Archive for: seesmic

Seesmic Desktop 3.0 Has Been Released

Seesmic have just launched their updated Seesmic Desktop 3.0. Here is a video from Loic explaining the changes.

Economic Downtown Hits Social Networks

Image representing seesmic as depicted in Crun...

Image via CrunchBase

With the US economy and the world economy as a whole in shambles, no one appears to be safe from the downtown. Stock prices have dropped drastically, especially in the tech world. Those who were hanging their hats on their stock options are now facing the harsh reality that right now their piece of the pie is almost valueless.
Just recently Seesmic released just over one-third of their employees, with three more having been let go the week before. While they are not experiencing the “crash and burn” they are preparing for a bleak fundraising future. The founder of Seesmic, Loic Le Meur, cut out anything that “wasn’t outsourceable, core or absolutely necessary for the company.”
It was also reported just recently on Robert Scoble’s site that he too was going through his own professional with having a brand new boss, and having 20 of his co-workers laid off due to the economic troubles that have begun to trickle down into their offices.
You can follow his discussions on the situation on his Twitter account and also find it his FriendFeed account.
Just the tip of the iceberg? Everyone is feeling the pinch during these times. You can read more about the effects of the economic downturn here.
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Twitter Applications Are Everywhere: But Still No Monetization Strategy

Twitter is now a service that has been on the rise for over a year. This being said there are more and more Twitter related applications being launched, but still no monetization strategy for Twitter directly.

Last week Twhirl, a Twitter Adobe AIR application was sold to Seesmic, making this the first AIR application which has been acquired, just showing the popularity of Twitter and AIR.

Other applications out there are, Spaz, TweetStats, Twitterholic, Twitter Fan Wiki, Snitter, Twitstat, Twittervision and over 100 more applications. In coming weeks I will be running through some of these applications and actually work out which ones are worth using.

In terms on monetizing this is an interesting issue for Twitter to develop. At present Im not aware of their monetization strategy. I think they have some very basic options to choose from. 1. display advertising. The ads can be displayed at the bottom of the right hand side bar. This seems like a simple way to monetize the site and also very unobtrusive. 2. Sponsored Tweets. Messages could be sent to a certain demographic of Twitter users, obviously for a tailored price. 3. There also might be a way to monetize friend following. We all know the more followers you have on the site, the more discussions your have and potential for clicks off Twitter to your own site.

Are there any more monetization strategies I might be missing?

Seesmic Acquires Twhirl, But Their Still In Alpha Themselves!

Seesmic which claims to be the Twitter for video has just acquired Twhirl. Although Seesmic is still in Alpha this seems to be a good purchase on the outside. Twhirl is one of the most popular Adobe AIR apps and allows users to post to their Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce accounts. This is the first acquisition ever of a pure AIR application and im sure it wont be the last.

For other coverage on this acquisition take a look at BlogHerald and Mashable. Im also interested to see what Arrington has to say about the acquisition, because he is an investor in Seesmic, however Mark Hendrickson did the review for Techcrunch of the story.