Online Social Networking & Business Collaboration World – Rebekah Horne
I’m at Day One of Online Social Networking & Business Collaboration World, where I’m chairing the plenary sessions and enterprise streams.
Other posts:
RIchard Kimber, CEO of Friendster, presentation
Francisco Cordero, GM Australa, Bebo, presentation
Ross Ackland, Deputy Director, World Wide Web Consortium
Laurel Papworth, Director and Social Networks Strategist, World Communities
Paul Marshall, CEO, Lassoo.com.au
Partner event: Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on 24 February 2009
Rebekah Horne, Fox Interactive Media
MySpace has 170 million users, 10 billion ads served. $200K per month in mobile subscriber revenue in Australia. There is great monetization potential from social networks.
Peter Chernin recently announced MySpace earned US$850 million last year. MySpace has 55% of global social network advertising revenue. So we can fund our expansion.
We are in 33 countries with dedicated offices – the smallest of which is 10 people. Countries such as India have enormous potential – our income allows us to invest over time in the expansion. There are significant costs in running sites
Demographics – focusing on 65 % up to 24 years. 5% are over 50.
I can’t comprehend why people still spend money advertising on TV. I watch a lot of TV but I do other things when ads are on, and I can’t remember any ads. 68% of MySpace users are on in the evening. So even if the TV is on, people are not watching.
MySpace is moving into TV production, in collaboration with Fremantle Media. Found Australia’s 10 most interesting MySpace users. Content has to compelling and produced extremely well. User generated video is usually not interesting. Professionals need to do it. We’ve invested heavily in having a HD viewer. We will look soon at longer formats. You have to invest in the technology – people expect quality and want to be entertained.
MySpace ran a campaign on youth voter enrollment in Australia. When you talk to them in a media they relate to, it works. TV ads on drugs and speeding don’t work for kids. MySpace got their users to create messages – it is true peer to peer communication.
The way we’ve been doing banner ads isn’t right – banners have more life but we have to reinvent them.
Mobile is a high priority. With all the carriers. Hasn’t taken off as quickly as desired. Still on subscription, plan to move to ad-supported.
Big other move is on apps. Mobster is a mafia-style online game. Had 140,000 installs of this. It’s unbranded, but a great opportunity for marketers.
Events are a major focus. Coca-Cola and Optus have both been very happy with the events MySpace has created for them.
If we can work successfully with Kevin Rudd, as we did, then we can work with the most challenging clients.
This year on track to increase revenue by 30%, after 345% last year. Profit margin in 70% (not sure I heard correctly).
Little cautious about Kimber’s use of the term ‘portal’ as it sounds ’90s, but yes believe in social network portals.
Are about to launch hyper-targetting, based on profile information and behaviors. Built in-house, proprietary to MySpace
