Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 23rd January 2009
0 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Yeah yeah, the credit crunch. I’m sure the travel industry suffers from it as well, but you wouldn’t say if you keep an eye on online travel services. They raise money, appoint new directors and keep launching new products. Like Tripwolf, the Austrian travel site that combines professional editorial travel tips with the usual user generated content – “OMG, you gotta eat at this restaurant! We had a lovely time and the owner was such a gentleman!!. Users can combine these different sorts of content in a free PDF travel guide. Plus there’s an iPhone app on its way.
Anyhow, these European entrepreneurs have raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by European travel publisher MairDumont Group along with investor Dieter von Holtzbrinck, a German entrepreneur who was chief of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group for more than two decades.
In a online world filled with travel sites, why would this one manage to get a few million dollars. According to tech blogger Jason Kincaid, Tripwolf only has attracted 15,000 members since it launched in June 2008. The design isn’t spectacular either and the site is stuffed with ads.
But a closer look shows there’s an incredible amount of content (250.000 locations, city guides, recommendations and travel reports) and that the community managers do a good job in keeping the site interesting. There’s for example a photo competition going on, co-organized with pop star Dido. Things like this show that Tripwolf has a soul, and combined with great plans (like the iPhone travel guide), the travel site might actually make a difference in the online travel scene.
Written on 27th October 2008
2 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
About a month ago, YouTube had announced that they do not plan to enter the live streaming market. However, many broadcasters have a real need for a platform that allows them to broadcast their live shows. Shaycarl who is one of the most popular and subscribed to users on YouTube looked for such a platform and found it on Israel-based blogTV. So have others. In the last 4 months, 28 of YouTube’s 100 most subscribed to vloggers and 80% of YouTube’s contributors (who are not YouTube’s Media Partners) are broadcasting at least twice a week on blogTV.
Livestreaming another way for self-expression
Leading internet celebs such as Sexphil, Charles Trippy, Lisa Nova and Shaycarl are all broadcasting their own popular blogTV shows now. blogTV has also announced today that even ObamaGirl will be starting to broadcast on their site every Tuesday and Thursday evening. This is major for blogTV considering that elections are just around the corner. In the last year, the company’s founders have reiterated that live streaming is the next type of user generated content that end users will turn to just like they are currently using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube. Live streaming is yet another way for users to express themselves.
Monetizing livestreams
Yet this whole story is not just about user generated content for blogTV. The company is also monetizing this content. Fifty of blogTV’s top broadcasters are internet celebs which enables the company to sell ads in these spaces at premium prices of $10-$12 CPM. These are considered to be very high prices for a user generated site.
Leading player in the live UGC arena
blogTV is growing very rapidly. In fact, Quantcast shows that blogTV has more page views in the United States and around the world than uStream.tv. This makes it a leading player in the live UGC arena. In September alone, blogTV hosted over 20,000 different broadcasters that broadcasted their own unique shows. blogTV is reporting that in each of the last 3 months they had over 30% growth.
Each its own niche
There are a few different players in the live streaming arena and each has found its own niche. uStream and Justin.tv are dominating the TV broadcasting niche whereas blogTV has captured the UGC live streaming niche. So if you feel like you have something to say to the world, get on blogTV and say it. If not, you can still tune in to all the interesting content that other users are providing. You won’t be disappointed.
Written on 21st October 2008
12 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
In these difficult economic times, it is important for all companies to become more cost-efficient. One of the ways you can lower your marketing costs is by turning to social media marketing (in case you’re not doing that already). Promoting your brand on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter doesn’t cost you anything (except for the salary of the person who’s doing the job) and is increasingly viewed as the best way to market your product to your target audience. Here’s a list of 35+ companies that are using social media to carry out their brand message, amongst them, Coca Cola, Cisco, Intel, Dell, etc.
Where’s your social media presence?
According to Phantom CTO, consumers even expect a social media presence from brands:
“The highlights of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study came out recently. The results of the study point to a growing trend in how consumers want to be reached by businesses. The study found that 60% of American consumers use social media and of those more than half interact with businesses on social media websites. 93% of American consumers who use social media expect companies to have a social media presence and 85% of them believe those companies should be interacting with consumers through social media.
Cone Researchers say that the results mean that “Americans are eager to deepen their brand relationships through social media,” explains Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone, “it isn’t an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion.”
