Monday, January 31, 2011
Weekend Favs January Twenty Nine
Weekend Favs January Twenty Nine
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Larissa Meek Gina Carano Sanaa Lathan Ana Beatriz Barros Maria Menounos
Small Business News: Improving Your Blogging and Social Media
Improving your blogging and social media efforts can be the key to building any small business. No matter who your customers, suppliers or partners are, no matter what business you are in or what you sell, there’s a good bet you can expand your business online. And the best way for you to reach out and leverage your brand and unique approach on the Web is through blogs and social media. Want to know more? Have we got the roundupRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Improving Your Blogging and Social Media
Erica Leerhsen Angela Marcello Paz Vega Rebecca Mader Eva Green
Viral Video: "Page One" at Sundance
The documentary is by Andrew Rossi, who spent a year following reporters and editors at the newspaper, even as the media landscape shifted dramatically due to the impact of digital technologies.
Radha Mitchell Melissa Rycroft Chloë Sevigny Janet Jackson Georgianna Robertson
Windows Phone 7
Sarah Wynter Jaime Pressly Ashanti Jennie Finch Lisa Snowdon
Sunday, January 30, 2011
One on One: Michael Wu of Lithium Technologies
Welcome to another in our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. Michael Wu, Principal Scientist of Analytics at Lithium Technologies, spoke with Brent Leary in this interview. Wu?s job is to “dig into the complex dynamics of social interaction and group behavior in online communities and social networks.? This article has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, page down toRead More
From Small Business Trends
One on One: Michael Wu of Lithium Technologies
Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah Julie Benz Saira Mohan Brittny Gastineau
Egypt: Breaking News Sources
Kat Von D Ana Paula Lemes Vanessa Simmons Chyler Leigh Julie Berry
10 Lowbrow Ideas That Failed
This is a post by Minyanville.com. The writer H.L. Mencken once said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." Oh, really? In fact, the history of pop culture is littered with lowbrow ideas that failed to... Read more
Tami Donaldson Padma Lakshmi Sarah Mutch Gabrielle Union Alessandra Ambrosio
Marc Bodnick opens up about his move to Quora ? on Quora
When VentureBeat first reported on Silicon Valley investor Marc Bodnick’s departure from Elevation Partners, the private-equity firm he cofounded, I noted his enthusiasm for Quora, the online question-and-answer community founded by Charlie Cheever and Adam D’Angelo, two early Facebook employees.
When rumors broke that he was actually taking a formal job at Quora, I asked him — on Quora — how the startup recruited him.
This morning, he finally answered my question! Here’s his response:
Meeting the founders and using the product were the first steps in my growing interest in the company. I knew Charlie Cheever and Adam D’Angelo through mutual friends. I’ve been an active Quora user since October 2009, a time when there were only a few hundred users. I got onto the site after running into Charlie and Rebekah Cox, Quora’s lead product designer and first employee, at a birthday party in Palo Alto and bugging them for a beta invitation.
In October, Charlie invited me into the beta and I became immediately addicted. I have an eclectic set of interests, and I spent a ton of time on non-technical topics -> U.S. Politics, Movies, Children’s Books, Crossword Puzzles. In 2009-10, my kids and I were in the middle of reading Harry Potter, and I ended up writing dozens of questions about the books as I read each one. Then I did the same thing for the Matrix movies, Iron Man 2, and Black Swan. (I’m currently plowing through Percy Jackson, btw.) I wrote way more questions than answers.
In early 2010, Charlie and I started talking about policy on the site, and he asked me if I wanted to get more involved with the company. So I started meeting most Sunday nights with Adam, Charlie, and Rebekah. These were awesome discussions for me. I was like a Madden fan getting to hang out with Bill Walsh to talk about the West Coast offense.
Toward the end of the year, Adam, Charlie and I started talking about the idea of me joining Quora in a more active role. It’s a small company, so I’ll take on a variety of roles including product marketing, community, and business operations. This is a big change since I’ve been an investor my whole life. I start Monday Jan 31 at Quora and it is a super-exciting new adventure for me.
Companies: Elevation Partners, quora
People: adam dangelo, charlie cheever, Marc Bodnick, Rebekah Cox
Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman Larissa Meek Gina Carano
The State of the Union, Dissected for Business
Yesterday's State of the Union was a nicely written piece, full of buzzwords and encouragement. To get a better sense of what Obama was really saying about business and the economy, I sifted through the political-marketing smokescreen to try to... Read more
Adrianne Curry Jennifer Gimenez Katie Cassidy Estella Warren Cinthia Moura
Salesforce?s enterprise-style Facebook Chatter.com goes live Monday
Chatter.com, customer relationship management software provider Salesforce’s enterprise-style social network, is going live on Monday and the company is sparing no expense to try to capture a market that has mostly jumped on board with other collaboration startups like Yammer and Box.net.
Chatter.com is basically a stripped down version of Chatter in Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) service. The site is pegged as a Facebook-style social network for businesses that makes it easier for employees to communicate and share files amongst themselves. Like Yammer and other collaboration services, the site allows users to upload and share files, comment on them and view up-to-date activity streams.
Users enter their work email address into a sign-up box on Chatter.com and get going from there ? just like Yammer. They can set up a profile, complete with all the bells and whistles Facebook has.�Chatter.com was officially announced at Dreamforce in December, but details were pretty sparse.
While Salesforce doesn’t want there to be a limit on how many files users can upload, there is a theoretical limit that free Chatter.com users can reach, said Kraig Swensrud, senior vice president of product marketing at Salesforce. So it’s similar to other sites that use a freemium model to attract new users ? Salesforce just isn’t being explicit in what the limit is.
