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Is VC money for start-ups drying up?

Stephen — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:34:10 +0000

Are the geese with the golden eggs flying south for a while?

While the last few years have seen a bit of a boom in venture capital funding for Irish start-ups, the next two years don’t look so rosy. In 2011, 159 Irish technology companies raised €274m from investors while in 2010 tech firms received €310.2m, according to the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA).
Since the start of the credit crunch in 2008, 547 Irish SMEs raised venture capital of €1.1bn. “These funds were raised almost exclusively by Irish VCs who during this period supported the creation of up to 20,000 jobs,” says Regina Breheny, director general, IVCA.
“However, there was a sharp fall off in funding in the second half of 2011. This decline is largely due to a pull back by overseas VC investors,” says Maurice Roche, chairman, IVCA and partner, Delta Partners. “We have serious concerns that Irish venture capital firms too will start to run short of funds in 2012. This will place a major brake on the future expansion of Ireland’s indigenous tech sector. In particular start-ups that have received investment in recent years from the Seed Funds will have great difficulty raising additional capital.”

2011 Summary:

Funds Raised
The IVCA VenturePulse survey shows that high tech Irish companies raised €274.4m from investors in 2011, despite the continuing global credit crunch. This compares with funds raised of €310.2m in the same period of 2010 and to €288.1m in 2009. While first half funding in 2011 rose 58% over 2010 to €161.9m, the second half of 2011 saw a decline of 46% to €112.5m.

Companies
The number of companies that raised funds in this period was 159, compared to 156 in 2010 and to 139 in 2009. Amounts raised ranged from €100K to €20m.

Seed/Early Stage
In 2011, 82 companies raised €104.9m (38% of funds raised). This compares with 63 companies and €53.6m (17% of funds raised) in 2010 and with 65 companies and €71.2m (25% of funds raised) in 2009.

Pinterest – the sleeping social giant to watch

Emma — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:28:30 +0000

If you haven’t tried using Pinterest, you should. Why? Because it’s quietly becoming a dominant social force on the web and it’s where all the cool people are hanging out. Forget Facebook, Pinterest is a visual social network where people can show off their good taste, not their bad behaviour.

How does it work?
Pinterest is easy and fun. Users simple ‘pin’ content from different sites on the Web to a virtual cork board. There are numerous categories on the cork board such as photography, food, fitness, clothing and home. Users create their own boards and ‘pin’ stuff they find interesting and their followers can see what they pin. Users and followers share information with each other in a visual and interesting way and users can ‘re-pin’ stuff they find interesting.
According to the Ignite Social Media blog, Pinterest’s audience is mainly female – between the ages of 25 to 54. ComScore says the social network has over four million users and the Google Ad Planner shows nearly 1.5 million unique users are visiting Pinterest daily, and spending 14+ minutes on the site. Compare this with the average Facebook user who spends 23 minutes on the site each day.

Getting smarter
What’s interesting about Pinterest is its philosophy – it’s a discover & share social network and poses no real threat to individual privacy. The most ‘damaging’ thing it can do is show other people you have poor taste.
Brands are also paying attention to it. For example, online shopping site Etsy is using it to great effect. It has over 45,000 followers on its Pinterest brand page and every time it pins a new item to its page it essentially advertises that product to its followers.
Brands also don’t have to rely on complex data processing to target specific groups of people because if people are interested in a brand’s products, they’ll simply follow it.
As the first generation of Facebookers mature and it slowly dawns on them that sharing one’s life with hundreds of virtual contacts probably isn’t the smartest thing to do, they will look around for alternative ways of expressing themselves. As people get older they become more private but they remain interested in what other people are doing. Pinterest is a social network for people who are interested in what other people find interesting. That’s what makes it a sleeping giant.

Students – the future is clear, do your sums

Emma — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:06 +0000

Maths, Science and Technology graduates are in high demand. A second language is also beneficial

The chief executive of the IDA, Barry O’Leary, has advised students who are currently choosing a college course on where future opportunities for jobs lie. Foreign direct investment (FDI) companies continue to create jobs and most are seeking graduates with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and maths. Many FDI jobs also require multi-lingual skills.
Irish Universities and colleges provide a wide variety of courses “which qualify graduates to meet industry needs to match with employment opportunities,” says O’Leary.
In the last 12 months, multinational companies with export-led growth created over 13,000 new jobs in Ireland.
“Students planning now for their future careers need to take this growth into account and consider in which sectors the greatest FDI job opportunities will be in the coming years,” says O’Leary.

