What Company Is About:
SupportSpace is a new technical support service for individual users and small businesses that need online support with a centralized platform, connecting them to a live technician. The service is not yet live, but will be available towards the middle of this week.
How It Works:
The SupportSpace tech team consists of independent tech experts that are all specialized in various areas like PCs, peripherals, networking, security, and more. As a user, you can select which area of expertise you need, and also choose experts based on availablility, pricing, specialty and user ratings/reviews. While all the experts are certified by SupportSpace, it’s clear that this is a marketplace for technicians that will be vying for your attention and competing with each other, to some degree. From the looks of it, you’ll be able to connect with technicians via phone and chat, and work from remote access for technicians to repair your computer.
There’s also a partner program for technology vendors and retailers that would like to offer users with their tech-support alternatives.
More at:http://www.supportspace.com/
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Chinese social networking site Wangyou Media (www.wangyou.com) has raised a US$6.12 Series B round of funding
Chinese social networking site Wangyou Media (www.wangyou.com) has raised a US$6.12 Series B round of funding, reports ChinaVenture.com.cn. Previous Wangyou investor Charles River Ventures participated in the round, as well as new investors Transcosmos Investments & Business Development, ADS Global Partners (Tokyo) and Oxsino Venture Ltd, said the report. Charles River Ventures invested in Wangyou in March 2006.
More at:www.wangyou.com
More at:www.wangyou.com
Is Wal-Mart Era Ending?
The ever-expanding chain of drab big-box stores emerged from its dusty down-home beginnings in Arkansas in the 1970s, teaching Americans to demand ever-lower prices and instructing companies to shave their margins to the bone.
But today, the Journal reports, Wal-Mart's influence is slipping as the Internet and smaller, hipper rivals take ever bigger bites out of its market share.
A big part of the giant retailer's problem, as the Journal sees it, is that it has become politically incorrect -- paying rock-bottom wages and offering its workers the slimmest of benefits while offering down-market products at prices that no longer seem very attractive.
As in every market sector, the Internet has played a major role in eroding Wal-Mart's dominance. Consumers can now find a wider selection of products at competitive prices online, and they can do so without driving miles out of their way and fighting the crowds and check-out lines at Wal-Mart.
Customer service
The lack of satisfactory customer service is the theme that runs through most complaints filed with ConsumerAffairs.Com by Wal-Mart customers.
When Amber of Lewisburg, Ky., and her husband went to Wal-Mart to buy a futon for their daughter, they found the item they wanted, marked at $99.96 but the box was so heavy they could hardly lift it.
"When we asked one of the store employees for assitance in lifting the extremely heavy box, we were greeted with blank faces," she said. "I was told to go to the lay-a-way deptartment and ask someone there."
It took 45 minutes for someone to help them move the box to the check-out counter, but then: "We got it to the counter and (SURPRISE) the item was priced incorrectly. The actual price was $199.96! When I complained, the cashier became very aggravated and said she wasn't going to sell me the futon for $99.96 just because I told her that was the price!"
"I even went back to the housewares dept., got the tag, and brought it back to her. Her response was 'Sorry, I don't price things. I have to charge you what it rings up as,'" Amber complained.
Amber, who said she is a long-time Wal-Mart customer, saw the incident as typical of the change in Wal-Mart's "customer first" policy.
"If I remember correctly, Wal-Mart used to have a rule where if a customer was charged more than $3.00 than the marked price of an item, they got the item for the lower price. Apparently, Wal-Mart tends to forget their own policies and only enforces the ones which make them money!" she said.
Forgetting its roots?
While Wal-Mart's attempts to penetrate urban areas have had medicore results, many of its traditional customers say it has also forgotten its roots. The company's plan to eliminate layaway purchases is often cited as an example.
"I am throughly disgusted at their lack of care and concern for the people that made them rich. It is the ultimate betrayal!" said LaDonna of Garland, Texas.
"Wal-Mart is a terrible place, and I spend thousands -- like about 8 of them -- a year there, but no longer! All of my Christmas will be done online this year!" she vowed.
Hit the wall
Wal-Mart's supercenter recipe no longer produces the growth it needs to sustain itself and its attempts to attract and retain more affluent consumers have fallen flat, Love Goel, chairman of a private equityu firm that invests in retail businesses, told the Journal.
"They have hit the wall," Goel said.
Via-Consumeraffairs
But today, the Journal reports, Wal-Mart's influence is slipping as the Internet and smaller, hipper rivals take ever bigger bites out of its market share.
