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paidContent 2012, NYC: New Speakers; Last Chance For Early Registration

2012-01-13T10:00:16Z

Our acclaimed one-day event, paidContent 2012, returns to The TimesCenter in New York City on March 1. Now in its third year, paidContent 2012 is where we look at the most pressing issues and opportunities in digital media—what’s happening now, what’s to come, and what it all means at the start of this pivotal year.

With our intense focus on newsworthiness, paidContent 2012 is being programmed in real time to make sure we capture what’s top of mind for you, today, in your industry. Our theme this year, At the Crossroads, explores convergence—how entertainment, advertising, publishing, television and news companies are finding ways to be meaningful and profitable online, uncovering the overarching lessons applicable to all industries as they forge new paths in the digital space.

The speaker roster includes some of the top leaders in the news and magazine publishing industries, including Bob Sauerberg, President, Condé Nast and John Paton, CEO, Digital First Media; Rob Grimshaw, Managing Director, FT.com and Liz Schimel, EVP and Chief Digital Officer, Meredith (NYSE: MDP) National Media Group. We’ll hear from entrepreneurs, VCs and investors, including Brian Bedol, Founder and CEO, Bedrocket Media Ventures, Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital and Amy Banse, Managing Director and Head of Funds for Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) Ventures; from executives at the forefront of the e-reader battle, including Jonathan Shar, General Manager, Digital Newsstand and Emerging Content, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), BN.com; and leading analyst James L. McQuivey from Forrester Research. We’re adding new speakers every day, so stay tuned.

As with all of our events, the conversation is 360 degrees—not only on the stage—so get ready to join your mentors and your peers to take an active role in this networking opportunity. Register today—our early registration discount expires Monday, January 16. For travelers, we’ve made arrangements with hotels near The TimesCenter for special rates.

Contact us if you’d like to suggest speakers (please read this first), if you’d like to advertise with us, or if you have general questions.

Check out coverage of paidContent 2011 and paidContent 2010.

What's Coming In 2012

2012-01-03T06:23:24Z

Last week, the paidContent staff analyzed the sectors we cover most, highlighting the key people, companies and trends to watch in 2012. Some key topics: Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), internet TVs, publishing, advertising, legal and the age of ubiquity. Below, links to our coverage:

» What’s Coming In 2012: The Age Of Ubiquity (For Some)

» What’s Coming In 2012: Digital Advertising, Up Close And Personal

» What’s Coming In 2012: The Content Industry Strikes Back

» What’s Coming In 2012: Internet TVs Out-Box The Boxes

» What’s Coming In 2012: Book Publishing

» What’s Coming In 2012: A New Era For Apple

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Angry Birds Aside, Think Globally, Act Locally When It Comes To Mobile Apps

2011-10-03T11:36:12Z

There’s no question that apps have become a global phenomenon in the mobile world—and who doesn’t want to catapult a cute red bird onto some logs to kill a pig? But not all apps are as wildly successful as Angry Birds. So just as importantly, when it comes to what kind of apps sell best, publishers would do well to remember to think locally—especially in certain markets like Asia, according to research from Distimo.

The biggest app stores are now tipping the half-million mark in terms of overall inventory, but a recent report from the app analytics firm found that when it comes to the most popular apps, consumers often gravitate to content published especially for their markets. In the biggest store of all—the App Store from Apple—on average, nearly one-third of the most popular apps in each country store—27 percent—were unique to those stores.

Distimo notes that the U.S.—at 7,158 apps—has the most exclusively published apps in its App Store. No surprise, really, given this is where so many developers are based and where so many hope to find success first before trying elsewhere.

Looking at worldwide trends, language also plays a big role.

Taking the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia, these countries’ top apps overlap 54 percent of the time. Although Latin America does not seem to get ranked by Distimo, you can imagine that it too would see a similar trend. The storewide average overlap is 33 percent.

On the other hand, countries with the highest number of localized apps in the top rankings marry two important trends: they have very mobile-friendly consumers, and they are countries where English is not the first language.

