eBay issued its Q1 08 earnings results today showing healthy advances in revenue and net income but weak growth in active eBay users and a 1% drop in gross merchandising volume.
eBay's communications arm, which almost solely consists of VoIP provider Skype, posted relatively healthy gains in users during the quarter and reasonably acceptable growth in revenue. During the quarter Skype added 33 million net new registered users, while revenue grew to $126 million, growth of $11 million sequentially.
Not too shabby but certainly not what eBay had expected when it plunked down $2.6 billion for the PC-to-PC voice pioneer. To get a spreadsheet that details historical subscriber and revenue data for Skype, go to our new corporate website, which features a "database dynamics" section that offers data to registered users at no charge. (Sorry you have to register, but the spreadsheets are free.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:01 PM | Print | Comments (1)Ethan Zuckerman has this fun and interesting piece about a new Internet phenomenon this presidential election season: the rise of the amateur campaign video. We're all familiar with two pro-Obama pieces, wil.i.am's "Yes We Can" video and the famed 1984 video, neither of which can technically be classified as "amateur" but both of which were produced outside the direction of the Obama campaign.
But political passions have prompted a number of voters to produce their own pro-Hillary or pro-Obama (and less so pro-McCain) videos. My favorite, which is also Zuckerman's favorite, is this weird Bollywood pro-Obama video. Great fun to watch.
p.s. While you're at it, watch this amazing homemade video. It's not a music video, but it is amateur although extremely good. Made by Sean's Garrett dad and brother.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 3:49 PM | Print | Comments (1)Verizon announced this morning that it has filed for a cable TV franchise in New York City, hoping to become the first single provider to offer multichannel video services throughout the city. Time Warner Cable and Cablevision currently offer TV service throughout some portions of Manhattan and the outer boroughs,with a sprinkling of competitive providers, such as RCN, available in spots throughout the city.
Verizon's highly toutable fiber-based service could cause some serious economic damage for the operators (primarily Time Warner) given how lucrative the densely-packed NYC market is. No wonder, then, that the telco took the somewhat foot-shooting step of suing Time Warner for its anti-Verizon ads.
The franchise application has been submitted to the city and will be reviewed by the city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee. If all goes well (and that's a big if given the dust that Time Warner and Cablevision can kick up), the applications goes to the state PUC. If all goes well there (again, a big if), Verizon plans to start offering TV service to "hundreds of thousands" by year-end 2008.
The agreement is for twelve years and Verizon has agreed to build out the entire city with its fiber-optic network by midyear 2014. Verizon will make service available to at least some portion of all five boroughs within a six-year time frame. The company already offers FiOS Internet service to a good chunk of the five boroughs -- upgrading the network for video will require improvements to existing wire centers.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:30 PM | Print | Comments (0)
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