LinkedIn: Jewel of the Social Media Crown

Social media stocks, including giants like Facebook, may not have done well after listing on the stock market. But one social media company, LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), the largest online professional network, continues to outperform market estimates.

>>>

Featured Videos

Blue Nile and WebMD Seek Growth Overseas

According to a recent report, US Jewelry Market Report: Focus on Online Segment – 2012 Edition, consumers are continuing to shift to online options for buying jewelry. The U.S. market accounts for half of the global jewelry market. Increasing internet penetration, rising income levels, and continued growth in the amount of knowledge available online is helping shift the trend to online models. >>>

A Mixed Quarter for IBM

Gartner estimates that worldwide IT spending will grow 3% this year to $3.6 trillion. The researcher projects that number to grow another 4% in 2013 to surpass $3.7 trillion. IDC has more aggressive estimates and projects that current year IT spending will grow 6% over the year to $3.8 trillion. But while both researchers are predicting increased IT spending, the still weak economy continues to hurt the bigger technology players for now.

>>>

Facing a Rough Patch, Zynga Shrinks Games Portfolio and Workforce

Transparency Market Research’s report on the social gaming market estimates that more than 200 million people play online games on social networking websites. The researcher believes that the social gaming industry will be worth $5.5 billion by 2015, driven by the increased adoption of smartphones and other mobile devices.

>>>

Apple Set for a Strong Holiday, But Can’t Rest on Laurels

Apple may be gearing up for a big holiday sales quarter, but in the recent quarter, performance has been short of market projections. Apple is also losing ground, albeit slowly, to some of its competitors. In a recent report by researcher Strategy Analytics, Android tablets now account for 41% of the tablet market worldwide. Although Apple’s iPads may still have the lead in the market with a 57% market share, Android-based devices are catching up.

>>>

Amazon Striving for Ever-Faster Delivery of Kindle and Other Goods

According to a recently released report on Global Online Retail, excluding travel, the global online retail sector reported saw revenues grow at an annual rate of 15.4% to $530.2 billion from 2007 through 2011. Growth in retail sales were driven by sales of electronics, which grew to $119.2 billion and amounted to 23% of the retail sector’s revenues. The researcher expects the online retail sector to be worth $1,096 billion by 2016, reporting an annualized growth of 15.6% over 2011-2016.

>>>

Netflix

According to the IHS Screen Digest, during the current year, the number of movies and TV shows streamed and downloaded legally in the U.S. will exceed the number of DVDs and Blu-Ray disc sold this year. Digital streaming will account for 3.4 billion transactions in 2012, reporting a growth of 135% over the year. Analyst expect that 2.4 billion DVD and Blu-ray discs will be sold this year.

>>>

eBay Turns a Corner with Mobile Offerings

Analysts believe that mobile commerce will report rapid growth in the coming years and will account for 24% of the total e-commerce market by 2017. Although mobile commerce is dominated by travel, retail is also picking up. According to a Forrester Research, mobile retail will account for more than $25 billion in spending by 2017. Online retailers are already preparing to establish a stronger position within this segment.

>>>

Better Monetization Eases Market Concerns Over Facebook

Facebook may have recorded the largest Internet player IPO ever. But since going public, the company’s market value has slipped considerably. Facebook has lost more than $40 billion in market value since the IPO as analysts have been worried about its ability to keep up monetization, especially on the mobile front. But the recent quarterly results managed to quell a few market concerns.

>>>

Google Aiming to Be a Major Player in the Still-Developing Tablet Market

Analysts estimate that the Internet giant Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), accounts for more than 66% of the search engine market share. But the growing importance of mobile devices is hurting Google’s search revenues. Not only do mobiles offer a smaller screen for displaying ads, but the click-through rate on mobile devices is also less. Ads generated on smartphones cost about 40% less than those on computers and about 25% less than on those generated on tablets. Delivering the same monetization rates on mobile devices is proving to be difficult, even for leaders like Google. No wonder Google is looking beyond search.

>>>