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BIA/Kelsey: Social Media Advertising Topped $2 Billion In 2010
May 02, 2:30PM
Further evidence that advertising on social networks (a.k.a. Facebook) is a booming business. BIA/Kelsey reports today that social media advertising revenues will grow from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in 2015. BIA/Kelsey defines social media advertising as money spent on advertising formats across social networks. The research company says that the currently, the predominant ad format on social networks is display, spending on which the firm expects will increase from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $7.7 billion in 2015. While revenues from non-display ad formats (i.e. Twitter's "promoted products") are currently minimal, BIA/Kelsey expects that in the coming years non-display formats will continue to grow as an ad genre on social networks, and expects the social non-display segment to grow from zero in 2010 to $600 million in 2015. 
RIM Acquires Smartphone Security Software Developer Ubitexx
May 02, 1:22PM
BlackBerry developer Research In Motion is definitely on a shopping spree. A week after announcing the acquisition of social calendering application Tungle.me, the company is buying smartphone software security developer Ubitexx. Terms of the acquisition, which was announced on Ubitexx's home page, were not disclosed. Ubitexx, which raised over $$4 million in funding, develops and distributes management and security software for smartphones and mobile devices. The company also provides strategic mobile management consulting, training and installation, and technical support services. 
RIM Announces Video Chat And Facebook Apps For Playbook
May 02, 12:39PM
An app that probably should have appeared on the Playbook at launch, video chat, is coming to tablet owners tomorrow morning in an OTA update. In addition to front and back camera support, the chat app allows you to make VOIP and video calls as well as connectivity based on the user's BBID. The app features "powerful in-call functions" like - and I'm not making thus up - "mute/unmute." 
RIM Announces BlackBerry Bold 9900 And 9930 With BBOS 7 And NFC
May 02, 12:38PM
The brand new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 is a 1.2GHz smartphone (RIM's "thinnest yet") that runs Blackberry OS 7 and includes NFC connectivity and a touchscreen interface. 
SSD Storage Company Kaminario Raises $15 Million
May 02, 12:26PM
Kaminario, a provider of SSD storage products, this morning announced that it has secured $15 million in Series C financing. Existing backers Sequoia and Pitango were joined this time by new investor Globespan Capital Partners, whose managing director Venky Ganesan will take a seat on Kaminario's board. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with an Israel-based R&D division, this latest round brings Kaminario's total funding to $34 million. 
Brightcove Streaming 700 Million Videos A Month; Granted Broad Patent For Online Video
May 02, 12:21PM
Brightcove was issued a broad patent for the "Distribution of content," which covers the basic features of a professional online video platform. Patent No. 7,925,973, which was applied for on August 12, 2005 by CEO Jeremy Allaire and CTO Bob Mason, describes some of the basic features of all professional online video players such as customizable players, digital rights management, and syndication. In other words, how video is experienced, and how it is controlled—essential aspects for professional video publishers. Of course, Brightcove has done just fine so far without that patent. Brightcove is now streaming 700 million videos a month, I have learned, which it believes would place it among the top five online video platforms on the web.
Local.com Buys Local Search Company Krillion For $3.5M, Debuts Daily Deal Service
May 02, 11:45AM
Online local media and search company Local.com has acquired location-based shopping data aggegator Krillion for $3.5 million in cash. The company provides local shopping information on over 70,000 consumer products from over 50,000 retailers, including in-store availability, comparison pricing, current discounts and images. With a separate news announcement, NASDAQ-listed Local.com has launched yet another daily deal site, dubbed Spreebird.
DISH And EchoStar Settle Patent Litigation With TiVo, Agree To Pay $500 Million
May 02, 10:12AM
DISH Network and EchoStar this morning announced that they've agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle all of their ongoing patent litigation with the digital video recorder company. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, DISH and EchoStar will initially cough up $300 million, with the remaining $200 million distributed in six equal annual payments between 2012 and 2017. 
Bin Laden's Compound Gets A Bum Review On Google Maps
May 02, 7:38AM
Google Maps users have been busy as the news of the raid on Osama bin Laden's mansion was breaking. A pretty large compound listed on Google Maps in the city of Abbottābad, northern Pakistan has been picked out by users as being the genuine article - and with huge walls around it, it does indeed look quite suspect. Whether or not it is the genuine article is unknown, but that is not stopping people leaving a slew of comments on the "venue's" Google Maps page. Some choicer reviews include: "Great hideout would use again." 
