Do Service and Profit Go Hand in Hand
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead Piper Perabo Anna Kournikova
Monday, February 28, 2011
Do Service and Profit Go Hand in Hand
Wow
I came upstairs to my office at 5:15am this morning with a simple plan. I was going to read through the comments to yesterdays post and select one and write a blog post. 5am to 7am is my writing/thinking time....
Tamala Jones Yamila Diaz Alicia Keys Tyra Banks Vanessa Hudgens
Bloggers Block
After a great run the past month, I've hit a bit of an inspiration gulf. So I'd like you all to help me out of it. I'm soliciting blog post suggestions in the comments. I want everyone to go into...
Saira Mohan Brittny Gastineau Ashley Tisdale Rachel Blanchard Sienna Guillory
DEMO: Zugara engages online shoppers with dress-up visualization
Zugara is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.
Online shopping is often a frustrating experience when it comes to clothes because it’s hard to imagine what they’ll look like on you. That’s where Zugara comes in with a way to “see how it looks” on you through animated visualization.
The Los Angeles-based company is demonstrating its one-click “see how it looks” Webcam Social Shopper experience at today’s DEMO Spring 2011 conference. If the visualization technology works, it could help convert more online browsers into online purchasers. And that could be worth billions of dollars in new revenues for e-commerce companies.
Matt Szymczyk, chief executive of Zugara, says the typical conversion rate (turning shoppers into buyers) for online customers is 2 percent to 3 percent. That’s because online shopping is optimized for browsing, investigating, and accomplishing a transaction. But it’s not optimized for an engaging experience, which is what you get in the malls.
With Zugara, a female shopper could effectively take a dress off the rack and hold it up to herself. She clicks on the “See how it looks” button, allows access to her webcam, takes a few steps back and then sees what would essentially be a mirror in the store. The computer screen will show her an image of how that dress would look on her. She can then better judge if the color and style are right for her. If it’s not for her, she can tell that right away and not deal with the hassle of a return.
If she wants a second opinion from friends, she can snap a photo of the faux dress and share it on Facebook for immediate feedback. The social network thus becomes a tool to help shoppers validate their potential purchases. Meanwhile, the retailer and the dress maker get word of mouth marketing on Facebook. Zugara says studies show that 76 percent of people who shop online say that advanced product viewing features are extremely or very important to a purchase decision.
You could call this “augmented retail,” and the technology is actually called Markerless Augmented Reality. Apparel retailers worldwide can benefit from this kind of tool, which could appeal to younger shoppers in particular. Self-funded Zugara was founded in 2001 and has 13 employees. Competitors include Holition. While you have to print out a marker to make Holition work, you don’t have to do so with the Webcam Social Shopper. The company has five clients and three partners and is in talks with a number of other companies.
Szymczyk has a background in creating interactive marketing strategies for Fortune 500 clients, while Hans Forsman, vice president of creative and user experience, has a focus in user experience design.
Companies: Amazon, Zugara
People: Matt Szymczyk
Samantha Mumba Busy Philipps Thora Birch Jennifer Garner Poppy Montgomery
DEMO: AboutOne creates a digital hub to organize families
AboutOne is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.
AboutOne wants to simplify the busy task of managing families with a new Web app it unveiled today at the DEMO conference.
The company offers a secure online “family management system,” a centralized location where families can store appointments, photos snapped from their cell phone, to-do lists and school-related information. Moms and dads can also scan in important documents, copies of their kids artwork, report cards and last year’s photo with Santa Claus.
The goal is to take away time parents spend filing and organizing family-related tasks and mementos, and use the power of the web and cloud computing to do it for them. With AboutOne’s system, a parent could use his smartphone to access copies of documents that might be otherwise stored in a safe, or, come holiday time, easily compile a holiday newsletter with pictures and highlights for friends and family. Likewise, parents can create profiles of their kids with photos celebrating milestones and special directions for babysitters that include insurance information, allergies and medical must-knows.
The company was founded in 2008 by CEO Joanne Lang. As a mom of four young boys and a former SAP executive, Lang�wanted use her experience with cloud technology (a fancy term for software that runs over the Internet) to help busy moms manage family life. Lang says she saw at SAP how cloud computing eliminated efficiencies for businesses, and wanted to extend the same services to busy moms. Cloud computing allows information to be stored offsite and in more efficient ways — think of Web-based banking, email, and shareable documents and calendars.
AboutOne offers 17 free days of service, after which users can opt to pay $5 a month or $30 a year.�The company launched a beta version of its product in October and has almost 4,000 users. AboutOne says it is targeting a market of�82.8 million American moms, but initially focused mostly on the Gen Y “Millennial Moms” segment — roughly, mothers in their twenties. It has since expanded to include teenagers going to college, caregivers, military families and corporate customers.
It is based in Bountiful, Utah, and has 11 employees.
AboutOne competes with other on-demand information storage apps like Carebinders and Bento, as well as online organizers like DelphiVIM, Orggit, and InformationSafe. It says its competitive edge is in making information useful with applications like family newsletters, digital scrapbooks, greeting cards and invitations. It also offers shareable templates that allow users to prepare for future life events, like college applications, school forms and tax documents.
The company has partnerships with companies like Zillow and WebMD to help centralize information-gathering. So far, it has raised $400,000 from friends and family.
Companies: AboutOne
People: Joanne Lang
Gina Gershon Ehrinn Cummings Sienna Miller Cindy Taylor Halle Berry
David Karp's Founder Story
I enjoyed watching this short (~5min) video of Tumblr founder David Karp on Founder Stories. Chris got David to talk about how he came up for the idea for Tumblr. There's this part about 1:40 in where David talks about...
Uma Thurman Alice Dodd Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser Camilla Belle
The Social Network?s Oscars haul: Best adapted screenplay, score, editing
David Fincher’s Facebook movie “The Social Network” headed into the 83rd Oscars ceremony tonight with eight nominations, including the Best Picture and� Best Actor awards. It walked out with only three: Best Adapted Screenplay (for Aaron Sorkin), Best Original Score (for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and Best Editing (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter).
