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Rushmore, The Music Community Co-Founded By Betaworks, Merges With Live Video Platform Zuzeen
Jan 21, 12:52PM
Today London-based music startup Rushmore is announcing a merger that looks to bolster its artist-to-fan proposition. It's joining forces with Madrid-based startup Zuzeen, a service that allows musicians to broadcast live interactive video performances to their fans. At the same time, Rushmore has disclosed a new $1.2m round of funding from Kibo Ventures and Betaworks.Evernote, Deutsche Telekom Expand Freemium Partnership To 12 Markets, 57M Users
Jan 21, 12:52PM
Evernote, which now has 4 million users in Europe, is stepping up its bid to pick up more. Today the company is announcing a new deal with Deutsche Telekom to offer Evernote Premium free for six months to mobile users across DT's entire network, covering 12 markets and 57 million users, with a preinstalled Android app. (The full list is Albania, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, as well as Germany.) The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but this is an extension of a partnership between the two that started last year in DT's home market of Germany.Freshdesk Targets Small Businesses With New IT Service Desk In The Cloud
Jan 21, 12:45PM
![freshservice-ticketing[1][3]](http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/freshservice-ticketing13.png?w=100&h=70&crop=1)
Freshdesk, which raised $7 million in Series C funding from Accel India and Tiger Global in November last year, is using some of that capital to enter the IT service management (ITSM) market currently dominated by BMC’s Remedy and ServiceNow. The new product, Freshservice, is a cloud-based service desk solution to help customers deliver their internal IT support. Freshservice combines some of the startup’s existing capabilities in the cloud with easy-to-use features built like a gamification app. The IT service management (ITSM) market is dominated by slow growing but established incumbents such as IBM, CA, BMC (Remedy) and HP. This market witnessed one of its first disruptions when ServiceNow was launched in 2004 by Fred Luddy, a former CTO of Peregrine Systems. ServiceNow used SaaS model to woo existing customers of its much bigger rivals, and is now expected to report over $400 million in revenue for 2013. It’s currently valued at around $8 billion. But Freshdesk founder Girish Mathrubootham told me that there’s still room for more disruption in this space. “We want to take ‘the boring’ out of IT service help desks with Freshservice. We already have some 70 trials going on with customers who are looking for change,” he said. Girish, a former top executive at Zoho, founded Freshdesk in December 2010. Freshdesk started by challenging Zendesk on cost and ease of use, and has so far made some good progress by signing over 15,000 paying customers including Sony Pictures and 3M. Freshdesk’s recent progress also underscores the rise of SaaS startups from India that are beginning to expand globally. Subscription billing startup ChargeBee, Wingify and MobStac are among such companies. Freshservice charges anywhere between $20 to $49 per month (subject to number of users), and has already signed up some paying customers including UK-based transportation company Belville Rodair International. “We spend 80% of our time supporting internal customers. Freshservice helped us setup a helpdesk in less than an hour, with no infrastructure and no risk,” said Claus Rasmussen, director IT of Belville Rodair in a statement. Freshservice is hoping that by staying away from targeting bigger customers already working with the incumbents, it can quietly build a new business. However, rivals such as Microsoft are beginning to take notice of the IT service management market. Microsoft acquired Parature, a customer service SaaS provider, for $100 million earlier this month. “We have taken the same core functionality of Freshdesk and are entering aInstagram Is The Fastest-Growing Social Site Globally, Mobile Devices Rule Over PCs For Social Access
Jan 21, 12:30PM
Pinterest may have passed Twitter in popularity in the U.S. according to new figures out last month from Pew, but globally the social network to watch may be Facebook-owned Instagram. According to research published today by the Global Web Index, Instagram is growing the fastest of all social media sites worldwide, increasing its active user base by 23% in the last six months. But on an overall basis, it's still behind the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn -- which come respectively in at positions 1-5 of the world's most popular social platforms in terms of penetration.Apple Patents Multi-Service Digital TV And Radio To Avoid Ads, Buttonless MacBook Touchpad
Jan 21, 12:19PM
