ContentNext, parent of PaidContent, MocoNews and ContentSutra, has released its Social Media Deals
Report, which looks at trends reflected by the deals which have been
driving social media during the fifteen month period Q1, 2007 through
the end of Q1, 2008.
The social media space has been heating up quite a bit the past 12-18 months. Social media includes those applications that allow users to connect with one another, create and share content. The term social media brings to mind the big platform brands such as Facebook, MySpace or YouTube, but the social media space is much broader, encompassing specific categories such as content, experiential media, media creation, mobile, social networks, tools & software, and services.
Social networks were by far the most active category with more than fifty acquisitions during the period, led by AOL’s (NYSE:TWX) $850 million acquisition of Bebo. Beyond the social networks, the distribution is quite diverse with blogs, ad networks and tool providers each seeing at least ten deals in the period.
The most active acquirers during the period were Internet Brands (NASD:INET) with seven transactions, Yahoo! (NASD:YHOO) with 5 transactions, and Disney (NYSE:DIS), Handheld Entertainment (NASD:ZVUE) and Google (NASD:GOOG), with four transactions each.
Venture investment was led by the Media Creation and Sharing category, receiving more than $674 million in funding. The largest part of that went to video sharing providers, which saw more than $400 million in funding. Social networks saw more than $600 million invested in 113 companies during the period. Mobile startups received $301 million, the bulk of that coming from SK Telecom $270 million investment in Helio.
Boston-based angel network Common Angels led the venture investing, participating in a dozen rounds. Accel Partners, Edgestone Capital, General Catalyst Partners and JK&B Capital each participated in nine investment rounds.
The complete 199-page Social Media Deals Report, which includes a comprehensive listing of social media deals, is available for purchase on the Alacra Store.
