Library Darling Meebo

Meebo is definitely a library fave. And I suspect it will remain so.
I’d recommend everyone read this report and analysis from PaidContent.org.
Highlights:
Meebo: Raising $25-$30 Million By One Report; Shifting Into Revenue Mode
- “the service is still seen as service or a product, rather than a solid business”
- “Ads Not surprising: the core revenue idea at this point is based around ads.”
“The biggest revenue piece right now would be advertising… we have this thing called bubble ads on Meeb.com”. It claims that for every 100 people that log into Meebo, three of them click on an ad.”
- “In terms of numbers, the company claims 7.5 million uniques at Meebo.com and another 22 million across the network.”
- “Besides paid premium services, there’s also opportunity for sponsorship, … “You could have sponsorships… like the Coke skin of the day. But for now, the large bulk will still be advertising.”
- “We basically power consumer facing chat for entertainment media companies…” ” That is the real core of the business. Meebo isn’t trying to be a social net or an ad network or anything but a service that can facilitate live chat on its own site and for third parties.”
- “Endgame: Ultimately, Meebo will argue that it’s not just a product or a feature, but a viable ad-driven business.”
- “iPhone: Unfortunately for Meebo, the iPhone SDK doesn’t allow apps to run in the background”
Are you users as comfortable with Meebo ads as they are with Google ads? What types of ads are acceptable? Will library websites and operations be more ad driven in the future in order to get things ‘free’.
If you’re basing your operations on free stuff you need to evaluate the costs as much as you do paid stuff.
Stephen