Hi there!
Here's the latest feed from TechCrunch.
Add feeds@feed2email.net to your contact list to make sure you receive all your emails
Make sure to visit feed2email.net to get more feeds sent to your inbox.
To find out which feeds you are subscribed to, or to get further help, just reply to this email.
Facebook Is Experimenting With Becoming A Mobile Games Publisher
Jul 02, 2:06AM
Facebook is doing tests in what could finally bring it direct revenue from the mobile gaming ecosystem beyond advertising. The company is working with a handful of small mobile game developers to do publishing by offering distribution through mobile ads in exchange for a cut of revenue, according to sources familiar with the program. Facebook confirmed it’s working on tests for new mobile game distribution, but didn’t share more details publicly. While Facebook has been earning a little over $200 million per quarter from payments and other fees, with most of that coming from virtual currency transactions inside social games, it hasn’t been able to replicate that business on mobile devices because Apple and Google both control the world’s two major smartphone app stores and already take a 30 percent cut on digital transactions. It does, however, earn a big chunk of revenue from mobile game developers through normal mobile ad buying, a business that made Facebook $373 million in the first quarter. The thinking is that publishing is a very, very old model that goes back to the world of console gaming, so it’s a structure that is already familiar for gaming studios. In the console era, a big gaming company would market, distribute (and often edit) games from smaller studios that lacked the resources to promote their work. At the same time, smaller developers are having a hard time finding audiences when they are competing against bigger companies like Kabam, King and Supercell, which now have the power to spend millions of dollars per month on marketing. The initial costs of producing and distributing a competitive mobile game have gone from the hundreds of thousands into the millions of dollars for titles that have a shot at the top 25 grossing spots. So in this experiment, Facebook is partnering with smaller, independent developers, not the bigger guys. They’re also primarily focusing on distribution. They aren’t really editing or tweaking games for content or financing their production, which is what other publishers sometimes do. From a global perspective, other social networking platforms in Asia like Kakao in South Korea and WeChat in China are starting to exercise power on mobile platforms in some fascinating ways, despite operating on platforms like Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. Kakao is the publisher of nine of the top 10 grossing games in South Korea on Android, the biggest smartphone platform there. Tencent hasCan Pincus Still Make Zynga An "Internet Treasure"?
Jul 02, 1:08AM
"An Internet Treasure is something that consumers can't remember what life was like before they had it," Mark Pincus told Y Combinator's Startup School in 2009. Then, Zynga had hit titles and cash flowing in. Today, Zynga's shares sit at a third of their IPO price and it lacks a blockbuster game. With the arrival of Don Mattrick as CEO, if Zynga wants to become an institution, it's now or never.New App Lets Google Glass Owners Control Their Teslas Like Rich-Ass Robo-Wizards
Jul 01, 10:55PM
Do you have Google Glass? Do you also have a Tesla? Yes? Seriously? Who the hell are you, Batman? Anyway — there's now an application that lets you bring these two extravagant toys together, allowing you to control a bunch of things in the Tesla by way of Google Glass. Why? Because.Cameron And Tyler Winklevoss File For $20 Million IPO Of Their 'Bitcoin Trust'
Jul 01, 10:43PM
Buckle up, people: We might be closer than ever to our first official Bitcoin IPO. It was just a couple months back that it emerged that Winklevoss Capital, the investment firm/family trust founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (of early Facebook fame), had bought up approximately one percent of all the outstanding quantity of Bitcoins, the alternative digital currency -- a portion that was then worth around $11 million. The firm has gone on to invest in startups that deal exclusively in the Bitcoin space, such as Bitinstant. Today, it looks like they are looking to spread the responsibility for that wealth around -- with all its potential gains, and losses. An entity called "The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust" has apparently filed for an initial public offering of 1 million shares, to raise up to $20 million in capital.Yahoo Acquires Bignoggins, A One-Man Fantasy Sports App Maker
Jul 01, 10:08PM
Oh, you thought Yahoo was done with the whole acquire-everything-in-sight bit? Nope! Yahoo has announced that they've acquired Bignoggins Productions, a one-man iPhone development shop which had previously built a handful of fairly popular Fantasy Sports mobile apps.Snapchat's Spiegel Admits Brown "Came Up With The Idea For Disappearing Picture Messages" In New Court Documents
Jul 01, 9:35PM
