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Startups, VCs Call For “Fresh Perspective” On Piracy Legislation

A D M I N — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:03:49 +0000

In the aftermath of the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act , a long list of organizations have sent a letter to Congress asking members to “take a breath” before they trying to push through new piracy legislation. The letter argues that the “wide variety of important concerns” that were expressed during the SOPA/PIPA protests cannot be addressed through “hasty revisions” to the bills. Instead, there needs to be more research and transparent discussion about the broader issues: Furthermore, Congress must determine the true extent of online infringement and, as importantly, the economic effects of that activity, from accurate and unbiased sources, and weigh them against the economic and social costs of new copyright legislation. Congress cannot simply accept industry estimates regarding economic and job implications of infringement given the Government Accountability Office’s clear finding in 2010 that previous statistics and quantitative studies on the subject have been unreliable. Finally, any future debates concerning intellectual property law in regards to the Internet must avoid taking a narrow, single-industry perspective. Too often, Congress has focused exclusively on areas where some rights holders believe existing law is too weak, without also considering the ways in which existing policies have undermined free speech and innovation. Some examples include the year-long government seizure of a lawful music blog (dajaz1.com) and the shutdown by private litigation of a lawful startup video platform (veoh.com). A number of Web companies signed off on the letter, including Asana, WordPress-maker Automattic, the Cheezburger Network, Mozilla, Reddit, and Twipic. So did startup investment firms Foundry Group, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and SV Angel. And lest this be portrayed as simply a battle between the tech and media industries , the letter was also signed by the American Library Association, Amnesty International, and OpenCongress.org (to pick three names at random). [ image via Flickr/Nancy Pelosi , story via TheVerge ] View this document on Scribd

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Startups, VCs Call For “Fresh Perspective” On Piracy Legislation

Yelp Ads Are Not A Rip-Off, You Pay To Seal The Deal

jos — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:29:22 +0000

Yelp built its ad business by attracting users that know what they want, just not who to buy it from — exactly when ads are most effective. That’s why I find today’s VentureBeat piece by Rocky Agrawal titled “Yelp advertising is a rip-off for small advertisers” to be ridiculous. His sources say Yelp charges a $600 CPM, or 1,000-times the standard online CPM rate. Yes, these ads are expensive, especially for low-end restaurants. But for lawyers, dentists, jewelers, and mechanics with a high lifetime average revenue per customer, turning someone searching for their services on Yelp into a loyal customer is no rip-off, it can drive big ROI. Yelp sits at the end of the purchase funnel in the demand fulfillment stage. Users often already have a need for a business’ services and are prepared to spend. They go to Yelp to determine which service provider will get their money. When a user searches for “dentists in San Francisco”, Yelp local ads let advertisers put their own search result with a link to their Yelp profile at the top of the results. For restaurants, a conversion could bring in $20 to $50 in revenue, and that customer will eat somewhere else tomorrow where they could get hooked. For a high CPM to provide ROI, restaurants need lots of customers to be swayed by their ads and turn into regulars. However, for more expensive financial, medical, automotive, real estate, travel, home, and professional services, these stakes are much higher. A single visit from a customer could earn an advertisers hundreds of dollars, their long-term business could be worth thousands, and they’re unlikely to switch if satisfied. If their local ads on Yelp net them just a few or even 1 new customer, they could earn significant long-term ROI. Agrawal compares Yelp ads to Facebook ads, which doesn’t make sense because Facebook users aren’t actively looking for the service the advertiser is selling. He also says Yelp is overcharging advertisers. It’s only overcharging if the ads don’t produce results, not just because they’re priced much higher than less-targeted display ads. If you want proof that Yelp provides value to advertisers, just look at Yelp’s S-1 filing to go public . It notes the massive growth and return-customer rate for its local ads business: from the quarter ended December 31, 2010 to the quarter ended December 31, 2011, the number of active local business accounts increased by 109% from approximately 11,300 to 23,700. Of the approximately 23,700 total active local business accounts for the quarter ended December 31, 2011, approximately 15,800, or approximately 67%, were existing advertisers from which we recognized local advertising revenue in the immediately preceding 12-month period. (Page 56) Yelp had a 67% return advertiser rate, and that would have been much higher if it hadn’t DOUBLED its local advertiser count in that year. If Yelp ads are such a rip-off, why are advertisers coming back for more? Yelp can’t say because it’s in its pre-IPO quiet period. It shouldn’t need to, though. It charges justifiably high CPMs, and is going to IPO , because its ads appear at the perfect time. And they work.

