Written on 15th July 2008
5 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Webjam, a London-based B2B interpretation of Ning, has raised €1.9 million dollar in series A, led by I-Source. The start-up offers companies a simple – iWeb-like – way to build a social network. Although the BBC once wrote about them as “particularly useful for those who want to create a webpage for a society, club or hobby but don’t know how to do it”, I’d recommend that these entrepreneurs focus on businesses. Since the D.I.Y social network market for fraternities and clubs seems saturated with players like Ning and newcomer Neeetz (review here).
Go for the companies
The British, Spanish and French founders (see picture) seem to realize this, as they call their market B2B2C – yet with the BBC calling them better than Facebook, Webjam seems to be tempted to try to conquer this market as well. Don’t do it guys, just offer ready-to-go social network packages to companies. The product is good enough, with the well-functioning drag ‘n drop interface and the clean look. And the result looks ok, as you can tell by this Webjam-powered site. Go get the cash Webjam, then think about threatening Facebook.
Written on 8th July 2008
2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If you haven’t add Fubiz to your list of RSS subscriptions yet, do so now (this also applies to our feed by the way). As the Fubiz bloggers take care of your daily doses of inspiration by posting visually appealing articles about photography, graffiti, fashion, graphic design, architecture, and art. Sometimes tech blogs and Fubiz meet. This would be such an occasion – since Fubiz has posted a D.I.Y. idea that concerns Google.
The photographer of this Stockholm pic uses the Dutch Google Images interface as a photo frame, creating a modern Escher-like illusion of Google Images in the analog world.
Written on 20th December 2007
3 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Moola has a simple but foolproof way of making millions. They give users one cent and let them play against other users in simple flash games. If you win, you double your money. If you lose, you go back to square one one cent. If you manage to win 30 times you win exactly $10,737,418.24. Not bad for winning a few flash games.
Before each Flash game you do have to watch a short video ad and that is where revenue is generated for Moola. If you want to know more about how it works read these excellent reviews on Techcrunch and ReadWriteWeb.
Local versions
The company is based in Toronto, Canada, invitation only and currently only available to residents of the United States and Canada. Once this company officially launches and becomes successful my guess is we will see a flurry of localized copies.
The reason why it makes sense to start your own local Moola is because the law is different for each country in the world. In the United States it can even be different per state. The Moola websites explains as much in their disclaimer:
Moola is currently only available to residents of the United States and Canada, excluding Louisiana, Nevada and Quebec.
The law on contests, sweepstakes and tournaments is not settled in Nevada, Louisiana and Quebec at this time. Until there is greater certainty, Moola will be unavailable to residents of these areas.
My guess is that within 12 months, just as it happened to the Million Dollar Homepage, we will see many localized versions of Moola all over the world. If you know of any similar local initiatives we would love to hear about it.
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