The film faced stiff competition from the likes of “The King’s Speech”, “True Grit”, and “Black Swan.” But given that The Social Network was a critical darling, and that it also walked away with four Golden Globe awards (including Best Picture), it had a good chance at winning some major categories. (Check out my podcast review of the film with VentureBeat?s Anthony Ha.)
Here’s a rundown of The Social Network’s award nominations and wins:
Best Picture Best Actor, Jesse Eisenberg Directing, David Fincher Adapted Screenplay, Aaron Sorkin (Won) Cinematography, Jeff Cronenworth Editing, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter (Won)Original Score, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Won)
Sound Mixing
The veracity of “The Social Network” has been disputed by many, including an early Facebook employee and our own Executive Editor Owen Thomas. The film is based on Ben Mezrich’s book “The Accidental Billionaires”, which is also notorious for the liberties it takes with facts.
Both the film and book take a significant amount of accurate information from court documents, but they also fill in gaps in Facebook’s story in creative (and often inaccurate) ways. That led to decisions like the removal of significant people from Facebook’s history, including Mark Zuckerberg’s longtime girlfriend.
The Social Network was also thought to be a public relations disaster for Facebook, considering its negative portrayal of founder Mark Zuckerberg. Shortly before it was released, Zuckerberg announced his $100 million education foundation, Startup: Education, which some viewed as a way to offset the film’s bad publicity. Ultimately, the film didn’t cause much discernible public outcry, and Zuckerberg even had the good humor to join actor Jesse Eisenberg on Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago.
Companies: Facebook
Foxy Brown Ivana Bozilovic Cristina Dumitru Cat Power January Jones
One Click Online Meetings with Zipcast
One Click Online Meetings with Zipcast
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Amber Valletta Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt Shakara Ledard Vanessa Marcil
Viral Video: I'm Going to Hold This One Against Britney
BoomTown usually loves a good Britney Spears music video.
But this one, for the single "Hold It Against Me," pretty much poses her in front of dancers and not much else.
Still, it's garnering kabillions of views online and that's kind of the point, I guess.
But this one, for the single "Hold It Against Me," pretty much poses her in front of dancers and not much else.
Still, it's garnering kabillions of views online and that's kind of the point, I guess.
Josie Maran Leighton Meester Dominique Swain Jamie Chung Alicia Witt
Weekend Favs February Twenty Six
Weekend Favs February Twenty Six
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Chandra West Kasey Chambers Megan Ewing Kristanna Loken Aubrey ODay
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Apple wises up by sharing its Mac OS X Lion code with hackers
Apple has taken the unusual step of sharing a copy of its Mac OS X Lion operating system with external security researchers, some of whom have published vulnerabilities with past Mac software.
That’s pretty progressive thinking for Apple, which has previously kept mum about cooperating with security researchers, also known as hackers, who have from time to time caused the company embarrassment by breaking the security of its systems and then telling the world about it. In this case, the company is seeking feedback from the hackers in advance so that it can patch any holes in the security of the operating system before it is released. If it’s true, that’s a big step because it means that Apple is willing to trust the hackers with its code.
“I wanted to let you know that I’ve requested that you be invited to the pre-release seed of Mac OS X Lion, and you should receive an invitation soon,” said a letter sent by Apple to an unknown number of security researchers. “As you have reported Mac OS X security issues in the past, I thought that you might be interested in taking a look at this. It contains several improvements in the area of security countermeasures.”
Dino Dai Zovi (pictured on left) and several other researchers tweeted about being invited to try out Lion. Charlie Miller (pictured on right), another security researcher, told Cnet that Apple has never reached out to security researchers in this way. If the researchers sign a non-disclosure agreement with Apple, they won’t be able to talk about what they find until the product is released. That muzzles any criticism until Apple has time to fix any flaws.
“At least security crosses their mind now,” Miller said.
Both Dai Zovi and Miller are authors of the book The Mac Hacker’s Handbook and have become famous over the years for breaking the security on Apple’s products.
You know that Apple wasn’t happy about that book. But it is very common for big companies to hire people like Miller and Dai Zovi to undertake “penetration testing,” where the company sanctions them to break the company’s security so that it can be improved. The Linux operating system is constantly improved through the open-source process. But Apple has operated more as a closed company when it comes to security matters. Apple could afford to put security as a lower priority for many years because hackers always went after Windows instead. But now that Apple’s products are more popular, it is becoming a target.
Companies: Apple
People: Charlie Miller, Dino Dai Zovi
Sofía Vergara Nicole Richie Norah Jones Nicky Hilton Garcelle Beauvais
Marketing and The Bubble
Rand Fishkin has a good post in response to my marketing posts over the past two days. In it he makes this assertion: For the first few years that I was in the "web world," 1997-2001, there was a dangerous...
Anna Faris Lil Kim Kelly Ripa Yvonne Strzechowski Rhona Mitra
Frog Design?s Jan Chipchase on how the poor can least afford bad design
You could call Jan Chipchase the Indiana Jones of product design. He lives in Shanghai, has a Japanese wife and just returned from a research trip in the north of Uganda, an area recently controlled by the notorious military group the�Lord’s Resistance army.
Chipchase’s job as Frog Design’s “Director of global insights” takes him all around the world and into the most private areas of people’s lives. The aim of his research is to understand what makes people tick and how that knowledge should inform the design of products and services. Frog�Design works for big companies who want to know where the future business opportunities lie and what disruptions are coming. I talked to him about love, money and design in the developing world.
Chipchase is not a believer in design at a distance. “If you spend time out in the places where people do the things they do, you get a different perspective. You get a much richer, more nuanced perspective way beyond any marketing, statistical insights,” he says. Much of his time is spent in emerging countries.
There has been a historical tendency to lump people in emerging countries together — in particular bottom-of-the-pyramid (BOP) people. “China is not a country, it’s a continent,” insists Chipchase. “India is not a country, it’s a continent. China has a bigger middle class than the entire population of Europe. Anyone who doesn’t try to break those down is a fool.” BOP people usually form the largest but poorest group in a country.
Companies also need to understand their obligations to their customers. “When you go into the BOP, your obligations are that much clearer. Your responsibilities as a corporation are that much greater because the people you are effecting with your products and services tend to have lower margins for error” he explains. “What is so compelling about what you produce that someone is willing to put so much on the line? Can you really imagine (the equivalent of) giving up your car for this product?”
