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The Granddaddy of Messaging Apps, WhatsApp, Finally Goes For A Subscription Model on iOS
Jul 17, 2:59AM
While messaging has become a veritable war with apps like Line, KakaoTalk, WeChat, Path and Facebook Messenger across Asia and Western markets, there’s been one longstanding app that’s presided over the space with very few apparent changes. WhatsApp, the Sequoia-backed messaging app that dominates in Europe and that is often tipped as an attractive acquisition candidate for companies like Google and Facebook, just went freemium finally on iOS. The app has been paid for years on the iPhone at a $0.99 price point. But today it went free with an annual subscription fee of $1 after the first year. This isn’t really a surprise as CEO Jam Koum talked about this several months ago. It brings WhatsApp’s business model on iOS in line with other platforms like Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Phone. The paid app business model is really a vestige of an older era where developers would sell their work up-front. But over time, many paid apps have made the switch toward going free with paid features. Games really triggered this wave, but other high-usage apps like messaging have gone for a freemium strategy. Japan’s Line, for example, made $58.9 million in the first quarter of this year in Japan through in-app purchases and sales of stickers — which apps like Path and Facebook Messenger have subsequently copied. WhatsApp launched way back in 2009 and quickly grew popular in markets where SMS pricing made messaging through smartphone apps cheaper. It really dominates in European markets and has a strong foothold in India as well. Recently, the company said it was bigger than Twitter with more than 200 million monthly actives, 10 billion messages sent and 17 billion received in a single day.Zynga's Former Chief Game Designer Takes Strategic Investment From Nexon For SecretNewCo
Jul 17, 12:06AM
Back in January, Zynga’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds, who was also behind older hits like Rise of Nations and Civilization II, quietly left the company. He’s popping up back on the scene this month with a new company called SecretNewCo. (Appropriate, eh?) And the startup is announcing a strategic partnership with Tokyo-based gaming giant Nexon today. The Tokyo-based company is investing an undisclosed amount of capital in Reynolds’ company for a minority stake. While Nexon isn’t sharing how much it invested, just assume it’s a very early-stage investment. The deal will give Nexon worldwide publishing rights for SecretNewCo’s flagship game, which has an appropriately named working title of “SecretNewGame.” SecretNewCo’s flagship game itself sounds reminiscent of Civilization. The title is a “mobile strategic social network game” where the player begins as the leader of a tribe in the Stone Age and has to guide their civilization through all ages of human history. Like in Civilization, they can trade with their friends, launch raids enemies, form alliances and defend against attacks from other players. Nexon is making this deal to appeal to Western audiences after building up longstanding franchises in China, Japan and South Korea like MapleStory. “We have had our eye on a few people in the West and Europe who we’ve been thinking about for awhile,” said Nexon’s chief financial officer Owen Mahoney. “When Reynolds left Zynga, we struck up a conversation about what his next plans were.” While Nexon generated nearly $450 million in revenues in the first three months of this year, European and North American markets contributed less than 5 percent of the company’s revenues during that time. In contrast, China makes up nearly half of Nexon’s revenue base. So the company is looking grow its presence in the West at a time when barriers between international markets are falling. Games that have historically done well only in Japan or China, now have the ability to reach a fully global audience through the Android and iOS platforms. Japan’s mega-hit Puzzles & Dragons is now at 16th place on the grossing charts in the U.S. while Western titles like King’s Candy Crush Saga and Supercell’s Clash of Clans are doing well there. More deals with Western game developers could patch up Nexon’s offerings in these markets. Mahoney says Nexon is looking at acquisitions and strategic investments of all sizes, from very early-stage deals to ones thatIncredible Labs, Maker Of Personal Assistant App Donna, Cuts 25% Of Staff After Launch
Jul 16, 11:51PM
Incredible Labs, the startup which built personal assistant app Donna, reduced headcount this week, as it seeks to streamline operations and improve its balance sheet while trying to raise its Series A round. The layoffs came just a few weeks after Incredible Labs finally released its app to the public.TC Cribs: A Trip To Houzz, The Startup HQ That Feels Like Home
Jul 16, 11:10PM
Welcome back for a brand spankin' new episode of Cribs, the TechCrunch TV show that knocks on the front doors of some of the tech industry's hottest companies to take a look inside their offices. This time, we headed about 30 miles south of San Francisco to the leafy, sunny, startup-happy paradise that is Palo Alto, California. There we visited Houzz, the startup that brings inspirational home design ideas to the web. Given Houzz's focus, we expected to find a nice-looking office -- and we certainly weren't disappointed.Path Is Raising $50M At A $500M Valuation, Still Looking For A Lead Investor
