Now never miss another digital media event. With Content NOW’s comprehensive events calendar, quickly find dates and locations of all the places you need to be to get your business done. Whether its SXSW, CMJ, CTIA, CES, MIDEM or MIPCOM, it’s all here with reviews and videos.
Martine Paris
Editor, Content NOW
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Tags: LinkedIn
#CrunchUp and Party/Highlights
Thank you Michael Arrington for the invite to your fabulous CrunchUp and Party. The house was packed with 600 attendees. The lobby overflowing with key players. Within the minutes of arrival, I bumped into Tim Draper, Samir Arora, Ron Conway, and even SFMusicTech’s Brian Zisk just trying to get to the coffee bar. The panels were fantastic. There was so much tweeting from iPhones alone that the event was twending by mid-morning. If you missed it, you can watch it at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1783844, read the transcript of the onstage conversation with Ron Conway, John Borthwick and Steve Gillmor, or check out the tweets at #crunchup. Ron Conway, the angel with the midas touch and early investor in Google, FB, Twitter, etc., delivered his $5B monetization plan for real-time data a la a top ten: 1. follower acquisition, 2. contextual advertising, display, 3. syndication of new ads, 4. user aunthentication, 5. commerce, 6. payments, 7. CRM, 8. analytics, 9. coupons, 10. lead generation. Jack Dorsey talked about the lightness of following someone, you’re in, you’re out, you really follow the stream, not the person, this keeps it fresh. At the break one of the Twitter readers inadvertently started a rumor that Twitter was deleting tweets older than 7 days old. They started doing this a month ago but please don’t quote me, she said. Then another Twitter reader agreed, its true, because the nature of Twitter is so transient. I asked, what about historical reference, like the #iranelection. Then someone in the plaza opined, Twitter didn’t announce it but they have been doing this since they ran into scaling problems. After watching Michael tear into FriendFeed for creating out of control mobs, I thought, wouldn’t there be a mob over Twitter deleting tweets. Why is everyone so nonchalant about this. I tweeted out, but noone responded. Then I had a chance to catch up with Adam Pisoni of Yammer at lunch. He explained that the issue is Twitter search, the tweets are not being deleted but some tweets are not being indexed into search because of the scaling issue. If you follow someone, you can still see their history of tweets. You can still see your own history. Then we sat back, contemplated the power to delete history, and shuddered. That resolved, I went back in for awhile. There were some very interesting demos. Worth checking out: Lazyfeed and Mag.ma (beta invite code: crunchup09) aggregator providing total views of videos across platforms (e.g. iTunes, Hulu, YouTube..) as a tool for brands to shop popular content and vice versa. Signed up for the beta and then took off for the party at August Capital, early to arrive on Sand Hill Road to pick up a signed copy of the gorgeous Hugh MacCleod print that John Rourke of Bantam Networks paid $1000 at auction to benefit EFF. The atmosphere at the party was clubby. I hung out with Chris Forney of the Pasasdena-based ArtWorksGallery.com. We talked a bit about the art/wine/technology interplay and marketing strategies for Hugh’s work in Silicon Valley as we walked about checking out the caricature artists, the Grey Goose ice sculpture, the gourmet chips and tamales, the stage with feather boas set to go. I didn’t even ask. As the party drifted into the night, the deck at August Capital approached 800 partygoers including Randi Zuckerberg, that Stanford kid that looks like her brother (Jeff Widman,Mint.com, from SD Forum Teen Titans), and iJustine. As I left with parting gifts from TokBok, Tinker, Sun Startup Essentials, and One Riot, there was still more to come. Here are the photos. Alexia Tsotsis, LA Weekly got the scoop.
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Time to boogie down to TechCrunch’s sold out Real-Time Stream CrunchUp shindig today at the Fox Theatre, 2223 Broadway, Redwood City. It will be non-stop next stuff from 9-4:30 as Michael Arrington and gang host Jack Dorsey of Twitter, Chris Cox of Facebook, Ron Conway, Angel/Baseline Ventures, Robert Scoble, Building 43, Bhaskar Roy of Qik, Eric Marcoullier of Gnip, Bret Taylor of Friendfeed, John Borthwick of betaworks, Iain Dodsworth of TweetDeck, Nick Halstead of Tweetmeme, Loic Le Meur of Seesmic, Joel Strellner of Twitturly, Vipul Ved Prakash of Topsy, Gerry Campbell, Collecta, Kimbal Musk, OneRiot, Andrew Baron of Magma, and pretty much all of the architects creating a persistent universe online. In the audience – Digg, USVP, Google, Venrock, Intuit, CBS Interactive, Hootsuite (love that owl), MySpace, Microsoft Start Up Labs, Granite Ventures, Evernote, SlideShare, Meebo, Salesforce.com, Zoho, Brian Zisk… It will be non-stop discovery til the moon rises over Menlo Park with the after-party at August Capital, 2480 Sand Hill Road. I’ll twitpic a bit and post learnings tomorrow. Ustream is streaming live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crunchup. Follow along today at #crunchup.
RSS is dead. Long Live the Stream!
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Over 1100 creatives descended upon LATV Fest for the best mentoring and pitch opportunities around, and NATPE delivered pure gold for the indie producer looking to develop, distribute and monetize TV/web shows. Many in the industry were there – big name showrunners, the networks, studios, online distributors, and agencies. And by next year, the brands likely have a more prominent presence as they emerge as a significant funder of new production. Stickam streamed the event live and has many of the videos up at http://stickam.com/viewMovieGallery.do?uId=175821320. There are also podcast interviews of Steve Levitan, Greg Berlanti, JD Roth, and Jordan Hoffner at http://latvfest.net/latvfestival/podcasts. The conversation can be found at #NATPE and #LATVFest on Twitter, and my notes follow below:
I Keynote: Jordan Hoffner, YouTube
- 100mm+ views/day, 20 hours of content uploaded per minute
- The real challenge is getting people to watch in mass
- As the #1 Google, #2 YouTube search engine, search is religion
- People search for videos, not home page or channels
- YouTube is so democratic fan videos can eclipse official videos
- Content owners can request take down or monetize as promotional
e.g. Cheesy David Caruso mashup with its 3mm fans, CBS left it up
- YouTube Screening Room for 90% of festival films w no deal
(Sundance: 1900 submissions/200 accepted/28 deals)
- Indie producers can generate rev-share for their webisodes
by setting up channel partnership, www.youtube.com/partners
- Own the content/music, keep costs down, $1 v $10,000 minute,
invest in sound, pay talent on the backend, make something
great that appeals to audience and advertisers, tag with popular
search terms, friend popular videos with video responses
- Be patient , it can take 4 months to catch on
- direct purchase click to buy ads to drive traffic to carts
Monthy Python had a 20,000% incr in DVD sales on Amazon
- Other ways to monetize in the future incl micropayments
- At 100,000 views/month, a sponsor might be interested
- Can shut off ads for $3-4 CPM if product placement causes
channel conflict or put a media plan against the content
- 100,000 views 24h could get in most viewed and go viral
- Build audience via consistency, upload same time weekly
- Fred, 7mm streams per video, uploads a video every Thursday
- When you get to 20mm views, its time to call Kevin Reilly at Fox
- UGC can be leveraged to drive traffic to professional content
which can be monetized more easily
- Brand marketers are used to advertising on this content
- YouTube can offer reasonable $20-40 CPMs
- For big name content producers (e.g. Seth MacFarlane),
YouTube can secure sponsor (BK for 50 webisodes)
- No comment on YouTube Gold web-originals
- Talked about TV as you know it, TV adapted online, future of TV
- 1Q09 (Nielsen) 284mm 153hrs of TV home, 131mm 3hrs web
- TV ad spend was $67.2B compared to $1.5B online
- With Joost going away, lines clearer who the player are,
all owned by big companies who can afford cost of delivery
- YouTube has one of the largest HD libraries, eats bandwidth
- Hulu locked up 3 of the 4 networks as supp to DVD, video store
but not on TV like YouTube because of cannibalizing sub fees
- Hulu is a great competitor, clears more rights for the internet
- Hulu has trained viewers to watch 5-7 15-30s ad units/hour
- The length of short form is increasing from 2-3m to 8-9m
- www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/business/media/06video.html
- YouTube has deals with CBS, HBO, ABC/ESPN, Discovery
- Added a shows tab in navigation bar puts viewer one click from shows
- Launched 4/16, still learning levers to drive traffic, happy with growth
- Gives promotional love to partners and flexibility with channel design
- Some partners prefer to turn comments off.
