Research firm eMarketer has put together a few interesting data points that show Google doing better in display ads than you might have realized. That is, by growing this business across properties and networks that it at some point acquired — YouTube, DoubleClick, and mobile (AdMob) — it’s set to pass Facebook’s own display business.

The social network had the highest online ad sales of any company in the U.S. last year, at $1.73 billion. But that was a mere $200 million or so above Google. This year, eMarketer expects a similar story, with Facebook bringing in $2.58 billion versus Google’s $2.54 billion. Things change in 2013 and 2014, further off from what the data can tell us accurately.

The firm thinks Facebook’s growth rate is going to plummet after this year, down to 13 percent in 2014, while Google’s is going to continue at nearly 50 percent through 2013 and still at nearly 30 percent in 2014.

I’m not ready to bet on that.

The estimates are based on publicly available documents from both companies, and other sources. On Google’s side, its earnings from last quarter indicated that its non-search ads were on track to reach $5 billion a year, or 12 percent of its total business. This is double what it brought in over the previous five quarters. YouTube is getting better and better at monetizing videos, DoubleClick is a market leader in online display ads, and AdMob has a strong position across mobile platforms. I agree it makes sense to be bullish about this part of Google’s business.

On Facebook’s side, eMarketer’s original estimate for its revenue had been $2.01 billion in the US, but Facebook’s S-1 filing proved this to be around 15 percent over what it actually was. The projections here read as if eMarketer feels burned by being so positive about last year. But the report manages to qualify itself in the event that Facebook revenue does in fact start to grow more quickly, by noting the potential benefits of newer advertising features like Sponsored Stories.

That’s the thing. Facebook’s ad business is still young, the company is fine-tuning all sorts of interesting features, and there are other ways that the business could see new growth, for example if Facebook launches a web-wide ad network that competes with DoubleClick and the rest of the online ad industry. 2013 and 2014 are a long ways off, and other numbers like traffic are looking fine.

• GOOGLE

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps and YouTube. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing them with a rich source of information….

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/CJYkk-Hagrw/

As you probably know, bistable or passive displays like the E-Ink ones in e-readers focus on battery life and readability rather than color and interactivity. The latest devices have been optimized for fast page refreshes and touch operation, but generally you’re still waiting a half a second or so for the screen to flip over to the next page, menu, or what have you.

But that’s not all they’re capable of. We’ve seen hacks before, but this one definitely takes the cake. Check out this video of a Nook Touch from XDA hacker marspeople:

Bear in mind this is strictly a hack and not a full-on release or commercially developed product. Most people wouldn’t want to use the device in this state: it’s not consistent in how fast it responds, there are graphical glitches, and it probably drains the battery like crazy. But the fact is they’ve got a passive display refreshing ~15-20 times per second and responding to touches instantly like a normal tablet.

The possibilities for this generation of readers are limited: few people are going to install a hack like this, and even if they did, not much content is really designed to be consumed this way. Pages are a natural way to read books, and scrolling constantly is kind of a pain. But it’s amazing to see these displays, usually so slow and static, being used so actively. Here’s hoping the next displays from E-Ink (or Bridgestone, or whoever) are capable of even more. Despite what people might say, the passive display still has a lot of potential to grow and evolve.

[via The Digital Reader]

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HP just reported mixed first quarter earnings. The company posted non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.92, down 32 percent from the prior-year period (GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.73, down 38 percent from the prior-year period). First quarter net revenue came in at $30 billion, down 7 percent from the previous year. Analysts expected earnings of $0.87 cents a share on revenue of $30.7 billion. GAAP Net Income was down 44 percent to $1.5 billion.

“In the first quarter, we delivered on our Q1 outlook and remained focused on the fundamentals to drive long-term sustainable returns,” Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalize on emerging opportunities to reassert HP’s technology leadership.”

In the Americas, first quarter revenue was $13.2 billion, down 9 percent year over year. Europe, the Middle East and Africa revenue of $11.7 billion was down 4 percent year over year, and revenue in Asia Pacific was $5.2 billion, representing a 10 percent decrease year over year.

Revenue from outside of the United States in the first quarter accounted for 66 percent of total HP revenue. BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) generated revenue of $3.1 billion, down 13 percent from the year-ago period, and representing 10 percent of total HP revenue. Revenue in HP’s commercial businesses declined 4 percent year over year. Revenue in HP’s consumer businesses, within PSG and IPG, was collectively down 23 percent year over year.

In terms of specific product lines, the Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue declined 15 percent year over year, and services revenue of $8.6 billion grew 1 percent year over year with a 10.5 percent operating margin. Imaging and Printing Group revenue declined 7 percent year over year. Consumer hardware revenue was down 15 percent year over year.Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN) revenue declined 10 percent year over year.

