Who's Using Twitter? [REPORT] The Pew Center is out with a new report that focuses on Twitter usage in the U.S., and it reveals that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population uses Twitter. Young adults ages 18 to 29, minority groups — 13% black and 18% Hispanic — and urban dwellers are among the groups with the highest level of Twitter use. The report reveals that women and those with college educations are also slightly more likely than other groups to tweet. One-quarter of Twitter users check the service multiple times per day to see others' tweets, while one in five never look for new updates.
Here are some select statistics about the actual tweets that are going out there: 72% of Twitter users say they post updates about their personal life, activities or interests.62% post work-related updates.55% use Twitter to share links to news stories.53% use the service to retweet others' material.40% use the service to share photos with others, while 28% use it to share videos.24% tweet their location. Why your TV is the new app battleground. This post is sponsored by Samsung Electronics America. See samsung.com/apps for information about which apps are available on specific models. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Samsung Electronics or its partners.
VentureBeat applied its usual strict standards of editorial independence in writing this post. As our televisions are getting smarter, TVs are quickly beginning to parallel the development of smartphones. With Couch Mode, which is built using HTML5, Vimeo also brings up an issue that many companies have faced in the smartphone world: Should they develop a native app, or opt for a website written to the HTML5 standard and optimized for mobile devices?
The situation is slightly different when it comes to TVs, where full Web access isn’t as common as apps. The case for TV apps As with mobile apps, there are a variety of different platforms for Smart TV apps. Why build a TV app? Now that’s beginning to change. Google finally spills the beans on Nexus S, coming Dec. 16 on T-Mobile. Get ready for the new Android king. Google has finally unveiled its Nexus One successor, the Nexus S, which will come equipped with the latest Android release, version 2.3 “Gingerbread.” The phone will be available unlocked for $529, or together with a T-Mobile plan for $199, at Best Buy’s website and stores on December 16. It hits Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse stores on December 20 in the United Kingdom. The company didn’t reveal much today that we don’t already know about the Nexus S: It’s co-developed by Samsung (which explains its similarity to Samsung’s Galaxy S phones), will feature a 1 gigahertz Samsung Hummingbird processor, and contains a 4-inch display that’s contoured to fit snug against your face.
The phone sports a front-facing camera for video conferencing, and a rear 5 megapixel camera capable of shooting 720p high-definition video (Google now lists 720 by 480 video recording for the Nexus S, which is far off from 720p HD. Dazzplay brings your music into Facebook. LinkoTec, a startup that synchronizes your music across your devices, is getting into the music-sharing business with a new Facebook application called Dazzplay. Dazzplay isn’t the first app allowing users to share playlists on Facebook — competitors include MixPod.
But after seeing a demo of Dazzplay and trying it out for myself, I’m impressed by its integration with Facebook and other features. And since Dazzplay isn’t hosting any music itself,and instead linking to music hosted elsewhere, it’s avoiding many of the pitfalls faced by other music startups. Here’s how it works. For example, when I tried Dazzplay this morning, I imported the iTunes list of my 25 most-played songs, and the app found YouTube videos for 13 tracks. Dazzplay has been in beta testing for the last few weeks, and Salonen said he’s ready to take the beta label off today. LinkoTec is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland and it raised $1.5 million from HTT Sixgen and Veraventure earlier this year. TokBox raises $12M to jam Skype into your web browser. TokBox, a provider of streaming video conferencing over the web, announced today that it has raised $12 million in a third round of funding and is launching a new set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to embed video conferencing in any web site.
The new APIs kill the need to launch a standalone application like Skype or a web application to host a video conference. Any developer can now embed up to 20 participants in a video conference directly into a web page. They can have many more people watching the conversations as well. TokBox is launching the new APIs at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco tomorrow. Using TokBox for something like a speed dating website seems like an obvious application, but there’s another potential giant target — enterprise teleconferencing.