“We don’t want to be in the business of charging for storage, we want everyone to use the cloud for storage,” Swensrud said. “It’s a more efficient model, it’s been proven on the web by Dropbox and Gmail.”
Users can preview files on the website without having to own the software to view it and edit it on their computers. That includes software like Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator and others. The free version on Chatter.com won’t sync up with Salesforce’s CRM software ? which the company hopes will be enough of a hook to bring in new customers.
“Photo-sharing was the killer app for Facebook,” Swensrud said. “We think file-sharing will the killer app for these enterprise-class Facebook networks like Chatter.”
Most major players in the collaboration space have already focused on providing efficient file-sharing tools. Box.net, for example, is a pure enterprise-style Dropbox with some additional micro-blogging features duct taped on top. Yammer also has file-sharing features, as does Huddle. The primary play here is to try to snag new customers for Salesforce’s main CRM software ? the market for Chatter has around 65 million businesses, Swensrud said.
To compete initially with Yammer and make a splash in the collaboration space, the company launched Chatter, a micro-blogging service. The service quickly picked up around 60,000 customers, and its biggest customer, Dell, has around 100,000 active users. The rest of its paying clients have around 5,000 active users, according to a presentation at today?s conference. Salesforce then�turned the service loose on the freemium revenue model in order to compete with other collaboration startups (it cost non-Salesforce users $15 per user per month beforehand.)
Chatter.com users will also be able to dive into the mobile applications on the iPad, iPhone and BlackBerry without having to pay for the official Chatter service. Like Chatter.com, mobile free Chatter users will just get access to a stripped down version of the main Chatter service that isn’t connected to Salesforce’s CRM software. Swensrud was still mum as to when Chatter would appear on devices running Google’s Android mobile operating system ? though the application was announced at Dreamforce last year.
To attract those new customers, Salesforce is running Chatter advertisements just before and after the Black-Eyed Peas perform at this year’s Super Bowl half-time show. It’s a pretty decent chunk of change on advertising ? advertisements run during the Super Bowl typically cost close to $3 million per spot. The advertisement features the Black-Eyed Peas and front-man Will.i.am ? who has actually been quite active in the Silicon Valley scene and recently joined Intel as director of creative innovation.
Companies: salesforce
Kate Hudson Adriana Lima Brittany Daniel Kate Moss Zhang Ziyi
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Doodle Jump game maker Lima Sky goes Hollywood with movie deal
Doodle Jump, an enormously popular game on the iPhone, is going Hollywood in a marketing deal with Universal Pictures, which plans to cr0ss-promote the app in promotions for its upcoming live action and computer-animated comedy, Hop.
Doodle Jump comes from humble indie roots. Igor Pusenjak and his brother Marko (their company is called Lima Sky) created the app 18 months ago, and it has become a sensation with more than 8.5 million users on the iPhone. The deal is similar to another announced today in which Angry Birds creator Rovio will issue a new version of its game tied to the movie Rio coming from 20th Century Fox.
It’s eye-opening to see that apps that were virtually unknown a little while ago, coming from unknown indie developers, can catch the attention of giant media companies and strike deals with them. It’s happening because platforms such as the iPhone are getting their hooks into the minds of consumers and becoming the brands of the 21st century.
Set for release in February, the free software update will allow Doodle Jump users to unlock a secret Easter level within the game and play as the film’s leading character. Hop is the second film from Universal Pictures and filmmaker Chris Meledandri, producer of Despicable Me, at Illumination Entertainment. The film, which features Russell Brand as the Easter Bunny, will be released on April 1.
In Doodle Jump, players guide Doodle the Doodler on a journey up a sheet of graph paper, using the tilt controls of the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Since its release, the game has risen into the cultural stratosphere, getting plenty of play and mentions from the likes of Jimmy Fallon, The Big Bang Theory, Rainn Wilson, the Jonas Brothers and others. Lima Sky was founded in July 2008.
In my panel at the recent Digital Life Design conference in Munich, Igor Pusenjak said that although Lima Sky is a small company, it has hit No. 1 on Apple’s paid apps list in the U.S. The company has also licensed the game to GameHouse, which has published the game on Android phones. One of the ways that Doodle Jump has stayed popular is that the company frequently pushes out content updates, Pusenjak said, much like a TV series.
“You have to keep adding new content to your apps to keep people coming back,” he said.
Companies: Illumination Entertainment, Lima Sky
People: Chris Meledandri, Igor Pusenjak
Women Entrepreneur Festival
Nicole Scherzinger Jill Arrington Tami Donaldson Padma Lakshmi Sarah Mutch
5 Ways to Make Your Website Scream Local
5 Ways to Make Your Website Scream Local
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Scarlett Johansson Christina Ricci Missi Pyle Jessica Alba Kylie Bax
Where To Find Jobs As the Economy Recovers
This is a guest post by Brendan Cruickshank. Pick up any newspaper or magazine today and start reading about the economy. What you will see is not pretty. Reports are grim and it's easy to see why; the nation has been looking at unemployment... Read more
Alexis Bledel Kim Kardashian China Chow Alecia Elliott Kat Von D
Don?t Miss Your Life: Book Review
You shouldn't be reading this book review right now. Don't you have some filing to catch up on? Have you made that phone call to that one place yet? What about those W-9s? One last question. Are you missing your life? That's what Joe... Read more
Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle Blu Cantrell Jaime King
Exclusive: Former Facebook Ad Head Mike Murphy Takes Senior Advisor Role at Zynga
He is now taking a part-time, but significant, role at online gaming phenom Zynga to help formulate its advertising strategy.
In addition, though, Murphy is also close to formalizing an additional consulting relationship with Facebook.
