The latest from TechCrunch
- Jack Dorsey Shares Some Big Square Numbers: 341,688 Readers Shipped, $137M Total Flow
- Strike A Pose, 'Cause Online Point Of Sale Systems Are The New Vogue
- The Creepiest Royal Wedding Photo Ever, Courtesy Of Color
- When Will Microsoft's Internet Bloodbath End?
- Speaking of… sex toys with Ethan Imboden from Jimmyjane [TCTV]
- Sequoia-Backed Milanoo Appears To Be Gaming Search Results With Link Spam
| Jack Dorsey Shares Some Big Square Numbers: 341,688 Readers Shipped, $137M Total Flow | Top |
| Square founder and CEO Jack Dorsey just tweeted a photo of the company’s internal dashboard, and, aside from looking very sexy, it’s boasting some impressive numbers. Among them: Square has shipped 341,688 of its card readers to date and has 332,483 activated users. As Dorsey’s tweet points out, Square is also showing some very impressive growth: on March 2, Square was processing $1 million per day. Now, less than two months later, it’s doubled that, with $2 million in processed payments today alone (and there’s still some time left on the clock). Other stats on the dashboard: Square’s total flow to date, which I believe means the total amount of transactions it’s done, is just shy of $137 million. Its revenue for today is $59,390, a 40% increase since last Friday. It’s unclear what drove the huge gain over last week — perhaps Square’s availability in Apple retail stores is contributing to the growth spurt. Update : More stats — it’s a little hard to read, but it looks like Square might have 23,630 ‘Card Payments’ (which might be the number of transactions today). It also looks like they had 9,078 active users today (again, it’s a little hard to make out). I’ve included an image that has gone through our special CSI:Enhance filter below. CrunchBase Information Square Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Strike A Pose, 'Cause Online Point Of Sale Systems Are The New Vogue | Top |
| If you’ve ever worked in retail or the food services industry, you’re probably familiar with the Point of Sale (POS) system. It’s the software/hardware combination that most people would probably call a cash register, though there’s more to it than that: inventory tracking, coupons, exchanges, and pretty much everything else is done using one of these POS systems. And they’re often a total pain, with myriad options and interfaces that sometimes harken back to the Windows 3.1 days. Pose is one company (among many) that’s trying to fix the POS. And instead of relying on a new hardware device, they’re turning to one you already have: your web-connected computer. Everything on Pose is web-based, so you can easily set up a new terminal if one computer starts malfunctioning, and setup is obviously cheap because you probably don’t have anything to buy. I spoke with CEO Guy Marcus earlier this week, who walked me through a demo of the product. As with other POS systems, you can enter products manually or using a USB barcode scanner. You can then flip into the cashier interface, where you can input what the customer is purchasing by tapping on photos or, again, using a USB scanner. Pose isn’t available to the public quite yet (they’re aiming for a June release), but from what I saw it looked solid — they’re putting a lot of work into making the interface usable and attractive. It’s also optimized for both desktop and tablet use. Businesses will pay for the web-based software as a monthly subscription. Pose isn’t the first company to have this idea — competitors include Erply , VendHQ , and MerchantOS . But Marcus says that his company differs from the others because it also integrates marketing functionality — customers can opt to provide their email addresses to receive receipts and future correspondence from the business. Pose will also allow merchants to generate an online storefront (it uses the same inventory as your retail database) in a matter of minutes. Merchants are still responsible for actually shipping these goods, though. I also asked if Marcus saw Square —which has an iPad app that can be used to tally up a customer’s purchases — as a competitor. He says that he doesn’t think Square will be offering a deep inventory management system any time soon, and that he sees the payments company as more of a potential partner. Pose’s four-person team is based in Israel. The company has raised $300K. Disclosure: Roi Carthy, who sometimes submits articles from Israel, has invested in Pose through his VC fund. Roi isn’t a TechCrunch employee. | |
| The Creepiest Royal Wedding Photo Ever, Courtesy Of Color | Top |
| Well, the Royal Wedding is over. Wasn’t that wonderful? If you weren’t watching on TV, there were about a million ways to participate online . Millions watched on YouTube, Livestream and elsewhere. And even those who were there uploaded their own photos and videos, including this guy. I’ll call him the masked Union Jack freak. Is that some sort of S&M suit he’s wearing? It doesn’t seem proper juxtaposed with the royal newlyweds. You can find pictures of him on a special Color Royal Wedding Album created by people using the iPhone social camera app and sponsored by the British paper, The Telegraph. You remember Color, the $41 million photo app that created a huge backlash in the press and some confusion among consumers about exactly how to use the app. Yeah, well, even with the Telegraph pushing the app as some sort of crowd-sourced photo collage, only about 560 photos were uploaded to the album, and none of them are terribly interesting. But I guess you had to be there. CrunchBase Information Color Labs Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| When Will Microsoft's Internet Bloodbath End? | Top |
