It looks like all those acquisitions in the past year paid off. European professional social network Xing is reporting 5 million registered members worldwide, and significant growth in paid subscribers. The strongest growth, in fact, over the entire history of the company. With revenues reaching $28.74 million for the 2007 fiscal year, Xing is skipping all the way to the bank.
So what are these grand numbers being attributed to? Aside from snatching up business-oriented social networks across Europe, Xing has also spent a good portion of 2007 expanding its eCommerce and Advertising segments, which have enabled Xing to layer in two additional streams of revenue. As networks like News Corp. begin to launch their own centralized advertising networks, it’s clear that having a comprehensive ad network of one’s own is an option that is being readily explored in hopes of retaining as much of that profit as possible.
eCommerce is another segment that makes sense for the demographic that Xing reaches out to, and layers in nicely with the other action-oriented aspects of the network that Xing has been improving in the past year as well. Providing more tools for the self-promotion of oneself has seemingly been central to Xing’s improvement to-do list, so incorporating more ways in which to have a farther reach is evident in such changes mandated by Xing, including the network’s participation in Open Social.
Shopping online does not have to be dull… take HEMA, the Dutch department store. Turn your sound up, click the link above and then wait a few seconds after it has loaded. Go on… it’s Friday
This is what I love about the internet as you could never do that with a brochure.
Not quite as slick as the IKEA sequence from the movie Fight Club but it shows we’re getting there. Overlay.tv is a new start-up with a great infomercial viral movie (see below), that enables users to overlay content on top of video. This content can be just for fun and games or it can actually link to other pages - ideal for one-click purchase of some shoes in the new Sex and the City film!
OK, so it’s a few steps from movies as currently it only enables video streams from popular video sharing sites like YouTube, MySpace TV, Google Video, Yahoo! Video, and College Humor but that’s pretty impressive to start with (although similar to Ooyala).
Nice, but what about the retailers? Well, they’ve already signed up over 600 including Amazon, iTunes and Wal-Mart. Add in the fact it works in both IE and FireFox (sorry no Safari, Apple peeps) and that users can even turn off overlays means this is one exciting piece of tech. If only it was running on the M&S site that we mentioned a few days ago…
This website mistake by Marks and Spencer made a few of us laugh in the office.
Note how the lovely Tribeca boasts “modern curves, soft-look styling and durable hardwood feet” which make her suitable for any “contemporary living room”. Fancy cuddling up to her? Well, her “cushions” are lovingly crafted from “shape-retaining foam” and her frame “exceeds the British Standards set for heavy domestic use”… let’s not even think about the domestic use this model would receive in the wrong hands! But if you do fancy giving Tribeca some heavy domestic use, rest assured that “detailed care instructions are included”
It has since been taken off their site - I wonder if my order for four of them will get lost in the post?
