Tag | social-networks
Mobile Backstage Aims To Beat Facebook And MySpace For Fan Engagement
Mobile Backstage , a new social music service and mobile app that lets artists and bands “engage” with their fans, is set to officially launch next week, although it’s already been trialed by the likes of hip hop star Dizzee Rascal, and the ‘emo’ outfit You Me At Six (yes, I’ve never heard of them either). It’s been developed by Steam Republic , a Finnish mobile solutions company, which says it recently raised a second round of funding in the region of €2 million of its target of €3 -5 million. That’s not necessarily all that newsworthy in itself – there are already plenty of ways for artists to interact with fans online – but what’s perhaps more interesting is that the company claims that its bespoke mobile app, which can be fully branded for each artist/band and runs on iPhone and Java-enabled handsets, beats uber social networks such as Facebook and MySpace in terms of the level of fan interaction and user-generated content.
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Mobile Backstage Aims To Beat Facebook And MySpace For Fan Engagement
PlaySpan Brings Pay-Per-View Micropayments To Online Video Marketplace
Micropayments startup PlaySpan has primarily focused on powering transactions for virtual goods, but today the startup is moving onto videos. PlaySpan is launching its PriceYourVideo Platform which essentially allows video producers to sell views via a micropayments model. Any video content producer can sell their videos on PlaySpan’s marketplace and can price their uploads accordingly. Producers can also donate proceeds to charity for videos that are available free elsewhere. It’s fairly simple and similar in theory to news organizations that are charging micropayments for viewing articles. Playspan has already signed up a popular premium content publisher, Revision 3. Web shows like Diggnation , Chad Vader, and Turbo Dates are all being sold on PlaySpan’s platform. For example, you can preview an episode of Diggnation for 3 minutes but after that time period you need to pay 10 UPoints (the marketplace’s virtual currency) to view the remainder of the video. To give you a sense of the pricing, 1,000 UPoints costs $10 on PlaySpan. Playspan also plans to allow publishers to integrate the video monetization into their own sites. The idea of micropayments for videos isn’t new; YouTube has been experimenting with this And PlaySpan will face the challenge of bringing traffic to its marketplace to actually generate views and payments for producer videos. While PlaySpan has been steadily growing the reach of it marketplace through licensing deals with social networks, game developers , media companies and gaming platforms, it’s nice to see the startup innovating and adding new features to its platform. CrunchBase Information PlaySpan Information provided by CrunchBase
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PlaySpan Brings Pay-Per-View Micropayments To Online Video Marketplace
Ning Partners With Pearson To Sponsor Free Network Access For Educators
When Ning shuttered its free service for creating social networks back in April, educators and schools who were using the platform expresses their concern at the company’s decision to include educations networks created by schools and colleges in this group. When Ning eventually rolled out its premium pricing structure in May, the company announced that it had partnered with an education company to sponsor networks for primary and secondary educators but didn’t reveal the name of the sponsor. Today, Ning is announcing that Pearson, a education-focused publishing company, is sponsoring network costs for Ning Mini platforms for educators in North America come July. Ning says the partnership will extend for three years. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Ning.com currently hosts 6,500 K-12 and 2,100 Higher Ed social networks, and range from platforms for teachers, individual schools and classes to alumni groups. Pearson will now be assuming the costs for all of these groups to use a Ning Mini model, which have access to Ning’s core features including, blogs, photos, forums and video embeds, and the added ability to run custom advertising. The price for Ning Mini is $2.95 per month or $19.95 per year. Any teacher or network creator can now apply to have a Pearson-sponsored network, and will be able to freely use a Ning Mini network when approved. Of course, the network will have some Pearson branding on it. Where a network would show that it is a “Ning” hosted network, will now indicate that it is a “Ning hosted Network Sponsored By Pearson.” Clicking on this icon will take you to a Pearson network on Ning’s platform. And these educational networks will be able to monetize through the same channels as other networks on Ning’s platform. Last week, Ning announced new revenue streams for network creators, including partnerships with branded product creator CafePress and social gaming startup Heyzap, to offer monetization options to Network Creators. Custom CafePress shops can now be integrated directly into Ning Networks, offering creators the opportunity to sell branded products, like mugs, t-shirts and more, to members and fans. With Heyzap, Ning creators can add Heyzap pay-to-play games onto their networks. Creators will earn 10% of all revenue from premium game purchases. Ning has also partnered with Chipin to allow non-profit creators to raise funds and collect donations from members. Educational networks can also serve advertising on their sites, says CEO Jason Rosenthal. Ning offers a Run Your Own Ads option that allows creators to collect revenue from running display advertisements in their site. The deal with Pearson is a win for Ning, which faced criticism from network creators following the elimination of the free model. The UK-based Pearson owns the world’s largest education publishing business as well as the Financial Times and Penguin books. And the publishing company has struck other partnerships with big-name technology companies, including Nokia. For Ning, it’s clear that educators and their networks are a priority. Amidst financial turmoil and a redirection in strategy at the company, Rosenthal has been steadfast in his commitment to keeping Ning free for educators. In April, Ning told The New York Times that “the decision to exempt teachers from subscription fees was made after discussions with teachers about the barriers to getting even small amounts of money approved by school system.” It would be interesting to see of other non-profit groups that host networks on Ning ask for a similar deal. And perhaps these types of sponsorships with big name companies are a way for Ning to create a revenue stream. CrunchBase Information Ning Pearson Information provided by CrunchBase
