Business Matters: Facebook Had 5 Times The U.S. Visitors of Twitter ...

December 29, 2011

Facebook: Now Five Times More Than Twitter
-- Facebook and Twitter are often mentioned in the same breath. Both are pioneering social media platforms that have changed how people and brands communicate. But year-end numbers from Nielsen shows the advantage Facebook had over Twitter in the U.S. this year. From January to October 2011, Facebook had 137.6 million average monthly U.S. visitors. That's over five times as many as Twitter's 23.6 million unique U.S. users.

Despite its place far behind Facebook - Blogger, too - in the social media world, Twitter has become more ingrained in the country's consciousness. A good example is the NBA's use of tweets during live broadcasts. So when Lebron James has a night off and tweets about a game he's watching, or when a team's owner comments about the performance of one of his players, the NBA TV channel puts those tweets on the screen soon after they are online.

Google+, the fledgling social network Google launched in June, had an average of 8.2 million unique U.S. visitors. One new estimate has Google+ at 62 million global users visitors with the potential to hit 85 million global users by February and, once network effects kick in, 400 million by the end of 2012.

Although MySpace has become an afterthought lately, the social network pioneer had 17.9 million U.S. visitors per month, according to Nielsen. Globally, MySpace fell from 54.3 million uniques in November 2010 to 24.9 million uniques in November 2011, according to comScore. MySpace, now owned by Specific Media, launched a new music player in mid-December but has yet to unveil the revamped product it hopes will bring back both users and advertisers.

Tumblr, on the other hand, is growing like a weed. The social-minded blogging service finished the year with 10.9 million U.S. visitors per month. When Nielsen tracked Tumblr back in May for its Q3 social media report, the service was up nearly 200 percent year-over-year.
( NielsenWire)

Into The Beyond: Sirius XM's Lynx Portable Radio
- Sirius XM's new Lynx Portable Radio gives subscribers an expanded Sirius XM 2.0 programming lineup and a host of features that go beyond what radio can typically offer. For example, Lynx listeners can automatically start playing a song from the beginning, hear the previous 30 minutes of any live Sirius XM content, listen to the previous five hours of preset station's programming and build a library of up to 200 hours of programming from favorite channels.? The Lynx also offers access to Sirius XM Xtra channels that include 12 Latin channels, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Radio and live NFL games. The unit has a retail price of $249.99 or $313.98 with either the home kit or vehicle kit.
( Press release)

FCC's Repeal of Cross-Ownership Rules
-- The FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that suggests leaving in place most of its ownership rules except one: the current limits on ownership of radio and TV stations in the same market. As the FCC explains in the notice, it believes the radio/TV cross-ownership rules can be eliminated in favor of existing rules on local radio and local TV. "We believe that the local radio and television ownership rules adequately protect our localism and diversity goals and seek comment on this proposal."

But the FCC wants to stick with existing rules on local TV ownership, local radio ownership and newspaper/broadband cross-ownership. While the FCC acknowledges that the newspaper industry is in decline, it doesn't yet see a need to loosen current regulations on newspaper ownership. "In short," the notice explains, "the media marketplace is in transition, particularly as a result of broadband Internet; but new media are not yet available as ubiquitously as traditional broadcast media. Our nation has not yet reached universal deployment or adoption of broadband."

As the Broadcast Law Blog explains, "the FCC suggested that other ownership rules could be waived in some instances, so the details of waivers and exceptions could become an important aspect of any final decision in this proceeding." It also notes that the FCC's conclusions are tentative and the public can formally voice its opinion for 45 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register.
( Broadcast Law Blog)

Live Nation Goes Indy
-- Live Nation is booking acts for the not-yet-opened venue Deluxe in Indianapolis. The 500-capacity venue is housed in the Old National Centre, which has two other Live Nation venues: the 2,000-capacity Egyptian Room and 2,500-seat Murat Theatre.
( IBJ.com)

Source: http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/industry/digital-and-mobile/business-matters-facebook-had-5-times-the-1005765752.story

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