What Happens to Twitter Ad Networks When Twitter Launches Ads?

Twitter is expected to launch an ad platform this month (some have speculated this will happen at SXSW). While this hasn't been confirmed, the industry has been waiting for quite some time to Twitter to launch such a monetization model.

That's not to say the industry has been sitting on its hands as it's waited. Third-parties have taken it upon themselves to offer services for Twitter, that Twitter itself doesn't offer. That includes apps of course, but it also includes Twitter ads. 140 Proof is one such company, and it calls itself the "first scalable ad solution built exclusively for Twitter."

"The Proof network aggregates the Twitter client and application ecosystem (roughly 100+ million Twitters users) and then segments users into a dynamic audience that advertisers can buy the same way they buy keyword advertising," a representative for the company tells WebProNews. "Advertisers are excited to final have a mechanism for extended their conversations on the Twitter social network and the Twitter ecosystem is eager to have a targeted, non-obtrusive advertising solution that allows them to monetize their applications while still respecting  the ethos of the Twitter community."

The 140 Proof Network features hundreds of advertisers, who the company says are reaching their target markets on Twitter. "Some are large well know brand names that everyone is familiar with and some are small businesses that are trying build their presence on Twitter or advertise in a very local or targeted manner," the rep says.

We asked the company if they think Twitter's ad platform has a chance to damage businesses like theirs and others that have been making a business based on sponsored tweeting (Sponsored Tweets from Izea comes to mind).

"We welcome Twitter to the advertising world," the rep tell us. "Clearly we think that their entrance in the marketplace is a great validation of what we are doing, but we also believe that the market is large enough to support many major players. Further, we feel that our experienced advertising and engineering team, our advantage of being fully operational for months, and our patented, proprietary technology will give us an advantage over all competitors."

Quite a display of confidence from 140 Proof - an advantage over Twitter at Twitter ads? What do you think?

Baidu Receives $50 Million To Build Video Site

The creation of the Chinese equivalent of Hulu is now officially underway.  Providence Equity Partners, which invested $100 million in the original American video site, will give Baidu $50 million to create Qiyi.com.  Qiyi should similarly offer premium content and rely on ad revenue.

Qiyi will indeed be a completely by-the-book operation, judging from an "About Us" section that's in English.  It explained, "Qiyi will strictly abide by copyright laws and administrative regulations, to take copyright protection measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of copyright holders."

Then another paragraph later added, "Qiyi keeps making efforts . . . to spread the advanced socialism culture by undertaking its social responsibility as an outstanding corporate citizen.  Qiyi is playing a positive role in developing a harmonious society."

Unfortunately, not a lot else is known about the project.  The site's official launch date hasn't been publicized, and other details (relating to advertisers' identities, hours of content available, and so forth) are also unavailable.

One important thing that's been made clear, at least, is the fact that Baidu will retain majority ownership in Qiyi despite Providence's large investment.

Facebook Mobile Count Hits, Passes 100 Million

Facebook recently updated its official "Statistics" page to reflect the fact that it attracts about 400 million users on a monthly basis.  Today, Facebook announced another interesting piece of data: over 100 million folks can be counted upon to access the site from their mobile phones in the same timeframe.

Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's vice president of user growth, disclosed this detail by posting it on the Facebook Blog, and also wrote, "This usage happens on almost every carrier in the world and comes less than six months after we announced 65 million people on Facebook Mobile."

Impressive, right?  To put those figures in perspective, the population of the Philippines is in the neighborhood of 100 million, and so is the population of Mexico.

Also, the number of people who just started using Facebook mobile in the last five months (35 million) is about equal to the number of people who make their home in Algeria, and greater than the number of people who inhabit Canada.

More growth seems likely to occur, too.  Palihapitiya concluded his post by stating, "No matter which mobile device you own, you can always stay connected through Facebook using our mobile applications, sites or SMS."

Have You Read This?

> AOL Adds Facebook To AIM

> How Over 400 Million People Use Facebook

> Facebook Version Of "Madden" Game In The Works

Facebook Gets Into Customized Data Centers

It's always a big deal when a company like Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft begins to build another data center; the move proves that they've got a fair amount of cash on hand and are growing at an impressive rate.  More significant, though, may be the idea of a company first getting into the DIY data center business, and Facebook appears to have reached that juncture.

Rich Miller reported yesterday, "Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers, and may announce its first facility as soon as tomorrow.  The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space from wholesale data center providers, but has grown to the point where the economics favor a shift to a custom-built infrastructure."

The facility Facebook's rumored to be behind is under right now construction and will cover 117,245 square feet in Prineville, Oregon.  Unless some seriously innovative construction techniques and types of hardware are employed, it's sure to cost more than $100 million, and data centers often carry price tags along the lines of $500 million.

Then, when the construction's done, Miller writes that it will take about 35 people to staff the data center.

So Facebook does indeed seem to be making a major move.  We'll try to relay more details as they become available.

UPDATE: Yep, it's official.

Have You Read This?

> Content Can Now Go Viral More Easily With Facebook

> Pingdom Names Facebook "Most Engaging Social Network"

> Enterprises Seeing Increased Complexity At Data Centers

Next Page »