Wednesday, June 1, 2011

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Twitter Ads: "The Perfect Wet Dream of Every Marketer." So Why Are There Only 600 Advertisers? Top
Dick Costolo just wrapped up his keynote at All Things D. It wasn’t livestreamed, so for those of you who missed out, there were some interesting tidbits about user numbers, defense of Twitter’s stewardship of its developer community and some hints about the ad business. Rather than any newsy bombshells, my biggest takeaway was what I’ve written before about Twitter’s third CEO in its short corporate life. Costolo brings much needed operational rigor, business focus, and methodical process to a chaotic, culturally-transformative company that could have fallen into a MySpace-like trap of celebrity cache, runaway spam and buzz that outstripped business potential. But it’s come at the cost of sheer product visionary that both Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams had in spades, and Twitter is still waiting for that visionary to fill the void. Despite Keith Rabois’ protestations last week at Disrupt, I don’t buy that Dorsey can do both jobs as CEO of Square and product guru of Twitter at the same time. No doubt, the question will come up when Dorsey takes the stage later in the conference, and he’ll insist again how doable two all-consuming jobs are. (I still won’t buy it.) I’m not trying to bag on Costolo. I think all things considered this was an upgrade for employees, shareholders and users who are all rooting for Twitter to burrow into that big four consumer technology titans that Eric Schmidt talked about yesterday. So it’s not a surprise the keynote was low on razzle-dazzle. The things Costolo is excelling at inside the company, aren’t the things the private company will disclose. Still, here are some of the more interesting tidbits: He noted that no one– including Twitter itself– has a good idea of how many people use the service, thanks to the heavy syndication. Costolo said Twitter gets 13 billion API requests every day. “We don’t track 100% where they go,” he says. For perspective he noted that it took three years to get to the first billion tweets, now there are a billion tweets every six days. International activity is up 35% the first two months of this year. And over 350 million uniques come to Twitter.com, which is no longer how the majority of people use the site. On the topic of Twitter being a schoolyard bully to its developers, Costolo said it’s naive for developers to expect the company will no longer innovate and create new features and products itself or buy ones that do something core for users Twitter isn’t doing already. He says he bought Tweetdeck because he went in newsrooms and saw every reporter had the dashboard open on their monitors. As for cracking down on other Twitter clients, Costolo noted that most users didn’t realize the difference between a client and Twitter itself, so there was a need to hold them to a higher standard of terms of service. Ultimately, he noted that as long as the number of developers increases, the company is doing a good job. This year there are more than 600,000 Twitter developers– up six-fold from last year. “All we can do is be straightforward about where we’re headed,” he said. He encouraged anyone who felt they were in the company’s cross hairs to “move up the value chain” or in essence, stop complaining and build a better app. He also announced the new photo app, which TechCrunch broke already , drawing some interesting distinctions between Facebook photos and Twitter. In short, Facebook is an archive of the past; Twitter is about the real time living web. He drew another interesting distinction between the two companies when it comes to the concept of identity: Facebook is about the “social graph” and Twitter is about the “Interest graph.” In other words, just because he’s interested in someone, doesn’t mean they are interested in him the way friending on Facebook is always reciprocal. He said the company would be investing heavily in the “@-username and the construct of identity behind it” in the future. In terms of advertising, Costolo said 80% of Twitters 600 or so advertisers have made repeat purchases. He described a VW campaign that had 52% engagement, and a one-day Radio Shack ad that gave stores three days of double digit increases in phone purchases. “That’s unheard of,” Costolo said. Echoed Walt Mossberg, it’s “the perfect wet dream of every marketer.” So if it’s so great, why only 600 advertisers? Costolo said the company is in no hurry to monetize and is careful not to pollute the Tweet stream with ads. Good news in the short term for users and developers, but bad news for anyone hoping for a Twitter IPO in the near-future. Twitter is doing one of two things: Conscientiously building a long-term business one brick at a time as Costolo says, or intending to sell to a giant like Google for a multi-billion dollar price. I’d bet higher odds on either of those two over an IPO anywhere on the near term time horizon. CrunchBase Information Twitter Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Recargo App Helps Electric Vehicle Drivers Find And Review Charging Stations Top