Here's The Guy Who Unwittingly Live-tweeted The Raid On Bin Laden
May 02, 6:07AM
Yesterday Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual on Twitter) was just a "an IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains", specifically Abbottabad, northern Pakistan. But today he will become known as the guy who, while live-tweeting a series of helicopter flypasts and explosion in the city, unwittingly covered the US forces helicopter raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound. Here's a selection of his Tweets: [Update: it looks like @m0hcin was there too, read on for more]
First Credible Reports Of Bin Laden's Death Spread Like Wildfire On Twitter
May 02, 2:45AM
If the Twitterverse is to be believed, President Obama is about to announce the death of terrorist and 9-11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden, in an impromptu announcement broadcast on Whitehouse.gov and TV this Sunday night at 10:45 EST. The news actually hit Twitter before the President's broadcast; CNN's Steve Brusk first tweeted that the announcement was National Security-related at around 7:25pm PST.
Sony Says PSN Services Will Resume Shortly, Offers Apology
May 02, 1:05AM
As the initial hysteria (mostly justified) surrounding the Sony PSN breach subsides, more measured estimates of the damage are appearing, but more serious questions are becoming relevant. It's still too early to be sure what the extent of the damage is, but the early and sensational estimates (propagated before Sony announced relevant numbers) seem to be giving way to a more complex, nuanced look at the damage. A few people have claimed suspicious activity on their accounts so far, but there doesn't seem to be any systematic fraud going on - on the other hand, it isn't easy to immediately leverage 10-15 million credit cards. Sony announced that it will be reestablishing access to "some" PSN and Qriocity services this week, with a focus on access to account details, online play, and access to purchased media. Other services should be online within a month. As far as restitution, Sony is offering a month of Playstation Plus and Qriocity Unlimited for free, plus a free PSN download, currently unspecified. That would likely be enough to compound for an ordinary extended outage, but this was more than a glitch. Sony will likely get rougher handling from an investigation of their security practices than from frustrated customers.
The P2P Evolution
May 02, 12:35AM
Many years ago, after graduating college, I came home before moving to NYC, wondering how I would scrounge together the money for the first month's rent and security deposit so my friends and I could all live together in the Big Apple. I had one month to get the cash, and instead of going out for traditional, hourly-wage work, I decided to go through all of my old stuff and throw it on eBay. In those days, I got online through dial-up, would have to mail a hard copy of the pictures to interested buyers, and would ship items to auction winners only when their check arrived by mail and cleared into my bank account. In one month, I got rid of winter jackets, sports equipment, and baseball cards to the tune of $7,000, tax free, enough to buffer the move to NYC. A few years later, when I moved to San Francisco, it was Craigslist to the rescue, helping with initial sublets, furniture, stereo equipment, and the odd jobs I did to soften the transition. Without knowing it, I was stumbling through life fueled mainly by a peer-to-peer (P2P) network and economy that helped me connect supply and demand, as well as time and money. Instead of using consignment shops or hosting a garage sale, or instead of buying new items in a traditional store, I buffered my moves to NYC and SF primarily fueled by P2P networks. That was P2P 1.0, anchored by eBay and Craigslist, networks that have connected billions. And, while these companies continue their march, we are already into the next peer-to-peer evolution: P2P 2.0. 
Yes, There's An Apple "Castle" In The Cloud
May 01, 10:32PM
Yesterday, French site Consomac.fr did some digging into the latest developer preview build of OS X Lion and found something interesting. Buried in the code are references to a service named called "Castle". Given the context of one of the mentions — "upgrade from MobileMe to Castle" — this led most to assume that the name referred to Apple's upcoming cloud service overhaul. We can now confirm that to be the case. As TUAW guessed, Castle is in fact the internal nickname of Apple's new service which many are now calling "iCloud" in the press (thanks to Apple's acquisition of that domain recently), we hear.