Jul 16, 10:44PM
Path is raising a $50 million Series C round at a $500 million post-money valuation. Sources tell us the company is still seeking a lead investor, the round is currently oversubscribed, and one of the investors in the round is "a strategic private investment group in Asia." This contradicts an earlier report from us that said the company was raising at a valuation as high as $1 billion. Sources say that Path was never raising at a valuation as high as $1 billion, but is still having some difficulty with this round.Marissa Mayer Says Yahoo Has 340M Monthly Users On Mobile, Promises To Improve Display Ads, Video
Jul 16, 10:32PM
One of the big themes that CEO Marissa Mayer kept returning to during the webcast discussing Yahoo's second-quarter earnings was mobile. "Yahoo's future is mobile," she said, noting that the company now sees 340 million monthly mobile users. She didn't offer any earlier mobile traffic numbers to illustrate growth, but to show the company's commitment in this area, she said that the mobile team has grown by 6x. Many of those new team members have joined Yahoo through what Mayer called "tuck-in or talent acquisitions," and she said we can expect those deals to continue at a similar pace.Google Opens The New Google Maps For Web To Everyone
Jul 16, 9:49PM
Remember that shiny new Maps web interface that Google started showing off at I/O back in May? It's here! Technically, the new Maps interface has actually been here for a while... assuming you signed up for an invite shortly after it was announced, and were able to make it through Google's invite queue before they opened the floodgates.With Its $5 Billion Share Buyback Program, Yahoo Still Has A Big Pile Of Cash For Acquisitions
Jul 16, 9:32PM
Yahoo just released its mixed Q2 earnings, and a few sentences may have given the answer everyone was waiting for — yes, Yahoo still has plenty of cash to pursue more acquisitions. Evidence of this lies in the company’s share buyback program. “During the second quarter of 2013 Yahoo repurchased 25 million shares for $653 million,” one can read in the release. Those are part of a bigger $5 billion program. These shares can be reissued and sold for cold cash any day. Back in September 2012, Marissa Mayer decided to sell 40 percent of Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba for $7.6 billion. $3.65 billion was set aside to reinvest in Yahoo shares, proving that the company is confident in its own future. “We are happy to announce that as of today we have essentially completed our commitment to return $3.65 billion from our Alibaba Group proceeds to shareholders, repurchasing a total of 190 million shares,” wrote CFO Ken Goldman in today’s earnings release. But the company will now go even further. It has a $5 billion share buyback authorization with the SEC and it plans to use this authorization in full. In other words, reports of the disappearance of Yahoo’s cash after the $1.1 billion Tumblr acquisition have been greatly exagerated. For those who are not familiar with a stock buyback program, the stock can either be canceled or reissued at a later date. In case it is reissued it is a big win for the company because existing shares are not diluted and the new shares just keep the same stock number, just like nothing happened. They are other advantages as well. For example, it shows that Yahoo if very confident, saying more or less that there is no better investment than its own stock. It slightly raises the price of existing shares as there are less outstanding shares. For the past twelve months, Yahoo shares have been doing very well. With a share price of 15.65 on July 16, 2012, today’s price of 26.88 represents an incredible 71.8 percent increase in just a year. That’s better than Google, Apple or eBay. Yahoo’s share buyback program has paid off so far and the company could spend more than $3.65 billion in acquisitions, because the value of its portfolio is worth more today. As long as the stock goes up, it’s a good strategy. So today’s earnings taught entrepreneurs andBitcoin Transactions Rise As Economic Unrest Hits Argentina
Jul 16, 9:16PM
Bitcoin has created an interesting solution for problematic economies. Because it allows seamless extraction of wealth out of a bank account and into the cloud, Argentinians have been ramping up usage of the cryptocurrency in an effort to stem the effects of their worsening economy and their choice to go BTC is actually moving the market slightly. Even as BTC penetration in other countries remains flat or down, Argentina’s portion of Bitcoin downloads has risen from 1% of the whole to 3% and interest in the currency is at an all time high. According to The Genesis Block, the country’s first Bitcoin meetup group started in 2008 with eight members and is now up in the 400 member range. The post goes into the economic details of the move towards Bitcoin but in short, the Argentinian government fined a group of economists for recalculating inflation to much higher levels than the official party line. In addition, dollars are being used as an alternative currency thanks to a weak peso and the potential for capital controls like those happening in Cyprus. Argentinians just want to get their money out of banks and, to that end, they’re trusting variable BTCs over their own currency. In all financial reporting there is always a bit of if-then conjecture. However, the rise in interest in Bitcoin in this part of the world connects to some real world political choices. It’s a fascinating example of how the currency is taking on a life of its own and, more importantly, becoming a viable investment alternative.Microsoft Asks Attorney General To Release Gag Order On NSA Spying