Some social networks statistics
Social networks ARE seen as a welcome channel for discussion by consumers. See below chart from Forrester as well which breaks down interest by age groups (Note: This research was done a few months back and percentages are probably higher by now):
Much like social networks, coverage in the blogosphere is also a great way to get exposure for your brand and targeting those bloggers who would be specifically interested in your product is the secret formula for receiving the exposure you need. Don’t forget that bloggers are opinion leaders and their “say” is a crucial factor determining your product’s success or failure. If you approach the right bloggers that you think would get added value from your product, and you are able to gain their devotion as users and writers, then you have received coverage directly targeted at the right audience, without paying a dime. (more…)
Written on 27th August 2008
1 COMMENT
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
After six months in beta, the “YouTube for hotels”, Tripr.TV, has officially launched today. The Dutch start-up allows users to post video reviews of the hotels they’ve visited, promising a commission (averaging $10 per booking) when another user books via their video page.
Tripr.tv has recently been funded by Greenhouse Innovation, venture capital firm of Mr. Sander Andreae and Mr. Marc Duijndam. Duijndam is former managing director at Google and now works for eBuddy.
Jan Kooman, Tripr.TV CEO says in the release that his service gives potential guests a better idea of the hotel “Moving images are much more realistic than the, often outdated and glamorized, pictures which hotels themselves show. Our way, potential guests can really trust the hotel. When you’re filming for Tripr.tv, you’re actually walking around your room. Everyone can see the truth.”
I disagreed with Kooman when I first reviewed the site in January, and I still do. Sure, movies give a better idea of how a hotel looks like. But you got to remember that users will shoot mini-commercials, so that more potential guests will book via their video page.
Put those homemade movies in context
That doesn’t mean I consider Tripr.TV to be a failure. Far from that. I think the whole videotaping your hotel room thing is good way to structure user generated content. These hotel rooms movies would otherwise wind up as long forgotten YouTube movies and the creator wouldn’t make a penny from it.
So I say, more initiatives like Tripr.TV please. Put all those homemade movies in context, like YouPorn (Wiki link) did with sex videos and Tripr.TV with hotel videos. But just don’t claim it’s unbiased. There’s no such thing as one definite truth.
Written on 15th July 2008
0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although some say television has become redundant – co-editor Boris doesn’t even have a TV subscription anymore -, I do believe that television series are here to stay. Why? They fascinate people. Because of the long time spans, extra complexities and layers are added to the series – persuading us to follow six plot lines at the same time. Apparently, most people are fond of that – as new monster hits keep popping up. And you know what? It even makes us smarter – says Steven Johnson in his book Everything Bad is Good for You. London-based Paul Cleghorn has built a social media experience around these series with Tape it off the Internet (TIOTI).
UGC can be enlightening, if there is any
This social media aggregator for television allows users to browse through almost all successful TV series – each with a page containing wiki-like content, a link to a torrent, and loads of UGC. Spoofs, bloopers, alternative endings, mash-ups, and commentary from lovers and haters dominate the series’ profiles. At least, that was the idea when the service launched in October 2007. So far, there isn’t much going on.
When I’ve seen a movie that leaves me questioning “What the hell just happened?”, I browse to IMDB to see what other film freaks have to say about it. That’s always great fun – sometimes even enlightening -, and I’m glad to have found a potential similar experience for TV series. If only more users would leave their blunt comments.
The torrents might be responsible
The torrent links are a nice side-effect, making it possible to track down the episode you’ve missed. Or all of them, if you’re like me and refuse to stay at home for an episode. But I do think that the torrents are partly responsible for the lack of activity on TIOTI. Users just click through, eager to see the episode, and forget about the whole social aspect.
An aggregator after all
Although TIOTI has hardly any social activity on its site, it does link to other sources where discussion take place – like TV.com. Combined with the torrent links, YouTube clips, Flickr pictures, and official links, this makes TIOTI a good aggregator after all – handy for people who want to quickly see a show or learn more about it. But I guess Cleghorn isn’t satisfied with that. I’m sure he wants an active community. Of course he wants that, since it will give his social media aggregator for television soul.
