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The Lean Startup TechStars Edition #leanstartup (1/3) Techstars NY Announces Inaugural Class. Techstars NY, which is more selective than the Ivy League, has chosen its first class of eleven startups. For those who are keeping track, that means one more company slipped in than was originally planned. It’s an interesting range of companies. Two companies have yet to write a single line of code, four have raised some funds already, one is generating a lot of revenue and another two are actually profitable. “This definitely skews towards much later stage companies than Techstars is known for working with,” says managing director David Tisch. “We’ve been so happy and impressed that these companies see value in working with Techstars and the mentors we’ve brought together.” Techstars will help the early stage companies to form their identity and figure our their business model. In other words, a million dollars is cool, but you know what’s really cool… Here they are: CrowdTwist – NY, NY Social Loyalty and Rewards Platform FriendsList – NY, NY Social Classifieds.
Stealth Milewise Raises $1.5 Million To Help People Cash In On Reward Programs. FT Magazine - Facebook’s grand plan for the future. Mark Zuckerberg is pacing before a crowd in Facebook’s Palo Alto, California, cafeteria just before lunch on a Wednesday in November. Fit and jovial, with pale skin and curly brown hair, his boyish face gives away his 26 years. “Zuck”, as friends call him, is wearing what he always wears: a grey T-shirt with an embroidered Facebook logo, blue jeans and tennis shoes. With this perennially casual demeanour, he is showing off new technologies to a few hundred employees, partners and the press. “It’s a good day to launch some stuff,” he says with a laugh. And with that, Zuckerberg introduces Facebook Deals, a new service that in a matter of days will transform the way local businesses reach consumers as they walk down the street.
With Deals, smartphone users who download Facebook’s application can “check in” to a physical location, such as their local coffee shop, and get a little reward. During his presentation, Zuckerberg uses words such as “revolution” and “disruption”. B.J. The Future Of Facebook - Forbes.com. Why Games Are the Killer App for Social Networks. Ravi Mehta is vice president of product for Viximo, where he drives the product strategy for Viximo’s social game distribution platform and helps social networks monetize via social games and virtual goods. For more information on virtual goods, visit his blog, Virtual Goods Insider, and follow him on Twitter.
In 2009, an estimated $2.2 billion in virtual goods were sold to consumers globally, and that number is expected to rocket to over $6 billion by 2013. Although virtual worlds and MMOs have historically driven the growth in virtual goods, today the fastest growing segment is social games. Social games not only represent a lucrative new revenue channel for social media sites but they also signal a fundamental change in the structure of the social media industry.
Social networks can no longer afford to rely solely on advertising revenue—they must master the intricacies of directly monetizing their users via virtual currency, virtual goods, and social games. The Birth of Social Gaming. How Online Retailers Can Leverage Facebook's Open Graph. Formerly a Principal Engineer at Amazon, Darren Vengroff is Chief Scientist at RichRelevance where he helps retailers like Overstock and Sears create a more personal shopping experience for consumers. You can read more from Darren on the RichRelevance blog. Amazon and Facebook are making headlines with the launch of a new application that allows shoppers to receive product recommendations based on Facebook preferences. Once users enable this app, Amazon is able to monitor their activity on Facebook, including what pages they like, and use that information to recommend products they may be interested in purchasing.
Combining accounts with an application like this, whether specific to Amazon or other merchants, has the potential to be a compelling hybrid of social networking and shopping that creates value for shoppers and merchants. If You "Like" It, You Might Want to Buy It This seemingly small piece of information is invaluable. "Liking" Doesn't Always Lead to Buying. Docs for Facebook. Adam Rifkin's answer to How did Mark Zuckerberg retain 26% of equity after so many rounds of financing. Credits. Why the Social Gaming Biz is Just Heating Up. Jeremy Liew invests primarily in the Internet and mobile sectors, with a particular interest in social media, commerce, gaming, financial and methods for increasing monetization. He joined Lightspeed in early 2006. These are interesting times in the social gaming industry. Two weeks ago Disney acquired Playdom, and last week Google acquired Slide.
Just like that, two of the largest social game publishers have become part of larger companies. This activity all comes on the heels of EA’s acquisition of Playfish late last year. Social gaming, as a category, has grown incredibly quickly, becoming one of the dominant drivers of usage on Facebook, and an increasingly core component of people’s entertainment. This growth represents a real threat to other forms of entertainment, and has precipitated the three deals that we have seen so far. 3 Factors in Social Gaming Viability and Acquisition The acquisitions show three commonalities. The second is revenue scale. Which Acquisition Will Be Next? The Rise Of Facebook’s Valuation From 2004-2011 [Graphic] Click image to enlarge. The panic at absurd rumors of Facebook’s demise over the weekend, coupled with the Goldman Sachs Facebook investment frenzy at the beginning of this year got us thinking; Did initial Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who invested 500K early on and still thought Facebook was undervalued at $30 billion back in September, actually make the most impressive investment call in tech history?
