Crenk » CEO

RakedIn: Latest Financial Portal from Ex Quigo CEO

Steven Finch — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:17:53 +0000

Michael Yavonditte who was previously an executive at IAC, AltaVista, Ziff Davis, Juno and the CEO of Quigo when AOL bought it for $340M, has launched a new site called RakedIn. RakedIn is a wiki like that provides stock related information on companies and individuals from all over the world.

RakedIn is very similar to WikInvest but has a much cleaner design. RakedIn already have over 5 million pages of statistical data and they are hoping to have 20 million by the end of the year. RakedIn provides information about people, public companies and even private companies. RakedIn aggregates new sources from all over the web, up to the minute stock quotes, financial performance, SEC filings, top executives and even latest trades.

I think this product has a lot of legs but they are competing with any people trying to gain market share in this environment.

Aloqa: Localised Content Mobile App Launches with New CEO from Google

Steven Finch — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:49:49 +0000

We received a tip this morning that Aloqa.com will be announcing a new CEO tomorrow and it will be Sanjeev Agrawal (former Head of Google Product Marketing). The appointment will be announced at MobileBeat and it will state that Sanjeev is the new CEO as well as an Aloqa series A funding and limited Android beta.

Aloqa’s context-aware application has solved two problems for mobile users: 1) it takes away the need to type search terms into browsers or other mobile applications to find something, 2) it proactively pushes out recommendations about social network friends nearby and interesting local opportunities to users on the go. Wherever they are, users can simply glance at their phones and see which friends, favorite businesses, events like music concerts, local offers and other interesting places are close by, without having to launch a browser or search application. Aloqa takes into account the user’s location, preferences and social relationships to make these recommendations in real time.

Aloqa’s Twitter (http://twitter.com/aloqahq) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aloqa/93595048591) pages will become active once these announcements take place.

Facebook’s Future: Not a Website

Augusto Alvarez — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 14:31:55 +0000

Who said it? Mark Zuckeberg, Facebook’s CEO.

He is quite sure that the real value from the web platform resides in multiple websites and applications across the Internet, and Facebook it’s not going to try to centralize all that; even better, Facebook will represent the entire platform that any user will need as for identification, business, relationship, etc. etc.

Here’s the interview with the whole concept that Mark gave it to Robert Scoble:

Myspace Music Where Is It Headed and Who Is The Right CEO

Steven Finch — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:03:40 +0000

Since the launch of Myspace Music I still havent been able to understand where they are heading with this company!

Myspace prior to Myspace Music had pretty much every band in the world signed up to the service, that doesn’t mean they use the service frequently. Then when the service launched the changes were so minimal, but now Myspace had to offer the four major labels and some minor distributors a revenue share and possibly even equity. What did Myspace get in return for this revenue share and even equity deal? Not much at all!

The way Myspace and their music section is setup has not really changed. Myspace still provides exclusives on albums, myspace tours, and featured videos. Recently Youtube started a test with adding affiliate links to video pages, but this seems to be the obvious revenue stream Myspace Music is missing out on. With all the music that is on Myspace Music I can see them launching an Amazon Mp3 competitor very soon, and if they don’t they are out of their minds. In the meantime I would be adding affiliate links to each myspace profile, this could be added in a box under message area in the left column of every profile.

Myspace Music has been trying to find a new CEO for at least six months, and the job keeps on getting turned down, why? No one actually wants to be Myspace Music CEO because there is really no direction at the moment and for them to make changes they have to go through many levels of hierarchy.

Myspace Music has a great opportunity to build either a web app product or even a music product offering, but it will need to find the right person to run the show! Currently, Myspace has offered a revenue share to all the major labels and have nothing in return, and this has to change sooner rather than later, or they might be in a little trouble when it comes to hitting Murdoch’s revenue targets.

Twitter Shakeup Leaves Market Wondering

Luis Sandoval — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:47:36 +0000

Recently there were reports of something very big happening inside of Twitter. Many were left to speculate that layoffs were to ensue, or perhaps a big announcement, but either way, the word was that it would indeed by monumental.

Yesterday it was announced that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would be stepping down from his position, allowing Evan Williams, former Chairman to move into the position. Jack Dorsey is not gone from the scene, but rather will be taking over Evan’s former position as Chairman.

Why the sudden move? Economy? Direction?

Many of us are familiar with the problems Twitter experienced earlier this year with scalability issues, ultimately making Twitter unreliable, and forcing users to seek out alternatives such as Friendfeed. While dealing with this problem, this gave competition like Friendfeed the chance to move ahead of Twitter in terms of innovation, offerings, and development.

Could Twitter have become too stagnant and in need of fresh blood? Kinda ironic since both Evan and Jack are considerably young in the industry, but just goes to show you how fast things can move in the tech world.

It will be interesting to see what Evan Williams can do with Twitter and what new ideas might be implemented into the Twitter property in the near future.