When social network app-maker Slide took $50 million in funding to set its value at $500 million in January 2008, the only way to almost justify the outrageous figure was to say Slide wasn’t really a widget-maker, but a huge ad network in the making. Since then, the ad market has cratered even while inventory continues to expand.
Slide, the company that makes Facebook’s most popular apps, says it’s done making new ones for the social network. Keith Rabois, VP of strategy and business development, told us this week that the company wants to concentrate on making the existing apps like FunWall and Top Friends better–and ultimately figure out how to generate real money from them.
When it comes to the widget ecosystem, lavishly funded companies like Slide, Clearspring and RockYou hog the limelight. But it is Userplane, now a subsidiary of AOL, that seems to be revving up the money engine without much fanfare. The company that started out offering a Web-based chat system has now morphed into a many-faceted business, including owning what might just be one of the largest widget ad networks out there.
If you read this blog, you might think that Kara Swisher isn’t a big fan of fun. Or at least of silly, fun apps like SuperPoke! and what we call “social entertainment.” Call me silly, but I’d take entertainment over utility any time, and you know what? I bet you would too.
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