The Scandal Of Toothless Social Media Representatives Ends… Now
May 01, 9:56PM
Last weekend, our own Erick Schonfeld wrote an impressive in-flight diatribe against American Airlines; specifically their ineffectual social media representatives whom he described as little more than "a toothless marketing arm" for the company. Of course, the usual dick of troll commenters ('a dick' is the collective noun for troll commenters, look it up) complained that personal rants have no place on TechCrunch - despite the fact that a) TechCrunch is built on a proud tradition of personal rants b) Erick is the co-editor of the site and so can write whatever he damn well pleases. In fact Erick's 'rant' was long overdue. American Airlines' social media department does suck when it comes to providing actual customer service. But here's the thing: so does everybody else's.
Flash in the Pan
May 01, 6:32PM
The news from NBC/Universal/Comcast is that the cable giant has finally made deals with both ABC and Fox to carry selected shows on their on-demand service. This is big news for the iPad set, because all four major broadcast networks are now available in a single service, on the iPad, without Flash. Across town we hear talk of hardware acceleration linking up with Android to make Flash finally usable on every other device. This would be a good thing for Flash fans, who can make the argument that more devices will work with Flash than won't. But in the new world of network broadcasting, the show's over for Flash. Nobody cares what makes the picture dance on the screen, just that it does.
OMG/JK: Insert Pun About Storms In The Cloud Here
May 01, 4:37PM
We're back for a new episode of OMG/JK (in HD!). This week the news has been all about private data — Google and Apple have been accused of tracking your every move (they aren't), and Sony has revealed that 77 million user accounts were compromised (this, unfortunately, is true). Tune in to find out where things stand now, and where to get the best deal on your tinfoil hat. Here are some recent articles that are relevant to this week's episode. - Amazon EC2 goes down, taking with it Reddit, Foursquare and Quora
Intuit's GoPayment Cuts Transaction Fees, Pricing Now More In Line With Square
May 01, 2:32PM
Inuit's GoPayment reader, which competes directly with Square, is about to become more attractive to small businesses. The company has made the decision dropped the transaction fee ($0.15 per transaction) for both new and existing customers for Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards, both swiped and key-entered as well as qualified and non-qualified transactions. The move will go into effect on Monday. Launched two years ago, GoPayment offers a complimentary app and credit card reader to allow small businesses to conduct charges via their smartphones. GoPayment is available for iOS, Android and Blackberry phones. So now, businesses using the mobile payments reader will only pay a flat 2.7 percent fee of a transaction for any swiped cards. Intuit will charge 3.7 percent for both key entered and non-qualified transactions. 
Internet Entrepreneurs Are Like Professional Athletes, They Peak Around 25
May 01, 6:27AM
"Consumer Internet entrepreneurs are like pro basketball players," a venture capitalist told me recently while discussing the prospects for a thirty-something founder, "They peak at 25, by 30 they're usually done." Why? Because young entrepreneurs are more creative and imaginative, and are willing put 100% of their lives into their startups, he said. "It's not a guess, this is a data driven observation," says the VC. He had a number of caveats. First, this only applies to consumer Internet entrepreneurs. Enterprise and hardware startups tend to do better with older founders, where experience (and direct sales experience) matter a lot. And there are plenty of founders that, like Michael Jordan, can peak way beyond 25 (and the peak basketball age is really probably at least a 27). "Those tend to be the repeat success founders," he said, "the rules don't apply to them." 
The Cloud Has Us All In A Fog
Apr 30, 7:05PM
Ever heard of Dropship? It's an open-source project that "enables arbitrary, anonymous transfers of files between Dropbox accounts." Dropbox hopes you haven't; they tried to squelch it this week, and even accidentally reported that it was subject to a DMCA takedown notice, with predictably futile results. I'm mostly sympathetic: I'm a huge fan of their service, Dropship was a clear violation of their terms, and for obvious reasons they don't want to turn into an anonymous peer-to-peer file-sharing service. Unfortunately, they accidentally built a system which enabled just that. How about Sony's PlayStation Network? Of course you have. It was so thoroughly hacked this week that Sony had to shut it down indefinitely. Did you also know that Sony's PS3 firmware is effectively wide open, because they made a hilariously stupid security mistake? Did you know that that's probably how PSN got hacked, and that it raised the spectre of the hacker(s) taking over every connected PlayStation 3 in the world and turning them into by far the biggest botnet in history? That probably wasn't what Sony had in mind, but they accidentally built a system which enabled just that.
