Earlier this week we examined why Zynga is shedding users, causing its stock price to almost halve from its December IPO level. Zynga rose to prominence on the back of a farming simulation social game called FarmVille. Its success spawned a series of other ‘Ville’ games, such as CityVille, CastleVille, FishVille and PetVille. The theme … Read more

Sports news website Bleacher Report (B/R) was mentioned twice in Mary Meeker’s 2012 Internet Trends report: as an example of re-imagination of both sports news and TV. Bleacher Report, founded in 2006 by four sports fans from Silicon Valley, has become so influential that Time Warner is rumored to be trying to acquire it. What … Read more

Social gaming company Zynga had an outstanding 2011, leading to a well-hyped IPO in December. But Zynga’s biggest risk was always an over-reliance on Facebook, with most of its revenue and users coming from the social network. It’s now six months after Zynga’s IPO and its stock price has halved, currently sitting at under $5. … Read more

Mary Meeker’s recent Internet Trends presentation introduced a new buzzword into the tech world: reimagination. Meeker listed 50 different market categories that are in the process of being reimagined – in other words, disrupted or changed. Over the coming months, we’ll profile some of the leading reimagineers of this Web era. We start with a … Read more

One in every ten tablet users views video content almost daily on their device, according to a new report by comScore. The study also found that tablet users are nearly three times more likely to watch video on their device compared to smartphone users. Nearly one in four smartphone owners now owns a tablet, according … Read more

Despite GroupOn’s stock price struggles this year, online commerce is a market ripe for disruption. OpenSky is a relatively new e-commerce site that is getting buzz and gaining traction, thanks in part to the presence of celebrities like Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi. OpenSky started off tapping Twitter for inspiration (you “follow” celebrities with similar … Read more

Today location check-in app Foursquare unveiled a new design for its iOS and Android mobile apps. It now focuses on recommending places for you to go, based on your current location. It’s also more social. This is a sensible pivot, but Foursquare is not yet at the place it needs to be. My usage of … Read more

Since ReadWriteWeb was acquired by SAY Media in December, we’ve been busy beefing up our editorial and writing team. Today I’m pleased to welcome Fredric Paul and Ted Greenwald to our growing team. Fred as our Business Editor, Ted as a Senior Editor. The two will be based in SAY Media’s San Francisco office, alongside … Read more

“Study the past if you would define the future.” Confucius, Chinese philosopher. In this new ReadWriteWeb series, we look back on products that were important innovations of their time. But this isn’t merely nostalgia. As Confucius said, we’ll make it relevant by identifying lessons to apply now and in the future. We start with a … Read more

You’ve got a new piece of content you want to share, but where do you put it? Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, your WordPress blog… all of the above?! With these and many other options to choose from, posting on the Web can be confusing – even a little stressful. But never fear, ReadWriteWeb is … Read more

YouTube has come to define the era of online video, so let’s take a look at its most popular videos of all time. Our latest update has Justin Bieber still at number one with Baby, which was the first video to earn a half a billion views. Also of note is Jennifer Lopez’s music video … Read more

One of the most interesting statistics in Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends presentation was that in India, the world’s second largest Internet market, the Mobile Web surpassed the Desktop Web during May 2012. A closer analysis reveals that a) mobile only passed desktop during weekends; and b) India’s mobile stats are vastly different from any other … Read more

Today at the D10 Conference, star analyst Mary Meeker gave her latest presentation of Internet Trends. You can download the presentation here (PDF), or view it at the bottom of this post. It’s well worth spending time perusing the whole presentation, but here are the main takeaways. Get ready for lots of re-imagining and proof … Read more

Today, Google announced two new computers, the latest Chromebook laptop and a new desktop machine called the Chromebox. After reading Jon Mitchell’s thorough review, it became apparent that there’s now very little difference in user experience between the Chromebook and a traditional laptop (for example, one from HP that runs on a Windows OS). Should … Read more

94% of American wineries surveyed by ABLE Social Media Marketing are on Facebook and 73% are on Twitter. The study, done in December 2011, shows that American wineries are active in social media and that it’s producing results. 47% of US wineries said that Facebook helps them generate sales (72% sell wine on their website). … Read more