Is the Web's 'Nuclear Winter' over? And is the warmth of all of the emerging interest in Social Networking Services helping to melt the ice? BusinessWeek's Timothy Mullaney posits that we might be in a thaw, in an article today about Barry Diller's [CEO of InterActiveCorp] acquisition of ZeroDegrees — Diller's Latest Little Bet on the Net — [some other InterActiveCorp companies — Expedia, Hotels.com, Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, Evite, Match.com, uDate, Citysearch, LendingTree, and Hotwire.com.]
Diller could make other forays into the social-networking area, says Dan Marriott, an IAC senior vice-president and head of the new-business unit. He says IAC is looking at other dating and social-connection sites, and might make an acquisition if the business can be tied to a classified advertising model, as San Francisco-based Tribe Networks is attempting. "The classified-ad approach Tribe has identified is a valid approach," said Marriott. "There will be a market there. But we felt the business side is the right place to start."
1. I was under the impression that ZeroDegrees was focused on the enterprise business, trying to enhance CRM systems with social network benefits (salesperson's contacts and e-mail becomes part of the company's database, so finding the best way to approach a potential customer will be given the "social" edge.
now, a media company acquires them? does that mean they (zero) threw in the towel in regard for their enterprise dreams?
Posted at 8:04PM on Dec 18th 2005 by G. N