Video streaming services from Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is testing a new monthly option for its popular Prime video-streaming service as the world's largest Internet retailer steps up competition with Netflix Inc.

Prime typically costs $79 a year in the United States for free two-day shipping, free video streaming and access to Amazon's Kindle e-book lending library. The company is now offering the service for $7.99 a month on its website, which works out to $95.88 a year, but at that rate it can be purchased strictly on a month-to-month basis.

The monthly option is more comparable to Netflix's streaming video subscription, which also costs $7.99 a month but does not come with free shipping and an e-book library. Another streaming rival, Hulu, also charges $7.99 a month.

An Amazon spokesman said the monthly Prime option was a test and declined to comment further.

Netflix and Hulu offer greater video selection than Amazon, though Amazon is spending hundreds of millions of dollars buying more content from Hollywood and TV studios.

"As Amazon continues to add movie and TV content to Prime, we see it likely adding more competitive pressure to the legacy online video services," Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird, wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday.

Netflix shares fell 2.5 percent to $76.27 in afternoon trading on Tuesday. Amazon shares climbed 1.1 percent to $237.01.

Amazon's new monthly Prime option coincides with the holiday shopping season, giving shoppers a way to use the two-day shipping service for gifts without the annual obligation, Sebastian noted.

"While one risk for Amazon is that consumers use Prime for just one month to take advantage of free shipping on large purchases, the test could also reveal that a ready market for alternative pricing and serve as a new customer acquisition tool," the analyst wrote.

Obama re-elected

Foxconn's Gou says tough to cope with iPhone demand

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group said on Wednesday the company's flagshipHon Hai unit is finding it difficult to cope with the massive demand for Apple Inc's iPhones.

"It's not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand," Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told reporters after a business forum.

However, he declined to comment on brokerage reports saying that the group's other unit, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), had taken on some production.

Hon Hai Precision Industry, the main listed entity of the parent Foxconn Technology Group, is the key assembler of Apple's iPhones.

The group also owns FIH, which traditionally assembles non-Apple products, such as phones from Nokia Oyj and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

Shares of Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (FIH), the world's biggest contract maker of cellphones, surged as much as 35 percent on Monday after Citigroup upgraded the stock to a 'buy' and said it expected the firm to start assembling iPhones this year.

Shares of FIH fell 5.7 percent in Hong Kong on Wednesday, while Hon Hai was up 0.6 percent in Taipei. (Reporting by Clare Jim and Lee Chyen yee; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)

Obama and Twitter had a big night

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called it - in less than 140 characters.

Around 11:15 pm EST, just as the networks were beginning to call the race in his favor, Obama took to Twitter to proclaim himself the winner over Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

"This happened because of you. Thank you," Obama tweeted.

That the president would take his message to Twitter before taking the stage in Chicago underscored the tremendous role social media platforms like Twitter played in the 2012 election.

Minutes later, with the race called in his favor, Obama tweeted again.

"We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned, and that's who we are. Thank you. -bo."

Through the course of a long and bitter presidential campaign, Twitter often served as the new first rough draft of history.

Top campaign aides used the Internet tool to snipe at each other, the candidates used it to get out their messages and political reporters used it to inform and entertain.

On Election Night, the tweets were flowing.

By 10 p.m. EST, with the race still up for grabs, Twitter announced it had broken records.

There were more than 31 million election-related tweets on Tuesday night, making Election Night "the most tweeted about event in U.S. political history," said Twitter spokeswoman Rachael Horwitz. Between 6 p.m. and midnight EST, there were more than 23 million tweets.

Horwitz noted the previous record was 10 million, during the first presidential debate on October 3.

"Twitter brought people closer to almost every aspect of the election this year," Horwitz said. "From breaking news, to sharing the experience of watching the debates, to interacting directly with the candidates, Twitter became a kind of nationwide caucus."

In the moments following Obama's win, Twitter was in a frenzy, with a peak of 327,000 tweets a minute.

Another tweet from Obama, one that read: "Four more years" and showed a picture of him hugging his wife, became the most retweeted tweet in the history of the site.

'FIRST TWITTER ELECTION'

Love it or hate it, Twitter and its role in politics appears to be here to stay.

For Rob Johnson, campaign manager for Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry's failed presidential run, Twitter "changed the dynamic this cycle and will continue to play a bigger role in years to come."

