WebM

The social media sector was up 2% this week as LNKD’s Q4/12 results dominated with strong numbers across all of its business segments, driving the stock up 21% on the week. YELP also performed well after an initial lukewarm reaction to its Q4/12 numbers, but ZNGA led the sector in weekly performance with a gain of 28%, mainly on stronger-than-expected financial results and perhaps the speculation of potential online gambling opportunities in New Jersey (we remain cautious on ZNGA due to its disastrous previous two quarters).

Read more

The social media sector was flat this week as FB’s Q4 results failed to impress investors who expected dramatic gains in mobile revenue (see commentary below) and YHOO also failed to excite with its earnings and 2013 outlook. However, for the calendar year of 2013, the social media sector is still up 8% and next week we will see notable earnings from ZNGA, YELP, and LNKD. ANGI led in weekly performance with a gain of 8%, mainly from a new payments partnership with Square and an upgrade from analysts ahead of its earnings in two weeks.

Read more

The social media sector performed well this week with an average weekly gain of 2% as GOOG’s Q4/12 earnings drove the company up 7%, showing marginal CPC improvement, which have been under pressure in the last year due to the continued user shift from desktop to mobile (see Commentary). Pandora’s stock also rebounded strongly, though this was not based on any fundamental news, but rather it is likely on speculation of improved mobile ad performance flimsily based on GOOG’s results.

Read more

The social media sector has roared so far in 2013 with an average gain of 6% this week as institutional interest intensified. P and WEBM (the parent company of SocialTimes) led the group with gains of 16% and 15%, respectively, although these moves were not news driven. FB had an impressive gain of 11% largely as a result of the new buoyant outlook from several research analysts on opportunities in mobile and Gifts for 2013. The company was also able to capitalize on a somewhat quiet week of news for the rest of the sector by rolling out voice messages capability in Facebook Messages and by launching the test of a new free VOIP service in Canada.

Read more

In a quiet holiday week heading towards 2013, there was little meaningful news and accordingly, the social media sector was down a percent. WEBM, the parent company of SocialTimes, led the week with a 3% gain, but the performance of most stocks was somewhat driven by year-end trading on tax considerations. For 2012, the five pure play social stocks with the most visibility (FB, GOOG, LNKD, YELP, and ZNGA) showed uneven performance for the year, with a combined average gain of 1%, despite significant volatility and variance (see below for more details).

Read more

The social media sector was up an average of 4% this week as it rebounded from last week’s negative performance. There were no real fundamental drivers to value that standout, but it is notable that continued downward pressure on AAPL shares (perhaps unfounded) did not drag the sector down. Also of interest is that WEBM (the parent company of Social Times) rebounded strongly with a 15% gain on the week.

Read more

The social media sector was down an average of 4% this week as it was negatively impacted by Pandora’s Q3 report (as detailed below) and Q4 concerns for AAPL. There was downward pressure on FB shares despite its potential addition to the NASDAQ 100 index next week, which should promote further institutional purchases through rebalancing. GRPN shares surged on Friday on renewed takeover speculation even though there were no fundamental developments.

Read more

How many of your friends have the same smartphone that you use? If smartphones become our primary computers and the only way one accesses social networks, then to be able to share things like video with our friends it is important that video can play on our friend’s smartphones, regardless of the phone’s operating system. Today this is not the case because Flash, which accounts for the majority of the video on the Internet today, is not supported by the iPhone. WebM is an open media format that hopefully will be supported by all smartphone platforms in the future, making it easier to share video.
Read more

Yesterday Google Chrome announced that they would drop H.264 support. We ask a few questions and look at the possibilities of why they would do something so rash.

Read more