Collaboration technology is already incredibly fragmented and in dire need of consolidation. Once video is captured from a web-enabled camera, it’s sent over to the TokBox servers and compressed. １年で３回の資金調達（総額$10M）を成功させたわずか５枚のプレゼンスライド. 編集者注記: このゲスト記事では、SocialcastのファウンダTim Youngが、わずか5枚のスライドによるプレゼンテーションで、1年に3回の調達ラウンドを実現し、総額$10M（1000万ドル）の資金を獲得した彼自身の経験を、詳しく述べている。 この記事は最初、“Knowledge Is Social”に掲出された。 “お手間は取らせません。 スライドを5枚見ていただくだけで、わたくしどもの事業を十分にご理解いただけると思います。” San Franciscoに引っ越してから1年あまりになるが、今日までの毎日、Socialcastとabout.meの構築に明け暮れていた。 しかしその間に、Socialcastとabout.meの2社のために3回の資金調達ラウンドを行い、総額で$10M（1000万ドル）以上を獲得した。 生後365日に満たないスタートアップ2社への投資を、ベンチャーキャピタリストたちに説得するのは至難だが、そのおかげで、資金獲得のためにすべきことと、してはならないことが、比較的短期間で分かってきた。 以下に、資金調達の過程で学んだ貴重な教訓の概要を説明しよう。
最初のミーティングではプロジェクターを使うな ベンチャーのパートナーたちとの最初のミーティングは、会議室で行われることが多い*。 投資家の観点からものごとを見よ ベンチャーのパートナーたちは、一人一人、性格やものの考え方が違う。 最初のスライド 通常、初回のミーティングは30分から1時間ぐらいだ。 “お手間は取らせません。 最初にこう言うと、投資家の心の中には、これから起きることの像ができる。 5枚のスライドが演ずる魔術 以下は、私が実際に売り込みで使った使ったスライドを、秘密情報や個人情報を取り去ってスケルトン化したものだ。 スライド0: 表紙（会社のロゴと日付） スライド1: 会社のスナップショット 現在の関係者をざっと紹介する: ファウンダ（複数可）、投資家（エンジェル、友人、家族など）、主な社員、アドバイザー。
スライド2: 数値 売上、利益、経費（月額）など。 スライド3: タイムライン（別名: マネースライド） 人間はパターンが好きだ。 ブランクスライド: 製品のデモ 売り込みの相手が一人のパートナーでも、あるいはVC企業のパートナー全員でも、話を前へ進めたくても今見たのやその前のスライドがえんえんと話題になることがある。 1. AndroidのGoogle Latitudeでリアルタイム位置追跡サービスの実験開始. Googleは先ほどGoogle MapsのAndroidアプリをアップデートし、多くの機能を追加した。 その中でも役に立ちそうなものが2つある。 一つはプレイスのレビューがMaps内から表示でき、検索結果もフィルターできるようになったことだ。 しかし面白いのはもう一つの機能だ。 Google Latitudeのリアルタイムの位置情報アップデート機能である。 念のため断っておくと、この機能は実験段階のものだ。 今回Googleが発表した新機能は、おそらく短期間の使用を目的としているのだろう。 しかし面白い機能ではある。 これらの新機能が実装されたのはAndroid版Google Maps 4.6（OSは1.6以降）だ。 Google Latitude is location-based service where users can see where their friends are and what they are up to, quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call. Google announced July 10, 2013 that the service would be shut down effective August… Learn More [原文へ] （翻訳：滑川海彦/namekawa01） Mint Data Offers Real-Time Look at Local Spending.
I never know what to think when I see a rating next to a business on something like Yelp or Google that ranks a business as "$" or "$$" - how much is "$$" exactly and do I want to spend it? Well now, if you know you have exactly $12 on hand and you're looking for dinner, you can look at Mint Data and find out exactly what the average bill at that new restaurant might be. Mint Data launched today and is the product of Mint.com, the personal-finance management site. Mint Data aggregates anonymous spending data from Mint's more than 4 million users "to deliver an unprecedented real-time economic index".
"When we first crossed the million-user mark, we looked at the stories the anonymous, aggregated customer data could tell about the economy," said Mint Founder Aaron Patzer. "Now, we have enough users in enough cities across America to give a distinct, anonymous look at the country's economy down to the city level. Sean Parker: Spotify will finish the job that Napster started.
Sean Parker is getting a lot of attention right now thanks to The Social Network, the movie about Facebook where he’s played by musician Justin Timberlake. But today at The Daily Beast’s Reboot America conference, Parker didn’t say much about Facebook or the movie, and he focused instead on his latest project — music startup Spotify. Parker is a managing partner at the Founders Fund, which invested in Spotify.