One of the biggest mistakes companies make, according to Chipchase, is assuming they can just sell the same thing in emerging markets. “There are certain companies who would put out one phone for that entire market. There are other companies which have done a fantastic job of targeting products at the aspirers within those communities, at the entrepreneurs, the stay at home Mums. These niches are hundreds of millions big.”
You should also never underestimate those BOP consumers, he says. “Five years ago I was in Uganda before any of the mobile money services were around, before M-paisa (the pioneering P2P mobile payments service in Kenya), and one of the things I saw in a Ugandan village was people had created their own mobile money service.” People were trading airtime as a form of currency.�”If that kind of thing can naturally organise, what role do we have as designers?”
Frog Design just published some research from Chipchase on mobile money services in Afghanistan that illustrates�the complexity of designing services for such markets.
Local mobile carrier Roshan recently introduced M-Paisa there. “Somewhere like the U.S., mobile money is just one step away. In Afghanistan, it’s probably 3 steps away. The 3 steps are textual literacy, mobile literacy and financial literacy (e.g. understanding the concept of “interest”). That doesn’t mean that people are not going to use it. It just means that they have to be even more motivated.”
Male literacy in Afghanistan stands at 43 percent, female at 13 percent. How do you design mobile services for people who can’t read? Apparently, illiterate people often have “proximate literacy” where friends and neighbors who can read help out. Trust is a more difficult barrier. “There is close to zero trust in institutions in Afghanistan,” Chipchase told me. “The mobile carriers have more trust than the banks. On the M-paisa agent’s commission, we have heard of customers saying ‘The agent wanted a bribe’.�”
Afghans hold their wealth in “portfolios” of goats, gold, commodities and various currencies including dollars. Roshan pays 10 percent of its workforce using mobile money, and they immediately trade it for something tangible. In such a society, “Imagine going back home to your household” says Chipchase “and it’s pay-day and the head of the household says ‘Where’s your money? You say ‘It’s on here (the phone)’. ‘Fool!’ says the patriarch’” You can see how this would seem like trading the family cow for the magic beans in the Jack and the Beanstalk fable.
Afghanistan is also a country with relative geography. “So if I was to describe this hotel in Afghanistan it would be … Go to the coast, find a big roundabout, head north towards the sun until you find a little lady selling vegetables and ask her if she will point you to the right alley.” Even locating an M-Paisa agent in this environment could take several hours the first time.
As Chipchase describes it, illiterate BOP people can learn anything, but they need to be sufficiently motivated. The dating etiquette in Afghanistan involves buying airtime, and possibly a mobile phone, for your beloved. “The mobile phone makes love marriages possible,? said one young Afghan.�There’s nothing more motivating than love.
Companies: Frog Design
People: jan chipchase
Monica Bellucci Minki van der Westhuizen Katharine Towne Malia Jones Jennifer ODell
New Home Sales Lowest Since 1967
(Image: MortgageCalculator.org) New home sales are dismally low. You could blame the weather, but the truth is that when you can't find a job or your income down, banks aren't very excited about loaning money to you, and you don't have much... Read more
Kerry Suseck FSU Cowgirls Abbie Cornish Krista Allen Hayden Panettiere
Demand Responds to Google Content Purge
Here's a blog post that Demand Media put up in response to Google's announcement last night that it would prune low-quality content from its search results.
Is Demand its target? The newly public company begs to differ.
Is Demand its target? The newly public company begs to differ.
Dita Von Teese Rachel Nichols Dido Joss Stone Majandra Delfino
Marketing
You asked for it Arnold and 84 others (so far). So I'm gonna talk about marketing. I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks or when you make so much profit on every marginal...
David Karp's Founder Story
I enjoyed watching this short (~5min) video of Tumblr founder David Karp on Founder Stories. Chris got David to talk about how he came up for the idea for Tumblr. There's this part about 1:40 in where David talks about...
Ashley Greene April Scott Mia Kirshner Elisabeth Röhm Lily Allen
Exclusive: Apple iPad 2 Event Set for March 2
To those who care intensely about this kind of stuff--which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem--Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad, according to multiple sources. As in, iPad 2! Or, as BoomTown is now officially nicknaming it: iPad Too! According to several sources close to the situation, the Wednesday date in a little more than a week is firm and will take place in San Francisco, the scene of many such Apple events.
Melania Trump Summer Glau Mía Maestro Virginie Ledoyen Lindsay Lohan
Zynga Raising $500 Million at $10 Billion Valuation
The fast-growing social gaming company Zynga is close to completing a funding round of $500 million, valuing the company at $10 billion, said multiple sources.
The round includes big institutional investors Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, as well as a token investment from existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins, in order to establish the huge valuation.
The round includes big institutional investors Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, as well as a token investment from existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins, in order to establish the huge valuation.
Sarah Shahi Anna Paquin Diane Kruger Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Japanese Slow Brew Coffee
Williams-Sonoma is nowcarrying a selection of specialty brewing equipment and accessories from Hario, a glass-manufacturing giant from Japan, including the unusual iced coffee slow drippers. They also have the more standard pouring kettle,�grinder and filter cone and woodnecks. The Japanese coffee gear is stocked at most of the company?s stores, and on williams-sonoma.com. > Graphic [...]
Amanda Peet Xenia Seeberg The Avatars of Second Life Daniella Alonso Gina Gershon
Wow
I came upstairs to my office at 5:15am this morning with a simple plan. I was going to read through the comments to yesterdays post and select one and write a blog post. 5am to 7am is my writing/thinking time....
Mariah OBrien Uma Thurman Alice Dodd Kate Walsh Autumn Reeser
Watch out, Tesla and Fisker! More luxury carmakers go electric
Electric cars are getting blinged out.
We’ve written before about how major automakers like Nissan, Ford and GM are plowing forth with electric car and hybrid offerings. Nissan, in particular, wants to grab 20 percent of the global electric cars market. But luxury automakers are getting into the game, too. Could it mean competition for luxury electric car startups like Tesla and Fisker?