- Some like Sony/Crackle keeps community features but embeds own player
to control viewing experience, secure streaming and ad inventory.
- Partners can allow Google/YouTube to sell ads against content or
can sell own ads with the option of Google/YouTube backfill
- Other coverage of Jordan’s talk include:
Marc Hustvedt, Tubefilter and Liz Gannes of NewTeeVee
II. Adapting Existing Properties for Digital
moderated by Sarah Szalavitz, 7Robot
(Fred makes $10,000/month off 7mm views on YouTube)
Curt Mavis, Lionsgate
- owns TVGuideNetwork, stake in Epic, Break, FEARnet (Sony/Comcast)
- founded CinemaNow
- Gamer – controlling humans in a game environment, extend web/mobile
- Weeds 360 – showrunner doesn’t want to lose control of property,
can’t just create a Weed-i-sode, noone’s ever gotten into trouble saying no
- Difficult getting top creatives to sign on for 360 treatments
- need to be daring and experimental in this space
- Texting is a $130B industry, bigger than gaming, tv, movies combined
- Create shows like American Idol based on participation of millions texting
- Lionsgate new show Instantly Rich integrates texting into the creative
Jamie Elden, Alloy
- Gossip Girl, Vampire Wars
- owns Teen.com for 10 years, 25mm uniques monthly, 12-17y
- 19% of the billboards in HS across US, Channel One w 4.9mm u/day
- because Alloy owns the platforms, advertisers will underwrite
- uses TV model on web originals e.g. hold Hot & Bothered to #s, .9 GG
- What Teens Want, advertiser wanted 10 episodes, 6mm views
got 7mm views, put in real TV terms Nielsen .6, 12-21y, like Hills, GG
- teens don’t want to crowdsource ending, want to give feedback,
e.g. what’s your perfect scenario if this were to happen to you in real life
- give story plus piece of culture but don’t give direction, let them run w it
- participation is required to justify to backer, sponsor, engaged audience
Jeff Katz, American Original
- developed X-MEN franchise, Freddy v Jason
- AO If $35mm production cost, you need to spend $35mm to promote it
- Gaming audience is a bridge, immersive world, mini-movies
Chris Williams, Disney T180 Studios
- Disney www.take180.com awesome web shows made by you all in
180 seconds or less, participatory entertainment, winning videos
rolled into professional production, creating original/derivative IP
- digital will grow 100% this year because market is so small, like a startup
- love self-serve platforms, Facebook a great deal, used for targeting 13-24y
for Electric Spoofaloo, got $.08 CPM, $.02 CPC, Gaia quizzes for gold,
MyYearbook home page blasts, profile videos
III. Anatomy of a Hit Web Series
moderated by Zadi Diaz, Epic Fu
Alex Albrecht, Diggnation
- Named one of PGA’s Digital 25
- produce content you are passionate about
- Diggnation – dudes on a sofa drinking beer, talking tech, 55m weekly
- show was cancelled on TV and fans were looking for it
- it was 3-4years ago when noone was watching except for p**n, MP3s
Hayden Black, Evil Global Corp
- Goodnight Burbank
- Abigail’s X-Rated Teen Diary, 90s
- Cabonauts, sci fi musical comedy
Sibyl Goldman, Y! TV/Movies/OMG/Shine
- 9.3mm streams/day, 37mm uniques month
- Primetime in No Time, Daytime in No Time
- use real time search analysis for insights into timely topics,
and to craft shows with pieces of interest
- saw people searching for Ellen DeGeneres struggle with dog
tied together the content layering on top of clips, host point of view,
giving it perspective, tone and comedy
- turnaround time is everything, must be on no later than next day
or story has moved on
Garrett Law, Attention Span Media
- Dorm Life, top Hulu show, #20 of all time, #9 last week
- crafted Dorm Life from the start around web video as a social medium
- thought of how to distribute and build audience around it
- got feedback episodes were too short so second season did
13 episodes, 12 minutes each
- not just TV written small, its a new social experience
(check back Wednesday for the rest…)
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Tags: 7Robot, Abigail's X-Rated Teen Diary, Alloy, American Original, Attention Span Media, Biggest Loser, Cabonauts, Cinemanow, dawson's creek, Daytime in No Time, Diggnation, Dorm Life, Electric Spoofaloo, Epic Fu, Evil Global Corp, Gaia, Goodnight Burbank, Gossip Girl, Green Lantern, greg berlanti, JD Roth, latv fest, Lionsgate, modern family, MyYearbook, Primetime in No Time, steve levitan, Take180.com, Vampire Wars, X-Men, Y!, YouTube
NATPE LATV Fest/The Guide
As the world descends on downtown LA tomorrow to celebrate MJ, the rest of us will be heading over to NATPE LATV Fest at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City. Oh what fun it will be, talking TV360. Not sure of the hashtag yet, but follow www.twitter.com/contentnow tomorrow, and I’ll tweet it out as soon as I know. Here’s the guide:
Tu 7/7
7-10pm XBAR – Pre-Party
W 7/8
8:30 Westside Room
YouTube Channel Partnerships
Jordan Hoffner, YouTube
9:45-10:30 Olympic Ballroom 1
Adapting Existing Properties to Digital
Curt Marvis, Lionsgate, Jamie Elden, Alloy, Chris Williams, Disney T180 Studios, Jeff Katz, American Original, Sarah Szalavitz, 7Robot
9:45-10:15-10:30 Olympic Ballroom 2
Digital Intensive/Non-Fiction TV Career
Donna Michelle Anderson, Planet DMA
9:45-10:30 Westside Room
How to Innovate with Shrinking Budgets
Andrew Wallenstein, THR, Deborah Spera, The Mark Gordon Company, Orly Adelson, dick clark productions, Paul Bucchieri, ITV Studios, Philip Gurin, The Gurin Company, Kirk Schenck, RDF Media
10:30-11 Producers Tent
Break
11-11:45 Olympic Ballroom 1
Anatomy of Hit Web Series
Alex Albrecht, Diggnation, Hayden Black, Goodnight Burbank, Zadi Diaz, Smashface, Garrett Law, Attention Span Media, Sibyl Goldman, Yahoo!
11-11:30-11:45 Olympic Ballroom 2
Scripted TV Career – how primetime shows get made, who the decision makers are and what you need to sell them, role of agents, production companies and studios
Carole Kirshner, Hollywood GamePlan
11-11:45 Westside Room
Become a Google Ninja
Dmitry Shapiro, Veoh
12-1 Olympic Ballroom 1
Deepening the Audience Experience with Online Programming
Lisa Hsia, Bravo, Greg Good fried, EQAL, Marc De Bevoise, Starz, Hardie Tankersley, FOX, Marc Ostrick, eGuiders, David Bloom, Words & Deeds
12-1 Westside Room
Diary of a Bad Pitch
Aaron Meyerson, MTV, Greg Lipstone, ICM, Nancy Daniels, TLC, Eric Schotz, LMNO, Lisa Berger, E!
1-2:30 Producers Tent
Industry Insights Lunch
Josef Adalian, TVWeek, Greg Berlanti, Berlanti Television
2:45-3:30 Olympic Ballroom 1
Where’s the Money?
