It’s no secret that eBay has been heavily investing in a local commerce strategy. The central core of this is trying to capitalize on the $917 million online-to-offline buying market, which Forrester estimates will eventually reach $1.3 trillion (although this number seems low) and account for nearly 50% of total retail sales by 2013. Virtually every acquisition in the past year (besides the… → Read More
As of today certain aspects of the Flipboard experience have been blocked for Chinese users, at the very least access to Facebook and Twitter according to Flipboard CEO Mike McCue. While direct access to Facebook and Twitter is routinely blocked in China, the Flipboard app talked to its own US-based servers, which in turn talked to Twitter and Facebook so this block is particularly… → Read More
Earlier today, I wrote about our brush with machetes, the chaotic world of Nigerian filmmaking, and a company called Iroko Partners that’s working on bringing order and YouTube distribution to Nollywood. It’s made stunning progress in the short four months it has been in business, and it’s barely scratched the surface of Nollywood demand.
Below is a video we shot with founder Jason Njoku. He… → Read More
It was when they pulled out the machetes that I started to worry.
I’d seen men with machetes in Africa before, but they were rusty, practical tools used for clearing away brush by the side of the highway. These were long, shiny and housed in decorative sheaths, pulled out ostensibly so the men could sit down more comfortably, but done with a clear, understated flair. They were more like sultan… → Read More
In part III of Erick Schonfeld’s interview with the man of many interests, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary discusses his daily-deal wine venture, Cinderalla Wine and throws props to similar deal delivering sites like Lot18. Overall, he says, on the need of these sites to strategically position themselves. “I think the acquisition of consumers might be on the verge of being mapped” says Vaynercuck, “the… → Read More
This is a really weird time to be a writer. Agents are becoming publishers; publishers have moved to “the agency model“; and some self-published authors are making millions—all because e-books are now outselling all other segments. Magazines and newspapers are dying, blogs and aggregators are thriving, and the line between them all is blurring. Last year Apple was their savior; now it’s damned… → Read More
One of the more interesting high-complication watches for Jaeger-LeCoultre this year was the Reverso Répétition Minutes à Rideau. The oddly named watch (if I see more than one accent mark my eyes start to glaze over) actually just translates into minute repeater via curtain. Being a Reverso the watch has two dials, one of which is covered with a sliding metal curtain. Using your finger, you… → Read More
The Gillmor Gang — Craig Burton, John Taschek, Kevin Marks, and Steve Gillmor — survived the week of Google AeeEeeI/OUuu, Facebook slimeware, and the embalmerization of Microsoft with nary a scratch. Robert Scoble briefly joined via the iPad and FaceTime from a layover at O’Hare, but he couldn’t hear us and we could hear him say so, over and over. Kinda like Facebook, who somehow got its Dumb… → Read More
Editor’s note: Steven Carpenter is an entrepreneur that writes the TechCrunch Teardown series that looks at the business models of consumer Internet companies.
My last TechCrunch Teardown outlined the multi-billion dollar online brand advertising opportunity. As part of that research, I looked at the top Facebook brand pages to see how some brands were successfully using social media to connect… → Read More
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Prasad Thammineni, the CEO and Co-Founder of OfficeDrop, a scanner software and digital filing system. You can follow him on Twitter @OfficeDrop_CEO.
Competition between software companies used to mean safeguarding your code and suing anyone that came close to it. Today, many larger technology companies are adopting a different strategy of actually… → Read More
If anyone was on the fence about whether or not to trade in their PS3, the last few weeks seem to have caused them to make up their minds. The continuing PSN outage and security breaches are causing trade-ins of Sony’s console to blow up, say a number of retailers interviewed by Edge. PS3 trade-ins have doubled, and more people are going straight to a 360 instead of getting cash. → Read More
There are rumours of a new European seed fund being built out of London right now, billing itself as a sort of “500 Startups of Europe”. Admittedly Hipster Ventures is a Seppuku-inducing name, but stay with us…
The idea is to whisk the best of European consumer web and mobile companies off to San Francisco to launch them on the West coast. The guy behind it is high profile freelance journalist… → Read More
Ah, this should simplify playtime immensely. No more laying down tracks, or searching for that one elusive piece that completes your circuit. Yes, this frou-frou choo-choo Dutch designer Treintafel is pure genius. I’d probably get crumbs in the tracks, though. [via NotCot] → Read More
Keyboards haven’t changed much over the years, with the exception of a curved key here or there, or perhaps the addition of the back-lit keyboard about a decade ago. That’s not to say that keyboards couldn’t use a change or two, which could be why Apple filed a patent for a new type of keyboard that would offer tactile feedback to the user through various proximity sensors and air vents on… → Read More
Flickr maintains a live count of the cameras being used on the site, updating constantly with the latest models, showing trends, and so on. And if you head over to the Apple-branded cameras, you find an interesting, though not particularly surprising, statistic: almost nobody is using the iPad 2′s camera. Out of however many million of these things were sold, there are only 22 active iPad 2 camera… → Read More
Ever wish you could just call your keys? Well the Ycombinator-backed Lockitron aims to replace physical keys entirely by letting you control your door lock with your phone. The Lockitron web app and hardware package are as of today available for general users, for a one time fee of between $295 to $500.
