Thursday, July 1, 2010

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Mixpanel's Analytics Now Tracking 1 Billion Actions A Month Top
Mixpanel , an analytics-focused startup whose backers include Y Combinator, Michael Birch , and Max Levchin , has hit a big milestone: it’s now processing over 1 billion actions per month. To put that in perspective, a year ago the company had recorded 80 million actions cumulatively . Mixpanel was built by former Slide employees, who took their experience with that company’s extensive analytics tracking and built tools that other developers can integrate into their own applications. These datapoints can include pretty much anything a developer wants to track, from the number of pages a user has viewed to how many virtual cows they’ve thrown in a Facebook app. Cofounder Suhail Doshi says that the volume of data the site tracks grew 185% last month alone (you can see the growth chart below). Earlier this week, Mixpanel launched a new feature for its funnel tracking system, which allows developers to identify exactly where in their applications users are engaged, and where they’re leaving. Before now in order to take advantage of Mixpanel’s funnel tracking developers would have to write code themselves — the new system offers a control panel interface that lets even less technical users implement funnel tracking. The service will also soon be releasing a native Flash library that will appeal to the many Flash game developers who want to integrate analytics. One of Mixpanel’s competitors is Kontagent , which just raised another $4.5 million. Kontagent is reportedly tracking around 60 million daily active users across all of its customers’ applications — Doshi says that Mixpanel is tracking significantly more than that, in part because Kontagent is focused exclusively on tracking Facebook applications, whereas Mixpanel is used more broadly (for example, Justin.tv uses it for their analytics). CrunchBase Information Mixpanel Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Apple's War With Google Takes To The Skies With iTunes In The Cloud Top
iTunes in the cloud. We all know it’s coming, it’s just a question of when, and with what capabilities? A story from Boy Genius Report today appears to answer at least one of those questions, and vaguely answers the other. If BGR’s “reliable” Apple source is to be believed, Apple’s iTunes cloud strategy will consist of three parts: 1) Streaming content from Apple’s servers to your devices 2) Streaming content from your computers to your devices 3) Wirelessly syncing content to your devices. If true, that would obviously constitute a major push into the cloud by Apple. It would also likely elevate their war with Google. Currently, Google basically owns the cloud, at least with regard to consumer apps. But one of their major weak points there is entertainment content. They’re hoping to change that this Fall with the launch of Google Music (or whatever it will be called), which will take on iTunes directly. The big selling point of Google’s planned offering (which they talked about at Google I/O this year in little detail) is cloud syncing with devices. In other words, exactly what Apple is planning to offer (again, if this BGR report is true). But Apple has a huge advantage: millions of pre-existing iTunes customers. iTunes customers that are unlikely to leave because so much of their content (the protected variety anyway) is tied to that ecosystem. Google will basically be starting from the bottom, while Apple will be starting from the top of a mountain. One of those will be much closer to this cloud, in that regard. Of course, Google has a proven massive cloud infrastructure, while Apple only does in minor way with MobileMe. But all indications are that they’re working on bulking that up. There’s the massive data center they’re building, and, of course, the Lala acquisition . And they need to. It’s inevitable that iTunes moves to the cloud . The amount of content and storage space needed is simply outpacing storage on devices. For example, if I download a full season of a television show in HD, it takes up dozens of gigabytes. A device like the iPhone only has he option of storing 32 GB currently. Obviously, most people don’t keep all their content on these devices. But going forward, these devices (like the iPad) are more likely to be used as primary content viewers. The only way that’s really feasible is with a cloud streaming and/or syncing service. And this is about more than just music, movies, TV shows, etc — it’s also about apps. From the looks of it, Google won’t be starting from complete scratch with the content offering because they’ll be building it on top of (or adjacent to) their Android Market ecosystem. This means that they’ll also have a potential base of millions of users thanks to those who use apps on Android. (Still, it’s nowhere near the numbers that use iTunes overall.) From BGR: For wireless syncing, we are told it will work pretty seamlessly. Any apps you buy for instance on your iPhone will immediately sync to your computer, changes to your calendar, or notes, or contacts will also automatically update on your computer as well. The first part is exactly what Android is promising with their 2.2 release — so clearly Apple is going to answer that. The second part is a bit odd because that’s already exactly what MobileMe does. Might this new syncing service be built on top of MobileMe? If so, maybe Apple finally is preparing to make it a free service, as it’s unlikely a massive amount of people will pay for it if Google is offering the same things for free. In terms of timing, all BGR will vaguely say is “soon.” At the end of the report, they hint that the new service might come alongside an event in the Fall (or before it). A report earlier this year indicated that iTunes.com (the obvious name for the web-based version of iTunes in the cloud) would launch this Summer. That report said June was a possibility — but obviously that’s already come and gone. Regardless of exact timing, this Fall is shaping up to be very interesting with regard to Apple and Google. Google TV will be out to take on Apple TV . Chrome OS will be out to take on iPads . And these new cloud media streaming services now look to be battling as well. [photo: flickr/ dirtymansam79 ] CrunchBase Information iTunes Google Apple Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Breaking: Tapulous Acquired By Disney Top
Tapulous has been acquired by Disney. The iPhone gaming startup with several hits on its hands was founded by Bart Decrem, who will join Disney as a VP. COO Andrew Lacy is also joining Disney as a VP. Disney is very interested in social and mobile gaming, having recently invested in Playdom’s $33 million round . Tapulous is a hot iPhone gaming startup which has raised only $1.8 million from angel investors including Marc Benioff, Jeff Clavier, and Andy Bechtolsheim. Legendary Silicon Valley mentor and Stanford professor Rajeev Motwani, who passed away last year , was also an investor. Its flagship game, Tap Tap Revenge , has numerous versions which have been downloaded millions of times. The basic game, which lets players tap to the rhythm of songs with their fingers is free, but players must pay for new songs. Its latest game is Tap Tap Radiation for the iPad. Tapulous’ music-oriented games appeal to a younger crowd in particular. The company puts out versions of Tap Tap Revenge featuring the songs of specific artists such as Justin Bieber Revenge, Lady Gaga Revenge, Nickelback Revenge, and Nine Inch Nails Revenge. Its other mobile music, Riddim Ribbon is also a hit. Disney Interactive Studios sells a slew of video games built around Disney movies and characters such as Toy Story, Cars, and Hannah Montana. Most of these games are for consoles like the Xbox, PS3, or GameBoy. Buying Tapulous gets it into the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad gaming platform and gives it a strong presence in music-related games. (More details coming) CrunchBase Information Tapulous The Walt Disney Company Information provided by CrunchBase
 