Gillmor Gang 4.30.11 (TCTV)
Apr 30, 5:00PM
The Gillmor Gang — Kevin Marks, Danny Sullivan, JP Rangaswami, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — christened the new Gang studio with a surprise welcome to Kevin Marks. It turns out he's joining salesforce.com on Monday, following JP (six months), JT (7 years), and me, who is celebrating my one year anniversary. Kevin has been a forceful champion of open standards at Apple, Technorati, Google, BT (Ribbit), the Gillmor Gang, and now salesforce.com. Before, and once the festivities were out of the way, we got back to Gang business, namely the continued aftermath of the phone location recording crisis. With free lunch debunked, we tackled the Amazon outage and its impact on the Cloud. You can decide for yourselves, but the consensus is that such challenges will be remembered fondly as a validation of the moment, as with the Gmail outage of several years ago, when the Cloud passed from inflection point to basic services. The velocity of business in the iPad age, where CEOs can see deeply into their companies in realtime, demands a level of interactive services and an iterative feedback loop not possible with the previous generation of software. And that lead to a debate about iPhone video calls and what Danny is looking for in a flying car.
How DIY Health Reform Can Help You Win The Talent Wars
Apr 30, 3:00PM
The talent wars that were common back in the late 90′s appear to have returned whether it's using LOLCats or cheeseburgers to recruit talent. While I love the creativity, when it comes down to making a decision to join a new company, the lumbering tech giants (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Zynga, Facebook) which startups compete against for talent have one giant ace up their sleeve — great healthcare benefits. When I left Microsoft 8 years ago, my wife expressed only one concern — losing health benefits. At the time, I told her that it's just a matter of paying those costs directly. The reality has been that it's been a significant hassle and cost that we'd rather not deal with. The excitement of working with startups has outweighed that hassle, but even to this day it remains a burr in the saddle. Periodically, I will get an offer to join some company and her first question is "how are their health benefits?" Startups have repeatedly shown an ability to outmaneuver the behemoths we compete with but this is one area where the behemoths still have an edge. It's time to turn the tables with what I call Do-it-Yourself (DIY) Healthcare Reform.
Game Over for Incentivized App Downloads
Apr 30, 1:32PM
The business model of incentivized app downloads was recently dealt a death sentence by Apple. Apple said incentivized app downloads were driving inaccurate rankings in the App Store, almost certainly because essentially paying consumers to download apps was a way of gaming a ranking system that used downloads as a key metric. To be fair, there were many quality apps taking advantage of the loophole in the ranking system, but that era has ended. And so have the days of companies making money hand over fist in the incentivized downloads business, better known in the industry as Cost Per Install or CPI. So how exactly did it work? Say you're playing a game that offers you virtual currency; the game might ask you to download an advertised application in exchange for virtual credits within that game. You install the app and get your in-game currency. The app gets a new install and pays for that. This quickly generates bursts of installs, immediately boosting an app's ranking in the app store. 
An Update To My Ethics Policy
Apr 30, 7:01AM
I've been in Las Vegas for most of the month and so have been out of the loop on some of the major stories rocking the world of technology and media. Stories like the startling news that, having made a sack-load of money from the sale of TechCrunch to AOL, Mike is going to begin investing in start-ups again. Like most 
How Many Mulligans Does Color Get?
Apr 30, 6:45AM
WARNING: mixed sports metaphors ahead. How many do-overs does a startup get before users give up on it for good? As far as I can remember, the answer is zero. I can't think of an example where a startup launched into the wild, flailed badly, and recovered (without completely abandoning the first product). There are lots of examples of flailing and relaunching (see Cuil, see Joost), but I can't think of anyone that managed to pull out a win. By my count Color, the $41 million startup that promises to "transform the way people communicate with each other," has already struck out. The first strike was a launch that left users confused, sharing photos with themselves and trying to figure out a user interface that seemed purposely designed to frustrate. We gave them another chance. Strike two: pulling the Android version of the app from the market.
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