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Yelp Ads Are Not A Rip-Off, You Pay To Seal The Deal

Groupon Buys eCommerce Data Targeting Startup (And Angelpad Alumnus) Adku

kram412 — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 02:27:29 +0000

I love the smell of acquisitions in the morning! We’ve just heard that Groupon has acquired Adku , a stealth startup that uses big data in order to personalize the online shopping experience for people visiting eCommerce sites like eBay, Amazon and Zappos. The company built their personalized targeting technology in three months, and have basically been in stealth since they launched at the Angelpad Demo day a year and a half ago. Adku is backed by Greylock Partners , Battery Ventures and True Ventures in addition to being an Angelpad startup. Although CEO Ajit Varma and several members of the six person team are former Googlers, from what I’m hearing this wasn’t a talent acquisition or acqhire but a team + technology play – with a price beyond $10 million. Varma would not disclose what the team will be working on when they get to Groupon. While it’s not clear what the technology will be applied to, the acquisition makes sense on a lot of levels, especially because a personalized experience is where most of eCommerce is headed. Greylock VC David Thacker now runs product for Groupon, so that couldn’t have hurt either. Wrote Varma in a blog post, “We started talking to Groupon to bring our technology to more customers and quickly realized that we wanted to be a deeper part of a company that people love and is empowering merchants and customers in a way that’s never been done before.” Stay tuned! OK @ adku (three former Google engineers) is a company that Techcrunch will slobber over. Dynamic content. Interesting company.— Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) November 11, 2010

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Groupon Buys eCommerce Data Targeting Startup (And Angelpad Alumnus) Adku

Keen On… SOPA: Mob Rule or Direct Democracy? (TCTV)

vertical8 — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:15:38 +0000

My own views about SOPA and the need to protect online intellectual property are well-known . But even I acknowledge that SOPA was a flawed bill that didn’t represent a viable solution to policing the Internet against intellectual property theft. So is there life after SOPA? How can the technology and content communities carve out a compromise which will simultaneously protect innovation and the rights of the creative community? In the spirit of compromise, I invited Larry Downes , one of SOPA’s most articulate critics, into our San Francisco studio to talk about what comes next. Downes acknowledged that direct democracy on the Internet can sometimes degenerate into mob rule. He also agreed that there is a need for a new kind of dialogue, not only between the technology and entertainment industries, but also involving Internet users – members of communities like Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr – who, he said, needed to be much intimately involved in the political conversation. This third force, Downes told me, fundamentally alters the power equation and may well also change the legislative process in Washington DC. But Downes’ main point is a little depressing. Politics changes very slowly and technology changes really quickly, he reminded me. So in 18 months time, he predicted, nothing much will have changed in Washington DC. There still won’t be any legislative solution to the problem of online piracy and that promised dialogue between the two (or three) communities will not have materialized.

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Keen On… SOPA: Mob Rule or Direct Democracy? (TCTV)

Amazon Incarnate: Bezos The Book Giant Is Planning A Store In Seattle

vertical8 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:46:13 +0000

According to GoodEReader , Amazon is planning to open a retail store in Seattle this year where they will sell Amazon-exclusive books and, more importantly, Kindles of all kinds. While this looks to be more of a pop-up retail presence than a fully-fledged store, if I were in publishing I’d be circling the wagons right now. To be fair, Amazon’s own publishing offerings are pretty wonky so far. There haven’t been many runaway successes coming out of the house although Seth Godin and Tim Ferris will soon be bringing their own brand of publishing success and there are some interesting cross-cultural titles coming out. But that’s not why publishing has to worry. The Kindle was Amazon incarnate, a way for Amazon to bring its online presence into the real world. A physical Kindle store – one that exists in a mall or popular area, even for a short period – is like the third coming. It’s basically a chance for Amazon to grab every else they have missed during the initial run up in Kindle popularity. We’re talking older folks, luddites, grumps, and folks who claim that “reading it in paper” is better. To have them walk up to a display of working Kindles, newly minted and displaying the latest Stephen King book, is the only way Amazon will convince them that going digital is the only way to go. This will also encourage the movement from the agent-publisher-distributor model of book publishing into a direct to consumer model that Amazon will spearhead. By showing potential authors that they can get their books bound in handsome Kindle editions, they’ll be more likely to go that route instead of pounding fruitlessly against the gates of big publishing. It’s obviously a no-brainer to many of us, but old paradigms die hard. As I said before, the Fire is Amazon’s Trojan Horse . However, rather than the wary hold-outs bringing in Amazon’s market by buying the fire, Amazon will bring the Trojans to their own branded stores. The store will appear in Settle in the next few months and presumably be the first of a nation-wide roll-out. I suspect it will be a bit of a loss for Amazon but hopefully it will convert the last hold-outs to the benefits of ereading.

