Tag | social-networking
Apple SVP Scott Forstall Just Signed Up For Twitter — But Why?
Everyone knows that Apple is an extremely secretive company. Some would say to a fault. But it seems to have served them well over the years. That’s why it’s not surprising at all to see that none of Apple’s key executives use public social networking services. And that’s why it’s a bit interesting that Apple Senior Vice President of iPhone Software, Scott Forstall, just signed up for Twitter . Forstall hasn’t tweeted yet, and who knows if he actually will. But what I do know is that his account has been verified by Twitter — meaning it is actually him. And I also know that there’s no way Twitter would have verified the account unless he (or someone at Apple on his behalf) asked Twitter to. Something is up. But what? It’s certainly possible that Forstall wants to save his vanity Twitter handle (@forstall) just in case someone else tries to use it to impersonate him — or if he thinks he may want to use the service in the future (like when he no longer works at Apple). But the more interesting scenario will be if he intends to actually use the account sometime soon. Certainly, Apple knows that they’re taking hits left and right on the various social networks about issues such as the iPhone 4 antenna problems . So far, they’ve shown no interest in managing such things, but might they be coming around? It doesn’t seem likely the Forstall would be doing that, but remember that fellow SVP Phil Schiller is the one who personally took charge of the App Store issues when they were spiraling out of control. That effort seemed to work well. Then of course there is Apple CEO Steve Jobs who likes to personally respond to emails from customers. But let’s remember that Forstall is the Vice President of iPhone software . Perhaps he’s exploring Twitter because Apple is thinking about some sort of partnership or deeper integration of the service with the iPhone going forward. After all, Twitter’s iPhone app (formerly known as Tweetie) is undoubtedly one of the most popular apps on the device. And don’t forget the rumors that Apple was thinking about Facebook integration for the iPhone. Nothing came of that with iOS 4, but integration of Facebook and Flickr in software such as iPhoto, suggests that Apple isn’t opposed to such partnerships. For the iPhone, Twitter could be a perfect one. But that’s all pure speculation, of course. Plenty of other big time executives from Eric Schmidt to Marc Benioff to Bill Gates use Twitter quite regularly. Hell, even Mark Zuckerberg has an account. But again, this is Apple. That’s not to say Apple doesn’t use Twitter at all — but all the accounts they have are purely for marketing purposes: iTunesTrailers , iTunesMovies , iTunesMusic , etc. And obviously, there are a number of fake Steve Jobs accounts on Twitter — and even one for Fake Steve Jobs . But none of those are legitimate. And again, the more interesting thing here is that Twitter verified Forstall’s. When asked for comment, a Twitter representative said they didn’t know anything about it. I’ve reached out to Apple as well — but don’t expect to hear back. So who knows what’s going on here. Maybe Forstall just decided to see what all the fuss was about. (But again, why bother verifying it?) Of course, with zero tweets and zero people he’s following, it could be a bit boring. Or maybe Apple is about to get a lot more interesting. Can you imagine if Jobs was regularly tweeting? Given his brief email style, it actually seems like the perfect medium for him. Update : Twitter has confirmed that they verified the account for him, but won’t say more than that. Update 2 : And Forstall just followed someone. Conan . He’s clearly poking around. Incidentally, Conan’s most recent tweet is, “ I found a huge design flaw in my new iPhone. People get angry when I talk on it during a funeral. “ Conan, by the way, is still only following the peanut butter random woman out of his 1.1 million followers. CrunchBase Information Twitter Scott Forstall Apple Information provided by CrunchBase
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Apple SVP Scott Forstall Just Signed Up For Twitter — But Why?
Facebook Launches App Instead of ‘Panic Button’ For UK Kids
Facebook has often been criticised in the UK for not having a child safety ‘panic button’ and while a few media outlets are reporting today that it has launched one, the reality is somewhat different. What Facebook is launching is a tailor-made marketing application and campaign for a government body which till now had no presence at all on the social network. That’s quite a different thing altogether. The move is the latest from the social networking giant to address its obligations to it’s younger members. In the US it recently added a number of new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyber bullies. But till now it’s been seen as something of a laggard. Both Bebo and MySpace bother have ‘panic buttons and have been happy to tell the world about it. However, Facebook launched a new Safety Center in April and it’s long argued – not unreasonably – that panic buttons imply that social networking is inherently dangerous, which would be a warped way of looking at things. The reality is that the media rarely checks these panic buttons out: Bebo’s button just takes you to a 7 page form – not exactly what would might call an engaging way to address this issue.
