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.
YC-Backed Glio Aims To Be The "Yelp of Brazil" And Beyond in Latin America
Aug 07, 1:45AM
Even though Yelp is almost a decade old, the business model it pioneered with crowd-sourced local listings has yet to permeate the rest of the emerging world. A Y Combinator-backed startup called Glio is betting that it has a chance to dominate Brazil’s fractured local listings market. Co-founded by Roberto Riccio, a former professional poker player who entered college at 16, the site is just open to a few major cities in the country like Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo. But eventually, the company plans to expand beyond into Brazil’s mid-size cities and then into other Latin American markets like Argentina and Chile. Glio’s team got into Y Combinator on the third try, about two years after they originally launched the service. They now have about 10,000 reviews for restaurants and venues in Rio De Janeiro. They just launched a mobile app a few months ago. Riccio has some experience in building consumer web products for the local market, after creating one of the country’s more popular poker sites called MaisEV. Riccio said there is no existing dominant market incumbent, although there are competitors like Foursquare, Kekanto and Apontador. “We think there’s a very big opportunity for local advertising. Brazil has gone through a lot of growth in the last 10 years and there’s been a massive change. You suddenly have tens of millions of people with new access to the Internet,” Riccio said. “We think the timing is right.” At the same time, Riccio said his competitors are focused on restaurants. But there are broader categories of local data that user-generated reviews could tap into like with drug stores or local retail outlets. He said the startup is focused not only on getting reviews (since only a small percentage of users take the time and effort to do them). They also broadcast a wider band of a person’s activity on the site, with “likes” and “follows” helping to surface interesting venues or places. Glio has taken funding from Y Combinator and its associated fund, YC VC.I Built A Windows Phone App And It Freaking Sucks
Aug 07, 12:15AM
INTRO TALK ABOUT DARRELL’S PIECE LOOK NOW ANYONE CAN BUILD A WINDOWS PHONE APP! LET’S SEE WHAT THE OPTIONS ARE AN OPTION FROM ABOVE: Menu: Do you own a restaurant, or maybe just have that favorite place that you go to every week? Use this template to show your customers or your friends t… I DO NOT OWN A RESTAURANT SO I WILL SELECT ‘CREATE AN EMPTY APP’ THE LOGO UPLOAD FAILED. SORRY TECHCRUNCH NO FREE LOVE FOR YOU. LET’S SEE WHAT IS NEXT: TRYING TO ADD STUFF TO THE SOMETHING, I’M KINDA CONFUSED. OH IT WORKED, LOOK EVERYONE: MY APP NOW HAS A BUTTON THING. OK, HIT ME WITH THE NEW SHIT, MICROSOFT: WE’VE GONE FULL PINK. THERE IS A JOKE THERE SOMEHOW. BUT LET’S MOVE ON: OK ERIC, WE’RE ALMOST DONE. THE LONG AWAITED, TECHRUNCH APP FOR WINDOWS PHONE! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU WIN THE GAME: – Alex, you are certainly thinking, that’s unfair. Mostly, but not entirely. Microsoft has created a tool that makes it possible for anyone to create a simple Windows Phone application. You can download the source code as well, if you want to take things to the next level. It’s a somewhat appealing opportunity: Instead of making a complete fool of yourself trying to make the code compile, skip that and work with objects and relationships to get your first app off the ground. Apple and Google don’t offer similar tools, despite the fact that their platforms – iOS and Android respectively – are older than Windows Phone. What Windows Phone lacks is not a quantity of applications – it has 160,000. Instead what it lacks is a strong cadre of amazing applications. Any serious developer, the sort that could build one of the aforementioned amazing applications, will not be impressed with the above tool. For students, and others that might want to dabble in development, what Microsoft has put together is cool. In fact, if this was marketed to middle and high schools, it could go a long way to getting folks into development for the first time. The app creator tool lacks sufficient firepower to create applications whole-cloth that are ready for the Windows Phone Store. Is the builder tilted at students, or talented developers? The latter. Here’s Microsoft: We know you – the savvy developer filled with great ideas but not enough time. If only you had a way to quickly build and
Airport Car Rental Startup Silvercar Quietly Launches Service At SFO
Aug 06, 11:52PM
Airport car rental startup Silvercar has brought its simplified (and premium) car rental service to the Bay Area, launching this past weekend at SFO. The launch is part of a larger expansion that the company is ramping up, as it seeks to be at seven airports by the end of the year.VMware Hires Former SAP Mobile Chief Sanjay Poonen To Shore Up Executive Ranks
Aug 06, 11:01PM