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Amazon Incarnate: Bezos The Book Giant Is Planning A Store In Seattle

Early Twitter Product Head Anamitra Banerji Becomes An EIR At Foundation Capital

Achilles — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:34:56 +0000

When Twitter shook up its product leadership in July, it let loose four Silicon Valley veterans into a talent-starved job market. While the three others have become a VC, a cofounder, and an engineering head, the last one left unaccounted for has a new home. Anamitra Banerji has just joined Foundation Capital as its newest entrepreneur in residence. In this role, which can mean advising and joining a company or starting one, Banerji has a few ideas he’s going to explore, he tells me. They go beyond his history in the search and advertising business, and build on his experience developing social software at Twitter. But first, here’s why you may know of him. After cofounding an online health company in India in the late 1990s, he worked for a few years in that country and the US as a software engineer at various larger companies before becoming a manager at early search marketing firm Overture in 2004. He stayed there through its acquisition by Yahoo in 2006, all the way until early 2009. Then, as the first product manager and thirtieth employee at Twitter, he hired many of its engineering and product employees, and developed its ad platform from scratch. This includes Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts. While Twitter under returning founder Jack Dorsey has gone in some new product directions, Banerji’s impact is still clearly visible at the 700-person company. “I’m taking some time to step back to see what’s happening out in the Valley,” he says about his plans, “to see what I can do to build great companies, to share my experiences with other entrepreneurs… and to learn a little bit about what it’s like on the other side [at a venture firm].” He’s not new to the work. He’s been advising companies on the side for three years, he recently became a mentor at 500 Startups , and he’s already been working with a team of Stanford students on the Widescope project , which provides a cool interactive data visualization that lets users create their own federal budgets (er, budget deficits). The areas he’s going to explore could include ads and monetization, but he’s particularly interested in online collaboration — like the Widescope tool — marketplaces, and mobile-focused products. He’s not the first of the four ex-colleagues to start working with a VC. Josh Elman, who is also a long-time Valley product leader, recently became a principal at Greylock . Meanwhile, Kevin Cheng is now the cofounder of Incredible Labs (which is building a mobile personal assistant called Donna), and Jean-Paul Cozzatti is the vice president of engineering at social fundraising site Rally .

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Early Twitter Product Head Anamitra Banerji Becomes An EIR At Foundation Capital

Brightcove Will Price IPO At $10-$12 Per Share

kram412 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:19:41 +0000

Online video service Brightcove will price its IPO between $10 and $12 per share, according to a new filing with the SEC. The company first filed for the IPO back in August of last year, saying it wanted to raise up to $50 million. Now, $50 million is at the lower end of its price range. If Brightcove sells the maximum number of shares (it’s set to sell 5 million shares, plus an extra 750,000 if demand is high) at $12, it could raise up to $69 million. The filing also updates Brightcove’s key metrics through the end of 2011. The company, which sells online video publishing and distribution services, says it had 3,872 customers as of Dec 31. Its revenue grew last year to $63.6 million (from $43.7 million in 2010), but it still showed a loss of $17.8 million. Thanks to plans to “continue to invest in the growth of our business and operations,” Brightcove says it expects to see losses until the end of this year at least. Brightcove also revealed ambitions beyond video when it announced its App Cloud last year, with its first commercial sale in September and general availability in November, according to the filing.

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Brightcove Will Price IPO At $10-$12 Per Share

Social Commerce Network Lockerz Debuts A Pinterest-Like Self-Expression Platform

Achilles — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:35:00 +0000

Kleiner Perkins-backed social commerce network Lockerz is debuting a new Pinterest-like self-expression platform, where members can create and share collections of images and videos from anywhere on the Web. But unlike Pinterest, users can actually receive rewards for sharing content, which can be used to get discounts in the Lockerz store. As we’ve reported in the past, Lockerz revolves around the idea that influencers within a social network can become brand and content advocates and affect the behavior of their friends. The network, which says it is seeing 45 million monthly uniques, is primarily targeted towards men and women ages 13 to 30, attempting to build a community of trendsetters and tastemakers who love to shop, play and connect on the Web. Users can earn points and discounts on brands by sharing content on the site. Founded by Kathy Savitt, a former Amazon and American Eagle Outfitters exec; Lockerz eventually wants to be the go-to commerce homepage for teens and young adults. Lockerz members earn what the network calls ‘PTZ’ for nearly everything they do on the site, which are used to get discounts on hundreds of products offered in the Lockerz Store. Since its inception, Lockerz members have used nearly 3 billion PTZ for millions of dollars of savings on brands, including 7 for All Mankind, James Jeans, Xbox 360, Nintendo, SkullCandy, Canon, and Olympus. Collections are created by “grabbing” images and videos from almost any website. Users can do this by downloading a bookmarklet or by posting images and videos manually. Videos can be grabbed a number of online video platforms including Hulu, Vimeo, MTV, VH1, Funny or Die, Comedy Central, CollegeHumor, and YouTube. Users can also grab images from other users’ existing Collections to create their own, which in turns rewards the original creator with PTZ. While the new self-expression platform draws a lot of similarities to fast-growing online pin board Pinterest , Savitt tells us that the new feature has been in the product roadmap for some time now (perhaps even before Pinterest took off). Savitt adds that Lockerz will be working with brands and celebrities to curate sponsored Collections as well.

