Jason Ball's TechBytes

Technology & Venture Capital. Early stage venture capital news mixed with personal views and comments

May 12, 2007 • 10:18 am 0

WWGD?

Great post from Tim and follow up debate over at the O’Reilly Radar on Google and Amazon. Here’s an excerpt:

If Google or Amazon were your bank or credit card, they’d let you know
which merchants had the best prices for the same products, so you’d be
a smarter shopper next time. They’d let merchants know what products
were popular with people who also bought related products. They’d help
merchants stock the right products by zip code. They’d let you know
when you were spending more on dining out than you have set in your
family budget. They’d let you know when you were approaching your
credit limit, with a real-time fuel gauge, not just a "Sorry, your card
has been declined."

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Filed under: Technology

March 8, 2007 • 10:41 pm 4

Is there a growing Web 2.0 bubble?

This was one of the questions put to me at tonight’s London Business School entrepreneurship gala. My answer was “Did you see the $100 million valuation of the family tree site, Geni?”

I literally fell off my chair when I saw the announcement that Geni raised $10 million at a $100 million post only 7 weeks after raising their $1.5 million seed round. Supposedly they have 100,000 registered users with 2 million “nodes”.

Maybe being an only child limits my excitement about a family networking site…

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Filed under: Technology, Venture Capital

February 19, 2007 • 9:53 pm 0

The Online Video Industry Index

In case you missed it, there’s a pretty thorough overview of the online video industry at read/writeweb.

They cover multiple players in Video Sharing, Intermediaries, Video Search, Video eCommerce, Video Editing & Creation, Rich Media Advertising, P2P (Peer To Peer), Video Streaming, Vlogosphere.

I’m sure there are a host of additional companies not listed, but it gives you an idea. The reference to stealth mode startups is very appropriate as well- there’s a lot of activity in this space that’s starting to bubble to the surface.

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Filed under: Software, Technology

January 22, 2007 • 10:55 pm 0

The future of music distribution? [Updated]

Reuters has reported on a new label and its approach to distributing their artists’ music:

Merlin, the new agency representing the world’s independent music sector, has agreed a deal with digital music company Snocap which will allow its labels’ music to be sold from Web sites such as MySpace…

The independent record label sector makes up for 30 percent of the music sold worldwide, with the rest from the four majors — Vivendi’s Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Warner Music Group.

The downloads will be sold in the MP3 format, meaning they can be played on any portable music player including the iPod. Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes can only be used with an iPod while music from such popular services as Napster and Rhapsody cannot be played on the mass-selling device.

Band after band have a Myspace presence- equally important to established acts as new, upcoming bands/music. One of my good friends back in the US has an indie record label – all of his bands have a Myspace presence (The Bear Colony, to name one). I’ve also find out about great London music on myspace (a current personal fav is the new release from Bodyrox feat. Luciana, Yeah, Yeah).

Why would any of that matter?

Snocap, the technology behind the link-up, isn’t novel, but it’s one that looks like it has critical mass now…this could be serious contender for iTunes. How long until they reach 2 billion sales? Have Merlin/Snocap got the formula right to tap the Long Tail of indie music?

[Update]

I just caught Nic’s post from Friday on the long tail playing out well for music lovers:

I was reading in the Economist this morning about the death of the UK record store. HMV and Virgin are both struggling, and Music Zone with 104 shops has gone into administration.

One of the conclusions of the Economist article is that all this is bad news for small record labels and those who love their music. The argument is these companies rely on record shops to stock their music and knowledgeable shop workers to recommend them to punters.

I am not so sure about that.

I definitely think indie isn’t going the way of the Dinosaur- just big shops like HMV. Partnerships like Merlin/Snocap/Myspace are the first wave of the future…

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Filed under: Technology

December 12, 2006 • 8:15 am 2

Pre-roll’s Dead?

Fred got the ball rolling, Tim picked it up and agreed but Paul thinks otherwise.

One of our investments is in a Post-production software company, Imagineer Systems.

Imagineer are to video what Massive are to gaming. Imagineer’s software has been used on Harry Potter, X-men III, Pirates of the Caribbean II, Casino Royale, and so on. They have the ability to delete or insert images or parts of images as needed for motion pictures. They are now broadening their focus to included user generated content and online media. 

