Study: U.S. Venture Capital Industry Expected To Shrink While Emerging Markets Grow

Deloitte and the National Venture Capital Association have released a report today indicating that U.S. venture capitalists expect their market to contract but anticipate growth in emerging markets, including China, India and Brazil, over the next five years. The 2010 global venture report surveyed over 500 VCs worldwide. According to the survey results, more than 90 percent of U.S. survey respondents, as well as VCs in Europe and Canada, expect the number of venture firms to decrease between now and 2015, while a majority of venture capitalists in China, India and Brazil anticipate adding more venture firms in their respective countries during the same time frame. U.S. VCs have a depressed view of the industry thanks to a weak IPO market and unfavorable tax and regulatory policies. More than half the U.S. respondents also believe that limited partners will be less inclined to invest in U.S. venture capital funds in the next five years. On the other hand, 99 percent of respondents in China expect the number of venture capital firms to increase in their country, followed by Brazil (97 percent) and India (85 percent). In terms of VC fundraising, 56 percent of U.S. respondents believe that limited partners will be less inclined to invest in U.S. venture capital. However, venture capitalists in Brazil (92 percent), China (91 percent) and India (76 percent) all believe limited partners will be more inclined to invest in their respective countries. Despite the confidence of respondents in VC markets in emerging markets, only 34 percent of all respondents expect to increase their investment activity outside their own country. The countries with the most interest in cross border investing include: France (56 percent), Israel (50 percent) and the United Kingdom (49 percent). Countries indicating the least interest in outside investing were Brazil (19 percent), India (15 percent) and China (11 percent). In the United States, venture capital respondents are of split opinion regarding valuations over the next five years with 32 percent expecting increases, 34 percent expecting decreases and 34 percent expecting valuations to hold steady. Valuation expectations are the most optimistic in India and China where 68 and 62 percent of the venture capitalists in those countries believe valuations will increase over the next five years. Only 10 percent of venture capitalist respondents in Israel and 6 percent of respondents in France see valuations increasing in their respective countries. Despite concerns over contracting industries in the U.S. and Europe, 57 percent of all respondents believe the quantity of deal flow will increase over the next five years and 56 percent expect the quality to improve as well. In terms of types of investments, 72 percent of U.S. respondents said that they could invest in the clean tech industry with 58 percent saying that would invest in new media/social networking startups. In fact, most respondents from all the countries surveyed said that they would invest in the clean tech industry. The attitude of the respondents is clearly negative when it comes to U.S. markets. While VC fundraising is up this year after last year’s recession, returns have continued to decline over the past ten years. And clearly growth and opportunity are overseas. This year, the venture industry’s biggest close came from Sequoia Capital’s Sequoia China Foreign Currency Fund III fund which secured $1 billion its early-stage fund during the first half of the year. While these recent findings are somewhat depressing, the hope is that long term returns will eventually increase in the next five years. CrunchBase Information National Venture Capital Association Information provided by CrunchBase

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Study: U.S. Venture Capital Industry Expected To Shrink While Emerging Markets Grow

