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Facebook Valued At $67.5 Billion In SecondMarket's 10th Auction
Feb 19, 2:39AM
Last time we checked in with SecondMarket in late January, Facebook shares had declined from the auction's high point at $28.26 a share (a $70 billion + valuation) to $26.25 a share which means a $65.5 billion valuation going by its 2.5 billion shares outstanding. While at the time we had speculated about a peak and signs of a decline, shares are up 2.85% this week, at $27.00 a share and a $67.5 billion valuation. 
Socialcam: A Look At Justin.tv's Upcoming 'Instagram for Video'
Feb 19, 12:56AM
Between the likes of picplz and Instagram, image-sharing sites are making plenty of headlines these days. And there's one obvious offshoot that seems ripe for similar services: video. Granted, Path offers support for video, but it's semi-private and there could still be an opportunity for a more public service to tap into this trend.That's where Justin.tv's upcoming app Socialcam comes in. The app, which remains in a very limited beta, is looking to to offer a straightforward way for people to capture and share their videos with friends — and yes, it's doing that in a way that is very similar to Instagram and picplz, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I sat down with Justin.tv founder Justin Kan and VP of marketing Matthew DiPietro to get a tour of the app, and have also gotten the chance to play around with the Android version myself. Kan says that it's frustratingly difficult to share video taken on your phone with friends: email attachments are a pain because of size issues, and MMS leads to heavily degraded video quality. YouTube makes it easy to upload directly from your phone, but the focus there doesn't seem to be on sharing your clips with a network of friends.
TechCrunch Giveaway: Tickets to Sarah Lacy's SF Book Launch Party, PLUS A Free Signed Copy Of Her New Book
Feb 19, 12:20AM
Want to come celebrate Sarah Lacy's new book with us in San Francisco? Here's your chance. We are giving away 10 free tickets to her launch party, all of which include a free signed copy of her critically acclaimed new book, Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How The Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Profit From Global Chaos. As Paul Carr noted, Sarah's new book has been called "a fascinating new gem of a book" by USA Today, and "an outstanding piece of journalism" by Fortune. 
Voyurl Is Climbing In Your Browser Window, Snatching Your Surfing History Up
Feb 18, 11:59PM
It was back in July of last year that we first wrote about a service called Voyurl with the headline: It's Hard To Tell If Voyurl Or Their Ads Are Creepier. You see, at the time, the still-in-stealth startup was targeting angel investors via Google ads get their attention to hopefully talk about their product. That's actually pretty smart. So we had to give the edge to the product itself being creepier. You see, its aim was to be a service that made your entire browsing history public. At the time, we said the best way to think of this was as a sort of "Blippy but with more potential porn". Of course, Blippy has since been tweaking its service to be less about public sharing of your purchases and more about the social dynamics of purchases and recommendations. But fear not, Voyurl is gladly picking up the creepy mantle!
Libya Follows Egypt's Lead, Starts Shutting Off Internet Services
Feb 18, 11:57PM
Both the BBC and the AFP are reporting that Muammar Gaddafi's government in Libya has began to block user access to Facebook in the country's capital of Tripoli and are shutting down access to Internet connections in the rest of the country in response to anti-govermental protests. Twitter user Ramy Raoof says that sources in Libya have confirmed the Facebook blocks, but that Twitter.com is not blocked and Internet access is not yet down. Al Jazeera is also reporting access to its sites being cut off as well as access to Facebook.
Fly Or Die: Apple's New Subscription Rules (With Rhapsody President Jon Irwin)
Feb 18, 10:48PM
The media world is in a tizzy over Apple's new subscription billing rules for iPad and iPhone apps. Basically, Apple will now take a 30 percent cut of all in-app subscription revenues and own all the customer data. As written, the rules apply to everything from iPad magazines and newspapers to subscription music services and even subscription movie services like Netflix. We've debated these rules up and down. In this special episode of Fly or Die, Rhapsody president Jon Irwin joins us to explain how online subscription media businesses work from his perspective. Irwin is one of the few executives brave enough to speak out against the new rules.