Former SAP Mobile Chief Sanjay Poonen has been hired to run VMware’s end-user business, a move that will help to shore up the virtualization company’s executive ranks after a long run of high-profile departures. Poonen will join VMware as an executive vice president and general manager to run the business group that is home to the company’s Horizon suite, a platform designed for IT to manage users’ desktops and mobile devices. Poonen was most recently president and corporate officer of Platform Solutions and the Mobile Division at SAP AG. He worked at the company for seven years, starting in the analytics group. VMware has shifted course over the past 18 months. The virtualization leader has worked to become more of an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider. It has shed its end-user technologies, such as enterprise email platform Zimbra and slide presentation service SlideRocket. Socialcast, the activity stream technology it acquired, is still part of VMware. Its future appears to be more solid and has the potential to serve as a linchpin for the company’s mobile strategy. In July, VMware Socialcast launched a new version of its iOS mobile app and plans to launch more apps in the coming months. Poonen has 20 years of experience working with enterprise vendors in strategy and product management. It’s that experience that VMware needs after the departure of a number of executives, including CEO Paul Maritz who left to join parent company EMC as the No. 2 to Joe Tucci. Maritz is now leading Pivotal, the spinoff that includes groups from EMC and VMware. Steve Herod left in January as CTO to become a venture capitalist. The team that led Cloud Foundry moved on to Pivotal or left the company. VMware is now led by CEO Pat Gelsinger, who had been at EMC and then transferred to take on the CEO job. Poonen is well-regarded in the tech industry. In an interview he downplayed the significance of executives leaving VMware or of a “brain drain.” He instead calls it a chapter change for the company. He does not know what the next chapter will look like, but sees how SAP shifted in 2010 to a co-CEO team. Since then it has focused deeply on analytics and mobile, as well as a particular emphasis on startups and growing its developer community. Jon Reed is a longtime SAP mentor and expert about the company. He is part of aFail Week: When Kevin Ryan Held 7 Ugly Layoff Rounds - And Lost 'Total Credibility' As CEO
Aug 06, 10:59PM
As the Discovery Channel's Shark Week celebrates the ferocious creatures that inhabit the ocean, TechCrunch TV is holding a week-long homage to the dangers swimming under the surface in our own industry: Fail Week, a five day long video series that shines some light on the dark days that even the most successful tech entrepreneurs go through. We in the tech press don't talk nearly as much about failures as successes, and this is a small step toward changing that. Today's Fail Week story features Kevin Ryan, who has one of the most star-studded track records in the tech industry, having been the president and CEO of DoubleClick from 1996 up through the time of its $1.1 billion sale to Hellman and Friedman in 2005 (a couple years before its $3.1 billion sale to Google) and the founder of luxury flash sale pioneer Gilt Groupe, among other things.Meet Appidemia, A Beautiful Application Guide For iOS In Case You Need More Distractions
Aug 06, 10:44PM
Today Appricot released Appidemia, an application guide for iOS that helps you find new software to play with, and keep track of what your friends are using. It has the added quality of being one of the prettiest applications I've used on any phone. Once a platform expands past a certain size, the sheer scale of its app catalog can become ponderous. How the heck do you find what you need? iOS, Android and Windows Phone, and so forth all struggle with this issue. I'd say that anything more than 10,000 applications becomes messy. Messy in the best possible sense, of course, given that more choice is not a bad thing in this case. You do, however, need a way to cut through the chaff.Facebook Toys With Twitter-Style Feed Order For Posts About Real-Time Events
Aug 06, 9:11PM
Facebook could soon look a little like Twitter. It's internally testing "Chronological By Actor," a new way to display updates about live events so they appear in order from most recent to oldest, surrounded by feed posts ranked by its traditional relevance-sorting. It's not ready yet, but the algorithm test denotes Facebook's keen interest in stealing Twitter's real-time social media crown.YouTube Network Fullscreen Sued By Music Publishers Over Unlicensed Cover Songs
Aug 06, 8:47PM
The National Music Publishers' Association, or NMPA, is suing YouTube network Fullscreen for copyright infringement, bringing the company to court primarily over the distribution of unlicensed cover song videos. At the same time, the publisher association has announced a deal in principle with Fullscreen competitor Maker Studios.TechCrunch China Is Our Latest International Expansion, And It's Live Now
Aug 06, 8:43PM
