Business Insider, September 02, 2010
5min Media, a New York startup that syndicates premium video content to publishers in niche markets, just gave its video games offering a huge boost by signing up gaming megasite IGN as a content partner.
5min offers web publishers a way to include relevant video next to all of their content without doing any ongoing work. Publishers embed a piece of code in their templates, and 5min automatically provides relevant videos to each new article. Ad revenues are split between content providers, publishers, and 5min.
The New York Times, August 30, 2010
Boxee is the little guy in a battle for Web TV supremacy, so it’s fitting that the software company’s first movie selections are independent and obscure.
Still in beta, Boxee’s free application for Windows, Mac and Linux turns your computer into a TV-friendly interface for Internet content. It’s ideal for people who use computers as new-age set-top boxes. Traditional TV shows get pulled in from Web sites like ComedyCentral.com and NBC.com, and the choices are arranged on a page of big, colorful thumbnail photos. Boxee also hosts an app library for alternative video services such as Netflix and TWiT.tv.
TechCrunch, August 24, 2010
Last month, we gave an update on the state of Tumblr that included some pretty impressive stats: over 6 million users, 1.5 billion pageviews a month, and 4.5 million new posts a day. Throw those all out the window.
The blogging/microblogging/ social/whateveryouwanttocallit network has just crossed 1 billion total posts today.
Business Wire, August 13, 2010
BUSINESS WIRE)—myYearbook, the best place to meet new people and one of the 25 most-trafficked sites in the United States, today announced the expansion of their gaming platform with new partner OMGPOP, a leading developer and publisher of real-time multiplayer games. OMGPOP is the first multiplayer game developer to partner with myYearbook, as the site opens its gaming platform up to select third-party developers. This partnership will bring OMGPOP’s top games to myYearbook’s highly engaged user base, providing myYearbook members with more ways to meet new people and interact on the site. OMGPOP’s Balloono, Draw My Thing, Hover Kart Racing and Pool games will be available to play on myYearbook later this year, with additional games to follow.
By playing OMGPOP’s titles, myYearbook members can meet new people in the context of fun social games. This partnership represents the first multiplayer social game offering for myYearbook. The new games will also be integrated into myYearbook’s real-time stream, Chatter, which receives over 1 million posts per day, allowing members to share high scores and challenge friends. The games will also be integrated into myYearbook’s virtual currency, Lunch Money. myYearbook members spend Lunch Money on gifts, causes, and other social games.
Daily Finance, August 13, 2010
As the U.S. economy emerges from recession, a new crop of start-ups is blooming. From microblogging to location-based services to green auto technology, social gaming, genetic testing, e-commerce and digital music, a new generation of start-ups is poised to lead the technology world into the next decade.
It’s not surprising. Recessions breed innovation. The creative destruction wrought by economic downturns creates the conditions for new ideas to flourish and new firms to hatch. The slowdown of the early 1990s preceded the rapid growth of the first generation of iconic Internet companies—AOL (AOL), which owns and operates DailyFinance, Netscape, Yahoo (YHOO), Amazon (AMZN), eBay (EBAY) and Google (GOOG)—until the technology bubble laid waste to the industry, sparing only the hardiest firms.
Business Wire, August 11, 2010
NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—KickApps Corporation, a leading social CMS platform provider, today strengthened its position in the market with the creation of a new social media strategy consulting practice to be run by Alan Wolk. The addition of Wolk, a social media and ad agency veteran with over 20 years of experience, gives KickApps a strategic social media consulting offering that’s every bit as compelling as the company’s other products and services.
“Our clients look to us for fresh thinking and innovative solutions,” explained Alex Blum, KickApps chief executive officer. “Alan’s passion, experience at agencies like AtmosphereBBDO and J. Walter Thompson and proven social media expertise help ensure that their social media efforts will support their overall business objectives. Our clients already have access to an amazing platform, and now they have a strategic lead with vision and discipline. The combination of great technology and super smart people is what’s needed to deliver results, and I’m thrilled that KickApps provides both.”
Business Wire, August 06, 2010
NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—KickApps Corporation today announced a major upgrade to its market-leading social software development suite that provides Web publishers the ability to manage their website content and social experiences under a single, unified content management system. KickApps 5.0 is the industry’s first Social CMS (sCMS) platform, designed to create and manage entire websites with deeply integrated social functionality and turnkey connectivity to all major social platforms.
With the introduction of KickApps 5.0, the company now offers website publishers the ability to manage all their online assets (including editorial content) under a single, unified content management system. This frees publishers from the interoperability and resource issues associated with managing multiple point solutions for CMS, social and video capabilities. KickApps 5.0 provides a 100% solution for creating and hosting socially-enabled websites.
Press Release, August 05, 2010
AdMeld, the technology platform that helps the world’s top publishers maximize their ad revenues, today announced it closed a $15 million Series C round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Time Warner Investments and the company’s existing backers, Spark Capital and Foundry Group, also participated. The round brings AdMeld’s total financing to date to $30 million. Jeff Crowe, General Partner at NVP, will be joining the company’s Board of Directors.
“The addition of Norwest Venture Partners and Time Warner Investments to our already strong list of backers is testament to the strength of our model, our rock-solid value proposition, and the experience of our team,“ said Michael Barrett, CEO, AdMeld. “This round of financing caps a period of extremely strong growth for the company. Over the past year, AdMeld has become the world’s largest, independent sell-side platform for Real Time Bidding (RTB), extended our optimization capabilities into the mobile space, and quadrupled the size of our customer base.“
Mass High Tech, August 04, 2010
Online education is an increasingly hot sector for private investment, driven by government studies, vast potential customer bases and promises of solid exits. And whether the learning flavor is virtual world-based training, online tutor sessions or web-based full colleges, the online education space can be broken into two basic approaches — one-to-one versus one-to-many.
At Boston’s Spark Capital, partner Alex Finkelstein likes both approaches he said, although he is most bullish on the one-to-many approach. Three of Finkelstein’s four investments for Spark have been in online education or training. Altius Education Inc. of San Francisco is a post-secondary school that partners with established brick-and-mortar colleges, 5min of New York is a repository of short-form video tutorials on all sorts of subjects, and Woburn’s 8D World Inc. provides an online virtual world for English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, mostly in Asia.
TechCrunch, July 29, 2010
Every big publisher on the Web wants to be able to serve up ad-friendly videos, but creating them can be a pain. But there are already plenty of high-quality videos out there in every subject imaginable. With that in mind, Answers.com has quietly launched Video Answers with about 200,000 videos from video distribution network 5min on everything from home repair and fashion tips to cars and travel.
5Min is already one of the largest video networks, with more than 110 million video views a month and 30 million unique visitors across 800 partner sites. But Answers.com will become its biggest partner by far. 5Min syndicates videos from about 1,000 online video producers, including CBS, Hearst, Scripps, and WatchMojo. Anytime one of 5Min’s videos matches a question asked on Answers.com, WikiAnswers, or ReferenceAnswers, video results will show up and they will play on the new Video Answers page. Advertising revenues will be split between Answers.com, 5Min, and the video publisher, with roughly a third going to each.
Irish Times, July 23, 2010
Boston-based venture capitalist Todd Dagres has high praise for the Irish initiative to create its ‘exemplar’ network, for a bit of an insider glimpse of what tomorrow’s internet might be like, you could do worse – a lot worse – than pay a little attention to where Boston-based venture capitalist Todd Dagres puts his money.
