How Weibo Is Changing China. Weibo is just 3 years old, but its posters are fierce in tackling China’s challenges BEIJING: It was the last straw for Shanghai graduate student Wu Heng, when he heard that restaurants near him were using toxic chemicals to make pork taste like beef.
He started a food-safety blog out of his dorm room in January. In April, he got 10,000 hits. In May, he got 5 million. “Word spread on Weibo,” he says with a grin. Weibo – China’s version of Twitter – has created a vigorous virtual public square since it was launched by the Chinese internet company Sina three years ago this month. Modelling behaviour: Game theory in practice. From Technologist to Philosopher - Manage Your Career. By Damon Horowitz How does someone become a technologist?
In my case, it happened in college. I was an undergraduate at Columbia University, reading and discussing what were once unrepentantly called "the classics. " I really wanted to understand what the great thinkers thought about the great questions of life, the human condition, the whole metaphysical stew. And the problem was: We didn't seem to be making much progress. Mary Meeker on the economy, mobile, and Facebook. Shopping Intelligence for Mobile Devices- Pricebaba Launches Today in Mumbai. PriceBaba, a shopping intelligence for mobile devices, today announced the launch of its services.
Aligning years of retail experience, PriceBaba aims to provide intelligence about the best prices, deals and availability to help shoppers make an informed purchase decision. PriceBaba gives consumers a powerful tool to find the best bargains on mobile phones in their vicinity by listing the best bargain price for over 400 mobiles phones from 26 manufacturers. Updated: Affiliate Marketing Co Shoogloo Rebrands As TrooTrac; Founder LD Sharma? - MediaNama. Intel-based smartphone unveiled by Orange for UK and France. 31 May 2012Last updated at 06:40 ET Intel and Orange are backing the device with a big marketing campaign Europe's first "Intel Inside" smartphone has been unveiled by the telecoms firm Everything Everywhere.
The handset is powered by Intel's single-core Atom Z2460 processor and runs Google's Android system. It was manufactured by the Chinese firm Gigabyte, but will be marketed under EE's Orange brand. The launch marks Intel's entry into a market dominated by chips based on designs by British firm Arm Holdings.
Secret History. Why it’s smart for consumer startups to grow first and make money later. I’ve had two recent conversations in which people have mentioned the “grow first, monetize later” philosophy as one of the signs of the coming bubble apocalypse, and this post is to argue why it’s very smart and rational to focus on getting millions of users first.
(This post is part of my 2011 blogging roadmap) Regarding monetization, I’ll note that… How to calculate cost-per-acquisition for startups relying on freemium, subscription, or virtual items biz models. Buying ads make sense for direct monetizing products When it comes to products that directly monetize their audience using subscription, ecommerce, virtual items, etc., it can make a lot of sense to rely on advertising as a distribution channel.
The reason for although there are 100s of millions of internet users, only a small fraction (usually <1%) will be in-market for your services at any given time. As a result, you are looking to acquire these users, and only these users, and everyone else is considered wasted energy. Note that the freemium model is a variation on this concept – where you acquire a large base of “casual users” that stick around, and you slowly convert some % of them to subscribers.
You can think of it as vertically integrating your distribution, and instead of spending money to buy ads, instead you are spending money to support this large base of free users. Run an ad-supported consumer internet app? Shopping around for a bank account. 30 May 2012Last updated at 07:59 GMT By David Black Banking specialist, Defaqto Many customers remain with their current account provider for many years.
With new funding, Group Commerce looks beyond daily deals. As publishers spot e-commerce opportunities beyond daily deals, New York-based Group Commerce wants to expand with them.
In an announcement today, the company said it had raised $21 million in new funding from Jafco Ventures and existing investors, such as Spark Capital, Carmel Ventures, Lerer Ventures and Bob Pittman. The new funding will help the company expand its footprint into the U.K., Germany and other parts of Europe, as well as further enable its platform to support all kinds of e-commerce. Since its launch in 2010, the company has mostly used its white-label software platform to help local and national publishers sell Groupon-like daily deal offers. With ad-saving business slow, AdKeeper expands to email, Pinterest. When AdKeeper launched as a virtual ad-clipping service last February, the big question was: will people actually want to save online ads?
