Social Media’s Battle Of The Sexes

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Recently Internet Service Providers created a detailed infographic highlighting the differences between men and women across social media platforms. Surprisingly, the study revealed more than just the fact that more females populate Pinterest. For instance, women do the bulk of Facebook sharing (more than 62 percent are on the largest social network) while more men are on LinkedIn than women at 54 percent. Men also spend more time on YouTube each week than women, clocking an hour compared to 35 minutes for women. Twitter appears to be female-dominated, around 62 percent are female and, not surprisingly, Pinterest is 70 percent women users.

Overall, a higher percentage of women (71 percent) use social media than men (62 percent). For more differences, enjoy the image below:

Source: Internet Service Providers

GungHo: Fun Is The Basic Principle Of Success

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Puzzle & Dragons generates around $3.75 million a day, so the title is clearly working out for GungHo. When asked what Japanese developers can do to replicate his company’s success, GungHo president Kazuki Morishita was simple and direct.

“Let’s say that Japanese games are in their darkest times right now,” said Morishita. “There’s no way to go but up, if that’s the case. In terms of making games, I think Japanese developers need to go back to basics about why they make games in the first place, which is to make good games. At GungHo, that’s what we do. We think about games and come up with good ideas and do our best to make it as best as possible, and all we’ll do is keep doing that. Sooner or later, that’ll pay off.”

“We would like in the future, worldwide-wise, we want people from all over the world to play our games and enjoy our games, and that’s pretty much our main goal moving forward,” he added. “In terms of how to do that — in terms of strategy We go back to the basic principle, which is just, make the game fun for everybody. Honestly, that’s the only thing I think about: how to make games that are fun.”

Source: Gamasutra

Yahoo Snags Tumblr For $1.1 Billion

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Yahoo Inc. announced a bold move when it confirmed that it is acquiring Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The social blogging site is popular with young adults, the exact same sorts of individuals that Yahoo wants to build into their audience.

Tumblr has long been a popular buyout target and it currently has roughly 117 million users. Still, Yahoo has failed to capitalize on social acquisitions in the past, like early social networking site Geocities and the popular photo sharing website Flickr.

“Certainly Yahoo has a track record of taking cool and making it uncool,” said Altimeter Group analyst Brian Solis. “Marissa Mayer is trying to bring Yahoo’s brand appeal to a different type of audience. Yahoo sees this as a path to future relevance.”

While Tumblr is a popular social network, it also has eschewed most normal advertising. This was by design from the site’s founder, David Karp.

Yahoo was formed as a homepage for the Internet, but that idea is fast becoming outdated. “It’s very much the generation gap,” said Alexia Tsotsis, co-editor of technology blog TechCrunch and an avid user of Tumblr since 2010. “Teens are forming their identities, and they just don’t want anything to threaten that identity, especially this Internet portal. They don’t even know what Internet portal means.”

“It’s pretty clear that Tumblr is a distinctly unprofitable business,” said Forrester Research analyst Zachary Reiss-Davis. “Yahoo is going to have to figure out how to monetize Tumblr users without turning them off from the service and making them want to leave. And it’s going to have to figure out how Tumblr users are going to produce revenue for Yahoo relatively quickly.”

While this deal has the potential to turn into what YouTube is for Google, one insider could see it as being what Myspace was for News Corp. “It’s a big purchase for a lot of money. If she’s right, it could help transform Yahoo,” said the person who spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve his relationship with both companies. “But in many ways Tumblr could be compared to Myspace: a lot of unmonetizable inventory and a lot of porn.”

Source: L.A. Times

Google Play In-App Revenues Up 700 Percent

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Google Play product manager for commerce and monetization Ibrahim Elbouchikhi indicated that in-app revenues for the mobile store grew 700 percent in the last year. Games are leading the free-to-play charge and comprise the majority of the top grossing apps, with Minecraft: Pocket Edition being a notable exception.

“We’re not saying you need to push everything free-to-play, however also recognize the dominant trend toward free-to-play,” said Google Play games business development head Bob Meese.

Pandora implemented a way for users to subscribe from within the Android app and saw revenues on Google Play jump nearly 400 percent month-over-month, showing that non-games are also benefitting from in-app-purchase models.

Google Launches Hangouts App

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Google announced a new Hangouts app. With the tagline “Conversations that last, with people that you love”, it combines typed conversations, images and video conferencing into a single experience.

All parts of the experience, from the chatting to the photos and the multi-person video hangout can be saved for posterity. The interface and experience of Hangouts is designed to make chatting more organized and more efficient and is available on iOS, Android and the web right now.

