Question : how acceptable would it be for you, to log on a social network site and get a flurry of ads about what your acquaintances are reading or buying ? OK, interesting… for few weeks, and then — get out of my sight. That’s seems to be happening with MySpace. Its user base remains huge, but it is slipping, from a peak of 72m in October 2007 to 69m in December. Overall, advertising on social networsk is not performing well : a click-rate only the fifth of average website at best. Behavioral targeting is definitely not the magic bullet. Pushed to the extreme, it even seems to backfire.
> story in Business Week Nevertheless, prices remain high for this market segment : AOL will acquire Beebo, n°3 of the sector, for $850m. Based on 2007 results, that’s a ridiculous 42 times revenues and 160 times EBIDTA, according to the tech site AllThingsD. Even if, overall valuations should fall saysVenture Beat
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