Small Business News: Taxing Our Small Businesses
Taxing small business is an important issue, especially in tough economic times. Small businesses hold the key to economic recovery so lower taxes for everyone would only speed the return to economic prosperity. As many small businesses know, lower taxes not only on business but on consumers would increase customer spending and benefit our businesses far more than increases in small business lending. It’s time we understand that lower taxes mean better business and a better economy for everyone.
News
Read More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Taxing Our Small Businesses
Natalie Portman Jessica Biel Christina Milian Kelly Brook Robin Tunney
Salesforce?s enterprise-style Facebook Chatter.com goes live Monday
Chatter.com, customer relationship management software provider Salesforce’s enterprise-style social network, is going live on Monday and the company is sparing no expense to try to capture a market that has mostly jumped on board with other collaboration startups like Yammer and Box.net.
Chatter.com is basically a stripped down version of Chatter in Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) service. The site is pegged as a Facebook-style social network for businesses that makes it easier for employees to communicate and share files amongst themselves. Like Yammer and other collaboration services, the site allows users to upload and share files, comment on them and view up-to-date activity streams.
Users enter their work email address into a sign-up box on Chatter.com and get going from there ? just like Yammer. They can set up a profile, complete with all the bells and whistles Facebook has.�Chatter.com was officially announced at Dreamforce in December, but details were pretty sparse.
While Salesforce doesn’t want there to be a limit on how many files users can upload, there is a theoretical limit that free Chatter.com users can reach, said Kraig Swensrud, senior vice president of product marketing at Salesforce. So it’s similar to other sites that use a freemium model to attract new users ? Salesforce just isn’t being explicit in what the limit is.
“We don’t want to be in the business of charging for storage, we want everyone to use the cloud for storage,” Swensrud said. “It’s a more efficient model, it’s been proven on the web by Dropbox and Gmail.”
Users can preview files on the website without having to own the software to view it and edit it on their computers. That includes software like Microsoft Word, Adobe Illustrator and others. The free version on Chatter.com won’t sync up with Salesforce’s CRM software ? which the company hopes will be enough of a hook to bring in new customers.
“Photo-sharing was the killer app for Facebook,” Swensrud said. “We think file-sharing will the killer app for these enterprise-class Facebook networks like Chatter.”
Most major players in the collaboration space have already focused on providing efficient file-sharing tools. Box.net, for example, is a pure enterprise-style Dropbox with some additional micro-blogging features duct taped on top. Yammer also has file-sharing features, as does Huddle. The primary play here is to try to snag new customers for Salesforce’s main CRM software ? the market for Chatter has around 65 million businesses, Swensrud said.
To compete initially with Yammer and make a splash in the collaboration space, the company launched Chatter, a micro-blogging service. The service quickly picked up around 60,000 customers, and its biggest customer, Dell, has around 100,000 active users. The rest of its paying clients have around 5,000 active users, according to a presentation at today?s conference. Salesforce then�turned the service loose on the freemium revenue model in order to compete with other collaboration startups (it cost non-Salesforce users $15 per user per month beforehand.)
Chatter.com users will also be able to dive into the mobile applications on the iPad, iPhone and BlackBerry without having to pay for the official Chatter service. Like Chatter.com, mobile free Chatter users will just get access to a stripped down version of the main Chatter service that isn’t connected to Salesforce’s CRM software. Swensrud was still mum as to when Chatter would appear on devices running Google’s Android mobile operating system ? though the application was announced at Dreamforce last year.
To attract those new customers, Salesforce is running Chatter advertisements just before and after the Black-Eyed Peas perform at this year’s Super Bowl half-time show. It’s a pretty decent chunk of change on advertising ? advertisements run during the Super Bowl typically cost close to $3 million per spot. The advertisement features the Black-Eyed Peas and front-man Will.i.am ? who has actually been quite active in the Silicon Valley scene and recently joined Intel as director of creative innovation.
Companies: salesforce
April Scott Mia Kirshner Elisabeth Röhm Lily Allen Emmanuelle Chriqui
Friday, January 28, 2011
The Easy Trade
Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff Talisa Soto
Viral Video: AOL Media Head David Eun Gets Jiggy in Internal All-Hands Video
While many division leaders might just release a dull memo, the former Google exec went right to the videotape, and I mean really went for it.
Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti Michelle Branch Melissa Howard
Weekend Favs January Twenty Two
Weekend Favs January Twenty Two
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Is The Mobile Phone Our Social Net?
AnnaLynne McCord Emma Heming Vitamin C Scarlett Johansson Christina Ricci
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Small Business News: Improving Your Blogging and Social Media
Improving your blogging and social media efforts can be the key to building any small business. No matter who your customers, suppliers or partners are, no matter what business you are in or what you sell, there’s a good bet you can expand your business online. And the best way for you to reach out and leverage your brand and unique approach on the Web is through blogs and social media. Want to know more? Have we got the roundupRead More
From Small Business Trends
Small Business News: Improving Your Blogging and Social Media
Sophia Bush Megan Fox Michelle Malkin Charlies Angels Rose Byrne
Monetizing Mobile Audio
Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova
Do You Need to Hire This Year? Where Will You Find New Employees?
Are you planning to hire new staff in 2011? After two years of slashing staffs to the bone, many small businesses may feel it?s finally time to staff up so they can take advantage of the recovery.
But do you know where to find those workers?
The world of hiring has changed, and the Wall Street Journal recently took a look at how companies are planning to hire in the coming months. Here?s some ofRead More
From Small Business Trends
Do You Need to Hire This Year? Where Will You Find New Employees?