Have Work, Will Travel: LiquidSpace Aims To Test Their 'AirBnb For Workspaces' At SXSW
Feb 18, 10:43PM
I don't know how many times I've been visiting a city, looking for a place to work, and have just ended up in a Starbucks. I hate working in Starbucks. But I know they have WiFi, so I go there anyway. Time and time again. But what if a service existed that showed you other options for getting work done when you're on the go? That's exactly what LiquidSpace is going to be. The service, which hasn't launched yet, can most easily be thought of an Airbnb for workplaces. Their aim is to find the best spots around a city to work from and show them to you via a location-based mobile application. But these aren't Starbucks locations, instead they'll be offices, business centers, lounges, and all sorts of other places that people have set up with things like WiFi, but are under-utilized at various times. LiquidSpace will help these places maximize their potential.
Sarah Lacy's SF Book Launch Party Is ON! Tickets Available… Now
Feb 18, 9:43PM
Last week, Mike promised that, if Sarah Lacy's new book, Brilliant Crazy, Cocky, reached the number one slot in Amazon's Entrepreneurship category, we'd host a big launch party in San Francisco. At TechCrunch, we keep our promises. The party in on! Update: Tickets to the event are now completely sold out. If you'd still like to attend, you can try to win a ticket here.
Last Tweets Users See On Banned Client Twidroyd Pushed By Twitter
Feb 18, 9:30PM
This morning Twitter shut down UberMedia clients UberTwitter and Twitdroyd because of privacy violations for tweets more than 140 characters, monetization violations (concerning affiliate links) as well as trademark infringement. While Ubermedia creator Bill Gross tells us that UberMedia is doing what ever it takes to get the apps back up, currently the final (and only tweet for some users) tweets you can see on the Twitdroyd app are the following from Twitter's @support account.
The Missing Native/Web App Link: Google Says Native Client Almost Ready To Go
Feb 18, 8:34PM
We've written a number of things about the contrast between native apps and web apps. The common consensus these days is that the two will eventually converge — but that has been happening more slowly than some have been hoping, particularly in the mobile space where native apps dominate. On the more traditional side of things, the transition is happening faster, but something Google has been working on could be the real missing link: Native Client. And according to Google, it's getting close to being ready for primetime. As a quick primer, Native Client allows developers to build web apps that execute native code inside the browser. This means that on top of traditional web-based languages like JavaScript, the browser will be able to execute things written in languages like C and C++. More importantly, it will make porting desktop apps to the web much easier.
UberMedia CEO Bill Gross: Twitter Turn-Off "Took Us By Surprise," But "We Will Change"
Feb 18, 8:20PM
I just got off the phone with UberMedia CEO and Idealab founder Bill Gross on the heels of Twitter's suspension of two of UberMedia's products, UberTwitter and Twidroyd, for violating Twitter's API rules. The violations in question concern trademark, privacy, and monetization. Gross tells me, "We just talked to Twitter and discussed the various issues they raise. It took us by surprise because they didn't raise them before. We started making the changes"
Groupme And Foursquare Allow You To Create Texting Groups With Friends Nearby
Feb 18, 7:49PM
TechCrunch Disrupt finalist Groupme has launched a cool new feature today, in advance of tomorrow's Foursquare hackday. People who link their Foursquare accounts to Groupme here can pull up an interface of all friends in the vicinity of their last checkin. You can then select which friends you want to be a part of a group, and the app will notify those selected with a text and the group's number. This is first group texting app I've seen to incorporate geo-location and the feature is perfect for the use cases of Coachella-like music festivals, sprawling tech conferences like SXSW or any other place where tons of smartphone wielding individuals tend to congregate in large groups. 
Twitter Suspends UberMedia Clients For Privacy And Monetization Violations, Trademark Infringement
Feb 18, 7:02PM
Well this is interesting. According to this post, Twitter has suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd for violating its policies. The action is even more fascinating considering that UberMedia, which operates UberTwitter and Twidroyd, is building an army of third-party Twitter clients, including Tweetdeck, that compete directly with Twitter's web and mobile clients. 
