fortune

News Corp. COO: 'Scarcity' key to online advertising

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--For Internet publishers to make the big money from online advertising, they need to manufacture a little scarcity, much like the television business.

That's the current thinking of News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin, who said at a conference that there's just too much inventory on the Internet for advertising to sell for high rates.

"We have to create category scarcity. That category these days is video," Chernin said here at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, a three-day gathering of tech and media executives. More specifically, he said, premium online video … Read more

Checking the horoscope of VC exits

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--In an environment where venture-backed companies have fewer exits, technology VCs are surprisingly upbeat.

On Tuesday, here at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, a group of venture capitalists sized up the market's outlook for the foreseeable future in an economic downturn. This week, two different research reports showed that second-quarter venture funding was either flat or down from the previous year, and the number of VC-backed exits--or the opportunities for IPO or acquisition--have shrunk in that time.

Dismissing talk about exits, Andrew Braccia, a partner at Accel Partners, said that the most important thing about … Read more

Facebook's Sandberg: Growth before monetization

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--Facebook's business playbook takes a page from those of the early dot-coms: build it and then figure out how to make money.

Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, said here in a panel interview Tuesday that Facebook's primary goal is to grow its social network. Second is monetization.

"Our focus is on growth--we believe this is the moment people are joining social networks," Sandberg said here at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, a three-day gathering on technology and media. "Then it's monetization to support that growth."

Her … Read more

Viacom CEO: 'Great' content is king

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--If content is king, then technology is its queen.

Viacom's CEO Philippe Dauman, who spoke here Tuesday at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, said that despite talk that content has become a commodity (i.e., reality TV shows), it's quite the opposite. Great content is never a commodity, he said, and the Internet and mobile communications are helping Viacom broaden its reach internationally and among younger audiences online and via mobile devices.

"If you have a great brand supported by great content, there has never been a better time to reach more consumers, … Read more

Fortune conference pitches personal submarines

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--Got $1.2 million to blow on toys? Forget the conspicuous Veyron, which is sure to draw derision from everyone you pass. Instead, take your toys underwater: U.S. Submarines' Triton Model 1000, being made now, will take you and a friend 1,000 feet straight down, and keep you there for 6 hours while you gaze at the fish and reflect on your extravagance.

U.S. Subs is a major sponsor of the Fortune Brainstorm 2008 conference being held here, and had a simulator set up in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton to give … Read more

Bezos: Don't build Web sites like rockets

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--At the Fortune Brainstorm 2008 conference here on Monday, David Kirkpatrick asked Jeff Bezos about the origins of Amazon.com's Web Services. "We were building these services for ourselves," Bezos said, when Amazon came up with the idea to "harden the interfaces" between interdependent services. Bezos said the idea was to make interaction between services "coarse-grained instead of fine-grained." Loosening the links between services allowed individual groups to innovate and change without fear of breaking the rest of the Amazon infrastructure.

This concept, Bezos said in response to a … Read more

The Internet is making the world a better place...but not for CEOs

HALF MOON BAY, Calif.--At Monday's kickoff discussion at the high-zoot (it's at the Ritz Carlton) Fortune Brainstorm 2008 conference, moderator David Kirkpatrick asks the question, "Is tech making the world a better place?"

Two speakers, Michael Dell and Mark Benioff of Salesforce.com, focused on the changes in business: the Net gives companies a communications conduit with customers. "We put big ears on," Dell said, referring in part to the Digg-like Ideastorm system that Dell is using to gather customer feedback.

Benioff said, with a smile, "Our customers are ganging up on … Read more

Fake Dan Lyons. The reason Fake Steve Jobs must continue.

I was in a bar in New York last weekend and the man next to me looked vaguely familiar.

Glasses, friendly, drinking a lot.

To me, these are all the hallmarks of a journalist. But he might have been a doctor, I supposed.

His first words? "I just can't take it any more. The pressure, the accolades. And all the adulation. Man, have you got any idea how stressful adulation can be?"

He introduced himself as Dan.

He kept talking, either trying to convince me of something or, I preferred, to convince himself.

"Most journalists become … Read more

Rallying cry for innovation at Fortune Brainstorm Green and Milken Conference

Doreen Lorenzo, president of frog design, attended the recent Fortune Brainstorm Green and the Milken Global Conference and identified a common theme:

"In the past two weeks, I had the opportunity to attend two very interesting conferences. The first one was Fortune's Brainstorm Green, followed by the Milken Institute's Global Conference. Both of these conferences attract the who's who in the financial and business world. What struck me at both events was the rallying cry that innovation is key in solving many of the world's problems. I continued to hear that change is needed for … Read more