Tiger Woods sure is having a really bad time of late.

Of course, everyone now knows the trouble he’s had with his wife because of his serial infidelity — and his wife has redefined the use of a golf club.

But more than the bump on the head and the humiliation that followed suit, Tiger Woods’ reputation has been tarnished and this is affecting his bottomline. How? His endorsements are now jeopardized.

Companies hire celebrities and sports superstars to hawk their products because they want to ride on these people’s reputation and image. The better the image, the better the effect of the endorsements. Tiger’s troubles are not helping his reputation at all and the companies that hired him are realizing that they should cut their losses as soon as a possible. Accenture has already announced that they have ended their relationship with the superstar golfer. Gillette has also released a statement that they have suspended his endorsement deal.

Woods’ troubles means lost revenues for him and maybe, just maybe, companies will also realize that putting their reputations at stake by hiring people is not really a good strategy.

Golf champion Tiger Woods no longer represents global consulting and technology services firm Accenture, as of December 13. Accenture is the first of Woods’ corporate sponsors to pull out of the relationship completely. A day earlier, Gillette announced a suspension of Woods’ marketing appearances for an unspecified period.

For anyone missing two weeks of headlines, here’s a recap. Golf champion Woods crashed his car near his Florida home after what appeared to be a major league (oops, wrong sport) fight with his wife over alleged infidelities. At first Woods denied any marital misconduct, using the first line of defense of many public figures caught in a sand trap, which was to lie about it. Then other women surfaced with firm evidence of Woods’ affairs, for a total of 13, and Woods told the world that he had made mistakes. On December 11, he announced he is taking a mega-mulligan — a leave of absence from golf to repair his marriage.

Though Accenture doesn’t sell anything to consumers, it put itself in the public eye with its “Go ahead, be a Tiger” ad campaign. Working for Accenture since 2004, Woods seemed a plausible long-term choice. His consistently stellar athletic achievements and mixed racial heritage symbolize the best of a global economy. Now his departure could mark a seismic shift in corporate branding and marketing approaches.

Many web sites have discovered that one of the sure-fire ways to attract visitors is by providing free content and free “features” and “services”. It’s a business model that has served web sites well for the last few years. These web sites earn from the advertising that basically funds and subsidizes the But it looks like there is currently a shift ongoing that will change how web sites will earn profits.

Companies and web sites like LinkedIn Corp., ESPN (owned by Disney), and Skype Ltd. are now trying to increase their profits by adding in new features that its customers will have to pay for in order to use.

This increasingly popular method of earning profits is a reflection of the companies’ new views about making profits. They want to reduce their dependence on advertising. The new view is to entice customers and visitors to enter their web sites with compelling free content and then when they are hooked sell them premium services or subscriptions.

And there’s really a good reason to get more money from visitors. US consumers are expected to spend up to $8.55 billion on online content. That’s big bucks!

As a hard core player of Zynga Games‘ Mafia Wars on Facebook, I often imagine that making money in the real world is as easy making money in Mafia Wars. I’m nearing my first billion dollars in the New York area and I always wish that money can just pile up like that with the minimum of effort.

Well, it looks like Zynga is living the reality of our collective fantasy. The prolific game developer for Facebook (who is responsible for many game properties in the popular social networking site) is reportedly now worth $1 billion if the sale price of a small competitor is going to be the basis.

Electronic Arts recently bought Playfish for about three to four times what the company is making and since Zynga’s revenue is so much bigger than Playfish, the computation is that Zynga could be valued at $1 billion. That’s a lot of money to buy Casinos and Beach Front Properties although it’s still chump change compared to what you earn in Mafia Wars.

Zynga’s value could easily make it the third largest videogame publisher in the United States. Expect the clamor for Zynga to go public to increase in the next few months. If I can withdraw my Mafia Wars money, I’d bet it all on Zynga.

US authorities recently filed 20 people with securities fraud in what is probably the largest inside trading case since the 1980s.

This news may be considered par for the course for greedy stockmarket brokers but what has made this case more titillating is inclusion of a 44-year-old former teenage beauty queen who used more than her business acumen to get a leg up on other traders.

Danielle Chesi, an analyst for New Castle Funds LLC, reportedly used her feminine charms to get insider information on various technology companies. Her tactics were so effective that she amassed an impressive list of contacts that included the former Chairman of AMD and other top executives in IBM and Akamai Technologies.

What’s surprising here is how such well-established and successful businessmen fell for the oldest trick in the book. I guess deep down inside these powerful men are still nerds who are hungry for the attention of the prom queen.

To any art patron, the names of Jean Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol are enough to illicit excitement. The artworks of two of the world’s most talented post-modern artists are highly sought after and the moment any of their works are put up for sale, it’s sure to get sold immediately.