So artist Audrey Fukuman, our rockstar intern Rip Empson and I set out to capture what the Facebook valuation trajectory looked like. And while trudging through all the speculation on this has raised some discrepancies concerning exact valuations, (I’m seeing anything from $4.9 million to $5 million for the Thiel financing but rounded up for consistency’s sake) I did my best to capture the zeitgeist through consensus, leaning heavily on reports on TechCrunch through the ages.
Facebook Shares Hit $28.26 Per Share, That’s a $70+ Billion Valuation. HOW TO: Advertise Inside Social Games on Facebook. Alex Rampell is founder and CEO of TrialPay, the leading provider of transactional advertising technology that uses the efficiencies of the web to pair online shoppers with ideal offers at every stage of the purchase process. With Advertising Week upon us, many marketers at the NYC conference will be examining the new ways they can reach customers on Facebook. While Facebook is now the largest display advertising site on the Internet, there are many other ways besides display ads for companies to reach consumers on the network. One of the most effective new ways to advertise is inside social games. According to a recent report by Nielsen, online games have surpassed personal e-mail to become the second most popular activity on the web, accounting for 10% of time spent online. Games also represent a huge audience for advertisers, as more than 56 million Americans play social games on a regular basis.
Here are four great ways to use social games to promote your brand. Hit the In-Game Wall. The Ayson Chronicles: A Life Online. Facebook to Make Credits Mandatory for All Onsite Gaming. Facebook's virtual currency, Facebook Credits, will become the official coin of the realm beginning July 1, 2011. On that day, all social game developers on the Facebook platform will be required to process payments through Facebook Credits. Currently, Facebook Credits is accepted as payment in around 350 apps from 150 developers, including 22 of the top 25 Facebook games.
Credits is used for more than 70% of all virtual goods bought and sold on Facebook. Facebooker Deborah Liu writes on the Facebook Developer Blog, "We're excited to give Facebook users the confidence that when they purchase Facebook Credits or receive them as a gift, they can spend them in any game on Facebook. " Between now and July, Facebook will be working with developers to ensure that every Facebook social game is using Credits, to help developers improve their revenues and to tweak the product to give users the best possible experience.
6 Reasons Why Social Games Are the Next Advertising Frontier. Ad spending on social gaming increased 60% since 2009, according to eMarketer. No doubt advertisers have noticed that 56 million Americans are playing social games and that the branded virtual goods market is booming . But more than just social gaming’s growing popularity has gotten attention from advertisers. Social games also represent an environment that is largely conducive to advertising. “Media buyers and advertisers are recognizing that this is what they want,” explained Robert Tomkinson, Playfish’s senior director of global marketing. “What they want is massive reach, they want targeting, they want performance. And you can have all of these by forming branding opportunities in the right way.” Tomkinson and other leaders in the social gaming industry recently spoke at the Social Gaming Summit about the huge opportunity that social games represent for brands. 1.
Another common strategy for brands in social games is an “offer wall” inside of many games. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Five Possibilities for the Future of Facebook - PCWorld. Now that Facebook has hit the 300 million members mark and shown that its free service can rope in dough, we have to wonder what will happen to the social networking giant ten years down the road. Here are five possibilities for the future of Facebook. Evolved Gaming Interactivity Facebook has already embraced the allure of interactive gaming -- almost to the point of obnoxious saturation.
(Honestly, do you really want to see one more Mob Wars update?) The gaming platform will likely evolve into a more graphics-heavy, MMO-type experience; a true utilization of Facebook's social networking abilities. More Aggressive Advertising Facebook reached "cash flow positive" status through its advertising.
A Pointless Offshoot Imagine a Facebook phone, a Facebook OS, or a Facebook retail store. A Busy Catch-All A Brick Wall Social networking will eventually plateau, skid, and fall off a cliff. Group buying: Fad or future Facebook? Strenght in numbers: Group buying online looks set to grow in 2011. Group buying websites grew massively in 2010, but will that continue in 2011 ValuUp boss, Doug Aitken says group buying isn't a recession-driven fad and will grow in 2011 U.S. -based Groupon recently turned down reported $6 billion offer from Google to buy the company Retail analyst believes 2011 will see "continuing convergence of retail and communication channels" London, (CNN) -- Group buying websites enjoyed massive growth in 2010 grabbing new customers and the headlines as the sector's biggest player, Groupon turned down a reported $6 billion offer from Google in early December.