Dagres, one of the most highly ranked VCs in the US, launched a successful VC career with a $12 million investment in dotcom-era media content delivery company Akamai, which went on to make several hundred million for then-employer Battery Ventures.
His current company, Spark Capital (which he co-founded), has a significant stake in Twitter, a second-round investment of around $35 million taken when Twitter had less than a million subscribers. It’s an incredible company with enormous scope for monetising subscribers, he says. He’s very bullish on social media, noting that the point with social media firms is getting that explosive subscriber growth.
Business Wire, July 21, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—IPWireless, a pioneer in developing key enabling IMB technology, and Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, today jointly announced that the two companies have signed a co-operation agreement with respect to the production of each party’s Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) technology. This co-operation will include interoperability testing (IOT) and service provider trials. These ground-breaking interoperability tests will assure operators that they can confidently source IMB equipment from multiple vendors and assure handset manufacturers that their devices will be fully compatible with all IMB networks. IMB is capable of streaming live video and broadcasting and storing popular content on the device for later consumption – both resulting in significant offloading of data traffic from existing 3G networks.
TechCrunch, July 20, 2010
One year ago, in July 2009, Tumblr was going strong. They had 255 million pageviews that month. By November of last year, that was up to 420 million pageviews. But some new stats which Tumblr is releasing today show an explosion in growth since then. Tumblr is now at 1.5 billion pageviews a month — their Quantcast data confirms this.
For the first time, Tumblr is now a top 50 site in the U.S. in terms of traffic as gauged by Quantcast. And only half of Tumblr’s 6.25 million users are in the U.S. Those users are now posting some 4.5 million posts a day — that’s up from 650,000 new posts a day a year ago.
Fast Company, July 07, 2010
What is your search engine of choice? Google? Yahoo? Bing? Try Twitter.
According to cofounder Biz Stone, who spoke yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Twitter now reaches some 800 million search queries per day. That’s over 24 billion searches per month, more than Bing (4.1 billion) and Yahoo (9.4 billion) combined.
While Stone’s company is still a long way off from Google, which supports around 88 billion search queries per month, Twitter is quickly catching up. Since last April, Twitter searches are up 33%.
Yahoo!, July 07, 2010
Today, Linkwell Health announced that Healthfirst has signed on to offer “better for you” couponing to its health plan member population. Healthfirst, in its ongoing mission to deliver optimal support to underserved populations, particularly those managing chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular issues, adds healthy coupons to its roster of programs that deliver high quality care and support. Through this partnership, Linkwell Health has worked with Healthfirst to design a relevant set of food and product coupons for chronic conditions that will be mailed directly to members’ homes.
“Linkwell Health’s program is exactly the type of tool that can effectively motivate healthy behaviors in our member population,“ says Pat Wang, President & CEO of Healthfirst. “Given the economic pressures we all feel right now, the simple intelligence of presenting guidance on nutrition through healthy coupons is ideal, especially for our plan.“
The New York Times, July 07, 2010
Last year, we wrote that Twitter was considering e-commerce as one of its revenue models. On Tuesday it unveiled its first foray into selling products.
The company announced @earlybird Exclusive Offers, which will be time-sensitive deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. People can follow that account to get access to the deals.
The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which Amazon.com recently acquired), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like Dell, which attributes millions of dollars in sales to posting deals on Twitter, are already doing.
TMCnet.com , July 02, 2010
Next New Networks, an independent producer of online television networks, creates, packages, brands, markets and syndicates some of the Web’s most popular regularly scheduled and episodic programming. It announced that since its inception in March 2007, it has reached one billion views and has planned to commemorate this event. The Web series powerhouse, home to hit shows now serves more than 65 million viewers per month across its networks of original series. These shows have integrated themselves into the popular culture and Internet memes.
The Wall Street Journal, July 01, 2010
NEW YORK, Jul 01, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE)—KickApps Corporation, in partnership with IBM, today announced the release of KickApps for WebSphere Commerce, a cutting-edge social commerce solution that integrates KickApps’ award-winning AppStudio with IBM’s WebSphere Commerce platform. The integrated solution allows clients to easily deploy social commerce experiences that transcend standard online storefronts, enabling companies to seamlessly extend brand experiences to affiliate partners, social networks, and across Internet properties.
The Huffington Post, July 01, 2010
A new extension for Google’s Chrome browser has made it 100 times more enjoyable to search for and play free music on the web.
“ExtensionFM is a browser extension for Chrome that finds every MP3 file on pages you visit and automatically creates a library of those songs for you to enjoy.“
Ever hear a song on a blog you like and then forget where and what the song is? Or are you ever directed to a music blog and spend more than 30 seconds looking for the song you wanted to hear? Or do you just skip music blogs in general for lack of a seamless playlist?
Fox Business, June 29, 2010
Linkwell Health announced today that it has been selected by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to offer its healthy food couponing program to the health plan’s members. By presenting valuable coupons on healthy food products, BlueCross hopes to encourage better eating behaviors among its members with chronic health conditions. The coupons will be made available via targeted mailings to the members’ homes.
“One of the key goals at BlueCross is to support our members’ ongoing efforts to improve their health. We understand that diet and exercise are important factors in health and wellness,“ said Robert Mandel, Senior Vice President of Health Care Services for BlueCross. “This program, which presents healthier food choices bundled with product savings, provides an opportunity for us to offer value and help our members make choices that support their health goals.“
Business Insider, June 27, 2010
Tumblr, the innovative blogging platform created by young web entrepreneur David Karp in 2007, had a bit of a media moment on the afternoon of Thursday, June 24.
Around 1 p.m., we reported that The New York Times had recently created a Tumblr, which we’d stumbled upon a week earlier. (A spokeswoman for the paper had just confirmed with us that the blog was indeed the property of The Times and not some prankster looking to flame the Gray Lady.)
Financial Times, June 25, 2010
Coca-Cola saw “phenomenal” results from its first experiment with paid advertising on Twitter, the drinks company’s digital marketing chief told the Financial Times.
The US soft drinks company is only the second brand to sponsor a “trending topic”, using Twitter’s “promoted tweets” to tap into online discussion about the World Cup this week.
Coke also saw an “engagement rate” of 6 per cent, compared with the approximately 0.02 per cent of people who click on a regular online advertisement.
Press Release, June 24, 2010
SAN FRANCISO, California. –(June 24, 2010) Triggit, the leading developer of technologies for buying media using real-time bidding, today announced $4.2 million in series A funding from Spark Capital and Foundry Group. Seth Levine, Managing Partner at Foundry Group and Santo Politi, General Partner at Spark capital will be joining the board. Also participating in the round through the conversion of their previous investments are Brett and Scott Crosby, the founders of Urchin; Asher Waldfogel, the founder of Peakstream and Tollbridge Technologies; Ben Narison, founder of Fashionmall.com; Joe Spieser and Alex Zhardanovsky, founders of Epic Advertising; Gilad Elbaz, the founder of Applied Sematics; Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin; TriplePoint Capital; DG Incubation; Joi Ito; Charles Sprincin; and Eric Stein. Triggit intends to use the proceeds of the round to support its continued rapid growth and to begin international expansion.
