Yahoo! Hones Its Social Skills

Following a string of social media site purchases including Flickr, JumpCut, UpComing.org, WebJay, Blo.gs and, of course, Delicious, Yahoo! just purchased Bix.com, a site which allows users to create contests or competitions that are then voted on to determine winners.

CO-founded in January of this year by Mike Speiser (a name you might remember back from the days of Epinions, before it was purchased by shopping.com, which was later purchased by eBay), Bix.com started out by inviting anyone and everyone to come in and sing karaoke, offering users video and audio recording tools to help generate the content.

The benefit for bix.com is noted in their site Yahoo! purchase message:

With Bix’s platform focused on talent-based competitions combined with Yahoo!’s global audience and leadership in social media, as well as its sales and marketing muscle, we will take Bix to the next level. Expect many more contests with cool prizes, more community features, tons of entertaining content, and integration with many of your favorite Yahoo! services.

The benefit for Yahoo!? The acquisition of Bix.com is likely an effort to help solidify their social media holdings as well as help them cross-promote participation in other Yahoo sites. Or maybe they just need more exposure for their own TalentShow offering.

To learn more about the folks who work at Bix, you can see everyone on Mike’s All Star Pitch-Challenged Singer Showcase.

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