Mediaboss Marketing

Debate no more: Admist the bubble hype, social networking startups proved their worth this year by making big moves and big money.

Between all the bubble talk, the IPO rumors, and the acquisitions at every turn, its safe to say that 2012 was the year social startups grew up. Despite the undeniable presence of social media in our lives, how much actual money its capable of making has been up for debate.

Well debate no more: In 2012, we saw these startups transition from experimental pipe dreams led by tiny teams into enterprise level companies and Wall Street fodder.

After more than a year of will they or well it was really just when will they, Facebook filed its S-1 forms in February, starting the IPO process. What began in a college dorm had officially become a billion dollar company and its worth no longer debatable.

Transitioning from a privately owned and operated company to a public one wasnt without hurdles, however. Shortly after Facebook shares became available for trading, its stock rose and then fell. And then fell some more. It was enough for some to cry social media overvaluation (again). But since this initial instability, things have begun to level out. Despite any concerns over whether Facebook can monetize its platform, the company has continued to iterate new marketing products its not all poking and drunk photos and Farmville anymore. Now, its Sponsored Stories and Promoted Posts and frictionless sharing. The times, oh how they have changed

While Twitter is still a private company, its made some heavy-handed enterprise, big business-level moves this year. Over 2012, Twitter boldly went from a developers playground, an ever-morphing experiment in worldwide, real-time communication, to a marketing, advertising paradise.

That isnt to say the social network eschewed its roots completely, mind you. The platform is still full of the celebrities to stalk, has continued to prove itself a valuable communication medium in times of trouble, and is hands down a go-to source for breaking news. But also, all that stuff about being a marketing and advertising platform has become really, really, really important to Twitter.

This past summer, Twitter announced it would be taking control of the Twitter experience. Over the course of the past few months, the company has taken many measures to make sure eyeballs are being sent to its site, its mobile apps, and leaving many third party developers behind while doing so. And, of course, it has the right to, but the message was clear: Twitter is playing for keeps where ad dollars are concerned. The social networking experiment phase is over, and things are getting quite professional over there.

Facebook and Twitter are social media veterans, which makes Instagrams meteoric rise all the more proof that social startups are not a money pit or a fluke. Instagram officially launched in 2010 as a tiny team, and co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom was responsible for much of the back end work himself.

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Big moves, big money, and the year social-media startups proved their worth

Dec. 1

Enrique Pena Nieto takes the oath of office as Mexico's new president promising to return peace and security and to take on the vested interests and sacred cows that have kept a lid on the country's economic prosperity.

Dec 2

An Associated Press analysis of trade data shows that in just five years, China has surpassed the United States as a trading partner for much of the world, including U.S. allies such as South Korea and Australia.

Dec. 3

The most widely anticipated pregnancy since Princess Diana's in 1981 is official: Prince William's wife, Kate, is pregnant.

Dec. 4

A protest by at least 100,000 Egyptians outside the presidential palace in Cairo turns violent as tensions grow over Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's seizure of nearly unrestricted powers and a draft constitution hurriedly adopted by his allies.

Dec. 5

Gunmen loyal to opposite sides in neighbouring Syria's civil war battle in the streets of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli where two days of clashes have killed at least six people and wounded more than 50.

More:
Chronology of news events in 2012

All across Silicon Valley, the past year was filled practically to the brim with killer quotes out of the mouths of (reality-TV show) babes, billionaires and budding entrepreneurs.

We had deep thoughts from CEOs playing musical chairs, embarrassing mea culpas from corporate chieftains, and whining from startup celebrities with too much twittering time on their hands. All in all, we couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Here are some of our favorite sound bites from a well-chewed year.

"Silicon Valley is high school, except it's only the smart kids, and everyone has a lot of money." -- Kim Taylor, entrepreneur and cast member of "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley," Bravo's critically-distained reality TV show produced by Mark Zuckerberg's sister Randi and highlighting the lives of aspiring tech superstars.

"Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don't own your photos -- you do." -- Kevin Systrom, co-founder of the popular and now Facebook-owned photo-social app, in a blog post apologizing to outraged users for the insensitive way the service announced updates to its terms of service agreement.

