• Photo of gigaom

  Layoff Count Rises: Akamai, Qik, Strands

  http://newteevee.com/2008/11/19/layoff-count-rises-akamai-qi...
  49 days ago in NewTeeVee · Authority: 1,247

  The economy is affecting players all over the web video ecosystem, and companies both large and small. Heres the latest carnage. Content delivery giant Akamai laid off 110 employees today, or 7 percent of its staff. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company

  • Photo of socialmedia

    Nov 21, 2008: Weekly Social Media & Mobile News Summary

    http://socialmedia.vox.com/library/post/nov-21-2008-weekly-s...
    47 days ago in Lisa Whelan · Authority: 7

    Apple: iPhone 2.2 Firmware was released. MobileCrunch’s review is here.  Excerpted summary of the article: “Safari’s address bar/search … tweaked a bit, apps now request a rating upon deletion, over-the-air podcast downloads …, various video and audio quality tweaks, and assorted bug fixes throughout… Google Maps has been upgraded to include Street View and directions for public transit and walking - if you have an iPhone rather than an iPod Touch…According to early reports, 2.2 for the iPod Touch brings everything but the Google Maps upgrade.”Facebook: The SEC gave Facebook permission to stay a private company, while having over 500 shareholders.  This will allow Facebook to continue to issue options and restricted stock to its current and future employees.Facebook launched its verified app program, which requires developers to pay $375 to have their app “verified” Google: Google Mobile: John Gruber reports that Google seems to be using an undocumented API for the voice search feature in its recently updated Google Mobile iPhone application.  Normally doing this is against the SDK Guidelines. So, the questions are: Did Google get Apple’s permission to use this API? Did Apple not realize that that Google was using an undocumented API, or did they turn a blind eye to the usage. You can read about the saga on  John Gruber’s post here.  You can see the Google video demo of  the Google Mobile update here.YouTube: A researcher is claiming that he’s discovered the key to predicting the success of YouTube videos. TechCruch’s summary is very good:  “Crane claims every time a YouTube video turns into a hit, the development takes the form of an “attention spiral”, a geometric pattern that partly follows physical laws. He discovered that a decrease of popularity with certain videos, for example, can be explained through methods usually utilized in modeling the aftershocks of earthquakes.” Motorola: Motorola launched the "MOTODEV Widget Developer Challenge" for it’s mobile Linux platform. MySpace: MySpace for RIM’s Blackberry is which launched on Nov 12 has apparently been downloaded more than 400,000 times!  You can get it here. Twitter: Check out the real-time results of Guy Kawasaki’s ongoing survey that asks people how much they’d be willing to pay for Twitter.  So far, more than 662 people say they’ll be willing to pay $5 or more a month for Twitter. 1,780 say they won’t pay and would rather Twitter go away than start charging. Yahoo! Jerry Yang stepped down as Yahoo!’s CEO, and Yahoo! Is now on the lookout for a new leader. Yahoo is rumored to still be thinking about buying AOL. Misc: Recent Layoffs:Strands and Qik lay off 10 % of their staff.Palm Inc. A friend reports that over two thirds of the business development and developer technical support teams were affected Industry News:Mobile advertising company AdMob’s latest Mobile Metrics Report just came out. You can download it here.  Highlights of the report include: “The iPhone is now the #1 device worldwide in the AdMob Network with 4.1% share of requests in October. Since AdMob launched its ad units for iPhone sites and applications, iPhone requests have increased from 28 million in July to 236 million in October. This month, we break out iPhone requests by country and region.”Appterra, a mobile advertising company just closed a $10.5 Million round of financing and announced that former Yahoo! senior executive David Karnstedt joined its board of directors.“Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues reached almost $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period in 2007. While double-digit annual growth continues, the quarter-to-quarter curve remains relatively flat compared to recent past performance.”  Read more here.  This is very good news for the technology industry, which largely monetizes through advertising.  I’ve been concerned that since advertising was one of the first industries to decline in the 2000-2001 dot com fall out that the decline in internet advertising between Q4 07 and now may signal challenging times ahead for the monetization of online properties. This study is a re-assuring sign that Internet advertising is on the rise after a brief decline.Videoegg extended its online advertising reach to the iPhone.Technology announcements:Citysearch overhauls mobile and web sites, maximizing on Yelp's bad press. They also went social by integrating with Facebook Connect in this new beta version of Citysearch.SnapTell: This is a new, free iPhone application that gets great reviews from TechCrunch: “take a photo of the cover of any CD, DVD, book, or video game, and the application will automatically identify the product and find ratings and pricing information online.“  It just launched on the iPhone.Sony adds social networking to the Playstation in the form of its Home virtual world.OpenTable released an iPhone app available in the iTunes store.  Xobni, an Outlook plug-in that helps you organize email conversations, contacts and attachments just added integrations with Yahoo Mail, Facebook, Skype, and Hoovers.According to a new study, 22% of consumers are unlikely to respond to email social marketing. 12% will click on messages on social sites.