Big news on this came from BMW recently. First, the company is launching an entire eco-friendly sub-brand of its cars, called “i.” The lineup includes the i3 all-electric city car and the i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. It is also piloting� 1,000 ActiveE electrified BMW coupes, testing out a car sharing service and just said it would launch a $100 million venture capital fund to invest in transportation-related services. It has already backed My City Way, which makes a smartphone application that helps users find nearby services like bathrooms and restaurants.
Rolls Royce also plans to trot out a plug-in hybrid, the Phantom 102EX, which the company’s chief executive called the “first battery electric vehicle for the ultra-luxury segment.”
Mercedes-Benz has also been dabbling with green cars. It has been leasing fuel-cell powered vehicles (the F-Cell) and recently showed a very sexy electric sports car at an auto show in Detroit. SLS AMG (pictured, above) goes from zero to 62 in 3.8 seconds, is due out in 2013 and will likely cost around $307,000.
While Nissan is best known in the electric car world for its all-electric Leaf hatchback that went on sale in December, it’s also launching a sporty electric car. The Esflow, pictured on the right, can do zero to 62 miles per hour in less than five seconds and the company is promising 150 miles of range on a fully charged battery.
Of course, the Tesla Roadster has been available for a few years now, and the company has a lot of fans. Fisker is also launching a sports car plug-in hybrid, the Karma, with a $95,500 price tag. The car has gone through several rounds of delays and price increases over the past few years, and arguably no longer has first-mover advantages in the luxury plug-in hybrid segment.
Who do you think will be next in the luxury electric car game? Will there be an electric Ferrari coming out any time soon? How about a hybrid Hummer? Better yet … a hybrid Hummer limo?
Companies: Bmw, Fisker, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Rolls Royce, Tesla
Wow
I came upstairs to my office at 5:15am this morning with a simple plan. I was going to read through the comments to yesterdays post and select one and write a blog post. 5am to 7am is my writing/thinking time....
Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré Leelee Sobieski Teri Hatcher
Liveblogging Demand Media's (and Richard Rosenblatt's) First Earnings Call: The Avocado Difference!
BoomTown always enjoys the maiden voyage of a newly public company, so liveblogging Demand Media's first quarterly earnings seems like a must-do.
It's also the first public outing for CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who has sold off his previous entrepreneurial efforts.
His first point: Where else can you find out how to ripen an avocado?
It's also the first public outing for CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who has sold off his previous entrepreneurial efforts.
His first point: Where else can you find out how to ripen an avocado?
Jessica White Anna Friel Monica Bellucci Minki van der Westhuizen Katharine Towne
Why China could rule the new age of games
As the games business transitions from console and PC titles to social and mobile games, China is set to take away the United States’ leadership in the business.
That’s the bold prediction from Tim Merel, who has made a splash analyzing the video game market in the past couple of years as the managing director at investment bank Digi-Capital. Merel believes that in 2010, video game investment and acquisition activity changed fundamentally and accelerated in a way that it never had in the industry’s decades-long history.
In a 68-page report released this week, Merel (pictured) predicts that revenue from online and mobile games will grow from one-third of industry revenues now to half of industry revenue, or $44 billion, by 2014. China will make up nearly half of sales, increasing its share from 12 percent of the worldwide market today to 25 percent. Meanwhile, the U.S. share of the game market is expected to fall from 26 percent to 22 percent.
As the video game industry gathers for the Game Developers Conference next week in San Francisco, it’s a sobering thought. What if the U.S. video game companies aren’t moving fast enough into the new social and mobile markets and will lose their grip on financing and innovation?
Right now, it’s easy to disagree with Merel. Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts are giants in the traditional game business. But that business is expected to be flat or down. Zynga is leading in social games, with a commanding leadership on Facebook with 266 million monthly active users. The company reportedly had revenue of $850 million in 2010 and a profit of $400 million and it is reportedly raising a round of funding at a $10 billion valuation. DeNA, the Japanese firm that acquired iPhone game maker Ngmoco for $403 million last year, is also a force to be reckoned with in mobile. That seems to suggest that, for 2011, the game industry is still pretty strong in the West and in Japan. What’s more, video games are just about at their finest hour, with total hardware and software revenue of $77 billion coming near global film revenue at $85 billion. And the games that are delivering the best cinematic experience are console titles such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Call of Duty Black Ops.
Still, Merel says that Tencent’s $315 million acquisition of Riot Games a couple of weeks ago is a portent of more to come. Tencent’s valuation is more than $49 billion, and that gives it the market power to acquire just about every major video game company in the U.S. The company gets 20 million simultaneous players for its online games and it enjoys 50 percent gross profit margins on its games. By comparison, U.S. game publishers have to dish out $20 million to invest in a top game and sell a million units to break even.
Venture capital investment has moved to the online and mobile markets. Fundings for game companies were up 52 percent in 2010 from the year before, with funding amounts returning to the peak level in 2007. Mergers and acquisitions were up 60 percent in value in 2010. The Chinese stock market — inflated as it might be — has given billion-dollar valuations to Shanda, ChangYou.com, Giant and NetEase. By 2014, Merel estimates that Asia and Europe will account for 90 percent of the revenues in online and mobile games.
“The time to act is now, whether raising funds to accelerate growth prior to consolidation, create joint ventures and strategic partnerships to enter major foreign markets,” Merel said, or just exit and take the money and run. “Major console publishers must evolve to survive.”
Merel believes that major conglomerates in the media and entertainment space have the best chance to adapt. They can assemble all of the assets across the different sectors, while pure play console publishers have less money available to invest in the new markets. In other words, Disney is better off than Ubisoft.
Just as Tencent moved beyond the Chinese market with the Riot Games deal, Merel predicts the Asian companies will lead the wave of consolidation as they push into the U.S. and European markets. That will lead to Chinese domination of the video game market. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising, as China could very well dominate every technology market. But the path for the Chinese game companies is pretty clear and it’s not such a stretch to predict this outcome anymore.
The good news is that video games should grow to $87 billion in 2014, with mobile and online games growing at an 18 percent compound annual growth rate from 2009 to 2014. The major market sectors include console games, social online, casual online, smartphones and tablets, browser-based massively multiplayer online games, retail MMO games, online skill-based gaming, and online gambling. (The latter is usually considered outside of gaming). Each one of these sectors has successful game companies that are substantially growing the market and making lots of profits. Each sector also has clear investment, acquisition and joint venture opportunities, Merel said.
