$140,000,000 = Projected 2010 revenue in U.S. dollars according to Twitter February 2009 financial forecast leaked to TechCrunch. (*2)

100 million = Projected number of Twitter users in fourth quarter 2010 according to leaked spreadsheet. (*2)

75 million = Twitter members in May 2009 based on rough calculation of worldwide users, extrapolated from comScore and All Things D data (*3, *4)

$45,000,000 = Cash on hand in February 2009 raised from venture capital investors, less costs of operating the company. (*1, 2)

37,323,0000 = active Twitter users worldwide during month of May, 2009 - ComScore market research (*3)

$4,400,000 = Projected 2009 year revenue according to leaked spreadsheet. Q4 2009 revenue expected to reach $4 million. (*2)

3-4 million = Harvard Business Review study finds that 10 percent of Twitter users account for more than 90 percent of tweets (*5)

$2,100,000 = Estimated costs of running Twitter with 60 employees in Q3, 2009 according to February 2009 internal financial projection. (*2)

1 million = "There's a million ways, if you are disseminating real-time info...(Twitter) could be commercially viable" - Twitter CEO (*6)

$400,000 = Twitter's projected 2009 Q3 revenue in U.S. dollars, according to leaked spreadsheet. (*1, *2)

$1 = Cost of each user to Twitter (TechCrunch). (*1)

$0 = Twitter's internal revenue projection for first half of 2009, according to internal forecast leaked to TechCrunch. (*2)

Footnotes:

*1 TechCrunch article based on leaked Twitter corporate documents it says were sent to it this week by a hacker. The blog's publisher, Michael Arrington, notes that membership figures and other assumptions are already out of date:

Twitter has told us that this was never an official document and it certainly is no longer accurate. But it gives an interesting glimpse into the company’s financial targets nonetheless.

Twitter confirmed some corporate documents were lost after an administrative employee's account was hacked. It has not confirmed any leaked details.

*2 Screenshot of Twitter February 2009 internal Financial Forecast spreadsheet document leaked to TechCrunch.

*3 37.3 mln users worldwide - ComScore data May 2009. This includes 16 million U.s. users. Using different measurement methods, Compete.com estimated that Twitter had 23 million U.S. users in June.

*4 A poll for the All Things D conference in May found 51 percent of U.S. Twitter users sign on less than once a month. Since comScore data only counts visitors older than 15 years old on a monthly basis, one can extrapolate that the 37.3 figure represents only the 49 percent of active users. The 75 million estimate combines active and inactive members who have signed up for an account but rarely or never visit Twitter. The poll surveyed 1,005 members of the U.S. general public and was conducted by by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.

*5 Harvard Business Review May 2009 study of 300,000 Twitter users:

At the same time there is a small contingent of users who are very active. Specifically, the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production ... The pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool. This implies that Twitter's resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network.

*6 Twitter Co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone interviewed at All Things D conference, May 2009.

Reuters story on document leak
Reuters commentary: Twitter should sell if it can

Too bad the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn’t charge for its information or make money off its website — they could have made a pile of cash on the swine flu scare. (You know, if it wasn’t a government site.)

Web traffic measurement firm comScore says traffic soared at CDC.gov last month, as people visited the website amid concerns over the H1N1, or swine, flu.

In April, CDC.gov saw a 142 percent increase in traffic, or 5.7 million visitors, making it the top audience gainer among websites, comScore said. “When news of the swine flu pandemic erupted, many Americans turned to the Internet as their primary source of information for how to keep themselves and their families safe,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president at comScore Media Metrix.

Social networks also continued their tear last month, growing 12 percent to nearly 140 million visitors. That’s about three-quarters of the U.S. online population, comScore says, so chances are someone you know is either is Twittering, Facebook-ing or on MySpace. Twitter jumped 83 percent to 17 million visitors, while Facebook grew 10 percent in April from the previous month to reach 67.5 million visitors. MySpace had 71 million visitors.

Keep an eye on:

• Will The Boston Globe’s biggest union balk at the New York Times Co offer? (The Boston Phoenix)
• Web entrepreneurs may no longer need venture capital dollars (The New York Times Bits blog)
• MGM scrambles to restructure its $3.7 billion debt pile (Financial Times)

Photo: Reuters

This may seem obvious to anybody who’s sat beside an iPhone user on the subway but ComScore’s latest research confirms it anyway. Games are one of the hottest iTunes Apps downloaded, and those who download them are well-paid social-site viewers ripe for some kind of new advertsing scheme.

According to the research firm twelve of the 25 most popular mobile apps were games including oldies like Hangman and Pac-man, and newer titles like “Cube Runner”, ”Crazy Penguin Catapult“, and (the top game) Tapulous’s “Tap Tap Revenge”. 

It cited Stylem Media’s “Backgrounds” applications as most downloaded of non-games, just ahead of social network apps like Facebook and MySpace. 