Another app to help electric vehicle (EV) drivers find a place to power up? Yep. This one, Recargo , was made by the founder of Dictionary.com , Brian Kariger, and launched stealthily in July last 2010. So far, the app has attracted hundreds of users, Kariger told TechCrunch. The company added new features and is pushing for wider adoption today, with a version 1.5 release. New features on Recargo include: Yelp-like, user contributed reviews and photos of charging stations that EV drivers encounter and use, and news content about clean transportation syndicated in-app from Recargo’s partner, PlugInCars.com . Recargo, currently available for iOS only, generates revenue through in-app advertisements, and shares revenue with PlugInCars.com. Here’s why user-generated, and real-time updated reviews and photos of EV charging stations should prove useful to EV drivers, Kariger said: “I took a trip to Ventura up from L.A. and I drove to where there was supposed to be a charging station. Nobody on the lot had used it, though. Not knowing where it was, and driving anxiously around this lot was just frustrating. Having an image of the charging station in context, or some directions from another driver that used it would have been helpful. You don't want to start driving hundreds of miles away from home and not know you'll be able to go somewhere to charge before reaching your final destination. We use crowd sourced reviews and data from open APIs to let drivers know about things like this.” Recargo is distinct from others in the field , like PlugShare by Xatori, in part because it is generating revenue already. Some of Recargo’s earliest users have been in Hong Kong and Germany, according to Kariger. The serial entrepreneur is the proud owner and driver of different alternative vehicles, including: a Tesla Roadster, a Nissan Leaf and a Volkswagen Touareg that uses biodiesel. Down the line, Recargo aims to become a mobile app development studio whose products help the makers and drivers of electric vehicles, worldwide. Near-term Kariger hopes to get an Android app out, and to add traffic data to Recargo, to let driver plan their commutes more energy-efficiently. CrunchBase Information Recargo Brian Kariger Xatori Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Google Apps To Pull Support For Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, And Safari 3 Top
Last year, Google discontinued support for Docs and Sites for IE6. Today Google is making a pretty major move concerning support for older browsers, announcing that as of August 1, Google Apps will no longer support Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3, and their predecessors. Google says that the applications included in the Apps Suite simply don’t work with these outdated browsers and end up negatively affecting users’ experience with the application. For example, desktop notifications for Gmail and drag-and-drop file upload in Google Docs require browsers that support HTML5. Google warns users that Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites will eventually stop working entirely on these older browsers. Google says it will continue to support the current and prior major releases of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on a rolling basis. Each time a new version is released, Google will support the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version. For businesses using Google Apps, IT admins will have to make sure that each employee is using a updated version of one of the accepted browsers. For a big company, that can be a challenging task for both users and IT admins. CrunchBase Information Google Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Paul Graham: Total Value Of Y Combinator-Funded Startups Is $4.7 Billion Top
Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham took the stage for a highly engaging interview with Charlie Rose, during which he discussed how Y Combinator got started and what exactly they’re looking for when they’re deciding who to invest in. During the conversation, Graham mentioned that the total value of YC companies is now something like $3 billion — and YC has only invested around $5 million total (their investments are generally around $15,000 each). In other words, they’re killing it. Today, Graham has written a more detailed post looking at Y Combinator’s numbers, and gives an even larger number for the combined value of the top 21 companies that YC has funded: a whopping $4.7 billion, which puts the average value of YC-funded startups at around $22.4 million. To be clear, Y Combinator’s stakes don’t add up to $4.7 billion — it generally takes a 2-10% stake in each startup that gets diluted over successive funding rounds. But they’ve still got a