How Twitter plans to make money

A $1-billion valuation creates big expectations, especially when the company doesn't yet have a clear plan for how it plans to generate cash. That's certainly the case with Twitter, the microblogging site that boasts tens of millions of users (including this reporter) but not much in the way of revenue.

To mollify skeptics, Twitter's chief operating officer, Dick Costolo, dropped a few crumbs this morning about how his company plans to make money. The short answer: ads. To read more, click here.

-- Alex Pham

Ex-Google employees break away to make their own things at Thing Labs

What do you get when you put five former Google Inc. employees together with a few other talented programmers in a small office in San Francisco?

Some very interesting things.

Jason Shellen, founder of Thing Labs, launched Brizzly today after two months of the application spreading virally thanks to an invitation-only sign-up system similar to Gmail and Google Wave.

Brizzly is a well-executed "cloud" software that merges users' Twitter and Facebook profiles onto one page.

Unlike TweetDeck, which requires users to download two applications in order to make it work, Brizzly can be accessed from any computer that has a Web browser, and accounts stay in sync.

Brizzly has tens of thousands of users even before its official launch -- well, not so fast: it's still in beta; sound like Google?

You'll find a lot of Google mentality in Brizzly, which was built by a few of the engineers behind Google Reader, the dominant news feed aggregator.

To read our full story on Thing Labs, hop over to the Technology Blog: Betting that Brizzly will be huge, ex-Googlers are working on things.

-- Mark Milian

Photo: Chris Wetherell, left, and Jason Shellen, right, are the brains behind Thing Labs. Credit: Mark Milian / Los Angeles Times

Consumer Confidential: Shopping, spending, driving

Here's your foolishly Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Black Friday's already looking pretty dark, and that's a good thing for shoppers. As more details of Black Friday sales leak out from major retailers, Wal-Mart has confirmed that it will be offering deep discounts on toys and games, and selling much-wanted electronic goodies, such as high-def TVs, for way under usual prices. Scout around online for the best deals before getting up at the crack of dawn the day after Thanksgiving. Chances are, you'll be able to come up with a serious action plan for your shopping.

--And bring your cash, because it looks like fewer of us want to run up debt on our plastic this holiday season. The National Retail Federation says most of us will be favoring cash or debit cards this year, rather than splurging with credit cards and spending the rest of the year trying to pay down our balances. Let's call this one of the better lessons learned from the never-ending recession.

--And if you're in the mood to spend some money, Chrysler wants your business -- really. The formerly bankrupt carmaker is offering zero-percent financing or up to $4,000 in cash back for almost all its 2010 models. But don't dawdle: The sweeteners last only until Jan. 4.

-- David Lazarus

A new California exclusive: limits on TV sales

The California Energy Commission unanimously approved a proposed regulation today capping the power consumption of televisions sold in California, starting in 2011. The Opinion L.A. blog has a wordier rundown of the potential winners and losers; I'll just note here that the rules won't have any impact on the models in stores now, and probably not on the ones that hit the shelves next year, either. That's because it takes more than a year to design and engineer the typical set. Oh and yes, judging from the saber-rattling by the Consumer Electronics Assn. this afternoon, I expect that the rules will be challenged in court long before they take effect.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Guvera tries a different approach to advertiser-sponsored music online

After SpiralFrog's collapse and Qtrax's repeated misfires, I'm skeptical about any online music service that says it will give away advertiser-supported downloads. But Guvera, an Australian start-up launched by former advertising executive Claes Loberg, is different enough to make me think it might actually work.

In essence, it lets consumers declare their interests, then gives them free downloads and streams from brands that match those interests. The company announced today that it had licensed the biggest record company, Universal Music Group, with plans to go live in the U.S. early next year. Read more about it at The Times' Technology blog.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 gets Hollywood-scale launch

Modern Warfare 2 generated a record-setting $550 million in sales through Saturday, besting not only the previous mark for a video game but also for movies at the box office, entertainment reporter Ben Fritz writes today. That represents about 8 million units sold, according to estimates by publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. of Santa Monica.

"This provided the entire industry with a shot in the arm," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets, who predicted Modern Warfare 2 would ultimately sell 15 million to 20 million units, exceeding $1 billion in revenue.

