Can Social Gaming Save The Media Industry?

Media companies are in for an expected bad run. Advertising spending is down as much as 11% in the US alone, and is not expected to recover to pre-recession levels when the economy improves. Additionally, the market for content services and DVDs continues to be depressed, with consumer spending falling 4% during the quarter. I

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Disney Should Study Slumdog

There was a little less sparkle in the Magic Kingdom this quarter with the announcement of Disney’s Q2 results. Revenues fell 7% to $8.09 billion, which was slightly lower than the Street’s expectations of $8.15 billion. EPS of $0.43 was marginally higher than the market’s expected $0.40.

Vision India 2020: Elixar

I have always been fascinated by Pixar. “The Incredibles” enthralled me. “Ratatouille” mesmerized me. Apparently, they also seduced many others. The former, with a production budget of $92 million, grossed $631 million worldwide. The latter, with a production budget of $150 million grossed $621 million. I have asked, how?

Catching Up on Readings: Hydro Alchemy

Since the last catching up list on April 26, you may have accumulated more backlog. What’s with the Yahoo-Microsoft frenzy? Here’s a quick cache of the articles since then that you may want to make sure you read:

Stardoll for Little Girls: Mattias Miksche (Part 2)

SM: How did Paperdollheaven come about? MM: Some of the ideas were already there – the initial magic of paperdollheaven.com was all because of Liisa, our original founder and her vision of a fun, creative place for a forgotten demographic on the web: young girls. The new team then added the idea of personalized avators

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Deal Radar 2008: PlayFirst Plays Casual Games Well

PlayFirst is a leading publisher of casual computer games. Based out of San Francisco, it is focused on creating shared casual game experiences around “lasting original brands” with emphasis on “rich story and character”. Few of the more popular PlayFirst titles include the Diner Dash series, Wedding Dash, Chocolatier and Dream Chronicles. My interview with

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Deal Radar 2008: Tagged In Exit Freeze Danger Zone?

Tagged, launched in 2004, is a rapidly growing social network for teens aged 13 – 19. It is quickly becoming the number one teen site. The site’s early innovations include the use of slides and YouTube as a part of its graphical interface. In February 2006, Tagged raised $7 million in its first venture capital

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Deal Radar 2008: Twitter Gaining Momentum

Twitter is a micro-blogging site that has taken the web by storm. It is a social network that allows users to post “status update” messages either through the web, instant messenger or through a text message from a mobile phone. An update can be a maximum of 140 words. It could be of the nature,

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