Daisy Whitney, New Media Minute, Matthew Graham, FT, Ross Levinsohn, Fuse Capital
2:45-3:30 Olympic Ballroom 2
Pitch Clinic – Short Form
Laurie Scheer, Flashpoint Academy
2:45-3:45 Westside Room
Anatomy of a Hit Cable Series – Woman Behind Bars
Gary Lico, CableU, John Barrud, Burrud Productions, Theresa Patiri, WE tv
3:30-4 Producers Tent
Break
3:45-4:30 Olympic Ballroom 1
Online Video from the Media Buyer and Brand Perspective
Tania Yuki, comScore, Sara Morton, OMD, Douglas Scott, Ogilvy, Sarah Baehr, Razorfish, Steven Amato, Omelet, Michael Hayes, Initiative
4-4:45 Olympic Ballroom 2
Pitch Clinic – Scripted
Laurie Scheer, Flashpoint Academy
4:15-5:15 Westside Room
Secrets of the Reality Heavyweights
David Lyle, Fox Bruce David Klein, Atlas Media, Elise Doganieri, Earthview, JDRoth, 3Ball, Bill Hayes, Figure 8 Films, Nick Emmerson, Shed Media
4:45-5:30 Olympic Ballroom 1
Web Animation
Chuck Williams, Disney, Allen DeBevoise, Machinima, Uri Shinar, Aniboom, Lifeng Wang, Xing Xing Digital, Norman Hollyn, USC Cinematic Arts
5:45-6:30 Olympic Ballroom 1
How to Make $$$ With How-Tos
Tim Street, APE Digital, Sanjay Raman, Howcast, Ran Harneyo, 5Min, Jeremy Reed, Demand Media, Gina Miller-Britton, Britton HD
5:30-6:15 Olympic Ballroom 2
Pitch Clinic – Unscripted
Laurie Scheer, Flashpoint Academy
5:45-6:30 Westside Room
Sponsorships, Product Placement, Brand Integration
Brian Seth Hurst, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, David Norton, Ladder Up Media, Mark Vega, Luce Forward, Daniel P Harris, MP+G, Josh Bycel, Scrubs, Adam Armus, NBCU Heroes
6:30-8:30 Producers Tent
Innovator Award Cocktail Party – The Biggest Loser
Ben Silverman, NBCU, Paul Telegdy, NBCU, Mark Koops, Reveille, Dave Broome, 25/7, JD Roth & Todd Nelson, 3Ball Productions
Th 7/9
9:30-12:30 Westside Room
Pitch Pit – 10 minutes to pitch 45+ players looking for the next great idea
1-2:30 Industry Insights Lunch
Melissa Grego, Broadcasting & Cable, Steven Levitan, Larry Sanders Show.., Picture Day Productions
2:45-3:45 Olympic Ballroom 1
Mobile – From Concept to Monetization
Jim Beddows, MEF, Joanne Waage, MobiTV, Dave Ulmer, Motorola, Mike Bailey, FLO TV, Frank Chindamo, Fun Little Movies, Steven Masur, MasurLaw
2:45-3:45 Olympic Ballroom 2
So You’ve Pitched – Now What?
Carole Kirshner, Hollywood Game Plan, Andy Stabile, CAA, Marcus Wiley, FOX, laverne McKinnon, Shibui, Daniel Weidenfeld, Generate
2:45-3:45 Westside Room
Democratization of Media on Content and the Audience
Kevin Yen, YouTube, Brian Seth Hurst, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Joaquin Alvarado, PBS, Brady Brim-DeForest, Tubefilter, Danny Kastner, FanRocket
3:45-4:15 Producers Tent
Break
4:15-5 Olympic Ballroom 1
iPhone Apps
Andrew Stalbow, Fox, Amir Hosseinpour, Juice Wireless, David Kruis, Metranome, Frank Chindamo, Fun Little Movies, Betty St Peter, SC Public Radio, Matthew Corbett, IdealWave Solutions
4:15-5 Olympic Ballroom 2
Upfronts
Arnie Semsky, Media Advisors, Cherie Cohen, ESPN, Scott Vila, A&E, Jennifer Grisanti, Jen Grisanti Consultancy
4:15-5 Westside Room
Profiting from Content Disruption
Gavin McGarry, Jumpwire Media
5:30-6:30 Olympic Ballroom 1
Digital Mentor
Cameron Death, NBCU, Daniel Weidenfeld, Generate, Timothy Shey, Next New Networks, George Ruiz, ICM, Lori Schwartz, Interpublic, Daisy Whitney, New Media Minute, Barrett Garese, Spytap
5:30-6:30 Olympic Ballroom 2
Thriving in Change
Rod Perth, ReetzChannel Network, Dave Logan, USC
5:30-6:15 Westside Room
Creating a TV Pilot
Jeffrey Gordon, Writer’s Boot Camp
6:30-8:30 Producers Tent
NextTV Awards Party
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Impressive was the crowd producer Charles Hudson amassed for the 2nd annual Social Gaming Summit. 500 came from near and very far…game developers, game show producers, VCs…from Vancouver, Australia, Argentina. There were moments of surprising candor, mass clicking, ooohs, ahas, gasps, laughs and booming applause. The networking was stellar, and as the crowd drifted off to the Richter Scales after-party with super schwag in hand (Mario mushrooms, sporty tees), the twitter stream was still sparkling at #sgs09. So if you’re seeking cha-ching, here are some of the gems:
I. Industry Insights with Justin Smith, InsideFacebook.com, InsideSocialGames.com, slides: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/06/23/slides-from-presentation-at-social-gaming-summit/
Facebook
FB 200mm mau, 70% of FB growth outside US, US growing 5-10%: NA 81mm (US 60mm), Europe 77mm, Asia 28mm, SA 19mm, Africa 5mm. FB is getting older, half of new users are 35y+, more than half of US gamers are 25y+, women outnumber men.
Top Games as of June 2, popular themes – flirting, charity, virtual worlds, cards, sports, trivia, pets, role-playing, first person shooter
- Texas Hold Em Poker – Zynga – 12mm mau
- Mafia Wars – Zynga – 11mm mau
- Pet Society – Playfish – 11mm mau
- Farm Town – SlashKey – 7mm mau
- YoVille – Zynga – 7mm mau
- MindJolt – Zynga – 6mm mau
- Pass a Drink – SocialReach – 6mm mau
- Lil Green Patch – Green Patch – 5mm mau
- Bumper Sticker – LinkedIn – 5mm mau
- Restaurant City – Playfish – 4mm mau
- Chain Rxn – Zwigglers – 4mm mau
- Geo Challenge – Playfish – 3.5mm mau
- Bejeweled Blitz – Pop Cap Games – 3mm+
- Know-It-All-Trivia – CrowdStar – 3mm+
- Word Challenge – Playfish – 3mm+
- Who Has the Biggest Brain – Playfish – 3mm+
- Vampire Wars – Zynga – 2.7mm
- Friends For Sale – Serious Business – 2.6mm
In 2 years, there are 14,000+ games:
- 3 games with 10mm mau
- 30 games with 1mm mau
- 100 games with 100,000 mau
- 300 games with 10,000 mau
- 1,000+ games with 1,000 mau
Little monetization, rules, infrastructure, powerful viral channels: invites, notifications, newsfeed – liberal approach led to spam, fatigue.
FB Connect has been the biggest development in the last 6 months for the social app ecosystem, API allows developers to use social graph data elsewhere (identity, social context, sharing, publishing in a frictionless way, no more log-in), lets you move social graph to multi-device gaming, play the same game with friends across devices, FB Connect making mobile social – FB Connect, iPhone, Xbox, DSi.