ComScore did not measure how much advertising already comes along with Apple apps, but did offer stats that seemed to say: “psst… there’s lots of advertising opportunity right here. “  

Among the facts about Apps Store shoppers:

• Apple app users are a “particularly desirable audience” for advertising with a higher-than-average income and a fondness for online media. 
• About 35 percent of app users are part of a household with an annual income of $100,000 or more while 54 percent make $75,000 or more, according to the research. 
• They are also at least three times more likely to visit entertainment, social networking and communications sites than the average Internet user, ComScore said. It named online destinations such as AOL Instant Messenger, Hulu, Twitter, Digg.com, iMeem MTV.com.

ComScore analyst Mark Donovan said the Apps store could become an even more effective place to sell adds after Apple starts to support new payment models such as subscriptions and the sale of add-on modules for existing applications, such as the addition of new destinations for a travel guide. But he said that advertisers will have to be careful not to be too intrusive on the app users.  

“We saw pop-up ads come and go. We’re in the process of learning the most effective ways of delivering mobile advertising” he said.

(Photo: Reuters)

How many times have you smacked your forehead in frustration after sending a bawdy e-mail to your boss that had been meant for a friend?

Until now, there had been no way to retrieve the missive. Even if the person’s on vacation, it’s only a matter of time before - as the saying goes - your nether region is grass. Enter Google’s Gmail Labs and “Undo Send”. If you enable the feature, every time you hit ‘send’, a button allowing you to ‘undo’ the send will pop up along with confirmation that the e-mail has been sent. You have five seconds to decide.

Etiquette hounds coach you to leave the “to” blank while you write an e-mail (especially if it’s a subject you feel strongly about) and not forward an e-mail without permission. As author and business consultant Tim Sanders says, “you never need to send an e-mail that’s regrettable.” But it happens all the time.

With Google’s snazzy new tool, if you click “undo”, the message is brought back to the first, “compose” screen. But it hasn’t won over everyone.

“That’s a really small window,” said Sanders, who was part of a May 2006 study on how people use e-mail. The study, which included 16,000 people, in part examined which e-mail messages were regrettable and why. “We make a lot of mistakes over e-mail that sabotage our lives,” Sanders said. “You’d need [the waiting period to be] a day to really prevent yourself from making mistakes.”

If you feel the same way and want, say, a drop-down menu where you can set the amount of time you want the undo option to last, let Gmail Labs know by sending them feedback. You’d be building a delay into a technology that is prized for its speediness, but it might save you your job.

These are just the sort of tricks that are increasing Google’s market share. Google saw a 32 percent worldwide increase in unique visitors to its Web sites last year, according to comScore. The total number of visitors topped 775 million - compared to Microsoft’s 20 percent increase to 647 million visitors and Yahoo’s 16 percent increase to 562.6 million visitors

Analysts say some of that growth is because of new features put out by Gmail Labs. At this point Gmail Labs only works with Internet Explorer 7.0+, Firefox 2.0+, Safari 3.0+ and Google Chrome.

– Reporting by Clare Baldwin

The jury is out on whether advertising will ever work for online video sites as they strive to become real profit-generating businesses. Well, it’s worked for Hulu, but not in the profit-generating kind of way — at least not right away.

Hulu jumped to become the fourth most-watched video site in the United States last month thanks to a major advertising spot during the Super Bowl, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore in this Reuters story. Those spots featured Alec Baldwin telling viewers about Hulu’s “evil plot to destroy the world” by turning people’s brains to mush.

Comscore said Hulu’s viewership grew 42 percent to 34.7 million unique visitors watching around 333 million videos.

The irony of Hulu’s “ratings” success on the back of a TV advertisement during one of the most watched events on the planet is not lost on us. Like many other Web video sites Hulu isn’t quite bringing in millions of dollars in profits for its owners yet, but this might be a start.

Google’s YouTube is also on the hunt for revenues and profits to match its huge popularity. We’re not sure if advertising on national television will help as it already has three times the number of viewers that Hulu does. YouTube’s issues might have more do with the reluctance of mainstream advertisers to make major commitments to advertising on its site which is dominated by user-generated clips rather than professionally made ones. Hulu, which only features TV shows and archive movies, has had more success with advertisers.

Even if YouTube decided to advertise during the Super Bowl, it might not have the same return on investment. As the New York Times explains here, Hulu paid next to nothing for Super Bowl ad spots worth nearly $3 million as this year’s football extravaganza was broadcast by part owner NBC.

Keep an eye on:

• MySpace, BT to offer Web contract domains to users (Reuters)
• Investor supports Comcast’s buyback strategy (NY Post)
• Houston Chronicle cuts 12 percent of staff (Reuters)

Video streaming Web site Hulu.com marked its one-year anniversary on Thursday by announcing new social networking features, as the site seeks to gain ground on other Internet entertainment hubs.
    