Japan topped the list with 67 percent of its most popular apps being popular in that country alone. China, where Apple launched a country-specific App Store in October 2010, came in second with 56 percent of most popular apps specific to the China App Store.

Is there a limit to how many local apps have a chance against the world-wide bestsellers like Angry Birds or Fruit Ninja? For now, it appears the answer is yes. Distimo notes that one-third local seems to be the general number for local apps’ popularity across all platforms, not just Apple’s.

Nokia’s Ovi Store, for example, has significantly more country-specific apps than other app stores—29.4 percent for Ovi with Apple the next-highest proportion at only 5.2 percent—but Distimo notes that the number of local apps that make it into the top rankings are roughly the same as for the App Store and the Android Market, despite Apple’s and Google’s catalogs having far fewer local apps.

That could spell an opportunity for those developers looking to have more visibility among users in specific markets.

You can see that trend playing out especially in China. Platforms like Android are seeing the creation of full-out local app stores to compete with the Android Market, catering to those using devices built on the OS, with app stores from the likes of Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) and Tencent.

There have also been a number of companies setting up shop to help localize apps from, say, the U.S. market for the Chinese market. The most recent of these was an effort from the DIY app platform Mobile Roadie, which as partnered with local mobile agency FabriQate to launch Q Mobao to help Western developers create iOS and Android apps for the Chinese market. It has also launched a similar initiative in South Korea.

Targeting specific markets is not just about local content, of course.

Last week IDC published figures (via Bloomberg) for smartphone market share in India, and it turns out that Apple has only a tiny part of the market in that country, shipping just over 62,000 iPhones to India in the last quarter, less than it shipped to Norway. That gives Apple a 2.6 percent share of the smartphone market in India. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) currently enjoys the biggest share of the market in India, with 46 percent.

With India the second-largest mobile market after China, that is a big miss for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). IDC notes that part of the issue has been a lack of widespread 3G network for fast mobile data services. Although users can still connect by WiFi, that’s an impractical solution for a person on the move.

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paidContent Advertising Video: Everson: No Facebook Mobile Ads For Now

2011-09-30T00:52:52Z

Facebook has had a lot of scrutiny over how it uses information about you to market to you—something that has only been heightened the introduction of “frictionless” sharing launched at this year’s f8 developer conference. Well, get ready for more. Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s global VP of marketing solutions, said at our recent paidContent Advertising conference the company has only started to scratch the surface of what might come. The majority of pages on the site, for example, now feature some form of Facebook’s social advertising, but Everson says that this will likely go significantly further when more marketing formats get introduced.

» Watch the video of Everson’s Q&A with paidContent Editor Staci D. Kramer, embedded below. Full coverage of the conference is available in our archives.

On mobile, where Facebook runs no advertising today: “We are holding ourselves to as high a standard as possible on mobile,” she said. “I don’t rule mobile out, but we are working hard to figure out what the right model is. We haven’t figured that out yet.”

Facebook takes advertising strategy cues from Mark Zuckerberg: “He wants ads to be as useful as the content consumed in your news feed.”

On growing partnerships with studios for premium video content (particularly relevant considering the content push announced at f8): “We can move the box office needle. We feel confident about what we can do on the studio side.”

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Our Next Conference: paidContent Entertainment, Nov. 3, Hollywood

2011-09-29T20:15:43Z

At paidContent Entertainment: Everything Everywhere on November 3rd in West Hollywood, we’re once again bringing together industry leaders, disruptors, creators, distributors and investors to get an incisive look at the state of entertainment and media today. When TV Everywhere is a catchphrase, more devices are connected to each other and the net, and the cloud is becoming a real home for TV, movies, music, and books, we’ll look at what it means to have Entertainment Everywhere—and how it’s changing everything. Our one-day, single-stage, highly interactive event will explore how this industry is adapting in real time.