MySpace
Best kept secret, has as many users as FB (WW 125mm, US 60mm) with twice the ARPUs. Average revenue per user for top games are $1-$2/month, FB $.30-$.40, MS $.60-$.70. Opened as a gaming platform a year later than FB, virtual currency coming, FB games are porting over to MS, less crowded, 125mm mau, good viral channels, although more conservative than FB, doesn’t share active player metrics.
hi5
#1 social network in 30 countries, big in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, recently restructured entire company around games. Now a social entertainment network with games, virtual currency, and aspirational IDs. Innovative partnerships with payment companies, 400 games focus on transactions.
etc
- 3P XPlatform SDKs – Come2Play, J2Play, OpenFeint, ScoreLoop, Gameyola
- Casual/Flash portals (Cafe.com, Kongregate, Pogo, Bigpoint, AddictingGames)
- Web portals – igoogle, MyYahoo – jury is out whether address bookcontacts =friends to play games with, 10mm mau, Y! contacts diff than connections
- Twitter has RPGs Spymaster, 140Mafia, early games: Fast140, TweetQuiz, very different platform, games feel more like spam. Following people is very different than friending on social networks. Greater role will be in integration with consoles (Xbox)
Monetization
More than half of revenue comes from user payments, the rest from offers, sponsored items, ads. Offers can be 60-70% effective.
CPA based offers – Offerpal, Super Rewards, Peanut Labs, Ad Parlor, Gambit, Sometrics, sponsored items – advertiser pays for distribution ($300 greenbucks for every $12 spent), direct payments increasing share of revenue
Web – socialgold, spare change, FB credits, hi5 coins
Mobile – Zong, Boku
Virtual economy optimization – economic management, retain reporting, many new solutions, payment challenges – offers, credit cards, shopping carts, mobile, geo/age limitations, many new solutions
Freemium dominates, free to paid conversion rates are lower in social games (.5-1.5%) than MMORPGs.
Trends
Free to play games on social networks, crowded monetization ecosystems, social networks FB MS getting involved, optimizing for monetization earlier, new games bridging social and mobile. Continued focus on engagement, retention, monetization, gaming is a $50B industry, social games just a small percentage, industry only two years old.
II. Jeremey Liew, Lightspeed Venture Partners
with Zynga, Playdom, Playfish
On Cloning
As three of the fastest growing social games developers took the stage, all eyes were on Marc Pincus, CEO, Zynga and John Pleasants, CEO, Playdom considering the hit Zynga put out on Playdom for cloning Mafia Wars with Mobsters. But Pincus was extremely chummy with Pleasants, smiling and whispering in his ear, even laughing at Zynga’s own cloning strategy (FarmVille knocking off SlashKey’s Farm Town, Mafia Wars knocking off Maestri’s Mob Wars.) Of course, he was being social, that’s what this is all about. The courts will decide whether cloning is infringement, but meantwhile copycat games, fair or not, are the way many speed to market.
On Hit Portfolios
Facebook has created an environment where a newcomer can create a hit out of the blue, Farm Town shot to #1 with 4mm daily active users. Cross-promotion and installed base keeps marketing costs down but are not the advantage viral referral is, but viral is more than just invites which can be perceived as spam. Engagement and quality drive acquisition. Console is a mature industry where its a win-lose for every new entrant, but with social games, every new entrant expands the market, draws in new players, its a win-win, all boats rise. Pleasants, former EA COO, and new kid on the block shared insights. Games traditionally were always sold to the 25y male hard core gamer with story arc, competition, achievement, rewards, showing off, being prideful, fear of losing, frustration, anger, gaining over someone else, leveling, and scarcity of items fueling the game. Traiditionally, hits drive category growth. But social games are not as much about IP as they are about the way the game interacts, must nail viral, social mechanics rather than just the game mechanics. And since web is the game platform, you get more swings at the plate. Change games on a weekly basis to tweek the customer experience. Mitigate risk to drive a hit portfolio. In packaged games, distribution can make or break a game, and its costly. iPhone is similar, only so many can fit on the shelf, if you’re not charting in the top 25, you’re not there. But social games come from your friends, not limited to a single place, levels the playing field. (Pincus suggested forming a consortium of social game developers to approach Apple, Palm for an open social gaming platform on mobile). Digital distribution is a huge factor in creating a mass market, look at the success of WOW, coop mmorpg (CampFu.com), portal distribution, mobile with iPhone and Android, where you can quickly deploy to multiple countries.
On Virtual Goods
The white knight on the panel was Sebastien de Halleux, CEO, Playfish, with his Belgian demeanor and poetic vision. Capture your audience’s imagination, let them deeply engage with content, and play together. So inspiring, there wasn’t a person I spoke with after the talk who wasn’t in that moment checking out Restaurant City on their computer, or wanting to. In the first 5 weeks of launch, Restaurant City reached 5mm users with no cross-promotion. At Playfish, the core metric is fun, they know they have a winner when employees can’t stop playing. They design games as objects of social interaction so users will be motivated to invite friends to play, perceive value to investing in game over time. Quality (surround sound, fantastic graphics, immersive experience) shows players the game will pesist, worth the investment of time and money to build social capital. For Restaurant City, lovingly referred to as RC, players invite friends to help run the restaurant and are motivated to dress avatar, spend on an attractive storefront, soundtrack , etc. Games like RC transform FB into a Second Life. And real-life behavior is echoed in these virtual worlds. Around the holidays, Pet Society sold 20 million Xmas trees at $2 each. When players were asked why, they responded that in real life only a handful will see my real Xmas tree, but everyone can see my virtual one, you can touch more people online with one action and its a way to keep the plates spinning…. Connection with the audience is key to dynamic game design….Playdom sold $100,000 pink VWs on Sorority Life in 2 days simply by listening to audience chatter on what they wanted to buy….The disconnection in our real lives fuels the economy for gift giving of virtual goods. Pleasants – I may not have time to sit down for a game of Connect Four with my kids but I can make a move in an online game, relate better to kids through shared gaming experience. ….if you’re going to hang out online with friends you never see, you’ll pay to look good. And with scarcity of those goods, there is greater value.
On Real ID
At Zynga, likens the social network context to a cocktail party and all your friends are there. The 3 pillars to a successful game long term are real friends, self-expression, and social capital (invest in game over time, own something of value). YoVille has 10,000 items for sale. Can use for entertainment or networking. Social gaming can crossover to cultural phenomenon when half of internet is doing it. Must feel real and relevant. Dynamic and deep way to communicate and interact, do something new and and in different ways. Friends will fatigue on feeds, need a new story, new things you can do with your friends, the game is a playground for personality, more than just tricking out with avatars….There are 300,000 peak concurrent users playing poker, 75% of the time a friend is playing at the same time….Playfish limits play to real friends 18y+, skews 18-54y. The emotional value of playing with friends is significantly higher than with strangers, so is the engagement, you build social capital to impress real friends, games are not a you vs. them but rather with the spectrum of emotions, love, friendship, pride, maximize these emotions with real life connections, like a boardgame, you’ll remember the good time you had not so much the moves to win.
On Investment
Analysis of metrics and targets are key before throwing promotional muscle behind game. Zynga promotes heavily at launch to accelerate into market. Invested $2mm to develop Guild of Heroes only to kill it at 10,000 players, didn’t have the right metrics to launch. That said, niche audiences are desirable even if smaller like the 2mm on Playfish’s Minigolf, when 11mm is considered a hit.
On The Audience
There is a gender split 18-34y, most never played video games, enjoying the social experience with friends (fans reports being addicted to beating family members at Biggest Brain), moves it to the broader consumer realm, consider themselves more social than gamers, watch the Twitter stream, they don’t use the same language as gamers.
On The Companies
Zynga – started 2/07 with 10 – now have 300 full time employees plus 50 contractors, hiring, have 90 open recs, based in Potrero Hill SF with backend, net ops and data wh in Los Gatos. 4 studios: Mobile, Casual, MMO, Virtual Goods, 9-10 product groups. Pincus hope is that soon half the internet will be playing a social game everyday.
Playdom – started 16 months ago – 65 employees, 3 founders in their 20s, still with company focused on operations, 12 MS games, 5 FB games, 1 iPhone game, run lean and mean with 45 on game production, 20 on the business side.
