The latest from TechCrunch
- Kabbage Gives eBay Sellers Working Capital Through PayPal To Grow Their Businesses
- Ustream Cuts 4.5% Of Its Staff
- Keen On… Jeff Jonas: Big Data is the Next Big Thing (TCTV)
- Comcast Reports Drop in Cable Subscribers; Blames Economy
- It's A Location Turf War As Google Rolls Out Place Search
- Spotify Looking For A COO, Still Hoping For U.S. Launch This Year
- Intel And Another 70 Companies Launch Cloud 2015 Open Data Center Alliance
- Borders' Kobo Adds Newspaper, Magazine Subscriptions
- Canada Gets Real About Seed Investing With New $45 Million Fund
| Kabbage Gives eBay Sellers Working Capital Through PayPal To Grow Their Businesses | Top |
| Many sellers on sites like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon have created profitable small businesses out of opening up online storefronts on these e-commerce platforms. But these storefronts aren’t conventionally considered small businesses by the financial community and it can be difficult for them to raise working capital from banks. Kabbage is entering the space as a way for online merchants and sellers on eBay and Amazon to get capital they otherwise wouldn’t qualify for at a bank. Kabbage uses technology to analyze online merchants’ sales and credit history; customer traffic and reviews; and prices and inventory compared to competitors. Via PayPal’s Adaptive Payments API, Kabbage will make cash advances available to eBay and other online marketplace sellers fairly quickly (Kabbage says that many transactions take as little has ten minutes). Kabbage makes money off of fees charged to merchants for the working capital. Fees depend on how long the online merchant keeps the capital (6 month maximum) and the customer’s repayment risk. Rates range from 6 percent to 16 percent of the original advance amount. While the startup only supports eBay for now, Kabbage, which has raised $2 million in funding, plans to extend its services to Amazon and Etsy sellers in the near future. It actually seems like a pretty good idea, that is, as long as sellers continue to pay Kabbage back. CrunchBase Information Kabbage Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Ustream Cuts 4.5% Of Its Staff | Top |
| We’ve gotten word this morning that online streaming video service Ustream has laid off 9 people from its 200 person staff. With social news site Digg having other notable layoffs this week, it’s crucial to remember that startups often shed staff when going through product and business goal realignments. This is also the case here according to Ustream VP of Communications Lynn Fox. “This is about us looking forward, we are totally pumped about our future and this is a way to get ourselves conditioned to meet our goals.” said Fox Ustream, which has $87.8 million in funding, just launched its own Open Pay Per View and Ad Free Broadcasting services . The startup also recently made some key hires , including Fox, in order to better adapt to the changing landscape of online video. While Ustream wouldn’t reveal what exact positions were laid off, if any former Ustreamers are looking for a job, there are plenty to be had here. CrunchBase Information Ustream Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Keen On… Jeff Jonas: Big Data is the Next Big Thing (TCTV) | Top |
| It's hard to have metaphysical conversations in the technology game. Most of chat – even with techno-evangelists and social media utopians – is disappointingly mundane. But once-in-a-while, one comes across an exceptional individual who thinks so deeply about technology that he makes it seem profound, even other-worldly. Officially, Jeff Jonas is the chief scientist of the IBM Entity Analytics group and an IBM Distinguished Engineer. Less officially, he is a Las Vegas based ironman triathlete who is paid by IBM to think deep thoughts about data. If intelligent machines could talk, perhaps they would speak like Jonas – elliptically, enigmatically, but with a depth and wisdom that is all too rare in our always-on world of continuous updates and partial attention spans. How ironic, then, that Jonas should be an expert on this always-on world of data overload. He is IBM's resident genius on data – it's his job to bring sense to a seemingly senseless world that is spewing out more and more data. So listen carefully to what Jonas says. Part shaman, part showman, there is something irresistible about the rigor and intensity of his thinking. What is data? Why more data makes us more ignorant Why big data is the next big thing How data makes us average Why the future is irresistible CrunchBase Information Jeff Jonas Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Comcast Reports Drop in Cable Subscribers; Blames Economy | Top |
