Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 30th November 2008
2 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In one of his latest email newsletters, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis predicted that the economic downturn will boost social media. In an age where experiences are more important than expenses, social media advertising will flourish, Calacanis wrote.
Advertisers will start cutting print, outdoor, TV, and radio (probably in that order) in favor of the internet’s action-based offerings such as CPA (cost per acquisition), CPL (cost per lead), and CPC (cost per click).
Conversation Agent Valeria Maltoni foresees the same. Since 2006, she has been active in the social media marketing scene because she noticed “the line between marketing and public relations would be blurring considerably with greater adoption of social media”. Maltoni thinks the profession has matured and that it’s about time for an award:
It’s not all talk anymore. Social media is becoming part of our language and behavior – as customers first, as professionals a close second. The terminology may or will change, the dynamics remain. It’s extreme personalization driving it – listening, having a voice, making a difference to the final results.
With all of this in mind, if it doesn’t hurt too much, I think it would be interesting to propose how I would do a list from which to nominate the Social Media Marketer of the Year.
Maltoni isn’t thinking about just a posh show which is all about good PR – she really wants to make an effort. There must be a handpicked panel of judges who would study a collection of metrics and evaluations: “Together, we’d choose metrics that are less open to personal judgment”. Since social media is all about opinion, Maltoni doesn’t want to rule out the subjective judgments completely. She goes on by summing up some possible parameters – like RSS counts, number of blog comments, ROI, and Quantcast reach.
I think Maltoni’s idea deserves some more attention than just three comments – that’s why I wrote this post. If we could come to a solid system with which we can choose the social media marketeer, we will not only have a good party – but also an interesting way of calculating one’s success. Click here to post your selection or join the discussion in the comments.
Written on 7th November 2008
10 COMMENTS
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
Written by Patrick Cushing (who included our blog as the first one up, thanks ;-) EJP)
A few weeks back, I wanted to realize the global interconnectivity of the web startup industry. As the global financial system crumbled for its lack of transparency, I wanted a better picture of the global web startup system and where it was going. So far, I’ve covered the Middle Eastern and Asian startup sites on Enter Venture. Now, let’s visit the top startup sites coming out of Europe.
1. The Next Web
First up is The Next Web — of course! The Next Web covers anything and everything related to the future of the web, no matter where it comes from. That said, the team is largely European (largely Dutch) so their coverage gives generous play to European startups. Posts run the gamut from startup reviews, reactions, and general industry news including a recent reaction to Jason Calacanis, a Romanian music site review, the Pope on Twitter, and some great advice for entrepreneurs in this economy.
2. Arctic Startups
Arctic Startup reviews internet and mobile startups from Nordic and Baltic countries, and they’re one of my favorites on this list. The site has a great, cool blue design that is unique but still evocative of TechCrunch. I appreciate the honest way they present new startups, with a description of both the strengths AND the weaknesses of the company / application.
3. alarm:clock euro
alarm:clock euro, like it’s American counterpart alarm:clock, reports on the comings and goings of VC money in Europe with a focus on funding rounds and buy outs. Each post comes with a description of the startup, the amount they’ve been funded for, and (the interesting part) a few thoughts about why they think the investment is a good or bad one.
4. TechCrunch UK
TechCrunch UK is TechCrunch for startups in the UK . (I’m assuming people know what TechCrunch is.) Amazingly, it appears as if its entirely written by one guy, Mike Butcher. Here’s hoping he gets that star intern he’s looking for.
5. TechCrunch France
TechCrunch France covers the French startups scene as well as translates and re-posts a portion of TechCrunch’s original posts.
6. Startup 2.0
Startup 2.0 is a pan-European startup contest that took place last May (and presumably, will be held again). Voting takes place online for a chance to win ad space in TechCrunch, a Microsoft software pack, and Sun hardware. Personally, I would have expected a better prize than with something closer to what VenCorps offers.
7. Altaide Valley
Altaide Valley is another blog focusing on the connections between France and Silicon Valley. The blog is owned and operated by Altaide, a French strategic technology firm.
And yeah, like their tagline “Birding France and Silicon Valley” suggests, all the articles are written in English.
8. Tigerprises
Toivo Tanavsuu’s TigerPrises covers Estonian startups and general technology trends in the Baltics, particularly mobile. Toivo also writes for Arctic Startup and the blog you’re looking at right now.
9. Startupbin
Startupbin covers web startups in Finland. Timo Paloheimo is another blogger from Arctic Startup, and he’s also created Google minus Google — a Google search site without Google sites in the results.
