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DST Sets Up New Fund, Joins Huge Rounds For Spotify And China's 360buy: Reports
Mar 30, 12:15PM
According to Russian business newspaper Vedomosti (via Quintura), star investor Digital Sky Technologies has set up a new fund dubbed DST Global - 2. The fund has already made investments in Groupon (January 2011) and is close to investing $50 million in exchange for 5 percent of online music startup Spotify as part of a $100 million round, according to the paper. You may remember we broke the news that DST was indeed about to lead a huge financing round for Spotify back in February. In other news, DST has also joined a group of investors who've put hundreds of millions of dollars into 360buy.com, a Chinese online retailing powerhouse often dubbed China's Amazon.
EverFi Acquires Online Course For Substance Abuse Prevention Outside The Classroom
Mar 30, 12:00PM
Washington D.C.-based startup EverFi has acquired Outside The Classroom, the provider of the largest online alcohol prevention course AlcoholEdu. Founded in 2000, Outside The Classroom's online curriculum focuses on alcohol prevention in America's youth. Its online products, AlcoholEdu for College and AlcoholEdu for High School, are used in hundreds of high schools and over five-hundred college campuses. More than 3 million students to date have taken AlcoholEdu. 
Salesforce Buys Social Media Monitoring Company Radian6 For $326 Million
Mar 30, 11:08AM
Cloud computing giant Salesforce.com has acquired social media monitoring company Radian6 for approximately $276 million in cash and $50 million in stock, net of cash. In addition, approximately $10 million in stock and $4 million in cash will be issued to Radian6's founders (subject to vesting conditions over two years). Radian6 helps clients like Dell, GE, Kodak and UPS monitor, analyze and engage in 'hundreds of millions' of social media conversations. Salesforce argues that the acquisition of the company will enable it to enhance all of its products, including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Chatter and Force.com.
Skype In The Classroom: An International Social Network For Teachers
Mar 30, 10:20AM
Skype realizes full well its software is used by many school teachers and students from around the globe, and today announced that it has built a dedicated social network to help them connect, collaborate and exchange knowledge and teaching resources over the Web. This morning, the company launched a free international community site dubbed Skype in the Classroom, an online platform designed to help teachers find each other and relevant projects according to search criteria such as the age groups they teach, location and subjects of interest.
The Cloud Will Be Your Hard Drive, Despite The Record Labels' Greed
Mar 30, 7:55AM
Amazon's move into the cloud music storage and streaming game is nothing if not controversial. I love it. They've seemingly looked at what companies like Apple and Google have been dealing with for months, if not years, and just said "screw it, let's just do it." Ballsy. Brilliant. Wonderful. Of course, the service itself seems kind of "meh". But I'm more than happy to take "meh" over nothing at all — which is exactly what the other big players have given us. It has been all empty promises (Google) and endless whispers (Apple). Amazon actually did it. And they deserve credit. 
Fly Or Die: How Will Color Solve The Loneliness Problem? (Plus, Amazon Cloud)
Mar 30, 5:34AM
In this week's episode of Fly or Die, we cover two big launches—Amazon Cloud Drive and Color—and a Quirky DIY pocketKnife called the Switch. Just yesterday, Amazon launched its Cloud Drive, which is a general storage service in the cloud which is being pushed as a media locker, starting with music Color is the $41 million photo app nobody can figure out. Is it the future or is it a dud on arrival? CEO Bill Nguyen joins us as our special guest and explains how his team is going to "solve the loneliness problem." (Video after the jump).
Want To Bet On The Cricket Match, But Avoid Losing Money? Check Out KheloCricket
Mar 30, 5:30AM
This one's for you, cricket fans. For those not familiar with "the gentleman's game", we are currently in the grips of the ICC World Cup -- or The World Cup of Cricket, if you prefer. "Who cares?" or "what's a cricket?" you may be asking. Well, considering there are only five proclaimed cricket pitches in the U.S., you may have a fair point. But for countries (and cricket powerhouses) like India, Pakistan, Australia, and South Africa (to name a few), cricket is serious business. In fact, The Economic Times is reporting that the international gambling industry collectively has more than $1.5 billion riding on tonight's match between India and Pakistan in the World Cup semifinals. Considering the combustible relationship between the new nations, the rivalry is a fierce one, and the matches tend to take on a significance greater than game itself. This is the first time the two teams have met since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will be accepting the personal invitation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a miraculous show of "cricket diplomacy". 
With Square In Its Sights, Intuit Readies A Tablet App For GoPayment
Mar 30, 3:37AM
Mobile payments are finally taking off right now. But it is not mobile wallets for consumers with NFC-chipped mobile phones leading the way. It is payment apps for small merchants like those made by Square and Intuit's GoPayment. Tonight at an Intuit showcase in New York City, I got a sneak peak at several new Intuit products still in development, including an upcoming GoPayment tablet app that aims to replace the cash register for small businesses, Intuit 401k, and an iPad Check-in app for doctor's offices. The GoPayment app will work on both the iPad and Android tablets In addition to taking credit card payments with a swiper that plugs into the headphone jack, it also lets merchants set up a cash register with their own products and prices. They can even take pictures of the products with their iPad 2 and the picture is placed on a virtual button to make it easy for any employee to ring up the items. It will also have the ability to take pictures of checks and deposit them from the image.