Instead of using relatively unreliable wifi, the service works by utilizing a plug server… → Read More
Oh no! Nintendooo! It’s a good thing you’re announcing a new console next month, or else we’d all be worried. Only 172,000 units sold in April? That is a crying shame. I sold more units of my autobiography, Bearmaster: The First 28 Years. Maybe that price drop will help, but it’ll take more than a $50 discount to take you safely through 2011. [via Eurogamer] → Read More
A company called PunchTab wants to test their new contest entry system, appropriately-named the PunchTab widget. To that end, they’ve offered us the ability to give away a black 16GB Apple iPad Two (was there ever an iPad One?), some sort of new tablet computer for people who like that sort of thing. All the kids seem to want one, like the Teddy Ruxpin.
So here’s where it gets a little weird. → Read More
Remote electricity meters are interesting things. They essentially change the way you think about the juice flowing into your home by connecting to the potentially aged box in your basement and sensing the total energy usage in your home over time. The resulting stats are often quite enlightening and may help you make wiser energy-use decisions. → Read More
As everyone in the Bay Area will know, this Sunday is the annual Bay to Breakers run/boozefest. The 12k run normally goes from the bay (in the city) to the breakers (at the ocean), hence the name. But Uber is going to do the opposite.
As they’ve just announced to customers via email, starting at 10AM and going through 4PM, they’ll be going breakers to bay, picking up weary runners/pukers in their… → Read More
According to this leaked snap of an internal T-Mobile document, it looks like AT&T’s betrothed will be switching up its Family Plans on May 22. The picture leaves a few questions unanswered, but this should at least give you an idea of what T-Mobile may be offering in the near future. → Read More
Looking for a good deal on the Logitech Revue? Amazon has you covered. While I’d caution most from going the Google TV route — especially with the new GTV hardware and changes on tap — there’s no questioning a 33% price drop is huge. Amazon’s new price, assuming it’s not a limited time sale, puts the Revue at the same price point as the Boxee Box. The two are… → Read More
Last week I wrote about Computer Village, where many of the gadget-hounds in Lagos go to get their gadgety fix. But what about new technology being developed in the country? The city’s tech entrepreneur scene is small, but several people are working on changing that.
Oo Nwoye– or @oothenigerian as he’s known on Twitter– is one of the more enthusiastic champions of this nascent scene. (That’s… → Read More
Smarkets, the London-based social gambling startup, is on something of a roll. Today it has closed a $1 million funding round led by Passion Capital, Stefan Glaenzer, Alex Zubillaga, Tom Hulme and others. The aim now is to build out the platform and hire a tonne more people.
CEO Jason Trost is out to effectively attack bookmakers and other exchanges which he says give consumers a rough deal… → Read More
Should music artists be like the authoritarian Steve Jobs? Is it their responsibility to know what their fans want better than they do? Evan Lowenstein, the successful singer-songwriter and the current CEO of StageIT, certainly seems to think so. In a recent article tantalizingly entitled “The Artist to Fan Relationship: Dating, Love, Texting and Marriage”, Lowenstein argues that “as an… → Read More
Exclusive – Earlier this week, Microsoft dropped a bombshell on pretty much the entire technology industry, acquiring VoIP juggernaut Skype for a baffling $8.5 billion in cash.
One side-effect unrevealed up until today: TechCrunch has learned that Skype came extremely close to buying Swedish startup MyWidz right before negotiations with Microsoft were kicked into high gear, freezing said… → Read More
Small Demons, a stealth LA- based startup founded by former Yahoo Product VPs Valla Vakili and Tony Amidei has just raised $3 million in Series A funding, according to an SEC form filed today. While Vaklili and Amidei and the only people listed on the form, the company is rounded out by former Myspace Data Architect Christa Stelzmuller and former Myspace VP of Data Hala Al-Adwan. → Read More
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