Eric Schmidt Steps Down As CEO of Google
Eric Schmidt has stepped down as CEO of Google, while co-founder Larry Page (aka PageRank) is taking on the role. Schmidt joined Google in 2001, and during his tenure, Google has grown into one of the most successful companies in the world.
Google has really helped shape the web. They have also created one of the most effective ad platforms in existence. The company’s share price has seen incredible growth over the course of Schmidt’s leadership, making it one of the darlings of Wall Street. And while their share price has slowed of late, unless you bought at the height of financial collapse in 2008, you would still be sitting pretty.
According to reports Schmidt will become Executive Chairman, focused on “deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership.”
Meanwhile, Larry Page will be using his considerable talents to deal with ever increasing competition from Facebook. Page has also shown great leadership and has been instrumental in Google’s product development, making day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed.
In light of this news, we have posted a video above from Google Zeitgeist where in 2009 both Eric Schmidt and Larry Page (along with Sir Richard Branson), talked about the way Google has evolved over the course of the company’s lifetime. Well worth a look.
Facebook Ad Spend Could Hit $4 billion
Facebook is getting ready for some major expansion. But with well over 500 million registered users you have to wonder just how big they can get. Investment banking firm Goldman Sacs are currently helping Facebook raise another round of financing – so they must be figuring on getting a lot bigger indeed.
And it’s not all hype either. According to both the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post, Facebook is quickly heading towards $4 Billion in ad revenues. Facebook ads are only just one source of potential revenue for Facebook, and while social networking has been shown to be difficult to monetize, we think this is just the beginning.
Outside of Google’s content network, Facebook is proving to be a massive source of traffic. And although they have had a few nagging problems with some advertisers, it’s only something that Google has also had to crack down on many times before.
Ensuring that Facebook advertisers adhere to their terms of service is only going to help them refine their service even more. Growth is the name of the game when courting an IPO, and we think Facebook is only just getting warmed up.
Twitter Launches Online Ads
Twitter has launched their advertising platform for businesses. According to their company blog, the service is designed to help businesses get the most out of using Twitter.
“The new business site provides information about Twitter features and tools – for example, how to use mobile to communicate with customers (Fast Follow) and how to share content on the web (Tweet Button). Business.twitter.com also has a section about our suite of Promoted Products – Promoted Trends, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Tweets – and offers a way for businesses to contact us about advertising on Twitter.”
While Twitter Ads are not new, this is another step in the right direction. Making the process of promoting your service on Twitter easier, will only help user adoption. We expect Twitter to evolve their platform very quickly, developing it into a very powerful new marketing channel.