A big part of the giant retailer's problem, as the Journal sees it, is that it has become politically incorrect -- paying rock-bottom wages and offering its workers the slimmest of benefits while offering down-market products at prices that no longer seem very attractive.
As in every market sector, the Internet has played a major role in eroding Wal-Mart's dominance. Consumers can now find a wider selection of products at competitive prices online, and they can do so without driving miles out of their way and fighting the crowds and check-out lines at Wal-Mart.
Customer service
The lack of satisfactory customer service is the theme that runs through most complaints filed with ConsumerAffairs.Com by Wal-Mart customers.
When Amber of Lewisburg, Ky., and her husband went to Wal-Mart to buy a futon for their daughter, they found the item they wanted, marked at $99.96 but the box was so heavy they could hardly lift it.
"When we asked one of the store employees for assitance in lifting the extremely heavy box, we were greeted with blank faces," she said. "I was told to go to the lay-a-way deptartment and ask someone there."
It took 45 minutes for someone to help them move the box to the check-out counter, but then: "We got it to the counter and (SURPRISE) the item was priced incorrectly. The actual price was $199.96! When I complained, the cashier became very aggravated and said she wasn't going to sell me the futon for $99.96 just because I told her that was the price!"
"I even went back to the housewares dept., got the tag, and brought it back to her. Her response was 'Sorry, I don't price things. I have to charge you what it rings up as,'" Amber complained.
Amber, who said she is a long-time Wal-Mart customer, saw the incident as typical of the change in Wal-Mart's "customer first" policy.
"If I remember correctly, Wal-Mart used to have a rule where if a customer was charged more than $3.00 than the marked price of an item, they got the item for the lower price. Apparently, Wal-Mart tends to forget their own policies and only enforces the ones which make them money!" she said.
Forgetting its roots?
While Wal-Mart's attempts to penetrate urban areas have had medicore results, many of its traditional customers say it has also forgotten its roots. The company's plan to eliminate layaway purchases is often cited as an example.
"I am throughly disgusted at their lack of care and concern for the people that made them rich. It is the ultimate betrayal!" said LaDonna of Garland, Texas.
"Wal-Mart is a terrible place, and I spend thousands -- like about 8 of them -- a year there, but no longer! All of my Christmas will be done online this year!" she vowed.
Hit the wall
Wal-Mart's supercenter recipe no longer produces the growth it needs to sustain itself and its attempts to attract and retain more affluent consumers have fallen flat, Love Goel, chairman of a private equityu firm that invests in retail businesses, told the Journal.
"They have hit the wall," Goel said.
Via-Consumeraffairs
Google SMS Now In India For Local Information On Your Mobile
Mobile users in the country can now easily get local information on their handsets as leading search engine Google introduced a service on 9 October to facilitate access to such content.
The new offering Google SMS, has been launched in beta version across four cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Google has tied-up with five operators Reliance, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, BPL and Aircel for offering the service, Google India head of products Vinay Goel said.
The local information would include movie timings, restaurants, local hospitals and taxi services among others. The subscribers do not need an internet-enabled phone for accessing the service.
The users would be charged between 80 paise and Rs3 per SMS depending on the operator, he said, declining to give details of the revenue sharing arrangement between Google and telecom companies. “We are betting big on the huge mobile subscriber base in India. After receiving the feedback from the four cities, we will launch the service across the country,” Goel said.
Google SMS is already present in other countries but India is the first Asian country where the service has been launched. “We are expecting a good response for this service,” he added but declined to tell how many users is the Google expecting from this service.
Via-PTI
The new offering Google SMS, has been launched in beta version across four cities Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Google has tied-up with five operators Reliance, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, BPL and Aircel for offering the service, Google India head of products Vinay Goel said.
The local information would include movie timings, restaurants, local hospitals and taxi services among others. The subscribers do not need an internet-enabled phone for accessing the service.
The users would be charged between 80 paise and Rs3 per SMS depending on the operator, he said, declining to give details of the revenue sharing arrangement between Google and telecom companies. “We are betting big on the huge mobile subscriber base in India. After receiving the feedback from the four cities, we will launch the service across the country,” Goel said.
Google SMS is already present in other countries but India is the first Asian country where the service has been launched. “We are expecting a good response for this service,” he added but declined to tell how many users is the Google expecting from this service.
Via-PTI
MillionBlogs.org is a brand new concept that allows users to create their own fully functional website based on the word/phrase purchased
What Company is About:
MillionBlogs.org is a brand new concept that allows users to create their own fully functional website based on the word/phrase purchased. It is an experiment aiming to become one of the biggest informational platforms on the Internet. The experiment is running on WordPress which is the best and the most popular publishing platform offering a friendly, easy to use solution for your website, weblog, blog or whatever you want to call it. Every website (blog) is dedicated to a unique word or phrase. The content on each blog is managed by the blog’s owner. Owners use their blog, to generate traffic, revenue and also to provide useful informations for the end users. As an owner you are allowed to sell advertising on your website and also to resell your blog for profit.
How It Works:
You can choose any available word or any combination of words providing that your phrase is not meaningless and does not include any irrelevant, offensive and pornographic content. Once you applied for a word we will review your aplication and will set up your own blog usually within 24 hours. If your aplication has been declined we will refund your aplication fees. Your url will look like MillionBlogs.org/example or MillionBlogs.org/your_website if you choose more than one word.
More at:http://www.millionblogs.org/
Via-Killerstartups
MillionBlogs.org is a brand new concept that allows users to create their own fully functional website based on the word/phrase purchased. It is an experiment aiming to become one of the biggest informational platforms on the Internet. The experiment is running on WordPress which is the best and the most popular publishing platform offering a friendly, easy to use solution for your website, weblog, blog or whatever you want to call it. Every website (blog) is dedicated to a unique word or phrase. The content on each blog is managed by the blog’s owner. Owners use their blog, to generate traffic, revenue and also to provide useful informations for the end users. As an owner you are allowed to sell advertising on your website and also to resell your blog for profit.
How It Works:
You can choose any available word or any combination of words providing that your phrase is not meaningless and does not include any irrelevant, offensive and pornographic content. Once you applied for a word we will review your aplication and will set up your own blog usually within 24 hours. If your aplication has been declined we will refund your aplication fees. Your url will look like MillionBlogs.org/example or MillionBlogs.org/your_website if you choose more than one word.
More at:http://www.millionblogs.org/
Via-Killerstartups
Text Link Center For "If you are interested in profiting from your website"
What Company is About:
Text Link Center is completely free, you'll receive twice the number of links and reap the benefits of exponentially greater traffic. If you are interested in profiting from your website, there is no better text link system on Earth.
How It Works:
By copying the paid link detection algorithm of Google and the other search engines, you can now input any URL and they will display the paid links on that page. There is great debate as to whether the search engines can actually detect a paid link...well, no longer. They prove that it can be done with their tool. Other sites either give away the URL, point hundreds or even thousands of detectable links at a site immediately, or have one or more factors in place that flag their links immediately.
More at:http://www.textlinkcenter.com/
Text Link Center is completely free, you'll receive twice the number of links and reap the benefits of exponentially greater traffic. If you are interested in profiting from your website, there is no better text link system on Earth.
How It Works:
By copying the paid link detection algorithm of Google and the other search engines, you can now input any URL and they will display the paid links on that page. There is great debate as to whether the search engines can actually detect a paid link...well, no longer. They prove that it can be done with their tool. Other sites either give away the URL, point hundreds or even thousands of detectable links at a site immediately, or have one or more factors in place that flag their links immediately.
More at:http://www.textlinkcenter.com/
MyBuys builds deep behavioral profiles on each and every consumer
What Company Is About:
MyBuys builds deep behavioral profiles on each and every consumer. These profiles allow MyBuys to deliver the highest converting recommendations - resulting in revenues 300% greater per interaction than traditional approaches.
By reaching consumers on a retailer’s web site, through email, and in RSS feeds, clients realize more repeat visits, increased conversion rates and larger order sizes.
MyBuys delivers these benefits with no upfront costs and a pay for performance model!
How Much They Got From VCs:
MyBuys has raised $10 million in Series B funding. The company provides software to ecommerce stores that allows them to serve up ads and products based on your behavior – for example, tracking what you search for and showing related items during a future visit. The funding comes from Palomar Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Behavioral advertising is becoming another hot area in the online marketing space, with Tacoda recently selling to AOL for an estimated $200-300 million.
More at:http://www.mybuys.com/
MyBuys builds deep behavioral profiles on each and every consumer. These profiles allow MyBuys to deliver the highest converting recommendations - resulting in revenues 300% greater per interaction than traditional approaches.
By reaching consumers on a retailer’s web site, through email, and in RSS feeds, clients realize more repeat visits, increased conversion rates and larger order sizes.
MyBuys delivers these benefits with no upfront costs and a pay for performance model!
How Much They Got From VCs:
MyBuys has raised $10 million in Series B funding. The company provides software to ecommerce stores that allows them to serve up ads and products based on your behavior – for example, tracking what you search for and showing related items during a future visit. The funding comes from Palomar Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Behavioral advertising is becoming another hot area in the online marketing space, with Tacoda recently selling to AOL for an estimated $200-300 million.
More at:http://www.mybuys.com/
"Fashion Mash" where you can upload photos of items in your closet, and mix and match objects to create outfits online
What Company is About:
Fashion Mash is a new social network for fashion folks, where you can upload photos of items in your closet, and mix and match objects to create outfits online. When you first sign up for the site, you can choose to import your own Meez avatar, create a new one, or choose a default avatar. From there, you can begin to upload your items.
How It Works:
The image editor lets you trace items by color or manually, which can be rather time consuming. The trace-by-color option doesn’t seem to work very well. Once you have a few items in your closet, you can begin to create your outfits. Each outfit gets its own profile, as do individual items. Others can leave comments for these outfits and items, and add their own tags. The embed code is provided for each outfit as well.
While you can’t add friends, you can subscribe to users. You’ll see what items they have, and be able to use their items for the creation of your own outfits. This is achieved by filters on the editor, which lets you access all the items of your subscribed users, and favorite items. The limited way in which items can be shared for this network makes it a bit more difficult to track items.
Adding a Q&A section and better search tools could help bring in more functionality and offer more purpose to the site’s social components. Similar networks include OurThreads, GirlSense and StyleMob.
More at:http://fashionmash.com/
Via-Mash
Fashion Mash is a new social network for fashion folks, where you can upload photos of items in your closet, and mix and match objects to create outfits online. When you first sign up for the site, you can choose to import your own Meez avatar, create a new one, or choose a default avatar. From there, you can begin to upload your items.
How It Works:
The image editor lets you trace items by color or manually, which can be rather time consuming. The trace-by-color option doesn’t seem to work very well. Once you have a few items in your closet, you can begin to create your outfits. Each outfit gets its own profile, as do individual items. Others can leave comments for these outfits and items, and add their own tags. The embed code is provided for each outfit as well.
While you can’t add friends, you can subscribe to users. You’ll see what items they have, and be able to use their items for the creation of your own outfits. This is achieved by filters on the editor, which lets you access all the items of your subscribed users, and favorite items. The limited way in which items can be shared for this network makes it a bit more difficult to track items.
Adding a Q&A section and better search tools could help bring in more functionality and offer more purpose to the site’s social components. Similar networks include OurThreads, GirlSense and StyleMob.
More at:http://fashionmash.com/
Via-Mash
ReachLocal, a company that provides online advertising services for small businesses
What Company is About:
ReachLocal, a company that provides online advertising services for small businesses.
How Much They Got From VCs:
They just gotten a massive $55.2 million in a round of funding. The round was led by Rho Ventures, with Galleon Crossover Fund also participating, and VantagePoint Venture Partners as return investors. This recent round of funding comes after the $12.7 million the local ad company has raised since its inception in 2004. This gives ReachLocal an estimated valuation at $305 million, which is $55 million more than its previous valuation.
According to LocalOnliner, this comes on top of the $12.7 million it has raised since its founding in 2004. The new funds give ReachLocal an estimated valuation of $305 million, at a pre-money valuation of $250 million, the post says, though we haven’t been able to confirm that. It sells for sites such as Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Google (NSDQ: GOOG), MSN, AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Superpages.com.
More at:http://www.reachlocal.com/register/login.php
ReachLocal, a company that provides online advertising services for small businesses.
How Much They Got From VCs:
They just gotten a massive $55.2 million in a round of funding. The round was led by Rho Ventures, with Galleon Crossover Fund also participating, and VantagePoint Venture Partners as return investors. This recent round of funding comes after the $12.7 million the local ad company has raised since its inception in 2004. This gives ReachLocal an estimated valuation at $305 million, which is $55 million more than its previous valuation.
According to LocalOnliner, this comes on top of the $12.7 million it has raised since its founding in 2004. The new funds give ReachLocal an estimated valuation of $305 million, at a pre-money valuation of $250 million, the post says, though we haven’t been able to confirm that. It sells for sites such as Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Google (NSDQ: GOOG), MSN, AOL (NYSE: TWX) and Superpages.com.
More at:http://www.reachlocal.com/register/login.php
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