Android Market's In-App Billing Now Live
Mar 30, 12:46AM
One of the biggest gripes Android developers have about the ecosystem has been Android Market — it was slow to add support for paid apps internationally, and it's taken ages for it to support in-app payments. Today, it's finally fixing the latter issue: Android Market now supports in-app billing. The news doesn't come as a big surprise, as Google pre-announced the feature's impending launch last week so that developers could prepare for it. But it's still a big deal. In-app purchases have proven to be very lucrative for developers on Apple's iOS (which launched in-app payments back in 2009). 
The Second Cluster Of Startups Ascend From AngelPad
Mar 30, 12:44AM
Last August, we broke the news that a new startup incubator was about to launch that was run by seven ex-Googlers, AngelPad. By November, the initial class of eight startups were ready to launch. Today, barely four months later, class number two is ready to be unveiled. And this time there are thirteen of them. At this rate, to quote the best line in Jaws, they're "gonna need a bigger boat". The fact that the class was whittled down to even thirteen is impressive, as the AngelPad team had several hundred applications to go through this time, co-founder Thomas Korte tells us. And while many in the initial class also featured fellow ex-Googlers, this group is more diversified (though the Google blood still runs deep with a number of them).
Google's Value To US Users And Advertisers Is Over $119B Per Year, According To Google
Mar 30, 12:28AM
Google's chief economist Hal Varian took the stage today to break down the value of Google to users. He spoke about two elements of value: The value of Google to users and the value of Google to advertisers. In order to estimate the value of Google to advertisers, Varian used a model to estimate the value vx - c(x) (where v = value per click, x = number of clicks and c(x) = cost of clicks) and then did some "back-of-the-napkin" math. The bottom line? Google's value to publishers and advertisers is $54 billion. In order to calculate the value of Google to users, Varian cited a the "A Day Without A Search Engine" study, which plotted students searching for the answers to questions in a library, as opposed to those that used Google to get their information. Students who searched in the library ended up averaging 22 minutes where students using Google took an average of 7 minutes, saving 15 minutes. 
Ev Williams States The Obvious: He's No Longer Fully Committed To Twitter; Thinking About What's Next
Mar 30, 12:20AM
As we confirmed yesterday, Evan WIlliams is taking a step back from his day to day duties at Twitter. Williams just published a post, titled 'An Obvious Next Step' on his personal blog explaining the reasoning behind his decision. >From his post: The reason I left Blogger/Google when I did is that I felt it had reached a place where it was on solid ground and in capable hands (at the time, Jason Goldman's as product manager). Though still an independent company, I realized Twitter may be at a similar point today. So, as was reported in various places yesterday, I've decided to scale back my role at the company. (I'm still involved, but it's no longer my full-time job.)
The 6 Verbs For The Next 20 Years Of The Connected World
Mar 29, 11:49PM
Today at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly gave the first keynote of the day. His topic? The six trends he believes are most important for the connected world we live in going forward. Specifically, he broke these down into six verbs. "In general these are the long term trends as we look forward over the next twenty years," Kelly says. So what are they?
Google Brings Back The ChatBot: Google Talk Guru
Mar 29, 11:26PM
Remember back in the early days on instant messaging when people figured out that they could set up chatbots that users would interact with? Yeah, they were fun for like 20 minutes. But don't tell Google that — they're bringing one back today! Google Talk Guru is an "experimental" Google Labs service that allows you to chat with a bot to get information you're looking for. What kind of information? Sports results, weather, definitions, translations, etc.
Gmail To Roll Out Ads That Learn From Your Inbox
Mar 29, 10:40PM
Gmail is in the process of rolling out a new ad system that could prove to be quite powerful: ads that learn what you're interested in based on your email habits. The feature first showed up in my Gmail account earlier this afternoon (there's a prompt informing users about the new ads), and a Google spokesperson has confirmed that they are indeed in the process of rolling this out worldwide. Here's the full information page describing the feature, found by clicking the 'Learn More' button. Google says that while this notification will be rolling out to users gradually over the coming days, the personalized ads won't actually go live for around a month. In the mean time, users can opt-out of the new system through Gmail's settings panel (the default is that you're opted-in). 
City Tax Battle Isn't About a Two-Year Break. It's About Repealing the Payroll Tax Completely
Mar 29, 10:30PM
Not only is the San Francisco Chronicle lacking the professional courtesy to link to TechCrunch for first reporting the tech industry's fears about San Francisco taxing stock options-- the paper is also missing the broader point in the escalating debate. This isn't about Zynga and Twitter negotiating a special deal, nor is it about a two-year deferral of payroll tax. Sure, that could keep a few companies and thousands of jobs in the city. But what would really cripple the city's future economic growth is if every other startup reading this news, grimaces at the idea of haggling with unsympathetic elected officials who don't seem to want their jobs, and decide instead to follow Mark Zuckerberg's lead and open their company in Palo Alto or another Bay Area city from day one.