Source: Wired.com

Simpsons, The Office Writer Working On Angry Birds Film

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Rovio Entertainment has announced that it has named Jon Vitti (The Simpsons, The Office, King of the Hill, Saturday Night Live) as the screenplay writer for the Angry Birds film. Catherine Winder has been hired as a producer of the film which is set to release July 1, 2016.

“I’m thrilled to have Jon and Catherine joining the project,” said producer John Cohen. “Jon is one of the funniest writers I know, and we’re looking forward to working with him to bring the birds and pigs to life on the big screen. Catherine is a fantastic producer, with over 20 years of film and television experience, and I’m very excited to have her as a part of our filmmaking team.”

“I’m very excited that Jon and Catherine have joined us, bringing with them their vast expertise,” added Rovio CEO Mikael Hed. “I’m confident we are building the right team to deliver an amazing movie experience to our fans.”

Madden NFL 25 Anniversary Edition Including DirecTV Bonus

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Electronic Arts has announced the Madden NFL 25 Anniversary Edition, which will be available exclusively at at Amazon for $99.99 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. This special edition will include a copy of the game as well as 17 special Ultimate Team packs of cards, one for every week of the 2013 NFL season, with each pack containing two rare players, four silver players and four bronze players.

The biggest addition to the Anniversary Edition are for DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket service. This will allow users to sign up with a promo code for $10 off each month of service for their first year, as well as a free full-season subscription to NFL Sunday Ticket Max, which usually costs $299.95 for the five-month NFL season and also enables access through the NFL Sunday Ticket app on PS3.

Those who can’t get DirecTV service will be entitled to a free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket for the full 2013 season on their PCs, tablets and mobile devices, including the Red Zone Channel showing all plays within 20 yards of the end zone. Both the Red Zone Channel and non-TV access are usually limited to Sunday Ticket Max holders.

Radian Games On The Challenges Of Free-To-Play

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Radian Games has reported that their game Bombcats has received 100,000 downloads but fewer than 100 in-app purchases. The developer indicates that these numbers are not good enough to keep the company in business and postulated as to how this happened.

“Making a free-to-play game that’s not pushy about purchases and signing into Facebook or whatever else just doesn’t work without many millions of downloads, and though Bombcats will get to a million eventually (downloads will drop off after the first week), there are very few examples of a game exploding well after launch,” posted Radian. “The bigger problem than downloads: It’s obvious now Bombcats is just too generous with everything. It’s more generous than many paid games. I was hoping the quality and value of the game would draw people in, make them happier to spend some money on it as they further along, and more likely to tell others about it. The 2nd may still happen, but the first is barely happening.”

As a result of this, Radian will alter the game to be more aggressive about converting in-app purchases.

Source: RadianGames.com

Kingdoms Of Amalur IP Sale Soon

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The state of Rhode Island is looking to sell the IP acquired from the now defunct 38 Studios, including Kingdoms of Amalur. This is part of the ongoing effort to recoup $130 million in debt when 38 Studios collapsed.

“Who knows what the value ultimately will be,” said Providence-based Chace Ruttenberg & Freedman LLP lawyer Richard J. Land, who is holding 38 Studios in receivership. “But there is interest in the assets.”

A hearing for the case, in which Rhode Island sued 38 Studios’ former owner Curt Schilling and 13 other defendants for fraud, will take place on Wednesday.

Twitter ‘A Threat to National Unity’ According To Saudi Arabia

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By Elena Zanone

Last week BBC news reported that the head of Saudi Arabia’s religious police Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh has warned its citizens against using Twitter, a platform that has been gaining in popularity among Saudis over the past few years.

The religious boss believes that anyone using social media sites, especially Twitter, “has lost this world and his afterlife.”

As BBC elaborates,  Abdul Aziz al ash-Shaikh’s comments are just the latest in a collaborative effort from the kingdom’s disgruntled officials in attacking the U.S.-based 140-character microblogging site because its difficulty in tracking users and what is being said on the platform.

His remarks reflect overarching concerns from the capital over Saudis using the platform to discuss sensitive political and other issues.

“The sheikh’s comments echo those of the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in April who used his sermon – seen by millions on TV – to warn that Twitter was a threat to national unity.” stated a BBC news correspondent.

Unlike some other social sites like Facebook, Twitter allows people to maintain multiple accounts and maintain them anonymously. That protection has allowed Saudis to use the real-time network as an immediate and effective platform to shed light into a traditionally opaque society.

In fact, protests in the Eastern Province were recently tweeted and images of human rights activists on trial were uploaded directly from courtrooms, challenging many taboos in the country.

The authorities are taking action and a number of web activists have already been detained. However, some elements of the Saudi elite have also warned against moving too harshly on social network users.

Billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a self-proclaimed reformist, has described attempts to restrict social media as a losing battle.

Souce: BBC News