But how will Groupon and its rivals fare in 2011? Is this a recession-led fad, driven by cash-strapped consumers desperate for a bargain? In their "Top 11 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2011," trendwatching.com says group buying sites are "springing up everywhere," and are "here to stay. " "We're seeing a lot of consumer fatigue. Facebook: One Social Graph to Rule Them All? Facebook.com founder Mark Zuckerberg smiles at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., in this Feb. 5, 2007, file photo. Facebook Inc. has avoided the acquisition frenzy that's gobbled up MySpace.com, YouTube and other startups, and the company is now striving to become a general portal like Yahoo, not just a social networking site for college students.
AP Photo One social graph to rule them all? With more than 400 million people already on Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is eager to add more and he hopes the company's latest announcements will expand its domination of social networking. That was the subtext today as Facebook kicked off F8, its annual conference for software developers in San Francisco. Zuckerberg talked about how the company intends to connect parts of the Web that other social sites are building, part of what he described as the "Open Graph. " "Yelp is mapping out the part of the graph that relates to small businesses.
No Standalone "Connect" Privacy an Issue? Social graph. This animation shows the different types of relations between social objects. User Eva is a friend of Adam and Kate, though Adam and Kate are not friends themselves. Peter's photo was "liked" by many users, including Eva. Also Eva listened to the Last.fm radio and watched the video from Youtube. The term was popularized at the Facebook F8 conference on May 24, 2007, when it was used to explain that the Facebook Platform, which was introduced at the same time, would benefit from the social graph by taking advantage of the relationships between individuals, that Facebook provides, to offer a richer online experience.[2] The definition has been expanded to refer to a social graph of all Internet users.
One of the earliest known forms of the social graph was created in 2002 by Harvard student Philippe Bouzaglou in a paper published on the Harvard Department of Economics website. Issues[edit] Open Graph[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] Graph API Reference. The Graph API is the primary way for apps to read and write to the Facebook social graph. All of our SDKs and products interact with the Graph API in some way, and our other APIs are extensions of the Graph API, so understanding how the Graph API works is crucial. If you are unfamiliar with the Graph API, we recommend that you start with these documents: Once you're familiar with the basics, you can move on to more advanced topics like the ones below: Read our iOS, Android, JavaScript, PHP, or Third-party SDK documentation to learn how our SDKs interact with the Graph API.Browse our Advanced Topics which cover more complex operations like field aliasing, multiple requests, and asynchronous batch requests.Read our Upgrade Guide to learn how to upgrade to the latest version.
Graph API Overview. Connecting to Everything You Care About. 7 Years of Facebook: A Retrospective. The Next Evolution of Facebook Platform. We're hosting our third f8 conference in San Francisco today. There are two important themes behind everything we're delivering today. First, the Web is moving to a model based on the connections between people and all the things they care about. Second, this connections-based Web is well on its way to being built and providing value to both users and developers — the underlying graph of connections just needs to be mapped in a way that makes it easy to use and interoperable.
Today we are introducing three new components of Facebook Platform to make the connections-based Web more real: social plugins, the Open Graph protocol, and the Graph API. Social Plugins Instantly engaging social experiences with just one line of HTML Social plugins are the easiest way to integrate the social graph into your site and provide an instantly personalized experience to your users.
Open Graph Protocol Any webpage can now easily become part of the social graph Graph API Hacking the Graph. Technology - Why $50bn may not be much between friends. Building the Social Web Together. How Small Business Will Use Social Media in the Future. How Startups are Using Social Media for Real Results. More Evidence That Facebook Is Nearing 600 Million Users. Connectivism: Learning as Network-Creation - 2005.
Knowledge economy. Attention economy. Google Docs in Plain English. The Internet Explained. Contents. The Wealth of Networks, by Yochai Benkler. Circular Flow of Income - Macroeconomics. Augmented Reality - Explained by Common Craft (Free Version) Using Forms in Google Docs. Google Apps Quick Tour. Google Voice.
Investing Money in Plain English. Borrowing Money in Plain English. Google Voice - Phone routing. Google Voice for mobile. GDP vs. GNP. The Future Internet: Service Web 3.0. World Wide Web in Plain English. Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. 5 Website Designs That Blew Us Away [MASHABLE AWARDS] Social Media Marketing in 3 minutes. Wikis in Plain English.
Social media. Social Networking in Plain English. Social Media in Plain English. 5 Key Tips for a Successful Social Media Content Strategy. Making Data Relevant: The New Metrics for Social Marketing.
20 Free Social Media Icon Sets For a More Shareable Website. TCP / IP - An animated discussion. Chrome Release Cycle 12-16-2010. yEd - Graph Editor. Intro to the Semantic Web. Digitally excluded households miss out on 1bn savings a year. What Makes a Personal Contract Legally Binding? Web 2.0.
Help. Tom Chatfield: 7 ways video games engage the brain.