Tag Archives: business

LivingSocial Raises $25 Million to Take On Groupon

LivingSocial, once one of the top Facebook app developers but is now focused on online daily deals, has raised a warchest of $25 million from investors in a Series B funding round. LivingSocial , based out of Washington, D.C., is the creator of the Visual Bookshelf, Pick Your 5, and Polls Facebook applications, all of which were popular during the Facebook app development gold rush that occurred in 2007 and 2008. Since then though, the company has shifted its focus on the lucrative market of daily deals — one dominated by Groupon , which garnered over 2 million U.S.
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How The Roxy Became the #1 Venue on Twitter [INTERVIEW]

With over 26,000 followers, West Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre is the most popular club on Twitter . Just short of half a decade earlier, however, the fortunes of the historic venue and many of its neighbors on LA’s infamous Sunset Strip were waning and in need of serious attitude adjustment. We had a chance to talk with Nic Adler, owner of The Roxy and the man behind the club’s transformation from “castle on the hill” to social media juggernaut, about how Twitter and other tools helped not only reverse the fortunes of businesses on the Strip, but build up a stronger, more vibrant local community. If you’re a small business wondering how social media can be relevant to you, someone in public relations looking for creative ideas, or an organization looking to take your first steps into the waters of social media, you’ll want to read on for a resounding success story and a number of practical tips
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DARPA looking to develop iPhone and Android apps, App Store

Sure, in the past we've got a hearty chuckle out of initiatives that involved Redfly terminals and Clippy variants , but the question remains: how can we get cutting-edge tech into the hands of soldiers faster? We've recently come across some RFIs for DARPA projects aimed at developing apps and an App Store for Android and the iPhone OS, with two in particular -- Mobile Apps for the Military (DARPA-SN-10-27), and Transformative Apps (DARPA-BAA-10-41) -- catching our eye. The agency is calling for apps for battlefield, humanitarian, and disaster recovery missions, including command and control, mission planning, surveillance, reconnaissance, and language translation. Of course, if you start taking commercial smartphones out to the field there's the small matter of network coverage -- if you thought that getting a reliable connection in midtown Manhattan was an issue, what about downtown Kabul
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Web Entrepreneurship: Does the City You Live in Matter?

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum , where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. One of the most powerful aspects of social media and the web is the fact that it isn’t specific to any location. So long as you have an Internet connection, you can be halfway across the world Skyping, tweeting, and communicating with your friends. It has broken down barriers, given people the ability to work remotely, and made it so that your location doesn’t have to determine your destiny.
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Share Your Latest Purchases With Scordit

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here . The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Scordit Quick Pitch: A social site where you share the stuff you’ve bought or want to get, and win prizes by doing it! Genius Idea: It’s nice to share your new purchases or “scores” with friends or to let people know what stuff you really want to score in the future. Likewise, it’s fun to see what your friends are scoring or adding to their wishlists
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Google and Facebook Sued for Mobile Patent Infringement

Facebook may have secured a patent for its news feed technology, and Google for location-based ads , but that doesn’t make the two companies immune to other patent challengers. In fact, both Google and Facebook are being sued by Winksite over mobile social networking technology. The complaint, first reported by Bloomberg, was said to be filed by Winksite yesterday in a Manhattan federal court, and points to patent infringement claims around Facebook Mobile and Google Buzz . The company is looking for reparation in financial form (though specific amounts have yet to be disclosed)
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CNN Sees Facebook As Major Competitor

When it comes to competition, CNN President Jon Klein fears Facebook. The man at the top of the news network believes that the social network is more of a threat to his business than other broadcast media organizations. In a recent question-and-answer session with BusinessWeek, Klein specifically states , “We want to be the most trusted source,” and, “I’m more worried about the 500 million or so people on Facebook versus the 2 million on Fox.” The intriguing statements come just weeks after Hitwise released data showing that Facebook’s new role is becoming that of a news site. As a news portal and discovery engine, Facebook has the power to make or break a story, a power that clearly threatens the rank and file of the old media elite.
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YouTube Darlings OK Go Say Bye-Bye to EMI

Welcome to Act III of the OK Go/EMI drama: According to EMI, the pop band has decided to leave the record company and form their own independent label, Paracadute Recordings, under which they will take over control of their third album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky . Here is the full statement from EMI: “OK Go, the band whose inventive internet campaigns and self-directed music videos have set records and won the band a GRAMMY® Award, and EMI Music’s Capitol Records, the band’s label since 2001, have agreed to part ways by mutual agreement. OK Go has formed their own independent label, Paracadute Recordings.
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Phonebooth Free: An Alternative to Google Voice for Small Businesses

In November, Phonebooth.com released the beta version of Phonebooth OnDemand, which is a full-featured phone service that lives in the cloud, but can communicate with both cellular phones and IP desk and conference phones. Today, that service — which costs $20 a month per user — is becoming generally available. Phonebooth.com is also leveraging its own private VoIP network to launch Phonebooth Free, a free version of its hosted phone system, which is very similar to Google Voice but aimed at small businesses. Phonebooth.com is a product from Bandwidth.com . While Bandwidth.com might not be as well-known as players like Comcast, Verizon and Cisco, in the business VoIP space it’s a pretty big player.
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Lindsay Lohan Sues E-Trade Claiming Baby Ad Is a Parody of Her [VIDEO]

The Super Bowl may be long over, but Brand Battle 2010 continues to rage on, as yet another commercial is bit by the controversy bug — this time one of those adorable spots from E-Trade featuring a talking baby named “Lindsay.” According to the New York Post , actress Lindsay Lohan is suing the investment site on the grounds that the man-eating, substance-abusing baby in the commercial is based on her. Lohan’s lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, is asking that the commercial be taken off the air and every copy of the offending spot be rounded up (which could now be more difficult given today’s coverage). The actress is also asking for $100 million.
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