Playfish – 100 employees across 4 creative studios – London, Beijing, Artic Circle(Tromso, Norway), SF (5), produced 7 games in 18 months, iPhone and consoles as access devices to FB web platform, same app, scoring.. Quality more important than distribution. Game is not a science, can’t be modeled, mix of creative and technical DNA, learn from one title to the next what’s working, freedom to build a fun product has a huge impact on the lives of the people inside the company. With Biggest Brain, since 2007, weekly release, keep it simple, respond to the audience, not something you can do with a traditional game that’s in development over 5 years. A social game is not a product that goes live, happening now is a paradigm shift from game as product to game as service, from day one you are building a long term relationship, there is a lot of interplay between developer and audience.
III. Michael Arrington, Tech Crunch with FB, MS, hi5, OPI
MySpace
70mm US mau, 30mm active app users, working on a MS Connect, only serves to expand the market, it’s all greenspace right now
Facebook
Seeing more game activity than WOW, social graph + real ID is at the core of FB being a successful social game channel, the larger the audience, the more valuable the platform to the developer, lack of payment system doesn’t hurt FB ecosystem, developers are free to use any payment system they want, sees huge growth on the horizon in multi-device gaming thanks to FB Connect and the summer of smartphones, this is the year consoles will go social across platforms.
hi5
3P payment solution makes the platform valuable to developers so that games can be easily monetized abroad as well as in US. hi5 aspirational IDs, some game play lends itself to avatars, wouldn’t want to whack a friend holding two babies. Regarding messaging,very cautious, monitor CTR carefully, if low, dial back on messaging, focus on honing and targeting so messages are not rejected as spam, build once, port everywhere.
OPI
85mm on their two social networks, in China, gaming is bigger revenue than ads and search, social gaming is a $5B market in China, many games have Xmm concurrent users. (tweets: did OPI guy just say 1B concurrent users on social nets in China, no he said 80mm). Arrington catches it, “Really, because that’s like a substantial portion of the world’s population.” OPI replied in good humor, “I meant 1mm concurrent users…let’s blame it on jetlag.” Then everyone bolted for lunch. When the video posts, watch for it. Absolutely hilarious.
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TechCrunch - RSS is Dead, Long Live The Stream!
Friday, July 10, join the scene at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City as TechCrunch presents CrunchUp with Facebook, FriendFeed, Microsoft, Salesforce, Seesmic, Tweetmeme, and other thought leaders of the Real Time Stream. Then head over to August Capital in Menlo Park for a way cool after-party, where hopefully there’ll be some Pong 
Event details and tickets at: http://realtime.eventbrite.com. See ya there!
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IV. Monetization-PayPal, Super Rewards, Zong, GMG
GMG Entertainment – from 10/1-11/15, feature printable PDF to show mom and dad whch retailers are selling the prepaid card the kids want (a tweeter asks is it legal to market virtual currency to minors), the prepaid economy taps into the billions spent on gift-giving and allowance
PayPal - launching PayPal developer platform and new API, sign up to become a PayPal platform insider, hear about the beta SDK and developer conference this fall at www.x.com, soon to be offering 13-17y student accounts for parents, fraud chargeback rates average 5%, developers happy with 1-1.5%, PayPal concerned when it reaches .5%-1%, soon posting best practices for avoiding fraud on website
Super Rewards – player to player trading increases fraud 100x but not monetization, so don’t allowing trading or cashing out, paid offers is a great way to get players to try the game before starting to pay directly, one user spent $30,000 on 2 games, need a way to capture these outliers
Zong – RMTs a manageable problem
Much competition in the payments ecosystem, consolidation is inevitable
(Audience Qs: unpack RMT acronym and true vs. friendly fraud)
V. Acquisition/Retention-Offerpal, WonderHill, RockYou, Tagged
RockYou
FB better retention, no one uninstalls an app because they are not visible, developers can always reengage, MS has greater churn, can lose 10-60% after install because apps are more visible, part of profile, player is more sensitive on MS because app is part of identity, MS less viral, aged up for these messages, need to juice invite path, adoption path, with incentivized virality (beware TOS spamming, devaluing currency with too many offers), conversion rates from FB/MS to destination sites are better than expected. 5-7% of daily returning users is good, discounting promos. FB redesign reduced spam not engagement, focus on building momentum with newsfeeds and notifications (if developer goes skiing, engagement dies off), gaining the FB system, newsfeed very powerful, but gets pushed down fast, need to reinvent viral path, daily/hourly incentives, alerts for retention depends on user behavior, bonus poker chips daily. Key conversion rates are #monthly users that become daily users. Successful brands mix zero marketing spend viral strategy (word of mouth, cross-promotion, SEO) with paid advertising to acquire users. Buy ads on FB, MS, RockYou, TV – justify the ad spend with LTV. Virality with game mechanics – time retention events, leveling up, treasure chests of randomized gifts, periodicity, novelty of awards to avoid boredom.
WonderHill
For branding/discoverability, vanity URLs, bookmarking, destination sites. Acquirers value companies with destination sites than those that live on social networks alone, they want something tangible to own. Look to where growth is occuring, MS was less crowded so WonderHill went there first, other great platforms include Friendster, hi5, Tagged, photolog, value proposition to apps, access to a lot of users, not much competition. Monetize with microtransactions on free-to-play sites. Stay tuned for more licensed IP on FB for customer acquisition.
Tagged
50-80mm actively engaged, closed platform, signs BD deals with developers to offer stability for a term, won’t be surprised by a change of TOS. The gold standard is when 50% login daily like Facebook, Tagged is at 25%, 10-50% is a good range to be in.
Offerpal
- Most monetizable demographic – US women, 34-50y!
- capturing someone doesn’t always mean they monetize well
- 30-40% paying after biting on offers for RPGs on social networks
- look at niches like Christian Singles
- 80% on Twitter have less than 10 followers (spam bots, perhaps?)
VI. Real Metrics – Friends For Sale, Lil Green Patch
- Slides: https://files.getdropbox.com/u/1006370/Metrics.pdf
- Metrics are a force multiplier, but you need something to multiply, can’t replace a good product, creativity, art, design, or qualitative metrics (user sentiment, net promoter score, etc.)
- (life time value – user acquisition cost) x scale = profit
- user acquisition costs – virality, retention, cross-promotion, marketing
- lifetime value – retention, quality, flow, mechanics, theme, payments
- 3As of metrics – actionable, accessible, auditable
- actionable – build a framework for experimentation not vanity, emphasis on split testing and actionable insights
- accessible – on demand experimentation capabilities, timely, transparent and accessible reporting, separate metrics infrastructure as much as possible
- auditable – sanity check against other data sources: db, fb, google analytics
- the viral loop = visit (product quality, new user experience, social proof – friends, key metric – activiation rate- revenue), infection (invite flows, retention, call to actions, game mechanics, self expression, alocation tuning, key metric – infection rate), conversion (copywriting, persuasion psychology, demographic targeting, key metric – click through rate)
- virality discounts user acquisition costs potentially down to $0
- user acquisition cost discount k = infection rate * conversion rate (summed across all channels)
- decrease user acquisition cost to increase life time value
- infection rate – viral flows, calls to action, product quality, game mechanics, allocation tuning
- conversion rate – copywriting, persuasion mechanics/psychology, demographic testing
- viral channels – request, notifications, feed forms, email, profile box, share link, email, app tab
- build a dashboard for experimentation that allows the study of sensitivity analyses, run tests on 1% re: language of messaging, metrics can help with revenue, gain actionable insights on virtual goods behavior, on Green Patch stats show average spend $0-$2 for games with nearly 5000 users
VII. Three Rings, Sparkplay Media, Challenge Games, Kongregate
Sparkplay Media and Three Rings willing to pay $30 for a qualified lead, LTV of a paying Puzzle Pirates customer is $150, but Three Rings not willing to pay it upfront. Social network games are not MMORPGs, they are single player, asynch play, you don’t get to play your friends realtime, many games like RC use paper cutouts of friends, or force creation of false friends that corrupts the social graph (FB doesn’t let you play with others unless they are friends). The more social a game, the more commitment required, the more you play, the more you play. The more social capital (quality, status, fun), the more social games will become mainstream. Kongregate is growing 8-10% month as a destination site, not splitting focus by going on FB but likes the idea of FB Connect.