The same way we have various types of advertising on webpages- not all ads are annoying pop-ups- we’ll have a variety of in-video advertising. Some types are more appropriate in certain situations- for example pre-roll in a mobile video is not feasible, but product placement is. An art video, like the ones Fred is always posting from Daily Motion, probably aren’t appropriate for product placement.

Like everything, variety is the spice of life…

Filed under: Software, Technology

December 12, 2006 • 8:15 am 0

Pre-roll’s Dead?

Fred got the ball rolling, Tim picked it up and agreed but Paul thinks otherwise.

One of our investments is in a Post-production software company, Imagineer Systems.

Imagineer are to video what Massive are to gaming. Imagineer’s software has been used on Harry Potter, X-men III, Pirates of the Caribbean II, Casino Royale, and so on. They have the ability to delete or insert images or parts of images as needed for motion pictures. They are now broadening their focus to included user generated content and online media. 

The same way we have various types of advertising on webpages- not all ads are annoying pop-ups- we’ll have a variety of in-video advertising. Some types are more appropriate in certain situations- for example pre-roll in a mobile video is not feasible, but product placement is. An art video, like the ones Fred is always posting from Daily Motion, probably aren’t appropriate for product placement.

Like everything, variety is the spice of life…

Filed under: Software, Technology

December 12, 2006 • 8:15 am 0

Pre-roll’s Dead?

Fred got the ball rolling, Tim picked it up and agreed but Paul thinks otherwise.

One of our investments is in a Post-production software company, Imagineer Systems.

Imagineer are to video what Massive are to gaming. Imagineer’s software has been used on Harry Potter, X-men III, Pirates of the Caribbean II, Casino Royale, and so on. They have the ability to delete or insert images or parts of images as needed for motion pictures. They are now broadening their focus to included user generated content and online media. 

The same way we have various types of advertising on webpages- not all ads are annoying pop-ups- we’ll have a variety of in-video advertising. Some types are more appropriate in certain situations- for example pre-roll in a mobile video is not feasible, but product placement is. An art video, like the ones Fred is always posting from Daily Motion, probably aren’t appropriate for product placement.

Like everything, variety is the spice of life…

Filed under: Software, Technology

November 24, 2006 • 12:48 am 0

MedTech Investments

I love MedTech- it is the silent killer. A show of hands please, how many people out there heard about Johnson and Johnson’s announcement to acquire Conor Medsystems last week for $1.4bn in CASH?

Now, how many heard about Google’s YouTube acquisition for $1.6bn in PAPER?

Yes, cash is made of paper, but the similarity ends there. This was an amazing purchase that has the DES (drug eluting stent) market buzzing.

As an investor in this space (Chameleon BioSurfaces) I was very pleased to see that type of acquisition hit the front page weeks after completion for a number of reasons.

It’s worth noting that Conor’s turnover was $2 million last year, with a net loss of $58 million for the year. T/O for Q3 2006 was $10 million, with a net loss of $10 million – Sales price $1.4 billion CASH. (It’s worth repeating)

Filed under: Technology, Venture Capital

October 31, 2006 • 10:53 pm 0

Roll your own Google

Google released their co-op search engine last week. Over the weekend I put together a quick and dirty test that I’ve been adding sites to over the past few days. Give it a whirl here if you’re interested. Search for something fun like “fuel cells”. Then go back and do the same thing at google.com.

You quickly see the power of federated search- it cuts out on the noise and allows you to focus on relevant information. (This is one of the key benefits one of our portfolio companies, Magpie, offers.)

I have been using the Swicki on my site, which is a federated search engine as well, however I’m not sure the Swicki can get into some of the sites that Google appears to be able to index.

If user generated content is the topic du jour – does this mean that user generated search will be the next Big Thing?

Filed under: Software, Technology

October 31, 2006 • 10:53 pm 0

Roll your own Google

Google released their co-op search engine last week. Over the weekend I put together a quick and dirty test that I’ve been adding sites to over the past few days. Give it a whirl here if you’re interested. Search for something fun like “fuel cells”. Then go back and do the same thing at google.com.

You quickly see the power of federated search- it cuts out on the noise and allows you to focus on relevant information. (This is one of the key benefits one of our portfolio companies, Magpie, offers.)

I have been using the Swicki on my site, which is a federated search engine as well, however I’m not sure the Swicki can get into some of the sites that Google appears to be able to index.

If user generated content is the topic du jour – does this mean that user generated search will be the next Big Thing?

Filed under: Software, Technology

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