It's been another crazy week for social networks, but we haven't seen many new launches - instead, the buzz has been around the seemingly huge acquisition prices being suggested for some of the world's biggest networks.
Yahoo Buying Facebook for $1 Billion?
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YouTube Worth $1.5 Billion? Lonelygirl15 Wants a Cut!
Others are concerned about whether YouTube can make money from their massive audience. Another new launch this week - YouTube Underground - may point the way. The "battle of the bands" contest, sponsored by Cingular, may herald more sponsorships and branding opportunities for the video-sharing startup. What's more, the company is seeking legitimacy: a deal announced on Monday will put Warner's music videos on YouTube.
In other YouTube news, lonelygirl15 videos began appearing on Revver (a YouTube rival) in a bid to cash in on the success of the series. News Corp's Rupert Murdoch also made waves by entering the MySpace Video vs YouTube debate: he thinks MySpace's service could be bigger in 60-70 days. But with so many stats providers releasing contradictory data about the two services, it'll be tough to declare an outright winner.
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MySpace Economy Still Growing
Meanwhile, the Sonific-Wippit deal, announced on Friday, means that the company has a powerful backend for selling music through their MySpace music player - but with MySpace Music already gearing up to sell downloads, will they find a market? There are plenty of other locations for the widget, of course - blogs, other social networks and independent websites - but MySpace has always seemed like the biggest opportunity. One more MySpace add-on: the TV scheduling service MeeVee released a MySpace TV widget on Thursday, along with a host of new features for their main site.
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Online Video Launches: MSN Soapbox, Yahoo Current
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More Niche Social Networks
There were plenty of minor announcements too, from funding to feature upgrades and Zebo's controversial claim of having 4 million users. But with many more launches due next week, it's time to get some sleep. :)
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Of Facebooks and Checkbooks: Will Yahoo Pay $1 billion?
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YouTube: $1.5 billion and it's yours!
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PimpedEmail: Mailbox Bling for the MySpace Crowd