subscribers

Facebook has launched a "Subscribe" button for Web sites, allowing site visitors to get updates from journalists and other site contributors in their News Feeds.

The feature, which can be installed on any Web site, is essentially a "Follow" button for Facebook. Previously, users could "Like" or "Recommend" a single posts on sites.

The social plugin, which is already appearing on author pages on the WashingtonPost.com, The Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and Newsweek, offers another way for Web sites to attract and connect with users.

"The Subscribe button for websites … Read more

Spotify now has 2.5 million paying subscribers, the music service said today.

Spotify didn't say in its blog post how the subscribers break down by country, but it appears that its expansion to the U.S. has been a significant factor in its growth. In March, the company hit 1 million paying subscribers before it had launched its service in the U.S. Last month, Reuters reported that Spotify had 250,000 paying subscribers in the U.S.

Spotify currently offers two paid plans. Its "unlimited" option costs customers $4.99 per month to listen to … Read more

It's shaping up to be a rough holiday for T-Mobile USA.

The carrier, a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, earlier today reported a slight improvement in its results for the third quarter. That modest uptick was largely due to its uber-aggressive pricing promotions on the prepaid end, as well as an improving lineup of smartphones.

That's the good news. The bad news is that T-Mobile's most valuable customers--the ones willing to sign long-term contracts and pay more each month--are still leaving in droves. And there's no sign that the outmigration will stop in the fourth … Read more

Cable TV is not dead, but its audience isn't growing either.

Cable operators all over the country have been steadily and slowly losing TV subscribers quarter after quarter. A year ago, some people wondered if Internet TV services like Netflix and Hulu were attracting so-called cord cutters. But Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, thinks there are other forces at work.

Increased competition from satellite and phone companies offering TV service is the main reason that cable operators are losing TV subscribers. But the sluggish economy is also contributing to the malaise.

"The category itself isn't … Read more

Facebook has added a "subscribe" button to its comments box plugin, allowing users to follow comments made by users who have enabled Subscribers.

The new link allows users to subscribe to commenters with one click, and gives commenters another way to grow their subscriber base, Facebook said. In some cases, it will also show a subscriber count next to the button.

The link will only appear on public comments made by Facebook users who have allowed other users to subscribe their updates.

The move is an evolution of the subscribe button the social-networking giant added last month to … Read more

As expected, Netflix subscribers deserted the company in droves last quarter, after it raised prices on a popular subscription plan and spooked them with a now scuttled attempt to spin off DVD-by-mail operations.

Overall, 800,000 customers fled the company in the quarter ending September 30. Netflix reported 23.8 million domestic subscribers in the quarter, 200,000 fewer than the 24 million the company projected it would have back in September. Even that figure had been revised down from initial estimates of 25 million.

Wall Street is treating the news as a disaster. In after-hours trading Netflix shares plunged $… Read more

YouTube adds a built-in video editor to the site, Dyson releases a room heater called simply Hot, and Facebook's new subscribe button makes the social network more like Twitter and Google+.

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

From the this-should-come-as-no-surprise department: Netflix said today it underestimated how many people would be turned off by its decision to raise prices.

The Web's top video rental service said on July 25 that it expected to report 25 million overall subscribers for the third quarter after doing away with a popular hybrid subscriber plan that gave customers access to DVDs as well as the company's Internet-streaming service for $10 per month. But Netflix has now lowered those expectations to 24 million.

Netflix split DVD rental and the streaming service into separate plans, each costing $8 a month. Seeing … Read more

Just a day after announcing sweeping changes to friends lists, Facebook has announced another new feature, called the subscribe button.

Facebook users will soon see a new "Subscribe" option on some other people's profiles. When clicking the button on a friend's profile, users will have the option of subscribing to all, most, or only important updates the other person posts to the site. Those updates will show up in the user's news feed.

To make things a bit more interesting, Facebook is also letting people subscribe to news feeds of users they're not friends … Read more