Naked Newsletter
» In US: Figures released by the Newspaper Association of America show that the decline of newspapers is more rapid than thought. Total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% from 2006 to $42 billion, making it the biggest drop in revenue since 1950 (the year they started tracking annual revenue). Online provides some solace for the dead-tree business, with internet ad revenue growing 18.8% from 2006 to $3.2 billion. However, this is not even close to replacing loses from print ads. Currently, online revenue only represents 7.5% of total newspaper ad revenues.
Also, Top 50 advertisers by media value in January 2008: http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628857
» In China: The vast middle class is experiencing an economic squeeze from the highest consumer price inflation in 11 years. Monthly living expenditures have doubled from a year ago to $282. Staples such as oil, milk and meat products have all gone up significantly (pork alone has doubled in price since last year). Salary increases have not matched inflation rate.
On a similar note, the days of ultra-cheap labor and little regulation are gone in China. As manufacturers’ costs climb, export prices will follow. A new Chinese labor law that took effect on Jan. 1 has significantly raised costs in an already tight labor market. The appreciation of the Chinese currency has shrunk already razor-thin margins and pushed thousands of manufacturers to the edge of bankruptcy. The Federation of Hong Kong Industries predicts that 10% of an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 Hong Kong-run factories in the Pearl River Delta will close this year. An example: In the past 12 months, 150 factories making shoes or supplying shoemakers have closed in Dongguan.
» In Singapore: Investment management company GIC Singapore has joined hands with U.S.-based Host Hotels & Resorts to invest up to $2 billion in hotels in the Asia-Pacific region. GIC’s real estate investment arm, GIC Real Estate, will own 75% and Host will own 25% of the joint venture company. The JV will initially have equity commitments from the partners of up to $600 million. Including leverage, the total investment which the joint venture can make will be between $1.5 and $2 billion.
» In Japan: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is making the country’s first commercial plane in more than 30 years and demonstrating Japan’s efforts on getting back in the civilian jet business. The company aims to sell 1,000 aircraft, which will be made with high-tech composite materials and newly designed engines from Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies (UTX). Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will definitely be met with challengers: China and Russia also plan to enter the market soon with their own jets.
» In World: Worldwide mobile ad spending will grow from $2.7 billion in 2007 to $19.1 billion in 2012, mainly on the strength of text-message campaigns. Regionally, mobile spending in the U.S. will jump from $878 million in 2007 to $6.5 billion by 2012, but will be eclipsed by the more mobile-centric Asia-Pacific market by then.
» Facebook continues to snatch key players from Google. Ethan Beard (Google’s previous director of social media) has taken a senior business development role. Beard follows Sheryl Sandberg, who recently quit as head of sales for Google AdSense and AdWords to join Zuckerberg’s company as Chief Operating Officer. Other former Google execs to take gigs at Facebook include YouTube’s CFO Gideon Yu and Google Checkout product head Benjamin Ling. Facebook has embarked on a hiring spree that’s only likely to accelerate as Sandberg takes the operational reins and the company prepares to expand aggressively overseas.
» A local search engine called Loladex just launched on Facebook. It enables users to perform searches on Facebook by tapping into friends’ recommendations and rank results. The underlying search engine is based on 16 million local business listings and is licensed from Localeze. Loladex adds a voting and notification layer, thus allowing you and your social network to vote results up and down or ask each other for advice. Basically, Loladex aims to create a customized search engine for just you and your friends.
» YouTube has a new tool called YouTube Insight that will allow advertisers to better target their buys. Marketers who buy ads on YouTube already get statistics about the performance of their ads. The new program breaks down viewership by day and shows the states or countries where most viewers are. Geographic information is based on viewers’ numeric Internet Protocol address, the same mechanism Google uses to target ads by region. All video producers will get access to stats dating back to Nov. 1, 2007. In coming weeks, YouTube also plans to introduce a feature that shows how people come to watch different clips, whether through a search engine, a related video or a link on another Web site.
» Saks Fifth Avenue is stepping up its Web game, launching a new video catalog–an industry first–on its Web site. Efforts focus on Saks’ three best-selling departments: contemporary ready-to-wear, handbags and shoes. Since Saks knows that about 99% of its shoppers have broadband access, it’s a great tool for its customers who can now receive music and voice-over info on new looks. Runway commentary details not just the outfit, but also the shoes, jewelry and handbags that work best.
» AOL has launched a mobile phone gaming portal powered by Cellufun. The games are available via wap.aol.com and are provided on a free, ad supported basis, and no downloads are necessary. Advertising inventory will be sold by AOL’s Platform-A’s Third Screen media.
» Yahoo has launched Shine, a new content portal aimed at women aged 25 to 54. At its core, Shine is a large blog with magazine style layout. Content is broken up into various subcategories with the front page highlighting the newest content from across the site. Topic areas include parenting, sex and love, healthy living, food, career and money, entertainment, fashion, beauty, home life, and astrology. With Shine, Yahoo hopes to compete with offerings from Glam Media, Sugar and iVillage.
» New stats/analytics startup Woopra is like Google Analytics or Nuconomy, but in real time. The product includes statistics such as tiny details on every single visit and/or visitor, where they came from, what pages they visited what keywords they used etc. Woopra is currently in private beta and will only take blogs with less than 10,000 page views/day. And the evolution of analytics continues. . .
» Aviary just came out with a new tool called Dodo, which is basically a web-based time machine. You upload an image to the service and it will “age” the image based on user input. Aviary says the tool isn’t just for fun: it can potentially be useful for “tracking down long missing children,” and “determining if a girlfriend will end up looking like her mother.” It’s pretty interesting/hilarious. Check out the demo video on TechCrunch.