Nixty Launches With Ambitions to Build Something Huge in eLearning

It’s easy to say that online education can never capture the full experience of being in a classroom, the one-on-one chats with the teacher, the face-to-face bonding with classmates, the simplicity of raising your hand when you have a question. Opening a chat window or sending an email just doesn’t compare. The question is: How much do people care about those differences? Because we heard the same argument with CDs versus MP3s, TV versus online video, reading physical books versus reading over a Kindle or iPad. Evidence has shown that in most categories a meaningful group of people will take convenience over immersive experience. So far, that hasn’t happened on a large scale in education, and as I wrote before , many Silicon Valley-based entrepreneurs and investors have given up trying. I got a flood of pitches from eLearning companies after that post and one in particular caught my eye because of the desire to build a huge company in this sector, and the realization that it has to be strongly global to win– something you usually hear companies outside of the US say. It’s called Nixty , and it’s launching today. The team previously ran a learning management software company that won some deals against the market giant Blackboard , mostly on price – but while it was a nice little software business, it wasn’t going to become something huge. And the founders wanted something huge. Nixty is aiming to be a huge platform for eLearning courses worldwide. Right now, the company has 200 courses from schools like MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, IIT and Berkeley, and offers a variety of teaching tools like automated grade books and easy-to-make-and-print certificates. In addition to aggregating Ivy League courses and putting them in a far easier to navigate, socially-driven user interface, Nixty is hoping teachers and experts will use its easy drag and drop course building software to create new courses, bringing in a wiki angle where people can add certain texts, videos or lectures to a course. The cost of entry for teachers is low: public courses (open to all) are free to create, and Nixty is planning to roll out payment functionality for private/continuing education courses soon. For paid courses, Nixty will charge teachers $4.99/month for three courses, or $9.99/month for nine courses plus an additional 20% of whatever the teacher decides to charge students for each course. Nixty is hardly the only company trying to be an open, social eLearning tool. This has been a hot market especially in developing countries, and Nixty is wise enough to recognize that’s where a lot of the battle is going to be fought, rather than in the US. Which is not to say there are no niche markets here – for instance, children being homeschooled whose parents would like new-self-driven curricula, or people who can’t easily leave the house, either because of disabilities, childcare issues or even house arrest (speaking of which: continuing education courses for attorneys or lawyers may be another niche.) My parents are retired teachers, who still do interdependent studies and reading groups at their home from time-to-time. I could see them and many more like them who still want the thrill of teaching without the administrative hassle crafting a course on their own using this software, and easily dragging and dropping materials already on their computers into Nixty’s easy course builder interface. But back to the argument of how much people care about immersive experiences, the fact is that most people who can afford to go to college in the US want the experience of actually going to college. Those of us who would love to go back to college but don’t have the time to take off from careers or raising families, could use Nixty, but the problem is what I call the “Rosetta Stone dilemma.” I love Rosetta Stone ’s software, and I think the approach to learning languages works – but the bottom line is there’s no short cut to the hours you need to put in to really learn a language fluently and I just don’t have those hours. It’s the same reason a lot of eHealth ventures have flopped. You have to build companies for how people actually behave, not how you’d like them to. But if Nixty can use it’s US advantage to aggregate the world’s best educational content and build a user interface optimized for countries like India, Indonesia, Brazil and China, it could have a huge hit on its hands. Say a family wants to send their son or daughter to the US for college but can’t quite afford it. A foreign student can actually take enough courses over Nixty to allow them to transfer in as a sophomore or junior. Nixty’s timing is good—last week Michigan State University announced it was closing its Dubai campus, the latest in a trend of US schools retrenching from global expansion of the last decade. Would being on campus be a better learning experience than taking their courses online? Of course. But if you’re in Dubai and you don’t have the option, Nixty could be an educational life-line. CrunchBase Information NIXTY Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Blackboard Information provided by CrunchBase

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Nixty Launches With Ambitions to Build Something Huge in eLearning

International CRO – Choosing the Wrong Colors and Other Mishaps

Posted by Sam Crocker Good morning Mozzers! Today we’re going to walk you through some rather basic but far-too-oft overlooked conversion factors specifically for international SEO. Anyone who has had the pleasure of using ecommerce sites in multiple countries may have noticed that as a general rule the sites look pretty similar if not identical. Today we are going to walk you through some of the pros and cons of this approach and how you might actually benefit from mixing things up for different audiences in different countries. WARNINGS: 1. There is something to be said for having a similar site, brand, and feel that can be recognized all over the world. 2. Some CMS systems do not allow for easy changes to be made for different versions of the site. 3. With Google Translation, many folks are becoming less interested in having multiple sites anyhow. 4. More sites mean more potential problems and things to worry about. Now, with these warnings out of the way let’s first jump into some of the potential benefits, and then look at some examples.

Ericsson Estimates 5 Billion Mobile Subscriptions Worldwide, Growing Fast

Ericsson , which provides technology and services to telecom operators around the globe, estimates we’ve hit another milestone in the Internet becoming increasingly mobile. The company claims, based on estimates based on industry information, that the 5 billionth mobile subscription was accounted for on Thursday, July 8. The 5 billion mark was hit largely thanks to a surge in mobile subscriptions in emerging markets like China and India, the company says. In the year 2000, about 720 million people had mobile subscriptions, less than the amount of users China alone has today, still according to Ericsson. Mobile broadband subscriptions are growing at similar pace and are expected to amount to more than 3.4 billion by 2015 (from 360 million in 2009). Furthermore, Ericsson estimates, 2 million mobile subscriptions are added on a daily basis, and the number of 3G subscriptions has now exceeded 500 million worldwide. The company also posits we’ll be at no less than 50 billion connected devices by the year 2020. (Photo via Ericsson ) CrunchBase Information Ericsson Information provided by CrunchBase