Written on 2nd June 2008
15 COMMENTS
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
Michael Arrington published an interesting article yesterday, concerned about the sheer amount of UGC being generated, ’spewing’ out onto a world where the signal to noise ratio is being lowered daily.
We have evermore tools allowing users to create, capture and clutter the Internet, all of which is forcing the attention span of consumers down to seconds.
Consumers are bombarded with messages and streams from feeds and sources which at some point along the way were picked up and are now spewing out of every conceivable crevice. All competing for attention, but the louder they become the easier they are to ignore.
But the essence of Mike’s desire is this: “we need open standards and businesses to emerge that help people link all their disconnected content together into a single online identity”, he goes on “to enhance real world social interactions”.
Aggregating all this spewing data solves the disjoint information problem sure, but this does nothing to curate all that data down to the most interesting nuggets.
I would argue that simply aggregating data into a single online identity is not going to enhance real world social interactions, but instead decrease our attention span even further.
Instead what will be successful are tools that curate all this noise in unique ways, ways that save us time, guessing what we need and predicting when we need it, then serving it on a plate like the morning paper.
Written on 24th May 2008
16 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
During the weekend, most people have time to reflect, even tech bloggers. Ok, maybe not all tech bloggers, but those who aren’t that sleep-deprived have a few hours to think about the meaning of life and all that. So may I please claim 15 minutes or so from that time?
The thing is, I’ve stumbled upon a post by ReadWriteWeb’s Josh Catone in which he discusses the need of blog coverage for start-ups. He has come across a lifestreaming service called Mugshot. After some research he found out that Mugshot has been around for two years. He then wonders why FriendFeed has become so booming while Mugshot is still relatively unknown. The answer is, of course, blog coverage. FriendFeed is beloved by blogging giants as Arrington and Scoble, which geek wouldn’t want to follow them?
Yet this theory isn’t always true. Yahoo! Photos received less media attention than Flickr though it was bigger than the later acquired service. So here’s his conclusion:
It would appear that the tech blog echochamber has the potential to work against new services targeted at early adopters. If a new service relies on early adopters, it appears that it will only have a chance if it can get love from early adopter blogs.
It reminded me of a discussion we sometimes have here at the office about whether we should cover start-ups that don’t have any traction yet. You know the type: the only user generated content is from the founders and some friends. To write or not to write? I’m facing this dilemma every day and most of the times base my decision on the idea, UI, and design. Since even really early stage start-ups deserve attention if the quality is high enough.
What do you think? Do you consider it to be annoying when you come across start-ups here that don’t have any traction yet? Or do you think it’s interesting? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Written on 29th January 2008
2 COMMENTS
Tessa Sterkenburg,
Since online user generated content is picking up, newspapers get continuously slashed for their inability to adjust to modern times and the demise of the old media was predicted. Now it turns out that the old-fashioned publishers are still going strong.
Newspapers were late to the game because, for years, they had near monopolies and fat profit margins, and therefore weren’t pressured to innovate. In 2005, all newspapers were still earning most of their profits from the print versions, and young people turned away from papers, leaving newspapers with a declining reader base, and declining revenue potential.
Last week The Newspaper Association of America announced that a record number of readers visited U.S. online newspaper sites last year. The number of unique visitors to newspaper websites rose more than 6 percent to a monthly average of 60 million. Monthly visits climbed 9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago.
So, all is going well then and newspapers are finally becoming innovative news sources online. Indeed newspapers are making steps in the right direction. They are embracing RSS feeds and video, ask their best journalists for their online versions, make more content available for free and there is even some collaboration. I can’t help noticing however, that this news comes together with reports that the biggest growth group online today are the baby boomers… coincidence?
Maybe not. The Wall Street Journal recently announced that they will not go along with the trend and hold on to their subscription model. The reason: it pays them good money. Not only in subscription fees but particularly in advertising revenues. Their well-defined paying user group of affluent 50-year old male decision makers turns out to be an attractive group for advertisers. Great model.
Unfortunately, as a new generation of decision makers is approaching, it might not last.
Written on 11th January 2008
17 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Tripr is a recently launched travel site where people can post video reviews of the hotels they’ve visited. The goal of the Dutch founders is to create an archive of reviews, so that visitors on the basis of the videos can determine whether they want to stay in a hotel or not.
When a visitor decides to book a hotel based on a review, the makers of the video earn 33 percent of the commission.
