15 Million People Have MySpace Mail Accounts
January 27, 2010
Back in the summer MySpace launched its own email service called MySpace Mail. The company has now announced that it has surpassed 15 million accounts for that service.
"Adoption by our users has experienced phenomenal growth, well exceeding initial expectations," says MySpace's Rajit Marwah. "At launch we set a goal of 10 million accounts created within a year – we knew we were on to something when we surpassed this goal in less than a quarter."
"What really makes MySpace Mail unique, and one reason why we think it has resonated so well with our users, is that it builds on your existing MySpace identity," he says. "We decided early on to automatically reserve our users’ vanity URLs for use as their MySpace Mail address. For example, since I had the URL myspace.com/rajit, the address rajit@myspace.com was already waiting for me when I created my MySpace Mail account. With an adoption rate upwards of 70%, vanity URLs were already one of the most popular features on MySpace, and leveraging them allowed users to maintain their identity on MySpace while enhancing this footprint beyond the MySpace network."
MySpace Mail MySpace Mail | MySpace Video |
The ability to send and receive music and videos as attachments with MySpace Mail could be one of the main attractions to users. Music and videos are certainly a huge part of what draws many users to MySpace in the first place.
MySpace's foray into email drew plenty of criticism, but with better than expected growth, MySpace doesn't appear to have any regrets about it.
MySpace has also announced the beta launch of My Music 2.0, a hub where users can build and manage social playlists. More details about that can be read here.
Have You Read This?
> 10 Reasons Social Media isn't Replacing Email
> MySpace Launches New Music Charts
Brin, Page To Sell 10 Million Shares Of Google Stock
January 25, 2010
Sergey Brin and Larry Page are going to become much closer to their financial advisors over the next five years. Google disclosed in a regulatory filing late last week that the cofounders each intend to sell about 5 million shares of the company's stock during that period of time.
To address one possible concern: This is no way signals that Brin and Page are abandoning Google. Even after the 10 million shares are sold, the pair will still own 47.7 million shares between them, so it's not like they're cutting all ties and going home.
Also, even though their voting stake will be reduced from 59 percent to 48 percent due to this move, Eric Schmidt controls another 10 percent, so there's no danger of the three Google execs getting overthrown.
Still, the development is a big deal. Miguel Helft calculated, "The sales, if completed, would provide each of the founders $2.75 billion based on Friday's closing price of $550.01."
Google's stock is down 1.15 percent so far this morning. The Dow and Nasdaq are up 0.71 percent and 0.58 percent, respectively.
Have You Read This?
> Wall Street Turns Nose Up At Google Earnings Report
> Analysts Give Google Thumbs Up For Diversifying
> Nexus One Sales Of 5-6 Million Units Forecast
Yahoo May Shut Down MyBlogLog Soon
December 24, 2009
Update: Yahoo has issued the following statment regarding MyBlogLog's future:
Frankly, it’s no secret within Yahoo! that we’re actively discussing the future of MyBlogLog. However, it’s also true that we have not made any final decisions at this point. Is a shutdown on the table? Sure, that’s an option. But there are other options as well. We know this creates some uncertainty for current MyBlogLog users. While we aren't quite ready to share more details, we promise to keep you posted.
Original Article: Yahoo will reportedly shut down MyBlogLog in January. Marshall Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb claims to have heard from "sources close to the project" that this is the case.
"Yahoo! has let the service atrophy for years and will now put it to rest," writes Kirkpatrick. "To think that this service offered publishers and developers access to personal, demographic, taste and activity data of a website's readers - and yet that offering has in the end gone no where - that's downright crazy."
MyBlogLog was originally developed by Cloudspace out of Florida, but was acquired by Yahoo in January 2007. The company paid over 10 million dollars for it. According to Wikipedia, there were over 45,000 blogs subscribed to it at the time, and it currently has 275,000 registered users.
It's no secret that Yahoo is cutting costs wherever it can. For example, earlier this year, they shut down the once popular Geocities. Just this week, they announced that they would be closing their offices for a whole week to save a little dough.
No mention of the demise of the service is mentioned on the MyBlogLog blog.
Have You Read This?
> MyBlogLog Looks for Higher Level of "Truthiness"
> Yahoo! MyBlogLog Gets Updated
Churchill Downs Buys Youbet.com For $126 Million
November 12, 2009
Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), home of the Kentucky Derby, has agreed to buy online horse wagering firm Youbet.com in a cash-and- stock deal valued at $126.8 million.
The deal would give Churchill Downs over $700 million worth of the $1.4 billion online horse wagering market. Churchill Downs already owns online horse betting site TwinSpires.com.
The deal will give Youbet shareholders 97 cents a share in cash for each Youbet.com share, plus 0.0598 shares of Churchill Downs stock. Based on the closing price of Churchill stock on Tuesday, the transaction represents a per-share value of Youbet stock of about $2.84. Once the deal closes, Youbet shareholders will own 16 percent of Churchill stock.
Churchill says less than 14 percent of all wagering on U.S. Thoroughbred racing is estimated to be placed online, but it anticipates that percentage will continue to grow.
"We believe this combination should enable us to accelerate the development of new technology-enabled features and services that horse racing customers who wager via the Advanced Deposit Wagering channel want, and that can attract new customers to racing, said Robert L. Evans, Churchill President and Chief Executive Officer.
"While we expect to make many exciting improvements for customers, our existing TwinSpires.com customers will be able to continue to access their accounts and make wagers, deposits and withdrawals in the same manner they do today."
Churchill said the deal will result in annual saving of $10 million. The transaction is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.
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>Legalized Online Gambling Would Bring In Billions
>Kentucky Supreme Court Hears Online Gambling Case
>Appeals Court Upholds Online Gambling Ban