TechCrunch, June 24, 2010
San Francisco-based startup Triggit has closed a $4.2 million funding round led by Spark Capital and Foundry Group. As part of the deal, Seth Levine (Foundry) and Santo Politi (Spark) will be joining Triggit’s Board. Triggit had previously raised $2 million in convertible debt; investors that convert as part of this round include Brett and Scott Crosby (Urchin); Asher Waldfogel (Peakstream, Tollbridge Technologies); Ben Narison (Fashionmall.com); Joe Spieser and Alex Zhardanovsky (Epic Advertising); Gilad Elbaz, (Applied Sematics); Reid Hoffman (Linkedin); TriplePoint Capital; DG Incubation, Joi Ito, Charles Sprincin, and Eric Stein.
Press Release, June 22, 2010
An Initiative to trial 3GPP Broadcast Solution called Integrated Mobile Broadcast (IMB) provided by Ericsson, IPWireless, and Streamezzo
London, UK – June 22, 2010 – Today, three of world’s largest mobile operators, O2, Orange, and Vodafone, announce an initiative to jointly pilot a new mobile broadcast system capable of delivering data intensive services such as mobile TV in a more efficient way.
The multi-operator pilot, which will run for three months commencing in October 2010 in central London and Slough, will assess how mobile broadcast services can be deployed using shared network infrastructure.
Yahoo! News, June 18, 2010
Twitter is a hit in Japan, succeeding where other social networking imports like Facebook have foundered as millions “mumble” — the translation of tweet — and give mini-blogging a distinctly Japanese flavor.
The arrival of the Japanese language Twitter service in 2008 tapped into a greater sense of individuality in Japan, especially among younger people less accepting of the understatement and conformity their culture is usually associated with, analysts say.
PR Newswire, June 15, 2010
Linkwell Health received kudos from industry leader David Gergen during his seminal keynote address at the AHIP Institute 2010.
During his opening remarks last Friday morning, Mr. Gergen, Professor of Public Service at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University and a Senior Political Analyst for CNN, acknowledged Linkwell’s novel approach to behavior change. Saying the program is an “innovative and unique way to encourage consumers to make healthier selections on food purchases,“ Mr. Gergen called upon leaders to think creatively about solutions to rising health care costs.
“Linkwell brings together stakeholders inside and outside of the health care industry to implement a fresh approach to addressing obesity and its related conditions,“ said Ben Gardner, CEO of Linkwell Health. “Healthy couponing is a realistic tool that assists members in making better food choices every day and can help deliver a sustainable impact to behaviors.“
Press Release, June 14, 2010
BOSTON (June 14, 2010) – Spark Capital (http://www.sparkcapital.com/) announced today the addition of Internet and technology executive Andrew Parker as a senior associate. Parker brings to Spark a wealth of expertise and a solid background in technology, having spent five years working in Web services and being closely involved in Web development, design and product management.
“We’re excited to be adding Andrew to our team,” said Todd Dagres, general partner, Spark Capital. “We’ve watched him in action - working hand-in-hand with Internet entrepreneurs and have been impressed by what he brings to the table. He’ll be a great addition to our team in both helping us evaluate new deal opportunities as well as supporting the companies within our existing portfolio.”
Before joining Spark, Parker was a member of the investment team at Union Square Ventures since August 2006. Prior to that, he served as producer at Homestead Technologies, where he designed Web interfaces and was responsible for user testing, technical specifications, product management and rapid prototyping. Before Homestead, he worked for Groupspace.org as a developer on a Web service for asynchronous online deliberation, which was built on the LAMP stack.
“I am very proud to be joining the team at Spark Capital,” said Parker. “I have had the privilege of getting to know a few members of the team and was consistently impressed by their intelligence, expertise and conviction. I have a lot of respect for Spark’s deal taste, which is self-evident in their history of investments, and I look forward to working with them on expanding the existing portfolio.”
Parker graduated from Stanford University in 2005 with a B.S. in symbolic systems, a hybrid of computer science and cognitive psychology.
The New York Times, June 11, 2010
Software companies like Adobe, Apple and Microsoft have long had to battle software pirates. Now these companies are beginning to face some trickier contenders: free Web-based software.
One company in particular that could take a bite out of the desktop software giants is called Aviary. It offers a suite of free online software for graphics and image editing. On Thursday, the company added another application called Music Creator.
Mashable, May 28, 2010
Name: ExtensionFM
Quick Pitch: Turn the web into your personal music library.
Genius Idea: ExtensionFM is an extension for Google’s() Chrome() web browser that indexes every MP3 music file you come across while surfing.
There are countless free MP3 music blogs scattered around the web, and they’re a fantastic resource for lesser-known artists or promotional tracks from the big guys and gals. When you’re sorting through hundreds of pages of music links, it’s easy to wander away from a song you were interested in and lose it.
ExtensionFM solves that problem by giving your browser a library tab that lists and sorts every song you’ve ever found a link to.
Mashable, May 26, 2010
New stats we’ve just been shown by video measurement company TubeMogul show that Twitter is quickly growing as a top referrer for web video traffic, far outpacing Facebook, Yahoo, Google and Bing.
Further, when it comes to getting users to watch videos, users who discovered a video via Twitter() tend to stay around longer, too. In fact, these users will view a video for an average of just over two minutes.
The New York Times, May 19, 2010
Twitter is set to get a big boost in Japan, one of its biggest and fastest-growing markets, after the Japanese cellphone carrier Softbank on Tuesday announced new handsets designed to link to the microblogging site, part of a major effort by Softbank to get a piece of America’s tech savvy.
Twitter has taken off in a big way here in the past two years, fanned by media exposure and the use of the service by a flurry of celebrities: Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama tweets frequently, as does the astronaut and national hero Soichi Noguchi, who tweets from the International Space Station.
Business Wire, May 14, 2010
KickApps Corporation in partnership with Adobe today announced the release of the OSMF App Studio, a drag-and-drop media player solution based on KickApps’ award winning authoring solution for the Adobe® Flash® Platform. Users of the cloud-based OSMF App Studio can create highly customized, full featured Flash® media player experiences with drag-and-drop ease, including the ability to integrate best-of-breed third party applications, content and Web services.
This announcement introduces a new era of Flash® creation where anyone, including non-programmers, can create social and highly dynamic media experiences with drag-and-drop ease.
The OSMF App Studio’s application plug-in architecture provides app developers a robust distribution platform that can enhance any Flash® deployment.
PRESS RELEASE, April 30, 2010
IPWireless, a leading provider of 3GPP technology for new applications and markets, today announced the general availability of ‘Network-in-a-Box, ’ a self-contained modular mobile broadband network product range. The solution allows rapid and flexible deployment of a 3GPP-based, mobile broadband network for a variety of different applications.
In the United States, the ‘Network-in-a-Box’ solution supports 2.5GHz and the entire 700 MHz frequency, including the lower A block (LTE Band 12) held by many regional carriers. The comprehensive system provides a quick way to commercially deploy 4G coverage and capacity for rural broadband, and test service concepts with consumers. The system also supports the 700 Public Safety Block (LTE Band 14), allowing cities and other local governments to quickly deploy a mobile broadband system with the proven performance required for mission-critical applications. In addition to 700 and 2500 MHz, the solution supports the 872, 1900, 2010, and 2053 bands globally.