    • Photo of usablecontent

      Qik Lays Off 10% of their Staff, So Does Strands

      http://startupmeme.com/qik-lays-off-10-of-their-staff-so-doe...
      48 days ago in Startup Meme - Technology Startup and Latest Tech News · Authority: 290

      Qik, a mobile live streaming startup that raised $4 million in August from investors like Marc Benioff and Marc Andreessen, has laid off 10% of their staff, according to a TechCrunch tipster. The reason for this layoff is attributed to the failed effort to raise $10-$15 million, a rumor the company officially denies. In addition to this Strands, a social recommendation engine, has also followed Qik’s lead and have let go 14 people, which amounts to exactly 10% of their workforce. Strands is seemingly flush with capital and has raised $55 million in venture funding to this date. --- Related Articles at Startup Meme:TiVo Also Interested in Some Lay OffsAkamai to Let Go 7% of Its WorkforceOcarina, The Music Discovery App Tops App Store ListingsTime Inc Slashing Staff in Hundreds – But in Small Numbers Each DayPC Magazine Going Belly Up – Will Exists In Online Form ThoughAdobe Grabs the Right to Stream Major Leagure Baseball Videos in Flash

      • Photo of durky

        Strands y Qik recortan un 10% de sus plantillas

        http://www.ojointernet.com/noticias/strands-y-qik-recortan-u...
        48 days ago in OJOinternet · Authority: 122

        Los despidos continúan en el sector, incluso en aquellas startups que parecen gozar de buena salud. El servicio de recomendación social Strands, ha anunciado que despedirá al 10% de su plantilla, es decir a 14 trabajadores (7 en Estados Unidos y 7 en España). La compañía ha recibido una financiación total de 55 millones de dólares hasta el momento, emplea a 125 personas y todavía se encuentra contratando a nuevo personal. Asimismo, acaba de anunciar una versión móvil para el Nokia S60. Qik, una empresa que presta servicios de stream de vídeo para teléfonos móviles, también reducirá su número de empleados en un 10%, que en su caso son 5 personas. Se rumoreaba que el motivo de los despidos era que la compañía no había podido cerrar una última ronda de financiación de entre 10 y 15 millones de dólares, pero desde Qik han desmentido el rumor. La compañía recibió una ronda de financiación de 4 millones de dólares hace tiempo, pero entre sus inversores se encontraban Marc Benioff y Marc Andreessen. Otras empresas que han despedido a empleados esta semana han sido: Akamai a 110 personas (7%), Engine Yard a 4 empleados (66%) y 7 en PC Magazine, que cierra su edición impresa. leer en la web - OJOinternet - © OJO internet S.L. - 83cd3aa4f5OJO6ebcf6acbdinternet2e4126e4100e (208.66.64.4)

        • Author unknown

          Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for November 19

          http://siliconflorist.com/2008/11/20/silicon-florists-links-...
          48 days ago in Silicon Florist · Authority: 109