That is, if there’s no global financial crisis to worry about. In a recent auction held at Christie’s New York, artworks by both Basquiat and Warhol were left unsold. It sounds unprecendented to me especially since these are pieces that would usually command great prices and a feeding frenzy from art patrons around the world. Basquiat and Warhol not selling just means that even the filthy rich are also working on a budget right now. I dunno if this realization makes me feel better or bad.

Because of the shrinking Japanese economy brought about the global financial crisis, the Japanese are now beginning to feel the pinch and are making some drastic changes in their lifestyle — namely, scrimping up on luxury brands.

Japan’s economy has shrunk by 5.7 percent this year and because of this spending on luxury items in the country is likely to drop to 14 percent or $28. billion from a high of $22 billion in 2005 and 2006.

The Japanese are very brand conscious and most of the top-tier designer brands in the world have flagship stores in Japan. But because of the belt tightening measures that everybody seems to be doing, the Japanese are doing it to. They’re probably not using Gucci belts for their own belt tightening.

Analysts think that this downtrend will continue for a couple more years, which now means the Japanese will have to forego their Chanels and Vuittons for a few more years.

If there’s one piece of tech gadgetry that is expected to grow significantly over the next couple of years it will be the e-book reader.

Despite what many people say are the underperforming features of the current crop of readers, it is still not deterring consumers from buying them. In fact, it is expected that millions of consumers will be buying these readers this Christmas season. Forrester Research has also raised the 2009 estimates for the US sales for readers by 50 percent. The Forrester people also mentioned that sales may even double next year.

It will be interesting to find out if Amazon’s Kindle will maintain is new leadership status for in the market or whether Sony will be able to become resurgent and kick up sales again.

One thing’s for sure, these readers might finally entice people to read. Nothing changes attitudes more than being part of the “in-crowd”.

Hi. I’m a Facebook user and I’m a Mafia Wars addict.

I’ve never been big Facebook user until after I actually discovered Mafia Wars. That game really hooked me on Facebook, and in the process I discovered how cool this social network is in finding long lost friends. And Facebook seems to have realized that Mafia Wars and the other games in the site is the ticket to profitability.

Facebook is currently testing a new payment scheme where it will get a cut each time a player buys an in-game item on the site. This will potentially earn Facebook a yummy piece of the financial pie that is already in the hundreds of millions being taken by Zynga, Inc., the creator of the some of the most popular games in Facebook, like Mafia Wars, and Farmville. Another company, Playfish, Inc., which makes Pet Society, is also a part of the pay system being tried out. With the social games market predicted to grow three-fold to $2 billion by 2012, this is the perfect time for Facebook to get in on the action.

The company is testing a payment system to gain a cut each time an online-game player buys a digital tractor, weapon or hat on the site. That would give Facebook a piece of the hundreds of millions of dollars that are being pulled in by Zynga Inc., creator of “Farmville” and “Mafia Wars,” and Playfish Inc., maker of “Pet Society.” The social-games market will almost triple to $2 billion by 2012, estimates ThinkEquity LLC.

Both Zynga and Playfish allow Facebok users to play its games for free but rely on selling virtual goods as part of its revenue. These items are sold through microtransactions. The companies’ success has made Facebook the largest game portal with over 100 million users.

The system being used by the site is Facebook Credits. The payment service will allow users to buy credits that they can use to buy items in different games. This is different from the present system where a player can only buy credits through the game he’s playing and only be able to use it in that game and nowhere else.

With new games coming (Civilization is particularly exciting), it will be awesome if Facebook finally earns some money from the social-network addicts that have made Facebook their virtual home.

There has been a number of vocal Americans who think that this whole outsourcing business is taking away jobs from them and giving it to people in other countries.

I wonder what they’ll think of the news that an Indian company is now hiring Americans.

Wipro, Ltd., one of the largest software services provider in India, is planning to get the services of more workers in the US as a way of gaining more traction in the face of a rebounding technology market.

Wipro CEO and Chairman Azim Premji thinks that getting US employees will help his company gain more local orders and also gain more contracts from the federal government. This is significant given that the US provides the company with half of its yearly revenue.

Wipro plans to hire 500 employees for its new services center. The company declined to reveal where the new center will be located but it already has one center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Those vocal Americans must be thinking of another thing to complain about.

Mobile phone companies are earning a lot of money through its added services, particularly text messaging. Text messaging is the most used mobile phone feature right after voice calls. Actually, I think text messages are more commonly used rather than voice calls.

This doesn’t mean people should send text messages wherever they are. I’ve seen people texting even while driving, what seems to be a physical impossibility is being done with impunity by a lot of people. Thankfully, more rational minds are beginning to see the dangers of texting while driving.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to make it illegal to text while driving and he has publicly denounced the practice with the same level of gravity as drunk driving and wearing seatbelts.

About 16 percent of deadly crashes that happened in 2008 involved a driver whose attention was distracted in one way or another. This is an 11 percent increase from figures posted in 2005.

This is the right move to make. I’ve seen motorists who text while driving and they are road hazards. They’re so dangerous on the road that I want to shove their phones down their throats.