It’s a technology heavy Wednesday in the social media business as Twitter-app creator UberMedia looks to build its own microblogging network to take on the house of Tweets. Social network web browser Flock is shutting down, but may be reborn as a powerful new Zynga portal. Finally, Disney (NYSE: DIS) and its Playdom site sees its traffic one-upped by Germany’s Wooga.
UberMedia Preparing Twitter Rival: If you’ve had luck joining them, it’s time to try your hand at beating them. That’s the thinking at UberMedia at least. According to a Wednesday report from CNN, the app developer and Web-services company best known for its Twitter-related offerings is looking to open its own social network to directly compete with Twitter. Twidroyd, Echofon and UberSocial are among UberMedia’s more popular products and those apps have a significant following amongst Twitter users. Market research firm Sysomos found that UberMedia’s software generated 11.5% of all tweets in a single day in March, or almost 7.5 of the 65 million average daily tweets. UberMedia’s alternative would differentiate itself by offering messages longer than the 140 characters afforded by Twitter.
Social Networking Web Browser Flock Shuts Down: After six years, Flock Inc. has shut down the Flock web browser, with all support ending on Apr. 26 according to USA Today. For those unfamiliar, Flock differentiated itself from browsers like Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer by integrating as many different social tools into its interface as possible. The most recent version of Flock supported Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) properties YouTube and Gmail, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) email service, News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) social media also-ran MySpace, as well as independent heavyweights Twitter and Facebook. Flock is recommending that users switch to the Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers. The shutdown of Flock comes three months after social games developer Zynga (Farmville, Mafia Wars) acquired the company for an undisclosed amount. Canny investors should keep a close eye on Zynga’s next move. A Zynga web browser devoted to both social networking tools as well as the companies profitable gaming properties could sweeten the IPO the company has suggested is coming in the next couple of years.
Wooga Passes Disney’s Playgom in App Charts: The privately-owned Berlin-based social network game developer Wooga has surged past Disney (NYSE: DIS) Playdom according to Appdata. The company is now in fourth place behind Zynga, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), and a California-based Facebook game maker CrowdStar. Wooga’s games including Monster World and Diamond Dash have earned the company 20 million monthly users. While ERTS and DIS have been purchasing numerous social game developers in an effort to improve their standings in the market, Wooga has yet to be a target for acquisition. The company raised $5 million in funding from Balderton Capital in November 2009 but has not pursued a second round. Given its growing traffic, investors can expect to see increased scrutiny on the company throughout the remainder of 2011.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at�@ajohnagnello and�become a fan of�InvestorPlace on Facebook.
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