Tag: Money

Twitter generates $3million revenue for Dell

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Back in March, this very blog suggested five ways in which Twitter might be able to make money.

Suggestion one was entitled “Companies must pay!” and highlighted how businesses were benefiting from free advertising via the microblogging site.

Today, it has emerged that computer giant Dell has made $3m from advertising its products via Twitter, with a third of this coming in the last six months – the period in which Twitter’s popularity has exploded.

This may seem small peanuts compared to the $12.3 billion of revenue Dell earned during the first quarter of this year, but $3million is still a whole lot of moolah. And it doesn’t really seem fair that Twitter won’t see a single penny of this.

The good news for Twitter is that Dell, who had previously dismissed the idea of ever paying Twitter for its service, may be coming round to the idea that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. They’ve admitted that Twitter offers a unique service that is incredibly useful in terms of marketing.

The web is full of affiliate links whereby commission is paid to sites linking to products – it’s what makes the free-content based system viable. It seems a bit silly that one of the web’s most popular systems isn’t involved in this system.

(via PC Pro)

Paul Lamkin Internet

Lego Rock Band confirmed

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I know, I know. You’ve always wanted to combine your love of Lego Star Wars and Rock Band. Well, Warner hear you and they’ve got your back. The company has confirmed that it’ll be releasing Lego Rock Band later this year on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS.

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Songs already confirmed for the game include Blur’s “Song 2”, Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting”, Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, Good Charlotte’s “Boys and Girls”, and Pink’s “So What”. It’ll combine the actually-quite-funny Lego games’ humour with the gameplay of the Rock Band franchise. And you can bet it’ll be one of those circular pieces over to the left speeding towards you.

There’ll be a career mode, just like the other versions of the game, except you play as a lego minifig. Players will be able to customise their avatars, as well as customising their entourage, including roadies, managers and crew. It’ll work with existing Rock Band instruments.

(via MCV)

Duncan Geere Gaming

COLUMN: Facebook – will it still be around in five years?

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Facebook’s now been around for five years, but will it still be around in five years’ time? There’s a long and a short answer to that question. The short answer is yes. A website, operating at www.facebook.com, will still be going in five years. That, assuming the internet survives the next five years, is a given.

But will it still be the cultural force that it is today – 150 million users worldwide, twice the size of its nearest competitor, leading to academic misconduct, arrests, multiple lawsuits, house-trashings and viruses? I suspect the answer might be no. Click over the jump to find out why.

Duncan Geere Web 2.0

eBay Nutcase of the Week: Man launches "ObamaAuctions.com" to help fund Barack's push

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Your old Nokia 3310 could help Barack Obama become president of the United States of America. We bet you never thought that would happen when taking out the contract in 2001, did you?

That’s the idea behind the alarmingly short-sighted ObamaAuctions.com, a site where users can sell their stuff and pledge a proportion of the funds to the Obama campaign. You could, if you want, buy this anti-cellulite cream – and relax in the knowledge that 75% of the cash raised will go to support Barack’s bid to move into a very nice house in Washington for at least the next four years…

Gary Cutlack Intellectual Property, Internet, Web 2.0, Websites, Weirdness

Google still trying to monetise YouTube, adds "click to buy" links on videos

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Google has long admitted that it’s having trouble making any money from its purchase of YouTube. The latest wheeze is to add clickable “Buy this now!” links on videos of buyable stuff. I’d love to show you you a less-grainy picture, but it only works in the USA so far. Check out the Amazon and iTunes links below the video.

The Goog is promising to expand the program internationally, as well as expanding the range of things it advertises next to. This scheme might also placate content owners, who will be happier to learn that there are now “Buy this” links next to the content that they own, but didn’t upload themselves…

Duncan Geere Internet, Web 2.0, Websites