Crenked Out! has just launched. Crenked Out! is our new service which will be providing our readers with invitations to preview and use some of the most exclusive applications on the web. These invitations are of course going to be free and you can use as many services as you would like. However, there will be of course a limit to the amount of invites we are able to give out, so make sure you get in fast. Each time we add a new service to Crenked Out! we will also write a review about the service and detail how many invitations we have available.
If you are launching a product and would like to have your company featured in our Crenked Out! section, then please contact us. All placements in Crenked Out! are free, but the products need to meet our high standards.
GroovesharkLite is a self-contained flash based application which lets you search, listen and purchase mp3’s online. It has a library of over 6 Million songs covering everything from tiny Indies to all the Majors.
It’s a peer to peer music service in the same vein as Limewire, which also allows users to stream and purchase songs.
Users are not required to register or login to their account in order to search and play songs. You are only required to login to your account when you want to purchase a particular mp3. Otherwise you are free listen to songs as much as you want.
You can also get free mp3’s with GroovesharkLite, for example if someone purchases a song that you seed, you would receive a credit that can be used to purchase more songs from the network.
Check it out: http://listen.grooveshark.com
It has been reported that Grand Theft Auto IV sales have been much higher than expected. In the first week of sales there has been over 6 million copies sold which has reportedly raked in over $500 million in sales. That first week performance blows away the previous record held by “Halo 3″ which sold about 2.6 million units and earned $300 million. First day sales for “Grand Theft Auto IV,” including all pre-orders, totaled 3.6 million copies.
Even those guys at the Pirate Bay got on the Grand Theft Auto bandwagon and posted a nice logo and with some cheeky rips.
Qtrax, the P2P music service that about four months ago claimed to have signed deals with all four major record labels, has finally signed their first major label. Universal Music Group are the first major label to sign up to Qtrax. This is the company’s first major label licensing deal, although it does have several publishing agreements with the likes of EMI Music Publishing and Sony/ATV, among others.
The service itself allows users to share DRM protected music. The DRM is obviously there to keep the music off other networks, but at the same time is helps Qtrax to establish the play counts in which they will use to pay royalties to artists and labels. Qtrax also has display ads in certain sections of the process, and users have the option to purchase music and merchandise through the service. Hang on one sec, they are a startup with an actual business model that might work, thats crazy!
There have been a lot of reports today about Google losing another top executive to Facebook. The person in question is Elliot Schrage, who is the VP of global communications and public affairs for Google, or was up until a few days ago. Elliot will now be taking up a new job in the same position at Facebook.
I remember back when Google was just launching into the marketplace, and all the stories were around top executives moving from Microsoft to Google. Now they all seem to be slowly moving from Google to Facebook. Are these movements to make more money or equity or are they moving to the next Google? At this stage im thinking they are moving to Facebook because they see Facebook as the next Google, but im not so sure. Facebook has never been profitable, they are only back up crazy valuations and they dont have a complete business model in place to obtain revenues. Thus, leads me to think, who will be the next Google? Who will own the internet, because this isnt done upon valuations, this is done upon generating high revenues!
Buzznet have been definitely on a buying spree lately, especially after obtaining $25 million in funding from companies such as Universal. Previously, Buzznet purchased Stereogum, Idolator, Qloud and started Videogum. This time they have purchased another music site, Absolutepunk.net.
Personally, im not too sure about the approach of Buzznet. Buzznet are trying to position themselves as the one stop music destination. Instead of maximising their own site first, they have received funding and are trying to buy marketshare. Why not simply find a better monetization strategy then just Google Adsense!! Im sure Buzznet will not be receiving a high click through rate with Adsense, so why not try to find a premium CPM based network instead?
This is a guest post from Ashraf Mansoor who is the founder of Twffaha.com, a job site intended for women in the Middle East.
Not A Luxury
Everyday we run into hundreds of web applications, be it clones for already successful businesses (Mixx to Digg) or original creative ideas. The potential of growth on the web is overwhelming, that’s why a lot of entrepreneurs seek to involve in creating startups, with the hope of being the next Google.
However, most startups fail to develop there ideas into cash generating machines. The reason is because of the lack of a solid, rational, business model. Startups and entrepreneurs get consumed by there ideas and hopes that they overlook the economical feasibility of their projects.
Startups should be profitable in order to guarantee it does not cease to exist. Even a VC backed startup will be under fire if it failed to turn a profit and award the VCs with a feasible rate of return on their original investment ( anyone?)
Plan Early
As an entrepreneur it is your job to plan a solid business model at the early stage of your project. Building an application and hoping to come up with a business model later is not a smart move to make. YouTube has been a great success, and revolutionized the way we think about the web, but in reality YouTube failed to cash on there huge traffic (#3 in the US according to Alexa) because of the absence of a business model initially, leaving Google to experiment with different business models that all but failed to reduce the search giant hefty bill of costs.
Size Does Not Matter
Once you have an idea that you believe can help you to generate money, study the business model. Services like 37Signals have done their homework early, and came up with a subscription based model that helped them to be profitable from day one. The fact that 37Signals is very small when compared to YouTube is insignificant, as long as they turn a profit and a very good one too.