Apple has a couple of new patents today (via AppleInsider), including one for an audio and video media service that would switch intelligently and automatically between sources in order to provide users with a constant stream of stuff they actually want to watch and listen to, as well as helping them dodge ads. A second patent describes a new design for MacBook trackpad hardware that does away with the need for a physical button. The first patent is potentially the most interesting, since it essentially paints a picture of a service like iTunes Radio, but with the added benefit that it can use multiple different services to source media, including online streaming services, FM radio and more. A user would create a playlist or station by expressing some preferences about what they want to see or hear (it’s designed to work with both audio and video content) and then sit back and enjoy as it switches between content sources when songs end, or when commercials interject. To make it seamless, the service described in the patent could record content that fits a users demand on other channels if there’s a conflict in schedule, and also tap the user’s own offline library of media on their devices. Think of it like an intelligent channel surf, except extending across the range of Internet media sources. The system takes into account various elements when determining what to play next, including metadata about the artist and track, volume, and even hue and color in terms of video programming. A user would control it via a GUI that resembles an FM tuner according to the patent, letting them tweak their preferences to alter the stream. It’s a very ambitious project, and one that seems likely to anger content partners since it can dodge ads on various services, but it’s still something that you can see replacing current methods of engaging with TV and music. Still, if this is on the horizon, expect it to require a lot more refinement and working out before it makes an appearance. The other patent is for a touchpad design for MacBooks that gets rid of the physical button aspect entirely, but replaces it with a similar sensation. Currently, MacBook support both capacitive touch-based input and physical keypresses, but the keypress requires different amounts of force depending on where you strike thanks to a hinged design, and is subject toCybersecurity Startup Aorato Exits Stealth With A 'Behavior Firewall', $10M In Funding
Jan 21, 10:07AM
Make way for another startup in the area of cybersecurity: Aorato, which has developed a behavior-monitoring firewall for the Microsoft Active Directory services is coming out of stealth today. At the same time, the Israel and New York-based company is announcing funding of $10 million, with investors including Accel, Trusteer's co-founders Mickey Boodaei and Rakesh Loonkar, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors and Glilot Capital Partners.Mobile Ad Market Spending To Hit $18BN In 2014, Rising To ~$42BN By 2017, Says Gartner
Jan 21, 10:03AM
In a new report on the mobile ad market, analyst Gartner is projecting a slowing in the growth rate over the next three years, owing to mobile ad inventory outpacing demand. But despite supply temporarily bubbling up to overtake demand — as the number of mobile websites and apps proliferate faster than brands request ad space on the small screen – it still expects advertisers to show what it describes as “sustained interest” in the medium over the coming years. And the size of the market to swell considerably. Gartner said it expects global mobile advertising spending to reach $18 billion this year, up from the estimated $13.1 billion in 2013. By 2017 it’s projecting the market will have sized up to be worth $41.9 billion. From 2015 to 2017 Gartner said growth will be fuelled by “improved market conditions” — citing provider consolidation, measurement standardisation and new targeting technologies as likely areas helping to underpin and bolster the market. All global regions will experience “strong growth”, according to the analyst, although North American is projected to take the lion’s share of growth — owing to the very large scale of ad budgets in the region and their shift to mobile. It is also, after Japan/Asia Pac, the region where mobile advertising is most mature. In terms of mobile ad types, video will show the highest growth — with the category being driven by tablets and growth in tablet ownership — but display formats are expected to make up the most revenue. Gartner added that it expects the display category to shift to mobile web display after several years of higher growth in in-app display. Although it added that this shift is taking longer than expected, owing to the use of HTML5 tools in mobile website development “taking longer to impact the market”. Other mobile ads types that are expected to get a boost during the forecast period include search/map ad types — which Gartner expects to benefit from increased use of location data gathered from mobile users opting in to location services or proactively checking in to the places they visit via their use of apps such as Foursquare and Pinterest. It said this in turn will drive local advertisers to become more interested in the mobile channel. Turning to other regions, Western Europe is forecast to see a slightly lower scale in mobile advertising than North America over the period, but GartnerVerizon Ramps Up In TV, Buys Troubled OnCue And The Rest Of Intel Media From Intel