Who’s Who in the Mix
At Breakfast – Jeremy Zorn, MyYearbook http://twitpic.com/871ls, Scott & Rachel Thomas, Alif Khalfan, Playdom http://twitpic.com/8738e, Charles Yong, developerAnalytics, Chris Akhavan, RockYou http://twitpic.com/872f3, Dr John Banks, CCI Queensland, Caryl Shaw, EA/Maxis, Barbara North, Moblying http://twitpic.com/8721d, Greg Jagiello, IMVU, Woody Hartman, IGN http://twitpic.com/871a7
At Lunch – Kim Kaplan, Plenty of Fish, talked about:
- how in just 6 years, Plenty of Fish has grown to $350mm in revenue, with 16mm monthly uniques, traffic 4x that of Match.com, .15% CTRs
- online dating trends with 1 in 5 now meet their mate online
- and the importance of fresh campaigns every year, seeking out creative spends like exclusive sponsorship of music videos (e.g. Flo-Rida, Will.i.am, Akon Available), NYC/Boston subway billboard campaigns (remnant inventory high ROI, low cost)
Mingling – Anne-Marie Edwards, PlayFirst, Matt Golden, Blackberry Partners Fund (fabulous speaker at EconSM), Georg Alscher, DaoPay (major SGS sponsor), Olivier Delfosse, FremantleMedia (hopefully this means the Price is Right, American Idol brands are extending into social games), Tomio Geron, VentureWire , and Kim Vallee, blogger extraordinaire, possibly with the most comprehensive tweets of the event, and my tablemate, Tom Griffiths, hubdub.com http://twitpic.com/873hi
Other Coverage
Audio Interview of FB Gareth Davis
http://audioboo.fm/boos/32863
Venture Beat
http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/06/24/in-recession-social-gaming-comes-of-age/
Offerpal Blog
http://myofferpal.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/what-did-we-learn-at-the-social-gaming-summit/
hi5 Blog
http://www.hi5networks.com/blog/2009/06/observations_from_the_social_g.html
Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog
lsvp.wordpress.com
Gamasutra
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24169
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24192
GigaOm
http://gigaom.com/2009/06/23/fou-things-to-know-about-social-games-today/
Inside Social Games
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/06/23/live-notes-from-panel-building-social-games-at-scale-at-social-gaming-summit-2009/
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/06/23/live-notes-from-sgs09-expert-talks-on-viral-metrics-and-ip-rights/
Virtual World News
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2009/06/social-gaming-virtual-goods-discussed-in-sf-summit.html
Jussi Laakkonen Blog
http://jussilaakkonen.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/coverage-of-social-gaming-summit-2009/
Crowdsourced Summary
www.slideshare.net/MayankDhingra/social-gaming-summit-2009
Filed under: Digital Media Events | 2 Comments
Tags: Biggest Brain, Blackberry Partners Fund, CampFu, Challenge Games, Charles Hudson, DaoPay, Facebook, Farm Town, FarmVille, FremantleMedia, Friends for Sale, GMG, Green Patch, hi5, IGN, IMVU, Kim Vallee, Kongregate, Lil Green Patch, Mafia Wars, Metrics, Michael Arrington, Mind Jolt, Mob Wars, Mobsters, MySpace, MyYearbook, Offerpal, Pass a Drink, PayPal, Pet Society, Playdom, PlayFirst, Playfish, Plenty of Fish, Restaurant City, Richter Scales, SlashKey, SocialReach, Sparkplay Media, Super Rewards, Tagged, TechCrunch, Texas Hold Em, Three Rings, Tomio Geron, VentureWire, WonderHill, YoVille, Zong, Zynga
It was standing room only last night as hundreds huddled in Stanford’s Bishop Auditorium to get the lowdown on the exploding mobile ecosystem, learn best practices for charting the iPhone apps store, find out about write once, run anywhere platforms, and secure an invite to the Palm Pre SDK private beta. Gracing the MIT/Stanford VLAB stage were: Tom Krazit, CNET, Matt Murphy, iFund Manager, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Pam Deziel, VP Developer Marketing, Palm, Tyler Lessard, Director, Developer Relations, RIM, Adam Blum, CEO, Rhomobile, Steve Demeter, Trism iPhone app developer. Del Daix of the Examiner captured video which we’ll link here when it posts. Below are some of the gems:
Tom Krazit, CNET
- Go Mobile, Young Developer
- iPhone the game changer, now everything is all new
- We’ve only just begun, there’s never been a better time to jump in
- Consumers are just starting to get it
- Personalization is key, niches galore
- Billions are being spent on device and OS innovation
- WW leading OS (1Q09): Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile, Apple, Palm, Android
- NA leading OS (1Q09): RIM, Apple, Windows Mobile, Android, Palm, Symbian
- Choices abound for developers: One OS, One Phone, One OS, Many Phones, Many OS, Many Phones
- Apple’s pros – hit device, sleek UI, iTunes distribution model, cons – control, crowded marketplace,
wild card, noone knows yet how 3G will handle 3G S apps
- 6 Mobile OS – might fragment more before consolidation, incumbents way too invested in OS, pie is still getting bigger, expect new entrants
- Role of the operators (ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile) – provide end user support, own customer data and billing relationship, they feature and promote what they want, they have great power but must pass frictionless test, stores (e.g. V Cast, SprintPCS) sold on average 2.5 apps per over the life of the customer vs. 30 on the iPhone, likely see a hybrid model of platform/carrier app stores, unlikely off deck stores will do as well as users migrate to store on device, carriers are experimenting and learning, still early days, they recognize its a shared customer but also need to keep in mind that developers need to earn a living, why would developers go with the carriers for 50% when they can earn 70% (Apple, Android, MS, Ovi) or 80% (BB)
- Nokia Ovi is going after music in a big way
- right now smart phones are 20-30% of US market but there is definitely a conversion of feature phones to smartphones, its where the monetization is, the plans might be slightly more expensive ($70 v $50) but the extra $20 delivers a lot of extra value, the data plan on app centric devices is key
- Japan has flash in the browser and is a browser market, US is going to be a download market for awhile even as Flash ubiquity takes hold
Adam Blum, CEO, Rhomobile
- Rhomobile’s open source mobile framework Rhodes allows developers to quickly build native mobile applications for all smartphone OS: iPhone, BB, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android (and soon Pre)
- Write once, run anywhere
- Approach device diversity by integrating common features – camera, SMS, LBS, contacts
- Laughs that Objective C, basis of iPhone games, is 20 years old.
- To work with Apple, app must do what it said it would do and nothing more, see www.rhomobile.com/blog
- Here’s a list of apps that have already ported cross-platform with Rhodes: http://rhomobile.com/customers
Matt Murphy, iFund Manager, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
- $100mm+ iFund launched with Apple 14 months ago soon after the SDK was released
- Now 1B apps have been downloaded, 50,ooo apps in the apps store
- VCs invest in ideas that companies can be built upon, not just products
- You can get VC returns in mobile, look at the $800mm outcome from JAMDAT, Zynga is rumored to be doing $100mm in virtual goods, who knows what returns we’ll see with in-app transactions from iPhone 3.0
- currently there are 40mm iPhones, at the end of another year maybe 80mm, 100mm is a massive market
- don’t look at the $250,000 fart app, look at the new behavior, new models (virtual goods, content..)
- KPCB iFund companies do not compete against each other: ngmoco, GOGII, booyah, iControl, Pelago (2 more soon to be announced), $100mm not a hard cap, mobile ecosystem moving at faster pace than expected
- GOGII launched 2 weeks ago, now at #3, that’s 60,000 downloads/day with no Apple features and 5-10 pickups by the press, 3 iFund companies are in the top 20
- Develop what you know, what you’re passionate about, apps that Apple will like, look at Apple Design Awards, what would Apple love to show off this is what makes Apple shine, new user experience, new user design, new things you can do with iPhone, analyze audience, with 50,000 apps see what’s working
- Write small first, get core value proposition out, seek audience feedback, 80/20 features/effort rule
- How to chart – make name/icon understandable, short, descriptive like TextPlus, when you get the RSS feed seek good reviews for initial pop, to get charted in the first 100 need 4500 downloads/day. Need to be visible in first 100 stack to climb the charts. Apple feature can give it a 10x pop, fantastic developer relations group, features decided by a democratic committee
- Keep it simple, lightweight, immediately engaging utility, not too complex out of the gate, enough to get going to get an audience, ok to have a massive ambition behind that.
