Wednesday, December 10, 2008

AOL Readies High-Stakes Social-Media Debut - WSJ.com

Hmm…

In the world of social networking, it's time for AOL's big debut, and there's a lot of money riding on the outcome.

In March, the Time Warner unit said it would plunk down $850 million for Bebo, the No. 3 social-media Web site by unique visitors, which has yet to gain a foothold in the U.S. and has lost share in Britain, its strongest market, to rival Facebook.

[…]

Bebo Chief Executive Joanna Shields has been working with her team on the relaunch of the site since the acquisition closed in May. On Wednesday, Bebo (pronounced BEE-bo) plans to unveil the first of a series of changes.

[…]

Ms. Shields says the market will figure out an advertising model eventually and that Bebo is well-positioned to succeed. "You would have to be stupid," she says. "You would have to trip to not succeed at this at some point."

I guess we’ll soon find out.  In the meantime, also see Social-Networking Ad Dollars Shrink in today’s WSJ.

AOL Readies High-Stakes Social-Media Debut - WSJ.com

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