Jan 21, 9:07AM
As Verizon gears up to report its quarterly results later today, the company has jumped a little deeper into the TV services pool. It has acquired Intel Media, a group of cloud TV assets that includes the OnCue Clould TV platform -- widely considered a failure for never getting off the ground, leading Intel to see a buyer. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but were reportedly in the range of $500 million when the deal was being reported in November 2013.Beats Will Shut Down MOG Music April 15; MOG Founder Joins Stealth Mobile Startup Chosen.fm
Jan 21, 7:20AM
As Beats Music turns up the volume on its new streaming service (which is now live in the App Store), it is calling it a day on MOG, the streaming service it acquired in 2012 reportedly for $10-15 million, and which forms the backbone of Beats Music: it will shut MOG down on April 15.Life Graphy Is A Simple But Refreshing New Take On To-Do List Apps
Jan 21, 5:08AM
There are so many to-do list apps now that instead of figuring out the differences between all of them, it might seem like a better use of time to just go back to pen and paper (or the infamous white board). But iOS app Life Graphy lends a refreshing new twist to task management. It lets you visualize how many things you manage to complete over the course of each month with a unique calendar view and pie charts (which it calls "masks") for each day.Asia Pacific PC Shipments Fell 10% In 2013, IDC Says
Jan 21, 4:23AM
PC shipments in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) fell by 10% in 2013 to 108 million units, marking the region’s first ever double digit decline in recent years, according to IDC. While Lenovo retained its top spot with around 24.9% market share in the region, it still reported a decline in annual growth by 9.5%. HP was the only PC vendor to see growth, thanks to huge Indian government orders it received during the year. Like elsewhere in the world, PC makers in Asia have been hurt by growing adoption of smartphones and tablets. According to mobile research firm Mediacells, India and China together will buy around half a billion smartphones in 2014. “2014 is expected to remain another challenging year for the PC market, as competition will only grow among the devices,” said Handoko Andi of IDC Asia/Pacific. “The year ended on a somber note for the PC market, as it declined for the second consecutive year. Distraction from competing devices, ongoing pessimism in the economy and exchange rate pressures were among the factors impacting the market this year,” Andi added in the statement. As Alex Wilhelm of TechCrunch pointed out earlier this month, 2013 will remain a decidedly black eye on the PC market’s history. Many first time users in the emerging markets of Asia are skipping PCs and are using their smartphones and tablets as their primary computing device. This makes it even tougher for PC makers in the region to expect any kind of rebound this year. Gartner had said on January 9 that global PC shipments suffered the worst decline in history, primarily because of the shift to smartphones and tablets in emerging markets.Google's "High Handed" Bus Memo
Jan 21, 12:14AM
Like the last time people tried busing as a solution to a socioeconomic problem, the tech busing in San Francisco has become a hot-button topic. The Google buses, described as "spaceships" containing "alien overlords" by writer Rebecca Solnit, have become potent symbols for income inequality within the city. Beyond the transportation issues, they are now symbolic of other unwanted repercussions of the tech boom, including rising housing costs, Ellis Act evictions and a "let them eat cake" mentality very publicly exhibited by many tech-employed, Bay Area newcomers.Namo Media Brings More Flexibility To Native Mobile Ads, Announces Former Facebook VP Badros As Advisor
Jan 20, 10:59PM
It's been nearly a year since I last wrote about Namo Media, the native ad startup founded by former Googler Gabor Cselle and backed by Google Ventures, so I caught up with Cselle today and he told me that the startup just launched an important new feature for publishers. Basically, Namo now allows publishers to easily adjust the placement of ads in their streams of content. Cselle showed me a web interface where, with just a couple of clicks, he could adjust where the first ad appeared in the stream, and then how frequently new ads would follow. Within a few seconds, those changes took effect in the demo app.The Syrian Electronic Army Compromises Microsoft's Office Blog In New Round Of Digital Shenanigans
Jan 20, 10:44PM
The Syrian Electronic Army isn't much a fan of Microsoft it seems. After compromising Microsoft social accounts, and one of its blogs, the group today defaced the company's Office Blog, directly following a redesign of the property.HBO Doesn't Care If You Share Your HBO Go Account… For Now.