We’re happy to announce these industry leaders will be joining us as speakers—with more to come:

» Michael Lang, CEO, Miramax
» Jim Lanzone, President, CBS (NYSE: CBS) Interactive
» Dave Morgan, CEO, Simulmedia,
» Bryan Perez, President-Digital, Ticketing, Media, AEG
» Mark Suster, Partner, GRP Partners and
» Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision 3, returns to give us a look at the newest in entertainment tech from the smallest screen to the largest as we head into the holiday season.

paidContent Entertainment will tackle the biggest questions you’re facing right now, namely:
» Who pays and who profits from having Everything Everywhere?
» Can the movie industry find a way to make in-home premium viewing work?
» Who has the best chance of winning in streaming—stand-alones like Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) or multichannel operators who use it to hang on to?
» What’s the forecast for Connected TV—and is there a real Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) TV in our future?
» What’s Google (NSDQ: GOOG) TV’s second act and how will the Motorola (NYSE: MMI) acquisition factor in?
» How are programmers and multichannel operators trying to protect pay TV?
» How are advances in targeted advertising impacting entertainment? and
» Is the music industry finally taking full advantage of digital?

More speakers will be announced soon. You won’t want to miss this event, so sign up today. Learn what’s happening now—and what’s to come. Register now.

paidContent Advertising Video: Flipboard's McCue Wants To Paginate The Web

2011-09-28T11:00:04Z

One of iPad’s flagship apps wants to help publishers sell ads by flipping back to familiar old print rules. “One of the big problems with the web is that it scrolls,” Flipboard CEO Mike McCue told our recent paidContent Advertising conference.

» Watch the video of McCue’s Q&A with paidContent UK Editor Robert Andrews, embedded below. Full coverage of the conference is available in our archives.

“When something scrolls, you can’t put a full-page ad there,” McCue said. “We want to create a paginated experience. That allows for full-page, print-style ads.

“The web, as wonderful as it is, is not able to render content beautifully, the monetization model has been challenging, it’s not a good experience for readers. Print is flat; it doesn’t move - there’s a lot of good things about that.

“Don’t have infinite inventory,” McCue told advertisers in the audience. “There should be scarcity to the inventory. Sell to the people who are buying print ads from you.”

Related

paidContent Advertising Video: Levinsohn: Yahoo Doing Better Than You Think

2011-09-27T10:00:05Z

Given the recent news of Carol Bartz’s departure as CEO, a Q&A with EVP of Americas Ross Levinsohn couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment. He took the stage at paidContent Advertising conference for his first post-Bartz appearance, addressing efforts with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) and AOL (NYSE: AOL) to set up a premium ad network for publishers, Yahoo’s continued interest in Hulu, and what his team is doing to raise Yahoo’s profile and revenues.

Learn more from his Q&A with paidContent Editor Staci D. Kramer in the video, embedded below. Full coverage of the conference is available in our archives.

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paidContent Advertising: The Video Review In 338 Seconds

2011-09-20T23:38:09Z

Last week’s paidContent Advertising conference in New York was so full of excellent speakers with news and info that even I’m still catching up. Luckily, I have great colleagues and some good tools. In addition to the thorough coverage by Team paidContent on our sites and some full-length session videos we’ll post in coming weeks, here’s a highlight reel of moments chosen by our journalists during the full-day conference and produced by Scribe Media. Of course, it’s only skimming the surface but check it out for a taste of what you missed—and to get an idea of what you can expect at paidContent Entertainment in LA, November 3.

We’ll be adding more video from paidContent Advertising in the coming weeks. Until then, our full coverage is available in our archives—and thanks again to all who made the day possible.

