Google Invests $200m in Zynga gaming company
According to an article in New Media Age, speculation is growing over Google launching its own gaming service after it invested up to $200m in the online gaming company Zynga.
Zynga is the creator of many of the most popular games on Facebook, such as Texas Hold’em and Farmville and recently agreed deals to add its titles to Microsoft and Yahoo portals.
Japan’s Softbank Capital led the investment with a $150m outlay joined by $180m from Digital Sky Technologies. The investments helped Zynga raise close to $500m in the past year and although both Google and Zynga declined to respond to the speculation, sources close to the deal report that Google intends to make Zynga the foundation of its Google Games platform.
Facebook’s US Weekly traffic exceeds Google’s for the first time
According to an article at New Media Age, web analytics firm Experian Hitwise reported that Facebook was the most visited US website last week, with traffic accounting for 7.07% of all US web traffic which was higher than Googles 7.04%.
Even though Facebook have managed to achieve a higher volume of visits than Google on numerous days in the past, this is the first time that Facebooks average weekly figures have exceeded that of Googles.
Heather Dougherty, the director of Hitwise, considers this achievement over Google by Facebook as an ‘important milestone’ and again marks the importance of social media and these implications for businesses.
Google rakes in the cash from brand bidding
It seems that Google’s relaxation of their trademark advertising policy on PPC has ended up costing the advertiser a lot more than they anticipated when they bid on their own brand. According to IPA’s Search group, who have collated data from 17 agencies, the CTR has dropped by 8%, while the price of an individual click has risen by over 30%. Read the rest of this entry »
Media opportunities for affiliates targeting the UK – outside of search
On 17 October Google UK reversed its 2004 decision banning PPC on gambling-related search terms. This change in direction may lead to the biggest shift in the UK gaming industry since UIGEA in September 2006. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Gambles
So search engine giant Google has today started accepting online gaming advertisers on its paid search application. What effect will this have on the gaming industry and how it is advertises across the Internet? Read the rest of this entry »