And here are two more
Other European startup sites worth noting are SwissStartups.com and SomBiz (a Finnish, invitation-only Web 2.0 entrepreneur network). If you know of any other startup sites that I’m missing (especially non-English sites), please let me know in the comments!
Written on 28th October 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Jason Calacanis predicted in his last night’s newsletter that online advertising spending would go up. After a rather depressing forecast, which included terms like “the Death Spiral of the American Economy” and “The Group Belt Tightening”, Calacanis comes up with the good news. This consists of four parts. Firstly, experience becomes more important than expenses. Good news for Digg, StumbleUpon, and other discovery services. Moreover, there’s no competition (2) for bootstrapping start-ups (3). Lastly, a measurable advertising boom will occur:
Advertisers will start cutting print, outdoor, TV, and radio (probably in that order) in favor of the internet’s action-based offerings such as CPA (cost per acquisition), CPL (cost per lead), and CPC (cost per click).
Jason Calacanis
Although Calacanis is talking about the US, his prediction can be projected on different parts of the world. It won’t be surprising to see it happen in Europe as well – as it makes sense to cut marketing costs and look for attractive alternatives. In Russia this trend is already visible.
Online advertising boom in Russia
Sfnblog reports that online marketing communications in Russia have experienced a surge in financial backing since the beginning of this year. Total marketing numbers for 2008 will average between $1.04 billion and $1.48 billion, says market analysis firm Tagline at the annual Russian Internet Week. They based their findings on a study of 600 companies.
In the UK they’re still waiting
However, in others parts of Europe, the online marketing industry has been noticing a decline in advertising spending. Patrick Smith from Paidcontent UK reports:
IPA’s recent Bellwether report showed that online ad spend in Britain was flat in Q308 and Enders cut its 2008 forecast from £3.56 billion [€4.44 billion] to £3.33 billion [€4.16 billion], despite most in the industry predicting – or at least hoping – that online ad spend would weather a downturn and continue to grow.
Of course I hope we can look back in a few months and say Calacanis was right – that most online markets did follow the Russian pattern. It would further professionalize the blogosphere, including this blog.
Written on 13th October 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
During these times we are all somewhat paranoid about what the future will bring and whether we are entering a startup depression. In his newsletter dated September 27th, Jason Calacanis writes:
“It’s my belief that the economic downturn will be much worse than it is today, and that 50-80% of the venture-backed startups currently operating will shut down or go on life-support (i.e. 3-4 folks working on them) within the next 18 months.”
Jason gives startups a few pointers on how to survive the upcoming days and advises them to get focused, get leaner, and ultimately get profitable.
R.I.P Good Times
Om Malik had written last week that Sequoia held a meeting of all the entrepreneuers/CEOs of its portfolio companies and advised them to tighten their fiscal belts. Attendees were greeted with an image of a Grave Stone, with the following message: “R.I.P.: Good Times“.
According to The Marker, Other VCs such as Benchmark and Carmel Ventures in Israel have not only asked their portfolio companies to make budget cuts but have also taken their own advice and fired a few employees of their own.
So you may ask, is all this paranoia justified?
Some people in the industry think differently and much more optimistically about to the situation. Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in New York City, writes:
“But I do think Jason’s missing one important point in his email. It’s not the venture backed startups that are going to struggle the most…All startups are going to have to batten down the hatches, get leaner, and work to get profitable, but the venture backed startups are going to get more time to get through this process than those that are not venture backed. Here’s why.
Venture capital firms are largely flush with capital from sources that are mostly rock solid. If you look back at the last market downturn, most venture capital firms did not lose their funding sources (we did at Flatiron but that’s a different story). If you are an entrepreneur that is backed by a well established venture capital firm, or ideally a syndicate of well established venture capital firms, then you have investors who have the capacity to support your business for at least 3-5 years (for most companies).
Venture capital firms will get more conservative and they will urge their portfolio companies to do everything Jason suggests (and more), but they will also be there with additional capital infusions when and if the companies are making good progress toward a growing profitable business.”
Lack of IPO’s
According to VentureBeat, Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, believes there is an economic crisis in the lack of IPOs. but he doesn’t agree that so many start-ups are going to close. He believes there are still many angels who will continue to finance innovation among the seed-stage companies.
Mike Kwatinetz, founder and partner at Azure Capital Partners who invested in Bill Me Later during the post-bubble period and sold it recently to Ebay for $945 million, believes that this is exactly the time when investors should look for and target good business opportunities that they could profit from when the market revives.