@ pcAds: Our Full Coverage

2011-09-16T04:10:21Z

We’ve just wrapped up our paidContent Advertising conference in New York, a day jam-packed with discussions about ad exchanges, paid content, brands and social media, mobile advertising, and much more. If you missed the event—or if you just want to brush up on the details—check out our full coverage below:

» @ pcAds: It’s Not Google That’s Diabolical; Others Aren’t Diabolical Enough

» @ pcAds: New Technology Leads To New Storytelling Approaches

» @ pcAds: Flipboard’s McCue: Interactive Ads Have Drawbacks

» @ pcAds: How Brands Use Social Media

» @ pcAds: Facebook Says It Hasn’t Even Scratched The Surface With Marketing

» @ pcAds: Hearst Wants Tablet Magazines To Adopt Movie, TV Pricing

» @ pcAds: Social Media Is Growing, Becoming More Helpful

» @ pcAds: The Right Label, At The Right Time

» @ pcAds: Google Launching DoubleClick Mobile, Video For Publishers

» @ pcAds: Branded Content Combs For A Multi-Screen Opportunity

» @ pcAds: What ‘TV Everywhere’ Means For Advertisers

» @ pcAds: Levinsohn: AOL Merger Is Not Part Of Our Discussion At Yahoo

» @ pcAds: Mobile Ad Spend Is Exploding But It’s Not The Silver Bullet

Many thanks to everyone, including our sponsors Google (NSDQ: GOOG), NetShelter, OpenX and Lotame, for their support.

@ pcAds: Social Media Is Growing, Becoming More Helpful

2011-09-15T18:36:54Z

People are getting more social and more altruistic. That’s the simple part of the takeaway from Nielsen SVP of consumer insights and analytics Radha Subramanyam‘s presentation at paidContent Advertising. Here are some of the highlights on the ever-growing, ever-changing social landscape:

—The most active social media users are influential offline as well. They’re 26 percent more likely to voice their opinion on politics and current events, 30 percent more likely to give their opinion on TV shows and 5 percent more likely to go on a date.

—Females and 18-34 year olds are the most active social networkers. These active users are most often Asian or Pacific Islander, live in New England, have a bachelor’s degree and a household income of under $50,000 per year.

—Social networking and app usage is up 30 percent. 40 percent of mobile users actively use mobile for social interactions. After GPS, social media capability is the most valued function on a smartphone.

—Facebook is by far, the most popular social destination. Tumblr has also seen strong growth, nearly tripling in the past year alone.

—Social networkers want to help each other. 60 percent want to give product improvement recommendations. 64 percent want to customize products.

Lots more data, including on what social media is used for, in Subramanyam’s presentation:

Nielsen: The State Of Social Media 2011

Follow paidContent Advertising via our live stream and via Twitter, hashtag #pcads11.

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@ pcAds: Mobile Ad Spend Is Exploding But It's Not The Silver Bullet

2011-09-15T14:05:06Z

Kicking off the full day ahead of paidContent Advertising, Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer’s CEO, talked about the rapid growth in mobile and the opportunities ahead—in particular, in mobile advertising. Half of marketers in the U.S. now have mobile in their marketing plans. But, he said, mobile is still best in a supporting role—not a starring role—and should be integrated with other media.

Some other stats from his talk:

—There are 3.8 billion mobile users worldwide.

—In terms of media consumption, TV reigns supreme—users spend just over 4 hours a day watching TV. 2 hours and 35 minutes is spent surfing the internet daily. Mobile comes in third at 50 minutes a day, equaling the combined time spent on magazines and newspapers.

—U.S. smartphone penetration is 38 percent, totaling about 90 million users. Penetration rates in western Europe: UK has 42 percent, while Spain comes a close second at 41 percent. Rounding out the top three is Italy at 38 percent. China’s mobile penetration is 57 percent.

—U.S. mobile usage has grown 50 percent.

—Tablet growth is exploding and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) dominates 85 percent marketshare.

The full presentation is available here:

eMarketer: Mobile Marketing Trends And Stats

Follow paidContent Advertising via our live stream and via Twitter, hashtag #pcAds11.

Follow paidContent Advertising Live Stream Today

2011-09-14T23:30:15Z

Update: We’ve just kicked off the conference and our live stream is available here.