On the bright side, software revenue grew 30 percent year over year with a 17.1 percent. HP says software revenue was driven by 12 percent license growth, 22 percent support growth and 108 percent growth in services.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/LlvRYJT-jpU/

While the early history of the Internet is littered with the corpses of music start-ups, not all digital music companies have failed. Take, for example, Gracenote. Founded in 1998, the Berkeley based company was sold to Sony in 2008 for $260 million and is one of the real pioneers of the evolving digital economy. Gracenote has built its business out of maintaining and licensing a massive (currently 100 million tracks) database of information about music. And today, Gracenote – with its 350 employees in Europe, the US and Asia – is expanding into licensing digital data for video and television content.

Last week, at SFMusicTech, I sat down with Ty Roberts, Gracenote’s co-founder and current CTO, to learn more about his company’s past and future. The experienced data mogul was particularly wise on our uses and abuses of data, warning that a failure to respect user’s data (Path, Facebook, Google, Twitter et al) is not only immoral but also bad business practice. And Roberts also offered some sagacious advice to music executives, arguing that traditional, file based information no longer has much value and that there was a need to radically change the way in which music is both packaged and sold to consumers.

My conversation with Roberts is part of an extended series of interviews about the current state of the online music industry that I conducted last week at SFMusicTech. Other interviews include the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen and Stageit CEO Evan Lowenstein.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/a2SWERR_fN0/

Last Friday I visited the Aol* building on Page Mill Road in Palo Alto. But instead of the stench of death and decay you would normally find at a dying company, I found joy and the hustle and bustle of youth. More importantly, I found startups, tens of startups with founders eager to show me around the various VC firms (SoftTech, Morado) and incubators occupying the building’s first floor.

Because someone brilliant at Aol decided to give away the space to startup incubators instead of renting it out to other dead men walking companies, it was filled with light and life. Whoever you are, you’re a genius.

Anyways, on the first floor of this huge Aol building, in addition to StartX and education-focused incubator Imagine K-12, is a modest accelerator called First Floor Labs.

Founded by Stanford MBA and Former Facebooker Maisy Samuelson and Aol Ventures dude Adam Smith, First Floor Labs basically provides office space and amenities like a kitchen and a gym to pre-Series A teams of between one to four people — startups that would otherwise work out of coffee shops or apartments. Thanks to an Aol Ventures sponsorship, the space is free for six months to all accepted startups without further obligation or any equity transferral.

Samuelson says that she and Smith are in it because they are passionate about startups and the tech community (In Smith’s case having early access to hot startups never hurts a VC), “I love working with an established company to help the next generation of entrepreneurs succeed. It’s amazing to have so much talent and energy in one room. “

“Smoopa grew from 20,000 downloads to more than 100,000 downloads while we were in First Floor Labs and it’s been great to have smart people around to help us scale,” First Floor Labs resident and Smoopa co-founder Mendel Chuang told me, “The amount of knowledge and expertise in this community is incredible.”

Already one startup, Digital Staircase, has gone to Facebook, while three (stealth) others made it into the current YCombinator class (only three applied).

Applications for First Floor Labs spring session, which will house 15 startups instead of 10, are due on March 9th. Also, I’m going to try work out of there every Thursday from now on, so if you’re around, come say hi!

*Disclosure: TechCrunch is owned by Aol, in case this is your first time visiting the Internet. I think they write it ‘AOL’ though.

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Every time a dating site succeeds in making a match, it loses two users. To offset churn, Zoosk tells me that tomorrow it’s announcing a new business model that complements subscriptions with date discounts, expert relationship advice, gift ideas, holiday reminders and online scrapbooks. The products could convince users to pay even after they’ve found their sweethearts. If users fall in love with the new revenue streams, the whole dating industry could start courting happy couples.

Zoosk now has 15 million monthly active users across its site, mobile, and Facebook app. It also has a $90 million annual sales run rate, up from $20 million in 2009. Still, it’s had to raise $40.5 million to buy ads and failed dating sites so it could replace the users who canceled their subscriptions once they’ve found a mate. Most users don’t want to look like losers by sharing their Zoosk activity on Facebook or Twitter, so the service misses out on the organic virality enjoyed in other verticals.

But Zoosk may have found a way out of this downward spiral. While a $12-$30 monthly subscription may seem expensive, singles, and men in particular, are used to forking over cash to impress dates with dinners, drinks, and nightlife. Zoosk could grow profits if it captured some of this spend by offering discount package dates similar to romantic experience subscription service BeCouply.

Once a couple emerges from the high-priced date honeymoon period, Zoosk could sell them on reminders and gift ideas. It could take cut of spend on birthdays, Valentine’s Day, and the winter holidays, as well as digital scrapbooks.

Finally, Zoosk could identify couples on the verge of breakup through on-site behavior analysis that surfaces users returning to their profiles for the first time in months. Then it’s as simple as targeting them with in-house ads about how true love never dies and they’ll never find someone better.

[Image Credit: iStockPhoto]

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