Thursday, April 24, 2008

Top Business Trends

6 business ideas that take advantage of the top business trends.

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NuWire Investor:
Previously, NuWire identified and ranked the Top 5 Business Trends that present great opportunities for business owners. In this companion article, we present 6 innovative business ideas that exemplify these trends; however, aspiring business owners may find that, with a little food for thought and a lot of motivation, the opportunities are endless.

Foreign market consulting
A business in foreign market consulting can help U.S.-based businesses take advantage of exporting opportunities. Because of their high demand overseas, sophisticated capital goods such as medical equipment and electrical machinery may offer some of the greatest potential for exporting. Additionally, the emergence of the middle and upper-classes in rapidly developing countries such as China and Russia has also driven demand for luxury goods such as diamond jewelry.

In addition to the U.S., opportunities for foreign market consultants exist in Latin American markets. Latin American currencies are closely tied to the weakening U.S. dollar, and thus hold lower value than other global currency markets. For such a venture, Spanish-speaking individuals would possess a significant advantage.

Link--Virtual Entrepreneur

ChunkIt! is a personal search engine for your browser that lets you see exactly where to get precisely what you want, BEFORE you click away

What Company Is Offering:
ChunkIt! is a personal search engine for your browser that lets you see exactly where to get precisely what you want, BEFORE you click away.

ChunkIt! is an exciting new offering from TigerLogic Corporation (formerly Raining Data Corporation). Their goal has been to take the frustration out of Web searching, by directing you towards the ideal Web pages containing precisely the information you need. No more aimless surfin’ and searchin’. No more chasing after lame links. No more bouncing between multiple windows.

How It Works:

After a quick install, you'll see the new ChunkIt! search box appear in your browser. By entering key words like you would with any search engine, valuable information from the Web will become much easier to find. ChunkIt! can help you discover information buried deep inside the Web hundreds of times faster than conventional search tools. ChunkIt! does this by searching through web pages, as well as its links, extracting the valuable "chunks" of information contained in the target pages that meet your search criteria. You'll no longer have to put up with the endless lists of website links and cryptic abstracts delivered by conventional search engines.

More at:http://www.tigerlogic.com/

Familybuilder is positioned to leverage the social graphs of multiple online social networks at once

About Company:

Familybuilder(formally iFamily) is a leading software application development company focused on building family-oriented applications within online social networks. The company's flagship product, Family Tree, is the leading social genealogy application on Facebook and Bebo.

Unlike stand-alone online genealogy services, Familybuilder is positioned to leverage the social graphs of multiple online social networks at once to help people find and communicate with relatives, build family trees, preserve family history, track family activity and more.

More at:http://www.familybuilder.com/

ShopWindoz is a shopping site on which sellers can easily set up a shop and sell their products to a global audience

What Company Is Offering:

ShopWindoz is a shopping site on which sellers can easily set up a shop and sell their products to a global audience.ShopWindoz is the new creative shopping network from Berlin. Creatives of all types are turning exciting ideas into unique products outside the mainstream. ShopWindoz gives these designers and artists the opportunity to become shop owners and sell their products online to a global audience.

All registered users can rate a seller’s shop window design on a five-star scale in the “Shop Window Design” feature. In the “Shop Info” column you’ll find the overall rating and the total number of ratings.

How Is It Different:

Unlike most other shopping platforms, sellers can fully customise their shop window to their individual taste and present themselves however they want.
For the first time it is possible for buyers to truly go window shopping on the web.

More at:http://www.shopwindoz.com/

MobiTV is a leader in mobile content and services, developing and offering technology that powers an end-to-end managed network got VCs funding

What Company Is Offering:
MobiTV is a leader in mobile content and services, developing and offering technology that powers an end-to-end managed network for content ingestion, encoding and optimized delivery over mobile and broadband networks. MobiTV's platform technology delivers live television, premium and primetime programming, video-on-demand, satellite and digital music services from top broadcast and cable television networks and major music labels through its carrier and operator partners to more than three million subscribers worldwide.

How Much They Got From VCs:
Leader Ventures, an investment firm offering blended debt and equity financing, announced today that it has provided $5 million of equipment financing to MobiTV, the leading provider and platform for content delivery over mobile and broadband networks.

"Millions of subscribers enjoy mobile and broadband entertainment services," said Patrick Gordan, managing director at Leader Ventures. "MobiTV gives wireless carriers and other operator partners the ability to deliver content almost anywhere," Gordan added.



"We are delighted to be working with Leader Ventures on our equipment financing," said Charlie Nooney, chief executive officer and chairman of MobiTV. "As we continue to expand our footprint and bring our services to an even larger audience, new equipment is essential to our goals of improving the performance of mobile television's content delivery infrastructure and delivering a richer, more rewarding media experience to viewers."