PRESS RELEASE, April 30, 2010
Sony Corporation of America and IPWireless, a leading provider of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technology for new applications and markets, today announced that the two companies have signed an agreement to jointly research and develop wireless technologies for 4G and beyond. The two companies will initially focus on enhancing Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology for new applications and services with work beginning immediately.
The research and development activity will be based at IPWireless’ technology center in Chippenham, England and will leverage both companies’ global resources. Sony and IPWireless engineers will work together to develop key new technologies to enhance and expand the potential of LTE and other 3GPP technologies with the goal of contributing these new specifications to the 3GPP standards and beyond. These R&D initiatives will blend Sony’s capabilities for delivering rich user experiences and groundbreaking consumer innovation with IPWireless’ unparalleled expertise in developing 3GPP mobile broadband and broadcast technologies.
Business Insider, April 28, 2010
New York City- and Israel-based startup 5min Media’s video platform is serving up over 100 million views per month, and is the leading provider of online video in seven niche verticals. According to comScore reports for February, 5min was the leading provider of video in food, video games, travel, health, beauty/fashion, home, and auto. In tech, they trailed only CNET and Adobe. So why haven’t you heard of it?
For two reasons: first, it doesn’t produce any content at all, and second, because while it has a decent amount of traffic to its own site, it isn’t particularly interested in publishing content either.
Pharmacy Choice, April 28, 2010
Linkwell Health announced that it will continue to partner with Humana to offer healthy food couponing to help members achieve lifelong well-being. Through Humana’s award-winning member EOB, Linkwell Health presents savings on better food choices to influence eating behaviors in the chronic condition population.
“Improving diet and nutrition is a critical step toward better health for our members with chronic conditions,“ says Christopher Nicholson, Director of Strategic Communications for Humana. “We have worked closely with Linkwell Health to determine the right products and to employ an optimal engagement strategy for member impact.“
Mashable, April 20, 2010
Tumblr has just announced another healthy influx of cash — $5 million from Spark and Union Square Ventures — nearly doubling the $5.2 million raised in A and B rounds of financing. The popular mini-blog company has been testing and optimizing various paid features for a while and hopes 2010 will bring it further down the road to profitability
The Wall Street Journal, April 20, 2010
Starting Monday, Web-to-TV software company Boxee will distribute the National Hockey League’s Game Center Live online video content. In addition, the National Basketball Association is set to announce a similar partnership with Roku, maker of a digital video player that streams Netflix and Amazon Video on Demand via the Web, for the distribution of NBA digital video content, beginning with some of this season’s playoff games.
The NHL’s Game Center Live streams approximately a thousand of the league’s 1,200 games per season, or any games that are not national exclusives on Versus or NBC, the league’s partner networks, for $19.95 a month. No additional fees will be applied for the streaming of NHL Game Center Live content through Boxee’s social-media enabled, web-to-TV platform. Since the NHL is currently wrapping up its 2009-2010 season, the new NHL content available through the Boxee platform is minimal, but a spokesman for Boxee says this should lay the groundwork for a continued partnership into next season.
Boxee Blog, April 19, 2010
It’s springtime, and in the animal world that means it’s time to come out of hibernation, time for leaves to grow back, and time for humans to start enjoying saturday afternoons at the park and preparing for the Stanley Cup®. It’s also time to update you on a fresh new version of Boxee.
First and foremost we’re excited to announce that NHL GameCenter LIVE™ is now available on Boxee. Subscribers to the monthly/annual subscription service ($19.95 / $79 respectively) can now watch great Hockey games & fights in HD (where available) on Boxee.
PRNewswire, April 16, 2010
Adap.tv, creators of the first online video advertising marketplace and the onesource video ad management platform for publishers, announced today a partnership with Grab Networks, a leading multi-platform video syndication network and video management platform, to supply premium video inventory for buyers. The alliance brings adap.tv’s partnerships with agencies, networks and marketers together with Grab Networks’ diverse and growing network of high-quality professional content and affiliate sites.
Enhanced Online News, April 15, 2010
Programming from Next New Networks, the leading next-generation media company providing original Web series to millions of loyal and engaged viewers, received six individual Webby Award nominations making Next New Networks among the most recognized media companies in the 14th Annual Webby Awards, the Internet’s top honor.
Leading the way with two nominations, “Auto-Tune The News,” created and produced by The Gregory Brothers and part of the Barely Political network, is recognized in both the Viral category and the Video Remixes/Mashups category. The series “$99 Music Videos,” created by Jack Ferry, received its first nomination in the Music category. Next New Networks also scored two nods in the How-To and DIY category for Indy Mogul’s “Backyard FX,” produced and hosted by Erik Beck, and “ThreadBanger,” produced by Corinne Leigh and Rob Czar who both received their second consecutive nominations.
The New York Times, April 13, 2010
Twitter will unveil on Tuesday a much-anticipated plan for making money from advertising, finally answering the question of how the company expects to turn its exponential growth into revenue.
The advertising program, which Twitter calls Promoted Tweets, will show up when Twitter users search for keywords that the advertisers have bought to link to their ads. Later, Twitter plans to show promoted posts in the stream of Twitter posts, based on how relevant they might be to a particular user.
Entertainment Weekly, April 08, 2010
The folks who produce the hilarious Key of Awesome series of videos for the Barely Digital network—they’re behind the amazing spoof of Lady Gaga and Beyoncé’s “Telephone” video that came out last month—are busy, busy people. In fact, they’ve got yet another video debuting this afternoon, and EW has it here for you first!
Today’s clip is a slight departure for the geniuses behind Key of Awesome. Why? As you can see from the picture taken from the shoot above, this video doesn’t spoof just one specific artist and video or moment, as has been typical. Instead, an explosion of the Key of Awesome caricature characters were brought together to sing a theme song, “The Origin of Awesome!” for a series theme song: Lady Gaga! Justin Beiber! James Hetfield! Adam Lambert! Obama Girl! Ke$ha!
The Wall Street Journal, April 07, 2010
Is there room for another Web site for gadget lovers?
Peter Rojas, 35, and Ryan Block, 27, veterans of tech blogs Gizmodo and Engadget, think so. Last year, they launched gdgt, a new take on a discussion forum for gadget lovers.
Investors appear to believe in it. Spark Capital and True Ventures are leading a $3.165 million round of funding for gdgt. Betaworks, AOL Ventures, Lerer Media Ventures and a bunch of individuals also participated in the round, which closed last month.
Business Wire, March 24, 2010
Menara Networks, a vertically integrated optical Ethernet transport specialist and provider of the award winning OTN pluggable transceivers, today announces that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued the company Patent # 7580637 for its ground breaking OTN “System-in-a-Module” approach that greatly simplifies IP and Ethernet optical transport.
Menara announces today that it was issued United States Patent # 7580637 for its proprietary approach to integrate ITU-T G.709 OTN framing, OAM processing, forward error correction, and other DWDM optical networking functions into various bit-rate, hot pluggable optical transceivers while at the same time preserving and adhering to the Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) aspects of the respective pluggable optical transceiver module. Menara has shipped the industry’s first such product in 2007 in the form of a OTN DWDM XENPAK module and today offers a full array of Telcordia qualified multi-rate and protocol agnostic tunable OTN transceiver modules including its award winning ATLAS XFP product line.