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Facebook Launches App Instead of ‘Panic Button’ For UK Kids
TechCrunch NOW: Yammer CEO, DoubleTwist Co-Founder On Apple, Google Me
What does Yammer’s David Sacks have to do with Apple’s reception hiccup? And what does DoubleTwist’s Jon Johansen have to do with Google Me? To be honest, not a whole lot. But we had both founders in on Friday morning, for our fifth episode of TechCrunch NOW . For those who are unfamiliar with the program, TechCrunch NOW is a daily show (Monday-Friday, 3 PM PST) where we combine an assortment of entrepreneurs, investors, reporters and other tech personalities to debate the top headlines. This week, our line-up included Cyan Banister , founder of Zivity (and host of Speaking Of ), Brian Singerman of Founder’s Fund , Ryan Sweeney of Accel Partners , Andy McLoughlin , co-founder of Huddle , Michael Seibel , CEO of Justin.tv , Evan Soloman, VP of Marketing for Justin.tv, and our OMG/JK dream team MG Siegler and Jason Kincaid . We don’t expect our guests to be designated experts for each headline— however, as an engaged player in technology, his/her perspective will add an extra layer of context and facilitate intelligent discussion. On today’s episode, we got a chance to delve a little deeper into Apple’s amusing press release, its botched formula for calculating reception, the problems with the Android marketplace, and the upcoming fight between Google and Facebook. Below are a few highlights: On the Android marketplace : During our show, Jon Johansen got a chance to elaborate on his recent post, “Google’s Mismanagement Of the Android Market.” On Sunday, the co-founder of DoubleTwist (a music service often described as the ‘iTunes for Android’), ripped Google for failing to curate the Android marketplace— leaving it vulnerable to clutter, less-than-legal apps and making it difficult for quality apps to surface. Rant aside, Johansen says there is a “middle ground” here, where Google can balance its desire to remain open and the need to control the Android eco-system: “Both Palm and Android have this option where you can actually install apps from outside the market…so even if Google started curating the Android market more and flushing out some of these spam apps for instance, that wouldn’t necessarily make the Android market not open anymore because you can still install apps from anywhere else.” Sacks, also agreed that Google needs to overhaul its system to be more developer-friendly. As a CEO who has an app on the iPhone and the Android platforms, he said it has been a struggle for his team to design apps around the different Android devices and for each iteration of the operating system (although he notes that both Apple and Google still rank higher than RIM). After our interview, Johansen told me he was looking for more editorial control and improved search algorithms for the market. Google, if you’re listening, he actually has a four-pronged plan for the Android: “Here’s a few things Google needs to do: 1. They need to expand the number of countries that have access to paid apps (it doesn’t seem to be a big priority as they’re adding them at an extremely slow rate) 2. Developers need to be able to respond to user comments (perhaps through a proxy email to preserve the anonymity of the user) 3. Illegal apps need to go. They’re unfair competition for legitimate apps. 4. More payment options (subscriptions, in-app payments, etc).” On Google Me vs. Facebook Meanwhile, in the last portion of our round-up, David Sacks delivered a bold prediction for Google Me: Google Me, on its own will not be able to take down Facebook, if they want to tackle the 800-pound gorilla in social they will have to buy Twitter: “I think it’s going to be very difficult to create a new social network that just copies Facebook…Google already tried with Buzz to bootstrap off of Gmail, to create a social network, and I think that failed….If it’s just a clone of Facebook it’s certainly going to fail…The only other sort of social networks that have achieved scale on the consumer side in a big way have been Twitter and I guess you could kind of argue LinkedIn…I basically agree with what Keith Rabois wrote which is that Google’s best shot of getting into social networking would be to acquire Twitter. I definitely don’t think they’ll be able build a product themselves that will be able to get significant traction.” He also ominously warned that in the long term, the market might not be big enough for both a Twitter and Facebook. See the full video above. Any suggestions for our show or guests you want to see? E-mail me at onair@techcrunch.com, subject: TechCrunch NOW. CrunchBase Information Yammer doubleTwist David Sacks Jon Lech Johansen Apple Google Information provided by CrunchBase
