The Digital Lookout

It is the social networking phenomenon which has taken 2007 by storm but I have started getting a little bored with Facebook of late.  Now that the thrill of connecting with old friends has passed and the days of logging in to a potful of notifications is behind me I’m struggling to get excited by it all.  All I seem to get these days or invitations to join the latest application doing the rounds and numerous postings of those annoying chain letter style messages (for the last time, nothing bad is going to happen if you don’t pass it on, no-one is going to delete your profile and you aren’t going to come into any money!).  There are a few friends who I contact through it which make the process of logging in worth while but aside from that its all a little dull for me now.  Maybe I am alone in this feeling? I know for a fact many of my close friends are still wildly addicted to it and if they go a day without logging on they start breaking into cold sweats and having panic attacks.  But I just don’t get that feeling of anticipation when logging in anymore.  Sure, I still use it, but more out of habit than enjoyment and also the fact I use the internet all day everyday at work so have access all the time.  I certainly wouldn’t be too worried if I had to go with access for a period of time though and can’t see Id miss it at all.  Maybe this is the start of the great Facebook decline, where the casual user drifts away and only the hardcore remain, leaving thousands of redundant accounts.  This is how I see Myspace’s current existence, I haven’t seen their take up figures recently but I would imagine they are in sharp decline, part due to the rise of Facebook but also because they are no longer the flavour of the month and only the hardcore survive.  Facebook is a long way from this status as they are still in the stage of sign up growth but they need to keep one eye on the future and think about how to avoid the decline, either that or get out while the going is good.  As they say, timing is everything, but I doubt they will ever be valued at more than the current $15 billion so it may be time to cash in.

Latitude Group, the award-winning internet search engine marketing company (and also my employer!), has received financial backing from private equity investor Vitruvian Partners in a management buy-out. Ernst & Young advised Latitude Group.

Management of the Warrington and London-based business have received backing from Vitruvian in a deal which re-capitalises the business in order to fund a rapid growth programme.

Latitude has seen turnover rise from £500,000 in 2002 to more than £30m in 2006, meanwhile, headcount has risen from eight in 2002 to more than 100 in 2007.

Latitude is led by chief executive officer Dylan Thwaites, winner of the Ernst & Young Technology and Communications Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2006. The management team also includes chief financial officer Julie Moran, chief operations officer Richard Gregory, and chief technology officer Rob Shaw.

Dylan Thwaites commented on the transaction: “This is a fantastic development for Latitude and its clients. This will help us fund future expansion through acquisition and internal growth. We will be looking at new geographic markets and diversification into other digital marketing products including further development of social media and display advertising. All with a view to providing our clients with an even better and more complete service”

On the choice of Vitruvian as a partner, Thwaites said: “Vitruvian are ideal backers for Latitude. We share the same entrepreneurial values and we were impressed with their experience and knowledge of the digital marketing arena.”

The business’ powerful growth comes on the back of the strongly performing UK internet advertising market, in which online advertising spend is expected to reach £2.75bn in 2007 according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

This follows a 52 per cent hike in paid search to £1.166bn in 2006, which accounted for 56 per cent of all online advertising expenditure.

Latitude is the UK’s largest independent search engine marketing specialist offering both paid and organic search services, with household-name clients including Tesco Finance, House of Fraser, Kwik-Fit Insurance, Crystal Lakes & Ski, Alliance and Leicester, William Hill and Bank of Ireland.

Vitruvian Partners is a recently formed London-based private equity firm dedicated to investing in middle-market buyouts, growth buyouts and growth capital across a range of industries in Northern Europe.

Ian Riley, a managing partner of Vitruvian Partners, commented: “Latitude represents a successful, entrepreneurial company in a dynamic, high growth market and we are excited to become a partner with the management team to support their expansion plans.”

Latitude was advised by M&A and tax teams from the Manchester and London offices of Ernst & Young.

Elaine O’Donnell, A partner who led the Ernst & Young team, commented: “Latitude is clearly a fast-growth company in a dynamic sector, with a highly ambitious development strategy. There was considerable interest in the business and Vitruvian emerged as the ideal investment partner to drive and facilitate this growth, working within a very challenging timeframe. Vitruvian will provide ongoing sector expertise which will act as a powerful springboard for Latitude’s further growth.”

Google are one step closer to the doubleclick buy out! as reported below on bbc news and here on Google’s own blog:

There have been two new announcements in the world of mobile marketing in the last few days.

Google have announced that their Google maps tool will now be available on mobile handsets along with location pinpointing effectively making it a GPRS tool. The mobile version of maps will be able to pinpoint your location along with providing real time traffic reports, directions to a specified location, integrated search results (this is where the money is made!), and satellite imagery of a location. Depending on its usability this could be a big step forward for maps as it actually brings a bit more use and functionality to the product. It could be especially useful in central London when trying to navigate the capital on foot. It could also be the start of Google’s entry into the Sat Nav market with a little more advancement in the technology and the appropriate handset. Full details

Yahoo also announced today that the Panama platform (the latest incarnation of the advertising center) is to become integrated with mobile devices from January onwards, according to an article in NMA. This is another development in Yahoo’s aim to become a major player in the mobile advertising market and should allow them to pitch the integrated platform approach to advertisers. From an advertiser perspective if the platform truly does allow you to create and manage mobile campaigns it will significantly increase availability of this channel and enable more companies to begin trials.  I am predicting mobile to become more widespread in 2009 with more and more of the big brands embracing it as part of their digital strategy.  This means that publishers and agencies need to be preparing themselves so that they are in a position to make the most of it when it takes off.  This is exactly what Yahoo are doing with this launch.

Google announced on its blog yesterday the launch of a new tool for universal search, the flight status function.  All you have to do is search on the airline and the flight number and Google will tell you whether it is delayed or on time and its departure and arrival times.  its a useful little tool this one as it removes the need to find the airlines web page and with a lot of people having Google as their homepage or using a tool bar it speeds up the process.  I would be interested to see if it cover ALL airlines though and how accurate and frequently updated the information this as this is key.  Without accuracy the tool may as well not exist.