Some of the best minds will gather Thursday in New York for paidContent Advertising: Emerging Business Models, the first major conversation about advertising following a summer—and a first week back— than was more active than any of us could have imagined.

The best action will be in person but, if you have to miss the on-site networking and the hallway dealmaking at The Time & Life Building, you can stay up to speed by following our live stream and coverage here starting at 8:40 a.m. Eastern and join the conversation via Twitter (#pcads11) and Facebook. (But if you are, in fact, able to join us in person, we have a few tickets left. You can register online before the event or on site during the event).

What can you expect? As usual, we’re on top of the latest news starting with the first post-shakeup interview with Yahoo’s Ross Levinsohn. Google’s Neal Mohan will get a chance to respond to reports that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), AOL (NYSE: AOL) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) have a new ad consortium—and make some news of his own. Facebook’s Carolyn Everson will address Facebook’s particular blend of scale and social advertising, while Flipboard’s Mike McCue talks about optimal ad models for tablets and increased competition. And that’s just a small part of a jam-packed agenda which includes new research from eMarketer and Nielsen.

Thanks to our sponsors: title sponsor Google (NSDQ: GOOG), NetShelter, OpenX and Lotame.

NYTimes.com Launches English-Language India News Blog

2011-09-09T20:50:51Z

With newspaper revenues in a downward spiral in the U.S., it’s easy to forget that there’s one area where daily tabloids and broadsheets are still thriving: India. While the NYTimes.com’s new India Ink blog is an online only, it does suggest that western publishers may look to the large Indian market for growth potential, especially as broadband penetration and incomes rise there.

The NYT’s sharper Indian focus comes more than two years after the Wall St. Journal launched its Indian effort. Given the accelerating ad market in India right now, it seems like the NYT should be able to catch the growth that’s happening there.

Earlier this year, Interpublic Group’s Magna Global has forecast India’s advertising market to rise by 21 percent this year. With the ad economy in the U.S. looking more uncertain, it makes sense for the NYTCo (NYSE: NYT) to expand its brand to India. Still, one small blog likely won’t mean much to the newspaper’s bottom line, but it does position the brand well as the Indian market remains in a robust growth pattern.

Beyond ads, the NYTCo sees India Ink as a possible extension of its metered paywall. The press release carefully notes that “initially, access to India Ink will be exempt from The New York Times’s digital subscription packages,” suggesting that free period won’t last forever.

The blog will be edited by the NYT staff in India and the International Herald Tribune in Hong Kong, led by lead writer Heather Timmons, who has covered business in India for the NYT for the last four years.

The move is also one of the first big decisions to come out of the NYT under executive editor Jill Abramson, who replaced Bill Keller this week in the position. Keller announced his decision to step down as executive editor back in June, opting to writing a column instead.

paidContent Advertising In NYC, Sept. 15: New Sessions, Speakers

2011-09-09T10:00:46Z

We’re putting the final touches on our one-day, single-stage event, paidContent Advertising: Emerging Business Models program, September 15 in New York and wanted to share with you some exciting new additions:

We’ve added a must-see session featuring top digital creatives Michael Lebowitz and Ty Montague, moderated by MediaLink LLC President Wenda Harris Millard. Plus, findings from eMarketer’s annual Global Media Intelligence report will be exclusively released at this event. Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer’s CEO, will reveal the surprising developments (hint: mobile) and their implications for advertisers and ad spending for 2012. You’ll hear them first, in real time at paidContent Advertising.

Also, the following new speakers have agreed to join our impressive speaker roster:

» Mike Cassidy, Founder, CEO, Undertone

» Michael Lebowitz, Founder and CEO, Big Spaceship

» Ty Montague, Founder and Co CEO, Co Collective

» Geoff Ramsey, Co-founder and CEO, eMarketer

» Jay Sears, General Manager, ContextWeb Exchange

» John Trimble, Chief Revenue Officer, Pandora (NYSE: P) Media

And newly added moderators:

» Pam Horan, President, Online Publisher’s Association

» Edmund Lee, Reporter, Bloomberg News

» Jennifer Saba, Media Reporter, Reuters (NYSE: TRI)

Find out what’s happening now and what’s to come in the digital world at our highly interactive event, paidContent Advertising, where top industry leaders and luminaries come together. Join us and be part of the conversation on September 15th. Register now.