More at:http://www.mobitv.com/

MediaScrape, a Montreal-based video news aggregator, has raised $3.2 million in VC funding

What Company Is Offering:
MediaScrape is a world leading broadcaster of global, multi-lingual breaking news video.Their partners include BBC News; CBC News; Asia News International and thirty other leading news broadcasters around the world.

New distribution opportunities provided by MediaScrape broadcasters can further monetize their clips, web publishers have a new source for breaking news, and advertisers have access to highly targeted audiences which driver higher CPMs.
MediaScrape also encourages individuals around the world to submit their news stories, providing a venue for empowered individual journalism as the most democratic form of news reporting.

How Much They Got From VCs:

MediaScrape, a Montreal-based video news aggregator, has raised $3.2 million in VC funding from an undisclosed investor. The company referred to the round as its second, but TechCrunch notes that earlier coverage indicates that it's actually MediaScrape's fourth time at the funding trough. www.mediascrape.com

More at:http://www.mediascrape.com/

Play Hard Sports, Inc. is the casual sports network got series A round funding

What Company is offering:
Play Hard Sports, Inc. is the first casual sports network in North America focused exclusively on developing, publishing and distributing exceptional sports games and entertainment across the Internet. Play Hard is creating the next-generation in online sports with no massive download, no long waiting for the game to load, and no required fees to play. Play Hard provides its audience with high-quality sports titles that can be played almost anywhere and anytime.

How Much They Got From VCs:

Play Hard Sports, Inc., the first studio in North America to exclusively develop, publish, and distribute casual sports games and content over the Internet, today announced the company's official launch as well as a Series A round of funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Jeffrey Anderson, the former President and CEO of Turbine, Inc., announced the formation of his new online gaming company after months of industry speculation.

"Play Hard is an exciting opportunity for sports fans of every age who are looking for something new to play," said Jeffrey Anderson, the founder and CEO of Play Hard Sports, Inc. "Online games continue to change the way that people interact, and Play Hard is the newest evolution in sports. Our online games will free players from the couch, allowing them play nearly whenever and wherever they want."


More at:www.playhard.net

Tiny Prints, Inc, a leading online retailer of premium, personalized, social stationery got VCs funding

What Company Is Offering:
Tiny Prints, Inc. is a web-based company comprised of two brands offering premium, personalized, social stationery, Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas. Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas provide simple, modern and unique stationery from birth announcements to baby shower and wedding and party invitations to thank you cards and holiday photo cards. Offering exclusive designs from the nation's top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrity parents.

How Much They Got From VCs:

Tiny Prints, Inc, a leading online retailer of premium, personalized, social stationery, announced today that Summit Partners and Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) have acquired a minority interest in the company. This investment marks the first external round of funding received to date for Tiny Prints.



Tiny Prints is a web-based company comprised of two social stationery brands, Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas (www.weddingpaperdivas.com). Both brands offer premium, affordable stationery without foregoing the high-end customer experience found at stationery retailers. Rather than automating every step in the production process, Tiny Prints has developed groundbreaking technology that allows the company to deliver a personal, customer experience that consumers prefer. Since their inception, both Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas have been recognized for their exclusive stationery designs that include holiday cards, birth announcements, and all other forms of wedding and lifestyle stationery.

More at:www.tinyprints.com

Audience is a voice processor company that enables clear communications anywhere, raised $15 million in Series C funding

What Company Is Offering:
Audience is a voice processor company that enables clear communications anywhere with noise suppression technology based on the intelligence of the human hearing system. The technology is applicable across a broad range of consumer products where voice needs to be intelligible in noisy environments, and its first commercial product is for the mobile handset market. Audience was selected as the Most Innovative True Mobile Start-Up for the "2008 GSMA Mobile Innovation Global Awards." The company is one of 34 founding member companies of the Open Handset Alliance and the only one with advanced noise suppression technology.

How Much They Got From VCs:

Audience announced it raised $15 million in Series C funding in March, bringing the total funding amount to date to $45 million. Demonstrating confidence in the company's technology based on the intelligence of the human hearing system, existing investors funded the round. These include NEA, Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance.

"Audience's technology is a remarkable innovation with many applications," said George Pavlov, General Partner, Tallwood Venture Capital, and Audience Board member. "The company already has design wins for its first voice processor for the mobile handset market and will be making its technology available to other markets in the future."

More at:http://www.audience.com

With vlingo users can now simply speak to their mobile phones to enter search terms, addresses or any other text

What Company Is Offering:

Using innovative speech recognition technology, vlingo delivers a single voice interface that can work with any mobile application without training or other constraints. With vlingo access to your mobile internet applications is no longer held hostage by twelve tiny keys.


How It Works:

At vlingo they unlock access to wireless data services. They provide wireless carriers and wireless application providers a voice interface to their applications. With vlingo, instead of triple-tapping on a small keyboard, users can now simply speak to their mobile phones to enter search terms, addresses or any other text.