Jul 16, 8:56PM
Microsoft is tired of getting pummeled in the press over reports that it hands over emails and Skype conversations to the National Security Agency. Unfortunately, the federal gag order related to the NSA is so strict that companies can’t even talk about the existence of the program. Today, Microsoft begged issued a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to release the gag order so that that they can dispel rumors. “I'm writing to ask you to get involved personally in assessing the Constitutional issues raised by Microsoft and other companies that have repeatedly asked to share publicly more complete information about how we handle national security requests for customer information.” The letter followed a categorical denial that Microsoft provides special access to the NSA. “We do not provide any government with the ability to break the encryption, nor do we provide the government with the encryption keys,” tweeted Microsoft General Counsel, Brad Smith. Yahoo recently won a court case that will allow it to prove that they fought the NSA, so there’s room for Microsoft to be optimistic. The full letter has been pasted below: Dear Attorney General Holder: I'm writing to ask you to get involved personally in assessing the Constitutional issues raised by Microsoft and other companies that have repeatedly asked to share publicly more complete information about how we handle national security requests for customer information. In my opinion, these issues are languishing amidst discussions among multiple parts of the Government, the Constitution itself is suffering, and it will take the personal involvement of you or the President to set things right. Since the initial leak of NSA documents, Microsoft has engaged constructively with the Department of Justice,the FBI, and other members of the Intelligence Community on the ground rules governing our ability to addressthese issues and the leaked documents publicly. We have appreciated the good faith in which the Government hasdealt with us during this challenging period. But we're not making adequate progress. When the Department andFBI denied our requests to share more information, we went to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)on June 19 to seek relief. Almost a month later, the Government is still considering its response to our motion. Last week we requested official permission to publicly explain practices that are the subject of newly-leaked documents that refer to Microsoft and have now been misinterpreted in news stories around the world. ThisrequestU.S. Government Can No Longer Be Trusted To Protect The Internet From International Power Grabs
Jul 16, 8:14PM
In the wake of Edward Snowden's whistleblowing, the United States government can no longer be seen as a beneficent or even merely benign actor on the Internet. That could have disastrous consequences, first in reducing trust in the cloud and its American hosts and second in potentially upending Internet governance.After Acquisitions Aplenty, Yahoo Q2 Beats With EPS At 35 Cents, But Revenue Flat Again At $1.07B
Jul 16, 8:12PM
The day for purple exclamation points (or lack thereof) has arrived. Yahoo just released its earnings report for the second quarter of 2013, with better-than-expected (non-GAAP) net earnings of $386 million, or 35 cents per share. Revenue (excluding traffic acquisition costs) was flat compared to last year, at $1.07 billion.Charitable Water Filter Maker Soma Raises $3.7M Seed Round
Jul 16, 8:07PM
Soma, a startup that’s hoping to be the Warby Parker of water filters, has closed a $3.7 million round of seed funding led by Baseline Ventures and Forerunner Ventures. Other backers include Lerer Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Cowboy Ventures, Vast Ventures, Mindful Investors, The 4-Hour Workweek’s Tim Ferriss, Coca-Cola’s Rohan Oza, and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy of JOYUS. The San Francisco-based company, which raised $150,000 from over 2,000 backers through a Kickstarter campaign in 2012, closed a $1.2 million initial seed round last summer. Targeted at do-gooder design and sustainability snobs, Soma produces glass carafes fitted with biodegradable water filters. It’s a subscription service where consumers buy the carafe and starter filter for $87, and Soma sends a replacement filter every two months for $14.99. For every filter that sells, Soma donates money to charity: water, which funds clean water projects around the world. This one-to-one model is well established with companies like TOMS Shoes and Warby Parker, although Soma simply donates money rather than giving away the actual product as TOMS and Warby Parker do. This is probably wise, since a well gets to the root of providing clean water more effectively than an elegant carafe would. CEO and co-founder Mike Del Ponte told us that because tech companies have so much growth potential, it is the ideal space to couple business with doing good. Del Ponte, who has a background in philanthropic work and marketing, declined to disclose how much Soma donates to Charity: Water with each purchase. This most recent round of funding will go toward building the