TechCrunch, February 22, 2010
Last summer, realtime search engine OneRiot was one of the first engines to debut an API to allow developers to integrated OneRiot’s search results into their applications. Less than a year later, OneRiot is seeing 97 percent of its total searches coming through its API. Today, OneRiot is rolling out a new version of its search API, which includes support for for RiotWise, OneRiot’s ad network, enabling developers to make money off of search results. Additional new features include the ability to deliver vertical and domain-specific search experiences for their users.
Business Week, February 17, 2010
IPWireless, a pioneer in developing key enabling IMB technology, today announced that it has designed an interoperability test (IOT) platform that will allow device and network infrastructure vendors to verify their IMB solutions for interoperability. The IMB IOT platform will bridge the requirements of mobile operators and those of their device and network infrastructure vendor partners, thus enabling both parties to accelerate the time to market of their commercial IMB solutions.
IMB was defined in the 3GPP release 8 standards, and was recently endorsed by the GSMA as the preferred method for the efficient delivery of broadcast services. IPWireless will make its IMB technology, which includes solutions for both network infrastructure vendors and device vendors, available for IMB interoperability testing in the second quarter of 2010. The User Equipment (UE) solution supports full integration with a next generation 3G UE solution from a leading 3G semiconductor company to allow vendors to test the full capabilities of IMB. The Infrastructure IMB IOT platform will feature IPWireless’ operational Node B IMB transmitter.
Business Week, February 17, 2010
Google Inc.’s Android open-source operating system will run on Bug Labs Inc. devices, expanding its hardware lineup and developer community beyond mobile phones and netbooks.
Bug Labs announced the support for Google’s software, currently operating on smartphones by Dell Inc., HTC Corp. and Acer Inc., in a statement at the Mobile World Congress wireless industry conference in Barcelona today. The New York-based startup makes electronic modules that snap together, allowing consumers to determine the shape and function of their gadgets.
TechCrunch, February 17, 2010
After hitting a flat spot last fall, Twitter’s worldwide growth is pointing in the right direction again. According to worldwide comScore figures released today, Twitter’s own site attracted 73.5 million unique individuals in January, up 8 percent from December, 2009 (when it had 65.2 million visitors). Its annual growth rate is still a phenomenal 1,105 percent. A year ago, Twitter.com attracted only an estimated 6 million visitors.
Large sites like Twitter and Facebook before it tend to grow in step-like patterns, with bursts of growth followed by periods of flatness during which the site absorbs its new users and adapts to their needs. Twitter has certainly been improving the functionality of its own site, with the rollout of new features such as local trends, a better suggested user list, Twitter Lists, and the Retweet button. Maybe all that work is starting to pay off.
PR Newswire, February 16, 2010
Adap.tv, creators of the onesource video ad management platform for publishers, today launched the first video advertising marketplace. The adap.tv marketplace (atm) is the first to enable marketers, ad agencies, publishers and ad networks to buy and sell in-stream video ads with complete transparency and control. The company is leveraging the success of its onesource platform to open the marketplace with significant scale: as of today buyers can access hundreds of sites and billions of video ad impressions.
Over the past year, online video has become a must-buy for advertisers and a critical revenue source for publishers, since it combines the engagement of TV ads with the precision of online targeting and measurement. However, online video campaign planning and execution has presented challenges for both buyers and sellers, owing to the diversity of platforms and the slow adoption of format standards. By putting advertisers and publishers on a shared technology platform, providing a simple transaction mechanism, and a rich set of controls, the adap.tv marketplace makes it easy and risk-free to buy and sell online video ads.
TechCrunch, February 16, 2010
In China, learning spoken English is giving rise to a huge and growing market. For instance, in addition to English classes in public schools, parents send their children to about 50,000 for-profit training schools around the country, where English is the most popular subject. Instead of American Idol, on CCTV, the national government-owned TV network, they have the Star of Outlook English Talent Competition. This is possibly the largest nationwide competition in China. Last year, 400,000 students between the ages of 6 and 14 took part in it.
This year, the competition is adding a virtual twist, and a startup based in Massachusetts called 8D World is at the center of it. 8D World runs a virtual world called Wiz World Online for Chinese-speaking kids who want to learn English.
TechCrunch, February 10, 2010
Online television studio Next New Networks is reporting a few milestones today, releasing news that the network has seen over 300 million views across its networks in 2009. The company also claims it doubled revenue from 2008 to 2009 and saw a 70% increase in the number of sponsors.
Next New Networks builds internet based “micro television networks” for targeted niche communities. Over the past few years, Next New Networks restructured and reshuffled its executive team and staff, bringing in Lance Podell as CEO in late 2008 and added a new chief of programming Kathleen Grace in 2009.
Business Wire, February 05, 2010
During his opening address at the AdMeld Partner Forum 2010, Michael Barrett, AdMeld’s CEO, discussed rapid emergence of Real Time Bidding (RTB) as a platform for buying and selling ad inventory. Barrett cited factors such as enhanced pricing, efficiency, transparency and control of data as reasons for the technology’s growth and said it had the potential to bring billions of additional dollars to the display ad market.
Barrett also introduced the forum’s keynote speaker, Emily Riley, Research Director & Principal Analyst at Forrester, who outlined key findings of a study conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by AdMeld titled “Media Buying Goes Real Time.” The study, which is available for download on AdMeld’s website at http://www.admeld.com/resources, discusses the inefficiencies of current methods of media buying and how improving them can open up new opportunities for companies on both sides of the transaction.
Business Wire, February 04, 2010
NBC Universal Interactive and KickApps, the industry’s first complete Social Software solution today announced a broad licensing agreement including the latest version of the award winning App Studio and recently released Premium Social Video platform.
Expanding on an existing relationship with NBC Local Media, the new agreement includes full access to the KickApps platform for a variety of NBC Universal sites, including a unique socially driven fan site launching from Telemundo in the coming months. Using the KickApps platform will allow NBC Universal to launch increasingly socially integrated site and video features, driving deeper user engagement and interest in their world-class content.
Business Wire, February 04, 2010
NBC Universal Interactive and KickApps, the industry’s first complete Social Software solution today announced a broad licensing agreement including the latest version of the award winning App Studio and recently released Premium Social Video platform.
Expanding on an existing relationship with NBC Local Media, the new agreement includes full access to the KickApps platform for a variety of NBC Universal sites, including a unique socially driven fan site launching from Telemundo in the coming months. Using the KickApps platform will allow NBC Universal to launch increasingly socially integrated site and video features, driving deeper user engagement and interest in their world-class content.
”We’re really excited about the KickApps App Studio- it’s by far the most advanced solution we’ve seen for publishing and managing social media, and it’s going to make a huge difference in our ability to quickly build and launch socially powered sites for our brands,” said Marc Siry, SVP of Digital Products and Services for NBC Universal. “Additionally, their support for the Open Source Media Framework was a key differentiator in our decision to work with KickApps for our premium social video needs- we truly believe it will help us innovate quickly for our brand and advertising partners.”