Call of Duty cost $40 million to $50 million to produce, people close to the project said, about as much as a mid-size film. Including marketing expenses and the cost of producing and distributing discs, the launch budget was $200 million, on par with a summer popcorn movie -- and extremely high for a video game.

Unleashing a Hollywood-scale opening for Modern Warfare 2 has been a priority for Activision Blizzard. The marketing and publicity campaign has featured all of the trappings of a modern movie effort, including ads and trailers designed by top advertising shops, a Twitter feed on which news was strategically disclosed, and a controversial scene involving airport terrorism that leaked onto YouTube and generated much media attention.

"My goal was to create a launch that would compare very favorably to the biggest box offices of all time," Activision Blizzard Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said.

Read the full story by clicking here

Photo: Alejandro Medina, 20, of Culver City, dons a jungle sniper ghillie suit as he takes in the festivities surrounding the release of the video game Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 2 at Best Buy. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

 

Tough time for radio and TV stations in D.C.

It's a tough day to be working for the National Assn. of Broadcasters. The Consumer Electronics Assn. and the CTIA (the main trade group for the mobile phone industry) urged the Federal Communications Commission today to consider reclaiming some digital TV airwaves and dedicating them to use with wireless devices.

Meanwhile, the NAB began meeting in the Capitol with representatives of the music industry to discuss fiercely contested legislation to require local radio stations to pay royalties to performing artists and labels for the songs they play over the air. The meetings come at the behest of the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, and today's session included a visit by House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) -- a not-so-subtle nudge from the Democratic leadership to the NAB to work out a deal. Read more about these developments at the Times' Technology blog.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey

Not enough safeguards for Fed's $7.2-billion broadband program, GAO says

As part of last February's federal stimulus package, the U.S. Commerce and Agriculture departments were given $7.2 billion to expand broadband availability.

But a Government Accountability Office report says that the program lacks basic information and adequate safeguards to ensure that the money isn’t wasted.

The Technology blog has more on the report.

Photo: Transmitting towers in Phoenix. Credit: Paul Morse/Los Angeles Times

Sezmi brings a new version of cable TV to Los Angeles -- without the cable

Angelenos unhappy with the cable or satellite TV offerings in their neighborhoods will have a new, much less expensive option today: Sezmi, a novel combination of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband programming. The company is launching a trial run here in anticipation of a much broader rollout by March, providing free equipment and service for about three months to those who participate. (You can sign up at Sezmi's website.)

Even after the free trial ends, the price will be far below competing pay TV services: just under $5 a month for local broadcasts, Internet channels and access to pay-per-view services, and an additional $20 a month for more than 100 cable TV networks. Sezmi has some issues -- some popular cable channels aren't on board, at least not yet, and its selection of Web programming is far too limited -- but it also offers some innovations that push TV service in the direction viewers want it to go.

Read more about the company and its local trial on the Times' Technology blog.

-- Jon Healey

Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division.

Michael Hiltzik: The absurd ban on Internet gambling

One way to gauge the sincerity of lawmakers is by their willingness to let their bills be debated out in the open. The federal ban on Internet gambling flunks that test.

It was enacted in 2006 when Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who thought he'd be running for President, made common cause with a gang of Congressional blue noses and added it to a bill on port security. The gambling measure wasn't afforded a minute's debate in the Senate, but no one could vote against the ban without voting to open our ports to terrorists, so there you have it--a measure that fails to achieve its purposes politically, fiscally, or moralistically.

Among its flaws, as my Monday column observes, is the lack of any definition of "gambling," which you would expect to be Job One. It exempts betting on horses, for instance, but includes poker. This drives poker players nuts, because they think of their pastime as an expression of psychological warfare and high-level game theory. There's much to be said for their position, but one doesn't have to share it to decry the ban. The column starts below. 

No issue brings out America’s talent for self-deception like gambling.

To persuade ourselves that we can keep this particular sin under control, we sequestered casinos in isolated places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City reachable only by superhighways, and isolated them on riverboats where not a single card could be dealt or slot lever pulled until the vessel left the dock.
 
In Mississippi, the law used to say you couldn’t have a casino unless it floated on water. After Hurricane Katrina forcibly relocated a few of these sin barges onto land the legislature, reading the disaster as a sign from God, revised the law to let them stay put. (The riverboat states, similarly, eventually allowed their floating casinos to remain tied up dockside.)

Which brings us to Internet gambling.

Read the whole column

--Michael Hiltzik