Darren Herman

In good times, advertising dollars could be the primary revenue stream of many companies, especially in the digital media world.
In the tough times, advertising dollars are a revenue stream of many companies, but companies must diversify their revenues beyond ad dollars.

In these tough times, I’m excited about companies who can create new revenue streams or [...]

It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted about virtual goods, but read Mike Gowen’s recap of the Virtual Good Summit that occurred recently.  Here are some takeaways that are extremely important:

Teens expressing themselves may take more to branded items as they like to align with them.
People creating UGC are creating their OWN branded content. [...]

My friend and colleague Morty sent me an email this morning with a link to a NY Times piece on video games.   The article talks about Electronic Arts (EA) and their IP around the Battlefield franchise.
“I’ve always envied the movie industry when they put a film out in the cinema, then they go to retail [...]

I took an 8 hour flight from JFK to Zurich, Switzerland to participate in a conference at the GDI Institute on digital media and my portion:  the role of video games in culture and business.  While I have history in the in-game advertising industry, I didn’t focus the presentation on this.  I tried to talk [...]

The video game industry is going through some monumental changes and I thought I’d shed some light on them from the inside. With that said, I decided to whip up a presentation that looks at many of the different areas of the industry including many of the trends that are occuring.
The presentation is geared [...]

Maybe I’m listening to the likes of Howard Lindzon, Pip Coburn too much or Sherri is rubbing off on me (her career), but I’ve been watching the equities market much more in-depth lately.  Am I ready to become a trader?  No.  Would I ever want to be?  Probably not.  However, I think I have a [...]

I read a fascinating analysis of IAC (InterActiveCorp) this evening and wanted to share my view.  First, please read the article written by Sramana Mitra entitled Web 3.0 & IAC.
IAC holds more than 60 online properties and someone could easily mistake it for a VC with a well-diversified portfolio of Internet properties. When some of [...]

Well, virtually that is.  Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to broaden the types of video games that I play to learn more about gaming overall, and I stumbled upon Bang! Howdy, by the team over at Three Rings.  All I can say is, wow.
In my About section, I list one of my [...]

For those of you who do not have kids or nieces/nephews to play with, you probably aren’t too aware of Club Penguin.  However, if you are aware of Club Penguin, you’re probably ultra-aware of the role it plays in your childrens lives.
This week, Disney announced that it completed the sale of Club Penguin for $700M, [...]

Fox 11 Los Angeles did a 3 minute clip regarding an emerging game, MapleStory, which focuses on how gamers are in a craze about the game. Some gamers are spending $50/week in virtual items for the game and others are stealing money from their folks credit cards to pay for new goods.
Take a peak [...]