"We no longer click refresh on websites or wait for the paper boy to throw the news on our porch," Johnson said. "We go to Twitter and learn the facts before others read it."

The 2012 race was the first where Twitter played such an important role. Top campaign advisers like Romney's Eric Fehrnstrom and Obama's David Axelrod engaged in Twitter battles through the year.

With many political reporters and campaign staff on Twitter and Facebook, social media websites were often the first place news broke. Some top news stories were kept alive or thrust into the headlines after becoming hot topics on Twitter.

"It was one heckuva echo chamber," Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire, said in an email.

Johnson said Twitter was the driving force behind some of the year's biggest political news stories.

"The twitterverse shapes the news and public opinion," Johnson said. "The Internet is truly a real and powerful tool in politics."

In future elections, candidates and their campaign staffs will have to include social media as another battleground, Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons said.

"This was the first Twitter election and social media is now fully a part of our election mechanics," Simmons said. "Going forward candidates must have an aggressive social media strategy if they want to win."

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

Obama re-elected

Barack Obama

plus.google.com

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Wikipedia

Born: August 4, 1961 (age 51), Honolulu Full name: Barack Hussein Obama II Movies: By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, More Parents: Ann Dunham, Barack Obama Sr. Siblings: Maya Soetoro-Ng, George Obama,Mark Ndesandjo, David Ndesandjo, More Education: Harvard Law School (1988–1991),More

Shares of LinkedIn gained nearly 8 percent to $115.15 in after-hours trading on Thursday, as the company extended its streak of beating analyst expectations every quarter since its May 2011 initial public offering.

LinkedIn beats expectations, raises full-year revenue view Reuters - 3 hrs ago

(Reuters) - Professional social network LinkedIn Corp topped Wall Street's third-quarter profit and revenue targets, as advertising rates increased and sales from its hiring services nearly doubled.

Shares of LinkedIn gained nearly 8 percent to $115.15 in after-hours trading on Thursday, as the company extended its streak of beating analyst expectations every quarter since its May 2011 initial public offering.

"They seem to be firing on all cylinders," said Macquarie Research analyst Tom White.

"They continue to penetrate enterprises with their talent solutions business and continue to have plenty of upside opportunity there," he said.

LinkedIn connects professionals seeking jobs and companies looking for employees. The company makes money from selling ads and premium subscriptions, as well as from offering specialized services to recruiters, setting it apart from its ad-dependent social networking rivals such as Facebook Inc and Twitter.

The company raised its full-year revenue forecast on Thursday, projecting total revenue to range between $939 million and $944 million, compared with its prior range of $915 million to $925 million.

Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said on a conference call on Thursday that the online service now had 187 million members and that members are spending more time on the website.

"Member page views grew 44 percent, well in excess of unique visitor growth, indicating that members are becoming increasingly active on LinkedIn," said Weiner.

LinkedIn has rolled out a number of new features and enhancements to its website in recent months as it tries to entice its members to spend more time on its website. Traffic to LinkedIn's home page increased 60 percent since a website redesign that it rolled out during the third quarter.

Analysts say that the so-called user engagement levels on LinkedIn remain well below websites such as Facebook and Google, limiting the amount of advertising revenue that LinkedIn can reap.

LinkedIn Finance Chief Steve Sordello acknowledged during the call on Thursday that advertiser demand was greater than the advertising inventory available on its website.

Still, marketing revenue increased 60 percent year-on-year to $64 million in the third quarter, helped by a rise in advertising rates.

"The company is deploying its field sales where it's signing on bigger deals," said Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Herman Leung.

LinkedIn said it posted net income of $2.3 million, or 2 cents a share, during the three months ended September 30, compared with a net loss of $1.6 million, or 2 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, LinkedIn said it earned 22 cents a share in the third quarter, above the 11 cents expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue in the third quarter was $252 million, up 81 percent year-over-year and ahead of the average analyst expectation of $244.2 million.

The Mountain View, California-based company said that revenue from its talent solutions services increased 95 percent year-on-year in the third quarter to $138.4 million and that the business added 1,700 new customers.

Shares of LinkedIn, which closed Thursday's regular session at $106.85, have fallen 15 percent since mid-September but are up roughly 70 percent in 2012.

Apple shares fall after mgmt shake up.