In 2009, Merel said the $19 billion in revenue related to online games and mobile was about 32 percent of total video game revenue worldwide. By 2014, that should grow to $44 billion, or 50 percent of video game global revenue.
What do you think? Please take our poll below. Merel’s report is at the bottom.
Online Surveys – Zoomerang.com
Digi-Capital Global Video Games Investment Review View more presentations from Tim Merel.People: Tim Merel
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Ticketfly: Facebook really does fuel ticket sales
San Francisco startup Ticketfly aims to take on concert ticketing giant Ticketmaster. Its main weapon? Social networking.
The company?s founders Andrew Dreskin and Dan Teree previously sold their company TicketWeb to Ticketmaster, and they told me last year that the larger company still doesn?t understand the importance of social media. This week, the company sent me some numbers to illustrate that social networking really is driving sales.
Specifically, in January of this year, Ticketfly events were shared 31,000 times on Facebook and Twitter. (Ticketfly?s Backstage Suite can create a concert website and a ticketing page, then it helps promote the concert through Facebook events and automatic tweets.) On average, every Facebook share or tweet resulted in the sale of 3.25 tickets.
To be clear, Ticketfly doesn?t look like it?s going to unseat Ticketmaster right away. If Ticketfly keeps up this pace, it will sell about 1.2 million tickets this year. While I can?t find any recent Ticketmaster sales numbers, the company said it sold 141 million tickets back in 2008.
Still, the numbers suggest that Ticketfly is on to something. Here?s all the data the company sent me:
In Jan 2011, Ticketfly events were shared on Facebook and tweeted 31,000 times and those links were clicked 52,000 times In Jan 2011, Ticketfly sold 3.25 tickets for every Facebook share/tweet Facebook is Ticketfly’s top referrer at roughly 9% of total traffic In Jan of 2011, 33% of Ticketfly affiliates were active and selling tickets to Ticketfly events (Ticketmaster was at approximately 20% at the height of their affiliate program) Visitors to Ticketfly’s site in Jan of 2011 were 582,000 Year over year revenue growth Jan 2011 vs. Jan 2010 was 236%Ticketfly has raised $3 million from High Peaks Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, The NYC Seed Fund, and various angel investors.
[image via Flickr/Rhys's Piece Is]
Companies: Facebook, Ticketfly, Ticketmaster
People: Andrew Dreskin, Dan Teree
Josie Maran Leighton Meester Dominique Swain Jamie Chung Alicia Witt
Friday, February 25, 2011
Aeroplane Reading
These are the articles I have open on my laptop for in-flight reading: ? Is this bull market almost over, or will it thrive for years? (USA Today) ? BRICs Losing for Second Time in Decade as America Takes Over (Bloomberg) ? U.S. Pushes “Cramdown” Mortgage Deal (WSJ) ? BofA’s legal woes from Countrywide worse [...]
Angela Marcello Paz Vega Rebecca Mader Eva Green Lauren Conrad
Exclusive: Kno Student Tablet Start-Up in Talks to Sell Off Tablet Part of Its Business
Kno--the much-funded and high-profile Silicon Valley start-up aimed at making tablet computers focused at students--is considering selling off the entire hardware part of the business and is in talks with two major consumer electronics manufacturers to do so, according to sources close to the situation.
But, if a deal is struck, the move would be a dramatic shift for the company, which has yet to ship significant numbers of the touchscreen device as it has long touted.
But, if a deal is struck, the move would be a dramatic shift for the company, which has yet to ship significant numbers of the touchscreen device as it has long touted.
Dita Von Teese Rachel Nichols Dido Joss Stone Majandra Delfino
SBA Overhauls Rules for 8(a) Set-Aside Program
The Small Business Administration has announced major changes to the rules for its primary set-aside contracting program. The changes to the 8(a) program were made in an effort to reduce fraud and make sure contracts go to deserving small businesses.
“The regulations, first and foremost, help ensure the benefits flow to the intended recipients,” SBA Administrator Karen Mills said in announcing the rules. “By tightening the regulations, along with unprecedented oversight over the past two years, SBA is demonstrating itsRead More
From Small Business Trends
SBA Overhauls Rules for 8(a) Set-Aside Program
Kylie Bax Diora Baird Laura Prepon Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah
Gamification company GreenGoose to close $500,000 funding round tomorrow
Gamification company GreenGoose will close a $500,000 funding round tomorrow after its popular presentation at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today. Its product demo attracted a series of angel investors, investor Bill Warner said on stage during the conference’s awards ceremony.
The company won the best overall startup award for Launch Pad companies at the conference ? those are the startups that were offering demos in the pit outside of the presentation room at the Launch Conference. GreenGoose wasn’t scheduled to present, but judges liked the company so much that it was brought on stage.
Investors include Jason Calacanis, the Launch Conference host, and Warner. Late-stage venture capitalist Jay Levy and angel investor Shervin Pishevar committed $100,000 in funding to GreenGoose last night during a crazy on-stage fundraising event.
The company makes stickers that users put on things like drinking bottles, vitamin bottles and toothbrushes. They then register with GreenGoose online to start collecting points. Whenever someone takes a drink of water or brushes their teeth, the site awards points. There?s also an accelerometer that measures how long users exercise, and awards points for that. The batteries in the stickers last for around a year.
Companies: GreenGoose
People: Bill Warner, Jason Calacanis, Jay Levy, Shervin Pishevar
Eliza Dushku Bonnie Jill Laflin Joanna Krupa Ashley Olsen Danneel Harris
First D9 Speakers: Iger, Elop, Apotheker, Schmidt, DARPA Head and More!
Has it already been almost a year already since the last D: All Things Digital conference?
Yes, indeedy--BoomTown is clearly aging fast.
That's why Walt Mossberg and I have been busy ferreting away on a speaker line-up for the ninth of our annual confabs of top tech and media players.
Yes, indeedy--BoomTown is clearly aging fast.
That's why Walt Mossberg and I have been busy ferreting away on a speaker line-up for the ninth of our annual confabs of top tech and media players.