          Qik And Strands Each Trim 10 Percent Of Staff It’s unfortunate to hear that Strands has had to make some cuts. Via TechCrunch “The cutbacks continue, even at seemingly healthy startups. Social recommendation engine Strands let exactly 10 percent, or 14 people go (7 in the U.S. and 7 in Spain), the company confirms.” Tweetup Breakfast at Fuller’s Restaurant (Thursday November 20, 2008) - Upcoming Upcoming Tweetup Breakfast at Fuller’s Restaurant (Thursday November 20, 2008) Vote AboutUs in the Mashable Open Web Awards Via the AboutUs blog “It’s tough to say vote for us, when we are with so many great sites. But that is what we say! Vote for AboutUs! because we are doing something groundbreaking and different than all the other fabulous sites in the category.” Iovation gears down for ‘09 w/job cuts - Silicon Forest Mike Rogoway writes “Downtown Portland tech startup Iovation laid off a dozen employees last week, the latest in a series of Oregon companies making tough decisions as the recession deepens.” How To Get People To Link To and Talk About Stuff You Write Without Being a Jerk at Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com Josh Bancroft writes “I’m writing this up to help bloggers and other people who create stuff online (videos, etc.) get their ’stuff’ more visibility, by getting more sites to link to it and talk about it. Specifically, I’m trying to help people in my group at work, Intel Software Network, by sharing some of my experience and ideas, since I’ve been blogging for over 5 years. I’m by no means an expert, just sharing what I know. I hope you’ll post a comment or otherwise jump into the conversation if you have ideas of your own on how to get more ‘outside’ links and conversation around the things that you write.” The Great Portland Interview Project: Dawn Foster Edition at Fast Wonder Blog: Consulting, Online Communities, and Social Media Dawn Foster writes “I’m participating in the Great Portland Interview Project, and I was recently interviewed by Grant Kruger. According to the rules of the project, I’m posting the results of the interview here for your reading pleasure. Grant even slipped in a few extra questions, including an obscure question about Sausage the goat. The questions came from Grant, but the answers are mine.” State of Portland Tech - Portland Web Innovators (Wednesday December 3, 2008) - Upcoming A discussion about the Portland tech scene heading into 2009. Where are we now, how did we get here and where do we want to go? View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

          • Photo of JPTechcrunch

            QikとStrands共に10%を人員削減

            http://jp.techcrunch.com/archives/20081119qik-and-strands-ea...
            49 days ago in TechCrunch Japan · Authority: 1,266

            削減は続く。一見好調にみえるスタートアップでさえも。ソーシャルリコメンデーションエンジンのStrandsが、従業員のちょうど10%にあたる14名（米国7名、スペイン7名）の人員削減を行ったことを、同社が認めた。Strandsはこれまでに総額$55M（5500万ドル）の資金を調達し、現在も125名の従業員を抱え、新たに求人も行っている。また同社は、Nokia S60電話機向けのモバイルバージョンを発表したところでもある。 Qikは、携帯電話からライブビデオのストリーミングを行うサービスだが、こちらも従業員の約10%、5名をレイオフした。理由は、同社が$10～$15M（1000万～1500万ドル）の調達ラウンドを実施できなかったからだという噂を聞いているが、広報担当者は、それが誤りであり発表を待ってほしいと語った。間違いであってほしい。われわれはQikが大好きなのだ。同社はこれまで$4M（400万ドル）しか調達していないが、出資者の中にはMarc BenioffとMarc Andreessenがいる。 さらに今週、Akamaiが110名（7%）をレイオフし、KLA-Tencorで900名（15%）、Engine Yardでは4名（66%）が職を失い、PC Magazineからは7人が去り同誌は印刷版を廃止する。 上記各社をレイオフ追跡チャートに追加した。これで大小とりまぜテク系企業225社で合計7万7151人がレイオフされた。 CrunchBase Information Strands Qik Information provided by CrunchBase [原文へ] （翻訳：Nob Takahashi）

Advertise on Technorati

Advertise on Technorati