Radiohead's Day Early Online Release Of 'The King Of Limbs' Goes Viral
Feb 18, 6:59PM
It's as if Radiohead got the lion's share of Internet awareness, leaving the rest of the music industry completely clueless. Pretty much all anyone can talk about right now is Radiohead's The King of Limbs, for a number of reasons (not least of which is because it's amazing) but primarily because Radiohead mirrored the patterns of digital album leaks, generating major buzz. On the Internet everyone expects everything a day early. 
TechCrunch Giveaway: A Boxee Box #TechCrunch
Feb 18, 6:30PM
We have given away an Apple iPad, Google Chrome Cr-48 Notebooks, a Dell Vostro V130 laptop, a Google Nexus S, and many other prizes over the last few months. We didn't want to disappoint this time around either, so we are offering a Boxee Box for today's giveaway. The Boxee Box is a device that finds all of your favorite shows and movies available on the Internet and puts them onto your TV. Not only that, but just this past Valentine's Day, it was announced that you can browse the Netflix streaming catalog right from the box.
Facebook Shares Are Worth Almost Three Times More Than Tweets For E-Commerce
Feb 18, 4:50PM
White label daily deals platform and TC Disrupt finalist ChompOn is releasing some interesting data today comparing the value of shares, Tweets, likes and follows in the context of e-commerce. Using data from the sites that it powers daily deals for, ChompOn examined the conversion rate and action for deals shared on Facebook and Twitter. According to the startup, the value of a Facebook share is $14 and the value of a Tweet is $5. For shares and tweets, ChompOn was able to directly attribute sales to the original action and took the total revenue attributed to each action and divided it by the total number of shares/Tweets. ChompOn is working with 50 partners including Blackbook Magazine, JDeal and the wine vertical of flash sales site Beyondtherack, to power Groupon-like crowdsourced coupons. 
What Are President Obama, Zuck, Jobs And Other Silicon Valley Tech Stars Toasting To?
Feb 18, 3:59PM
The White House has just posted several photos from President Obama's dinner with a number of Silicon Valley's technology CEOs and leaders yesterday evening. As you can see from the photos, the star studded invitee list included Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, Cisco's CEO John Chambers, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Genentech Chairman Art Levinson; Google CEO Eric Schmidt; former state controller and venture capitalist Steve Westly Doerr, and Stanford University President John Hennessy. The event was held at Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr's home. The "cheers" photo above is a little cheesy, but as you can see, both Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg got the prime seats at the table, both seated next to President Obama. And the candid of picture of the President engaged in conversation with Zuckerberg is also a priceless shot. It's interesting that the White House chose to release that particular photo to the public. 
The Samwer Brothers Make A Killing After Selling Facebook Stake From 2008
Feb 18, 3:46PM
The three Samwer brothers behind the highly successful European Founders Fund in Germany have sold their shares in Facebook, according to a report in the German press. Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer (who also own the German language Deutsche Startups tech news site) sold their shares because "we are at the early stages" and their requirement for capital for their existing investments has "roughly tripled", according to Oliver Samwer. There appear to be no figures for how much their stake was worth but we can confidently say they have made their money back. 
AC130 For Android: Turn Those Benjamins Into Little People And Then Destroy Them
Feb 18, 2:12PM
BeyondReality's Jeroen Mol has an interesting concept for his new Augmented Reality game slated to go live in the Android Market in the next month or so. His clever idea of using paper money notes as AR targets (you know, those little black and white designs you usually have to print out first and view with your mobile device) eliminates the need to have a printer around before playing the game. Of all the "mobile money" concepts I covered at the Mobile World Congress, this was the most fun. See the video below for details.
eBay And PayPal Team Up For Developer Conference And Open Platform
Feb 18, 1:52PM
eBay owns payments giant PayPal, and PayPal is deeply integrated within eBay's marketplace but both companies have operated fairly separately when it comes to APIs and developer relations. But interestingly, eBay and PayPal are announcing that its API teams are joining into one combined open platform business, made up of the assets of both eBay and PayPal platforms. The idea, according to PayPal's head of platform, Matthew Mengerink (who lead the new joint platform), is to offer developers one ecommerce solution that will offer a "complete approach" to online and offline business. And PayPal Innovate X, the payments company's popular developer conference, will now also include eBay's developer conference as well. 