Fergie Ivanka Trump Blake Lively Christina Applegate Shana Hiatt
Demand Responds to Google Content Purge
Here's a blog post that Demand Media put up in response to Google's announcement last night that it would prune low-quality content from its search results.
Is Demand its target? The newly public company begs to differ.
Is Demand its target? The newly public company begs to differ.
Ivanka Trump Blake Lively Christina Applegate Shana Hiatt Tara Conner
MBA Tuesday
Yesterday I went up to Harvard Business School and participated in a lunch and a class. My friend Jeff Bussgang arranged the trip and we were hosted by HBS Professor Tom Eisenmann. Jeff and I sat in front of Tom's...
Ana Beatriz Barros Maria Menounos Shakira Leslie Bibb Chelsea Handler
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Who Do Your Customers Trust: Friends or Experts?
It?s all a matter of trust. Whether we?re talking social media or business, it?s about building relationships with potential customers so they trust us long enough to stick around and hear what we have to say. Because if they don?t, all that great content, interacting and marketing won?t help. Without trust, you have nothing.
With trust so important, everyone wants to know who people trust more. Who is it you want singing your company?s praises to make an impression? IsRead More
From Small Business Trends
Who Do Your Customers Trust: Friends or Experts?
Cameron Richardson Chandra West Kasey Chambers Megan Ewing Kristanna Loken
Adam Smith Was Right about Corporate CEOs? Incentives absent Effective Regulation
by William K. Black Originally published December 4th, 2008, cato-unbound.org > Our different views prove that hindsight is often myopic. Larry White?s take is that Clintonian regulations perverted private incentives. The boom and bust happened in a system with ? extensive legal restrictions on financial intermediation. Nor have we had banking and financial deregulation since [...]
Maria Menounos Shakira Leslie Bibb Chelsea Handler Salma Hayek
Some Thoughts On Public and Private Markets
I had breakfast with Alan Patricof last week. Alan is the dean of NYC VCs, he's been at this game longer than any of us. He was in the business when Intel and Apple went public. The breakfast came about...
Samantha Morton Grace Park Jill Wagner Susie Castillo Fergie
QOTD: Greenspan on Financial Innovation
The Maestro: “Innovation has brought about a multitude of new products, such as subprime loans and niche credit programs for immigrants. . . . With these advances in technology, lenders have taken advantage of credit-scoring models and other techniques for efficiently extending credit to a broader spectrum of consumers. . . . Where once more-marginal [...]
First D9 Speakers: Iger, Elop, Apotheker, Schmidt, DARPA Head and More!
Has it already been almost a year already since the last D: All Things Digital conference?
Yes, indeedy--BoomTown is clearly aging fast.
That's why Walt Mossberg and I have been busy ferreting away on a speaker line-up for the ninth of our annual confabs of top tech and media players.
Yes, indeedy--BoomTown is clearly aging fast.
That's why Walt Mossberg and I have been busy ferreting away on a speaker line-up for the ninth of our annual confabs of top tech and media players.
Julia Stiles Marisa Miller AnnaLynne McCord Emma Heming Vitamin C
6 Steps to Take before Starting a Business
This is a guest post by Carol Roth. Are you tired of working for someone else? Do you think starting your own business could get you off the unemployment line? Think again. The failure rate for new businesses within the first 5 years is as high... Read more
Paige Butcher Amanda Peet Xenia Seeberg The Avatars of Second Life Daniella Alonso
Hackdays
We spent quite a bit of time yesterday in USV's regular monday meeting talking about hackdays. I had attended Music Hack Day at General Assembly on Sunday and was inspired by all the amazing hacks (72 in all) that I...
Cheryl Burke Olivia Wilde Paulina Rubio Kirsten Dunst Vanessa Minnillo
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Google?s Don Dodge: Q&A site StackOverflow?s valuation ?gave me a heart attack?
StackOverflow, a question-and-answer site popular with programmers and other technical professionals, launched a new site today that helps prospective employers browse the site for talented engineers. It was a hit with most of the judges — but not with Google’s Don Dodge, at least after he saw the price tag.
StackOverflow is a lot like Quora, but is largely populated by professionals in technical careers like engineering and programming. It’s a crowd-sourced site where anyone can post a question and StackOverflow users can quickly write an answer to that question. Other StackOverflow users can then vote up or vote down a response, ensuring the most popular or the most correct answer becomes the top answer for a question.
But the site is overvalued despite its cult popularity among programmers and engineers, said Dodge, an evangelist with Google which includes working with its investment arm, Google Ventures. Dodge made the comments on stage at the Launch Conference when the panel of judges was deciding which startups were best. He said he was initially impressed with the product, but that doesn’t mean he’d invest.
“I just saw the valuation for (StackOverflow’s) Careers 2.0 and I had a heart attack,” Dodge said. “No way I would write a check for that.”
Dodge later said that he thought the valuation was only for StackOverflow’s Careers 2.0 site, but said the site still looked like it was overvalued.
“Even for all of StackOverflow, the entire site, it’s a pretty rich valuation,” he said.
The new site, Careers 2.0, features openings at major companies like Microsoft and links StackOverflow users to sites where they can apply. StackOverflow users can search based on a number of keywords or by zip code, city or county. The idea is to connect StackOverflow’s highly technical and prolific users with potential job opportunities.
Companies: Google, Google Ventures, quora, StackOverflow
Vitamin C Scarlett Johansson Christina Ricci Missi Pyle Jessica Alba
NYSE Market Capitalization as % of GDP
Chart Store week continues at the Big Picture. Today’s TCS graph is the NYSE Market Capitalization, shown over time as a percentage of US GDP: > click for larger graphic ~~~ My unpaid endorsement: TCS subscribers ($239 per year) gain access to great weekly chart porn, and their library of more than 5,000 historical and [...]
Donna Feldman Jodi Lyn OKeefe Emma Watson Amy Smart Sarah Wynter
Fool Me Once?
Fool Me Once? February 22, 2011 Bob Eisenbeis, Chief Monetary Economist > I don?t normally pen an economic commentary on an article that has appeared elsewhere, but David Enrich?s Wall Street Journal article of February 17, 2011, entitled ?Banks Find Loophole on Capital Rule,? raises some important concerns and is worthy of additional observations. The [...]