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Ning Partners With Pearson To Sponsor Free Network Access For Educators
Twitter Feels Like Falling in Love, At Least From a Hormonal Perspective
Adam Penenberg, writer of Viral Loop , interviewed Paul J. Zak aka Dr. Love. Dr. Love studes “neuroeconomics” and has discovered that social media, especially fast-moving streams like Twitter, flood our brains with oxytocin, the “hug hormone” that makes us feel empathy and, more important, makes us feel good. In a number of test cases, the most important involving Penenberg tweeting about “overweight tourists in Speedos,” the hug hormone spiked and stress went down. Twitter, in a sense, is like taking a fat drag on a good cigarette or a eating a sleeve of Thin Mints. As Penenberg tweeted, they measured his hormonal levels with surprising results: In those 10 minutes between blood batches one and two, my oxytocin levels spiked 13.2%. That’s equivalent to the hormonal spike experienced by the groom at the wedding Zak attended. Meanwhile, stress hormones cortisol and ACTH went down 10.8% and 14.9%, respectively. Zak explains that the results are linked, that the release of oxytocin I experienced while tweeting reduced my stress hormones. You can read the entire article here but for those in need of a quick social media fix, they also have a video interview for your edification. The interesting question is this: if companies are able to interact with us on social networks, are they actually dosing us with drugs? And what happens when we adamantly don’t trust an organization? Would their tweets (“Retweet #BPCares to win a free chocolate turtle!”) induce rage hormones? The potential is frightening. I’d better go Tweet this to calm down.
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Twitter Feels Like Falling in Love, At Least From a Hormonal Perspective
HeyZap Lands Another $3 Million In Funding
HeyZap , a startup that distributes casual and social games across the web through a set of APIs, applications, and widgets, has closed another $3 million in funding from Union Square Ventures, with participation from Naval Ravikant (Hitforge) and Chris Dixon (Founder Collective). Ravikant and Albert Wenger of USV will be joining the board. HeyZap previously received funding from Y Combinator , followed by a $650K seed round from Union Square Ventures, Joshua Schachter, and other angels in May 2009. HeyZap distributes 30,000 games across 220,000 websites, and has 4,000 developers signed up for its platform. It first launched in early 2009 as a YouTube For Flash Games , making it easy to access a library of casual Flash gaming titles from one widget. Since then it has added quite a few features that developers can tap into, including an achievement system , micropayments , and analytics . It has shifted its focus toward helping social games expand beyond social networks like Facebook. It also recently scored a deal with Ning, which is making it easy for Ning network creators to add HeyZap to their sites. The company says it will be using the money to add to its team of engineers and to expand its business development efforts. CrunchBase Information Heyzap Information provided by CrunchBase
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HeyZap Lands Another $3 Million In Funding
Apptera Raises Another $10 Million For Its Voice & Visual Mobile Advertising Network
Mobile advertising company Apptera has raised another $10 million in VC funding, we’ve learned via an SEC filing . The startup’s previous financing round dates back to November 2008, also totaled about $10 million and came from investors such as Alloy Ventures , Lightspeed Venture Partners and Walden International . The company has yet to publicly disclose the new capital injection, but these types of follow-on rounds typically come from existing backers, with maybe one or two additional investors. Founded in 2001 in Silicon Valley, Apptera operates what it refers to as a ‘Voice & Visual Mobile Advertising Network’, enabling the company to dynamically serve voice ads to callers and enhancing those calls with interactive visual engagements. Callers can opt in to voice ads and have special offers such as coupons and promotional codes, videos, even maps and directions sent direct to their phones, straight away or at a time scheduled in the future. Publishers in its mobile advertising marketplace include movie ticketing services (such as Movietickets.com, Moviefone and Fandango), free-411 services (e.g. Jingle and AT&T), social voice services and blogs, and widgets on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. At the help of Apptera we find Henry Vogel, the former eBay exec that was previously chief revenue officer of Quigo Technologies, the ad network company that was acquired by AOL in December of 2007. The rest of the members of the management team have a ton of experience from a variety of positions at companies like Yahoo, Overture, eBay, Meraki, Spot Runner, ESPN, Sony Pictures and iPass under their belts. CrunchBase Information Apptera Information provided by CrunchBase