Jan Kooman, founder of Tripr.TV: “We’re some sort of YouTube for the travel industry. Because the videos are shot by hotel guests, visitors can get a good impression before booking. Moving images are more realistic than those often outdated pictures”.
In the press release (Dutch), the founders claim that the visitor gets an independent impression of the hotel. I dare to differ.
If I were to shoot a video for money, I would show the most beautiful parts of the hotel and, for instance, not zoom in on the dirty parts of the bath room. And really, I’m a nice guy. It’s just that I would feel like I was shooting a commercial, instead of a review. Why would I tell about my negative experiences if I could earn more money by drawing a nice picture?
When asking Kooman for a reaction on this remark, he said: “The good thing about video is that it is particularly hard to disguise the truth. On traditional websites with the well-known pictures, faking beauty is way easier. You just take a good picture from the right perspective and you’re done. When you’re filming, you’re actually walking through the hotel. Moreover, we’ll also publish video reviews made by an independent Tripr adviser”.
The customers and ‘independent’ adviser have the same goal though, and that’s making money. I agree with Koopman that it’s harder to disguise the truth when using video, instead of stamp-sized outdated pictures. Those photographers can turn crappy rooms into royal suites. Yet I don’t think that the label ‘review’ is the right one, since it’s more like a user generated commercial.
This doesn’t mean I don’t like the idea. I’m pretty sure that next time I want to book a night in a hotel, I can’t resist the temptation of checking what the room is like through the eyes of others.
Update: Tripr is now also available in English
Written on 11th December 2007
2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Le Web 3 kicked off with pumping house beats and an excited couple LeMeur: “We’re all changing the world, so spread the word!”. After this enthusiastic start, Le Web switched to a more critical view on the web revolution. Dan Rose (Facebook), Michel Jaccard (attorney), Jarwoong Lee (Daum Communications, South Korea) and Chris Alden (SixApart) talked about the dark side of web 2.0.
Foto by LeWeb
The four gentlemen seemed to agree: the online world is nothing more than a reflection of the real world. Alden:,,It’s the anonymity that brings the ruder side of us out. The companies SixApart is working for, now more and more often ask us to give users a profile. As it turns out, people behave more polite then”.
Online bullying
The government of South Korea is taking this approach to an extreme level. In order to stop online bullying by kids, the government wants to give their children a personal key to access all the available services. Lee doesn’t agree with this drastic way of preventing bullying: “Privacy is more important. Particularly when you consider the risks of identity theft. Moreover, bullying happens on the schoolyard as well. The government therefore should focus on education instead.”
Then all the eyes focused on big shot Facebook. Rose: ,,Half of our 57 million users comes back every day. They are part of 50.000 plus individual networks. Almost nobody uses Facebook anonymously, since our service is based on real world relationships. People won’t become your friend if they don’t know you. So Facebook loses its value when you use a false identity. Therefore, people behave the same way as they do in real life.”
Privacy
Rose also admitted that Facebook made mistakes during the launch of Beacon: “We didn’t listen to our users when they said that didn’t feel like they had control. That contrasted with our normal approach, namely giving users the options to choose who can see their info. Moreover, we did a bad job explaining Beacon. We’ve launched it together with an advertising platform. Therefore users thought it was primarily an advertising tool. It wasn’t designed as such.”
Yet, Rose still believes in the concept of Beacon. “Users still want an easy way to share info with friends. We just have to give them control when we develop a new way.”
User generated content is crap
Lee: “The talks about soccer used to only take place in café’s, now they’re also published on the web. So yes, a lot of user generated content is crap.” Alden didn’t agree, stating that we too often regard Internet as an newspaper. “We think: if information is irrelevant, it’s crap. On the Internet this is not the case, it’s more like a living space. What’s crap for somebody, is relevant to others.” Rose noticed an evolution in ugc: “The first content produced by users were the customer reviews on Amazon. Those were valuable sometimes, however you never knew who had written it. Then bloggers emerged, and we were able to put the reviews in a context. Even though we don’t know them personally. We do know our Facebook friends personal, so their reviews are most relevant to us.”
That’s probably also the reason why on Facebook, there isn’t a lot of spamming going on. The critical discussion ends with a positive note by Rose: “It’s a movement to better content”.
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