Adapting the Traditional Editorial Calendar to Meet Today?s Content Demands
Content is king. Whether it?s in the form of text, video or audio, the more valuable and timely content you publish, the more relevant you will become online.
Content marketers weave a web connecting their websites to their blogs to their social networks and back again. They are not only managing a strong website and blog following, but they are also interacting with their audiences with the spread of great content via Facebook pages, Tweets, LinkedIn discussions, YouTube channels, FlickrRead More
From Small Business Trends
Adapting the Traditional Editorial Calendar to Meet Today’s Content Demands
Krista Allen Hayden Panettiere Jules Asner Whitney Able Kelly Clarkson
Super Priority Inbox
I love gmail priority inbox. I can't imagine doing email in an email client that doesn't have this feature. For those who are not familiar with priority inbox, it's a feature that splits the gmail inbox into three sections. The...
Laura Prepon Ashley Scott Michelle Behennah Julie Benz Saira Mohan
Has Social Media Changed Customer Service?
Has Social Media Changed Customer Service?
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff Talisa Soto Julianne Hough
50 Must-Have Small Business iPhone and iPad Apps
Editor’s Note: Last year one of our most popular articles of the year was written by Shara Karasic, who pointed out 10 small-business apps for the iPhone.� The response was so enthusiastic, that we invited Shara back for an even bigger and better roundup of apps for entrepreneurs and small-business execs this year.� And who better than Shara to contribute this article — she lives, breathes, sleeps and eats apps in her role with Appolicious, a community review site forRead More
From Small Business Trends
50 Must-Have Small Business iPhone and iPad Apps
Salma Hayek Jennifer Scholle Tatiana Zavialova Tila Tequila Tamie Sheffield
Has Small Business Access to Credit Improved?
Almost everyone agrees that small business borrowing plummeted during the Great Recession. The authoritative source on the topic, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), reported that the dollar value of bank loans to small businesses declined 47 percent from 2007 to 2009.
But the economic recovery began in June 2009. In theory, small business borrowing should have come back since then. Has it? Unfortunately, the FFIEC hasn?t yet released the hard numbers on small business bank loans, soRead More
From Small Business Trends
Has Small Business Access to Credit Improved?
Larissa Meek Gina Carano Sanaa Lathan Ana Beatriz Barros Maria Menounos
Getting Creative with the New Facebook Page Image Ribbon
Getting Creative with the New Facebook Page Image Ribbon
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Melania Trump Summer Glau Mía Maestro Virginie Ledoyen Lindsay Lohan
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Mobile payments company Paydiant picks up $7.6M
A new mobile payments company, Paydiant, announced today that it has received $7.6 million in first round funding, led by North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners. The Boston, Mass.-based startup says the funding will go into product development and sales and marketing.
Paydiant is still in stealth mode but is planning to launch officially later this year. According to a press release, the company is focused on a cellphone-based payments solution for everyday purchases. That’s not saying much, besides the fact that they are entering a pretty competitive marketplace.
However, the company’s three founders (who were not available for interviews), Chris Gardner, Kevin Laracey and Joe Paratore all have experience in the field. All three have worked in various roles for Edocs, an online billing company which Laracey co-founded, and which was acquired by Siebel Systems in 2005. Gardner and Paratore both worked at m-Qube, an SMS mobile payments company that was acquired by Verisign in 2006.
Jim Moran from North Bridge and John Simon from General Catalyst are also taking seats on Paydiant’s board of directors.
Even if Paydiant is?for now?describing its plan in pretty broad strokes, previous track record shows that the team has plenty of entrepreneurial experience, and could come up with something interesting in the mobile payments sector. Watch this space.
Companies: Edocs, General Catalyst Partners, m-Qube, north bridge venture partners, Paydiant, Siebel Systems, Verisign
People: Chris Gardner, Jim Moran, Joe Paratore, John Simon, Kevin Laracey
Gisele Bündchen Jennifer Aniston Amy Cobb Deanna Russo Cheryl Burke
Bridge Technologies
When the tech landscape changes; from web browsers to mobile browswers, from flash to HTML5, from laptops to tablets, from typing on keyboards to typing on screens, from local storage to cloud storage, there are always companies that are started...
Well Hello There, Amazon Prime Movies
As I was logging into my Amazon account today, a big fat Amazon Prime notice blocked my path. Here's what it said: Way to splash into the streaming video fray, Mr. Bezos. $7 a month for 5,000 streaming movies and TV shows can only mean one... Read more
Rhona Mitra Kelly Rowland Danica Patrick Josie Maran Leighton Meester
Zynga Raising $500 Million at $10 Billion Valuation
The fast-growing social gaming company Zynga is close to completing a funding round of $500 million, valuing the company at $10 billion, said multiple sources.
The round includes big institutional investors Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, as well as a token investment from existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins, in order to establish the huge valuation.
The round includes big institutional investors Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, as well as a token investment from existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins, in order to establish the huge valuation.
Aaliyah Katherine Heigl Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova
Monday, February 21, 2011
Font Matters More Than You May Think
Banned in Hollywood makes a good point (while poking fun at itself):... Read more
Amanda Bynes Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman
How to Keep Tabs on the Greatest Presentations Made Everyday
How to Keep Tabs on the Greatest Presentations Made Everyday
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Heidi Montag Katharine McPhee T.A.T.u. Amber Valletta Paris Hilton
Zynga Raising $500 Million at $10 Billion Valuation
The fast-growing social gaming company Zynga is close to completing a funding round of $500 million, valuing the company at $10 billion, said multiple sources.
The round includes big institutional investors Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, as well as a token investment from existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins, in order to establish the huge valuation.
The round includes big institutional investors Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments, as well as a token investment from existing venture investor Kleiner Perkins, in order to establish the huge valuation.
Cheryl Burke Olivia Wilde Paulina Rubio Kirsten Dunst Vanessa Minnillo
Viral Video: "Never Say Never" to Bieber (Or the Hair)
Guess what movie BoomTown is being force-marched to this weekend by the Swisher boys?
Not just "Gnomeo & Juliet," but the debut of the Justin Bieber movie hagiography "Never Say Never" in 3-D is much on the list I was presented without any ability to negotiate terms.