| In a post this weekend, I wrote about how the cable tv industry was finally stepping towards the cliff. And we’d learn more today when Comcast , the largest U.S. cable operator, reported earnings. Well, the numbers are out, and it’s not a surprise. 275,000 Comcast subscribers cut the cord last quarter. Its subscriber count is down 3.5% from the same quarter last year. To be fair, some of that loss was offset by a gain in 219,000 digital cable subs. Revenue was up as customers bought higher priced bundles of tv, internet and phone service. During the earnings call, Comcast blamed the drop on the lousy economy. Always a handy excuse. Sure, many people are struggling right now, and it makes sense that the high cost of cable is an expense they can no longer afford. Comcast said, based on exit interviews, only a ‘ small number ‘ seemed to cut the cord for over-the-air signals, and they are not planning to switch to internet tv alternatives. Comcast’s exit interviews run counter to other reports. MediaMall Technologies , maker of PlayOn , digital media server software that let’s you watch over-the-top video on TV, says 30% of it’s customers have canceled cable after using its box. Perhaps they weren’t Comcast customers? MediaMall Technologies estimates its customer base saves $24 million a year in cable fees. Boxee’s CEO made the point on CNBC yesterday that his box won’t necessarily lead to cord cutting. “Instead, it will usher in a generation of people that never get cable.” He predicts with Boxee, they won’t see the point in cable, just like young people don’t see the point in a landline phone. The CEO of Verizon , Ivan Seidenberg made the same point last month, saying young people are “not going to pay for something they don’t need to.” He also says “over the top is going to be a pretty big issue for cable.” Another company to keep an eye on is Clicker . It launched a year ago at TechCrunch50 . Clicker bills itself as “the simple way to find, share and watch TV online.” Many viewers agree, based on feedback to my earlier post. And one more thing. No, not Apple. Actually Yahoo . You don’t hear much about new products at Yahoo. It took the tech community 20 hours to notice Yahoo Mail’s first redesign in five years. But, 600 million user strong Yahoo has a product called Yahoo Connected TV , which gets you access to movies, tv shows, and other web services. It’s already built into TV’s from Samsung, Sony, LG, Vizio, and Toshiba. Crunchgear reviewed it last year. I haven’t even touched on mobile and DVRs vs Live. Maybe a future post. But, you can’t tell me cable tv is not an industry being disrupted. Not overnight, but now live on tv. CrunchBase Information Comcast Boxee PlayOn Clicker Yahoo! Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| It's A Location Turf War As Google Rolls Out Place Search | Top |
| Back in April, we noted that Google was about to escalate the so-called “location wars” by reworking and rebranding their Locale Business Center as Google Places. They’ve since done a lot of work on improving the area (despite an on-again / off-again war with Yelp over results) and they’re clearly feeling good about it. How do I know? Because starting today, they’re going to add Place results to Google Search in a major way. Place Search will now reside on Google.com when you’re doing a search that Google believes is attempting to discover a location. And it will also have a home in the left toolbar (you know, where “Images”, “Videos”, “Shopping”, etc reside) as “Places”, which a user can click on to just get location results. In their blog post, Google notes : One of the great things about our approach is that it makes it easier to find a comprehensive view of each place. In our new layout you'll find many more relevant links on a single results page—often 30 or 40. Instead of doing eight or 10 searches, often you'll get to the sites you're looking for with just one search. In our testing Place Search saves people an average of two seconds on searches for local information. While it’s in the process of rolling out, you can use this link to see what it will look like. As you can see, a search for “Chicago museums” will bring up seven or so museums place pages it believes you may be looking for. If you want more of these place suggestions, you can click on the “more results” link at the bottom of the seven. Or you can click on the Places left sidebar item. The big question, of course, is what this means for all of Google’s competitors also in the location space? You’ll note that Google rather prominently links to results from sources of place information like Yelp and CitySearch, so some of them could actually benefit from this new style of result. Still, many of them will no longer be the number one result for specific place searches. That could hurt. That said, this new layout should be much easier for people doing the actual searches to parse and find what they’re looking for. For their part, Google should make a killing on the sponsored links related to place searches. As you can see below, they’re already populating a ton of these right below the all-important map on the right side. Many place results have sponsored links along the top as well. CrunchBase Information Google Places Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Spotify Looking For A COO, Still Hoping For U.S. Launch This Year | Top |