The Web site, a joint venture between General Electric Co.-owned NBC Universal and News Corp., launched "Hulu Friends" which integrates functions from social networking sites MySpace and Facebook, as well as e-mail providers Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, and allows users to see what their friends are watching, share new videos and leave notes for each other.
    
Hulu, which allows visitors to view television episodes and movies on their home computers, still has a long way to go if it hopes to catch up to video sharing giant YouTube.com. Internet tracking site comScore reported this month that YouTube accounted for about 43 percent of all videos viewed over the Internet in January. By comparison, Hulu.com had only a 1.7 percent share of all videos viewed. The Google-owned YouTube has reached out to mainstream entertainment companies, including Universal Music Group, as the site seeks to add more premium entertainment on its site. But unlike YouTube, which mostly has short video clips, Hulu allows users to view entire episodes, and it has positive trends in its favor.

Research firm Knowledge Networks reported in February that use of third-party video hosting sites such as Hulu to access network television shows doubled since 2007 among Internet video users age 13-54.

Yahoo’s island of strength in Japan looks as impregnable as ever.

In January, Yahoo increased the number of searches performed on its Japanese sites by 13 percent year-over-year, and continued to hold the top spot with a 51.3 percent share of searches conducted in Japan, according to market research firm comScore.

Google, which is the No.1 search firm in the U.S. by a long shot, saw its search share in Japan slip to 38.2 percent, from 39 percent in September. Total searches on Google sites in Japan increased 5 percent year-over-year in January.

Yahoo’s star property in the land of the rising sun is actually a 34 percent stake in a joint venture with Softbank. The Japanese partnership is one of several that Yahoo has forged overseas, such as its deal with China’s Alibaba Group.

Some analysts speculate that Yahoo may unload some of these investments as it seeks to fill its coffers with cash and cut costs amid the industry-wide advertising slump.

Then again, Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz has said that international growth is critical for Yahoo. And judging by the latest market share figures, Yahoo Japan knows a thing or two about how to succeed in international markets.

Whether it’s the recession keeping people searching for cheap entertainment or just the gradual shift of consumer eyeballs to the Web, YouTube’s popularity continues to grow. The Google-owned site topped 100 million U.S. viewers for the first time in January, industry tracker comScore said on Wednesday.

YouTube viewers in the U.S. dialed up more than 6 billion videos in the month. Overall, more than 147 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 101 videos each in January. The average viewer watched around six hours, comScore said.

And YouTube continues to dwarf its competition, with a nearly 43 percent online video market share. Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, ranked second with a 3.7 percent share.

Consumers seem to be fleeing traditional TV for sites like YouTube because they can see things there they just can’t see elsewhere. And new stars emerge everyday, including impersonators, airport hysterics and teenage rappers.

After jumping to become the sixth most viewed online U.S. video site in October, Hulu managed to keep its spot in November despite not having the benefit of a Sarah Palin/Tina Fey boost from Saturday Night Live. 

Hulu is the new star of the rapid growth of online video as a mainstream media in U.S. New comScore data shows more than 77 percent of all U.S. Internet users watched online video.  

YouTube is, of course, the most watched video site by quite a stretch, with more than 12 billion videos watched. Fox Interactive Media (mostly MySpace) stands at No.2 with 439 million; Viacom Digital has 325 million and Yahoo next with 304 million. Microsoft had 296 million.

Hulu had 227 million videos viewed and maintained its highest position even though several commentators had expected Hulu’s boost would fade after the election. It’s also interesting because unlike YouTube, Hulu has managed to populate most of its mix of TV shows and old movies with advertising. This may be annoying to some online viewers but it is widely admired in the digital advertising world.

The slick site, owned by News Corp and NBC Universal, keeps winning friends and fans across the board. The New York TImes on Sunday, for instance, professed its love thus:

On Hulu, you can also watch full-screen, in nice, rolling high-resolution. After years of watching YouTube, I thought I had stopped caring about glamorous presentation. But man: the neatness and elegance of Hulu — where you can watch hundreds of whole shows from NBC, Fox and other networks, as well as movie and news clips — is so relaxing.

Top U.S. Online Video Properties* by Videos Viewed November 2008

Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore Video Metrix

Property                    Videos        Share (%) of

                             (000)           Videos

Total Internet            12,677,063         100.0

Google Sites               5,107,302          40.3

Fox Interactive Media        439,091           3.5

Viacom Digital               324,903           2.6

Yahoo! Sites                 304,331           2.4

Microsoft Sites              296,285           2.3

Hulu                         226,540           1.8

Turner Network               214,709           1.7

Disney Online                137,165           1.1

AOL LLC                      115,306           0.9

ESPN                          95,622           0.8
*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks.  Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.