Compete.com just released their November statistics and Facebook has closed the gap with the U.S. social network leader, MySpace. According to Compete.com Facebook grew 10 percent to just under 50 million visitors in the United States versus MySpace who reached approximately 56.5 million visitors. At this rate Facebook will overtake MySpace for the largest social network in the United States within the next month or two. Facebook continues to have impressive growth domestically in addition to substantial international growth. Facebook’s own statistics provided by their advertising platform suggests that the company has approximately 45 million registered users which have profiles...
The debate about Netbooks, which are very small and very cheap laptop devices, is beginning to heat up. The category is only about a year old but sales are expected to top 5 million this year. Lots of people think Netbooks are the next big volume market because they allow people who previously couldn’t afford computers to own one. People got so bullish on the devices that sales projections reached 50 million units by 2012. I’ve had a chance to test many of the units, though, and I can say that the promise is much bigger than the payoff. Perhaps...
Web portal and hosting provider Lycos Europe is throwing in the towel. The company has announced its intent to shut down its portal, hosting, and shopping businesses and try to sell off its domain names. The move still has to be approved by shareholders at the upcoming December 12 meeting. If approved, Lycos Europe would distribute €50 million to shareholders — which would amount to €0.1605 per share. (Full explanation here, in PDF format.) Lycos Europe is separate from the American Lycos site, though both have largely fallen to the wayside in recent years. Last month, Lycos Europe revealed its...
It's the end of the road. After putting itself on the auction block in April, Lycos Europe has finally conceded what had become increasingly clear - no-one wants to buy the ailing portal. So it confirmed Wednesday morning it will wind up its portal and its web hosting activities. It's now about asset stripping - the company said it still wants to sell its domain names, its Danish business and its shopping sites. As a result, Lycos Europe will give back €50 million to its shareholders. All subject to a December 12 shareholders meeting. As the Web 2.0 fraternity might...
Who says raising money is hard these days? PlaySpan makes it look like child’s play. The startup, which was literally founded by a 5th grader, just raised $16.8 million in a series B round from existing investors Easton Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, and STIC. PlaySpan was founded two years ago by Arjun Mehta, then in the 5th grade, and his father Karl Mehta, who is the CEO. It is a marketplace and micro-transaction payment system for virtual goods in more than 200 different video games. So far this year, more than $50 million worth of transactions...
The makers of Habbo Hotel, the wildly popular virtual world game aimed at teenagers, have quietly released a mobile version called Mini Friday that is seeing steady growth: It’s about to hit a million registered users. That’s a robust number, keeping in mind that the application requires downloading and registration, is restricted to users 18 or older, and runs only on select phones (Nokia S60 series). The company also hasn’t really talked about the product. Habbo Hotel’s co-founders Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrola revealed more about the overall company’s momentum yesterday, during the “Slush” event here in Helsinki on entrepreneurship,...
The Army has been using video games to train, and recruit, for years now but in true government fashion, the system is a tad outdated. The $50 million dollar upcoming shooter however, should feature all the goodies found in today’s latest games and more. The virtual worlds are going to be huge - like 100×100 kilometers - and will allow solders to drive vehicles, pilot UAVs, and do “most anything a soldier does.” The new system has a Internet-enabled multiplayer function and can train a platoon or even a single soldier. Plus, there is the video review mode, multi-terrain options, and all the...
