LinkedIn's Competition Is Growing

NEW YORK (Trefis ) -- LinkedIn(LNKD) has seen rapid growth in its monthly unique visitors, from 4.5 million in 2007 to around 50.5 million in 2010. We expect growth to continue, although at a slower pace, due to the larger base effect. New features like LinkedIn Today, LinkedIn Swarm and LinkedIn Skill have beefed up the number of visitors to LinkedIn.

However, competition from other online recruitment services and social media platforms is always increasing.

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US debt: How did superpower reach brink of default?

WASHINGTON: How did the United States, the world's richest nation and sole superpower, come to the brink of a catastrophic default on its debt that could send shockwaves through the fragile world economy? 
Dire economic downturns -- including the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s -- giant tax cuts, costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a pricey new health program for the elderly all helped sour Washington's fiscal picture. 
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Google+ Pulls In 20 Million in 3 Weeks

By AMIR EFRATI - WSJ

When Google Inc. launched its Google+ social-networking site three weeks ago, executives

handed out sailor hats to the hundreds of employees working on the project, symbolizing their

year-long journey to that point.

So far, the sailing has been mostly smooth. On Wednesday, Web-traffic watcher comScore Inc.

estimated Google+ has had 20 million unique visitors since its launch, including five million

visitors from the U.S. A Google spokeswoman declined comment.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904233404576460394032418286.html#ixzz1Ss53DjY9

Apple likely to replace Exxon Mobil as world's most valuable company

SAN FRANCISCO: Based on Apple's growth trajectory, and a number of catalysts in the pipeline -- from a possible new iPhone this fall to expansions in China -- investors and analysts say Apple could unseat Exxon in the next six months, or latest by the middle of next year. 

The market value of the top U.S. technology company was only $52 billion short of Exxon's $410 billion on Wednesday, even though the largest of the oil majors rakes in more than four times Apple's annual revenue.
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To Monetize Social Media, Humanize It

HBR Blog Network

by Amy Jo Martin

Hi, I'm Amy. A quick introduction is in order here because, while you don't know me, you may know my work. I've spent the past three years building an online brand you may know called Shaquille O'Neal. It's been an amazing voyage navigating the uncharted waters of social media with this Columbus-like pioneer of the medium. Through many experiments with @SHAQ, @DoubleTree by Hilton and@TheRock among others, I've created some best practices, and I've identified some worst practices. I've built my owntwitter presence and started a company, Digital Royalty, which assists brands of all types in increasing their influence using social channels.

I'm here to share all of this with you in a series of posts that will focus mostly on what I deal with everyday, which is the tension that persists between serious social media advocates like myself and the CEOs and boardrooms that I work with. At the highest levels of companies, a remarkably naïve cynicism about social media remains. Put it this way: If I gained a follower every time a CEO rolled his eyes at me when I said "Twitter," I'd be Lady Gaga (11.2 million followers).

The executives' skepticism seems to be rooted in the remarkably persistent idea that social media somehow is not worth their time, a fad, or not for serious business. I'm here to argue that their position is not only foolish, but also irresponsible.

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Goldman says recession risk rising

By Colin Barr July 18, 2011

A recession is "clearly a possibility," the bank that until recently was America's biggest booster said in cutting its economic growth forecasts yet again.

Goldman Sachs, which just seven months ago was the loudest voice for a stronger than expected U.S. recovery, now expects U.S. output to creep ahead at a snaillike 1.5% clip in the second quarter and a less than vigorous 2% in the third.

Friday's call stands as quite a comedown for economist Jan Hatzius, who in May forecast a 2% expansion in the second quarter and a 3.25% gain in the third quarter – numbers that themselves represented a retreat from the firm's bullish start-of-the-year forecast.

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Android Could Be A Billion-Dollar Business, For Microsoft

posted by TREFIS TEAM
Android is the leading smartphone platform in the world with over 500,000 device activations every day. It is one of Google’s most successful businesses helping Google capture mobile search market share and revenues that will top $1.3 billion in 2012. Microsoft owns several patents relating to Android technology and so Android’s success is quickly becoming a boon for Microsoft, which has established licensing agreements with several Android manufacturers to settle patent infringement claims. After landing several key licensing agreements and with a big Samsung agreement reportedly in the works, Android is well on its way to becoming one of Microsoft’s fastest growing money makers.
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The Problem with Groupon's Business Model - Rita McGrath - Harvard Business Review

The Problem with Groupon's Business Model - Rita McGrath - Harvard Business Review

Groupon is poised for its debut as a public company. One of the fastest growing of the recent hatch of Internet darlings, the deal-a-day company was worth $5.3 billion to Google just a few short months ago, in November of 2010. Somewhat astonishingly, Google's offer was spurned and the company set its sights on going public. The smart money went along, with Groupon valued at $15-20 billion, according to some observers anticipating rich pickings in the IPO-to-come.