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Ericsson Estimates 5 Billion Mobile Subscriptions Worldwide, Growing Fast

Techcrunch TV: Investor Jeff Clavier, CloudCrowd CEO Debate Apple’s China Strategy, Twitter’s Earlybird

On today’s episode of TechCrunch NOW , investor Jeff Clavier and CloudCrowd founder, Alex Edelstein, joined us to discuss Apple’s ambitious plans for China, BuyWithMe’s new round of funding, and Twitter’s latest product, Earlybird . Aside from Steve Jobs’ world domination plans, we focused on the hyper active daily deal market. Jeff Clavier, who has invested in 81 consumer internet companies as of this Wednesday (he just wrapped up his another investment last week), is no stranger to this space. He recently invested in Townhog — a collective buying site launched in 2009 that also features local promotions. Despite the flood of investment dollars, Clavier says the daily deal market is still in it’s infancy. He predicts that ultimately, personalization will be the key to dominating this sector. “Inventory is tricky because by definition..there are only so many sushi offers and manicure offers that you can put on the table and really at the end what matters is personalization. What sort of offers will matter to me as a consumer is what I want to see at some point, the issue is that we’re at the infancy of the market…It’s going to develop in interesting way, there might be a shakeout at some point, but we can see many players being successful, I think.” Meanwhile, CloudCrowd’s Edelstein is keeping an eye on Twitter’s Earlybird. Although there’s no clear evidence the new product will directly compete with the likes of Groupon, he says Twitter is a credible threat: “They’re arguably late to the party but they’ve got a lot of huge advantages in this space…I have a Twitter account but I don’t have a Groupon account and if Twitter can establish what locality I live in— which isn’t that hard to do if I think there’s something in it for me— than it’s very easy for them to start messaging deals to me.” For more on Apple, the daily deal market and how competition will affect those rich profit margins, see the video above, or check out previous episodes of TechCrunch Now here . CrunchBase Information CloudCrowd Jeff Clavier Alex Edelstein SoftTech VC Information provided by CrunchBase

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Techcrunch TV: Investor Jeff Clavier, CloudCrowd CEO Debate Apple’s China Strategy, Twitter’s Earlybird

Apple’s Invasion of China Begins With This Shanghai Apple Store

There has been a lot of talk the last couple of days with Apple’s stance on the gigantic Chinese market. The Lenovo’s chief and founder stated “We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn’t care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble.” Well, good sir, your troubles might soon begin. Apple plans on opening three stores in Shanghai and is considering more locations in other first and second-tier Chinese cities as well. The first Chinese Apple Store opened in 2008 in Sanlitun, Beijing but these new locations mark a strategy shift for Apple. In fact, The Oriental Morning Post stated this morning that Apple plans on having as many Chinese retail outlets as Louis Vuitton – that’s over two dozen.

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Apple’s Invasion of China Begins With This Shanghai Apple Store

Blood Red Lounges – Bar Rouge in Shanghai by Naco Architectures …

Bar Rouge – Bar Rouge in Shanghai, China just underwent a major renovation by Naço Architectures. The new theme is one that mixes futuristic elements of r…

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Blood Red Lounges – Bar Rouge in Shanghai by Naco Architectures …

CleanTech Venture Investments Total $2 Billion In Q2, Exits Reach More Than $8 Billion