| Music streaming service Spotify has retained executive search firm Odgers Berndtson to assist them in finding a chief operating officer as the number two executive after founder Daniel Ek . A number of candidates, particularly in Silicon Valley, have been contacted for the job. Our first source on this story said that Spotify was actually looking for a new CEO to replace Ek. But Ek says this is inaccurate. “We’re looking for a COO to help run the company,” he said by phone this morning. I also spoke with Ek about the story I wrote yesterday about acquisition attention from Google and Apple. Ek says Spotify has had absolutely no acquisition discussions with Apple at all, ever. “We don’t want to sell, we are here for the long term,” he said. On the Google story he was less forthcoming, saying only that the story wasn’t correct in its entirety. “Google is a great partner,” he said. I also asked Ek, since I had him on the phone, about Spotify’s U.S. launch plans. The company has been talking about a U.S. launch for well over a year, but it hasn’t happened yet. The complications appear to be over their very strong desire to offer a free version of the service here, as they do in Europe. Ek says that discussions with labels are ongoing, and that he still “hopes for a U.S. launch this year.” CrunchBase Information Spotify Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Intel And Another 70 Companies Launch Cloud 2015 Open Data Center Alliance | Top |
| Today at a press event in San Francisco, Intel and a group of 70 companies announced an alliance to build a system of open standards for cloud computing. Part of the Cloud 2015 initiative, The Open Data Center Alliance makes it easier for customers to deploy cloud computing solutions, as it focuses on interoperability, flexibility and unifying industry standards. The Open Data Center Alliance will represent more than $50 billion in annual IT investment. Intel, which powers 9 out 10 of the servers for the cloud today, will be a technical advisor and non voting member in the alliance. The companies involved are cross-vertical including Lockheed Martin, Marriott International, BMW and JP Morgan Chase, joining together with Intel towards the ultimate endgoal of simplified virtual computing. While Google, Amazon Yahoo are missing from the list, Intel commented that membership is still open, “There’s a lot of people still in the pipeline. We’re adding people by the minute.” Grappling with the fact that there will be another one billion people and another 15 billion devices on the Internet in 2015, the Cloud 2015 vision to simplify virtual computing is three pronged: Federated (so clients can better and more securely share data), automated (more efficiency in moving data), and “client-aware” (a cloud API that is device aware, taking into account whether a user is on a phone or a laptop). Intel executives emphasized that communication between the players will be key in achieving the initiative’s goals of decreased IT spending and increased effiency. “The Open Center Alliance is way to create and unify the voice of cloud consumers and cloud users, using usage models as a way to specify requirements. We’ve never seen this approach before.” said Intel representative Billy Cox. From the hardware side, Intel also announced an expansion of its Cloud Builders program, which allows companies like Citrix, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp and VMware to provide solutions for many of the issues brought up by the alliance and the usage model roadmap. CrunchBase Information Intel Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Borders' Kobo Adds Newspaper, Magazine Subscriptions | Top |
| Want an alternative to the Amazon Kindle / Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader duopoly? Borders’ Kobo is always a choice, and now there’s word that you can newspapers and magazines on there, "there" being the Kobo Wireless eReader device as well as the iOS Apps. | |
| Canada Gets Real About Seed Investing With New $45 Million Fund | Top |
| If you need more proof that seed investing is taking over the world, just look up north to Canada. Three years ago, a group of angels started Montreal Startup, a $5 million seed fund. This week, they are launching their second, $45 million fund under a new name, Real Ventures . It will invest in startups across Canada from Montreal to Vancouver, but mostly within 250 kilometers of Montreal where most of the partners are based. The partners include serial entrepreneur Austin Hill , John Stokes , and Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer , Daniel Drouet, Alan MacIntosh , and Mark MacLeod . The fund will invest in web, mobile, software, digital media, social and casual gaming startups. A $45 million fund is small by venture capital standards, but it is actually quite large for a seed fund. New York City’s Founder Collective , for instance, is a $40 million fund. The more seed capital gets spread across different pockets of entrepreneurship, the more chance there will be for new startup hubs to grow or feed into the bigger hubs in California and, increasingly, New York. You can learn more about Real Ventures and its investing philosophy in this blog post . CrunchBase Information Real Ventures Montreal Start Up Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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