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Apptera Raises Another $10 Million For Its Voice & Visual Mobile Advertising Network
Sonicbids Acquires ArtistData To Help Musicians Get More Exposure On The Web
Exclusive – Sonicbids , a company that operates a website that helps bands get more gigs, has acquired ArtistData , a publishing platform used by musicians to update and publish their content across the Web. The acquisition and impending integration of the service will enable Sonicbids to not only help musicians book gigs, but also to promote those gigs to fans, social networks, concert databases, local newspapers and more. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sonicbids says more than 245,000 musicians use its solutions to manage their Electronic Press Kits (EPKs) and book gigs around the world, and that it has attracted over 21,000 promoters and licensors from all around the world. Last year, over 71,000 gigs were booked using Sonicbids, the VC-backed company adds. Founded back in 2006 by Brenden Mulligan , who will be joining Sonicbids as VP Strategic Development as a result of the acquistion, ArtistData counts more than 25,000 independent and signed musicians as members. Those users can go to the website to enter gig-related information from one central dashboard and publish that data across the Web in no time, to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and nearly 30 other sites. Sonicbids plans to integrate ArtistData’s functionality into its product by the end of this year. ArtistData’s free offerings will continue to be free and as a welcome gift, its premium offerings will also be free to users, from now through September 1, courtesy of Sonicbids. Both companies have this morning announced the acquisition to their members – check out Mulligan’s letter for ArtistData’s side of the story and Sonicbids founder Panos Panay ‘s take on the news (bonus: FAQ ). CrunchBase Information ArtistData Sonicbids Information provided by CrunchBase
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Sonicbids Acquires ArtistData To Help Musicians Get More Exposure On The Web
Shoply Lets Anyone Create An Online Store
UK-based startup Shoply wants to allow anyone to sell anything online. The company offers free SaaS that allows people to sell their goods in an online marketplace, with their own storefront and website. The idea behind the site is fairly simple. Shoply aims to compete with eBay and other marketplaces by not charging setup or listing fees. Shoply makes money by charging a small transaction fee, which is 6 percent of a total transaction, on all purchases made through its platform as well as through monthly subscription plans for premium packages. Payments are made via PayPal. Shoply also lets sellers integrate their virtual shops with social networks like Twitter and Facebook, allowing people to Tweet products out and use Facebook Connect to push updates. The ambition is to create a virtual shopping mall of sorts, where users can come to Shoply and try to find an item by doing a keyword search in the marketplace. And Shoply handles the SEO for the shop owners. The idea sounds great in theory, but it may be a challenge for Shoply to attract seller who already have an established base on Amazon, eBay and even Etsy. At the moment, Shoply has under 30 shops on the site. I think for the startup to start standing apart from these established competitors, it may have push a more disruptive model, such as such as that of marketplace on Facebook. Shoply’s founder Liad Shababo says that the site currently offers this functionality, which will compete with fellow Facebook marketplace Payvment. CrunchBase Information shoply Information provided by CrunchBase
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Shoply Lets Anyone Create An Online Store
Social Networks Overtake Search Engines In UK – Should Google Be Worried?
Hitwise , the web analytics firm, has a report out today that claims that social networks now receive more UK Internet visits than search engines. Which, if the case, would imply that Google should be considerably worried about its future battle with the likes of Facebook and Twitter, as online marketing spend will surely follow Internet foot-through. Or does it? According to Hitwise, during May, social networks accounted for 11.88% of UK Internet visits and search engines accounted for 11.33%, representing the first ever month that social networks have been more popular than search engines in the UK.
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Social Networks Overtake Search Engines In UK – Should Google Be Worried?
Multiple-Source News Service Newsy.com Releases iPad App
I very much like Newsy.com , a news destination website that collects and analyzes perspectives from multiple sources and wraps these views into snack-sized videos. I particularly dig their iPhone app ( iTunes link ), which is perfect for quick and easy news consumption on the go . Since yesterday, you can also check out the fledgling media company’s custom-made iPad application , which suits the device format really well. People can use the iPad app to watch high-quality Newsy videos, which highlight the differences in how global media outlets report a story, an experience particularly compelling in landscape mode. Users can flip through videos in a nifty cover flow type fashion, which should be familiar to anyone that uses Apple’s iTunes interface. The app allows users to drag and drop videos and build customized playlists, easily share videos through email and social networks like Facebook and Twitter, read and post comments on the fly and drill down deeper into a news story by exploring the sources Newsy analyzed. Like the iPhone app, the iPad app is offered free of charge. A must-download. CrunchBase Information Newsy.com iPad Information provided by CrunchBase
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Multiple-Source News Service Newsy.com Releases iPad App