"I believe Larry Ellison will bring a new and fresh perspective to the island and its people." -- David Murdock, the

"The wealth from our family came from Microsoft, so why would we invest in a competitor?" -- Melinda Gates, philanthropist and wife of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, on British radio in reference to her kids having asked her for Apple (AAPL) products. Instead, she said, they will be receiving "Windows technology.''

"The thing that surprised me is that the job is really fun . . . and the baby's been easy. The baby's been way easier than everyone made it out to be. I've been really lucky that way.'' -- Newly minted Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer, speaking at Fortune's Most Powerful Women event in November about the two new loves of her life -- her work gig and her first child, son Macallister Bogue. She returned to the former just two weeks after having delivered the latter on Sept. 30.

"Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad, and they've failed miserably. These are not great experiences." -- Apple's marketing guru Phil Schiller in October as his company unveiled its mini iPad, which he obviously believes offers an insanely great experience.

"What's a better story (than) millionaire madman on the run? You [the media] saved my (expletive deleted) because you paid attention to the story. As long as you are reporting, it is hard to whack somebody that the world is watching.'' -- Eccentric millionaire and rabid publicity-hound John McAfee, speaking to ABC News after dodging authorities trying to question him about the death of his ex-pat American neighbor in Belize. McAfee founded the anti-virus software company bearing his name.

See the article here:
We look back on the best Silicon Valley business quotes of 2012

What to watch fortoday

Merkel sounds a gloomy note. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will say in her annual new years address that the eurozone crisis is far from over and that the economic environment will be more difficult in 2013. She appeared to contradict her own finance minister, Wolfgang Schuble, who said a couple of days ago that the worst was over.

The US will go over the fiscal cliff. Maybe. US lawmakers came back to the capital for a rare Sunday session. As both Republicans and Democrats fanned out to the usual Sunday talk shows, they were at first optimistic that some kind of temporary agreement would be reached in Washington, in order to avoid an tax hikes on pretty much everyone in America and oddities like runaway prices for milk. By the afternoon, it appeared that talks had stalled. Then Senate majority leader Harry Reid admitted that Congress was real close to the point that negotiations over even a temporary solution would collapse, possibly because of a debate over changes to Social Security. Suddenly, the odds on Intrade of a fiscal cliff deal by the absolute deadline, Dec. 31, plunged to 2.2%. Yet Republican senator Lindsey Grahamsaid the critical 80 votes needed in the Senate were in fact available for some sort of deal, and pundits reminded us that, as always, any public statements about cliff negotiations are probably a lot of posturing. Will the US fruitlessly go over the fiscal cliff, plunging the country into a UK-style double dip recession?

Markets are going to freak out over the fiscal cliff. If it happens. US financial markets have demonstrated a willingness to send the price of futures down precipitously at even the whiff of a breakdown in the talks over resolving the fiscal cliff. President Barack Obama emphasized this point, noting that if lawmakers go home without a deal, markets will have an adverse reaction. If selloffs in US markets reverberate across the globe, that could prove to be an understatement: Quartzs Simone Foxman notes that US markets could end 2012 with the craziest trading day of the year.

Black Monday for the NFL. At least six National Football League teams in the US are expected to fire their head coaches or general managers today in an annual ritual following the end of the regular season.

UN ends peacekeeping in East Timor. The United Nations is counting the seven-year mission as a success after two relatively calm presidential elections and the retraining of the police force. Peacekeepers previously pulled out in 2005 after shepherding the country into independence, but returned the next year amid unrest.

While you were sleeping

Chinese manufacturing survey optimistic. The monthly HSBC Purchasing Managers Index rose to 51.5, itshighest level in a year and a halfand adding to signs of Chinese economic momentum. Survey data indicated the new orders were driven by domestic orders, likely tied to infrastructure development, rather than exports.

Zynga pared its offerings. The social gaming companyshut down, or stopped accepting new players for, 11 games including Mafia Wars 2 and PetVille, as part of cost-cutting efforts to focus on more successful games and new titles.

Japan seizes Chinese fishing vessel. Japans coastguard seized a vessel and its captain inside its 200-mile nautical exclusion zone, on suspicion of coral fishing. Its the latest event in a long-running stand-off over territorial waters between the two.

See the article here:
Quartz Daily Brief—Fiscal cliff, euro gloom, PetVille, girl gang leaders

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