Jan 20, 10:02PM
The Internets are ablaze this morning after comments from HBO's CEO about users sharing their HBO Go accounts. According to most reports out there today, the company couldn't care less who you share your account with. Share your account with everyone! Free love forever! Hurray! The catch: that's… not quite what he's saying.Parsing HP's Decision To Push Windows 7 More Than A Year Into The Windows 8 Era
Jan 20, 9:00PM
Citing popular demand, HP is now pushing personal computers running Windows 7 over Windows 8 on its online store, a simple slight to Microsoft’s nascent Windows 8.x platform. (Update: The ever excellent Ed Bott has some good notes on what HP is not doing — running scared back into Windows 7′s arms — but more that it is refocusing its marketing notes. It’s worth reading.) It’s fair to say that Windows 8 had a rough start to market, and while a firm improvement, Windows 8.1 hasn’t been met with the enthusiasm that Microsoft likely hoped. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 control a shared 10.5% of the global traditional computing market, as measured by NetMarketShare. Still, with a revamped user interface, and a new focus on mobile computing, many consumers have found the new operating system confusing. Nothing I have said thus far is controversial I think, so let’s move on to the why of HP’s decision. HP think has two goals in mind for selling, and pushing Windows 7 machines at this moment: Increase its unit volume by selling machines more comfortable to its customer base, and reducing the cost of support for newly sold systems. Friends of mine that work with OEMs have told me that margins are so low for some, that a single support call to the manufacturer erodes a unit’s entire margin. So reducing support calls is a key metric for OEMs. Which operating system, on a per capita system basis do you think generates more call volume for OEMs, Windows 8.x or Windows 7? Even if you could make the argument — and many will, of course — that Windows 8 is intrinsically better than Windows 7 in a number of ways, if you are an OEM you simply don’t care: You want fewer support calls, not necessarily a slightly better long-term user experience with your machine. The margin pressure on the former event is more important than future potential margin on the latter. The HP decision has another dimension worth mentioning, I think. By making this decision now, HP is almost refuting its own holiday lineup of Windows 8.x-based machines. So, it’s saying that whatever it had in place through December, it now wants to revamp. Given that Gartner tracks HP as dropping quite a lot of market share in the PC market during the fourth quarter, a shakeup isn’t too surprising. Microsoft still sells anLG's Curved Display G Flex Smartphone Will Go Up For AT&T Pre-Order On January 24
Jan 20, 8:15PM
Curved displays are officially a thing. The LG G Flex, the Korean company’s latest attempt to battle back Samsung, is going to be available for pre-order at AT&T starting this Friday, January 24. Sprint pulled the trigger last week, announcing that the phone would be available for pre-order on January 31, but AT&T has obviously beaten the yellow carrier to the punch by a week. Still, AT&T never mentioned in its announcement when the phone would actually be delivered to customers or available in-store, but all signs point to the phone’s imminent arrival. T-Mobile will also carry the curved screen phone eventually, but has made no moves toward announcing availability just yet. As for AT&T, the LG G Flex will be available at the flagship price of $299.99 with a two-year contract or through the new Next financing plans. The LG G Flex marks the first curved display phone to be available in the U.S., but you can bet it won’t be the last. Curved displays, both in smartphones and other gadgets like TVs, have been a major focus for electronics manufacturers in the past year, so you should expect to see plenty more. The ultra curious can check out specs here.Remeasuring Yahoo's Alibaba Goldmine
Jan 20, 8:05PM
