June 17, 2010
June 12, 2010
Europe Tech Startups Blooming
Economist has a feature on the thriving tech startup scene in Europe.
MENTION the name of a big European technology firm in Silicon Valley and chances are the reaction will be a mixture of pity and disparagement. SAP, the German software heavyweight? Past its prime. Finland’s Nokia, the world’s biggest maker of handsets? Missed the boat on smart-phones. Ericsson, of Sweden, the leading vendor of gear for mobile networks? Clobbered by the Chinese.
Turn the conversation to start-ups, though, and ears prick up. When will Spotify, a popular London-based online music service, be available in America? Why did Playfish, whose online games attract tens of millions, sell out to Electronic Arts, an American giant? And what will happen to Skype, whose software handles nearly 10% of international telephone calls, after its divorce from eBay, an online auctioneer?
Californians’ interest is most piqued by a French company, vente-privee.com, the pioneer of “private flash sales”: members—and members only—can pounce when told they have a few days to buy this Prada bag or that Dior perfume at a discount of up to 70%. This year the firm’s revenues are expected to reach €850m ($1 billion), a quarter more than the previous year. It already has dozens of imitators. Even Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have been heard saying they would like to do something “like vente-privee”. In the tech heartland, this is the ultimate compliment.
June 11, 2010
Web Video goes Prime Time
Prime time is no more about just TV. More and more people are now watching web videos during TV prime time.
![[PRIMETIME1]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/MK-BD681_PRIMET_D_20100608160120.jpg)
Blip.tv
Scenes from Blip.tv’s ‘Anyone But Me’ (above) and ‘All’s Faire’ Web shows
Original Web series are finding a niche at night.
In a change from traditional online-video watching, which was built during daytime, providers of free original Web content and others that rerun TV programs are reporting strong viewership gains during evening hours.
At Blip.tv, which distributes tens of thousands of independent online video shows, peak viewing time has moved from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. a year ago to 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. across U.S. time zones.
Online video service Revision3’s prime-time views now top lunchtime views by 20%, a change from last year. Evening viewing at video site Break.com has grown 18% in the past eight months, while daytime viewing was up less than 5% in the same period.
The shift is likely to create new opportunities for Internet video providers, including access to new distribution platforms and premium advertisers. It also signals that Internet video providers could eventually lure people away from traditional television, analysts say—something the emerging industry has failed to do to date.
The rise in prime-time viewing also underscores how consumers are opening up to a wider array of content during nighttime, habits that will shape what they watch when they can get Internet and TV content on one device, said James McQuivey, an analyst at researcher Forrester Research.
“The moment we start doing more prime time Internet video viewing on the TV, then Internet video is actually competing with old-school television,” he said.
June 10, 2010
June 9, 2010
Video: Pulse Creators
Pulse is a cool news reader app for the ipad. It was created by two stanford students in 4 weeks time and is getting a lot of attention recently. Kara Swisher interviews them here:
June 7, 2010
Presentation: Mary Meeker on Mobile and Web Trends
Mary Meeker says the golden age of online and mobile advertising is finally here.
Mary Meeker says the golden age of online and mobile advertising is Meeker said that smartphone shipments will soon exceed those of PCs shipped (both desktops and notebooks), likely in 2012, in what she called an “inflection point” for mobile advertising and e-commerce. Smartphone shipments should also overtake the number of regular (in other words, not Internet-enabled) handsets shipped sometime next year, she said. Meanwhile, use of mobile apps and mobile browsers has doubled in the past year, she noted, adding that the U.S. passed Japan as the country with the most 3G users last year, with more than 123 million to Japan’s 99 million.
The biggest sign of a potential boom in online advertising, according to the Morgan Stanley analyst, is the gap between the time users spend with various forms of media and the amount of money advertisers are devoting them, which she said was still “out of whack.” In particular, time spent with print makes up just 12 percent of users’ media consumption habits, but consumes 26 percent of the ad dollars; Internet usage, meanwhile, accounts for 28 percent of media consumption but just 13 percent of the advertising dollars spent. That, Meeker said, is “a $50 billion opportunity.”
June 6, 2010
Video: Marissa Mayer on Explosion of Data
June 4, 2010
Presentation: The Future of Netflix
I love Netflix the service and the company. Reed Hastings is a brilliant entrepreneur. Here is their outlook on their future:
June 2, 2010
google mobile search includes mobile apps
From Google blog:
As of today, if you go to Google.com on your iPhone or Android-powered device and search for an app, we’ll show special links and content at the top of the search results. You can tap these links to go directly to the app’s Android Market or iPhone App Store page. You can also get a quick look at some of the app’s basic details including the price, rating, and publisher. These results will appear when your search pertains to a mobile application and relevant, well-rated apps are found. For example, try searching for download shazam on your Android-powered device or bank of america app on your iPhone.