Monetizing Foursquare

Phone-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla that let users “check in” to shops or restaurants and instantly tell their friends where they are. Fans of such services gush that they will mint money by allowing ads to be targeted at folk who are about to make a purchase. But the networks must negotiate some important hurdles first if such lofty predictions are to come true.

There are, however, several reasons why many marketers are still wary of committing big money to Foursquare and its like. One is that even the largest mobile social networks have just a few million members, which limits their appeal. According to a report published last month by Forrester, a research firm, only 4% of American adults have ever used such networks and far fewer do so more than once a week. Other forms of mobile marketing, such as SMS-based promotions and mobile-search ads, already reach far larger audiences.

Another challenge facing location-based networks is to prevent tech-savvy individuals from gaming their systems. The blogosphere is littered with stories of “fake mayors” and other folk who have come up with ways of checking in to places they haven’t visited.

Read more at The Economist.

China’s Journalism

The Chinese Communist Party's state-run news factory, the Xinhua News Agency, is growing like gangbusters. In the past year, Xinhua has spent billions launching a 24-hour English-language news station and populating a skyscraper in Times Square, with plans for 120 to 200 overseas bureaus and 6,000 additional journalists. With a price tag estimated in the billions of dollars, the new Xinhua is an expensive megaphone. With a price tag estimated in the billions of dollars, the new Xinhua is an expensive megaphone. Xinhua may be the future of news for one big reason: cost. As a wire service, Xinhua has a lower price tag than the Associated Press, Reuters, or AFP. Recent deals with other state-run outlets make it the leading source for news in Africa and much of Asia, with a strong hold in the Middle East. It helps, of course, that Xinhua’s spin diminishes when the news doesn’t involve China. A bigger problem is the fact that Xinhua is often face-rakingly boring.

Read more at Newsweek.

Print or Pixels?

By the end of this year, 10.3 million people are expected to own e-readers in the United States, buying about 100 million e-books, the market research company Forrester predicts. This is up from 3.7 million e-readers and 30 million e-books sold last year.

The trend is wreaking havoc inside the publishing industry, but inside homes, the plot takes a personal twist as couples find themselves torn over the “right way” to read.

Read more at the New York Times.

YouTube Ads Turn Videos Into Revenue

Though Google does not report YouTube’s earnings, it has hinted that it is hovering near profitability. Analysts say YouTube will bring in around $450 million in revenue this year and earn a profit.

YouTube now offers several types of ads, including display ads on its home page and on the video pages, ads that promote videos and ads that run in the video stream or pop up on the bottom of a video. When someone uploaded a recording of the Eminem song “Not Afraid,” for instance, instead of taking down the recording, YouTube ran pop-up ads that let people buy the song or the ring tone and shared the revenue with the copyright owner. Hundreds of these partners make more than $100,000 a year.

YouTube now has 160 million mobile views a day, almost triple last year’s number. When Google introduces Google TV later this year, people will be able to watch YouTube videos on Internet-connected televisions.

Read more at the New York Times.

The Search Party is Over

(Google) is still growing at rates that would be the envy of the rest of the Fortune 500. But its core business is slowing, its stock is down, its Android mobile platform generates scant revenue, and competition (hello, Facebook) is fierce. Can Google find its footing in this brave new world? The Googlers certainly know this, but in classic Innovator's Dilemma fashion, the company seems unsure about how to move beyond the core search business that has brought it such massive success.

Social networking is likely to be a big push for Google and holds the most potential. The company is widely rumored to be pursuing a "Google Me" project to do battle with Facebook. They are sort of like the power company of the Internet. But what they lack is a sense of how people share and collaborate. You don't have friends on Google, you have contacts and tasks. These services reflect an engineering culture that's all about utility, but one that makes it hard for the company to create something that's friendly and social.

Read more at Fortune.

Western state-backed news in the developing world

The cold war was the state-backed broadcasters’ heyday, with big budgets for propaganda wars about the virtues and vices of capitalism and communism. Powerful short-wave transmissions required costly kit; getting hold of the frequencies required international arm-twisting.

New technology has cut costs and demolished most barriers to entry. Wavebands matter less than bandwidth. Even for those unable to watch or listen on the internet, satellite dishes and fibre-optic cable are hugely expanding the choice of programmes. Incumbents are struggling. In the past year the BBC World Service lost 8m viewers and listeners. Of the six American taxpayer-financed broadcasters that measure their reach, five see a decline.

Since 2006 China, France, Iran, Japan and Qatar have launched English-language TV news channels. China has committed $7 billion to international news. That is more than 15 times the annual budget of the BBC World Service. Last month it introduced a second English-language news channel, CNC World.

The new arrivals are conquering territory (and sometimes hiring staff) shed by established Western organisations. Short-wave radio is a signal example. Since 2000 Voice of America has cut the number of short-wave frequencies on which it broadcasts by 24%, to 200. The BBC has abandoned short-wave broadcasts to Latin America, North America and most of Europe. In the same period China Radio International has almost doubled its short-wave output (see chart). It even broadcasts from Texas. Meanwhile the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America, proposes to abolish the last of its short-wave transmitters in the United States.

Gobbling up short-wave audiences gains mostly older, poorer and more rural listeners. But the big battle is for urban opinion-formers, who consume their media chiefly by satellite and the internet.

Before 1990 Kenya had just one, state-owned, television station. It now has 20 television broadcasters and 80 licensed radio stations playing everything from rap to Christian sermons.

Read more at The Economist.

Western broadcasters losing influence in the developing world

Technology is cutting costs and stoking competition, eroding the Westerners’ advantages. Big transmitters were costly; podcasts and webcams, FM radio and cable television are cheap and often open to all. As the old signals fade, rival outfits are crowding the airwaves. Iran and Russia have both launched 24-hour English television-news channels. China added a second one last month.

In places like Myanmar, Somalia or Iran, too poor or too dictatorial to attract independent commercial media companies, providing solid news may be the best that the West can do. They also counter the propaganda from state media machines in places such as Russia and China. Without its own voice, the West’s case risks failing by default.

Read more at The Economist.