| “Online Services Division revenue grew 14% year-over-year primarily driven by increases in search revenue.” That was Microsoft’s statement about the Online Services Division in their earnings release yesterday. Growth! Yippee! The strategy is working! Right? Wrong. What they don’t bother to mention in the release, but they can’t hide in the actual numbers, is just how bad the quarter actually was for the division. While revenue may have grown a bit year over year, income — as in the money you actually get to keep — was an entirely different story. It was a bloodbath, really. Yes, again. Microsoft lost $726 million in the Online Services Division for the quarter. It was actually their worst quarter in two years in that regard. And it was their second worst ever, as Business Insider points out in their nifty chart perfect for showing such bloodbaths. And despite the year over year revenue growth, the income was actually down year over year. As in, they managed to lose more money despite bringing in more. As in, the statement up top is total misdirection bullshit. And how’s this for a kick in the pants: if Microsoft had just scrapped their Online Services Division for the quarter, they likely would have beaten Apple in terms of profits once again. Instead, they’re over $700 million behind — behind, mind you, for the first time in a couple decades. Of course, Microsoft can’t afford to scrap the Online Services Division (well, figuratively afford it, at least). Like every technology company, they know this is the key to the future. And that’s precisely why they’re dumping so much money into it. But it that strategy actually working? Revenue is growing, but losses are mounting. Microsoft is having to spend $2 to make $1 — actually a bit worse than that ratio! Last October, I wrote that Microsoft was running basically the worst Internet startup ever . This pissed a lot of people off, who thought the comparison was unfair. After all, Microsoft can afford to burn the money. That’s true, the quarter overall was fairly good for them (though the stock took a nosedive today because it wasn’t good enough). But if the two pillars of their business, Windows and Office, start to slip (as just about everyone believes they will sooner or later as we move into an increasingly mobile world of computing), these Online Services losses are going to become a big, big problem. Fast. Maybe Microsoft can figure it out before that happens. But there’s just absolutely no data pointing in that direction right now. And there hasn’t been in the past six years . In fact, the numbers are actually getting worse! After a nightmare Q3 and Q4 in 2010 (fiscal, not the actual calendar quarters) with Online Services loses right around $700 million, it looked like Microsoft may be turning things around with loses of “only” around $550 million in Q1 and Q2 of 2011. But if you look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that those Q1 and Q2 loses were actually worse year over year. If you simply extrapolated that out, you should have been able to predict this quarter’s bloodbath as well. In the past year, Microsoft has now lost a staggering $2.5 billion in the Online Services Division. Think about that for a second. When I wrote the October post, the loss runrate was “only” $2 billion. The situation is getting worse. And so I ask, how long can this bloodbath last? When will it end? Or maybe more to the point: will it end? All the data we have right now points to a pretty definitive “no”. [image: New Lines Cinemas] CrunchBase Information Microsoft Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| Speaking of… sex toys with Ethan Imboden from Jimmyjane [TCTV] | Top |
| Vibrating sex toys have been around for over a century, starting out as crude steam powered devices and now resembling something very cool that you might pick up at an Apple store. Sex toys have been the source of giggles, controversy, pleasure and up until the last 5 years, were not a mainstream product. They were devices you bought and had shipped in unmarked brown packaging or slipped into a toy store late at night to buy, but were not something you’d ever imagine picking up at Nordstrom or your local Wal-Mart . Millions of men and women use them every day and yet, it isn’t something we talk about much. Considering there’s a lot of tech that go into these devices these days, I think it is a topic worth exploring and definitely something we should no longer be ashamed of. Today’s episode of Speaking Of covers the journey of an amazingly brave entrepreneur, Ethan Imboden , Chairman of Jimmyjane , who set out to design something meaningful that would change people’s lives. He’s not the first to create a stigma free product. Many cool products have been sold in stores like Good Vibrations for years, but he’s the first to bring a safe, non-toxic, sexy, virtually stigma free brand to the mainstream market. His efforts were what I consider truly disruptive and changed the landscape for the availability of pleasure toys for consumers everywhere. I’ll never forget the day I saw one of his products in a local lingerie store and how I started stumbling into them at mainstream stores everywhere. Seeing these products available to people in comfortable settings brought me so much joy and I’m excited to be able to share his journey into creating such a wonderful product with all of you. Ethan shares his journey of starting out as an electrical engineer, becoming a designer for Herman Miller and how he was encouraged to start revolutionizing the sex toy space. We learn about him as a DJ, world-traveler and the fact that his arch nemesis designer was the guy who designed Swingline staplers. At the end of the episode, we get a tour of some of his products that are quite stimulating to look at and at the time of the interview, he hinted at the launch of their new Form 4 product, which is now available . We have one product giveaway for commenters. Best, most insightful comment on the sex toy industry wins one of Jimmyjane’s awesome products that they gave to us in the studio. The deadline is Sunday 6pm PT. You must be 18 years old to win. Ethan Imboden – Photo credit: Laist.com | |