If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a disappearing picture is worth $800 million, what's an idea worth? Reggie Brown filed a motion on Thursday in a California court to disqualify Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Snapchat's attorneys, Quinn Emanuel. The documents also show evidence that may support Brown's claim that he is a co-founder of Snapchat.Greylock Adds Former Quora, Facebook And Twitter Alum Andy Johns As 'Growth Strategist In Residence'
Jul 01, 9:30PM
How to get customers for your product is a huge area of interest these days as we see the rise of the "growth hacker." Venture capital firm Greylock Partners is making an interesting move today relating to this new focus, adding Andy Johns as a Growth Strategist in Residence.Snapchat Founders Face New Twist In Legal Battle As Alleged Co-Founder Files To Disqualify Their Lawyers
Jul 01, 9:27PM
Reggie Brown claims to have co-founded Snapchat, and in the latest twist to his suit against the company, he's trying to disqualify its high-profile law firm. Brown filed motions in a Los Angeles court on Thursday to disqualify the law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP ("Quinn Emanuel") from representing Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Snapchat Inc.Shervin Pishevar And Scott Stanford's New Startup Studio Sherpa Is Raising $150 Million For New Fund
Jul 01, 8:37PM
As reported earlier this year, Menlo Ventures partner Shervin Pishevar and Goldman Sachs managing director Scott Stanford left their day jobs to build a new, company building venture and VC fund called Sherpa. According to an SEC filing released today, Sherpa is raising around $150 million in funding. Of course, this is not a final number, and this could fluctuate as the funding closes.Win A Ticket To DBX, Dropbox's First Developer's Conference
Jul 01, 8:35PM
On July 9th, Drobox kicks off its first developer's conference. Tickets are no longer available for the invite-only one-day-event, but we have ten tickets to give away. Dropbox told us that the three focuses of the one-day conference will be learning about newly launched features on its platform, giving developers a chance to meet and get help from Dropbox API engineers and designers, and highlighting what third-parties have built on top of Dropbox so far.New Update Lets Google Glass View Websites And Listen To More Voice Commands
Jul 01, 8:15PM
And Google Glass’ slow march toward market readiness continues. The development team shared a few details about an upcoming update on the official Glass Google+ page, and it finally unlocks some oft-requested features for all those Glass Explorers to start mucking around with. The changelog is a pretty significant one — users will soon be able to initiate calls and send messages to Gmail contacts, and rather than having to navigate to the OK Glass launcher card before issuing a voice command, users can boss their headgear around without having to touch anything. But most importantly though, Google is now letting users view webpages through Glass. The post makes it seem as though the touchpad mounted on Glass’ right side will be responsible for most of the navigation — users can swipe forward and backward along the panel to scroll up and down, and there are multiple navigation schemes to fiddle with. Thankfully, there’s one tailor-made for those who generally feel impervious to embarrassment: users can pan around their favorite websites by touching two fingers to the touchpad and moving their heads to and fro. You know, nice and discreet. It’s a little hard to visualize, but current Glass Explorers won’t have to wait too long to see it for themselves as the update is slated to go live over the next few days. Frankly, it was only a matter of time before Google let those particular cats out of the bag — we’ve known that Glass had the ability to fire up a browser and listen to voice commands outside of that launcher card ever since an enterprising developer named Zhuowei Zhang uncovered a slew of so-called Glass Lab Experiments and shared them on GitHub. Naturally, there’s still plenty on that list that hasn’t been publicly implemented yet (think video stabilization and a Cliplet feature that records short snippets of video, to name a few), so expect a boatload of new updates between now and Glass’ tentative release date later this year.Zynga Officially Names Microsoft's Don Mattrick As CEO, Pincus Stays On As CPO And Board Chairman
Jul 01, 8:14PM
In an email to all employees, Zynga just announced that veteran executive Don Mattrick will be the gaming giant’s new CEO, and former CEO and co-founder Mark Pincus will now be its Chief Product Officer as well as remaining the Chairman of its Board of Directors. Mattrick comes from Microsoft in a sudden move, and was previously at Zynga competitor Electronic Arts. Pincus explained in an email to staff and a blog post that “I've always said to Bing and our Board that if I could find someone who could do a better job as our CEO I'd do all I could to recruit and bring that person in. I'm confident that Don is that leader.” He also noted “Zynga has so much more potential ahead, the opportunity to be an Internet Treasure and deliver on our mission of connecting the world through games.” Update: Mattrick has now sent an “Excited to be here” email to all employees, saying that “Only Zynga combines engineering, industry-leading product management and analytics to deliver products that strike a chord with consumers and add real value in their lives…We have the opportunity to create lifelong relationships with our customers through our high quality products. Zynga is a great business that has yet to realize its full potential.” Until today, Mattrick was Microsoft's President of Interactive Entertainment. He most recently delivered the news that Microsoft would retreat following backlash in response to announcements that its new Xbox One would have digital rights management preventing users from freely swapping games and would require an Internet connection to play games. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent an email to his employees saying “This is a great opportunity for Don, and I wish him success. Don's directs will report to me and will continue to drive the day-to-day business as a team, particularly focused on shipping Xbox One this holiday. Thank you, Don, for setting us on a path to completely redefine the entertainment industry.” As the new CEO he inherits a tough job of completing Zynga’s transition from a web-focused Facebook games company to a multi-platform developer with its own properties and a focus on mobile. The news leaked this morning via Kara Swisher to positive reactions from Zynga shareholders who boosted the company’s stock price 10.43% to $3.07. After hours the stock has gone up another 3.58% to $3.18 following the announcement. Zynga is still struggling to recover fromGOP Maj. Leader Eric Cantor On NSA And Investing In Small Government Technology
Jul 01, 8:07PM
The House Republican Majority Leader and Congressman with the most charming southern drawl, Eric Cantor, sat down with me at The Atlantic's Aspen Ideas Festival for an interview on the National Security Agency, Immigration, and the conservative case for supporting government-funded technology.Send In Your Questions For Ask A VC With Resolute.VC's Mike Hirshland
Jul 01, 7:34PM
This week on TechCrunch TV's Ask A VC show Resolute.VC founder and investor Mike Hirshland is in the studio. As you may remember, you can submit questions for our guests either in the comments or here and we'll ask them during the show.Bebo's Founder Michael Birch Says He's Bought Back The Social Network For $1M, Plans To 'Reinvent' It
Jul 01, 7:01PM
Another turn in the twisted life of social network Bebo, which has unfortunately gone in the direction of a downward spiral for much of the last couple of years: the site appears to have been bought back by its founder Michael Birch for $1 million. Birch originally sold the company to AOL (owners of TechCrunch) for some $850 million back in 2008, and has since been a part of the group that has tried to rescue it. He now says he wants to "re-invent" it:Fly Or Die: Form 1 3D Printer
Jul 01, 7:00PM
Early leader in the 3D printing space Makerbot may have just been acquired for $400 million, but we still can't forget about the Form 1 3D printer out of FormLabs. It started as a Kickstarter project, which received 6x its $100,000 goal in just one day, topping $1.4 million in one week. Since, we've had the chance to review it and pit it against the Makerbot.Even At $90 Firefox OS Phones Have To Get Apps Right To Battle Budget Android
Jul 01, 6:26PM
The first phone running Mozilla's Firefox OS phone goes on sale tomorrow in Spain. Mozilla's nascent open web HTML 5 mobile platform has garnered considerable carrier support already, months ahead of any phones being launched, which just serves to underline the level of concern in the mobile industry about how dominant Google's Android platform has become.Origami Labs Acquires FamilyLeaf, A Competing Private Social Network For Families
Jul 01, 6:21PM
Origami, the Y Combinator-backed social network for families which just launched to the public this month, has acquired competing service FamilyLeaf, another YC company. Financial terms of the deal are not being revealed, and for at least the next couple of months, FamilyLeaf is not shutting down. However, it will no longer be supported.Zoho Launches Mobile-Ready Survey Tool To Extend Online Business Platform
Jul 01, 6:15PM
Zoho has released a new survey tool that allows customers to conduct surveys in customer satisfaction, education, human resources, marketing, marketing research and other areas using custom or pre-built templates. Zoho Survey, available for web and iOS and Android devices, offers different question types, such as multiple choice, ratings and text boxes. After users create surveys using either the web app or the native iPad Survey Builder, they can preview their surveys to see how they display in a web browser or on mobile devices.Trinity Ventures Promotes SaaS And Big Data Specialist Karan Mehandru To General Partner
Jul 01, 6:00PM
Over the years, Trinity Ventures has made multiple investments in enterprise startups, with a bit of a focus on SaaS, big data, and cloud computing. With that in mind, it's promoting Karan Mehandru, a specialist in those areas, as a General Partner in the firm.If at any time you'd like to stop receiving these messages, just send an email to feeds_feedburner_com_techcrunch+unsubscribe-hmdtechnology=gmail.com@mail.feed2email.net.
To stop all future emails from feed2email.net you can reply to this email with STOP in the subject line. Thanks