Clean technology remains one of the hottest areas of venture funding. In the second quarter, cleantech venture investments worldwide totaled $2.02 billion across 140 companies, according to market research firm Cleantech Group and Deloitte. The numbers are in line with last quarter’s $2.04 billion, but 43% higher than one year ago. Exits for the quarter totaled more than $8 billion globally, with $6 billion in cleantech M&A and $2.3 billion in cleantech IPOs. Tesla ‘s $202 million IPO has been in the spotlight recently, but globally, the cleantech IPO market is concentrated in China, which grabbed $1.7 billion, 75 percent of the $2.3 billion raised worldwide in the past three months, and 12 of the 19 IPOs, though not all of those are venture backed. The biggest IPO of the quarter was China’s Origin Water on the Shenzen Stock Exchange, which raised $330 million. As a point of comparison, in the U.S. alone, IPOs across all sectors totaled $900 million in the second quarter. On the M&A front, there were 160 cleantech deals worldwide, including Switzerland’s ABB buying utility enterprise software maker Ventyx for more than $1 billion, and chip company Maxim buying smart-meter chip maker Teridian Semiconductor for $315 million. In terms of venture funding, the most active cleantech investors in the quarter were Carbon Trust Investment Partners (6 deals), Kleiner Perkins (4 deals), Angeleno Group (3 deals), Draper Fisher Jurvetson (3 deals), and Khosla Ventures (3 deals). Mega-deals of $100 million or more are on the rise, with four such deals in the quarter, including $350 million for Better Place, $189 million for Fisker Automotive, and $115 million for BrightSource Energy. The industry sectors drawing the most dollars were solar, biofuels, and smart grid. Solar is one of the industry’s brightest shining stars, grabbing $811 million to mark its third highest quarter in history. Investment in biofuels was also strong, soaring to $302 million since the the first quarter. Spurred by the recession, investors are spending money on companies that can save money. Energy efficiency boasted 31 rounds of funding, trumping solar’s 26 and biofuels’ 13 deals. Smart grid investments in particular experienced their highest quarter ever. CrunchBase Information Cleantech Group Tesla Motors Information provided by CrunchBase

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CleanTech Venture Investments Total $2 Billion In Q2, Exits Reach More Than $8 Billion

AdMob’s Final Mobile Metrics Report: Android Rising, But Apple Still Dominates Worldwide

Mobile ad network AdMob (now part of Google) released its final Mobile Metrics report today (embedded below), at least for a while. AdMob gathers data from millions of phones and mobile devices which serve up its ad impressions, including almost 44 million iOS devices (iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads). The decision to stop disclosing the data may have something to do with its new owner, Google, wanting to assess what it wants to let out there, but it could also be tied to the fact that AdMob might no longer have access to any iPhone data since Apple is specifically threatening to block it . Whatever the reason, AdMob’s reports have proven to be a rich source of data on the mobile Web across platforms since mobile ad impressions on the mobile Web and in mobile apps are a decent proxy for mobile Web/app usage overall. So let’s dig in. Over the past two years, mobile ad impressions from smartphones have grown from 22 percent of the total to 46 percent in May, 2010.  Apple iOS devices account for the largest portion worldwide, with 40 percent share. But as you can see in the chart above, that share has been declining since it peaked above 50 percent in November, 2009.  Over that time, Android has been steadily taking share, rising to 26 percent. The ratio of handset market share to mobile Web and app usage is not directly correlated. Nokia’s Symbian has a 44 percent share of handsets worldwide, but only 24 percent of of mobile Web/app usage. In contrast, Apple only has 15 percent handset market share, and Android has 10 percent, but together they account for two thirds of mobile Web and app usage. On a worldwide basis, Apple devices still outnumber Android in terms of mobile ad impressions by a factor of almost 3.5 to 1. In the U.S., that ratio is about 2 to 1.  According to an AdMob survey, iPhone users are more satisfied (91 percent) than Android (84 percent) or Palm’s WebOS users (69 percent).  Android’s 84 percent satisfaction is pretty good, but there is still a gap with the iPhone. Some other interesting stats from the report: While the iPhone is the single biggest device driving mobile ad impressions, Android phones account for 7 of the top 10 handsets (the other two are Nokias). Only 58% of iPad users are in the U.S. The next biggest countries are Japan (5%), UK (4%), China(4%), and Canada (3%). Android is less international, with 66% of users in the U.S.  But the No. 2 country for Android is China (13%), followed by the UK (4%). HTC and Motorola phones account for 83% of Android usage. Twice as many iPhone users download paid apps as Android users. WiFi is huge.  Nearly a quarter of U.S. mobile traffic comes over WiFi. The biggest percentage of WiFi requests (nearly two thirds) comes from the iPod Touch—which is a WiFi-only device—but 35% of iPhone traffic goes over WiFi as well View this document on Scribd CrunchBase Information iPhone 4 Android Information provided by CrunchBase

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AdMob’s Final Mobile Metrics Report: Android Rising, But Apple Still Dominates Worldwide

China Swings, Google Flinches

Back in January, with big balls, Google wrote the following: We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China. In March, Google backed that talk up by redirecting google.cn to google.com.hk , writing the following: Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced—it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China. The Chinese