April | 2011 | Social Networking and New Markets

Still worried about your location data – think about funding Foursquare

April 24, 2011 2 Comments

Image representing Dennis Crowley as depicted ...

Image by DennisCrowley.com via CrunchBase

This is not to ridicule the outcry against Apple and Google tracking their users’ locations (after all, Apple is also adding cloud based video services and the iPhone 5 may be much faster) but the location based services and local services like Groupon and the Google afterthought in the field are set to burn up the competition and create a mass momentum that may in fact propel a new set of social media and brand services that make it impossible to serve the customer without meaningful location data. This latter solution may even be preferred by those in the building that are entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses and trading outfits like food stalls, pizza companies that are really benefiting from the social media visibility of their brands/businesses. Meanwhile Google is probably depending on location services as it scales Latam business to twice its size this year (just 2-3% of GOOG revenue)

As of now, four square is about to hit the $5 billion valuation soon as the pe funding round envisaged by 4sq looks at pricing it for $500 million.

In the latest sign of the Internet gold rush, location-based service Foursquare Labs Inc. is looking to raise fresh funds at a price that would value the three-year-old start-up at as much as $500 million, people familiar with the matter said.

That valuation could be a stretch for Foursquare, which gives users the ability to get deals or connect with friends by “checking in” wherever they are, but so far pulls in little revenue, the people said.

Chief Executive Dennis Crowley is leading the effort and would like to raise $20 million to $40 million

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703387904576279380019110022.html#ixzz1KRQ3hKVh

Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Why Foursquare needs another round of funding (venturebeat.com)
Will Kleiner Perkins Fund Foursquare Now That Pelago Is Gone? (businessinsider.com)
Why did Foursquare executives just check in at Apple Inc? (9to5mac.com)
Ask Maggie: iPhone 5 rumors and iPhone-tracking woes (news.cnet.com)
SimpleGeo Makes Location Data Free, Complicates Smartphone Tracking Worries (fastcompany.com)
Foursquare Seeks New Fund Raising at $500 Million Valuation [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)
Foursquare Upgrades Its Business Tools With New Specials, Better Analytics (e1evation.com)
The Games Businesses Play with Customers (briansolis.com)

Filed under Digital Media, Facebook, Lifestyle Brands, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter Tagged with Apple, Business, Dennis Crowley, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, Social Media, Twitter

iPad vs Kindle: The Kindle finds a content niche

April 20, 2011 1 Comment

Image via Wikipedia

Apple created revenues of $4.53 billion from the iPad in the quarter gone by and probably closer to $10 billion in the 4 quarters to come, the iPad is now busy on reviewing its design and the product margin , incl competition from Component suppliers Samsung and even RIM where the iPhone and iPad continue to together create a new space in global professionals looking for a sleek companion

Kindle, however, has introduced design changes more on the user interface, with Ad supported $100 Kindle a cute and worthy competition to all the noise in the tablet market esp as Amazon and Netflix models have a local captive audience which is not experimenting anymore. It has just gone ahead of your wildest imagination in terms of the catalog available on your Kindle with support from 67% of the libraries in the United States whose books are now available on rent on your Kindle. That I think is true market development from both competitors

Please respect FT.com’s ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article – http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b8c840c6-6b75-11e0-a53e-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1K7fZ6GKz

Published: April 20 2011 19:22 | Last updated: April 20 2011 23:50

Amazon will let users of its Kindle e-reader borrow electronic books from two-thirds of US libraries as it seeks to broaden the device’s appeal in the face of competition from Apple’s iPad and rival tablets.

The world’s largest online retailer said that from later this year, customers would be able to borrow e-books from libraries and read – and annotate – them on a Kindle or any other device to which users have downloaded a Kindle app.

Image representing iPad as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Amazon to lend Kindle books at 11,000 US libraries (go.theregister.com)
Amazon announces library lending for Kindle (zdnet.com)
Library E-Books Coming to the Kindle (abcnews.go.com)
Pattern Recognition ” Blog Archive ” Kindle Library Lending (jasongriffey.net)

Filed under Lifestyle Brands, Social Media Tagged with Amazon Kindle, Apple, E-book, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Netflix, United States

Another one bites..the paywall | Advantage social

April 10, 2011 1 Comment

Content on the web, led by business news and analysis suffered another depletion in its ranks with the NY Times hitting the paywall method to generate subscription revenue. While notable by its unpopularness and its capacity to remove creme de la creme brand loyalists and serious consumers off the sites like WSJ, FT and NYTimes, the method is the only source of revenue anyone in content has come up with. Most like the Kindle and iPad still rely on the free content from across the World Wide Web, as also yours truly to create and survive our own brand and content. End of the road for serious browsing? Well, most of the magazine content in all 3 cases is available thru Facebook, Twitter and Google so I don’t even now if they should have tried it. We are not trying the paywall as it still looks like a readymade failure to us.

But that does not mean we have found a way to fill the revenue gap, right! And a payment of just $180 million for Adriana Huffington’s effort..I know where this one is headed..

And by the way all known business and daily newspapers in the UK and the US behind a paywall… nary a subscriber run, just the same owner, mostly!! And print editions have already lost steam no end.