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Posts Tagged ‘50 Million’

Hunch Takes $12 Million From Khosla Ventures, Adds Former Facebook CFO To Board Of Directors

Recommendation engine Hunch confirms that they’ve raised a new round of financing – $12 million – led by Khosla Ventures. Partner Gideon Yu, who joined Khosla Ventures last year, was previously the CFO of Facebook. He is now joining Hunch’s board of directors as part of the deal. Hunch was valued at $52 million in the round.

I spoke to cofounder Caterina Fake this evening about the round. Fake says that Hunch, which is less than a year old, now has lots of data to work with in making recommendations. In fact, she says, users have answered nearly 50 million questions on Hunch since launch, and the company can use that data to make better and better recommendations.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales joined the company’s board of directors in late 2009.

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Facebook on Track for $1 Billion Revenue This Year

According to figures released today by the singularly focused blog Inside Facebook, the ubiquitous social network made upwards of $700 million in 2009 and is expected to reach a phenomenal $1 billion in revenues in 2010.

Year over year, Facebook’s revenues have typically doubled, from $150 million in 2007 to around $300 million in 2008 and so on.

The breakdown of revenue streams is fascinating, showing the extent to which well-targeted ads based on massive amounts of user data still drives how we monetize the Web.

These data also show how much some have underestimated the market for virtual goods and the real-world value of virtual currency – as much as $10 million in 2009 alone, still in beta and just for one social network.

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Last year, brand advertising and performance advertising are estimated to have netted $225 million and $350 million for the company, respectively. Microsoft ads alone brought in $50 million.

All this cash flow makes the $10 million Facebook earned from its still-in-beta Facebook Credits system seem puny. We wonder how much this figure will increase when Credits are rolled out for all users and all applications.

A common rumor about Credits is that this virtual currency will become the mandatory, de facto method of purchasing virtual goods – from Gifts to in-game accessories – on Facebook. If that were to happen, Facebook (which takes a 30 percent cut of all Credits revenue) stands to make a great deal more than $10 million as it takes on the role of virtual currency exchange.

Facebook has stated it will not comment on these figures or speculation about future revenues. However, it is completely clear that this company has found a way to make the Web dramatically profitable. They’ve done so by honing their revenue streams, getting creative with brands, tweaking their UX to maximize time and money spend on the site and targeting ads based on user data. And these revenues will only continue to grow as Facebook edges out competing networks for users’ attention and brands’ ad spend.

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Qype, The Yelp Of Europe, Gets A Look From Google & Nokia

Hamburg, Germany based Qype, a Yelp-like site that’s focused on European markets, has recently had long acquisition looks from both Google and Nokia, we’ve heard from multiple sources. A deal with Nokia in particular was looking extremely likely until recently.

The site was first launched in 2005 and today attracts 9 million monthly worldwide visitors, according to Comscore, just a little less than Yelp’s 11 million. Both likely have far more actual visitors, but Comscore is good for comparision – in December, for example, Qype told us they had 17.7 million unique visitors. A year ago the company brought in a new CEO and have been expanding rapidly across Europe.

Google supposedly took a look at the company and passed, opting instead to just import Qype’s content. Nokia made a run for the company after Google, with one source saying that a term sheet had been signed in the $50 million range.

But another source says that a term sheet was never signed and the deal negotiations broke down over both price and other contract terms.

Qype isn’t helping much with the story, sticking to their no comments. But founder Stephan Uhrenbacher did email to tell us that the site has 500,000 registered users who’ve left over 1 million reviews. They are available in seven languages and have sites in UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Ireland.

So for now at least Qype may remain independent. But like Yelp, which had its own acquisition drama late last year, Qype is in the local advertising sweet spot, where billions of advertising dollars (and euros) will be flowing over the next few years.

Qype has raised around £8 million in venture capital.

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SproutBaby acquires blogging network EcoMom to build online baby product empire

Online baby product retailer SproutBaby acquired blogging network EcoMom today in an all-equity transaction. The deal reflects a growing trend where editorial content and direct marketing are blended to drive sales in niche online communities.

SproutBaby sells “eco-conscious” infant products like organic baby food and skin care products that omit chemicals linked to cancer. EcoMom is a blogging network and online community of ecologically-conscious mothers.

“We realized we would have a much stronger offering together, than as separate companies,” said SproutBaby chief executive and founder Jody Sherman. ”Our community and market is made of parents who are dedicated to conscientious consumerism and raising their own families in a healthy and environmentally sound way.”

Although he wouldn’t release specific revenue figures, Sherman said SproutBaby, which launched last February, has high conversion rates; more than 5 percent of people who visit the site end up buying products from the company. Gross margins average out to be 40 percent on the 1,000 products the company carries. SproutBaby’s parent company, February Won, is backed with $360,000 in angel funding.

In very specific vertical markets, we’re seeing the traditional line between advertising and editorial content fade. Glam Media, another women-focused blogging network, recently raised $50 million at a $750 million valuation on the back of success it’s seeing with sponsored content and advertising sales. Passionate niche communities like those seen on EcoMom are likely to be more receptive to sales and offers that cater to their interests.

Tags: ecomom, sproutbaby

Companies: ecomom, sproutbaby

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Aardvark Continues Running At Full Steam After Google Acquisition, Joins Google Labs

Yesterday we broke the news that Aardvark, the social search engine, was being acquired by Google for $50 million. Aardvark confirmed the acquisition to us yesterday (though they didn’t comment on the amount), and now Google and Aardvark have publicly announced the deal with posts to their official blogs, along with some more details about how Aardvark will be integrated with Google.