TechCrunch, February 04, 2010
We recently wrote about the traction that how-to video site and producer Howcast is seeing online. But there’s another information and how-to video startup that is dominating the space: 5min. The company is a syndication platform for instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos, both professionally produced and user-generated. The service’s video library boasts 150,000 of videos across a variety of categories (e.g. food, health, home and garden ), submitted by media companies and independent producers from around the world.
December’s comScore data shows that 5min saw 30.5 million unique viewers, ranking just below Turner Networks (30.6 million unique viewers) and just above AOL (30 million unique viewers). Google saw 136 million unique viewers and Hulu saw 44.2 million unique viewers. 5min ranks as number 14 out of 100 properties in ComScore’s video metrix, according to unique viewers. In terms of videos streamed, 5min saw 75.4 million streams which pales in comparison to Hulu’s 1 billion video streams and Google’s 13.2 billion video streams for the month of December. If 5min was ranked by streams, it would most likely rank lower on the list, as AOL and other video properties had more streams than the startup (AOL saw 210 million streams).
MSN Money, February 01, 2010
Adap.tv, creators of OneSource, the open and universal platform that provides publishers, advertisers and ad networks with a one-stop, end-to-end video ad management platform, today announced the appointment of Toby Gabriner as President.
In this role, Gabriner will be responsible for managing the business development, sales, account management and marketing groups. Most recently, he was President of Tribal Fusion, the digital marketing solutions company owned by Exponential Interactive, Inc.
“Toby’s relationships, leadership and depth of experience in the rapidly evolving online advertising space will be an incredible asset for Adap.tv as we continue to innovate and make video advertising more profitable and less complicated for all parties in the eco-system,“ said Amir Ashkenazi, co-founder and CEO of Adap.tv. “In his new role, Toby will be a key figure in guiding Adap.tv’s market positioning for our core offerings and expansion into new markets.“
Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2010
A new partnership between video-syndication platform company 5minutes Ltd. and health magazine Prevention is betting that consumers will increasingly integrate health and lifestyle content into their daily Web use.
Prevention, which is published by Rodale Inc., is allowing venture-backed 5minutes, known as 5min, to distribute its collection of 700 health videos on topics including fitness, healthy living and lifestyle. 5min will syndicate that content across the Web using technology that enables publishers to automatically match videos with article topics.
The new relationship is aimed at increasing viewership and brand awareness for Prevention, while adding to the 12,000 video health library 5min can tap into to lure publishers and advertisers.
Business Wire, January 14, 2010
AdMeld, the leader in ad network optimization for premium publishers, has announced it will host an invite-only conference on Real Time Bidding (RTB) on February 4, 2010 at the Time Warner Center in New York City. The AdMeld Partner Forum will gather thought leaders and decision makers from across the online advertising space to discuss RTB’s implications for premium publishers and the industry as a whole. Emily Riley of Forrester will deliver the keynote and unveil the findings of a Forrester Consulting study on RTB commissioned by AdMeld. Each attendee will receive a copy of the study.
Other speakers and moderators include Randall Rothenberg, President & CEO of the IAB; Daphne Liska, Senior Advertising Manager, eBay; Darren Herman, Founder & President, Varick Media Management; Jeremy Steinberg, VP Digital Sales and Business Development, FOX News, and John Ebbert, Publisher & Managing Editor of AdExchanger.com. Additional speakers and details will be released in the coming weeks at: http://www.admeld.com/partnerforum.
CNN, January 11, 2010
The Boxee Box, a cubelike device that shares Internet content with your TV, won the annual “Last Gadget Standing” competition Saturday at the International Consumer Electronics Show.
The box narrowly beat out Plastic Logic’s Que e-reader and the Intel Reader, a device that scans printed text and reads it aloud, in the annual product-demonstration contest, which is decided by audience applause.
The Boxee Box plugs into your TV and allows you to search and store Web content, play it on your television and and share it with your friends on social networks via a keyboard in the device’s remote control. The device is scheduled to go on sale this spring and cost about $200.
“It’s truly a game-changer,“ said Boxee marketing vice president Andrew Kippen, who presented the device. “We’re really bringing the creativity of the Web onto your TV screen.“
CNET News, January 08, 2010
Boxee.tv has upgraded its much-discussed software to public beta, and it can be downloaded now for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The Boxee software, which requires a physical cable connection from your computer to your television, allows users to access local and streaming media using their TV and its remote control.
Boxee uses a combination of apps, RSS feeds, and an in-program browser to make most—but not all—streaming media available to its users. In addition, the program supports content that you’ve stored on your hard drive, including photos, music, and videos. Boxee works with most major file formats, including OGG and MKV. There’s a socializing aspect, so that you can comment on and share what you’re watching with your friends, and it hooks into your Facebook and Twitter feeds, too.
The New York Times, January 04, 2010
I can remember when I first thought seriously about Twitter. Last March, I was at the SXSW conference, a conclave in Austin, Tex., where technology, media and music are mashed up and re-imagined, and, not so coincidentally, where Twitter first rolled out in 2007. As someone who was oversubscribed on Facebook, overwhelmed by the computer-generated RSS feeds of news that came flying at me, and swamped by incoming e-mail messages, the last thing I wanted was one more Web-borne intrusion into my life.
In the pantheon of digital nomenclature — brands within a sector of the economy that grew so fast that all the sensible names were quickly taken — it would be hard to come up with a noun more trite than Twitter. It impugns itself, promising something slight and inconsequential, yet another way to make hours disappear and have nothing to show for it. And just in case the noun is not sufficiently indicting, the verb, “to tweet” is even more embarrassing.
TIMES Online, January 04, 2010
ON June 15, our technicians told me to add a note to our website, writes Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter.
The note warned users of a planned maintenance session that meant our service would be inaccessible while we carried out an overdue system upgrade.
Immediately, we began to see a reaction in the form of tweets. Then came the emails. Then came the phone calls. Even the US State Department contacted us. The message was loud and clear: Twitter cannot rest while there is unrest in Iran.
Telecom Tiger, December 24, 2009
Aricent bagged a contract to develop Optical Packet Switch and Transport network platform capable of supporting NGN for Ireland’s Intune Networks.
Aricent says that while IP and Ethernet are changing the overall nature of communications with the convergence of Ethernet and the Transport Network, a significant bottleneck is posed by the stacked network switching equipment and the associated static optical transport interconnects which continue to exist.
According to Aricent its solution helps Intune to address this issue by virtualizing physical networks through a distributed Layer 2 switch, the advantage being that the resultant network design is a highly simplified network with predictability and quality of performance guaranteed. Aircent claims that the solution also delivers up to 75% reduction in power consumption compared to existing designs.
Business Wire, December 24, 2009
AdMeld, the leader in ad network optimisation for premium publishers, today announced the introduction of Real Time Bidding (RTB) capabilities in the United Kingdom. The move allows publishers across Europe to harness the enhanced levels of efficiency, transparency and control that RTB provides. Since launching support for the technology in the US earlier this year, AdMeld has processed more than 6 billion real time bids from a variety of trusted demand partners. The company’s initial RTB partners in the UK are AdJug, AppNexus, Infectious Digital, Invite Media and MediaMath.