If you have speaker suggestions, please contact us at events AT paidcontent.org; take a look at our previous conferences for a sense of our speaker rosters. If you’re interested in sponsoring paidContent Advertising: Emerging Business Models, contact our ad department at advertising AT contentnext.com.

Thanks to our sponsors, Google (NSDQ: GOOG), NetShelter, OpenX and Lotame.

How Bartz Didn't Help Yahoo Mobile

2011-09-07T02:00:15Z

From her moment signing on as CEO, to the moment she informed her staff of her dismissal via an iPad, mobile has been a persistent force during Bartz’s tenure at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). And not always for the best: the company has found it a challenge to find its place in the mobile world under Bartz.

While its search rivals Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) have gone full-force into extending R&D efforts into mobile—and becoming dominant players in the process in areas like mobile operating systems, extending their online products into smartphone controllers—Yahoo has started and stopped (mostly stopped) a number of initiatives that has if anything undermined its credibility in the sector.

Livestand, the company’s digital newsstand for tablets, was due to launch sometime in the first half of this year, but appears still to be a work in progress. Even AOL (NYSE: AOL), more beleaguered than Yahoo, managed to launch its iPad Editions. (Yes, that was current former Yahoo Brad Garlinghouse of pre-Bartz Peanut Butter Manifesto fame, now AOL president of consumer applications, who tweeted: “ding dong the witch is dead” when the Bartz news broke.)

Meanwhile, in mobile advertising, where the company should have been singing, it’s been way out of tune. Stats from IDC show that Yahoo has been losing market share in mobile advertising, even as the market has been booming. Efforts to launch new display ad formats and more localized content may have given a boost to its ad business but the benefits would have only been seen on its own properties, rather than the long tail of wider internet content.

It didn’t help, either, that of the many executives that have left Yahoo under Bartz, several were in mobile—one notable example was Michael Shim, the mobile VP who left for Groupon at the beginning of the year. And David Ko, appointed by Bartz to head mobile in her first major reorg, left for Zynga and a potentially big payoff last year despite an expanded role that made him one of the top execs at Yahoo.

The Yahoo board announced tonight that a new leadership council made up of interim CEO Tim Morse and other top execs will start a strategic review. Chairman Roy Bostock promised a commitment “to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.” The board also started a new CEO search. Unless each has a strong emphasis on mobile, Yahoo will only slip further behind.

Update: Macquarie’s Ben Schachter ended his client note about the ouster with this:

The bottom line is that while Carol Bartz’s removal is a positive for Yahoo, this remains a company with significant structural problems —not least among them, the ability to find its place in a world that is increasingly accessing the Internet through mobile devices. The fact that Bartz’s final sentence in her final email to Yahoo employees reads, “Sent from my iPad” should not be lost on anyone.

Related

Does Google Only Listen If The New York Times Calls Them Out?

2011-09-06T19:31:13Z

Yesterday the New York Times ran an article that addresses what is becoming a rather serious issue in the local online marketing space.

The issue is around just how easy it is for someone to get a Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Places listing tagged as “Permanently Closed”. Now, in a world where there was respect and decency this shouldn’t be that big a deal but we are talking about the Internet here. If there is a way for someone to make a buck or prevent someone from making a buck by exploiting a hole in an open system like Google Places you can bet there will be those who will do it and even smile when they do.

The article reads:

In recent months, plenty of perfectly healthy businesses across the country have expired — sometimes for hours, other times for weeks — though only in the online realm cataloged and curated by Google. The reason is that it is surprisingly easy to report a business as closed in Google Places, the search giant’s version of the local Yellow Pages.