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TechCrunch NOW: Yammer CEO, DoubleTwist Co-Founder On Apple, Google Me
Diaspora Reports Progress In Its Quest To Build An Open Facebook Alternative
It’s been exactly one month after Diaspora , which aims to become an open Facebook alternative (much like OneSocialWeb and others) raised just over $200,000 in funding from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and others through Kickstarter . Since then, it’s been quiet, but the team of four NYU students has been making some progress in actually building the system. In a blog post , Maxwell Salzberg updates the world on its progress, including the fact that they’ve set up their offices inside the Pivotal Labs building (and gotten some product advice from the company as well). More interestingly, the guys have been coding, too. What have we been working on? During June, we have been focusing on developing a system for passing different forms of information in between seeds. When you post a status message on your seed, it gets pushed over HTTP in real time to all of your friends. We have also started to build the latest and greatest in web standards into Diaspora. Websockets are already in the Diaspora core, and any Diaspora plugins will be able to have rapid two-way functionality, (think chat, games etc) almost effortlessly! Understandably, they still have a long way to go to turn its vision of a completely decentralized social networking platform, as you can tell from the rest of the blog post, although they say they’re already ahead of schedule. This is what’s planned for the near future: June Real Time Message passing between seeds Building the core of the application July OStatus/Standards compliance Encryption Layer Implement awesome user interface August Plugins Services(including FB) integration API Refator September Prep for source code freedom! (Thanks to Len Kendall for the tip) Here are two early videos and some screenshots that show how far they’ve gotten since their fundraising session closed. CrunchBase Information Diaspora* Information provided by CrunchBase
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Diaspora Reports Progress In Its Quest To Build An Open Facebook Alternative
KickApps Launches Facebook App Development Suite
White label social networking startup KickApps has launched a new development suite that aims to simplify the Facebook app development for marketers, brand managers and developers. The KickApps App Studio now allows anyone, including non-programmers, to create rich media Facebook applications. The suite’s ease of use is obtained through drag and drop functionality, allowing users to create and deploy custom video players, social widgets and rich media ad units. Applications can serve as a Facebook fan page or as a tab on a Facebook page. The KickApps platform allows web publishers and marketers to create sites filled with social media applications to better engage audiences through social networking, user-generated content, and widgets. Being able to create Facebook applications seems like a natural extension of the platform. And Kickapps’ has shown some success in creating branded social networks. The startup also just partnered with Adobe to release an Open Source Media Framework (OSMF) Flash-based media player. CrunchBase Information KickApps Information provided by CrunchBase
How To Save Your Brand On Twitter | Small Business Trends
It’s not really that uncommon. You head to your favorite social networking site, read what people are saying, and you stumble across that one tweet or status.