More at:http://www.vlingomobile.com/

vTap helps you find media quickly on phones and other input/display constrained devices

What Company Is Offering:
vTap helps you find media quickly on phones and other input/display constrained devices (they released a desktop version too but that is just to give you a flavor of the experience) . For example, imagine during a dinner conversation a word or topic comes up and you want to check the meaning of a word or concept. With vTap, you could quickly find the answer right there by typing just a few characters of your query. vTap starts displaying answers as you type, so you may not even have to type the whole query.

How It Works:

You can try vTap on your desktop or on your mobile by visiting http://vtap.com. You can also try vTap on your phone by going through the following steps.
Open a browser on your computer and go vtap.com.
Send an SMS to your device by typing your phone number.
When the SMS arrives on your device, click the link in the SMS to install application.
You can customize their application for the Windows Mobile Platform at the source level by signing up for their developer program at Developer Program.

More at:http://www.vtap.com/

moblf---It is a service through which you can interact with various web services using SMS text message

What Company Is Offering:
moblf, stands for Mobile Life. It is a service through which you can interact with various web services using SMS text message. The goal of moblf is to make it easy for you to access the various web services over your mobile, using SMS / Text Message.

How It Works:

To access web services over moblf, you must have a Twitter account. You should also have an account with the web service you would like to interact with.

moblf enables you to access FriendFeed from wherever you are, over SMS text message. You don’t need to depend on internet access anymore!

You can retrieve your messages on FriendFeed and view it directly on your mobile, or on other applications like Twitter, gtalk, Twhirl, etc. Through moblf you can view messages from a specific user or a specific web service or both.

More at:http://www.moblf.com/

WISEOZ

What Company Is Offering:
WISEOZ IS A TEAMING-INSPIRED, EVENT-BASED, AND INTEREST-ORIENTED COMMUNITY THAT SERVES TO UNITE PEOPLE THROUGH EVENT PARTICIPATION AND SHARED INTERESTS. MEMBERS COLLABORATE, PARTICIPATE, SOCIALIZE, AND CONNECT THROUGH VIRTUAL ONLINE EVENTS (“WISEWITS”), INTEREST-BASED SOCIAL NETWORKS (“CIRCLES OF INTEREST”), AND ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ONLINE IDENTITY (“MY EGO”).

How It Works:

WISEWITS HAVE MEMBERS, OR TEAMS OF MEMBERS, APPLYING THEIR EXPERIENCES, CREATIVITY, AND KNOW-HOW TO RESOLVE FOR CLUES ACROSS THE VIRTUAL WORLD BY SEEKING OUT INFORMATION OR PERFORMING CERTAIN TASKS THROUGH MULTI-STAGE EVENTS. TEAMS AND INDIVIDUALS PARTICIPATE IN WISEWITS FOR FUN AND REWARD, AND TO IMPROVE THEIR RANKING WITHIN THE COMMUNITY. WISEWITS OFFER CASH AND NON-CASH REWARDS INCLUDING THE WISEOZ CURRENCY, WIT POINTS.
MEMBERS CAN ENJOY AND CREATE A VARIETY OF LOGIC PUZZLES, TRIVIA, TEASERS, AND MORE WITH QUICKWITS. QUICKWITS INVOLVE SIMILAR SEEKING AND SOLVING SKILLS TO WISEWITS. ALSO, A HAT CONCEPT ALLOWS FOR MEMBERS TO TIP (WITH CASH OR WIT) AS A GESTURE TO THE CREATOR OF A QUICKWIT.
MATCHWITS PROVIDE A PLACE FOR MEMBERS TO EXPERIENCE ORGANIZED, PAIRED CHALLENGES THROUGH MULTIPLE ROUNDS OF COMPETITION.
MEMBERS ESTABLISH ONLINE IDENTITIES THROUGH A VARIETY OF CUSTOMIZATIONS AVAILABLE WITHIN MY EGO.
MEMBERS MAKE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS WITH LIKE INDIVIDUALS THROUGH CIRCLES OF INTEREST.

More at:http://www.wiseoz.com/

Gifts.com is entering into the question & answer space tomorrow with Gift Answers

What Company Is Offering:
Gifts.com is a free service that delivers the Web's best gift ideas, customized for any recipient or occasion. They also offer a suite of personalized tools to help anyone give great gifts. Their mission: To be your one-stop destination for gift-giving!

Recent Updates:

Gifts.com is entering into the question & answer space tomorrow with Gift Answers.Simply ask your gift related question and receive replies from Gift.com’s gifting experts, as well as other users. The questions can be anything gift related, and from the ones currently on the site, it looks like it really could be quite helpful to people.

More at:http://www.gifts.com/