Let’s go back in time. In 2005, Yahoo purchased 40 percent of the Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba for $1 billion. The move would later all but save the American company. While Yahoo, under the leadership of its yet-new CEO Marissa Mayer has shown fresh dynamism, and has rebuilt its reputation in the technology market as its mobile push has matured, the company’s core financial performance metrics have dragged. Revenue has sagged, as have earnings. For all its vaunted mobile growth, Yahoo has not managed to turn around its advertising business, even as its search incomes have been lackluster. Why then the dramatic rise in its share price over the past few years? It goes back to that Alibaba purchase made nearly a decade ago. Yahoo sold 40% of its 40% Alibaba stake in 2012 for a massive $7.6 billion. The company now owns a more modest 24% of Alibaba. (Media reports tend to indicate that Yahoo owns 24% of Alibaba, while the below linked company report indicates 23%.) It doesn’t want to shed a share of that remaining equity so long as it can. That’s due to the simple fact that at Alibaba’s current growth rates, the longer Yahoo holds on its shares in the company, the more money it makes. How do we know that Yahoo wants to hang onto its Alibaba equity? A recent agreement that lowered the percentage of its extant holdings that it must sell at the time of Alibaba’s IPO. Here’s Yahoo at the end of its prior deal to sell some of its shares back to Alibaba: Today’s announcement is the first step in a staged and comprehensive value realization plan for Yahoo!’s stake in Alibaba. Under the terms of the agreement, the second phase allows for Yahoo! to monetize approximately half of its remaining stake at the time of an initial public offering (IPO) of Alibaba at the IPO price. Lastly, after an IPO, Yahoo! has the right to sell its remaining shares following a customary lock-up period. However, in late 2013, Yahoo got a partial reprieve. As I reported at the time: Today in conjunction with its third quarter earnings release, Yahoo announced that it has come to a new agreement with Alibaba that will force the company to sell less of its shares in the Chinese ecommerce firm when it goes public. The number of shares that Yahoo will be required to sell now totals 208 million. That figure3plet Brings The Album Experience Back To Digital Music
Jan 20, 7:18PM
Some people still buy CDs, and there are still some hipsters left who swear by vinyl, but for most of us, music now comes in the form of DRM-free MP3s or whatever streaming format Spotify uses. This has meant the end of reading liner notes, printed lyrics as part of the CD booklet and all of the artwork that was often part of the whole album package. Even the concept of the album now often feels like an anachronism. 3plet wants to bring all of this back by combining the advantages of the old CD experience with the best of what digital can offer.Korean Bitcoin Exchange Korbit Raises $400K From Angels, Bitcoin Opportunity Fund
Jan 20, 7:11PM
As Bitcoin trading and use spreads through medium-sized countries, local exchanges, wallets and processors are popping up left and right. South Korea’s Korbit is one of the latest and it’s picking up $400,000 in funding from angels including Tim Draper, AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant, SV Angel’s David Lee and SecondMarket CEO Barry Silbert, who created a Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. Also participating are Pietro Dova of XG Ventures, Michael Yang, co-founder of mySimon, and Jay Eum, co-founder of Translink Capital. Interestingly enough, Korea’s government Ministry of Science helped broker contact between the startup and its angels. They had organized a pitch event in Silicon Valley where Draper was the judge. The company, which is already profitable, does about $300,000 in trading volume per day with a 0.6 percent fee on buys and sells. They have about 20,000 registered users, and recently launched real-time processing for deposits and withdrawals. Although they are currently an exchange, they plan to launch wallets eventually. Right now, like many other countries, the South Korean government doesn’t recognize Bitcoin as a currency. But CEO Tony Lyu says the government seems to be taking a “wait-and-see” approach otherwise. It’s not clear yet if gaming platforms, search portals and other big consumer destinations on the web and mobile in South Korea will be able to charge in Bitcoin.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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