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Social Commerce Network Lockerz Debuts A Pinterest-Like Self-Expression Platform

Google Launches “Solve For X” Website, The New Home For Its Global Innovations Conference

Achilles — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:17:12 +0000

Google today launched a somewhat mysterious website called “ Solve for X ,” which will now be the official homepage for a conference by the same name. Solve for X, according to the description provided, seems similar in format to the series of conferences from TED , but with more of a scientific focus. The invite-only gathering is designed to attract global innovators who present short, technology-focused presentations on topics like low-energy desalination, e-waste mining, crowd-sourced protein folding, stretchable silicon biosensers, climate change, and more. The website describes Solve for X as: “A place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Radical in the sense that the solutions could help billions of people. Radical in the sense that the audaciousness of the proposals makes them sound like science fiction. And radical in the sense that there is some real technology breakthrough on the horizon to give us all hope that these ideas could really be brought to life.” Although the site is still locked down as of this morning (there’s an email input form so you can be notified when it opens up), there have been hints to its nature posted by Richard W. DeVaul , a researcher for Google who describes his occupation as “Rapid Evaluator (mad scientist).” In addition, some people have dug around in the CSS code to try and learn more information about the event. In the code, you’ll find details on how the Solve for X presentations work. For example, presentations can only last 12 minutes, and must answer three questions: What is the huge problem you’re focused on fixing? What is the product or service that sounds like science fiction but that, if made, would radically improve the problem you just described? What specifically is the science or technology breakthrough that can give us all hope that such a product or service can be made and released to the world within a decade? Presenters are asked to go easy on the slideshows, and to consider using props and other visual aids instead. Videos from the conference, which took place this month in San Jose, California, are expected to go live on the site later today. In the meantime, this Solve for X introductory video is online now: ‘eat my e-waste!’ designing productsso that the ‘waste’ can b fertilizer or …lunch. #solveforx — lisagansky (@instigating) February 2, 2012 Crowdsolving: reshape edu, value of work, innovation & the economy. Each of us learn abt r true talents in a changing world. #solveforx — lisagansky (@instigating) February 2, 2012 there is more gold in a ton of electronic waste than a ton of ore from a gold mine. #solveforx — jackhidary (@jackhidary) February 2, 2012 Hmm. Stretchable silicon structures for on- or in-body applications. Very cool. #solveforx — Dr. Headcrash (@headcrash) February 2, 2012 Is nutrition a production or a distribution problem? #solveforx — Dr. Headcrash (@headcrash) February 2, 2012 Active electronics (sensors, display elements, rf comms) embedded in contact lenses.Wow. #solveforx — Dr. Headcrash (@headcrash) February 2, 2012 Hmm. Reconstructing mental images from FMRI – at high resolution. Freaky. #solveforx — Dr. Headcrash (@headcrash) February 2, 2012 Stretchable silicon sensor on skin. #solveforx twitter.com/headcrash/stat… — Dr. Headcrash (@headcrash) February 2, 2012 Huh.Completely reengineering the public university as a “moonshot factory” – in AZ. #solveforx — Dr. Headcrash (@headcrash) February 2, 2012 @ neha #solveforx is a ted-like conference focusing on “moon shot” technologies with giant impact potential. Talks are great and online soon. — Aaron Zinman (@azinman) February 3, 2012

Hey, Neelie Kroes, Maybe You Could Return Our Calls About This EU Cookie Law?

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:34:34 +0000

Early last year we pointed out that implementing the proposed EU cookie law would profoundly affect European technology companies and anyone running a business online out of Europe. Let’s review why. First of all, it could mean that a staggering 90% of a site’s visitors would run a mile rather than saying yes to accepting a simple Google Analytics cookie. This is what happened when the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) implemented the EU advise on their own web site .

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Hey, Neelie Kroes, Maybe You Could Return Our Calls About This EU Cookie Law?