EU toughens its stance on web privacy

Mark — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:42:27 +0000

Justice Commissioner Vivianne Reding

Digital giants like Facebook and Google are facing another bid by the European Commission to prevent them from using people’s data without their ‘explicit consent’.
Companies like Facebook and Google make billions of dollars a year from collecting data on people who use their services. This data is analysed and packaged in such a way that allows other companies target individuals with advertisements and offers.
The EC, however, see this an affront to individual privacy and EU Justice Commissioner Vivianne Reding wants to force all web companies that collect data in such a way to get explicit consent from their customers and users.
The Commissioner wants web firms to be transparent about how this information is used. She also wants to give users the right to completely erase any information they may have shared or posted online during their lifetime.
Commissioner Reding is determined to introduce stiff penalties for companies that don’t comply, including a €1 million fine or a fine of 2% of annual turnover.
Reding says the EC’s goal is to give people greater control over the information they share online. She believes each country should have a data protection authority whose role is to deal with complaints by consumers, carry out investigations and impose sanctions.
“This is a world of breathtaking possibilities and it should stay so,” she says. “It should be a world of innovation but there are also dangers around these new technologies [cloud computing and social networks] especially concerning the [loss of control] of one’s personal data.”

Timeline in the firing line
Facebook’s new ‘Timeline’ feature (see video below), which brings back a user’s entire Facebook history for everyone to see is also being scrutinised by the EC. The idea that Timeline could reveal a person’s ‘digital skeletons’ is something that doesn’t sit well with privacy advocates.

We Are Legion – the Anonymous film

Gerard — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:43:11 +0000

As SOPA meets its end and as the Irish government attempts to muffle the web, a new documentary on the rise of hacktivist group Anonymous is hitting screens around the world.
For those who don’t know, Anonymous is regarded by some as an underground group committed to defending the freedom of the Internet in the face of corporate myopia. Others see it as a group committed to criminal acts, especially against powerful and wealthy corporations and governments.

Civil disobedience
The film will be seen by those who want to censor the web as a propaganda video for criminal anarchists. For most who want the web to remain free of censorship, however, the film will be seen as a portrait of revolutionaries – a documentary charting the rise of a new model for civil disobedience across the globe.
We Are Legion is directed by Brian Knappenberger. The official site is here.

So much content, so little time – the future of TV

Emma — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:59:03 +0000

The digital planet is awash with content. Never before in our history have we been able to access such a variety of content so instantly and across so many different connected devices. We all know this. What’s less clear is where this sea of content is leading us and how we will choose to consume it.
The launch of Netflix in Ireland this week is a good example of what the future looks like. However, Netflix is just one affordable, unlimited video content provider in one of the most competitive sectors of the digital age – the TV industry.
The days of channel surfing and TV guides are coming to an end. The ability to search and stream TV shows and films anytime we want is here, but this is only the beginning.
At the recent CES show in Las Vegas, Samsung, the world’s largest TV maker, showed off a smart TV set that responds to voice commands and gestures without the need for a remote (see video below). Apple is also said to launch a smart TV this year that is likely to have its voice command feature Siri taking orders from viewers. Microsoft’s Kinect gaming console also offers a voice control feature by which to watch shows streamed across Netfilx. And it’s not just shows and films. Viewers will also be able to interact with their social networks, download apps and play video games as smart TVs become more commonplace. What this means for the advertising industry is becoming clearer – the ability to deliver more personalised and targeted content. How? As people watch more TV online, they leave behind a digital footprint that paints a very accurate picture of their tastes and preferences. This information will be shared with advertisers.

Share and share alike
Online and digital content providers like Netflix and Lovefilm are now competing with traditional national broadcasters and cable TV providers.
One of the things these new online streaming companies heavily promote is the social sharing aspect of their service. With so much content available, more and more people are turning to their social networks to see what their friends and followers are viewing. It’s the giant digital ‘water cooler’ effect, where people make recommendations and discuss various programmes and films. These discussions, available for the programme makers and advertisers to read, will increasingly play a part in how producers develop concepts and narratives for future shows and films. Zeebox, below, is a good example of this phenomenon.