We’ve been busy expanding our coverage around the world and today our latest project is ready for you — if you’d prefer TechCrunch written in Chinese that is. You can now find translated TechCrunch articles available on TechCrunch.cn, via a partnership with Gang Lu and his Shanghai-based tech publication, Technode. We’ll gradually introduce original content in Chinese later on. Here’s his official statement on the matter: “There are loads of Chinese young entrepreneurs being educated by TechCrunch’s content and now we are happy to tell everyone that TechCrunch is now officially speaking Chinese (with the copyright, of course)! The launching of TechCrunch.cn is just the first goal we’ve done to link the Global and Chinese web industry. We will work closely with TechCrunch to bring global resource to China. Leveraging with TechNode’s resource in China, I am really looking forwards to meeting you all at TechCrunch Shanghai and meet-ups soon!” Over on our other non-English sister site, TechCrunch Japan, we also have a new editor. Ken Nishimura is a long-time tech writer (and software developer) in the country, and he’ll occasionally contribute to our main English site, too. We’re also increasing our focus on India by bringing on Mahesh Sharma, formerly of ZDNet. He started last week, and you’ll be hearing more about our India plans soon. These writers join Catherine Shu in Taiwan and Victoria Ho in Singapore, helping us cover the latest in tech and startups across Asia. And on the events side, there are a string of new city conferences coming later this year that we’re putting on together with local partners: TechCrunch Rome, September 25 to 26 TechCrunch Tokyo, November 11 to 12 TechCrunch Bangalore, November 14 to 15 TechCrunch Moscow, December 8 to 9 And last but not least, we’re doing our first Disrupt in Europe this fall — join us in Berlin this October 28 and 29.Zillow Posts Record Q2 Revenue Of $46.9M, But EPS Drops To $0.30 Loss, Traffic Up 66% YOY
Aug 06, 8:39PM
Online real-estate database Zillow has announced its earnings for its second financial quarter of 2013. The company, which saw its stock soar over the last few months, reported record revenue of $46.9 million, but a massive loss per share of $0.30 compared to the $0.05 loss it posted in the last quarter. The Wall Street estimate was that Zillow would post revenue of around $44.42 million and an EPS of -$0.11.Microsoft Goes WYSIWYG To Broaden The Appeal Of Windows Phone 8 App Development
Aug 06, 8:31PM
Microsoft has just revealed an interesting effort to get more apps to the Windows Phone Store, via its new Windows Phone App Studio, a visual, web-based editor for Windows Phone 8 apps, which launches in beta today. With it, anyone can build apps without code, using customizable themes and custom text, graphics and design.Yelp Will Add The Ability To Book Home Services Online With ReachLocal
Aug 06, 8:02PM
If you're looking to find home services ranging from movers to interior designers, you'll be able to do it all on Yelp by the end of the year. The popular review site will be adding a new option to book services online through a partnership with online marketing company ReachLocal. ReachLocal announced the beta version of its online booking system ReachCommerce yesterday, and is using the platform to integrate its services with consumers on Yelp. ReachCommerce is an SaaS management platform that tracks marketing efforts, customer interactions, purchases and appointments for small to medium-sized businesses. Any ReachCommerce user can now add a booking option right onto its Yelp business page.Causora Promotes Philanthropy By Matching Donations With Spa Gift Cards
Aug 06, 7:59PM
What if you could donate to charity, and get your money back in full? It seems like there would be a catch, but that's exactly what Causora is doing. The startup, which launched its platform a month ago, allows users to donate to nonprofit organizations and receive matching rewards in gift cards. Here's how it works: After registering on Causora, users can donate to more than 150 nonprofit organizations on the website. If you can't find the charity you're looking for, you can add it yourself, and it will appear on the site after it goes through Causora's verification process. When you donate, your account receives the same amount as your donation in Causora credits, which can be redeemed for vouchers in $20 increments to any of Causora's 150 partner merchants.Inside Foursquare's Growing Revenue, Which Could Reach $20M In 2013
Aug 06, 7:22PM
Aside from what Path is worth, the way in which Foursquare will monetize its user base and dataset is perhaps the most popular conversation over the second cocktail in Silicon Valley. At least if I’m there. Today, in a Fast Company profile, new figures were disclosed concerning Foursquare’s revenue: It’s growing. Ben Horowitz, a Foursquare investor, told Fast Company’s Austin Carr that Foursquare had brought in more than four times its total 2012 revenue by around the middle of the year. As both Carr and Alyson Shontell have noted, that puts Foursquare’s 2013 top line on a run rate between $15 million and $20 million. Compared to 2012′s painfully paltry $2 million in revenue, the new figures are — and we’re leaning on data released by an investor with a firm financial interest in Foursquare’s success — almost rosy. However, at its 2013 revenue pace, can Foursquare break even? Can it drive meaningful profit? Foursquare’s CEO and founder Dennis Crowley told Carr that his company has 160 employees. The old rule of thumb was that you could mentally budget $100,000 per employee in yearly costs, after taking into account rent, insurance costs, and the like. However, given Foursquare’s split profile between San Francisco and New York, I think that the old rule is outdated and far too conservative. Let’s be polite and assume that the figure is $150,000 per worker, giving Foursquare costs in 2013, for personnel alone, of $24 million. So before servers, advertising, expansion and SXSW parties are taken into account, Foursquare is still set to lose money in 2013. And I’d wager that its cash burn isn’t small. It has cash now, raised via convertible debt, but those accounts will depress in time. Foursquare will then have to raise money from private investors, the public markets, or seek an exit. Its ability to do any of the three will depend on its ability to accelerate its revenue growth in dollar terms, and, if it wants to go public, demonstrate profitability, at least briefly. Can it? Inside of Carr’s profile is a telling paragraph, delineating how Foursquare might generate new revenue. I quote at length to preserve voice: The biggest near-term revenue will likely come from the 1.4 million local merchants on the platform. The company plans to start charging them for its ad products on a cost-per-action basis later this year, which could prove a boon toKeen On… The Mobile Future: Why IT Might Not Happen