Gina Gershon Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller Cindy Taylor Halle Berry
The New About Us Page Is a Social Beast
The New About Us Page Is a Social Beast
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Jennifer ODell Jenny McCarthy Zooey Deschanel Tara Reid Coco Lee
Surface Detail
Luján Fernández Charli Baltimore Denise Richards Jennifer Sky Samantha Mathis
Creating the unforgettable elevator pitch
(Editor?s note: Eric Tsai is a web strategist at Designdamage. He submitted this story to VentureBeat.)
Have you ever tried to tell someone about your online business or your idea for a business – but when you did, their eyes glazed over? You feel stupid or self-conscious because you know they’re bored, confused or just don’t get it.
The truth is we?re already so inundated with information and overloaded with work everyday that it?s hard to interest us in anything. In fact, most of us happen to think, say and do the same things everyday. We just do it with slight variations. (That?s why you can?t help wanting to check your emails, tweets and text messages to see what?s fresh coming down the information pipeline. It?s human nature.)
So how do you talk about what you do in a powerful way that will not only make people stop and listen, but will keep their attention? The answer: You need an elevator pitch – a way for you to instantly spark interest from your audience.
The first trick is to be specific and focus on the problem you solve. An elevator pitch isn?t about your personal mission to change the world. Focus on the specifics.
The critical mistake that most people make when asked ?what do you do? is that they either go with a micro-level answer – telling people their daily tasks – or the macro-level answer of describing the industry they?re in.
The problem? Everyone has a different perception of what a computer programmer does or what it means to be working in sales. In fact, the less specific answer you provide, the more confusing it gets.
Instead of talking about abstract concepts, focus in on how you help people – specifically, the problem(s) that you solve. It?s should not be your personal mission to change the world, because most people are process-orientated. The ugly truth is nobody really cares about what you do; it?s about how you do it.
The elevator pitch isn?t about selling or fancy words. It?s a way to effectively wake up people from their daily routines and sparks their curiosity.
Don?t try to impress them with jargon. Great pitches make sense to people. Fancy words or phrases require your audience to figure out what you?re talking about – which leads to disconnects and confusion. Use simple words that are easy to understand.
It should sound like something that happens in the real world that?s tangible, external, measurable and specific.
Now that you know the key elements of a compelling elevator pitch, here is a simple template to use when creating yours:
Start by saying, ?you know how some people have this problem? (which happens to be the problem or challenge you solve) Well, I offer this solution. (which is how you solve it)?
Notice how you are not describing your business or the process of what your product does.
Here is an example ? an elevator pitch for eBay.
You know some people have stuff they want to get rid off but don?t want to give it all away for free? Well I offer a website that allows them to auction anything off to the highest bidder.
To take this even further, you could narrow it down to a specific group of people and their problems. For example?
You know how parents after their kids are grown want to get rid of all their baby stuff without giving it all away for nothing? Well, I offer an online auction website that lets them sell their used baby stuff within a week or we?ll offer to buy it from them. Do you know any parents that want to get paid with their used baby stuff?
Remember, you can tailor the pitch to fit any scenarios or situation depending on your audience. This way you?ll have different versions of your elevator pitch to use when you meet a friend, an investor, a partner or a prospective customer.
Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller Cindy Taylor Halle Berry Catherine Bell
Snowy Wednesday Reads
Jamie Chung Alicia Witt Radha Mitchell Melissa Rycroft Chloë Sevigny
Full D@CES Interview Video: Microsoft Internet Explorer's Dean Hachamovitch
The browser chieftain talked a lot about privacy, as you can see from Hachamovitch's latest shirt motto.
Virginie Ledoyen Lindsay Lohan Heidi Klum Vogue Charlize Theron
Full D@CES Interview Video: Microsoft Internet Explorer's Dean Hachamovitch
The browser chieftain talked a lot about privacy, as you can see from Hachamovitch's latest shirt motto.
Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller Cindy Taylor Halle Berry Catherine Bell
Which Companies Spend the Most on Advertising?
The Avatars of Second Life Daniella Alonso Gina Gershon Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Full D@CES Interview Video: Microsoft Internet Explorer's Dean Hachamovitch
The browser chieftain talked a lot about privacy, as you can see from Hachamovitch's latest shirt motto.
Veronika Vaeková Eve Brittany Lee Daisy Fuentes Asia Argento
Building Better Social Graphs (continued)
Vitamin C Scarlett Johansson Christina Ricci Missi Pyle Jessica Alba
You Can Ring Its Bell: Demand Media Heads to Wall Street Next Week
Once it has its IPO, which is being led by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, Demand will trade as DMD on the New York Stock Exchange.
Maria Menounos Shakira Leslie Bibb Chelsea Handler Salma Hayek
Monetizing Mobile Audio
Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt Shakara Ledard Vanessa Marcil Rachel McAdams
Taco Bell?s ?Beef? Taco Filling Isn?t
Image: Dario D., who did a fantastic fast-food ad vs. reality photo project on Alphaila. If you've seen the ingredients list for Taco Bell's taco meat filling lately--most people don't--you won't see much actual meat. That's why Alabama... Read more
Tyra Banks Vanessa Hudgens Sarah Michelle Gellar Olivia Munn Melissa Sagemiller
Sequoia Capital rakes in $1.3B for the Valley and China
Perennially successful tech investor�Sequoia Capital is once again setting its sights on Silicon Valley, having raised at least $1.3 billion for a new fund that will zero in on up-and-coming startups, according to a filing released today by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sequoia, a storied venture-capital firm that has invested in white-hot tech companies from AdMob to Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube and a host of others, will call the new fund Sequoia Capital 2010.
It most recently poured $27.5 million into Square, the mobile payments startup founded by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, on Jan. 10. That funding valued Square at $240 million overall.