| Sequoia-Backed Milanoo Appears To Be Gaming Search Results With Link Spam | Top |
| As we saw from retailer JC Penney’s recent downfall in search rankings, using ‘ black hat’ SEO tactics and gaming search is considered deceptive and ‘tantamount to cheating’ by Google. J.C. Penney said that it had no idea that this was happening and fired its SEM agency right away. But the retailer’s search ranking had already been “adjusted” by Google, and the damage was done. These sort of situations are considered deceitful by many in the search industry (including Google) and generally cast a malevolent cloud over a company’s search tactics. So, it’s surprising to find that a Sequoia Capital -backed Chinese startup, called Milanoo , appears to be gaming Google search results with these same black hat links spam tactics. Milanoo, a China-based online retailer and wholesaler with a "passion for fashion," is an ecommerce company serves customers with fashion apparel and related products in over 180 countries around the world, in seven languages (including English, Spanish and French). Launched in 2008, the startup just raised “millions of dollars” from Sequoia. According Digital Due Diligence, a small agency that provides in-depth investment research into online assets of companies; Milanoo has been caught using similar tactics as J.C. Penney. Here’s what Digital Due Diligence found: For a number of very valuable keywords in Google search,, Here’s how Milanoo ranks for "cheap dresses" (position 2), "evening gown" (1), "cheap wedding dresses" (1), and "summer dresses" (2). Digital Due Diligence partner Doug Pierce (who also served as an expert in the New York Times J.C. Penney expose), writes that those four keywords alone have an equivalent cost of nearly $200,000 per month in Google AdWords. It’s a red flag, explains Pierce’s fellow partner Byrne Hobart, when a search for evening gown or summer dress results with Milanoo as the second highest result as opposed to a major retail brand, like Macy’s Saks, Dillards, the Gap etc. In full disclosure, I am an avid online shopper and despite the company being in operation for three years, had never heard of Milanoo until it was covered on a TechCrunch a few weeks ago. So it is a little surprising to see that the site is listed as the second result in a search for the term “evening gown” under Bluefly, a site which I frequently visit. This could indicate that Milanoo may be paying for spam and links to boost their ranking, which Google considers to be deceptive. Basically, Google’s algorithm considers and counts ingoing links to pages as a way to determine search rank. The more links a website collects, the higher it could rank. Google of course attempts to determine the source of these links, but in some cases, this can be overlooked. In the situation with Overstock.com (who Google put in a penalty box for gaming search results), the retail site was paying for inbound links from Edu addresses, which Google tends to consider as more authoritative. In the case with J.C. Penney, many of the links to the retailers site were from spammy sites, where the company paid for these sites to link to the retailers for keywords like “evening dresses.” For example, a fashion blog linking to a retailer is fair. A Bulgarian property portal link is not. Basically, Milanoo appears to be doing the same thing as J.C. Penney. The ecommerce site has been buying spammy links to both its homepage as well as to individual product pages, and these sites have linked, thus boosting Milanoo’s ranking above other, more well-known retailers in Google search. Using the Open Site Explorer tool from SEOMoz, Hobart and Pierce say they couldn't find a single inbound link that points to the page that isn't spam or paid for. We too took a look at Open Site Explorer, searched for Milanoo’s link to “Evening Gown,” and found incoming links from NicePromOnline. Ok, so these aren’t as far fetches as J.C. Penney, but spammy sites nonetheless. Then I did a search on Open Site Explorer for the link to Cheap Wedding Dresses on Milanoo, which resulted in inbound links from NFL New Jerseys, Auto News. Wow. Looks like Milanoo may have been caught red-handed in link exploitation. So it’s a little surprising that Sequoia, a top-tier venture capital firm, would invest in a company that is using underhanded tactics to game Google’s search algorithm. And ironically, Sequoia is an early investor in Google. Pierce tells us that many times, investors don’t do the sort of in-depth digital due diligence that would flag these types of issues. His company is trying to provide investors with the tools and services to prevent situations like this. If Google does find that Milanoo is gaming it’s search algorithm, the punishment can not only be damaging to a company’s search results, and brand but also to their top line. Overstock penalty by Google, which resulted in lower search rankings on the search engine hurt sales by 5 percent during the penalty period. Similar to Overstock and J.C. Penney, a steady flow of visitors is key to Milanoo’s ecommerce business. And search is clearly a way to get those visitors. | |
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