How Banks Plan To Compete With Groupon

Jul. 11 2011 - 12:00 pm
Credit card companies are sitting on a wealth of information about their clients — they have a running record of everything they buy. Due to strict rules entitling consumers to financial privacy, though, banks are limited in the secondary use of that data. However, they’ve happened upon a rather ingenious way to work around that restriction.
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US trade deficit tops $50bn on rising oil prices

AFP

3:44PM BST 12 Jul 2011

The trade gap expanded to a seasonally adjusted $50.2bn from a downwardly revised $43.6bn in April, according to figures released by the Commerce Department.

Most analysts had expected the gap to increase only marginally in May, to around $44bn, after the April deficit shrank to the lowest level of the year, reflecting the impact on US supply chains of Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster.

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Facebook vs Google tech wars: Isn't this also a Microsoft vs Apple thing?

Kamya Jaiswal, ET Bureau Jul 10, 2011, 11.51am IST
When 750 million people across the world are allowed to make free video calls, it is "something awesome". Especially because these 750 million want to talk to each other — they are friends on Facebook. But when you compare it with a service that allows 10 simultaneous video calls for free, Facebook's big bang seems a desperate catch-up. What makes the blow worse is that they are playing catch-up with a service launched just three weeks ago – Google +.
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Groupon, Living Social and the Wait to Get Paid

• Joshua M Brown
 
• July 10th, 2011

• News broke at the end of this week that social offers site Living Social was signing with Deutsche, Bank of America and JPMorgan to underwrite an initial public offering.  This follows Groupon's filing which included a risk disclosure section that read like late-career Edgar Allen Poe.
  While there is no question that these deals will be red hot, at least initially, there is a huge gap in understanding how these companies differ from each other.  The differences are important, they will ultimately determine valuation and market share.
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Oil sands in Canada eyed by U.S., China

Rob Gillies, Associated Press

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Calgary, Alberta -- In the northern reaches of Alberta lies a vast reserve of oil that the United States views as a pillar of its future energy needs.
China, with a growing appetite for oil that may one day surpass that of the United States, is ready to spend the dollars for a big piece of it. The oil sands of this Canadian province are so plentiful that they will be able to serve both of the world's largest economies as production expands in the coming years. But that will mean building at least two pipelines, one south to the Texas Gulf Coast and another west toward the Pacific, and that in turn means fresh environmental battles on top of those already raging over the costly and energy-intensive method of extracting oil from sand.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/09/BUUV1K1BAU.DTL#ixzz1Rkc5QaZO

New Financing Values Twitter As High As $7 Billion

WSJ:
Twitter Inc., the fast-growing Internet messaging service, is privately raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a new financing round that values the company at as high as $7 billion, said a person familiar with the matter.
The move comes seven months after Twitter, which lets people broadcast and read messages called tweets, raised $200 million in a financing round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers that valued the company at $3.7 billion. It's unclear which investors are participating in the new round.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304803104576428020830361278.html#ixzz1RGhTRAzY

Moody's Warns on China Debt

WSJ:
Moody's Investors Service said China's main government auditor may have understated banks' loans to local governments by half a trillion dollars, escalating the ratings firm's warnings that the scale of such loans could pose a threat to China's banking system.‬
‪In the absence of a clear plan to reduce local-government debt, Moody's views the credit outlook for Chinese banking system as potentially turning to negative, the ratings firm said Tuesday.‬
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Netflix expands to 43 new countries

By Julianne Pepitone @CNNMoneyTech July 5, 2011: 12:16 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Netflix is rapidly expanding its international service, with plans to launch in 43 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean later this year.
The new markets -- which include Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean -- will give those members access to Netflix content in Spanish, Portuguese or English. They'll be able to watch "American, local and global TV," Netflix said Tuesday.

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