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Yahoo bets farm on Tumblr acquisition

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's CEO

Internet firm Yahoo on Monday moved to acquire blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1bn in cash. In some ways this is a last ditch attempt to keep Yahoo relevant and CEO Marissa Meyer made a promise during the announcement “not to screw it up.”

Twitter tapped by Reliance in OTT partnership

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Mobile operators are increasingly seeing the value of partnering with Over The Top (OTT) service providers to mutual benefit. This week Indian carrier Reliance Communications struck a deal with social network Twitter to effectively subsidise data access for a limited period of time.

Viadeo: Growing locally

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Chams Eddine Diagne, Africa General Manager, Viadeo, talks to telecoms.com at AfricaCom 201, about growing a professional social network with 45 million members.

Facebook: Strong features

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Nicola D’Elia, Growth Manager Africa, Facebook, talks to telecoms.com at AfricaCom 2012 about growing the social network’s presence in Africa.

Social TV at TV Connect

Social TV promises to improve TV by integrating social-media technologies and behaviours into the experience

When a company reveals usage stats at a conference, it’s usually a sign that the strategy it’s promoting is paying off. At TV Connect in Turkey this month ago a number of TV operators and content providers talked about take-up of their social TV activities. But it’s far from clear to me what the actual value of the new currency of “followers” and “likes” is.

Wind prepay users top-up on Facebook

Wind's prepay customers can top up their credit directly through Facebook

Italian carrier Wind this week introduced a Facebook application that enables its prepay customers to top up their credit directly through the social networking platform.

Mobile is both Facebook’s Achilles heel and future

Facebook has yet to properly enable its mobile properties with advertising

Facebook has been at the forefront of the growth in mobile data usage in recent years. It is indisputably one of the big stars of mobile; one that most operators have wanted to ally themselves with to drive the sale of data plans on their networks.

Yet, by Facebook’s own admission, mobile could be its Achilles heel.

Facebook grabs Glancee mobile meet-up app

Facebook is building its talent pool ahead of its imminent IPO

Social network Facebook added another acquisition to its books this week as it seeks to shore up its talent pool ahead of its imminent IPO.

Social spending

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Over The Top providers have become the staple wildcard in almost any sector set on a collision path with mobile. By and large they are very good at what they do: connecting a user with their chosen content or service by whatever means available.

Facebook snaps up Instagram

Instagram has 30 million mobiel users

Photo sharing startup Instagram has been acquired by social darling Facebook for an estimated $1bn, or a quarter of the network’s 2011 revenues.

Twitter buys microblogging rival Posterous

Whisper helped protestors organise during the Arab Spring

Social network Twitter has acquired microblogging platform Posterous for an undisclosed sum. Posterous offered similar, but less well known services. The purchase appears to be focused on the talent pool available at the company.

Mobile social networking infographic

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Bytemobile’s first Mobile Analytics Report of 2012 reveals that the average volume of video traffic on mobile networks has risen by ten percentage points since this time last year, to 50 per cent. Also, while the average subscriber uses YouTube and Facebook for roughly the same amount of time – about nine minutes per session – YouTube generates a staggering 350 times more traffic.

Orange Africa brings Facebook to masses

Facebook via USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) uses the signalling channel as the bearer

Social network Facebook is expanding its reach into the emerging markets through a partnership with France Telecom owned Orange in Africa.

Facebook files a big IPO, but it also has a potentially big problem

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Social network Facebook has finally filed an S-1 registration document for its initial public offering (IPO) with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the S-1, Facebook states that it aims to raise $5bn when it lists on either the Nasdaq or the NYSE in May, which some estimates suggest could value the company at around $100bn. That’s not the only big number that Facebook reveals in the S-1.

Global mobile messages to surpass 7.5 trillion in 2011

The number of mobile messages sent in 2011 will increase by 12.5 per cent on 2010

The number of mobile text, picture and video messages sent worldwide will surpass 7.5 trillion in 2011, according to research firm Ovum, marking a 12.5 per cent increase on the 6.7 trillion sent last year.