The firm has said in the past that any new fund would focus primarily on early and growth stage companies located in the U.S. and China.
Thus far, Sequoia Capital 2010 has secured more than $1.35 billion in capital commitments since last March, Fortune reported today.
The University of Michigan Regents, which invests with Sequoia, described the VCs’ plans for the fund in a memo released last July:
“In the U.S., venture investments will be primarily in new technology companies formed in the western part of the�country, particularly California’s Silicon Valley. The China investments will focus on companies positioned to�benefit from China’s growing economy and increasing number of consumers and are expected to be in the�financial services, consumer services, technology, and healthcare, and internet sectors.”
A Sequoia representative did not immediately respond to queries about the new fund.
It’s not clear if Sequoia will ultimately take in more than the $1.35 billion sum raised so far — but given recent figures on how venture capital is roaring back in Silicon Valley, not to mention Sequoia’s track record and reputation, it seems like it could easily pull in more.
Companies: Sequoia Capital, Square
People: Jack Dorsey
Tessie Santiago Jessica Simpson Mandy Moore Shannon Elizabeth Maggie Gyllenhaal
The Independent Web
Kelly Ripa Yvonne Strzechowski Rhona Mitra Kelly Rowland Danica Patrick
Is Yahoo still relevant? Search portal expects another weak first quarter
Search provider Yahoo’s revenue slipped slightly, with revenue from search results falling 27 percent,�its U.S. operations continuing to falter and minor growth in Asia keeping the company from posting significant losses.
Yahoo’s net revenue was down 12 percent from $1.7 billion to $1.53 billion in the fourth quarter last year when compared to 2009. Income was up 85 percent to $220 million, up from $119 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. But that’s largely because Yahoo has ruthlessly cut costs under CEO Carol Bartz’s reign ? its total expenses were down 13 percent to $747 million from $863 million in the same quarter a year earlier. That also included research and development for products.
The troubles continue to mount for Bartz, who has seen everything from a�semi-exodus of Yahoo executives to a�public relations�snafu regarding online services of epic proportions during her tenure as chief executive of the search provider. Bartz took control of the company toward the beginning of 2009 in order to turn it around as Google rapidly became the dominant search provider, but she has failed to move the needle on the company’s share values since then. After a brief run-up in early 2009, Yahoo’s shares have largely built a nest at around the $15.50 mark. Despite the�company’s best efforts to remake itself and stay relevant, Bartz’s Yahoo has largely been the same as it is today ? in line with expectations.
The largest dip came from advertising on search results, where revenue fell from $863 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 to $639 million in 2010. Yahoo’s display advertising revenues, however, rose 14 percent from $559 million to $635 million. Yahoo’s search engine is powered by Microsoft’s Bing engine, and Yahoo has a revenue sharing arrangement with the company. It paid Microsoft $66 million in the fourth quarter last year and is expected to pay $36 million in the first quarter this year for the arrangement.
While its revenues in the U.S. continued to sag, Yahoo saw a decent amount of growth in Asia. It’s revenue (minus traffic acquisition costs) was up 15 percent to $211 million from $184 million in the fourth quarter year-over-year. That’s compared to a 7.9 percent decline in revenue from U.S. operations, down from $965 million to $889 million year-over-year in the fourth quarter.
Excluding traffic acquisition costs, Yahoo’s revenue was only down 4 percent to $1.2 billion ? which just about hit the consensus estimates from Wall Street analysts of $1.19 billion. Wall Street analysts were expecting $1.5 billion in net revenue before traffic acquisition costs and $239 million in income. Yahoo is projecting revenue between $1.02 and $1.08 billion in the first quarter this year, well below Wall Street estimates of $1.13 billion.
Meanwhile, Google and Facebook are dominating the search space where Yahoo was once a major player. And to add a little bit of insult to injury, Yahoo earlier announced it is reducing its workforce by 1 percent today ? between 100 and 150 members of its staff.
Even though the company’s results largely met the expectations of Wall Street analysts, its shares were still down around 3.5 percent to $15.45 in extended trading.
[Photo: Yodel Anecdotal]
Companies: Facebook, Google, Yahoo
Molly Sims Monika Kramlik Lacey Chabert Amber Brkich Gretha Cavazzoni
Can new startup resu.me succeed in being the ?LinkedIn killer??
New career network�resu.me launched today, saying it aims to be the “LinkedIn killer” for Generation Z users looking to find their dream job faster and easier, founder Karthik Manimaran told VentureBeat exclusively.
Resu.me uses machine learning to match candidates and jobs the way a� human recruiter might: By Googling a person to try to find out what they read, what they write about, what they seem to be passionate about — as well as who they interact with, what they say, their open source contributions, who’s in their network and so on.
The company said it will appeal to younger users by keeping its key focus on providing all the tools and incentives required to learn daily, build a portfolio and showcase better.
That will in turn help them connect with a meaningful network and ultimately land a job.
Resu.me uses semantic web technology to analyze and understand the relevance behind what users post online on their resumes, as well as from all other online activities such as code they share, blog posts they like, articles they read, what and where they comment and so on.
The site also learns from the feedback users provide in the form of “likes,” comments and ratings on other users, companies, job postings, or other social media.
The platform is directly linked to the web-based applicant tracking system of companies. As such, Karthik said users won’t have to mess around anymore with filling out redundant forms and waiting. It’s a “1-click application”, always fresh resume with a transparent scheme to track the application’s progress.
On the flip side, companies can also provide feedback and ratings on resumes and the matching algorithm adapts to it. It also offers an RSS feed reader, which tracks all that a user reads and shares online, and a tool to showcase user artifacts using Cooliris 3D wall.
The site then offers all the tools necessary to manage all these activities from one single place.