substantial stake in some very big companies. Graham also explains how he arrived at the figures in the post — Y Combinator has actually funded 316 startups including the summer round that just began, but he’s ignoring companies that were funded less than a year ago. This, he explains, is because many of the companies from the previous batch don’t even have valuations yet, since they all took $150k convertible notes as part of start fund . And he only calculated the figures for the top 10% of YC companies because their valuations are very heavily skewed (companies like, say, Dropbox or Airbnb have valuations that likely exceed dozens of other YC companies combined). But he adds that all of these numbers are speculative and highly volatile, and that their estimates could be way off. The real lesson here though is how long it takes to measure performance in this business. We’re 6 years in, and we could easily be off by 3x in either direction. Startup outcomes are unpredictable, and the outcomes of their investors doubly so, because it’s hard to say whether the big successes are repeatable, or if the investors just got lucky. Even 6 years in, all we can say is that the numbers look encouraging so far. For more, be sure to read his original post . And watch his Office Hours at TechCrunch Disrupt , which were easily my favorite part of the conference. CrunchBase Information Y Combinator Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Groupon Partners With Expedia For Groupon Travel Top
We’re hearing that Groupon will be shortly announcing a partnership with Expedia to provide a separate channel for Groupon Travel, apart from deals in your area. Travel deals will probably be regional says our source, not hyper local. We’re also hearing that Groupon was in negotiations with Priceline, Travelocity and Expedia but it looks like Expedia offered a better deal. Word is that internal estimates is that Groupon Travel could increase revenue by 40% once the company gets the ball rolling. This news shouldn’t come as a huge surprise: Expedia has flirted with Daily Deals on its own and has actually partnered up to provide daily deals with Groupon in the UK. Update: It’s live at Groupon.com/Getaways  Looks like Groupon is now the Groupon for Travel. CrunchBase Information Groupon Information provided by CrunchBase
 
OpenChime Nabs $700K From Groupon Founders Top
OpenChime , a startup that allows users to get online quotes and information from an array of local service providers, today announced that it has raised $700K in seed funding from Lightbank , the Chicago investment firm started by Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. OpenChime was apparently discovered by Lightbank Partner Paul Lee and represents his first investment since joining Lightbank from Playboy Enterprises, where he was the managing director of digital ventures. In fact, during due diligence, Lee reportedly used the startup to find a service to repair his roof. Just as Groupon targets local, OpenChime is targeting what it sees as big inefficiencies in local businesses. Namely, the difficulty in quickly receiving quotes on reputable local service providers. Founded by Erdem Kiciman and his former roommate at MIT, Kale McNaney, OpenChime launched in 2010 to enable consumers to receive valid quotes on practically any local service, from local business owners, like handymen, house cleaners, personal trainers and so on. OpenChime has even booked some more unusual service requests, like a home theater installation, for example. The problem is that many of us often spend hours doing Web research to find the right local service for a job we need done, which then ends up in a series of phone calls that often yield few quotes. OpenChime streamlines the process, cuts out the middle man by allowing a user to fill out a quick online form and submit that request through OpenChime. The startup then sends the request to relevant local businesses, collects the info the user needs, and then follows up with an email that includes a summary of the service, a quote, etc. Businesses can also request to be added to OpenChime’s roster so that they can be found and accessed more easily by the OpenChime team. Of course, OpenChime has some competition from other startups like Thumbtack and Redbeacon, and the team hasn’t yet shared a revenue model, so the funding allows the startup to take time to get it right. CrunchBase Information OpenChime Lightbank Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Twitter Partners With Photobucket On Photos And Firefox On Search Top