Demonstrators Protest Tax Exemptions Outside Of Twitter HQ
Mar 29, 10:10PM
Protesters holding hash-tagged decorated signs like "Shame On Twitter" and "Respect Our Communities" gathered outside of Twitter headquarters this morning at 10am to protest what they see as an unfair tax cut and requests for other concessions made by Twitter to the city of San Francisco. The protests have since dissipated. The demonstrations were called by an organization called the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) that aims to represent poor and underserved communities. SOMCAN also asked protestors to tweet "SHAME on YOU!" for being "socially irresponsible" at Twitter in addition to picketing in real life. Even though about 50 people showed up in person, thus far no tweets have been sent.
How Aol Spends Its Money: Episode 40,000 – The Great Scratch Card Hoax
Mar 29, 10:10PM
One of the great things about working for Aol is the company's dedication to making its 
Giveaway: Element Case Joule Chroma iPad 2 Stand
Mar 29, 10:01PM
We've always been impressed with Element Case; the build quality on their products is always outstanding. Sure, they're expensive, but you've heard the phrase, "You get what you pay for." Element Case hasn't abandoned this notion, even for their new $150 iPad stand. Want to try one for yourself? Well, we are giving one away. Details after the break. 
Sundrop Mobile Raises $900K, Offers Mobile Loyalty Solution To Daily Deal Merchants
Mar 29, 9:58PM
In a recent post about Groupon's multi-billion dollar valuation and revenue estimates, colleague Erick Schonfeld talked about how creating repeat, loyal customers (and not just deal-happy coupon clippers) is essential to the daily deal site's long-term valuation -- and success. When Groupon offers 50 to 70 percent off a meal at a local pizza place, for example, the restaurant (and Groupon's site) tend to get flooded with eager pizza lovers, but that traffic really just translates to lead-generation and marketing marketing for the business. Which is great, yes, but Groupon hasn't yet figured out the key piece to the puzzle: creating a reliable way to measure how many of those customers end up returning to the pizzeria to pay full-price and offering the local business ways to keep 'em coming back. Florida-based mobile loyalty solution Sundrop Mobile is hoping to address this very problem. Sundrop's mobile service enables daily deal merchants like Groupon to capture data about their deal-redeeming customers and provides them with a way to create repeat, loyal customers.
CrunchBoard Jobs: Work At TechCrunch
Mar 29, 9:24PM
We are still hiring. You could be our next Sales Marketing Manager, or our new Conference Program Chair. We have a beautiful office in San Francisco, we are dog friendly, and are currently looking for qualified applicants. The positions we have open are: Product and Engineering: CrunchBase Manager - San Francisco, CA Sales & Operations: Ad Operations Manager - San Francisco, CA Sales Marketing Manager - San Francisco, CA
Founders Of MP3.com, mSpot On Amazon's Music Locker: All Eyes On The Labels
Mar 29, 8:08PM
I penned a blog post earlier today covering the potential impact that Amazon's new digital music locker will have on startups that have been letting people upload their music to the cloud for years (but charge more for it than Amazon does unless they need to store literally tens of thousands of songs). I got a response from the founders and head honchos of two of those startups in the line of fire, MP3Tunes CEO Michael Robertson, who already has a long and fascinating career (and legal history) in the world of digital music behind him, and Daren Tsui, CEO and co-founder of mSpot.
Meg Whitman Hooks Part-Time Gig With Kleiner Perkins Post-Campaign
Mar 29, 7:26PM
After working at Disney, Proctor and Gamble, being CEO of eBay, running for Governor of California and losing, Fortune is reporting that Meg Whitman will now be joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a part-time strategic advisor. Whitman joins other politicos Al Gore and Colin Powell in the role, where she will "scope investments and coach startups" at what is prehaps Silicon Valley's most famous Venture Capital firm. Kleiner recently invested in Twitter, Spotify and Groupon, to throw out a few winners. 
SoundTracking Is A Hit! Reaches 100K Downloads In Two Weeks
Mar 29, 6:54PM
If you haven't noticed by the amount of follower notifications you're suddenly receiving, music snippet sharing app SoundTracking has a had an impressive 14 full days since its SXSW launch, clocking in 100K downloads from the iTunes store on March 26th. While we've seen this level of app store growth with photo-sharing app Instagram (which hit similar numbers in a week), I'm going to drag out the Foursquare growth reference point (it took Foursquare seven months to get to 60K users) again to emphasize how impressive this is, especially for a music sharing service. 
PapayaMobile Integrates Android In-App Billing
Mar 29, 6:52PM
As we heard last week, Google is finally rolling out its much awaited in-app payment and billing system. Papaya Mobile, the developer of a plug and play technology that incorporates social gaming elements into iOS and Android games, is announcing that it is integrating Android's in-app billing on its social gaming network. The company says that the new billing platform will enable 10 million Papaya users to engage in microtransactions. PapayaMobile will also integrate Android's In-App billing into its Social SDK and Game Engine products. 
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