Final Thoughts
1. Do not leave it till the end.
2. Do not depend on being acquired. The chances of you being acquired is slim, plus giants will look to acquire startups they know are profitable.
3. Conduct a market research to ensure that your figures are realistic.
4. Do not hesitate to change your business model, in case you found a more lucrative model – be flexible.
Well im sure that everyone has already heard, but if not Microsoft has today withdrawn their proposal to acquire Yahoo! Yahoo have issued a press release and Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! Inc., issued the following statement today in response to Microsoft Corporation’s announcement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!:
“We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:
– a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;
– reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;
– invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and
– enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability.”
Here are also some of the thoughts from around the web:
Startup directories have long been the main place to head to find information about upcoming and established startups. Directories tend to be matched nicely with leading technology blogs, but recently I have noticed that there arent too many standalone directories anymore. Thus, I thought I would put together a list of directories to see which one is actually used the most.
Go2Web20.net is a web directory of everything web 2.0. From Advertising to Widgets, Go2web20.net has it all there for you to find. The site is setup in a unique style which allows a user to browse the logos of all the startups or even drill down by category.
KillerStartups is a startup directory that is updated daily. The site is based around a blog style format in which users can vote up startups to put them at the top of the tree. Killerstartups shows very basic information about each site, but seems to show too many Google ads and also only premium members can see more specific data.
SimpleSpark has to be one of the sexiest directories around! The site is very easy on the eye and has a lot of features to match. One of the key issues is that you have to register to be able to add a startup to the directory, hmm 10 min of your time. However, as the registered users grow, so does the interactions on the site.
Tradevibes has to be the newest directory on the block. They aim to provide indepth information on startups from all over the world, all on a free basis. The majority of this service comes from the users or company owners themselves, but there is still minor inputs from Tradevibes direct. Look out for Tradevibes to become the major player in this market.
CrunchBase is one of the products in the Techcrunch stable. Crunchbase is a wiki based tool that divulges information from some of the world technology startups. CrunchBase is the free directory that anyone can edit, currently however it is closely moderated by the Techcrunch team.
CenterNetworks Company Index is our final product in this list. CenterNetworks is a growing technology weblog that is dedicated to profiling technology news and issues. Allen has added a nice feature to his drupal based site, which shows a list of basic companies. Once a user has selected a company it only shows the most recent posts, which is a tad disappointing.
I would like to welcome everyone to the new Crenk design. Before I run through the new features of the design I would like to thank our designer and coder, Astrit. Astrit has a great company which really helped us make our ideas become reality.
As you will notice with the new Crenk the design and branding has completely changed and become a lot more simplistic. The logo and tag line has remained the same as well as the highlighted red colour. However, in terms of basic navigation there are a lot of changes. Navigation now is more recognisable on this design and each channel is easier to navigate into. Additionally, you will noticed that we now have our most recent article list in the left column. This is aimed to help making content easier to find within the design.
The other major changes are in terms of advertising. Crenk now has a top 728 x 90 banner in which acknowledge some of our main sponsors. Additionally, a 300 x 250 banner can be found in the right column, as well as a 160 x 600 at the bottom of the left column. Crenk is very thankful for our sponsors because they are the ones that help us stay in business. Finally, we are going to open 125 x 125 advertising which will be located in the right column above the 300 banner. If anyone is interested in one of those positions, please drop us an email and let us know.
Finally, I would like to welcome our new contributor Abdylas, who will be adding to our You’ve Been Crenked section which focuses on startup reviews. Keep and eye out for more contributors in the near future, additionally if you are interested in joining the Crenk team please drop me an email and let us know why you would be a good addition to the team.
Well I hope you all like the new design, but im sure that is not going to happen. If you have any ideas or feedback you would like to add, it would be much appreciated.
I came across some very interesting tech news yesterday, the Apple iPhone will be launching in India in September with Vodafone as the exclusive partner. There have been so many reports that huge amounts of people have iPhones already in India, but purchased at a premium price from all over the world. Thus, im sure that the iPhone will be a huge hit in India and I would even bet that they sell more units in India than they do in the UK over the same period.
I cant believe how fast this year has already gone, now the end of April has reached us. This is a wrapup of the happenings around Crenk and the rest of the blogosphere.
Sponsors and Partners:
RouteNote: Music licensing and distribution
Forbes.com: Crenk is a new member of their soon to launch Business and Finance blog network
CypherHackz: The Malaysian technology blog worth reading
Logo Samurai: Some of the best design work at affordable prices!
Bloggin-Ads: Reviewing blogs everywhere
Adify: One of the best advertising networks I have ever worked with.
Rackspace: Reliable and Personal Hosting!
April on Crenk:
Buzznet raises $25 million
AT&T and Microsoft Surface reveal new customer experience
Pitchfork TV Launches
Farecast has been acquired by Microsoft
Dogpile – Why are there no search ads?
Other Crenk News:
At Crenk we have made a lot of the changes this month, such as a new contributor and a new hosting company. Ades will be contributing to Crenk and will become our expert on reviewing startups. Rackspace is our new hosting partner, they have been so professional and helpful. Make sure you look out for a completely new design to Crenk coming out in the next couple of days.