In a recent Vanity Fair profile, Parker said Spotify is his current passion, and he said today that it the company could “finish what I started” with Napster (which Parker co-founded). Napster’s goal, he said, was to build up a massive audience of illegal downloaders, then transition them to a legal service. He said record industry executives didn’t understand that, which is why they got Napster shut down, and why they have been playing “whack a mole” by attacking every other Napster-like service in the last 10 years. GigaOm raises $2.5M, claims 10,000 Pro subscribers.
Giga Omni Media, the company that runs GigaOm and related tech blogs, has raised $2.5 million in a fourth round of funding. That’s kind of remarkable, since GigaOm was already one of the most highly funded blogs around. TechCrunch, which was just acquired by AOL, never raised venture funding. VentureBeat (yes, this very blog) raised less than $1 million from various angel investors. Business Insider has raised more than $6 million. With the new round, GigaOm’s total funding tops $8 million.
Those amounts are tiny compared to many of the other venture fundings we cover, but it’s not clear whether any of the tech blogs can become a major business. So how is GigaOm going to justify all that money? Malik also said he will also continue investing on the technology side: Most folks think of us as a blog network, but we have quietly built-up a large, custom laundry list of technology assets that could exist as standalone tools. The funding came from True Ventures and Alloy Ventures.
Ustream to Roll Out Pay-Per-View and Ad-Free Options. Live-streaming website Ustream will be adding some new features in coming weeks: the Ustream Open Pay-Per-View (PPV) program and ad-free broadcasting. Open PPV — currently available to only a small, hand-selected group — will allow anyone broadcasting via the site to apply in order to charge viewers for content. Once applicants are approved for the program, they will be able to monetize their content via PayPal. "We are initially launching with PayPal, and plan to roll out other payment methods later," says Shari Foldes, Ustream's head of marketing.
"We are hoping to offer Open PPV to all users by the end of the year. " She says details of the revenue split between Ustream and broadcasters will be available once the program becomes available to everyone. Although a launch date has not been specified yet, the application process should be open soon. In the meantime, ad-free broadcasting should be launched sometime in early November. Take a look at a sample shot of a pay-per-view page below: [jp]噂のベンチャーファーム、Y Combinatorの実態に迫る（その2） 時間があいてしまったので忘れてしまった人もいるかもしれないけれど、いまみんなが注目するベンチャーキャピタルファームのY Combinator（以下YC）についての解説の第二弾を掲載しよう。 忘れてしまった人は前回記事でおさらいしてほしい。 前回はYCにどうやって応募者が採用されるのか、そして、採用されたYC採用の創業者たちがなにをしているのかという話をした。 今回はその後の話となる。 インタビューに答えてくれたのはYCのパートナーのHarj TaggerとYC採用の創業者で今年の春先まで日本に在住だったGinzaMetricsのRay Grieselhuberだということ、改めて付記しておこう。
■さあて卒業間近、どうする。 3カ月なんてあっという間だ。 3カ月でとにかく動く製品を作る。 だからYCではDemo Dayというイベントを設けている。 創業者たちはDemo Dayで（あるいはそれ以前に紹介を受けて）知り合った投資家たちと話を進めて、うまく行けば次の資金を得ることになる。 Harjによれば、これはYC自体が有名になったから、それだけ実力がある人たちが応募してきているということと、もう1つはシリコンバレーの景気がひところよりはよくなったということに起因しているらしい。 Rayの会社GinzaMetricsも複數のエンジェル投資家から資金を得ることができたらしい（よかった）。 ■うまく資金を調達できなかった。 YCだからといってみんながうまく行くわけではない。 ケース・バイ・ケースだが、たとえば、昼間コンサルティングをやりながら引き続き夜にスタートアップ企業の仕事を続けるパートタイム型の人もいる。 興味深いのはYCで知り合った友人の会社に参加するケースもあるということだ。 ■そして卒業。 3カ月が終了すればみんなYC卒業となる（いや別に学校じゃないから本当に卒業するわけではないが）。 YCスタッフとの濃密な時間は3カ月ということになる。 だが、Rayによれば火曜日のディナーはその後も続いているようだ。 ■とにかく製品を作ることに集中させるといこと 僕が聞けた情報はざっとこんなところだ。 3カ月という短いタームで「製品を作ること」と「人との関係を作る」こと、そしてその大前提となる「ビジョンを作る」こと。 面白いのは、応募したときとはまったく違うビジネスを3カ月の間にスタートさせる創業者もいるということだ。