BeyondVC: Annotated
As an early stage investor and board member of several companies, I am fortunate to get the opportunity to work with some great entrepreneurs and also pattern match and observe trends, both good and bad, in early stage companies. I am not here to throw platitudes at you but simply to share an observation of the differences between some of the better run companies and the ones that have less than stellar execution. In one portfolio company, we had some of the standard issues of coordinating product management with engineering and balancing sales requirements with engineering priorities. Having a company operate solely in departmental silos is like having each body part with a different brain-sure it is your body but it is also hard to move fluidly if each body part is moving in a di
Sprint adds local product search via GPS - New York Times Annotated
Sprint adds local product search via GPS
Marguerite Reardon, for News.com
Published: June 7, 2007
Sprint Nextel said Thursday it is offering a new application that will let subscribers search for products in nearby retail stores directly from their handsets.
The service, which uses embedded GPS (Global Positioning System) chips in phones, allows shoppers to use their cell phones to find any of 85 million products available at 30,000 stores across the country. People type in a keyword, product name, model number or UPC number to search for the product.
Raph’s Website » NYT looks at kids’ worlds AGAIN Annotated
“Doll Web Sites Drive Girls to Stay Home and Play”, says the New York Times. Among the games covered are ones I hadn’t really paid attention to before, like Stardoll and Cartoon Doll Emporium.
Over at Virtual Worlds News they give this handy table summarizing the growth rates of some of these; I added to the table with additional unique user stats elsewhere in the article:
Site Users in April 2006 Users in April 2007
Club Penguin 794,000 4,073,000
Webkinz 325,000 3,879,000
Cartoon Doll Emporium ~3,000,000
Stardoll 367,000 1,241,000
WeeWorld ~900,000
The NYT mentions that the category has grown 68% in the last year alone; some of the sites report 20% growth monthly.
My list of “the biggest MMOs in the West” is evolving rapidly. With Habbo Hotel and Runescape also clocking in with multiple millions of unique users every month, it may be possible that World of Warcraft is actually sitting around #4 or #5 in the top MMOs in NA and Europe.
Of course, by and large, the gamers and gaming industry will likely blow these off as “not counting” or “shallow” or something. I get that pretty regularly, particularly from folks who are hoping that I am not making something like these games myself. (I’m not — I just find it fascinating).
Eve Online - Video Games - New York Times Annotated
In a Virtual Universe, the Politics Turn Real
Published: June 7, 2007
The kingdom is in crisis. After pledging to treat its citizens equally, the government stands accused of unfairly favoring one powerful, well-connected political faction. Many citizens have taken to open dissent, even revolt, and some are threatening to emigrate permanently.
This specter of corruption has emerged most recently not in some post-colonial trouble spot but in the virtual nation of
Promoting a Thirst for Sprite in Teenage Cellphone Users - New York Times Annotated
The Coca-Cola Company is hoping its new mobile site for social networking, Sprite Yard, will become the MySpace of the cellphone world.
But some marketing executives say the plan could instead become the BudTV of the soda world — a failed effort to build a community around a brand.
Sprite Yard, to be introduced in the United States this month, will look a lot like the social networking sites that have become popular on the Internet. Consumers will be able to set up personal profiles, share photos and
‘omg my mom joined facebook!!’ - New York Times Annotated
Cyberfamilias
‘omg my mom joined facebook!!’
Published: June 7, 2007
I HAVE reached a curious point in life. Although I feel like the same precocious know-it-all cynic I always was, I suddenly am surrounded by younger precocious know-it-all cynics whose main purpose appears to be to remind me that I’ve lost my edge.
He’s 9 Years Old and a Video-Game Circuit Star - New York Times Annotated
OLBROOK, N.Y., June 5 — Victor M. De Leon III has been playing video games on the professional circuit for five years now, racking up thousands of dollars in prizes and endorsements at tournaments around the country. He has a national corporate sponsor, a publicist and a Web site, with 531 photos chronicling his career. A documentary filmmaker has been following him for months.
Victor weighs 56 pounds and likes to watch SpongeBob SquarePants at his home here on Long Island. He celebrated his 9th birthday last month with a trip to a carnival and a vanilla cake. He gets above-average marks in the third grade, where he recently drew a dragon for art c
VentureBeat » Bubble Motion, trying to bring voice SMS to U.S. Annotated
ubble Motion is a texting (SMS) service that eliminates the need to type out message on that tiny keypad, and lets you leave voice message instead.
Many of us are texting, but we aren’t leaving voice messages via SMS — because carriers aren’t letting us.
Bubble Motion, of Singapore, wants to change that, and is negotiating with U.S carriers to provide the service here. Leaving a voice message is convenient. There are many times I’m feeling asocial, for example, and would much prefer to leave a voice message for someone without risking actually talking with them.
