Userplane

Earlier this week, NY-based KickApps announced their partnership with Userplane for chat and IM. Today, Userplane and another NY-based startup have announced a similar partnership. Magnify.net has integrated the Userplane Webchat2 and Userplane Webmessenger2 services.

Magnify.net is a white-label social networking provider that the company describes as, "online video discovery and broadcast platform for websites". The tool allows site owners to add custom video channels to enhance the overall user experience and keep users on the site longer, thereby allowing for more chances to monetize the user.

Both the Userplane Webchat and Userplane Webmessenger tools will carry advertising and publishers can also use a buyout option to remove or control the ads within the widgets.

Check out all of our Magnify.net coverage and the nextNYers interview with CEO Steve Rosenbaum below.

Userplane has been on a roll with their distribution deals recently. Userplane has created widgets for a variety of content management systems and most recently partnered with ConVerdge on chat and IM integration.

Today NY-based KickApps and AOL-subsidiary Userplane are announcing a partnership which will bring live chat, IM and presence functionality into the KickApps social networking platform. Both the Userplane Webchat and Userplane Webmessenger tools will carry advertising and publishers can also use a buyout option to remove or control the ads within the widgets.

Check out our exclusive interviews with Userplane CEO Michael Jones and KickApps CEO Alex Blum.

On a side note, KickApps is now referring to their service as the, "World’s First Social Graph Engine". I wonder if they paid a marketing firm to come up with that tagline!

Userplane has announced a distribution deal this morning wth ConVerdge. ConVerdge is a white label social networking provider focusing on the community side of the house.

The first two Userplane products to be integrated are Webchat2 and Webmessenger2. Webchat2 is a text, video and voice widget while Webmessenger2 is an instant messaging product. Userplane says further distribution with ConVerdge will be coming soon.

While not directly mentioned, Userplane's social ad network will certainly play a role in this distribution. Their ad network serves over 500 million ads a month to over 50 million monthly users. This could lead to incremental revenue for the ConVerdge sites that load the Userplane tools.

The first ConVerdge site they have rolled out this new functionality is the Mashable community site. The Mashable community currently shows over 60,000 members (I am guessing 10-15% are active).

To learn more about Userplane, check out our Conversation With Userplane CEO Michael Jones.

Here at Graphing Social Patterns, Userplane will announce later today the launch of white label plugins for a variety of content management systems (CMS). Plug-ins for Userplane Webmessenger, Webchat and Webrecorder applications are now available for VBulletin, WordPress, Drupal, Mambo, Joomla and phpFoX.

This should help Userplane further their distribution by offering an easy integration for those users who utilize a CMS system. This isn't as robust as what other white label social networks such as KickApps, Ning or Magnify.net provide but is an easy way to add additional functionality to a CMS quickly and easily. The key for users is to determine a strategy before installing any widget, plugin or social network addon. Changing strategies later on can be very costly.

I will report back with more details after the live announcement later today. In the meantime, check out our interview with CEO Michael Jones.

Last week Userplane announced that they have shared $500,000 in the first six months since the launch of the Userplane Money program. To learn more about Userplane, I gave CEO Michael Jones a call. Here are my notes from our conversation -- one which I enjoyed as Michael is open, honest and genuine.

The goal of Userplane is to create tools for publishers that increase usability, experience and make the publishers more money. Currently the suite of applications that Userplane offers are communications based but there will me more variety coming soon. Mike joked that everything online is communications based.

As for competitors I thought Michael would say Widgetbox and the like but he actually said companies like NY-based KickApps are their biggest competitor - though they have worked together with KickApps on a few projects.

Userplane has 210,000 publishers -- 200,000 use the copy and paste code on the Userplane web site and 10,000 are "registered partners". I tried to get Michael to share what percentage they pay out, but just like Google they don't share that data. He did say that it's more than 50% and less than 100%. They do work with Friendster and MySpace and like Google pay out large percentages of the total payout to these companies. 5,000 or so partners are part of the rev share plan and he guesses that 40% of the partners take 60% of the income.

Userplane was acquired by AOL approximately 18 months ago and is a wholly-owned subsidiary and is managed separately with their own P&L. Userplane has its own ad sales force and uses AOL's salesforce and other partner ad networks when needed.

I asked him for some upcoming updates for 2008 and Michael shared that they are working on a new bulletin board product and a media player product which will have "interesting, new functionality." Thanks for your time Michael.

I continue to believe that widgets will own 2008 -- especially from an advertising perspective.

Online communication software provider Userplane is announcing that they have shared $500,000 in ad revenue with their Userplane Money program which began six months ago. The idea of Userplane Money is simple: install one of their chat or im widgets on your site or blog and share in the revenue generated from the impressions served. What's not shared is how many sites shared in this $500k nor what the rev-share percentage is. My guess is that a few sites gobbled up the majority of the monies.

I still believe that widget monetization will be hot in '08. Widgets are a great way to monetize a site and increase interaction past standard banners. We've run a few widgets on CN in the past and many of the major tech blogs also run paid widget placements. It's the future folks.

“Enhancing websites with engaging technology that also provides revenue is the core value Userplane strives to provide,” said Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane and Senior Vice President of AOL. “Userplane Apps now can provide real monetary value to small and large publishers.”

Userplane is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL.

Userplane, a provider of online communication software, is announcing a new partnership with several broadcast and cable stations today. The deal will bring Userplane's Webchat, Minichat, and Webmessenger applications to their online communities.

The networks involved in the partnership include: Channel 4 in the U.K and The CW, FUEL TV, and the Independent Film Channel in the U.S.

“The integration of real time messaging applications allows media companies to create virtual water coolers where viewers can engage other fans of their favorite shows in real time,” said Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane and vice president of AOL.

It reads almost as if they have added a mini-social network with communication. What about adding a robust social network on top as well like those from KickApps, Ning or Magnify.net?

The piece of info left out from the release is whether the online communities will be able to "talk" between the communities. This is where I'd love to see some further movement. Get Channel 4 Big Brother viewers in the U.K. speaking with CBS (not part of this deal) viewers in the U.S., etc. We've got to further break down the walls between the media properties. Don't be scared, media networks!