On Google Places, a typical listing has the address of a business, a description provided by the owner and links to photos, reviews and Google Maps. It also has a section titled “Report a problem” and one of the problems to report is “this place is permanently closed.” If enough users click it, the business is labeled “reportedly closed” and later, pending a review by Google, “permanently closed.” Google was tight-lipped about its review methods and would not discuss them.

The Times goes on to basically call out Google’s system and what many perceive as their simple lack of caring about the issue. It is pointed out that even the remedy that Google offers for the situation is inconsistent in its success.

The owner of a closed business, and customers who know better, can click on a button marked “not true,” which appears by all “reportedly closed” and “permanently closed” listings. In some instances, owners say, a business will “open” shortly thereafter. But other owners, like Ms. Cowan, say that the button doesn’t work, or that it takes a week to have any effect. Still others say that immediately after clicking the “not true” button, their business is immediately “closed” again.

Some local search experts were quoted in the article that recounted one of the funnier things a search marketer has done to make a point. Mike Blumenthal reported Google’s headquarters as being closed. His actions, described below, at least got some attention from Mountain View.

In mid-August, a search consultant and blogger named Mike Blumenthal was so rankled by what he considered Google’s cavalier attitude to closings on Google that he committed an act of online disobedience: He “closed” Google’s offices in Mountain View, Calif. For a brief period, Google itself was “reportedly closed,” according to Places. “I did it to point out how annoying this is when it happens,” he said.

On Aug. 15, Mr. Blumenthal posted a screen shot of Google’s Places page “reportedly closed,” noting that it took just two people — him and a friend — to pull off this stunt. It seemed to get the company’s attention. At least one change to closings on Places has already been made. Since late August, a business that is newly tagged “permanently closed,” receives an alert via e-mail from Google, informing the business owner of the change.

So will this result in Google finally acting as if it has some responsibility in making sure that yet another one their systems isn’t being gamed regularly? We all know what happens to search results and Google’s “battle” with spam. Now the same gamesmanship is happening in Google Places.

Google better get it’s act together on this one especially if the Places listings will in some way be incorporated into Google+ as part of their business offering. There has been no confirmation that this will even be the case but it would make sense especially since Google’s recent whitewashing of these Place page listings indicates they may be preparing to populate these pages in a way that fits the whole social fabric they are trying to knit together through Google+.

So what does Google have to say about all of this? Well, the New York Times certainly must have their ear because a post today on their Lat Long blog says the following:

About two weeks ago, news in the blogosphere made us aware that abuse — such as “place closed” spam labels — was occurring. And since then, we’ve been working on improvements to the system to prevent any malicious or incorrect labeling. These improvements will be implemented in the coming days.

We know that accurate listings on Google Maps are an important tool for many business owners. We take reports of spam and abuse very seriously and do our best to ensure the accuracy of a listing before updating it. That being said, we apologize to both business owners and users for any frustration this recent issue of spam labeling has caused, and we’re committed to making sure that users and potential customers continue to have the most up-to-date and accurate information possible.

Wow, Google, those are some very pretty and comforting words. Nice try. Until there is some action taken that is real (how about providing some real support to these businesses if they are so important?) this is an empty gesture. We’ll wait and see what exactly is done in the “the coming days” then see if this is something you are really concerned about or just paying lip service to.

Sorry to sound so cynical, Google, but why does it take an article in the New York Times to make you take action on something that you have known about for far longer than just these past few weeks?

Frank Reed is the managing editor of Marketing Pilgrim. He also provides consulting, speaking and education services relating to local Internet marketing through Local Basix. Frank contributes weekly to Mike Moran’s Biznology blog and he writes even less frequently at his original home base, Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing.

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India Ad Net Komli Raises $15 Million For Regional Expansion

2011-01-19T14:21:30Z

Following two fairly big acquisitions designed to expand its regional presence, Indian ad network Komli is preparing to do some deals. The Mumbai-based company, formerly the parent of supply side platform PubMatic, has raised a $15 million round led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Previous backers, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners, also participated in the round.