Twitter has just announced on their blog two new key bits of functionality: improved search and photos. The latter, we’ve obviously been all over in recent days, as we first broke the news a couple days ago. The former, we mentioned was likely coming as well. But there are a few details we didn’t know. First of all, today brings a completely new version of Twitter Search that promises “more relevant” tweets, but also shows you related pictures and videos in the right-side pane. Even more interesting is that Twitter has partnered with Mozilla for a new version of the Firefox browser with Twitter built into the search bar. (There is also an add-on for current Firefox users.) Notes Twitter: And if you use this new version of Firefox with Twitter, you can type a #hashtag or @username directly into the address bar to go right to a search results page (try #idol) or someone’s profile page (like @nba). Simple. And then there are photos. While this feature isn’t live just yet, in the “next several weeks” you’ll be able to upload a photo attached to a tweet right from twitter.com. This will work on the mobile clients as well, obviously. Yesterday, we speculated that Twitter would be using Amazon to host these photos rather than putting them on their own servers. Instead, they’re partnering with Photobucket to host these photos. Interesting. Twitter also says that they’re working with mobile carriers around the world to add MMS capabilities for simple picture attachment as well. No word on the planned iOS 5 integration for Twitter , but that was to be expected. No way Twitter is allowed to announce that before Apple does at WWDC next week. CrunchBase Information Twitter Mozilla Photobucket Information provided by CrunchBase
 
Now +1 Gets Interesting: Button Launches On YouTube, Android Market, Best Buy… Oh, And TechCrunch Top
We broke the news yesterday that Google was planning to announce today that the +1 button is going to be added to partner websites. The news leaked after one of the partners, Clearspring, leaked the news. The official announcement has just been posted on Google’s blog, with a few more details on the partnerships. As you heard in March , the +1 button allows you to recommend content to your friends and contacts directly from Google search results and ads. Google is now releasing +1 buttons to the whole web, allowing select publishers and site owners to embed the button on their sites. Initial partners include HuffPo, Bloomberg, BestBuy, Nordstrom, O’Reilly, The Washington Post, Reuters, TechCrunch and a host of others. Google also says it plans to add +1 buttons to many of its own properties, including YouTube, Android Market, Blogger, and Product Search. The functionality on partner sites is similar to the way you interact with a Facebook ‘like’ button. When you see a +1 button on these sites, you can recommend a product, news article, movie or other content to your friends. When your Google connections search for content or a site, they will see your +1's their search results. What’s interesting about this announcement is that +1 could eventually alter search results (if you are logged out). So the more +1′s a piece of content or product has, the higher the search result for that page. It would be another signal social data is a key strategy for Google going forward and we heard back in March, that Google envisions +1 data influencing search results across the board. With more publishers and ecommerce sites signed up, Google has way more social data to possibly use in search. CrunchBase Information Google Information provided by CrunchBase
 
iSwifter 3.0 Launches With New Subscription Model And Support For Facebook Games Top
iSwifter , an iPad app that allows developers to stream flash games to the tablet device, is launching a new version of its app today that supports a subscription based model for monthly gaming and includes a new browser feature that allows users to play social games on Facebook within the app. As we’ve written in the past, iSwifter allows users to browse, play and rate Flash games from gaming portals on the web, with each game optimized for iPad. The startup actually spun out of incubator YouWeb last year. With iSwifter, Flash does not run on the device at all but it is streamed to the tablet just like a Netflix movie or a YouTube video. The app is available in the App Store for a subscription fee of $4.99 for unlimited access to Flash social games on Facebook and MMOs. The company has spent the last year building a cloud based Flash browser technology that provides low latency interactivity and high frame rate rendering for an optimal user experience playing Facebook games and MMOs. And the ability to play social games on Facebook on the iPad has been one of the most requested features amongst iSwifter’s users. Additionally, iSwifter has been negotiating with Apple on how to structure the subscription plan after Apple changed its terms for allowing subscriptions within apps. iSwifter 3.0 is free for users to download, and offers a free seven-day trial. Users can then choose to upgrade to a paid monthly subscription for unlimited social and MMO game access. The first 250 readers to send an email to techcrunchpromo@iswifter.net with “TC Promo Code” in the subject line will receive a month’s subscription to the app for free.
 

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