Unlike some of Google’s past startup acquisitions that  resulted in services shutting down or restricting new user signups, Aardvark is going to continue running at full steam.  New users can still sign up, and it’s already featured as part of Google Labs (though it hasn’t been integrated with Google search at all — it’s just a link to Vark.com).

As far as changes to the service, a Q&A on the Aardvark blog says that they’ll be able to move faster as Google puts its support behind it (some Googlers will be joining the Aardvark team).

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Bejeweled hits 50M games sold; will the next 50M be free?

Bejeweled hit new milestone as PopCap Games announced today that the 10-year-old casual game has now sold more than 50 million copies.

PopCap isn’t saying how many dollar sales the game — where you match three jewels in puzzle — has generated since its launch in 2000. In August, 2008, the privately held Seattle company said that it has generated more than $300 million in revenues.

Now it’s worth asking: Will the next 50 million copies be free? No one can deny that Bejeweled emerged during a unique time in game history, pioneering the try-before-you-buy business model. The company posted the game for players to try out on portals such as MSN. Then the players could decide whether they wanted to pay $19.99 to buy the game permanently. It was a risky move, but PopCap had to do something different in the midst of the dotcom collapse.

That download-based business model has been fried by the assortment of free content. Downloadable games are now selling for $6.99 and they seem to be losing market share to free-to-play web games and Facebook games. Bejeweled Blitz has debuted on Facebook to give users one-minute challenge games. But it will be interesting to see how PopCap chooses to monetize its games going forward in the age of free.

The company says it continues to sell a copy of Bejeweled every 4.3 seconds and the game is now one of the ten-best-selling games of all time. Full told, it has been downloaded 350 million times. With free-to-play online versions now available, it’s estimated that a half billion people have played Bejeweled. All of that has allowed PopCap to build a staff of 260.

It’s no wonder that PopCap raised $22.5 million in the fall to expand into social media. We’ll be hearing from John Vechey, co-founder of PopCap, on a panel at GamesBeat@GDC on Next-Generation Social Games.

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Glam Media On A Roll: Raises $50 Million In Private Equity At $750 Million Valuation

Glam Media, a vertical advertising network, has raised its fifth round of venture capital – $50 million from aeris CAPITAL, a Switzerland and Silicon Valley based private equity fund. The company is not disclosing the valuation of the round, but it is rumored to be around $750 million.

Glam’s last major funding was a $85 million combined debt and equity round in early 2008, two years ago, that valued the company at around $500 million.

$10 million – $15 million of this new round will be used to purchase stock from existing employees/founders as well as early venture investors. The rest of the round will be used for investment in the business and strategic acquisitions.

Profitable and Rolling

Glam is also announcing EBITDA profitability on North American operations and break-even results globally for Q4 2009. 2009 revenue was likely around $55 million, up from $40 million in 2008.

The company attracts nearly 160 million unique monthly worldwide visitors to the sites it controls and represents, putting it at no. 14 on Comscore’s top 100 worldwide Internet properties. Those visitors racked up over 2.5 billion page views and 2.5 billion minutes spent on the site. The network includes over 1,400 publishers and other content sites.

Glam attracts around 72 million montly U.S. visitors to its site, more than double competitor iVillage’s 33 million. The company, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley and New York City, is clearly gearing up for an IPO in the next 12 – 18 months.

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Social Networks for Things

At the recent DLD Conference (Digital – Life – Design) in Munich, Germany, Esther Dyson moderated a panel on the Internet of Things. The subject of the discussion was giving identity to things, just as people have an identity. In essence, creating social networks for things.

On the panel were Ulla-Maaria Engeström (Thinglink), Doug Krugman (Personal Commerce), Michael Silverman (ThingD). Dyson began by noting that people have always had identities and there are countless services for that, but things don’t have that yet. So, she asked, will there be networks for things?

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Ulla-Maaria Engeström explained that her company Thinglink is about defining the relationships people have with things – who made them, who designed them, who manufactured them, who sells them, who owns them, who likes them. She said it is the "social graph of things" and that "every thing has their own social network."

Engeström said that Thinglink began in 2005 by giving things identities via their product codes, a.k.a. Unique Identifiers. "People and things, they’re not too different," said Engeström, "they all connect." Thinglink is in private beta, it currently has 4000 beta users and launches later this Spring.

ThingD is creating a registry of things, according to Esther Dyson. Michael Silverman from ThingD explained that his company is building "a database around all of the things in the world." Things like consumer products, horticulture, even pets.

ThingD also has a platform built on top of the database, which connects people to the things in their lives. What interests you, what you like, own, or want to sell. It’s about how people identify themselves with things. Silverman said that the database currently has about 50 million things, maybe "north of 60 million." There are a few thousand early adopter users right now.

Dyson then introduced the company REZZ.IT as "what eBay did for selling, [REZZ.IT does] for renting." Doug Krugman from REZZ.IT explained that "things have a network and their own audience." His company is about managing stuff: scheduling, classifying, content management, pricing, and more. Seeing what other people have, sharing things.

Business Models for Networks of Things

Dyson asked how REZZ.IT makes money off this. He responded that vacation rentals is their biggest market right now. REZZ.IT wants to provide people with the tools to manage those vacation rental assets, plus add a "transactional engine" to them. Other ‘things’ coming soon to REZZ.IT include apartment rentals, boats, planes.

ThingD’s business model is linking people to things. They have signed up product retailers to beta test this.

Thinglink’s business models are twofold. Firstly affiliates, for example people purchasing objects in photos. Their second business model is lifestyle brand communities – connecting people who like a company’s products, already own them, etc.

Conclusion

Overall, a very interesting discussion about the evolving networks for things. If web 2.0 was largely about social networks for people (which you can certainly argue it was), then the new generation of the web will add things to those networks and create new networks.

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