Disqus - Latest Comments for sharpshoot

Re: Surprise: Facebook apps may help grow home sites

sharpshoot — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:11:01 -0000

If anyone needs help building a facebook app/getting a facebook strategy get in touch. We're based in San Francisco.

www.lightboxit.com

Re: Prosper, Zopa, P2P Lending - Heard of it?

sharpshoot — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 18:29:36 -0000

Hey John,

Happy new year. Zopa recently opened a silicon valley office. They will launch a public US service very soon, hence giving prosper some competition. Zopa was founded in mid-2005 and is starting to pick up in the UK.

Maybe give the SV office a shout,

Sumon

Re: 5 ways to break past the San Francisco echo-chamber

sharpshoot — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:39:20 -0000

Hey Andrew, if you want to break out from the Valley echo chamber you should give us a call. Our team is from London, Portland, Boston and Cardiff. We're coming to the valley next week.

London based Badoo is growing like a weed right now: http://badoo.com. Like fotolog it has a pretty international audience and a very simple, well oiled proposition with a lot of familiar viral elements you spoke about.

Re: Mixed online-offline etail models

sharpshoot — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:30:09 -0000

Spreadshirt are backed by Accel to the tune of $1.5m.

But Lukas and his team are very famous for bootstrapping their way to $10m turnover without any venture capital whatsoever. Spreadshirt have a great story.

Re: 2006/07/22/youtube-is-worlds-fastest-growing-website/

sharpshoot — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 15:29:20 -0000

Dan, I don't think YouTube will be doomed just because the NBC and Disney deals are indicators of a change in strategy.

I think the online Video market will follow the same trend as p2p downloading of music in that now that YouTube has established credibility as a destination of choice it will evolve into a distribution mechanism for proprietary video content.

I can envisage YouTube going head to head with iTunes as video content matures. In addition user generated content and enhanced social features will pull in the crowds. Now YouTube has the brand loyalty, such a change of strategy will be necassary to no just be a 2 year flash in the pan.

If they do go under, i can envisage, like napster that someone will buy the brand.

Re: 2006/07/26/snocap-napster-founder-selling-unprotected-mp3s-on-myspace/

sharpshoot — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 05:46:05 -0000

Would be interesting to see if this can be extended to personal pages, allowing people to pick their favorite tunes and host a widget on their myspace/bebo/netvibes/protopage pages.

Then any sales they make from the selection on their widget could be distributed as a revenue share. I think this has potential to really disseminate music amongst early adopters through social networks and could put snocap in position against other download sites.

Good to see Shawn Fanning trying to shake up the status quo again.

Re: 2006/07/31/cultspace-myspace-for-cults/

sharpshoot — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 04:23:17 -0000

Funny! At least we're now seeing that "mainstream" segmentation of social networking sites. Thats right, build your next products for sex freaks and wierdos.

Re: 2006/07/31/cultspace-myspace-for-cults/

sharpshoot — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 12:13:58 -0000

I wonder what advertisers are likely to spend on it? Pretty redundant even if the numbers do get bigger. Macdonalds spending money on the strawberrymilkshake cult? They might as well get on TV.

Re: 2006/08/07/favorite-thingz-earn-cash-pimping-products-on-xanga-hi5-and-myspace/

sharpshoot — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:05:47 -0000

Incentivised widgets seem like the way to go nowadays. With snocap qnd now this, we're definately going to see more viral, revenue generators over the next few months. This is an interesting trend and it shows that entrepreneurs are really understanding the need to combine these two factors. However there is the threat if myspace blocks them.

Re: 2006/08/26/studentface-launches-australian-facebook/

sharpshoot — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:49:48 -0000

Student social networks generally suffer from attrition over time as users get used to the features. For example Facebook's continuous innovation every three months means that the userbase doesn't get bored.

Unless univillage iterates rapidly on their featureset they'll find their userbase getting bored easily and regret having too many features. I think its great that studentface have started with a simple featureset as they can further intice the audience over time. Facebook's killer app was when they launched photo sharing, followed again by the variety provided by the release of the API.

This attrition due to user boredom is a key lesson in creating these social networking sites - the most notable example being Friendster. It just became boring after a while. This will be key differentiating factor to Univillage's and Studentface's success if they want to cut it with the likes of Facebook and Myspace.

Re: 2006/08/26/studentface-launches-australian-facebook/

sharpshoot — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 12:49:11 -0000

I think you are right, Facebook is plateu-ing but univillage and studentface are hardly doing anything more innovative that we haven't seen before. Univillage has essentially copied bebo and myspace and tried to apply it to closed community networking. I don't think they really UNDERSTAND the formula.

Xuqa's move towards being a multilevel game is a step in the right direction. More radical college social networks will move towards three dimensional worlds and newer ways of entertaining this demographic. I've certainly become bored of facebook and am not the only one. First generation social networks are going to get out of fashion quickly.

Re: 2006/08/26/studentface-launches-australian-facebook/

sharpshoot — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:01:23 -0000

Univillage will have to counter Facebook penetration in Uk universities. With the majority of three generations of students above on Facebook in most universities Univillage will probably fail to break the network effect. Most likely if they are giving away free music people will take that and leave. I would be surprised if UniVillage can make a dent into the Facebook stranglehold in the UK. I write this as I've been on Facebook for about a year and a half.