Aug 06, 7:00PM
"The future is already here, it's just not very evenly distributed", William Gibson famously said. But, with 20 billion connected devices existing by 2020, Gibson's optimism might be misplaced. Indeed, according to Ericsson CTO, Ulf Ewaldsson, the future - at least, our connected, mobile future - might not happen at all. And as the chief technology officer of the most global of networking infrastructure providers, Ewaldsson is as well placed as anyone to peer into our collective digital crystal ball.We Should… Be Better Friends
Aug 06, 7:00PM
We should go get drinks sometime soon. We should totally go on a trip to Atlantic City! You know what we should do? We should get everyone together for a parrrtyyyy! Yeah! It's easy to make plans, but keeping them is a different story. A new app launching out of New York aims to change all that. However, the aptly named WeShould app doesn't work like any of the social planning apps that have come before it.Sensor Tower Raises $1M To Help Mobile Developers Improve Their App Store Presence
Aug 06, 6:56PM
As Google Play and Apple’s iOS stores have become crowded with north of 1 million apps, it’s no longer practical to try and climb the overall top rankings for most developers. That’s why a series of startups focusing on search engine or app store optimization have emerged. They try and help apps that might practically not have a chance or the capital to break into the top of the charts gain visibility through search. San Francisco-based Sensor Tower is one of those. They’ve just closed a $1 million round of funding to deploy an app analytics service that tells developers how they might improve keywords in their apps’ descriptions. Rembrandt Ventures led the round, which also included Merus Capital, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Pejman Nozad, Mar Hershenson, Ariel Poler and Maneesh Arora. They were part of the AngelPad’s 2013 class. They’ll use the round to improve the Android version of the service and hire employees. Both co-founders, Oliver Yeh and Alex Malafeev, are app developers. They found that the cost to acquire new users — often at $1 or more (or even several dollars per user) — was too expensive. They started building Sensor Tower as their own personal tool and then opened it up to third-party developers. You can test drive how Sensor Tower works by typing the name of your application into the search bar on their homepage here. It shows which keywords pop up for a given app, and can tell a developer how well they rank for each keyword. The company naturally has a freemium model where they charge anywhere from $39 to $399 per month based on the number of keywords and apps a developer wants to track. The startup is profitable with about 10,000 developers using the service, including clients like Skype, GREE and Flipboard. These plans give developers data on how well their apps rank in given categories and for given keywords over a historical period of time. Sensor Tower also automatically generates a list of relevant competitors based on keywords. The startup is competing against a number of other app store optimization (or ASO) companies like AppCod.es, Appnique and AppStoreHQ.With Tynker's New Service, Kids Can Learn To Code At Home
Aug 06, 6:37PM
Mountain View-based Tynker, a startup focused on teaching children of all ages the basics of learning how to code, is now expanding its service beyond schools with today's debut of Tynker for Home. This new system is similar to the platform targeting teacher and classrooms which launched earlier this year. Tynker for Schools, as that previous suite is called, provides web-based software and a curriculum aimed at elementary and middle school students. The new home edition is designed for the same crowd.Google Search Starts Highlighting In-Depth Articles On Search Results Pages
Aug 06, 6:28PM
Google today announced a new feature for Google Search that highlights in-depth articles related to your search queries. Google says while many users just want a quick answer, its own research indicates that about 10% of people are looking for links to more in-depth stories. Over the next few days, then, the search engine will start highlighting these kind of articles on its search results pages.Google Drive Gets Updated Link Tool For Docs And Slide With Integrated Google Search
Aug 06, 6:13PM
Here is a small but useful update to Google Drive: The hyperlink tool, which isn't exactly the most glamorous part of any online editor, now automatically shows you top search results from Google, bookmarks in a document and related files on Drive that you can link to with just a simple click.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