Now I'm a BeLieber.
Not just "Gnomeo & Juliet," but the debut of the Justin Bieber movie hagiography "Never Say Never" in 3-D is much on the list I was presented without any ability to negotiate terms.
Now I'm a BeLieber.
Kate Hudson Adriana Lima Brittany Daniel Kate Moss Zhang Ziyi
Weekend Favs February Nineteen
Weekend Favs February Nineteen
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Coco Lee Katy Perry Vinessa Shaw Rebecca Romijn Nadine Velazquez
Traveling !
Its been a busy time in the office, madness on the blog, and a miserable winter. Thus, I am heading off to warmer climes this week for a little R&R. I am leaving the blog in the estimable hands of Jonathan Miller of Miller Matrix and Invictus (Rosie’s former colleague). I may squeeze in a [...]
Larissa Meek Gina Carano Sanaa Lathan Ana Beatriz Barros Maria Menounos
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Obama, Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Schmidt: Don?t Discount the Lobbying
President Obama is slated to meet with software captains of industry this evening. The most notable players include Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Eric Schmidt. A lot of media commentary seems to be treating this as a celeb gathering, or some... Read more
Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman Larissa Meek Gina Carano
50 Must-Have Small Business iPhone and iPad Apps
Editor’s Note: Last year one of our most popular articles of the year was written by Shara Karasic, who pointed out 10 small-business apps for the iPhone.� The response was so enthusiastic, that we invited Shara back for an even bigger and better roundup of apps for entrepreneurs and small-business execs this year.� And who better than Shara to contribute this article — she lives, breathes, sleeps and eats apps in her role with Appolicious, a community review site forRead More
From Small Business Trends
50 Must-Have Small Business iPhone and iPad Apps
Michelle Trachtenberg Amanda Bynes Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier
Viral Photo: Meryl Streep as "The Iron Lady"
While BoomTown usually does a video here, this photo that was just released of actress Meryl Streep in the guise of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is freaky.
As in freaky accurate.
As in freaky accurate.
Michelle Malkin Charlies Angels Rose Byrne Willa Ford Desiree Dymond
A channel change: Will Apple start selling televisions?
Apple has had modest success with its Apple TV set-top box for streaming movies and music into homes. But the company might be exploring getting into the business of selling televisions.
If Apple does it right, it could disrupt yet another category of consumer electronics, in addition to the smartphone and tablet categories where it has succeeded beyond its wildest hopes.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company recently posted a job listing on its web site for an AC/DC power supply design engineer.
The engineer will work “on the forefront of new power management designs and technologies … for Apple’s next generation Macintosh platforms spanning from notebook computers, desktop computers, servers, standalone displays and TV.”
It’s going to need a lot more than one engineer to design the company’s own TVs. But the topic has been one of speculation since Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said at a conference that it makes more sense to embed a product like Apple TV into a television than to try to sell a set-top box. Apple has launched its second-generation Apple TV set-top box for $99. It competes with other boxes such as the Boxee Box, Roku, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
The TV business also has fierce competition, from Sony to Samsung. Computer makers such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell have tried to enter the TV business, to no avail.
It could be very difficult to enter the TV business at such a late stage, since TVs are already going through great changes, with manufacturers shipping 3D TVs and internet-connected TVs. The best time to enter a market is before the disruptions take place, as Apple did with smartphones and tablets.
If Apple has any advantages, it might be in trying to get apps to run on a big screen, as I have written before. Apple has more than 330,000 apps in the App Store. If it got apps to run on the TV, it could offer lots of free or 99 cent apps. That would disrupt traditional TV content, such as $60 video games.
How Apple enters the business also makes a difference. If it wants to make apps run on the TV, it will likely have to beef up the memory, processing power, and media storage capabilities of a TV. But it can’t jack up the price to crazy levels, considering the fierce price competition in the TV market.
One approach to bypass those extra costs is to use a server-based technology such as OnLive, which can stream high-quality games to a TV screen. OnLive announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it will stream games to TVs made by Vizio. While that requires a fast broadband connection, it does not require extra hardware in a TV. The advantage of server-based apps on the TV is that the TV doesn’t have to be upgraded over time to handle beefier apps.
Companies: Apple, OnLive, Samsung, Sony, Vizio
People: Steve Jobs
Emma Stone Raquel Alessi Marisa Coughlan Shanna Moakler Portia de Rossi
Google debuts Delicious bookmark importer to tempt away users
Google today debuted a new�Delicious migration tool for Google Bookmarks, as it aims squarely at fans of Yahoo’s bookmarking service who have been worried that its retiring could lose them their carefully chosen links.
Delicious, which Yahoo acquired in 2005, provides users with a way to share Web bookmarks and discover new, interesting websites.
The new�Google Bookmarks importer allows a user to login with either an existing Yahoo ID or Delicious ID to import all your bookmarks and tags. That data then lets a user instantly integrate Delicious tags with existing Google Bookmarks links.
Google’s timing seems right.
Reports�surfaced in December that Yahoo was going to ?sunset? the service — a fancy way of saying it will kill Delicious — after a number of leaked slides from an internal Yahoo presentation hit the Internet. The slide was��posted on Twitter by Eric Marcoullier, who cofounded blog social network MyBlogLog, another service listed in the ?sunset? column.
The slide says that Yahoo Picks, AltaVista, Yahoo Buzz, and other services are also targeted for shutdown.
Google’s new service will come as a relief to Delicious users who had been worried that an abrupt end to the services could see them lose all their data.
Last May Google had attempted to draw in some Delicious users by launching a rival site, Lists for Bookmarks, a more social feature for bookmarking. Lists allowed users to copy all their bookmarks into lists in order to share publicly, but it never seemed to gain the traction Delicious did.
At the time of Yahoo’s buy-up, Delicious founder Joshua Schachter was still�a Google employee, but has since moved on to found stealth startup Tasty Labs.
Photo via bm.iphone on Flickr
Companies: altavista, Delicious, Google, MyBlogLog, Tasty Labs, Yahoo
People: joshua shachter
Tina Fey Gina Philips Jamie Gunns Ananda Lewis Kate Bosworth
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