Digital tunes outstrip physical album sales – but it’s not the end of the story

Mark — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:43:08 +0000

Radiohead - good in concert

It’s strange that it took until the end of 2011 for digital music sales to finally outstrip physical music sales. The end has been nigh for the majority of big brand record shops for a long time – just look at HMV’s recent figures.
CNN says that a recent Nielsen and Billboard report reveals that digital music accounted for 50.3% of music sales in 2011. Digital sales were up 8.4% from the previous year, while physical album and single sales declined 5%.
Adele’s album 21 along with its single Rolling in the Deep, were among the best-selling albums and singles in 2011. The album was the best seller in both physical and digital sales, while the single was the best selling digital song with nearly six million downloads. CDs still outsell virtual albums by a factor of two, but it’s clear what the trend is when it comes to people buying individual songs.
The rise of digital sales over physical sales is certainly not the end of the story for the music business. Songs and albums are no longer sales and promotional events, they are mainly used to sell concert tickets. Streaming services like Spotify are revolutionising the music industry and new technology, coupled with easy access to mass markets via social media channels, means artists and musicians don’t need a ‘record deal’ to reach a large audience. If the music is any good, chances are it will be shared by thousands or even millions of people via their networks.

For more on the death of the music business, read what Radiohead has to say about it.

China to launch first 3D TV channel

Emma — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:16:20 +0000

China will launch its first 3D TV channel on January 23rd (the Chinese New Year), according to a report from ZDNet. “The launch of the 3D channel is a significant step in the development of China’s television,” said Cai Fuchao, the head of China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.
Only people with 3D enabled TVs, and high definition digital televisions will be able to access the channel. During the initial phase, the channel will air just four and a half hours of 3D content per day, the repeat telecast of which will be shown during the same day, says the Xinhua news agency.
3D televisions and game consoles are steadily on the rise throughout Asia.

A record 173,000 dot ie sites registered in 2011

Stephen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:22:29 +0000

The dot ie Domain Registry (IEDR) has published its stats for 2011 which show further growth for the .ie domain. Overall the total number of .ie domains grew by 12.9% net in 2011 to 173,145 at year end.
Registration levels were stronger in the first six months of 2011 with 20,995 registrations recorded between January and June, and 18,403 registrations in the second half of the year.
The IEDR also reached a milestone in 2011, when over 4,000 (4,061) domains were registered in a single month.
Not all web sites are used though. The current non-renewal rate stands at 12.8%, an improvement on the 14% level recorded for 2010. This resulted in 19,726 net additional .ie domains for 2011, a 12.6% increase on the previous year, once non-renewals had been accounted for.
“While growth of the .ie domain continues there is still significant untapped potential in the market for Irish businesses – to establish and grow their e-business through online sales and for those currently with an online portal, to further exploit the benefits of what is a 24/7 sales channel without borders,” says David Curtin, chief executive of the IEDR.

The applications revolutionising the magazine industry

Mark — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:18:10 +0000

There are a raft of applications for smartphones and tablets that aim to replicate the magazine reading experience but in a way that reflects the user’s preferences.
Google’s Currents application, for example, allows Google account holders to download content from a variety of preselected publications such as the Daily Beast and Fast Company. It also displays a list of trending top stories that you can swipe through and you can add your favourite sites and blogs. The only thing it’s missing at the moment is a social integration element i.e. the ability to see what your friends are reading, but this will change as more people sign up to Google+.
Social readers, like Flipboard, are revolutionising the magazine and newspaper industry. They are also defining the way content is created by editors and writers. After all, it is becoming easier for editors to know in real time what stories are read the most and what type of content is being shared by people across social networks. In essence, editors are relying more and more on their readers to have an executive editorial influence on their publications.
Yahoo’s free magazine app called Livestand, has interesting potential because its software can be customised to pull a deep pool of content from Yahoo’s website and other participating publishers to cater to each reader’s interests.
Studies have also shown that tablets appear to be a more effective ad platform for magazine brands. Findings from a Jumptap study last year on mobile banking and commerce, showed that tablet owners are almost as likely as PC and laptop owners to use their devices to make purchases. Two-thirds (63%) of tablet users make purchases on the device, compared to 83% of PC users, according to the study, which is based on comScore results.

Advertisers want direct access
Importantly for magazines and their advertisers, younger users are more comfortable using tablets to buy products with nearly 80% of tablet owners aged 18-34 making purchases with the devices, compared to 50% of people 35-54 and 43% of those 55+.
While many traditional, print magazines will survive, they will survive only as an addition to their digital siblings. Print will become less relevant. Social readers like Flipboard are transforming the way people consume information and the advertisers who used to spend money on print magazine ads are now looking to have direct access to each reader’s wallet, and only the digital platforms can offer this.