metarand

Social Network Leaders Crossover Into Mobile

The two leaders in the online social networking space, MySpace and Facebook, are emerging as the clear leaders in the mobile social space as well.

According to research carried out in Q2′08 by ABI Research, as high as 46% of the people who visited online social networks also visited mobile socnets. Of this nearly 70% visited MySpace and 67% Facebook. No other online social networks came near these figures.

What this shows is that firstly, there is a big gap between the market leaders in this space and anyone else, and secondly the hurdle for consumers to jump to specialist mobile socnets versus crossing over their online networks onto the mobile platform is very high.

I wonder how the adoption curve is trending for mobile socnets at the moment? Silicon Valley VCs have made bets on players like Bluepulse and Mig33, both of whom I’ve covered extensively. Combined with the excellent web browsing capabilities on handsets like the iPhone, is there a place for mobile only social networks?

Tags: BluePulse, mig33, MySpace

DemoCrunch Week: Under Starter’s Orders…

It’s going to be a busy week ahead in California for start up followers what with Demo taking place in San Diego and TechCrunch 50 in San Francisco.

There is bound to be heaps of coverage of both events, but as a starting point Rafe Needleman’s guide is as good a place as any to begin.

Personally I cannot help but think that there are more efficient ways of cutting through the morass than these cattle call-like events. But for now this is the way it is.

Anyone remember the days of Garage’s Kickstart for Startups events? Yeah, it’s all been done before, guys - nothing unique or earth shattering, but have fun out there and try not to squint under the lights!

Tags: Demo, TechCrunch 50

Paul Graham: Venture Capital - A Primitive, Multi-Celled Sea Creature

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham has written an excellent Fundraising Survival Guide that I encourage all entrepreneurs, venture guys and anyone who has any form of interest in the art of the start (as Guy Kawasaki calls it) to read.

It is a long essay. Stick with it.

[Picture courtesy of CompoundEye]

Tags: Guy Kawasaki, Paul Graham, Y Combinator

VentureWrap: Friendster, SpaceX Raise $20M Funding

One of the earlier social networking pioneers, Friendster, has continued its Asian-led comeback with a $20 million infusion from IDG Ventures and previous investors [Benchmark, DAG Ventures, Founders Fund and Kleiner Perkins].

In addition to the cash Friendster has secured Richard Kimber, formerly Google’s South Asian Regional MD, as CEO.

Also raising $20 million is SpaceX, the Elon Musk-led space transporteer. The round was provided by Founders Fund. Musk is a former South African and founder of Paypal and Tesla. The recent test of their Falcon 1 rocket hit a snag with stage separation lock. This led to the craft not achieving orbit. Elon has unequivocally stated that they are still on track - the message from this funding round backs him up.

Founders Fund are having a busy time of it lately. One of their other portfolio companies, Facebook, is apparently contemplating empowering staff to sell off a portion of their vested stock. This accords with the philisophy of letting founders cash out along the journey, which has been a key Founders Fund differentiator - extending it to all employees is an interesting move.

Incidentally LinkedIn is also reportedly [via VentureBeat] contemplating this route.

Tags: Elon Musk, Facebook, Founders Fund, Friendster, Richard Kimber, SpaceX

Union Square: Open Venture Capital

Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, a New York venture firm, has done a great job opening up the financial drivers for VC firms. For other venture guys his comments may be nothing new, but for most entrepreneurs they represent an excellent and somewhat rare insight into the VC black box.

Why is this important? Entrepreneurs can greatly improve their prospects of getting venture funding and of a good relationship with their VC partners post funding by taking the time to understand what motivates a VC.

Read Fred’s posts on the venture model behind Union Square here and here.

Tags: Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures

VentureWrap: Zynga Brings Kleiner Into Play With $29M

The Potrero Hill, San Francisco-based Mark Pincus social games venture, Zynga Game Network has closed a $29 million Series B funding round led by Kleiner Perkins.

New Kleiner partner and former Electronic Arts Chief Creative Officer Bing Gordon will be joining the board and getting actively involved in operations.

This follows a recent $10 million Series A and the investors in that round (Avalon Ventures, Foundry Group and Union Square Ventures) have participated alongside Kleiner and IVP in the Series B.

I suspect this funding will be used to fuel a number of acquisitions. This is borne out by Zynga’s additional announcement that they have acquired YoVille, a virtual-world app that has over 150,000 daily active users on Facebook.

[Hat tip to Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures]

Tags: Avalon Ventures, Bing Gordon, Facebook, Foundry Group, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Mark Pincus, Union Square Ventures, Zynga

VentureWrap: Trulia Lays Foundations For Growth With $15M

Residential real estate search engine, Trulia has increased its venture funding by $15 million to a total raised to date of $33M.

The latest round was led by Deep Fork Capital and included Accel Partners, Fayez Sarofim and Sequoia. The San Francisco-based company will use the capital infusion to expand their advertising services across the Trulia Ad Network and self service offering, Trulia Pro.

Trulia has around 5 million uniques a month and over 100,000 real estate professionals as registered users. They’ve managed to collate over 70 million property records, which feature constantly-updated comparable sales data.

They are one of the fastest growing US real estate sites and this has positioned them well for the growing hunger for data as the housing market in the US goes through a slump.

Tags: Accel, Deep Fork Capital, Fayez Sarofim, Sequoia, Trulia

Metarand Unplugged: Graspr’s Teresa Phillips Talks About Their Venture Funding

Based in Sunnyvale, California, instructional video company Graspr has raised a $2.5M round of funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and a number of angel investors.

In this edition of Metarand Unplugged Teresa Phillips, Graspr’s CEO talks about the space and the steps she went through to get this capital infusion, which will be used to build out their syndication platform.

Stream the Session in Quicktime:

here

Stream the Session as an mp3:

here

Tags: Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Graspr, Teresa Phillips

VentureWrap: MEVIO Goes Vertical With $15M

MEVIO, the broadband entertainment network formerly known as PodShow, has raised Series C funding of $15 million.

The round was led by Crosslink Capital and included DAG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Sherpalo Ventures.

The funding will be used to launch vertical entertainment networks with the aim of offering advertisers a “brand safe” platform with the reach they currently receive from traditional broadcast networks.

MEVIO’s stats for May 2008 were up 800% in the last twelve months, with over 9 million unique monthly visitors. They will be exploring syndication opportunities that are expected to dramatically enhance their reach.

Tags: DAG Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Mevio, Podshow, Sequoia Capital, Sherpalo Ventures

Metarand Unplugged: Ross Dawson, Future Exploration Network On Media’s Future

In this session of Metarand Unplugged we talk with Ross Dawson, Chairman of the Future Exploration Network. Ross is a bestselling author, global futurist and the convenor of the cross continental Future of Media Summit.

We talk with Ross about the future of media, the upcoming Summit and its place as a crystal ball for the media industry. We also talk about the futurist business as a whole and where the iPhone fits on his roadmap for the future.

The biggest takeout: he uses frameworks to synthesize his pattern recognition and as a communication tool for exploring trends and the potential paths we will follow in the future.

I hope to see you at the Summit.

Stream the Session in Quicktime:

here

Stream the Session as an mp3:

here

UPDATE: Ross has released two frameworks in the lead up to the Future of Media Summit:

• Future of the Media Lifecycle
• Seven Driving Forces Shaping Media

Check them out and let me know your thoughts.

Tags: Future Exploration Network, Future of Media Summit, Ross Dawson