EggDrop, essentially a mobile app alternative to Craigslist, is starting to pick up steam. The company now boasts half a million downloads of its app on iOS and Android, with $8 million in listings from across the 50 U.S. states and the U.K. (EggDrop’s top two markets).
The app originally launched last June, backed by $1 million in funding in a round led by BlueRun Ventures and SV Angel. But that first experience doesn’t look much like EggDrop today. In November, the company rolled out a major update (ver. 2.0) which completely replaced the auction format found in the original with more traditional marketplace-style listings. Since then, over 5,000 items have been sold within the app, including electronics, games, furniture, and even grand pianos and wedding dresses.
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LifeCrowd, the first startup to emerge from the newly-formed TechStars Network member MuckerLab based in L.A., is today launching its marketplace for social activities into public beta. The company, which aims to provide a curated selection of quality events, happenings, classes and outings, is available now for users in San Francisco, San Diego, and all of Orange County, Calif., as well as in its original test market of L.A.
Only a month and a half old, co-founder Bong Koh says the concept for LifeCrowd is very simple. “We just help you meet new people and try new activities,” he explains. → Read More
Ethical Community, an online, eco-friendly marketplace (which has plans for a snazzier name in the works!), has secured a £200,000 ($316,640 USD) round of seed funding from a syndicate of angel investors, the company is announcing today. Founded in 2009, the marketplace has signed up over 850 sellers from around the world, who have now listed over 7,000 eco-friendly, organic and natural products including clothing, jewelry, health and beauty products, food and drink items, pet items and more.
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Remember the news from earlier this week about a mobile app developer who turned to eBay to unload his underperforming iOS app? (Update: the app is now up to $15,100+!) Well, there will soon be an alternative to eBay auctions for other developers looking to do the same. A new marketplace called Apptopia will launch in February, allowing developers to sell their mobile apps, source code and all.
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Mashape has a somewhat unusual backstory: The Italian startup spent two years looking for funding in its home country, only to be rebuffed at every turn. So, in 2009, it moved operations to Silicon Valley. The team found funding in less than three weeks. Granted, it was $100K, but it was enough to begin building a real service. Persistence, it seems, is key. (It also helps to have a great idea and position your business in a market that’s on the rise.)
As you may have noticed, APIs are all the rage these days. Twitter attracts 15 billion API calls per day, Google and Facebook were pulling in 5 billion per day as of last year, Amazon currently stores over 260 billion objects in S3, and Saleforce.com receives 50 percent of its traffic through its API. You get the picture. Mashape, which is going into private beta today, hopes to ride this API surge to victory through a marketplace makes it simple for developers to discover, distribute, and consume all things API. → Read More
Oh no, Microsoft! This is not a good move. It appears that developers selling apps in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace won’t get paid for peddling their wares until February 2011. Now, given that the smartphone wars are largely decided by the available apps on any one platform, it isn’t a great move to defer payments to those developers that will define your platform — especially as the boys in Redmond have been accepting apps since October. Combine this with the lack of analytics tools available for the Marketplace, and Microsoft aren’t really making a compelling argument to move to the platform. I know that Microsoft had to release WP7 as fast as humanly possible, but guys, screwing your developers? Really? [via Engadget] → Read More
Google trickled out some screenshots from the upcoming refresh to the Android marketplace today. They are responding to complaints that the experience is unwieldy to users, and adding subcategories and regional options. While we know that this will be version 1.6 of the marketplace, there’s no word on exactly when it’s going to be released. See the video after the jump. → Read More
Computerworld calls this market changing but I’m not so sure. Here’s the skinny: when you buy an app from the Windows Marketplace for WinMo you can share that app with four people you know. You can also get a full refund within 24 hours of purchase. You can also run the apps on up to five of your own devices if you don’t want to share. → Read More
From blogs.adobe.com
Adobe AIR Marketplace is a central resource that allows developers to make their applications available to millions of potential users and makes it easy for consumers to find them.
Microsoft just took the wraps off of the latest WinMo release. Just like the dozens of leaked screenshots indicated, the OS has a totally revamped feel with a Zune-inspired user interface. The Marketplace and MyPhone are included too although details are a bit light at the moment. There isn’t any word about about paid apps or who will host the contents, although we expect those details shortly. Screenshots after the break to tide you over until we get to poke and prod the update. → Read More
Microsoft just took the wraps off of the latest WinMo release. Just like the dozens of leaked screenshots indicated, the OS has a totally revamped feel with a Zune-inspired user interface. The Marketplace and MyPhone are included too although details are a bit light at the moment. There isn’t any word about about paid apps or who will host the contents, although we expect those details shortly. Screenshots after the break to tide you over until we get to poke and prod the update. → Read More
Devin already gave us most of the details of Microsoft’s new Zune Marketplace yesterday, but with today’s official announcement comes additional information. First, lots of folks, including the AP, are making a big deal about the presence of NBC content on the new Marketplace. You may remember that NBC and Apple went their separate ways last year when Apple refused to cede to NBC’s demands to offer more flexible pricing for TV shows. Microsoft says that such a pricing scheme is “within the scope” of their agreement, but no details are set in stone thus far. Second, there’s now a few prices to report. Users can download most TV shows from the Zune Marketplace for $1.99 each, which is the same as the price on iTunes. Shows include “South Park,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “The Office.” So yeah, a big deal if you’re a Zune user—I actually saw someone using a Zune about a month ago on the subway—or desperately need to see “The Office” on-the-go without resorting to ThePirateBay or anything like that. Zune Marketplace → Read More
Over the weekend, a lot of reports hit sites like Digg saying that Nintendo was now worth more than Sony in terms of market value. Looking at the numbers, it still seems Sony is ahead with 6.64 trillion yen versus Nintendo’s 6.3 trillion yen. With the extremely popular Wii and DS systems selling like hotcakes, it’s no wonder why Nintendo is doing so well. As fantastic as this is however, I still feel like someone isn’t telling me the whole picture here. For instance, Sony doesn’t just make a bunch of gaming hardware like Nintendo does. Sony is a huge electronics manufacturer selling multi-thousand dollar items every day all over the world. You’re telling me that after all those SACD players, Walkmans, and HDTVs, Sony hasn’t done better than Nintendo? I realize we’re talking in terms of market value, but come on. Also, don’t go starting false stories when the facts are untrue. Look at those numbers. 6.64 > 6.3. ‘Nuff said. Nintendo closing gap on Sony’s market value [Joystiq] → Read More
Are you ready for “some of the most intense fights from Ultimate Fighting Championship?” I certainly am. Today you can start renting and buying movies on your Xbox 360. Let the era of on-demand digital content finally begin. Bring out the drums, the fifes, and the dancing ladies. HD TV shows will cost 240 MS points, a currency pegged to the Euro, while SD shows will cost 160. New movies will cost 480 and classic films will cost 360 points. If you rent the HD version, you get the SD version automatically. 1,000 points costs $12.50, by the way, so you can do the exchange rate in your head. → Read More
is official. And the Zune software? Just as official. We thought it would be integrated into Windows Media Player 11, but instead it’s a Napster-like application that gives you access to the Marketplace, as well as viewing your playlists and playing back your downloaded and rented music. The design is meant to look like the Zune itself, complete with the playback buttons on the bottom, and the black/grey bordered color scheme. The store itself looks like any other music store does – lots of pictures, artists, featured playlists. Nothing extraordinary about this, other than the fact that it doesn’t seem to have major label support. Their screenshot shows a bunch of medium-popularity bands, but no huge stars like on iTunes. Zune Marketplace to keep your Zune player stocked [Engadget] → Read More
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