While switching costs may be low, radicalisation is required to create a core of active, addicted users. iChum.com tried this last year in the UK and failed, but they weren't as better funded as Univillage. Its failed once before :)

Re: 2006/08/26/studentface-launches-australian-facebook/

sharpshoot — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:01:43 -0000

should be iChums.com above

Re: 2006/08/26/studentface-launches-australian-facebook/

sharpshoot — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:19:17 -0000

My impression of the Univillage user experience when i looked was that it was a little bit over featured and a slower feature deployment wouldn't have spoiled the surprise, but i guess i'm a little bit older than the bebo-weaned highschoolers that are going to use Univillage.

Re: 2006/08/31/youtube-launches-youtube-colleges-follows-facebook/

sharpshoot — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:41:42 -0000

I think this walled garden startegy is a way of segmenting its audience more clearly to deliver appropriate premium content. I think recent distribution deals with content providers may have stipulated that YouTube must develop more targetted ways of delivering video content. This has to be something they were forced into.

Re: 2006/09/01/breaking-myspace-to-sell-music-from-3-million-bands/

sharpshoot — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 10:38:28 -0000

Music consumption is a perfect activity to take advantage of the network effects of myspace.

Congrats to Shawn Fanning.

Re: 2006/09/01/breaking-myspace-to-sell-music-from-3-million-bands/

sharpshoot — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 09:52:14 -0000

Apple's business model depends upon DRM. Anyway this no DRM is for unsigned bands and if it proves to be a strong distribution model we can imagine more established bands following suit. Its going to be an interesting 12 months.

Re: 2006/09/05/soapboxs-social-network-for-reviews/

sharpshoot — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 08:20:46 -0000

The Tagline is the trademarked tagline of Yelp (www.yelp.com)

Re: 2006/09/05/soapboxs-social-network-for-reviews/

sharpshoot — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:15:57 -0000

Yeah I noticed the word reversal later. But I can't be the only one with that reaction.

Re: 2006/09/07/chosenvip-to-launch-exclusive-social-networking-site/

sharpshoot — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 06:03:35 -0000

See www.amiworthit.com for the college market

Re: 2006/09/08/webwag-takes-on-netvibes-and-pageflakes/

sharpshoot — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 08:25:37 -0000

Pete,
Don't forget www.protopage.com, from London. That makes it 4 start page start ups in Europe. Also if you consider mad4milk's mooglets (Rome, Italy), that makes it five.

Europe is clearly the startpage innovator.

Sumon

Re: 2006/09/08/webwag-takes-on-netvibes-and-pageflakes/

sharpshoot — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 16:00:37 -0000

Protopage just launched protopuppy, pretty cute. Should add to the prettiness.

http://www.protopage.com/protopuppy

Apparently version 3 is up and coming from their blog. Should be interesting to see whats cooking when it launches.

Re: 2006/09/14/mixi-founder-becomes-a-billionaire/

sharpshoot — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 05:49:38 -0000

Surely there is a lock in period and only the investment banks are getting giddy at these figures. If the stock tanks in the next 6 months (or 12 months, whatever the lock in is) the guy most certainly won't be a billionaire. Its paper money for now! The guy is not a billionaire yet.

Re: 2006/09/19/pimpedemail-dotster-selling-email-addresses-to-myspace-users/

sharpshoot — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:55:27 -0000

Thats some "seriously blinged up" graphic design. Maybe a dotster intern initiated a change of tactic. Interesting move

Re: 2006/10/21/trustedplaces-social-network-for-uk-reviews/

sharpshoot — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 05:01:07 -0000

Trusted places are actually having their first invite-only event on the 3rd of Nov for their best reviewers. So if you don't know you better get reviewing!

Re: 2006/12/01/bigulo-launches-hot-or-not-for-bebo/

sharpshoot — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 08:15:01 -0000

See peopleradar.com which is hotornot using the facebook API.

Re: 2006/12/31/web-20-2006-the-highs-and-lows/

sharpshoot — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 09:47:50 -0000

Only an idiot wouldn't chart the number of times the term web 2.0 was used in mashable posts per month. Come on pete, THATS what the highs and lows of web 2.0 should really mean.......

Re: 2007/03/22/limelight-files-for-ipo/

sharpshoot — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 05:42:09 -0000

Mike, thats bullshit. Limelight are profitable and are in a growing space. Also doing a tech IPO in the states means they are under the full wrath o sarbannes oxley. If Limelight were 5 months old thats frothy, but no its not the start of the bubble again. This time its real business or no business.

Re: 2007/04/11/myspace-chat/

sharpshoot — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 09:33:39 -0000

Hi, Livechat2im is actually different because none of the other sites allow for multiple chatters at the same time.

This is where livechat2im have actually solved this problem relative to plugoo etc. Also livechat2im can add multiple im accounts to the same chat box.

This sort of sclability hasn't been solved before (see disclaimer on plugoo's site.

This arguably makes this product much much more useful!

Re: 2007/05/15/look-out-kevin-rose-19-im-startups-you-need-to-beat/

sharpshoot — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:01:00 -0000

and Livechat2im.com

Re: 2007/06/23/photography-toolbox/

sharpshoot — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 14:15:21 -0000

Another cool flickr mashup is http://puzpix.com - flickr puzzles, done against the clock.

Re: 2007/07/20/online-productivity-god/

sharpshoot — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 00:06:27 -0000

Peepflow.com is contact management with a twist. It launches mid august publically.

Sign up for the beta on http://peepflow.com

Re: 2007/07/24/fbfactory/

sharpshoot — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:23:34 -0000

Yeah, so why is this news?

Lightbox (http://lightboxit.com) and Techlightnment (http://techlightenment.com) do this as well.

When did mashable become a portal for free advertising?