It’s been confirmed that Slide has let go a substantial portion of its sales force earlier this week. The media-sharing service that gained a great deal of popularity as a social networking application provider has shifted its strategy for generating revenue, focusing on premium advertising. The result is that Slide has had to let go of most of its ad sales force.
As VentureBeat notes, slide is reportedly making about $20 million per year based on ads, and has raised over $600 million in venture capital. Constantly competing with similar services such as RockYou, Slide was really able to make a name for itself once social networks began opening their platforms, enabling Slide’s widgets to become better integrated and eventually evolve into full-on applications.
Having created some of Facebook’s top applications including Super Poke, Slide has established itself as a company able to weather the woes of a constantly changing attitude towards widgets, applications, and integrated media-sharing services. What Slide has not been able to weather, however, is the changing market when it comes to advertising and its subsequent budget.
The economy has had an affect on most web-based startups, trickling down from decreased venture capital spending to the deterrence of copycat sites and other projects with large cost requirements. Between these two factors, there has been a rather noticeable shift in the way in which advertisers approach social media marketing, with many looking for deeper engagement with lower costs. Essentially relying on users to do the talking (passive or otherwise), online marketing campaigns have turned to applications as an alternative solution.
That leaves Slide in an interesting situation, as it’s counted on advertising for its revenue until now, though the company is in a good position for shifting gears and focusing on app-related advertising. With options such as brand-sponsored apps, the need for a large sales force is diminished. As we’ve seen with companies such as Buddy Media the ability to provide a web-based portal for analytics, metrics and overall management can also help curb costs on the customer service end. The result is a more direct manner in which brands can utilize the apps powered by and distributed through third parties, lowering costs for them and ultimately cutting overhead for Slide.