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MELISSA ROSE PONCE DE LEON

Ms. Ponce De Leon, for instance, earns $1,000 a month through YouTube’s “partners” program, which gives members a share of the profits from advertisements that appear with their videos

Maryapril Bautista

Qualcomm is giving up on the direct-to-consumer portion of its Flo TV mobile television subsidiary, according to a report from paidcontent.org.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless offer mobile television services through Flo TV, Flo itself sells a stand-alone personal television and Audiovox offers in-car entertainment systems equipped with Flo TV. 

Analyst Jeff Kagan believes Qualcomm decided to cancel Flo TV's consumer-facing service because it wasn't profitable.

J CREW launched an advertising campaign in September, featuring splashy print ads and a photograph of a well-dressed young man on its Web site, sitting atop a ladder. Surrounding him was an assortment of items: umbrellas, medicine balls, a retro-looking trailer, a slab of raw meat. All of those items were available for purchase. But J. Crew stood to profit only from the sale of its clothes. The other goods were merely recommended by J. Crew to its customers, with Web links to the purveyors of those goods. J. Crew saw a business opportunity in assuming the role of a sophisticated and self-assured friend, guiding customers through the infinite offerings of the Internet without pushing them to buy only its own wares. “What the world needs now is curators and filters,” said Anthony Sperduti of Partners and Spade, the New York advertising agency behind the campaign. “J. Crew is savvy enough to know that the Internet has changed our buying patterns.” J. Crew is hardly the only company trying to sell something by befriending you. The idea that social commerce — which mixes networking with online shopping — can win business has spurred companies to try to connect with customers through sites like Facebook and Twitter.

was the first time a smartphone game had broken free of the Best Mobile Game ghetto and moved up into the big leagues. With a reported development cost of about $150,000, the addictive fowl-flinging game is racking up ungodly profits.

Angry Birds