“Real Time Bidding is the latest in a series of innovations that are changing the way digital ad inventory is transacted,“ said Michael Barrett, CEO of AdMeld. “We are pleased to lead its introduction into the UK and surrounding region by offering premium publishers the tools they need to generate the most overall revenue while accommodating their unique needs and enforcing their business rules. RTB is one in a suite of technologies AdMeld uses to help publishers worldwide maximise the true value of every ad impression.“
Yahoo!, December 23, 2009
Real-time Web search provider OneRiot on Tuesday announced a new service that will offer developers of Twitter apps, IM clients, and iPhone apps a way to monetize their efforts.
The service, dubbed RiotWise Trending Ads, works by displaying video ad links relating to Twitter’s trending topics. Last September, OneRiot introduced the RiotWise real-time ad network, of which this new service becomes a part.
According to the company, “RiotWise is grounded on the premise that users of real-time Web apps are trying to find out what’s going on right now. Our ads directly match that intent. RiotWise Trending Ads offers another exciting option for developers to monetize their social Web applications.“
TechCrunch, December 23, 2009
We recently wrote about OneRiot’s foray into the advertising world, RiotWise, which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. Because people are becoming more and more interested in realtime search and getting access to information that is going on right now, OneRiot believes in the strong potential of serving relevant ads beside results. Today, the realtime search engine is launching RiotWise Trending Ads, a stream of ads that correspond to trending topics as they emerge across the social web.
RiotWise will match trending topics with display ads that are highly relevant to the same topics within an application such as a Twitter client or iPhone app. OneRiot says the “realtime relevance” results in a higher click through rate on the ads. The system is enabled by OneRiot’s realtime search technology and PulseRank relevancy algorithm.
OneRiot says the Trending Ads offering is a perfect fit for monetizing social web applications such as Twitter apps, IM clients and iPhone apps. The third-party Twitter client option makes particular sense considering how many of these clients ads on its application.
Media Post, December 22, 2009
How-to video network 5min has added a batch of new content partners further expanding its inventory. The Style Network, cable network G4, the Wiley’s “For Dummies” series, and Meredith Corporation will contribute hundreds of videos to start to 5min’s library of more than 100,000 instructional clips.
Here’s what the deals entail more specifically:
The Style Network will offer practical makeover tips and ideas for women from the network’s popular series such as “Clean House,“ “How Do I Look” and “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway.“
Gaming and entertainment-focused network G4 will supply videos covering game reviews and previews, Web culture and live events, among other subjects.
5min will create a branded channel that showcases 120 “For Dummies” videos, as well as distributing programs throughout its network. The videos cover topics ranging from how to hook up a modem to carving a turkey to knitting a scarf.
Media Post, December 22, 2009
How-to video network 5min has added a batch of new content partners further expanding its inventory. The Style Network, cable network G4, the Wiley’s “For Dummies” series, and Meredith Corporation will contribute hundreds of videos to start to 5min’s library of more than 100,000 instructional clips.
Here’s what the deals entail more specifically:
The Style Network will offer practical makeover tips and ideas for women from the network’s popular series such as “Clean House,“ “How Do I Look” and “Whose Wedding Is It Anyway.“
Gaming and entertainment-focused network G4 will supply videos covering game reviews and previews, Web culture and live events, among other subjects.
PRNewswire, December 21, 2009
5min, a media company that operates the largest video syndication platform, was named the number one video startup of 2009 in the NY Video 2009 Top Startup Competition. Originally competing against a pool of more than 100 online video startups, 5min was joined in the final round by second-place finalist KickApps and third-place finalist Kaltura along with Zixi, Popscreen, and Adotube.
The top six finalists were selected by online vote and presented a live demo at the Columbia Business School on Dec. 17. It was then up to the decision of 300 NYVideo.org members in attendance - including industry executives and entrepreneurs within the online video community - who ultimately chose 5min as the overall winner via live SMS vote.
“New York is the online video technology and startup capital of the world,“ said Ran Harnevo, CEO of 5min. “Knowing this, 5min took great strides this year establishing itself as the largest media company for professionally produced lifestyle, instructional and knowledge video content. With our video syndication strategy, the VideoSeed platform technology and high profile partnerships, we shattered all of our 2009 goals. We are honored to be chosen by our online video community peers as the top video startup for 2009.“
The Boston Globe, December 20, 2009
Along with losing 20 pounds, learning to parlare Italiano or sprechen Deutsch is apparently high on the list of New Year’s resolutions for many people.
“Learning a language is kind of like getting a gym membership or a NordicTrack,’’ says Christopher O’Donnell, director of product management for Transparent Language Inc. “Jan. 1 is our biggest sales day of the year. But let’s just say there’s more impetus to start learning a language than to continue doing it.’’
Transparent, based in Nashua, is part of a cluster of companies around New England that aim to reinvigorate how we learn foreign languages, using iPhone applications, Twitter “word-of-the-day’’ messages, Facebook groups, virtual worlds, videos, Web-based games, and speech recognition technology. They’re taking on established giants in language instruction such as Berlitz International Inc. (founded in 1878 in Providence) and Virginia-based Rosetta Stone Inc., which went public earlier this year.
Also part of the language learning cluster are two companies, Woburn-based 8D World Inc. and EnglishCentral Inc. of Lexington, which have raised venture capital for sites that teach English to nonnative speakers in Asia.
As with many businesses mov ing from the physical world to the virtual, there’s a cloud of confusion hovering over price: How much should it cost to become fluent in French? Berlitz charges $499 a year for its eBerlitz Fusion program, introduced last April, which includes online exercises and live group review sessions run by an instructor over the Web. Rosetta Stone, best known for its CD sets sold at mall kiosks and in airports, introduced TOTALe in July. It combines independent exercises, review sessions, and an online community of fellow learners: Unlimited access is $999 per year.
Business Wire, December 16, 2009
KickApps, the industry’s first complete Social Software solution, received the “Best Social Media Platform” Award at the 2009 DPAC Awards (www.dpacawards.com) on December 8, 2009, in New York City. The DPAC Awards honors overall excellence and breakthrough achievement in Digital Publishing and Advertising. The DPAC Awards are presented by DM2, the publishers of digiday:DAILY and the hosts of the DPAC events.
“KickApps has shown us yet again that its innovation and leadership is producing a best-in-class solution for the publishers, advertisers and brands,“ said Nick Friese, CEO of DM2 Media. “When our judges reviewed the entries, KickApps stood out as the clear winner because of its innovative products, position in the market, and vision for where social media, online publishing and advertising come together. Congratulations to everyone at KickApps for this achievement and I look forward to seeing more great things from the company in 2010.“
Boston Business Journal, December 11, 2009
Todd Dagres of Spark Capital decided that to be the best investor he could be in the frothy market where entertainment and media meet technology, he would need a crash course in the entertainment side. So he became a Hollywood producer.
That was after his stint as a general partner at Waltham-based Battery Ventures, where he famously led that firm’s investment in Akamai Technologies Inc., the Cambridge-based content delivery network company that speeds up media across the Internet. When Akamai went public, Battery saw a tremendous return on its investment.
“I got involved early on with those guys and did the first round,” Dagres said. “That was several hundred million dollars return on a $12 million investment.”
The New York Times, December 10, 2009
Generally, when people look for money managers to help them invest their savings, they are limited to hiring people who do that professionally.
But there are many people who invest as a hobby, and some of them are quite good. A start-up called Covestor is making it possible for people to use them as money managers instead of the professionals.