He raises five good points:
- Since there’s less competition between the VCs, deals are priced more reasonably.
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Entrepreneurs have a better understanding of how much funds they really need in order to build their business and will stop asking for $40 million.
- The entrepreneurs who will stay in the game are those that really have a passion about building their company and not those adventurous entrepreneurs who come to Silicon Valley to make a few easy millions.
- There’s less competition between companies and there are less startups doing the same thing.
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One can hire a more skilled staff. Since the last bubble it’s been quite hard to find good people. Now this will change.
Flush out the doomed start-ups
So what do I think? In all honesty, nobody really knows what will happen as the startup world has never had to deal with such economic uncertainty in the past. However, it is my belief that the current situation will only do us good and allow those startups that have a unique offering to survive while flushing out those startups that were doomed to failure from the beginning. As Calacanis writes, companies now need to get better, more efficient, deliver more value, and use more cost-effective means to develop and promote their offerings. But this is not a bad thing. It just means that those entrepreneurs who really believe in their ideas need to find new ways to adapt to the current situation.
As Fred writes:
“I don’t think we are in a “depression” in startup land. We are in a down cycle driven by a bad global economy. I think the web and information technology is one of the few bright spots in an overall gloomy economic outlook. So if you are working on a web technology company, be happy that you aren’t working for a bank, a brokerage firm, an automobile company, or in many other industries. The tools and services that are made in the web technology business are only going to increase in demand over the next five years. But we are going to have to service that growing demand with leaner and more focused businesses and it’s time to start thinking more about profitability and how you are going to get there.”
Survival of the fittest
About a year and a half ago I wrote about the fact that we have too many startups offering us too many of the same things and that it may be time for Darwin’s survival of the fittest to take its place in the dotcom world. I mean, how many social networks do we really need?
As Stowe Boyd, writes:
“How many social bookmarking apps do we need? Is there really a place for seventeen social aggregators, or eleven blog comment plug-ins? Attention to hard numbers and real growth rates might lead hopeful entrepreneurs and investors to get smart fast and drop experiments that aren’t working, and to go back and dream something up that is really innovative instead of just-another-fill-in-the-blank application.”
Get funded one way or another
It’s time to get innovative people. It’s time to make changes. And if you’ve got a good, unique concept, I don’t think you need to be worried. You will get funded one way or another by VCs who still have plenty of dow or an angel who rather keep his money away from the Stock Market these days. Those companies that need to be worried are the ones that offer too much of the same and too little of the extraordinary. Sure, most startups will need to cut their budgets, but what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger and the extraordinary will thrive. So stop getting depressed. Stop panicking. Depression and panic will lead us no where. Get inspired. This is your time to shine.
Written on 12th October 2008
12 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
So it’s Sunday, but that doesn’t mean much for Internet entrepreneurs. Just like Jason Calacanis wants, we spend too much time in our office. But there’s room for fun too. Just now, for example, Robert Gaal showed me the coolest useless iPhone app ever, RjDj.
This iPhone gimmick records sounds from your environment with the iPhone headset mic and remixes them in a playback loop, randomly adding delay, echo effects, and taking certain parts of it.
Involuntary MC’s
I went outside with if for a bit and walked a couple of blocks. Listening to the music the RjDj app produced which was a completely different experience that the regular iPod one. The street noises became part of the music I was listening too, which sometimes can be simply amazing. I’m telling you, a Spanish tourist scared the hell out of me by talking a bit too loud. An ordinary pedestrian turns into an involuntary MC.
(warning: this can cause weird situations, as I started to walk really close to other pedestrians to record their conversations)
There’s a free version with only one “scene” (which isn’t too good compared with the others). The $3 version has six “scenes”, of which the “Loopinger” is my absolute favorite.
Here’s six-minute video demonstration
Where’s the hype?
It actually surprises me that there hasn’t been a RjDj hype, as everybody here in the office is absolutely raving about after the first experience. Yet if you look at this Technorati chart, you’ll notice a buzz is absent. Let’s see if we can get something started here (don’t forget to stumble)
Posts that contain RjDJ per day for the last 30 days.
Get your own chart!
Written on 17th June 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Wow, there’s a new trend going on in the Next Web office: making Twitter mash-ups. Last week, co-editor Boris launched Twittercounter – Feedburner for Twitter – and a few hours ago, developer Reinier Ladan (@reinier) sent me a line about his mash-up Twannabe.