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How To Save Your Brand On Twitter | Small Business Trends
Millennial Media: Apple OS Drops By 33 Percent In May But iPad Impressions Grow 160 Percent
Mobile ad network Millennial Media, which claims that its network reaches 82 percent of 72 million mobile web users in the U.S., is reporting that iPad ad requests grew 160 percent from April to May with global Apple ad requests dropping 33 percent in May. Apple OS U.S. ad requests dropped by nearly 14 percent month-over-month after an 8 percent decrease in requests in April. That being said, the Apple OS is still the leading mobile operating system in Millennial’s U.S. network, with a 48 percent share of Smartphone impressions. RIM’s BlackBerry remained the second largest OS on Millennial’s network for the tenth consecutive month with a 3% increase month-over-month and a 19 percent share of impressions. Android’s share rose by 5 percent to a 15 percent share of impressions for the month of May. Android total ad requests grew by 15 percent in May, which is slower growth than the OS has seen. Last month, Android saw a 77 percent jump in impressions, and a 72 percent jump in May. But the jump in impressions for Android over the past six months is staggering, with requests having grown by 338 percent since January. Android Smartphone manufacturer, HTC received the largest share increase month-over month for the second month in a row with a 2.5% impression share increase in May, rising to the fourth spot of the Top 15 Manufacturers. Apple leads the manufacturing list but dropped by 10 percent in terms of device impressions. In terms of type of device, the majority of ad impressions took place on smart phones (46 percent), with Feature Phones seeing 35 percent of ad impressions, and Connected Devices, like the iPad, seeing 20% of impressions. Millennial added a new measurement this month, focusing on mobile developer channels and trends. For May, Gaming apps placed in the number one spot and accounted for 58 percent of app revenue on devices. Social Networking claimed the number two spot and experienced a 124 percent growth on Millennial’s network since the beginning of 2010. The Entertainment channel, which placed in the number four position, has experienced the largest percentage of growth in 2010 – a 648 percent increase since January and is expected to grow with the summer blockbuster movie season. In May, of the developers who focused on a single platform, 56% were focused on Apple and 29% were focused on Android. If Millennial’s numbers are accurate, Android impressions may be slowing down in terms of growth. Of course, we need to see another few months of slow growth before determining making any definitive judgements but it should be interesting to see if Android’s growth plateaus. The significant growth in iPad impressions is also significant as the device is growing in usage. As one of the largest mobile ad networks in the arena, Millennial has been seeing strong growth, just launching an iPad SDK, and is now one of the largest mobile ad networks in the space. The Baltimore-based startup is growing; in February Millennial Media acquired mobile metrics and analytics firm TapMetrics. Additionally, the ad network raised $16 million in Series C funding last November. However, with Apple’s iAd platform entering the mix, the mobile ad network space may be facing some significant changes. At the moment Millennial seems to be in a good place with Apple’s new iAd policies on outside networks advertising on the iPhone. But Millennial’s future may be in question if the network is looking to be acquired by a major tech giant, like Microsoft. But the FTC is reportedly looking into Apple’s iAd policies to determine if they are anti-competitive, so an big exit for Millennial could still be a possibility. CrunchBase Information Millennial Media Information provided by CrunchBase
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Millennial Media: Apple OS Drops By 33 Percent In May But iPad Impressions Grow 160 Percent
Confirmed: Criterion Capital Partners Acquires Bebo From AOL
The rumors are true: hedge fund Criterion Capital Partners is indeed the buyer of Bebo . As we reported yesterday, AOL is offloading the social networking service for less than $10 million (other media are reporting a purchase price of around $2.5 million ). To remind you: AOL paid $850 million for Bebo back in 2008. Ouch indeed. In a press release that just went out, Criterion acknowledges that it has acquired the Bebo business from AOL and that it will “assume the rights and complete operating control over the global social platform business”. The acquisition and financing was led by CCP partner Adam Levin in partnership with business strategist Paul Abramowitz and web entrepreneur Richard Hecker . Criterion Capital Partners will take over Bebo’s global operations immediately and retain its San Francisco-based headquarters. Exact terms of the deal are not being disclosed by either party, but AOL CEO Tim Armstrong sent a note to all employees this morning that suggests our earlier reports that the ability to offset almost the whole sum it paid for Bebo as a tax loss played a big role are correct. A couple of paragraphs from said note (emphasis ours): In April we communicated the fact that Bebo was among the assets we would be not be keeping as part of our main portfolio of businesses. At that time, we indicated that we hoped to finish our strategic evaluation by the end of May, which we did. Today we are announcing that we completed the sale of substantially all of the assets of Bebo, Inc. to Criterion Capital Partners, LLC. This sale is important for Bebo’s users and for AOL. The deal will allow Bebo’s users to remain within the social platform that they know and love, while enabling a new owner to bring new possibilities and experiences to bear. Criterion Capital Partners are specialists in facilitating growth plans and turnarounds and are well placed to drive Bebo’s effort to strengthen its foothold within the highly competitive social networking arena. For AOL, the transaction will also create a meaningful tax deduction , which should allow us to more effectively manage our tax strategy. CrunchBase Information Bebo AOL Information provided by CrunchBase