The two-year-old company currently has four employees and is entirely self-funded.
It aims to take on four separate categories of competitors: Professional networks like LinkedIn and Xing; job search engines such as Indeed and SimplyHired; job boards like Monster, Careerbuilder or Dice; and applicant tracking systems Taleo and Bernard Hodes.
But in such a crowded space, how will resu.me compete with such well-established groups and tempt the famously fickle Gen Z users into giving it a try?
Manimaran said primarily because it is a simple, one-stop platform for managing your resume in real-time and with a host of tools that make it more flexible and intuitive than its competitors.
“We came across practical difficulties hiring talent for our groups and also finding a job for ourselves,” Manimaran told me. “We wanted a tool that could help us manage our online professional profile in a much more elegant fashion that would help companies find us faster.”
Companies: bernard hodes, CareerBuilder, cooliris 3D, dice, Google, Indeed, linkedin, Monster, resu.me, SimplyHired, Taleo, xing
People: karthik manimaran
Joanna Krupa Ashley Olsen Danneel Harris Veronika Vaeková Eve
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
My favorite flight search site Hipmunk is raising $5.9M
Updated
Hipmunk, the recently-launched travel startup that I now use to book most of my flights, is raising a $5.9 million round of funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The site was launched by cofounders Adam Goldstein and Steve Huffman in August. (Huffman previously cofounded social news site Reddit.) They seemed to be directly addressing many of the complaints that I have about most other online ticketing options.
Instead of giving you page after page of similar flights, Hipmunk lays out all your options in a customizable grid, making it easy to focus on the flights in the price range or time that you’re interested in. It also lets you sort by “agony”, so you can find flights that are shorter or have fewer stops, even if they’re a little more expensive.
For now, Hipmunk just features flight listings that it pulled from ticket site Orbitz, though Goldstein told me last year that he eventually plans to expand to other services.
I’ve emailed Hipmunk and will update this post if I hear back. The filing says that the San Francisco company has raised $4.7 million so far, but it doesn’t list any investors. Hipmunk was incubated by Y Combinator and earlier raised a $1 million angel round from Ashton Kutcher, Gmail creator Paul Buchheit (now a partner at YC), WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, famous angel Ron Conway, and others.
Update: Goldstein responded: “We don’t have any comments right now, but we’ll be able to share details later this week or early next.”
Companies: Hipmunk
People: Adam Goldstein, Steve Huffman
Uma Thurman Alice Dodd Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle
Building Better Social Graphs (continued)
Jenny McCarthy Zooey Deschanel Tara Reid Coco Lee Katy Perry
Google Testing Groupon Clone for SMBs
There was a time when online coupons were presumed dead. However, in 2011 they?re cool again, having established themselves as a trusted friend of local retailers and an ally in helping them attract customers online and in store. In 2010, coupons were named one of the five can?t miss mobile marketing trends and their popularity was further enhanced by both social coupon sites like Groupon. If you?re not familiar with Groupon, the site offers city-specific daily deals andRead More
From Small Business Trends
Google Testing Groupon Clone for SMBs
Chloë Sevigny Janet Jackson Georgianna Robertson Reese Witherspoon Jordana Brewster
HP remakes corporate philanthropy by donating its expertise to nonprofits
Hewlett-Packard is reshaping its policies on giving away money to nonprofit causes. Now the company will not just give away money. It will also donate the expertise of its employees to build solutions for nonprofits.
The change in policy makes sense, as the value of HP’s technology expertise could be far more useful, in conjunction with a donation, than just writing checks to charities, said Paul Ellingstad, a director in the office of global social innovation at HP, in an interview. Throwing brain power at a problem could do more good than just throwing money at it.
Announced at the Digital Life Design conference today in Munich, the HP program will help nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as mothers2mothers, a South African group that helps prevent the transmission of the AIDS virus from HIV-positive pregnant mothers to their children.
“We shifted our thinking about 14 months ago,” said Ellingstad. “We have focused on education and health and want to make sure our philanthropic efforts are more effective.”
HP will consider giving cash, materials, expertise, and employee time.
HP will use new database, cloud and mobile services technology to convert mothers2mothers’ paper-based patient records into digital form so that information can be shared across more than 700 sites in sub-Saharan Africa. That will enable counselors provide more effective education and support services to pregnant mothers. The system will provide updated information on patient treatment plans and advanced reporting tools.
The m2m employees will be able to collect and share data via basic mobile phones. Over time, that will help the organization serve more patients. The m2m group counsels more than 1.5 million women in nine countries. Mother-to-child HIV transmission rates are high due to the challenge of getting mothers to stick to their medical treatments. Roughly 40 percent of HIV-infected women give birth to HIV-positive babies. A single dose of medication to a mother before birth and again right afterward can stop transmission in 50 percent of the cases.
HP also recently announced a similar expertise-based initiative with mPedigree (whose CEO Bright Simons is pictured at top), which is fighting the use of counterfeit anti-malaria drugs through a combination of mobile phone and cloud services. And HP works with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to improve the speed of HIV diagnosis for infants in Kenya.
Disclosure: The Digital Life Design conference paid my way to Munich so I could moderate a panel. VentureBeat’s coverage of the conference remains objective and independent.
Companies: Hewlett Packard, HP
People: Bright Simons, Paul Ellingstad
Rozonda Thomas Rachel Weisz Miranda Kerr Sarah Shahi Anna Paquin
From U.S. to Germany to China?BoomTown Goes Around the (Digital) World in a Week
Connie Nielsen Melissa George Cameron Richardson Chandra West Kasey Chambers
Meet HighNote, the high-powered chat app
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a race among a handful of apps competing to become the coolest, most efficient chat app.