Komli’s primary aim of raising this round was to build up its Digital Media Network and the Audience Measurement unit. In December, Magna Global projected India’s online ad spending to grow about 28 percent this year. The Asia Pacific region in general is also expected to experience continued growth this year, so Komli is well-positioned to capitalize on that.

Last summer, Komli bought Australian online rep firm PostClick as it continued to expand its reach across the Asia Pacific region

But Komli, isn’t just focused on its backyard. In October, it acquired Indoor Media, a UK-based firm helping clients market to ethnic minorities. Release

Related

India Digital Marketer Ybrant Raises $48 Million Financing

2011-01-18T14:34:20Z

Hyderabad-based digital marketer Ybrant Digital took a break from its international shopping spree last year, but it says its looking to buy again. The company has raised $48 million in debt and equity to help further its international presence. In addition to acquisitions, Ybrant wants to use the proceeds to enhance its technology as well.

Last summer, Ybrant bought ancient search engine and portal operator Lycos from South Korea’s Daum Communications for $36 million. While Lycos has been all but forgotten in the west, it said had some meaningful business in parts of Asia. While that was considered one of Ybrant’s biggest acquisitions, it has made a number of smaller ones in South America and Europe, as well as its home country.

Oak India Investments, an affiliate of Oak Investment Partners, was involved in the new financing round; joined by current investors, Asia Pacific Capital, as well as the ICICI Bank. Release

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Blyk Pairs With Aircel For Ads In India, Returns To Free Rewards

2010-11-22T22:47:24Z

Blyk, the mobile ad company that started as a “free” MVNO for 16-24 year-olds, may have found its original business model hard to execute in Europe, but it didn’t give up on it altogether: it has now launched services in India, partnering with local operator Aircel. And once again, it is targeting the youth market, offering them free airtime and texts in exchange for signing up to their advertising service.

The new service, Blyk on Aircel, is a variation on the original model: the target age group is now 16-29, and users must already be paying customers in order to pick up the free minutes and texts.

Users who opt in to the service will receive SMS and MMS messages covering different categories such as sports, travel, fashion and gadgets. As users respond to these messages, the service tweaks the content relevant to those responses. After six to eight weeks, users are then sent content “that is tailored to their individual preferences”, and they can also then redeem different rewards such as free airtime.

This model could potentially find more traction in India than the original one did in the UK: Aircel, which is one of the country’s smaller mobile operators (but still has 48 million users) says that 16-29 year-olds, incredibly, make up 51 percent of the Indian market.

Blyk claims that there are already 20 brands signed on for its Aircel deal.

This is the first service to be launched by Blyk outside of Europe, and comes on the back of the company opening an Asia-Pac office in Singapore in October. In May, the company launched a service similar with Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) in the Netherlands, which works along the same principles as the Aircel deal, providing free phone minutes (to other Blyk users) and texts in exchange for accepting mobile marketing from Blyk’s partners.

The company in September announced a fourth round of financing, amounting to €17 million ($xX), bringing the company’s total funding to at least €87 million.

Indian Ad Net Komli Buying Ethnic Minority Marketer Indoor Media

2010-10-07T10:30:06Z

Indian online advertising network Komli is buying Indoor Media, a UK-based firm helping clients market to ethnic minorities, in its latest international expansion (announcement).

Indoor operates the AdMasala ad network of more than 400 websites, claiming to reach 2.6 million UK South Asians with campaigns from the likes of Mercedes, the UK Government, O2, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Western Union.

Mumbai-based Komli is specialising in offering targeting of South Asian diaspora and already has a fairly broad global presence, through its offices in New Delhi, New York, Palo Alto, and Toronto, as well as Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, where PostClick has its satellites.

This is Komli’s second acquisition since June, when it acquired Australian online rep firm PostClick to expand its reach across the Asia Pacific region