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Confirmed: Criterion Capital Partners Acquires Bebo From AOL
Why Japan Matters: iPad Mania, Cloud Computing, And Social Intelligence
Editor’s note : Marc Benioff , chairman and CEO of salesforce.com , really loves Japan. And if you are a startup founder or tech executive, he thinks you should too. He explains why in this guest post, culled from observations from his most recent visit. Thousands of people lined up last week to buy iPads. And, if you didn’t notice them, it’s because they were in Tokyo. I’ve been living in Japan for the past three weeks and couldn’t miss the madness around the introduction of the iPad here. I couldn’t believe the demand for this new “magical” computer. After all, this is the country that developed and built some of the world’s most popular PCs—and now the iPad, which was designed somewhere else, is revered. It’s bowed to. (Reportedly, about half of Japanese business and technology magazines are featuring the iPad on their covers.) I expect that out of the 10 million iPads sold this year, at least 500,000 to one million will be sold in Japan. Something else amazing in Apple-mania happened last week. Apple’s market cap passed Microsoft . I suggested in a post last April, “The end of Microsoft. A door opens to a new cloud” , that this seminal event was about to happen. Steve Jobs described it as being “Surreal”. I agree. It is surreal—both unbelievable and fantastic. This is a milestone that signifies a dramatic change of computing: Windows is on the decline, and new technologies such as iPads and iPhones, Android and Google Search, and Cloud Computing are on the way up. I have to admit, I love Japan. I love the people, the culture, the language, the architecture, the food—everything. I love walking through the temples and gardens in Kyoto. And, I love the philosophy of “Zen.” I love working in Tokyo, which runs at a frenetic charge that’s even higher than New York City. The reason I’ve been spending so much time in Japan is because it has become salesforce.com’s second largest market. We’ve found that the Japanese love Cloud Computing because it gives them great software that is eco-friendly, equal for all businesses, and upgrade-free. When I was at Oracle, Japanese customers were always waiting for our special “J” products (the port of our English versions), or the bug fix of a “J” port. It was often a long and painful wait. Cloud Computing solves all of these problems, and Japanese customers receive new software on day one, as well as bug fixes as they happen. Instant gratification. One of the things that captivated my attention in Japan was how utterly swept the country is with social networking—there is a Japanese Facebook Imperative underway. Japan is already one of Twitter’s largest markets, and local social vendors like Mixi are pervasive. Japanese customers have easily and rapidly adopted social networking as it is highly compatible with their community-based culture. Japan, more than any other country, is ready to accelerate social networking with mobile. The wide penetration of 3G will be an engine for this movement. In fact, Japan has the highest percentage market penetration of 3G of any country, according to InfoCom . The combination of dominant social market share and broadband wireless is a powerful catalyst for Japan’s IT industry. In my own personal experience here, I’ve seen this willingness to embrace social communications firsthand. Over the past few weeks of demonstrating Salesforce Chatter, salesforce.com’s new enterprise social networking service, I was amazed to find that Japanese customers made unusually quick decisions to pursue it. Customers in other parts of the world (including the U.S.) have required a great deal of testing and evaluation. But in Japan there was an innate understanding of our app to be a Twitter or Mixi for the enterprise, which translated seamlessly—and drove adoption. This experience inspired me to think about what I call “Social Intelligence,” an idea I believe will launch us past business intelligence as the next major theme in enterprise computing. In Tokyo I enjoyed dinner with one of my friends, John Hinshaw, the global CIO of Boeing. I already knew Boeing is preparing to release the Dreamliner, the most advanced airplane in the world. But, I didn’t know that 35% of the Dreamliner is manufactured in Japan. In fact, the entire all-composite wing—the first of its size and sure to set the standard for how commercial airplanes will be made—is made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagoya. Each 98-foot long wing is then airlifted to Washington for assembly in Boeing’s special cargo plane, “the Dreamlifter”. If you aren’t sold on Japan’s abilities for the complex yet, consider that Japan also leads the world in energy and environmental patents and it is also the global leader in energy research and development expenditure and efficiency. I can certainly understand why Boeing is also focused on Japan. When you get