- Free/paid models: giveaway 10 Lite for every 1 Pro sold, free offers a free ad network to promote the paid game instead of paying AdMob $.50 – $1 per user, $0.99 is the disposable price point, big drop off and virtually no price sensitivity $1.99-$5.99, start at $5.99 then gradually drop to free to promote next game
- FYI, Here is the deck to Matt’s Web 2.0 Summit presentation, 11/08: http://www.kpcb.com/team/index.php?Matt Murphy
Pam Deziel, VP Developer Marketing, Palm
- Palm Pre shipped 6/6, fabulous reception considering just out of stealth mode
- CES spurred fantastic user/developer reaction
- Reinvigorating developer community, reaching out to the 100mm web-centric developer community
- currently scaling infrastructure for distribution; merchandising, discoverability will evolve
- SDK not out yet, in private beta
- will be looking for compelling user experience, integration, device navigation, instant gratification, nature of app is driver of the value equation, high levels of regular engagement, sub-content refreshed regularly
- Synergy WebOS platform, deep integration across core apps, offers greater degree of control, universal search, a real keyboard
Tyler Lessard, Director, Developer Relations, RIM
- Eventhough BB has been around 8 years, the mobile space is still in its infancy
- 3 years ago BB was pure enterprise
- seeking high frequency (daily) apps that showcase the platform, nail the user experience, apps must feel native to the user like it shipped out of the box, makes platform shine, integrate LBS, camera
- user base relies heavily upon BB, RIM focusing on long battery life, data traffic, security requirements
- differentiated by removable memory (SD card) and removable batteries (big oohs aahs from audience), apps can run all the time, are multithreaded, running at startup, push allows weather to change, seamless experience, user gets information without proactively seeking it, baking in APIs, apps feel native, integrated
- BB monthly developer challenge, win one week feature in BB App World
- looking for consistency across devices, great experience/high quality, good reviews and brand behind it
- looking for a mix of utility like expense tracker, media/music apps, games, news and content that appeal to an enterprise base, localizing US, Canada, UK (small market, brand not as mature)
- BB app models include freemium, or free/premium for value-add features, free trial/$0.99 subscription or in-app microtransactions
Steve Demeter, Trism iPhone app developer
- developed a game he knew he could write in 4 months in time for the launch of the apps store, priced at $5, earned $250,000 first 2 months and quit his day job, dropped to $3 but CNN coverage kept price in bubble
- Never bought an ad for it, shopped demo at GDC, iPhone was too new, then uploaded a YouTube video, got 100,000 hits first 4 days, it went viral and after 3 weeks Apple featured it
- Developed for iPhone because it felts like a gaming device, snappy enough, the others felt like a cell phone
- Trism is a lifestyle business, can pursue passion and no longer work 9-5, not an empire guy with a magnify construct, an artist who needs to get head in the space
- Android version out soon, considering BB Storm
MIT/Stanford VLAB
The Stanford campus is a myriad of twists and turns with parking intrigue, so when you arrive, you really have. Its great to be greeted with a drink, some sushi, and smiles from a swath of dedicated volunteers. In the crowd were Dr. Jaeyong Lee & Peter Simpson of Vidiator who followed up with me after my question to the panel as to whether Qik would finally be available for 3G and whether there would be an issue of 3G S apps running on 3G. I dined with Todd Parker, Managing Director, Hidden River, mobile app vc firm. He was thrilled to hear about Content NOW’s coverage of mobile advertising CTR at EconSM and CONNECTIONS. And I sat with my press colleagues Del Daix of the Examiner and Alain Baritault of Volnay Publication France. Looking forward to the next one: September 2009 – Artificial Intelligence. See ya there!
Filed under: Digital Media Events | 2 Comments
Tags: Android, Apple, iFund, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Nokia, Palm, Rhomobile, RIM, Trism
Jeff Pulver’s party kicks into high gear as tweeps from near and far arrive in NYC for his 140 Characters Conference tomorrow. Content NOW was thrilled to get an invite from Jeff to cover the event, but will be in Silicon Valley tomorrow night covering the MIT/Stanford VLAB’s Exploring the Mobile Apps Opportunity with Matt Murphy, iFund Manager of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Luckily, thanks to Twitter, we can be in both places at the same time as we follow along at #140conf and fill in below. Event will be twending by the time the West Coast wakes up. 140 voices. Everyone is a character. If you’re in NYC, stop by New World Stages, 340 W 50th. Here’s some video and here’s the guide:
Tu 6/16
8:45 – @JeffPulver
- Would the Berlin wall have come down faster if Twitter were there
- Twitter has the ability to instantly bring people together around a cause
9:05 – @Jack Dorsey, Twitter
- Twitter is based on approachability, transparency, immediacy
- expect the unexpected and when possible, be the unexpected
- cult of democracy, the democratization of information
- great success of Twitter is making the world smaller, make govts the world over more open, Twitter flattens hierarchy and makes humans out of our leaders, just got back from Iraq after putting Prime Minister on Twitter, rescheduled maintenance to allow for #iranelection
9:20 – @TimOReilly, Web 2.0 Summit producer
- secret of sm is adding value to community, create more value than you capture, amplify communities, Twitter will remake America and remake the world, weave a community with similar interests
- news business is a service business
9:35 – @FredWilson, Union Square Ventures
9:50 – @JohnBorthwick on the Twitter Ecosystem
10 – @DavidSaranga, Israeli Consultate
10:15 – @BillyJensen, Village Voice, @erickshonfeld, Tech Crunch, @palafo, NYT, @peteramckay, WSJ, @etanowitz, Orlando Sentinel
10:35 Break
11 – @HowardLindzon, StockTwits.com
11:10 – Twitter TV – @shelly_palmer, Emmy’s, @craigatscifi, Sci Fi Channel, @gavinpurcell, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, @Caissie, Best Week Ever
- Worst re-branding winner got people talking, Sci Fi to Sy Fy
- Twitter is a big focus group
- TV producers not too keen on Twitter affecting content but like the audience feedback
- @JimmyFallon does his own tweeting
- http://www.marketersstudio.com/2009/06/twitter-tv-panel-at-140-conference-with-best-week-ever-syfy-jimmy-fallon-producer.html
11:30 – @sacca
11:40 – @dmitry, Veoh – Twitter for relevance, popularity, trends
11:50 – @briansolis, @somecards, @zappos
- @Zappos – We don’t view Twitter as a marketing tool, we use it for customer service. Noone looks at the phone and asks what’s the ROI
- Twitter is a long term branding tool
- As creatives in sm, we try to redefine what the I is in POI @briansolis
- When I gave you a hug this morning, I wasn’t thinking what’s the ROI of this hug @zappos, think of Twitter as building friendships, I tweet to create happiness, inspire, entertain, educate
- When using social media, make it fun, short and RTable, say thanks
- Exploring the state of now is exhausting, never ends, when is lunch
- Zappos philosophy on company culture. It’s family style.