HighNote is the latest mobile application seeking to make text chat more fun. It provides a cornucopia of new ways to communicate creatively with your friends. It lets you send a basic text message to your friends, but you can customize your text in different ways, including with different color, fonts and sizes — and then add attachments of up to nine different forms of media — from photos to videos, maps, music and audio files. And that?s just the beginning.
It remains to be seen, however, if users will want to use all of the features, or if they?ll fall back to using the more basic chat features that are already offered by competitors PingChat and Kik.
HighNote launches tonight with iPhone and Android versions.
HighNote joins a number of other next-generation mobile messaging apps, from Kik on the more Spartan side, to WhatsApp and PingChat, which also offer more multi-media chat features. Then there’s GroupMe, which focuses on group messaging, and Beluga, which has gotten attention for mixing both group and media features. It lets you share things like photos and your location, and also maps the location of your friends.
All of these apps are in a race to fill what their founders see is a gaping void in smartphone communication. SMS is hugely popular, but at the same time it?s outmoded: It doesn?t allow users to use the full power of their phones.
On the other hand, services like Facebook, where users are spending more time, are too public or too complex to enable quick and creative chat while on the go.
The builders of these new apps are hoping to gain profile at the upcoming SXSW conference in Austin — the place where Twitter and FourSquare first ignited in a big way.
Like many of these players, Highnote, based in San Francisco, runs its app on Internet Protocol and not on top of paid chat — making it free for users.
Marc Barach, chief executive, told me he hopes HighNote?s music sharing features will be popular, because there?s still no easy way to do that. HighNote integrates with iTunes music and video — letting you choose and play popular rated music from �your app dashboard, for example. (See the video demo below, in which HighNote chief marketing officer Jeanine LeFlore demonstrates the app’s basic features.)
The app also offers more than 40 templates for greeting messages. The company is already thinking about how to monetize the app. A feature called ?Pulse? lets users opt in to receive information they are interested in, for example music, sports, celebrity gossip and fashion. If a user picks music,�HighNote may direct users to an interactive quiz about music. This also provides a place users can hang out while waiting for a response from a friend.
If you want to message a friend who doesn’t have HighNote, the app sends them an SMS message containing a link that brings up the full message in their web browser.
Blackberry, Nokia and Symbian versions will be released in mid-February, the company says. A Mobile Windows version will come in March.
Companies: Highnote
People: Jeanine Leflore, Mark Baruch
Jenny McCarthy Zooey Deschanel Tara Reid Coco Lee Katy Perry
Facebook confirms plans to make Credits the mandatory ?universal currency?
Updated with analyst comments.
Facebook is announcing the next phase in the rollout of its virtual currency, Facebook Credits, which is leaving beta testing today. That means all Facebook game developers will be able to use Credits as their payment system for virtual goods — in fact, Facebook is requiring them to make the switch by July 1.
Facebook Credits are a system of points, managed by the social network, that can be purchased or awarded in exchange for marketing offers, then traded in within games for virtual add-ons that enhance gameplay. It’s a surprisingly large business already: In 2010, the market for such purchases reached an estimated $835 million, according to a report by Inside Network.
Facebook planned to make the announcement at noon Pacific today, but it?s releasing the news a little early after TechCrunch got the scoop from an unidentified source and predicted that decision would ?ruffle some feathers?. That?s probably true, though the transition is already well underway. In the past year, Facebook held occasionally tense negotiations with the biggest social game developers like Zynga to bring them on-board with the program.
During the beta period, 150 developers starting using Credits in 350 applications, representing more than 70 percent of all the virtual goods transactions in Facebook, according to Credits product manager Deb Liu. She emphasized that while the big deals attracted the most attention, Facebook made sure to include large and small developers in the beta.
Liu told me the move should improve user experience by turning Credits into Facebook?s ?universal currency,? one that can be used in any game.
And come July, Facebook will be pushing for even deeper integration of Credits. Right now, Liu said games can use Credits in two ways — as a way to purchase the in-game currency, or as the in-game currency itself. In Zynga?s popular game CityVille, for example, you can use Credits to buy City Cash, and then use City Cash to buy virtual goods. Facebook, however, wants developers to get rid of those other currencies, so that users can buy goods directly with Credits. Facebook will be offering incentives like prominent placement on the site?s games dashboard to developers who make the switch.
Facebook may have a financial reason to make these changes, since it takes a 30 percent cut of all Credits purchases. In the past, the company?s executives have said that they don?t expect the program to be a big moneymaker initially, and that any profits would be reinvested in the Credits product. When I asked about that today, Liu said Credits revenue will ?enable us to invest more into the platform.?
Update: I spoke with Atul Bagga, an analyst who focuses on digital media and online gaming for ThinkEquity, about the news. Bagga emphasized that the decision definitely isn’t a surprise, since it’s been pretty clear that Facebook was moving in this direction.
He characterized the switch as very significant and “over the long-term, definitely positive,” because it will help overcome any hesitation that users might have about spending real money on virtual currency. Now they’ll know that if they buy Credits for one game they can use those Credits elsewhere. However, there could be some short-term pain as developers try to make the transition, he said.
As for how significant this is for Facebook’s revenue, Bagga speculated that it could be “a very nice layer of revenue opportunity” for the company. But ultimately, Facebook is more interested in becoming a platform that makes its money from advertising.
“They see Google as the competition,” he said.
[image via Flickr/Mykl Roventine]
Companies: Facebook
People: Deb Liu
Chelsea Handler Salma Hayek Jennifer Scholle Tatiana Zavialova Tila Tequila
Monday, January 24, 2011
The Opportunity Fund
Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti Michelle Branch Melissa Howard Samantha Mumba
Awards, Contests and Competitions for SMBs
This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.
