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In 1983 Anheuser Busch paid Midway Games to make all the beers served in their popular game, Tapper, be labeled Budweiser’s.  Fast forward a few decades and now that curious sponsorship has become the forefather to one of the hottest segments in marketing: In Game Advertising.

A lot has changed in the decades since Midway’s Tapper.  Today, gaming consoles have internet connections and ads placed in the games, thanks to powerful graphics chips, need not be static or two dimensional.  Today, instead of a fixed poster in the background, or a product label on a beer bottle, a billboard in the background of a game can come alive with video and sound.    Today, the labels on a virtual NASCAR racing car can be sold to marketers for sponsorship just as they might have been on a real life race car.  Today, a three dimensional soda can is able to provide a virtual facsimile in the game of what exists in reality.

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With all the talk about the iPhone, it was almost easy to forget Apple’s product portfolio is one of the treasure chests of industry.  They make great returns on the entire iPod line.  They do a robust business with iTunes.  And of course, there’s the computer line which has a devoted, loyal fan base and a solid profit margin.

Today after the close of market, to the legions of Apple fans, and hungry investors anxious for a benchmark to measure performance of technology and consumer products, Apple announced their earnings for their fiscal third quarter.  The numbers were strong, and buried in the guidance there were hints of new products to come.

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Venture capital is often the oxygen that gives life to early stage startups.  It’s the money that funds research and development; the money that pays salaries before a company becomes cash flow positive.  Accordingly, metrics which show the performance of the venture industry are often a useful barometer for the rate of entrepreneurship and state of new industries, not to mention a broader indicator of economic optimism.

Earlier this week Ernst & Young and Dow Jones’ VentureOne released their summary survey of U.S. Venture Capital Investments through the second quarter of 2007.  The numbers were generally good.  They show investments continuing their rebound from their 2003 low point.

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Hearst Corporation is largely known for its collection of magazines and newspapers which includes titles ranging from Esquire and Cosmopolitan to O to the San Francisco Chronicle but the company is also one of the worlds largest diversified media companies.  In addition to its print properties, Hearst has vast media holdings including stakes in television channels, Television networks including ESPN and A&E Networks and significant Internet properties and investments.

Today, Hearst announced UGO Networks (aka Underground Online) will join the list.  UGO will be acquired by Hearst’s Interactive Media division.  While the division has been an active investor in a number of Internet properties (Brightcove, Pandora, iVillage) this will be one of its first outright purchases of a large property.

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The NPD Group released its monthly hardware sales data for June yesterday. As was also the case for May and April, sales for both consoles and software were strong showing month to month, as well as annual year over year, gains.

For hardware, sales was up 34% to $399m. Besting strong May numbers, Nintendo, with its attention to the user experience and effort to reach out to new gamers, again dominated both full–size and portable hardware categories. In June, Nintendo sold 562k DS units (compared to 423k in May) and 381.8k Wii’s (compared to 338k in May). The numbers for the Wii are especially impressive given the scarcity of supply and difficulty that still remains in obtaining one of the consoles.

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Despite solid revenue growth, it was a rough day to be a Netflix shareholder.  On later confirmed expectations of weakening profits for the rest of the year, the stock was punished and down 12% during regular trading hours.  It continued to fall into after-hours sessions.

In the company’s earnings announcement released today, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) reported Q2 revenue up 27% over the same period last year to $303.7m.  Earnings on revenue were $26.6m (37c/share) or 31 cents a share after subtracting a $4.1m one-time payment from Blockbuster as part of the two company’s settlement of patent litigation. 

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Outside of a small microcosm, the phrase “social network” tends to bring to mind a short list of names usually led by MySpace and Facebook, and for those whose memory spans back to buzzword bingo from a few years ago, Friendster too. 

Beyond the two biggest names, and the first to break the ground, there are also hundreds of other sites that offer similar features and fall under similar classification.  Some of these sites target specialty niches like sports fans at particular universities (Fsurules.com) others are more multi-national in focus (Bebo).

San Francisco based Hi5 is among the larger social network sites beyond MySpace and Facebook.  And according to a report published yesterday on Venture Beat, they’ve raised $20m in a private financing Click to Read More