Reinier thinks that a good way to find new interesting people is checking out who your hero is following. I can see why, as the guys your hero is following might be the crowd you want to be associated with. Though I’m not sure though whether Twitter followers is a good filter. Imagine for example that your web hero is Jason Calacanis. Well, then I have a news flash for you. He has an auto follow script running and currently tracks the tweets of 28,007 people. Although the Twitter API allows Twannabe to work with only 2000 contacts, it’s still a lot of people to follow.
It does work though when you change the definition. Instead of tracking down the friends of an almost unreachable Web 2.0 millionaire, you might want to see who your friends are following. Than, all of a sudden, Twannabe becomes more useful. But to be honest with you, the ‘view all’ option of Twitter does the job as well. Twannabe just creates a fun experience around it.
Written on 1st June 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Blog hero Jason Calacanis has announced on Calacanis.com that his human-powered search engine Mahalo will embrace the Wikipedia idea of letting anyone edit any page at any time. He explains why:
Jason Calacanis and his yellow Corvette
This feature has allowed everyone to get involved, even if their contribution is bad. The brilliance of this move is that the bad editors grow to be poor editors, and then poor editors then become average editors, and over some period of time some small percentage of the bad, poor, and average editors become great.
The obvious threats
I’ve happened to see the CEO of Wikia, Gil Penchina, speaking at The Next Web conference. He said that “when giving away insane levels of control is done right, it is incredibly strong“. Though he did mention the obvious dangers of welcoming everyone as an editor. Calacanis has experienced one of this threats himself:
A month or so ago I had a huge political figure by my office and I was showing him how Wikipedia works. I change his nationality from Irish-American to Greek-American and he was stunned that the vandalism stayed up there for so long (five days). Of course, I had to change it back… so it’s possible that it could have stayed there for a month or a year.
Wikipedia 3.0
So the Mahalo CEO decided to adopt a Wikipedia 3.0 model: anyone can edit the page, but experts have the final say. These experts are Mahalo editors whose full time job is to check all the changes made by Mahalo users. Yes, I said users, because in order to edit a page, you’ll have to register first. Also, Mahalo allows companies and individuals to correct the facts on their own page.
All in all, Mahalo carefully gives their users not so insane levels of control. Let’s see how this works out. If it succeeds, more companies might embrace the wisdom of crowds while checking all of their users’ moves. It simply isn’t as scary as giving your users insane levels of control.
Written on 29th January 2008
1 COMMENT
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Esther Dyson laughing at Guy Kawasaki
At Techcrunch40 we watched a presentation (Follow that link for video) by ZocDoc co-founder Cyrus Massoumi. ZocDoc is an online service that lets consumers find, search and book dentist and doctor appointments. After Massoumi’s presentation Guy Kawasaki, who was one of the members of the jury, said ‘I just don’t see it. You search this site and you’re like, “Oh look, Dr. Molly Adams, she looks nice, I’ll ask her to operate on my heart.”‘. While the audience laughed Massoumi cleared his throat, grabbed the microphone and replied ‘You might ask your friend for an optometrist recommendation, but you might not ask them for someone who could diagnose the rash on your butt.”. I don’t really know why but there has been some animosity between Jason Calacanis, who was the moderator for Techcrunch40 and Kawasaki. So the crowd went wild when Kawasaki said “Sure I would. I’d call Jason (Calacanis); he’s had plenty of rashes”.
“I’d call Jason Calacanis; he’s had plenty of rashes”
Kawasaki, as you might know, is a man and not a female and that might have some influence on his opinions. Maybe. If he would have been a female there would have been a 60 percent chance he would prefer the Internet over friends, family or significant other to get medical advice. I didn’t just make that up either. Comscore asked 921 women between the ages of 18 and 44 how they choose their methods of birth control. Turns out that 82% turn to Medical Professionals (i.e. doctors, pharmacists and healthcare workers) but 60% also turns to the internet. Apparently women use all sorts of sources because 51% also asks their friends, family or significant other. Good to know that men (significant others?) are in the loop too when it concerns methods of birth control.
I hope Comscore will repeat this study with men soon so we can accurately determine if there is a future for web-based services that allow you to get medical advice via online services like via ZocDoc or the just announced and soon to launch Google Health. In case you missed it; Google announced last week that they will soon launch Google Health which will enable you to build online health profiles that belong to you, download medical records from doctors and pharmacies, get personalized health guidance and relevant news, find qualified doctors and connect to time-saving services and share selected information with family or caregiver.
Some people freaked when Google launched Gmail saying that it would mean Google would know almost everything about you once they could read your email. I hope these same people will post a few comments here with their opinions on Google Health.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