More than one year later, the company still says the answer is “yes.” But they’re finding that consumer behavior isn’t changing as fast as they’d hoped. So while they wait for the industry to catch up with their vision (or scramble frantically to convince people the service is worth their time, depending on your point of view), they’ve decided to spread some of the $40 million they’ve raised on other ways of connecting consumers and brands. PayPal rolls out barcode payments in the UK. EBay’s CEO John Donahoe has called 2012 a year of testing and learning for PayPal’s in-store payments as it gears up for a big push next year.
And the company is making good on that with the roll out of its first barcode-based payments in the UK at four major retailers. Starting Thursday, British consumers will be able to use a new PayPal InStore app to pay at 230 retail locations for Coast, Oasis, Warehouse, and Karen Millen. The app, available initially for iOS and Android, allows users to pay at check-out by generating a barcode and transaction number, that can be scanned by retail employees. The money is deducted from a user’s PayPal account with a receipt sent to their email account. Users can also apply discounts through the app and they don’t have to have a cellular or Wi-Fi signal to complete the transaction. The barcode payment tool is just the latest test for PayPal, which is throwing a lot of ideas against the wall as it looks for the right tools to unlock in-store payments.
Mental boxes and startup bottlenecks. This is the seventh article in the series of 20 articles by Santosh Sharma Whenever I come across startup entrepreneurs, I am usually told about the obstacles, hitches, funding constraints, infertile ecosystem for new ventures and the difficulties they face to put their idea into action.
Former CEO of Reliance Trends Launches Fashionara.com. The online fashion market has seen many entrants in the recent times like Indan Hanger, Rooja, Fashion DownTown and IvoryTag. Former CEO of Reliance Trends, Arun Sirdeshmukh, and Global e-commerce expert, Darpan Munjal, have combined their rich and varied experience across fashion retail and e-commerce, to launch Fashionara.com.
The latest entrant into the buoyant online fashion market, Fashionara.com, is an online fashion mall that offers merchandise from premium and luxury fashion brands across apparel, footwear and accessories. Fashionara.com aims to position Indian online fashion retail among its global peers through a visually-enriched online shopping experience and enhanced offline customer engagement. Fashionara.com marks the beginning of e-retail 2.0 in India. The site is launched for private access with several features that have never been seen before in Indian e-commerce. Key Points the company vouches for- Redwood Associates, an Analytics Company Launches LookBeyondResumes.com. Redwood Associates, an emerging analytics company, researching the application of analytics in the social space, have just launched their first product -LookBeyondResumes.com. Every organization often has a “picture” of an ideal employee based on perception rather than information and this is the problem that LookBeyondResumes is aiming to solve.
The process employed by LookBeyondResumes utilises the information, technology and powerful data mining algorithms, to search and shortlist superior talent based on success patterns which are relevant to a role, function, company and an industry. These algorithms developed by LookBeyondResumes enable an employer to shortlist smarter and a job seeker to apply better. The engine also keeps adapting itself to changes in the environment, getting better at identifying the best with each new hire.
Accounting Basics for Startups- FAQs. In continuation of series “Accounting basics for Start-ups”, today in this article, we have selected few questions frequently asked by the startups and business and trying to answer them. Q – What are the things to be maintained in books of accounts? Ans – Books of accounts constitute of Journal, Ledger book, Trial Balance, Original and carbon copies of bills/invoices/receipts /, Cash Book, Profit and Loss A/c, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statements. Q- Is it a requirement to maintain books of accounts under the Income Tax Provisions, or Company Law Provisions or for that matter provision related to LLPs?
Ans- Companies and LLPs are required to maintain books of accounts as mandated by their governing statute, namely Companies Act, 1956 and LLP Act, 2008. Further, Income tax also casts an obligation to maintain books of accounts, irrespective of the form of business, and has separate provisions related to it. Hiring in India. One of the biggest challenge that startups face in the early stages as well as while scaling up is building up a great team. Emerging Trends In Indian E-Commerce: On Logistics, No Poach, Payment Gateways & More - MediaNama. Austin’s Warped Center of Gravity. Get.com Redesign Makes It a Free Crowdsourced Consumer Reports. To inspire others, it's how you do it that counts.