RoundPegg Raises $1.27 Million To Be The eHarmony For Jobs
Feb 18, 1:35PM
Job hiring startup RoundPegg has raised $1.27 million in new funding led by Access Venture Partners with Croghan Investments participating. RoundPegg is a graduate of the TechStars class of 2010. RoundPegg is essentially a eHarmony for jobs. The site aims to match employers and potential employees based on personality and culture matches as well as skills and experience. Founder Tim Wolters says that currently the site has thousands of job seekers and hundreds of companies who are looking for employees that fit within their corporate culture. 
San Francisco Wants to Tax Your Stock Options– All of Them.
Feb 18, 8:07AM
Few people are aware the San Francisco has had a tax provision in its municipal code since 2004 that requires companies to pay a payroll tax on gains from employee stock options. No one pays it, and San Francisco hasn't enforced it to date, but companies are becoming increasingly agitated that the city may change that policy at any time. The number of high profile and high value startups based in San Francisco - like Twitter and Zynga - may be too big of a temptation for the city to ignore. Recently, I heard San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee on our local NPR station talking about how important it was to keep Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco. To those worried that the recent talks between Twitter and the City were stalling, his words must have been reassuring. But if Lee really wants to keep Twitter-- and thousands more tech jobs-- in San Francisco he needs to defuse this much bigger ticking tax time-bomb now. This isn't just about keeping Twitter in San Francisco-- this has ramifications for San Francisco's entire startup ecosystem.
Google Courts Yahoo Users With New Delicious Bookmarks Importer Tool
Feb 18, 6:15AM
The Delicious saga continues ... In reaction to what many have thought to be Yahoo's mismanagement of the popular bookmarking service Delicious in the past couple of months, many people have tried to roll their own Delicious importers in hopes of taking advantage of the traffic exodus. Google too has today rolled out a Delicious migration tool for Google Bookmarks, to give people who were scared of the demise of Delicious a safe haven for their meticulously curated links. 
A Bird's-Eye View Of iOS And Android As Seen By One Premium Ad Platform
Feb 18, 6:00AM
Comparing the iOS and Android platforms is often tricky because the perspective is usually one-sided. But mobile ad platforms tend to have a pretty well-rounded look at the state of things because they're agnostic in the religious war that is iOS versus Android. And of those, Medialets has one of the best views since their data comes from only big-time app makers which tend to be on both platforms. Apps like Pandora, New York Times, Fandango, CNN, The Weather Channel, and a wide range of others. In other words, the "premium apps". So what are they seeing? First and foremost, to state the obvious, mobile is exploding across the board. Medialets says their premium inventory rose almost 300 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Pretty much every report you will have read in the past few years will say the same thing.
Gawker's Gulp Moment: Big Redesign Is Driving People Away
Feb 18, 4:03AM
About ten days ago, gossip blog Gawker and its sister sites Gizmodo, Lifehacker and others switched over to a drastic redesign which was met with plenty of jeers. People always complain about design changes, but this time it looks like several of Gawker's sites actually took a major hit to traffic. According to Quantcast, which directly measures the sites, Gawker's U.S. daily unique visitors were cut in half from a high of 561,000 to 257,000 (see chart above). Gizmodo dropped from 746,000 to 420,000 in the U.S. Sitemeter shows an even more harrowing freefall for Gizmodo (see chart at right). Jezebel and Deadspin also took hits. Only Lifehacker seems to be holding steady. 
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