- SomeCards, Twitter is a quarterback, we guide our brand through Twitter
- We use it to have a conversation with 680K, immediate response
- Blogging let you go deep, Twitter lets you go wide
- Of course Twitter was invented by men, a woman would have chosen a higher character limit @KimSherrell
- Twitter lets you find customers where they are and respond to them
- Businesses use Twitter for marketing and monitoring audience trends
- I am made great but the sums of my connections and so are my connections – Stowe Boyd
- All the typing in this room makes it sound like its raining. This used to be deemed annoying now it’s the norm @barnstormed
- Listen for point of need which people do on Twitter uniquely, Twitter provides an opportunity to provide a remarkable level of customer service
- Company’s culture and brand – two sides of same coin
- Twitter is a conversation, value of listening is to make sure the other party knows you are listening and that you value them, mistake to push
- Employees talk for themselves (Zappos) v unified as brand (SomeCards)
- key words talking, engage, conversational listening, participation
12:10 – @maegancarberry, HuffPo on post-partisanship
- all tweeters are thought leaders, what’s original and what’s RT
12:20 - @anncurry, @RickSanchezcnn @Scobleizer, @todayshow
- All on stage with blackberry in hand checking Twitter, entire newsgathering panel appears to be gathering news from the panel
- @etanowitz – @anncurry @ricksanchez taking pictures from stage of audience taking pictures of stage: http://ping.fm/p/Grl3L
- @Scobleizer asked @RickSanchezCNN why CNN did not cover IranElection riots/protests on Saturday, see #CNNFail, response, none of the other networks covering it either, CNN at least got 40 seconds in every hour, blame the executive producers, at no time did we drop the ball on tehran, Amanpour was there on the ground getting tear-gassed
- MSM mainstream media is not covering the world as it should, agencies are cutting back on coverage, Twitter is freeing- @AnnCurry, news changing because of the interconnectedness of Twitter and citizen journos, need better coverage to reduce the demonization of others, lack of knowledge of the Iranian plays into US demonization of them, Obama election and IranElection have in common a need for change and use of SM to achieve it, mandate for citizen journos, shoot the story likes its your mom’s, that’s the road to compassion, clarity, truth
- Audience can’t say enough good about curry and bad about sanchez
- Twitter remains the fishbowl, mass behavior should not be predicated by mob rule, eyewitness reports is not journalism, not always accurate and trustworthy
12:40 – Lunch
2 – @JohnAByrne, Business Week
2:20 – James Cox, @imajes, the amazing story behind CNNBRK
2:30 – The Al Jazeera Twitter Strategy
2:40 – @brad_filder – making disruptions count, capital accumulation, market strategy, democracy
2:50 – @lizstrauss
3 – @JeffreyHayzlett, Kodak
3:20 – @Slavin_fpo, area/code
3:30 – @tagstrategic, @xjernigan, @dollyhall, @jimjonescapo
3:50 – @vikkichowney
4 – @espn_prodgirl, @sunswebmaster, @kathleenhesser, @natalie_gulbis, @troy_murphy
4:20 – Break
4:40 – Bands/Fans – @dianebirch, @steviegpro
4:50 – Moms – @audreymcclellan, @jessicagottlieb, @rockandrollmama
5:10 – @Pistachio
5:20 – Fans – @jer979
5:30 – AMC’s Mad Men – @bettydraper, @peggyolson
5:50 – @baratunde
6 – @ajkeen
6:10 – @adventuregirl, @ijustine, @juliaroy, @chrisbrogan
6:30 – @upbeatnow
6:40 – @adamhirsh, @amanda, @drew, @stacymonk
7 – 9 Cocktails
W 6/17
8 – @jeffpuler
8:05 – @mkoke
8:15 – @scottporad, #followfriday
8:25 – @mahesmurthy
8:35 – @SteveRubel, Edelman Digital
8:45 – @kayliejones, @kevinheisler
9 – @chrisbrogan
9:20 – GPS for Greater Social Media Mesh @aaronstrout, @bmorrissey, @dberkowitz, @hadleystern, @pfasano
9:40 – @sizemore at the movies
9:50 -@jeffreyhayzlett on photos
10:10 @bronwen, NOW Media
10:20 @anamariecox, @dceiver, @newmediajim, @mikemadden – White House
10:40 – Break
11 – Brands – @MarriottIntl, @KodakCB, @jbell99
11:20 – @jaltucher
11:30 – Publishing – @ami_with_an_i, @colleenLindsay, @R_Nash, @RussMarshalek, @chapmanchapman
11:50 – @hjortur
12 – Advertising @thejames
12:10 – gizmozstudio
12:20 – Twitter Apps – @iaindodsworth, @wingdude
12:40 – @heathr
12:55 – Lunch
2 – @americagovprint, @andrewkneale, @josholalia, @gpi, @ritajking
2:20 – @jobsworth
2:30 – User Experiences – @jaysonelliott, @jeffdachis, @karenmcgrane, @whitneyhess
2:55 – @sujamthe – innovation
3 – @mario – services
3:20 – @stephagresta – affiliate marketing
3:30 – @brainmoran,@rieva
3:45 – @erictpeterson – analytics
3:50 – fashipn brands – @macala, @yuilz
4 – UK – @radiokate, @media140, @yiannopoulos
4:20 – Break
4:40 – @melissapierce – documentary
4:50 – @marahverse – poetry
5 – @sass
5:30 – 5:45 @deanland, @howardgr
*@peoplebrowsr autofills hashtags for fasting tweeting
Filed under: Digital Media Events | Leave a Comment
Tags: #140conf, #followfriday, @adventuregirl, @ijustine, CNN, CNNBRK, Edelman Digital, Emmy's, Erick Shonfeld, Jack Dorsey, James Cox, Jeff Pulver, Jimmy Fallon, Mashable, RadioKate, Rick Sanchez, Robert Scoble, Sci Fi, Shelly Palmer, Steve Rubel, StockTwits, Tech Crunch, Ted Cohen, Tim O'Reilly, Today Show, Twitter, Veoh, web 2.0
For those of you feeling withdrawal from #WWDC, have no fear, iPhone Developers Camp is back for its 3rd year and this time on the Yahoo! campus at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale July 31 – Aug 2. At only $50, this event will sell out. Eventbrite is keeping a tally of tickets left at iphonedevcamp.eventbrite.com where you can also register for the event. Learn to develop Cocoa Touch and Web-based applications for iPhone. Team up with Cocoa Touch developers, UI designers and testers on development projects, or work solo. Learn to create new apps for iPhone, migrate Mac OS X apps, and test and optimize apps. Before you go, you’ll want to download the SDK and perhaps read through one of the books:
iPhone Developer’s Cookbook by Erica Sadun (available on Kindle)
Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark
iPhone SDK Programming by Maher Ali
Filed under: Digital Media Events | 1 Comment
Tags: iphonedevcamp
#WWDC/iPhone 3G S Ships 6.19
On June 19, you do not need to party in line overnight for the amazing iPhone 3G S. The new phone, faster, smarter with a 3MP autofocus camera and video capture is available for pre-order online now for pickup or shipment on or around launch date. Selling at $99 for 8gb 3G, $199 for 16gb 3G S and $299 for 32gb 3G S black and white for new 2y ATT contracts at www.apple.com/iphone/buy or 800-MyApple. That’s a w00t! Early upgrade pricing is available to some existing ATT customers with new 2y contract: $299 for 8gb 3G, $399 for 16gb 3G S, $499 for 32gb 3G S. (the $100 bump is less than the $115 ETF on the 3Gs bought last July). And now, ATT is allowing the phone to be sold without a contract with pricing similar to the original iPhone: 16gb 3G S $599, 32gb $699. Kudos to Apple/ATT for creating the framework for a much more enjoyable buying process than last summer’s debut. Now if only, the free 3.0 software upgrade results in Qik’s debut in the apps store for 3G, I’d be ecstatic. (Wonder if ATT will bump rates to account for the expected increase in bandwidth from all that live video sharing.)
Out in September, on the Mac front, we can look forward to the debut of SnowLeopard debut for a $29 upgrade. Hopefully, they will upgrade the currently Leopard bundle to Snow Leopard with iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09 for the $129 now being offered.
Watch Phil’s keynote at www.apple.com. Many thanks to @LeoLaporte, @iJustine and the @TWiT gang for posting that bootleg Ustream of the WWDC keynote and the outstanding moment to moment analysis and commentary.
Filed under: Digital Media Events | 1 Comment
Tags: iPhone 3G S
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