Here’s a rundown on what’s happening in the world of Internet, mobile and social media.
Valuation
FACEBOOK AT $90+ BILLION
As of our release date for this issue, Facebook was in the final prep stages for its initial public offering (IPO), and puts valuation on the social media site a little north of $90 billion. Investment experts are predicting this will add about $17 billion to Mark Zuckerberg’s personal worth.
Going Mobile
Global Cellphone Subscriptions: 6 million
Mobile Web Users Worldwide: 1.2 billion
Percent of Global Website Hits from Mobile Devices: 8.49%
Global Mobile Advertising Revenue in 2010: $1.6 billion
Global Mobile Advertising Revenue in 2015 (est.): $20.6 billion
* Source: mobithinking.com
Ones To Watch
TUMBLR.COM
This microblog social network platform is a real up-and-comer. Launched in 2007, Tumblr is now averaging 13 billion views per month (yes, billion with a “B”). Why do people like it? Users say it’s like all the others rolled into one easy-to-use site, it’s app friendly, and best of all, it’s cool.
PINTEREST.COM
Pinterest takes the ease of photo posting from Instagram and combines it with the posting of comments like the Facebook “wall,” to create a surprisingly new and fun social experience. On paper, it doesn’t sound like much (what social media does?) but users seem to get addicted very quickly. You can “pin” images, websites, and just about any content to your “pinboards” in a virtual bulletin board environment. Companies are quickly jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon, and while not confirmed yet, some Internet reporting agencies are indicating Pinterest, which was a startup in 2009, may already be the third largest social network in the U.S.
Global Social Media
WORLD’S BIGGEST SOCIAL SITES (estimated users)
Facebook: 900 million
YouTube: 789 million
QZone (mainland China): 480 million
Twitter: 300 million
Habbo (global, launched in Finland): 200 million
Google+: 170 million •
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