Soma team, marketing, and developing new products. In August, they will ship to the 2,000 Kickstarter backers who prepurchased decanters, and sales will open up to the public on Soma’s website in September. Despite the expenses of the product’s high-quality sustainable materials and the donations to Charity: Water, Del Ponte said Soma has healthy margins because of its direct to consumer production structure. By avoiding the costs of going through a retailer, Soma can invest in its brand experience, something that will be essential to roping in those design and sustainability elitists. Soma’s advisers include Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker, Katia Beauchamp of Birchbox, and Eric Ryan of Method, the biodegradable soap company, all of whom the company is looking to emulate in one way or another. With a solid roster of investors, new products in the works for 2014, andWe Can All Go Home Now. Piracy Is Mostly Dead
Jul 16, 7:56PM
According to a report by Norwegian researchers at Ipsos, piracy has fallen alarmingly in that country thanks to viable alternative sources. For example, music piracy has fallen from 1.2 billion songs in 2008 to 210 million last year. About 60 million movies and TV shows were pirated last year, compared to 125 million and 135 million five years ago. In short, access to paid content, whether via streaming or a la carte services, is slowly whittling away the impetus to pirate.Microsoft Releases A Hobbled Outlook iOS App That Pretty Much No One Will Use
Jul 16, 7:50PM
Outlook is now available for the iPhone and iPad. Kind of. Don't expect full Outlook functionality. This isn't a MS Office Outlook app; this is Microsoft's stripped down mail, calendar and contact app found in Windows 8. It's free to download to iOS devices right now. But, in typical Microsoft fashion, it's not that simple.Keen On… Brian Solis: WTF Is The Future Of Business?
Jul 16, 7:00PM
Altimeter Group analyst Brian Solis is now thinking way beyond Twitter and Facebook. The future of digital business, Solis says, is "shared experiences". In his lavishly illustrated new book (itself a memorable media experience), What's The Future of Business (WTF): Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences, Solis reminds us that all new technology businesses must be experiential.Last Chance To Get Tickets To The Seattle Meetup + Pitch-Off On July 18
Jul 16, 6:57PM
There ain't no party like a TechCrunch party 'cause a TechCrunch party don't stop. So hopefully you're ready, Seattle, because in just two days the TechCrunch Meetup + Pitch-Off is going to rock your socks off.KeepSafe, The Private Photo Gallery App, Raises $3.4M And Grows To 13M Users
Jul 16, 6:56PM
KeepSafe, which creates a password-locked photo gallery on people’s phones, just raised $3.4 million in a round led by Floodgate. They’ve also grown to 13 million users, 6 million of whom are active every month. This is probably not a perfect way of putting it, but one could argue that KeepSafe attacks a market that overlaps a little bit with Snapchat. Many of the reviews for KeepSafe on the Google Play market say things like, “The best to hide hot pics” or “Great if you have kids and a spicy sex life with your wife.“ So it seems that there is an audience of parents who often let their kids borrow and play with their phones, but don’t want them to see more adult content. That said, the app’s founder, Zouhair Belkoura, has always said that he and most other users rely on KeepSafe for more mundane things like separating out work sketches and ideas from personal photos of friends and family. Most privacy-centric social networks and photo-sharing apps that I’ve seen have had trouble growing and competing with Facebook or Instagram, but KeepSafe seems to solve a basic problem that many people and parents want fixed. The app was only launched a year and a half ago, and 6 million monthly actives is not a bad place to be right now. With the round, Mike Maples of Floodgate will join the company’s board. Existing investors like Asset Management and Strive also participated. KeepSafe will use the funding to hire more engineering and product development talent. They earn revenue through selling premium services like providing a fake PIN lock screen. (One wonders why someone would want to pay for a fake PIN lock screen in addition to a normal PIN screen, but maybe we live in an extra paranoid society where people have things they want to double-protect.)2 Years With No f8, But Facebook Acquisition Parse Plans Its Own Dev Conference Sept 5th
Jul 16, 6:42PM
Facebook's last big f8 conference was September 2011. It wants to get closer to developers, though, so its recently acquired mobile app backend-as-a-service Parse will hold Parse Developer Day on Sept. 5th in San Francisco. Tickets to Parse's first conference are on sale to the public, all proceeds go to the CodeNow charity, and Parse and Facebook engineers will be on hand to give devs a leg up.Chrome 29 Beta Brings WebRTC and Web Audio API To Android, Omnibox Improvements, VP9 Support To Desktop
Jul 16, 6:33PM
Google today released the first beta version of Chrome 29 for desktop and Android. Most of the major changes in this update are happening on the Android platform, which now supports the Web Audio API for processing and synthesizing audio and WebRTC, the up-and-coming real-time communication API.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.
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