an iPad, the new iPhone 4, or iPod you can’t miss seeing “designed by Apple in California”—the tagline that has generated heat from critics who get upset because the device is assembled in China. But what most people don’t recognize is that the parts are made all over the world, with some of the most important components being produced in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Take the iPod Nano. The flash memory is made by Toshiba, the Li-Ion battery is made by Sanyo and Sony, and the color LCD is made by Sharp, Toshiba, and Matsushita—making the total of the Japanese share in terms of cost 81%. The reality is the iPod is made possible by some of the most important technology in the world—and a lot of it is from Japan. Even 10% of the iPad comes from Japan (the rest is made by Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers). Japan is one of the countries doing some of the most exciting research and development in the most complex components, which is what drives the most compelling products. While in Japan I learned that Japan’s political and technology leaders recognize that embracing new technology and developing fundamental infrastructure are at the core of this country. Anyone who has experienced the bullet train, driven on Japan’s highways, or made a cell phone call in Tokyo, knows Japan fully commits to these two tenets. Cloud Computing is viewed as a critical next step for Japan, and it is the fastest growing part of Japan’s IT industry. Japan is always focused on getting the next big thing right. (And it usually does. I think the energy around the iPad last week demonstrates that they’re ready for Cloud 2 —the next transformation in computing being defined by cloud + social + iPad. One of the greatest surprises during my trip was that then-Prime Minister Hatoyama requested a meeting with me. I spent almost an hour with him demonstrating the power of Cloud Computing in Japan. Then he had a final meeting with the Chinese President. And, then he resigned. Why would he care so much about the Cloud to spend some of his final moments in office with me? I think he realized that he needed to send a clear signal that this new technology is pivotal to the future of Japan. Right before I left Tokyo for home I met with John Roos, the new United States Ambassador to Japan. John is the former CEO of Wilson Sonsini, and is a Bay Area native. Interestingly, he had never been to Japan before being nominated to his position. He asked me why more entrepreneurs in the U.S. weren’t focused on the amazing markets in Japan. I told him that although the Japanese IT market is the second largest in the world, it’s notoriously difficult for many Americans to navigate. I am grateful to my Japan guru, Larry Ellison, with whom I was fortunate enough to experience many trips to this country while I worked at Oracle for 13 years. If it wasn’t for that direct education, I don’t think salesforce.com would be as successful as it is here. Japan is accessible through several non-stop flights from San Francisco every day. And while the Japanese market and Japanese customers wait for the arrival of the next great thing, most entrepreneurs, and even VC firms, focus instead on China and India. I have never understood why, as China and India represent a market that is an order of magnitude smaller than Japan when it comes to key technologies, like software. Sure, India and China are fast-growing markets, but the current buyers are in Japan. The way I see it: If you are overlooking Japan you might as well overlook the West Coast of the U.S. The Japanese city of Osaka has a bigger economy than the state of California. As the second largest IT market outside of the US, the reality is Japan still matters. The world is changing profoundly (just look at my favorite Apple vs. Microsoft market cap chart ), but there are some traditional and established entities that retain a significant influence. Entrepreneurs should take note that 85% of all enterprise software is still essentially bought in three core markets: the U.S., Japan, and the U.K. Ignoring Japan means ignoring one of the most important opportunities. And, if you need a hand in this market, come with me on my next trip. I can’t wait to get back. CrunchBase Information Marc Benioff Salesforce Information provided by CrunchBase
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Why Japan Matters: iPad Mania, Cloud Computing, And Social Intelligence
ReputationDefender Buys Ziggs, A Social Network That Lets You Market Yourself
Online reputation and privacy management company ReputationDefender has acquired Ziggs.com , a social networking site for business professionals and people who would like to ‘market themselves on the Web’. According to the release , ReputationDefender will introduce Ziggs users to its range of reputation and privacy management services, enabling them to better manage and maintain their online identities. The purchase price was not disclosed but likely on the low side. Effective today, Ziggs.com customers can tap ReputationDefender’s products, in particular MyEdge , to enhance their online professional reputation management strategy. Ziggs.com customers will be able to continue enjoying the features and benefits offered by its platform. ReputationDefender, founded in 2006, recently raised $8.65 million from Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins. A total of $11.7 million has now been pumped into the company. CrunchBase Information ReputationDefender Information provided by CrunchBase
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ReputationDefender Buys Ziggs, A Social Network That Lets You Market Yourself