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Minority Business Leader Nomination 2011
Enter by January 28, 2011
This program recognizes the Washington region’s top 25 minority business leaders based on demonstrated business success over the past 12 to 18Read More
From Small Business Trends
Awards, Contests and Competitions for SMBs
Donna Feldman Jodi Lyn OKeefe Emma Watson Amy Smart Sarah Wynter
Fraudsters Tap Carbon Offset Mkt, Climate Scientists
Image: Wikimedia Built it, and they will scam. This seems to be the mantra of money-hungry fraudsters everywhere, even in the carbon-credit and global warming fields, both recent targets of pilferers. The EU, for one, has suspended trading... Read more
Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt Shakara Ledard Vanessa Marcil Rachel McAdams
SolarCity acquires solar installer, expands to East Coast
Home solar startup SolarCity is expanding its reach to the East Coast. To establish a toehold there, it has acquired solar installation expert Clean Currents Solar, formerly the solar installation division of a Mid-Atlantic green energy company.
The company will begin offering home solar leases and power purchase plans in Maryland and Washington, D.C. by mid-February. The company could consider more Atlantic acquisitions “if there’s a clear growth story,” CEO Lyndon Rive told Bloomberg this morning. The company is hiring for its East Coast operations in Silver Spring, Maryland, putting an emphasis on doubling sales in the first year.
Home solar startups like SolarCity primarily started out in California but are expanding as the solar leasing model grows in popularity and success. SunRun announced last year it would enter the Hawaiian market, while Sungevity said its new round of capital would allow it to expand, potentially to the northeast.
Solar City has perhaps the broadest offering among home solar startups, with solar leases, installation and home energy efficiency solutions and says it pioneered the zero-down solar leasing model. Its competitor, SunRun, says it pioneered the solar leasing model, in which homeowners lease solar panels and pay for power generated by the panels — aided by subsidies and clever financing, the total comes out to equal or less than what traditional utilities charge.
Companies: Clean Currents Solar, SolarCity, Sungevity, Sunrun
People: Lyndon Rive
Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova Esther Cañadas Kate Beckinsale
The Opportunity Fund
Majandra Delfino Maria Bello Jennifer Gareis Ashlee Simpson Donna Feldman
Apple?s Secret iPod Formula
Anyone know who created this image so I can credit them? Originally received it via... Read more
Emma Stone Raquel Alessi Marisa Coughlan Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi
Sunday, January 23, 2011
How Latin American startups are tapping into Silicon Valley
Alan Colmenares is the Facilitator for the Founder Institute program in Colombia, South America, a contributor to VentureBeat and writes about Latin American start-ups at�TropicalGringo.
When I worked for Intel Capital, Intel?s corporate venture capital (VC) arm, in Mexico and a bit in Brazil ten years back, the big issue in Latin America was finding enough deals from which to select investment opportunities. Today, that is less of an issue in a country such as Brazil that has an incredibly vibrant start-up environment, but it’s still a concern in my current home country, Colombia.
Latin America’s been my home for the last 15 years, and I?ve frequently heard people talking about creating something like Silicon Valley here. But I think it makes more sense for Latin America to tap directly into the Valley?s expertise, culture and established networks. That’s a major reason I decided to become the facilitator for the new Bogota, Colombia chapter of startup incubator Founder Institute.
The Founder Institute currently operates in 16 cities worldwide, including�Silicon Valley,�San Francisco,�Los Angeles,�Seattle,�San Diego,�Denver,�Houston,�Boston,Washington DC,�New York,�Paris,�Berlin,�Brussels,�Bogota,�Santiago, and�Singapore and has helped to launch over 230 companies with a stated goal of launching 1000 ?meaningful and enduring? technology companies per year.
During the last two years, I?ve met and spoken with talented and impressive founders in the region. Some of these are focusing their efforts on the underserved regional market while others are tackling global opportunities. Notable successes focused on the regional market include comparison shopping site Buscap�, with a recent $342 million investment led by Naspers, and ecommerce company Mercado Libre, worth around $3B and listed on the NASDAQ.
Colombia’s new president, Juan Manuel Santos, announced plans to invest more than $2B in information and communications technologies and has allocated $30M for investment funds focused on technology companies. Yet, thus far, compared to Brazil, only a small number of Colombian web or technology start-ups have received VC or angel investment (one indicator of excellent growth prospects).
There are some bright spots in Colombia’s tech startup scene, though. The country has a strong entrepreneurial culture and some relative successes such as an Internet real estate company called VivaReal, which competes throughout Latin America and has closed two rounds of angel funding from Silicon Valley as well as local online payments company, Pagosonline, which was recently acquired by the aforementioned Buscap�. Additionally, a company called Koombea serves as the main development shop for a number of Silicon Valley start-ups.
Unfortunately, the founders and co-founders of these companies had to build their networks (sometimes tapping into the valley) from afar and on their own. From my experience as a mentor for Endeavor, a non-profit that supports companies in emerging markets, I?ve seen first-hand the value that mentorship and connection to high value networks can provide within a region such as Latin America.
As Fred Wilson, partner at Union Square Ventures, posted in his company?s blog a week ago, ?We believe the irresistible economics of Internet networks will ultimately transform the entire global economy.?�If that is true, then countries such as Colombia need to look for ways to accelerate their start-up support ecosystem and incubator programs such as those offered by the likes of the Founder Institute can only help.
For those wising to apply to the Founder Institute’s 12-week program in any of the cities where they operate, you can apply here.
Companies: Founder Institute
People: Alan Colmenares
Samantha Morton Grace Park Jill Wagner Susie Castillo Fergie