Happened today, its likely that you have already read about it.
img courtesy: jaiku
Here's some FAQ&A on the deal and its implications.
Q: Why not Twitter?
A: Google probably thinks Twitter is overvalued (at USD 20 million). It is likely that they spent lesser on the Jaiku deal. Twitter recently closed a USD 5 million second round. And it is in Europe (read: ahead of the US on mobile technology adoption).
Q: But Twitter has more users, is more popular?
A: Sure, but Jaiku is more than just a micro-blogging or lifestreaming platform. It is an intelligent presence detection application, with their smart address book feature. Google is acquiring technology again, they can generate the user numbers, I suppose.
Q: Where does this all fit in the biG picture?
A: The New York Times reported yesterday that Google phone project is a mobile software project. So whether the Google offering competes with Microsoft (Windows Mobile) or Apple (iPhone) remains to be seen, but in the light of this, the Jaiku acquisition seems to make sense. A mobile software (platform, most likely) + mobile technology from Jaiku + mobile social network Zingku to promote it. All the right conditions for Google to continue to govern your life.
Q: Google, Social Networking? Remember Orkut, Dodgeball? Why will they take on Facebook and MySpace?
A: Because they are Google. Their social networking attempts have not taken off well - at least in the US - but there are rumors that there may be a third life (or should it be second, second life?) in the wings. Although Jaiku fits in nicely with their mobile strategy, its lifestreaming features is a ammunition for any Social Networking War (what an Oxymoron!) that it may be gearing up for.
Afterthought: MS should really buy that stake in Facebook.
What do you think?
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Google acquires Jaiku
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5 comments:
I'm not too sure as to why Microsoft should buy a stake, but yes there's a lot of smoke on the web about Microsoft/Google eyeing for a stake in Facebook.
This particular article about how overvaluation of Web 2.0 companies could lead to the next dotcom bust seems very interesting.
Imho, MSFT doesn't want to miss the social networking bandwagon, but probably realizes that starting one now from ground up is extremely hard. 42 million users is a great target market to push the Live (or whatever they're going to re-brand it to) platform. 42 million profiles is also a great dataset to have. 42 million is a good number to target Ads at.
@Vinod: whether there's a bubble or not around the corner is anyone's guess. Have you read Paul Graham's Webstartups?
@Sowmya: I just read Paul's article and wow!, it was an amazing read.
There are ofcourse obvious advantages for MS in acquiring a stake in facebook, esp in order for them to boost their online advertising presence.
MSFT missed a lot of chances with internet world. though they could win the browser war with netsacpe, they realised it's not the same with search/mail and host of other things. "Live" is something which falls under similar category.
If they don't want to miss out on SNS, then the only option is to buy stake in Facebook(or is it too big for them to buyout!!) as sowmya rightly mentioned
Social networking websites will never be out of fashion till there are sites like myspace, facebook. They might have entered late but their innovative and creative thinking have made them the leader in their field.
Celebrities as their members was one of the these moves, which made myspace very popular. Variety of features and application you can use in facebook makes it incredibly interesting. It actually rekindled my and my friends interest in social networking(basically it provides an easy way to flirt) when we was bored of Orkut and Hi5. There may be hundreds of such websites
but leader always stands out, in features and ob statistics.
Here is one very good reading about how friendster gave way to MySpace and MySpace may fade out to give way to some other.
But social networking will never fade out. Remember there are billions of people who are still waking up to facebook and myspace (social networking) in a big continent called Asia, the next big hub of internet users.
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