site 51.com - 0 Comments
Posted By Pearl Research - Tue 01 Jul 2008 04:39 PM PST

Chinese online games publisher Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) is acquiring about 25 percent stake in Five One Network Development (51.com), a Chinese online social networking service provider, for approximately $51…

Grou.ps Raises $1.1 Million First Round For Social Networking Tools - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Tue 01 Jul 2008 09:36 AM PST

More money for white-labelish social networking.... Grou.ps has raised a $1.1 million first round from Golden Horn Ventures, according to VentureBeat and others. The SF-based start-up offers tools for users…

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TripAdvisor Acquires VirtualTourist And Online Booker OneTime - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Tue 01 Jul 2008 07:32 AM PST

TripAdvisor, the travel review site owned by Expedia, has made two acquisitions: VirtualTourist, a user-gen travel site, and OneTime, a travel comparison site. Both were founded by J.R. Johnson and…

Yoono Gets $4 Million For Social Browser Plugin - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Mon 30 Jun 2008 12:38 PM PST

Yoono, a startup offering a social browser plugin, has raised a $4 million first round led by AGR Private Equity. The SF-based company is one of a number of firms…

Social Network hi5 Buys Live Chat Firm PixVerse; Gets Sued By EMI - 0 Comments
Posted By Rafat Ali - Mon 30 Jun 2008 11:38 AM PST

hi5 Networks, not-big-in-U.S.-but-big-elsewhere social network, has made a small acquisition: it has bought out PixVerse, a social chat tool used by users of hi5 and other social networks. Founded in…

Chinese Video Site Youku Raises $40 Million Fourth Round - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Mon 30 Jun 2008 08:53 AM PST

Concerns over online video limitations in China aren’t stopping the flow of money into the sector… Youku says it has raised a $40 million fourth round from past backers Brookside…

White Label Social Net Lithium Gets $12 Million Second Round - 1 Comment
Posted By Rafat Ali - Mon 30 Jun 2008 07:33 AM PST

Lithium Technologies, an Emeryville, CA-based provider of white-label social networking tools, has raised $12 million in its second round funding, led by Benchmark Capital. Benchmark joins Emergence Capital and Shasta…

AOL To Guarantee CPM Rates To Bebo, Facebook Developers - 1 Comment
Posted By David Kaplan - Sun 29 Jun 2008 09:01 PM PST

AOL’s (NYSE: TWX) Platform-A is trying to entice developers to make apps that carry its ads by promising guaranteed rates for CPMs on Facebook and Bebo, which AOL bought for…

Social Gamer I’m In Like With You Raises $1.5 Million First Round - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Fri 27 Jun 2008 10:05 AM PST

I’m in Like With You, a NY-based social gaming startup, has raised $1.5 million led by Spark Capital, along with Baseline Ventures, Betaworks, Ron Conway, and Marc Andreesen. The news…

Online Video Firm JumpTV Rejects Rival Offer From Brad Greenspan; Goes Ahead With NeuLion Merger - 0 Comments
Posted By Rafat Ali - Fri 27 Jun 2008 07:57 AM PST

Canada-headquartered online video firm JumpTV (TSE: JTV) has received an unsolicited competing bid to buy the company from the professional troublemaker and MySpace co-founder Brad Greenspan, but the company has…

Israeli Animation Site Aniboom Raises $10 Million Second Round - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Fri 27 Jun 2008 04:31 AM PST

Aniboom, an Israeli animation network, has raised a $10 million second round led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and DFJ Tamir Fishman Ventures, along with past backer Evergreen Venture Partners. The…

MTVN Redux: AtomFilms And AtomUploads Rebrand As Atom.com - 0 Comments
Posted By Amanda Natividad - Thu 26 Jun 2008 03:43 PM PST

As if the online comedy sector wasn’t crowded enough already… Viacom’s (NYSE: VIA) MTVN Entertainment Group has relaunched Atom.com, combining the professional content of AtomFilms.com with the user-generated videos hosted…