“In the last few years, the world has really flattened, and investors have the same access and tools as pros, but I can’t invest alongside them,” said Perry Blacher, Covestor’s chief executive. “I have to invest alongside someone who gets paid fees whether or not he does a good job.” Covestor changes that by letting people choose whose investment model they want to follow, he said.
Here’s how it works. Covestor, which was founded in 2006, has always let investors post their portfolios so other people could view them and copy their trades, and 25,000 investors have done so. Now, customers can open a brokerage account with either Interactive Brokers or TD Ameritrade and link their account to Covestor. Then, any time one of the investors they choose to follow makes a trade, the same trade is automatically made in their own account.
TechCrunch, December 09, 2009
MySpace is today launching a brand new suite of APIs that will allow third-party developers to tap oodles of data that gets published on the social network, in real-time, on the fly. MySpace COO Mike Jones debuted the new set of APIs on stage at the Le Web conference this morning, showcasing some initial services from launch partners.
The most important one to debut today is the Real-Time Stream API, which allows the full MySpace activity stream to be pushed to third-party websites and apps in, yes, real time. The API includes granular filters that allows developers that leverage it to exercise full control over the amount of data that gets pushed out.
Google and realtime search company OneRiot are two launch partners that will be tapping MySpace’s fresh Stream API, enabling the search behemoth and startup to suck in data like status updates, music, videos, photos and more for inclusion in its search results.
Venture Beat, December 09, 2009
Covestor, a startup that lets people mimic other investors’ moves, is opening its doors and allowing anyone to become a portfolio manager on its investment management service. It will create many more investment options on the site for Covestor members; previously there were only 25 models that users could follow.
Becoming a manager on the site is contingent on a few conditions: you have to disclose all your real brokerage moves and share a year of performance history. Managers on Covestor can attract others to “follow” and copy their trades, while earning fees based on how many people track them or the total value of the assets they guide.
“We’re trying to bring the principles and practices of the Internet to finance and allow clients to pick what’s most appropriate for them,” said co-founder Perry Blacher. “As long as you’re willing to share your real investment activity and be transparent, then we’ll set you up with a level playing field.”
Business Wire, December 07, 2009
AdMeld, the leader in ad network optimization for premium publishers, today announced it is integrating support for mobile ad inventory into its platform. The solution applies AdMeld’s real time revenue maximization technology to the mobile space, offering premium publishers a single platform for optimizing their ad inventory across multiple channels and through dozens of demand sources. Currently undergoing beta testing, the combined product will be available to select AdMeld customers in Q1 of 2010.
“Adding mobile capabilities to our platform is a natural extension of our objective, which is to ensure publishers get the most possible value from their ad inventory,” said Michael Barrett, CEO of AdMeld. “The explosion of the iPhone and Android platforms has increased the amount of under-monetized inventory in the marketplace, and that curve that will continue to steepen over the next several years. Publishers need tools to optimize every discretionary impression, and AdMeld’s proud to offer the first such solution addressing this need across both web display and mobile channels.”
Today more than 130 of the world’s top online publishers use AdMeld’s technology to increase ad revenues and reduce operating costs, including Answers.com, AccuWeather, Discovery Communications, FOX News, Hearst Television, IAC, New York Post, and World Wrestling Entertainment®. For AdMeld’s trusted network and demand partners, the platform provides access to quality audiences totaling more than 150 million unique users in the US and 270 million unique users worldwide, according to Quantcast.
LA Times, December 07, 2009
Boxee unveiled plans at an event in New York tonight for the next generation of its Web TV software and the first steps of a strategy for invading the set-top box arena.
Details of what’s being called the Boxee Box are still trickling out of the sold-out Beta Unveiling event at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, which has taken 1,880 RSVPs. We’ll update the post as we learn more.
Boxee Chief Executive Avner Ronen gave The Times a brief rundown last week on the company’s plans for infiltrating the hardware business as well as a preview of the beta version of the Boxee software, which will be available to a limited number of testers this month and to everyone in January.
Contrary to initial speculation, there is no official Boxee Box. The new device is being developed in partnership with a third party, and Boxee expects to strike several more of those deals with other manufacturers next year. Boxee doesn’t charge hardware makers to install the software on its devices.
Ronen had his ideal specification list for the first set-top box to ship with Boxee—1080P high-def support, an HDMI TV connection and a price tag of less than $200.
Mashable, December 02, 2009
Boxee, the media center with a social twist, will be launching its public beta on December 7 — which is great news for those of us who have been using the service since the very early alpha days on our Apple TVs or Macs.
Even before Boxee enters its official beta, the service will continue to expand its content-partner offerings. In October, Anime portal Crunchyroll joined Boxee, and today another commercial partner joins the mix: an entertainment source called Crackle.
Crackle is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment and has a great backlog of movies, TV shows and original content. The partnership between the two content sources will garner Boxee 49 different TV show miniepisodes and 37 original Web shows.
Mashable, December 02, 2009
Boxee, the media center with a social twist, will be launching its public beta on December 7 — which is great news for those of us who have been using the service since the very early alpha days on our Apple TVs or Macs.
Even before Boxee() enters its official beta, the service will continue to expand its content-partner offerings. In October, Anime portal Crunchyroll joined Boxee, and today another commercial partner joins the mix: an entertainment source called Crackle.
Crackle() is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment and has a great backlog of movies, TV shows and original content. The partnership between the two content sources will garner Boxee 49 different TV show miniepisodes and 37 original Web shows.
PRESS RELEASE, November 18, 2009
IPWireless, a leading provider of 3GPP technology for new applications and markets, today announced that it has secured $15.5 million in Series A funding. Spark Capital of Boston, Massachusetts, led the transaction. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate sales of its unique 3GPP based mobile broadband and broadcast solutions into both the government and commercial markets.
“Securing over $15 million in financing during these turbulent financial times speaks to our solid business model, our proven team, and the tremendous growth opportunities that our unique platform and capabilities continue to create,” said Dr. Bill Jones, CEO of IPWireless. “3GPP standards are unequivocally the leading global solution for wireless carriers. However, while the large wireless vendors continue to focus on mainstream spectrum bands and traditional markets for their 3GPP solutions, IPWireless is expanding the benefits of this leading standard into untapped spectrum bands and opening the door to a new generation of mobile applications, devices, and ecosystems looking to capitalize on the explosive wireless market.”
Santo Politi, General Partner at Spark Capital commented, “I’ve been following IPWireless for several years and have always been impressed with their superior technology. They have a unique ability to deliver innovative mobile solutions that open new markets for tier one carriers and change the way government entities, like New York City, improve public safety and operate more efficiently using wireless broadband. IPWireless is a company that has already delivered on their promise and, going forward, they have the potential to break a number of exciting new markets wide open.”
Ad Ops, November 17, 2009
AdMeld, the leader in ad network optimization for premium publishers, announced it has processed more than a billion API-based real-time bids on behalf of its customers. The results provide an encouraging view into how this much-talked-about technology performs in practice, delivering increased value to publishers and buyers and greater levels of efficiency and transparency across the board.
“The data we’ve collected on the way to reaching this milestone has affirmed our best hopes for RTB,” said Michael Barrett, CEO of AdMeld. “The technology provides significant benefits to parties on both sides of the transaction, and it’s clearly on a path for accelerated adoption across the industry in 2010.”