by Kristen Nicole on January 4, 2010
Flixter has acquired movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, combining the two movie-oriented services to become one of the largest resources around. Previously a property of IGN, Rotten Tomatoes is now part of a new media family. The acquisition amount has not been revealed, though IGN will retain a minority stake in Rotten Tomatoes.
According to Mashable, there were rumors of Flixter being acquired by IGN, with possibilities around combining Flixter and Rotten Tomatoes under the IGN umbrella. IGN, however, is in the midst of refocusing its efforts on the male, gaming demographic. Perhaps Rotten Tomatoe didn’t quite fit the bill given IGN’s new direction.
But either way, it appears that Fliter and Rotten Tomatoes were destined to be together. If not under IGN’s umbrella, than under Flixter’s. The user-generated search engine for movies has gained traction as a resource and a personalized recommendation service, putting it in a good position to acquire another company that could help its primary cause. To that end, Flixter and Rotten Tomatoes have worked together in the past. Both companies have provided review content through various movie review resources and applications.
The applications, on social networks and mobile devices, are a strong suite for Flixter. The company already has a number of apps for social networks across the major platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Its mobile presence is also growing, with various outlets through which it streams its content. While Rotten Tomatoes and Flixter will remain separately operating websites, the combined reach of the two review sources will span a wide range of users.
It makes sense that Flixter and Rotten Tomatoes would keep separate websites to retain their brand, image and product. The two services still have a great deal they can accomplish cooperatively without having to re-brand one service or another. Cross-promotion between the two services could also prove beneficial, as they appeal to different aspects of a single industry.
The acquisition also reflects Flixter’s desire to grow its reach. For Flixter in particular socially integrated actions and distribution is key to Flixter’s future survival. Having the ability to focus its growth on this arena while utilizing new property Rotten Tomatoes only adds to the overall usefulness of their new combined efforts.
by Kristen Nicole on July 13, 2009
There have been social networks set up around mobile devices or mobile brands, namely Nokia. It was generally for the purpose of gaining some consumer data based on app usage and other metrics that can be garnered from seeing what users like and don’t like about their phones. So it’s not a far stretch for BlackBerry to be launching a social network for similar purposes. It may be a necessary step for several devices and manufacturers that are supportive of the economy a mobile application platform can provide, especially as pretty much any other platform other than Apple will need all the help it can get.
So RIM BlackBerry is reportedly coming out with a social network of sorts this week, dubbed MyBlackBerry. The network will be for BlackBerry users, giving them a social profile where they can review mobile apps, and even complain about them. It’s biggest potential advantage would be the ability to turn all those reviews and complaints into recommendations and searchable data for making BlackBerry applications more discoverable. This would, in the end, promote BlackBerry’s mobile application platform.
It could be considered a way to get a leg up on Apple’s own mobile application platform for the iPhone, which is rendered through iTunes. Have you noticed that iTunes is notoriously difficult to search? Customer reviews, complaints and other data are hard to come by and the end result is a mobile app economy that supports those with lots of cash and marketing power instead of reflecting the true capacity of the longtail (still epitomized by nearly all things iTunes related).
While user-generated reviews within a social network is a somewhat passe way in which to gain and repurpose information, it can be readily applied to mobile app platforms in this early stage. So far, MyBlackBerry sounds good in concept. But as mentioned on TechCrunch, the network itself is more like a “bulletin board” and the ability to view apps is limited to only those that are supported by your phone.
Is this limiting BlackBerry’s ability to leverage its own network? Perhaps seeing reviews on apps designed for the BlackBerry Storm will encourage other BlackBery users and non-BlackBerry users to make the move to a new device. Opening up a network such as this could really help BlackBerry if implemented well. This could be a tactic other platforms use to one-up Apple’s iTunes store.
[image credit DC to BC]