Broadband Content Bits: iVillage UK-FremantleMedia; Comcast-DNCC; 60Frames-Oni; MTVN Logo - 0 Comments
Posted By Amanda Natividad - Wed 25 Jun 2008 03:48 PM PST

-- iVillage UK and FremantleMedia launching online comedy-drama for moms: Called Parentshood, the 12-week series will tell the story of five parents through a mix of short-form video blogs, written…

Product Rater RateItAll Gets First Round - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Wed 25 Jun 2008 12:09 PM PST

RateItAll, a company whose platform provides online consumer ratings of products, has raised an unspecified first round. Investors include various funds and individuals including Accelerator Ventures, JAIC America, Pacific I&T…

Opinion Community SodaHead Gets $8.4 Million Second Round - 3 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Wed 25 Jun 2008 10:16 AM PST

SodaHead, a community site for the debate of serious topics, has raised an $8.4 million second round led by Mission Ventures, along with past backer Mohr Davidow. The Santa Clara,…

Online Radio Hosting Site BlogTalkRadio Gets $4.6 Million Funding - 0 Comments
Posted By Rafat Ali - Wed 25 Jun 2008 08:39 AM PST

BlogTalkRadio, a popular online radio hosting site which allows anyone to webcast a radio/live feed, has received $4.6 million in funding, led by The Kraft Group, the owners of the…

Social Media Ad Firm Vitrue Acquires UGENMedia - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Wed 25 Jun 2008 07:43 AM PST

Vitrue, a social media marketer that has Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and Turner as investors, is acquiring UGENMedia, a NY-based firm in the same space. The company says the deal will…

Visa Flashes Its Credit Card On Facebook: $2M Ad Spend, Plus Promotional App - 1 Comment
Posted By David Kaplan - Tue 24 Jun 2008 02:43 PM PST

Forecasters like eMarketer may be predicting that social nets might not rake in as many ad dollars as previously thought, but Facebook is betting that deals like the one that…

Industry Moves: Meredith; Dow Jones; NYT; Dailymotion; Invision - 0 Comments
Posted By Amanda Natividad - Tue 24 Jun 2008 01:37 PM PST

-- *Meredith* Corp.: Meredith (NYSE: MDP) has named Tom Harty chief revenue officer for the publishing group, according to AP. Formerly a magazine publishing exec, he will continue to oversee…

Twitter Officially Announces Its Funding; Jeff Bezos Participates - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Tue 24 Jun 2008 01:11 PM PST

Finally Twitter announces its funding. The popular microblogging/messaging service says its newest investors are Spark Capital and Jeff Bezos, via his Bezos Expeditions fund. That Spark was participating was already…

Google News: Going Only So Far With An Algorithm - 7 Comments
Posted By Rafat Ali - Mon 23 Jun 2008 08:41 PM PST

So this NYT piece discovers, writing a detailed story about the non-spectacular growth of Google News, the news search site from Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Comparing it to hosted or original…

@ PDF: Truth, Neutrality And Ice Cream - 0 Comments
Posted By David Kaplan - Mon 23 Jun 2008 09:43 AM PST

Following the delay of keynote speaker Elizabeth Edwards, the Personal Democracy Forum had to rework its morning schedule. After a panel which had Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington on the left…

Russia’s Kommersant Buys Half Of LiveJournal Owner, Gives It Gazeta.ru - 0 Comments
Posted By Robert Andrews - Mon 23 Jun 2008 01:02 AM PST

Russian news publisher Kommersant has acquired half of LiveJournal owner Sup in exchange for giving the blog operator control of its Gazeta.ru news portal. LiveJournal had integrated its features in…

Kaltura Gets Second Round For Video Collaboration - 0 Comments
Posted By Joseph Weisenthal - Fri 20 Jun 2008 11:00 AM PST

Kaltura, a company that provides infrastructure and collaboration tools, has raised an unspecified second round led by .406 Ventures, the company tells CNET. It did say the round was “significantly…