CleanTech Venture Investments Total $2 Billion In Q2, Exits Reach More Than $8 Billion Top
Clean technology remains one of the hottest areas of venture funding. In the second quarter, cleantech venture investments worldwide totaled $2.02 billion across 140 companies, according to market research firm Cleantech Group and Deloitte. The numbers are in line with last quarter’s $2.04 billion, but 43% higher than one year ago. Exits for the quarter totaled more than $8 billion globally, with $6 billion in cleantech M&A and $2.3 billion in cleantech IPOs. Tesla ‘s $202 million IPO has been in the spotlight recently, but globally, the cleantech IPO market is concentrated in China, which grabbed $1.7 billion, 75 percent of the $2.3 billion raised worldwide in the past three months, and 12 of the 19 IPOs, though not all of those are venture backed. The biggest IPO of the quarter was China’s Origin Water on the Shenzen Stock Exchange, which raised $330 million. As a point of comparison, in the U.S. alone, IPOs across all sectors totaled $900 million in the second quarter. On the M&A front, there were 160 cleantech deals worldwide, including Switzerland’s ABB buying utility enterprise software maker Ventyx for more than $1 billion, and chip company Maxim buying smart-meter chip maker Teridian Semiconductor for $315 million. In terms of venture funding, the most active cleantech investors in the quarter were Carbon Trust Investment Partners (6 deals), Kleiner Perkins (4 deals), Angeleno Group (3 deals), Draper Fisher Jurvetson (3 deals), and Khosla Ventures (3 deals). Mega-deals of $100 million or more are on the rise, with four such deals in the quarter, including $350 million for Better Place, $189 million for Fisker Automotive, and $115 million for BrightSource Energy. The industry sectors drawing the most dollars were solar, biofuels, and smart grid. Solar is one of the industry’s brightest shining stars, grabbing $811 million to mark its third highest quarter in history. Investment in biofuels was also strong, soaring to $302 million since the the first quarter. Spurred by the recession, investors are spending money on companies that can save money. Energy efficiency boasted 31 rounds of funding, trumping solar’s 26 and biofuels’ 13 deals. Smart grid investments in particular experienced their highest quarter ever. CrunchBase Information Cleantech Group Tesla Motors Information provided by CrunchBase
 

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