After partnering with Mindspark Interactive Network about a week back, Offerpal has released its new platform; Offerpal SURVEYS. It provides game developers and publishers tap in more revenue by simply having their users earn virtual cash in return of filling out surveys. This isn’t something new which the company is doing, but it has sort of compiled all those surveys it did in the past into one module. This would greatly benefit those developers whose primary focus are surveys. Plus it gives them a potential market given that they have partnerships with Comscore, Nielsen NetRatings to name a few and more than 5 million surveys to date. There is quite a potential in that alone and the numbers don’t leave me surprised why Offerpal decided to introduce an entire platform for this.
Archive for September, 2009
There has been mass push when it comes to recommendation engines and the idea is quite interesting. I mean why cant we have a better shopping experience online and see what others think about a particular product we like or want to purchase? The social networks have made it much easier already, even online shopping sites work around this way given the fact that 70% or so consumers would at least read a couple of recommendations before they would actually go ahead with the purchase.
This brings me to the Finnish startup, RunToShop which provides the stores with recommendation service. The idea is to build up a platform where everyone can benefit from the comments and recommendations left by your friends or others within your social network. Now there has been one thing that I feel bad about recommendations is that many a people would leave a negative comment or a dislike, which makes things just a bit more difficult for a potential buyer, but RunToShop has been pretty lucky at keeping those recommendations positive. The idea to integrate your social contacts into your shopping experience would always prove helpful, primarily given that the recommendation comes from someone you know in some manner along with those from others who have liked the product.
The place is very peaceful, nothing close to the bustling cities I have grown used to, but Helsinki did give a chance to get an idea of what the research is about at Nokia. Sounds more like a travelogue doesn’t it, but I will keep it that way since I am traveling. Cutting the lectures short, I was lucky to get an over look on what Nokia is busy with.
Twitter is minting some funds as the microblogging network raised a healthy $100 Million in a new round. The investment came from new investors, Insight Venture Partners and T.Rowe Price along with existing partners. We aren’t sure on what valuation the funding was based on. However we had earlier got a tip that the valuation was close to 1 Billion and the current funding brings it total cash to $155 Million in the last couple of years.
We had covered Marro.ws back in May this year and I quite liked the idea behind the web clipping tool. The startup made it easy for users to take notes while they enjoyed reading an article on their favorite blog or web site and save them in various formats like, text and PDF. The team has released Version 2 of its app and has finally added support for RDF. The RDF format can be easily be availed by simply adding /get/rdf at the end of a regular Marro.ws URL as follows:
Floobs is a platform for delivering and monetizing video founded by Kai Lemmetty and Joonas Pekkannen. The startup specializes in live and on-demand video delivery on the web and mobile. It is currently working with sports organization such as La Liga teams including Champions League team Sevilla FC and provides with embeddable videos that can be shared across various social networks like Facebook, MySpace or any other website. Plus it also offers tools for managing the content made by the brand itself and fans around the brand.
It is developing tools to help users manage various types of videos and generate revenue as well as letting publishers know how each video performs and how its performance varies geographically. This can prove to be very helpful for both publishers and advertisers to target the audience with the right thing that engages users effectively.
Finnish mobile manufacturing giant, Nokia is set to expand its territories further as it acquired travel social network Dopplr. The service provides users a place to share the future travel plans they have with friends. The acquisition has cost Nokia somewhere in the range of $15 to $22 Million and has been made right when Dopplr was anticipating a new round of funding. The social network had been cofounded by Marko Ahtisaari, who previously was Nokia’s Director of Design Strategy.
Sakhr Software is doing everything possible to bring Arabic to the masses, given the popularity of the language itself added with the difficulty each has when it comes to learning the language and mastering it. The software firm has introduced its Arabic Language Buddy for the iPhone and iPod Touch [link]. The speech enabled app offers translation from English to Arabic during live conversations that facilitates better learning and language assistance while you travel. A very innovative tool for learners. Other features include:
