SEO Werkt!

Calling all chefs, wedding planners, stylists, and crafty-types: Pinterest has just opened registration to the public after two years of requiring an invite to join. Anyone can now sign up with Twitter, Facebook, or just an email address. Seems that $100 million cash infusion from Rakuten bought it some operations engineers.

Its growth has already been staggering, so it will be fascinating to see what happens next. Will users flood in faster than ever before? Or will the lack of exclusivity make membership seem less trendy? And yes, if you’re asking, somewhere there’s someone who isn’t on Pinterest yet. And they are unfashionable.

This afternoon, Pinterest announced the end of its beta phase to readers of its adorably named “Oh, How Pinteresting” blog:

“We’re really excited to have the capacity to offer Pinterest to more people and if you’re a Pinner with friends who’ve been waiting on the sidelines, we hope you’ll let them know. Happy pinning to everyone!”

Pinterest hit 10 million unique monthly U.S. visitors back in February, and hasn’t shown signs of stopping. By April, Experian said Pinterest had 107 million visits per month to become the third most visited social media site behind Facebook and Twitter.

As of May, comScore said Pinterest had achieved 4377% year over year growth. That’s a lot of cupcakes and cute dresses. Some early stats also pegged Pinterest as having an overwhelmingly female user base — possibly as high as 97% ladies.

Some thought Facebook would alienate its core user base of college students when it finally opened to the public. Quite the opposite. Accepting everyone jumpstarted growth. The same could be true for Pinterest. Then again, as master pinner Anne Sage writers

@JoshConstine oh boy. here come the riffraff.—
anne sage (@citysage) August 09, 2012

Keeping itself invitation-only was likely due to engineering constraints. Throwing open the doors too soon could have crashed the site. But after raising $100 million, making tons of hires and moving into a new 60,000 square foot San Francisco office, there’s no need keep growth slow and steady. So tell all your friends they’ve got no excuse not to try it out (mwa ha ha, the first step to Pinaddiction).

Hope the Pinterest engineers have a jug of Sangria handy. They could be in a for a long night.

[Oh my gawd, put the graphic above on your Pinterest]

LevelUp, the one-year-old mobile payments arm of Boston startup SCVNGR, is now providing merchants with the sweetest of incentives for using its mobile payments and rewards system: no credit card processing fees whatsoever.

LevelUp offers an iPhone and Android QR code mobile pay app for consumers, and a terminal system for merchants to process payments. The mobile apps are used by roughly 200,000 consumers, and the payments option is accepted at more than 3,000 locations in 10 U.S. markets.

Today, the company, which recently received a $12 million cash infusion, is so confident in its ability to monetize mobile payments through alternative mechanisms that its dropping credit card processing fees for good. LevelUp was previously charging merchants 2 percent per transaction.

“We think we’ve actually got the model that obviates the need for Interchange to be how payments make money,” SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch told me in an interview. “We think that this is an economic inevitably.”

LevelUp’s move to eradicate these processing fees, called Interchange fees, may very well represent a shift change in an industry where processing fee-based models are the standard.

For comparison, Square charges 2.75 percent per swipe, while PayPal’s and Intuit’s mobile pay solutions charge merchants marginally less per swipe. These companies are also forced to shave off fractions of a percent to compete with each other and win merchants over to their platforms.

Interchange zero, the phrase Priebatsch uses to describe a phenomenon he believes will lead to the day when the cost of moving money reaches zero, sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry. But the theory, especially if it holds true, could dramatically reduce the amount merchants spend annually — $50 billion give or take — on accepting credit cards. Plus, if Priebatsch has his way, the movement will spark a radical new way of thinking among players in the space that may bring tasty treats to consumers toting around mobile wallets.

“We might be the first to hit an Interchange zero-stable ecosystem, but we’re definitely not going to be the last,” Priebatsch said. “By firing the first shot … I’m hoping we kick off a cool space race for people to try and invent the value that can be added to the merchant or consumer, above and beyond the payment, that makes Interchange a thing of the past.”

The stable ecosystem he speaks includes two revenue-generating merchant campaigns designed to provide value to the consumer and the merchant. LevelUp is making enough money from skimming off the top of these campaigns to subsidize the cost of credit card processing fees.

A merchant can choose to run either a new customer acquisition campaign or a loyalty campaign.

The donut shop around the corner can try to drum up new business by agreeing to offer a $5 credit to 100 new customers (LevelUp provides highly specific in-app targeting options, Priebatsch said). For each new customer who visits the donut shop, pays with LevelUp, and redeems the $5 credit, LevelUp makes $0.35 per dollar of credit redeemed. In this scenario, LevelUp would take home $1.75 per new customer passed through to the donut store.

When the donut shop wants to attract repeat business it can craft a loyalty campaign, and allow customers who spend a set amount with LevelUp, say $50, to unlock and redeem a credit (sample pictured left). LevelUp takes home the same $0.35 for each dollar of credit redeemed.

LevelUp, said Priebatsch, reached a point to two months ago when its system started generating enough revenue to cover Interchange costs.

“It’s weird, but it’s cool,” said Priebatsch of LevelUp’s new system. “The thing that we’ve done that’s of value is drive the customer in the door, and that’s a fixed, concrete thing that we can stake our name to and make money off of. And we feel really good about that.”

Filed under: mobile

Komli Media, an Asia Pacific-based digital advertising firm which claims Facebook and MSN among its partners, today announced $39 million in funding. This fourth round led by Northwest Venture Partners, is the Indian company’s largest financing yet and will help the six-year-old firm operate even more widely in the Asian Pacific region.

The cash infusion brings it to $62 million in funding for Komli, which offers display, mobile and social advertising to its more than 5,000 publishers. In February, Komli acquired Admax Network, the largest digital media network in South East Asia, which claims customers such as Intel, Samsung, Citibank and P&G.

There are already plans for the $39 million, chuckled Komli Media chief executive Prashant Mehta. Mehta tells VentureBeat the latest round of funding will also allow the company to “go deeper into key areas in India to get closer to customers.” Another target for the cash is to bring on board new talent, including a chief finance officer.

A portion of the new cash will go toward expanding the Admax Network, Mehta said.

Perhaps most intriguingly is Komli’s introduction to the “frenemies” concept, where your business partners can also be your stiffest competitors. Google, says Mehta is both a key partner and rival in the mobile ad space. As the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant expands into phones, software, advertising and more, friction is likely to develop where once were just deep pocket friendship. A case-study could be that of Google and Apple.

However, Komli is having more success working with brands in its own backyard, India and Asia. Komli has a “strong relationship with Facebook in India,” says Mehta. Facebook arrived there in 2010 to witness an explosion of mobile growth. In a nation where the Internet connections are an iffy proposition outside large urban areas, more than 600 million people now own cell phones — many of them checking their Facebook accounts.

In Thailand, Komli has a relationship with Bloomberg, Mehta says.

Despite talk of partnerships, Komli realizes it must compete. The company believes it has the advantage – especially in India, where Komli offers one of the few integrated mobile solutions. Key to this advantage, Mehta said, is his company’s use of Real Time Bidding. Unlike the usual method of advertisers purchasing whatever inventory is available, RTB permits up-to-the-moment adjustments, resulting in cost-savings. Couple RTB with the ever-changing mobile population and an on-the-go consumer base, and the advantage is obvious.

Komli’s CEO says it is also integrating data with its advertising platform, something not widely available in India.

Komli says it has more than 400 employees in 18 offices in India, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, United Kingdom and North America. The company is headquartered in Mumbai.

Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Western Technology Investment also participated in the company’s funding.

Image via Shutterstock

Filed under: deals, VentureBeat

Chad Hurley and Steve Chen (pictured), founders of YouTube, have just received a cash infusion for their new company, AVOS.

The funding is the duo’s first institutional round, and it was led by (no surprise) Google Ventures and NEA, with participation from Madrone Capital and Chinaese incubator Innovation Works. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we do know that AVOS will be using the money for flashy hires and strategic acquisitions.

Given that tidbit along with the team’s all-star provenance, we can say with confidence this wasn’t some small-potatoes “pity round,” but a robust injection of cash for some of the best minds in Silicon Valley.

Alex Kinnier at NEA and Gideon Yu, former YouTube CFO, Facebook CFO, and current San Francisco 49ers president, will both be joining the AVOS board. Stay tuned for more news from AVOS on the acquisitions and hirings front.

The latesst product put forth by the startup is Zeen. Still a relatively stealthy project, Zeen will take consumers into the glossy, high-design world of digital magazine creation, publication, and discovery.

The AVOS team has also been working on a new version of Delicious, the beleaguered bookmarking service. The startup recently launched a Chinese version of the site, called Mei.fm.

“As their success at YouTube has clearly demonstrated, Chad and Steve have an amazing gift for connecting people to the content that matters to them,” said Google Ventures partner David Krane in a statement released this morning.

“We’re delighted to be working with the AVOS team again, and look forward to helping grow AVOS and its technology properties.”

Filed under: deals

Internet access might not be a human right, but having a connection to the web can help people get more access to their rights, to new opportunities, to better information — to the world. And with a $300 million subsidy, the U.S. government is hoping to bring that access to more people in remote areas of the country.

The US. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Wednesday this huge sum would be coming into the Connect America Fund, a program intended to bring broadband Internet connections into nearly half a million rural homes and businesses that currently have no Internet access at all.

The service will come via U.S. telecommunications companies, which have a three-month period to decide whether or not to participate in the new CAF initiative.

The $300 million subsidy comes with some handcuffs; telecoms will have to commit to robust plans to build out their networks. These companies will also likely be bringing investment dollars of their own to the project.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the cash infusion represented a “once-in-a-generation reform” of the country’s universal service goals as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The chairman also stated, “All Americans will benefit while our nation’s global competitiveness is strengthened.”

The United Nations last year went so far as to call Internet access a human right, stating in a report, “Given that the Internet has become an indispensable tool for realizing a range of human rights, combating inequality, and accelerating development and human progress, ensuring universal access to the Internet should be a priority for all states.”

via The Hill

Filed under: VentureBeat

Microsoft and Apple should hate one another right now. I mean, really hate each other. After decades of domination, Microsoft has watched their rival move from death’s door to become the most valuable company in the world — over $200 billion more valuable than Microsoft itself. And it was Microsoft who helped get Apple there, remember, with a timely cash infusion in 1997.

Steve Ballmer laughed off the iPhone, which eventually helped kill off Windows Mobile — and it’s now bigger than all of Microsoft’s businesses combined. And the company shrugged off the iPad, even as it established a category, tablets, which Microsoft itself had been trying to establish for years.

Now Apple’s iOS ecosystem threatens the very fabric of Microsoft. Given the rise of the iPhone and iPad, and the halo-effect they’re having on the Mac, products like Windows and Office don’t hold the same importance that they once did in the computing world. And their shine is ever-diminishing. People are realizing that they just don’t need them anymore. Apple’s rise is slowly killing the Microsoft we’ve all known for years.

And yet, Microsoft rarely bashes Apple publicly anymore. In fact, they often take their side on arguments or come to their defense on issues. Again, these were once bitter rivals. And these times should be the battleground for their bloodiest battles yet. Instead, it’s all holding hands, s’mores, and Kumbaya.

Why? Because Microsoft has an enemy they hate much worse than Apple. And Apple has the same enemy. Google.

This is nothing new, but the animosity continues to build between the parties. Look at the news today, for example. Following last week’s headlines that Google was bypassing privacy settings in Apple’s mobile Safari browser, Microsoft today says that Google is doing the same thing to their own IE browser. Meanwhile, Google says that Microsoft is full of shit, while Apple is probably off in the corner smiling.

It wasn’t long ago that Apple and Google were aligned against Microsoft. Remember, then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on Apple’s board and the two sides worked closely on projects like the original iPhone. Then Android came along and destroyed that relationship. While Google probably didn’t consider it at the time, this set the stage for Microsoft and Apple to align on things like the Nortel patents.

Microsoft should probably be going all-in to combat the rise of iOS, but instead they seem far more concerned with spending obscene amounts of money to bolster Bing as a Google competitor. And they seem to truly enjoy undermining Android by way of licensing agreements with key OEM partners.

Meanwhile, Apple seems downright bored if you ask them about Microsoft as a competitor. But ask about Google (Android in particular) and the knives come out.

Maybe this all just means that Google is doing something right. They have all the biggest technology companies in the world pointing guns right at them. You don’t get to the top without pissing off people along the way. But the way Google has managed to unify all of these main rivals against them should at the very least give them pause. Microsoft and Apple are the two biggest examples. But Facebook and Twitter are finding common ground against Google as well thanks to the search giant’s foray into the social realm.

All of this makes for a fascinating situation in the tech world. On one side there’s Google. On the other side there’s basically everyone else, with new members seemingly joining on a daily basis. And this side is filled with rivals that under any other circumstance would hate each other. But here they’re allied. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Telemarketing is a dirty business, but someone’s gotta do it — because somehow, it’s still profitable.

Also profitable is selling software to telemarketers that allows them to track the calls they make, the responses they get (or don’t get) from consumers, and the next follow-up actions they need to take to close a sale or get a meeting.

The Leads360 team has just closed a significant funding round for building exactly that kind of software.

It’s not a lead-gen company; rather, it makes tools that help telemarketers manage and convert the leads they get elsewhere. And it’s not a CRM product, either; its software is specifically for those tricky consumers who haven’t yet been converted into customers.

The company’s cash infusion of $15 million today will allow it to keep creating and selling that software to telemarketers and other salespeople in verticals like insurance sales, for-profit universities, mortgages and other loan products, and more.

Leads360 says its software is all about marketing automation combined with telephony. The company tells us it currently has more than 40 million prospects (potential customers) being managed by its software for more than 2,000 clients, some of them among the Fortune 1,000.

The most recent round of funding, which a team member describes as “validating,” comes from Boston-based Volition Capital with participation from existing investor Rustic Canyon Partners, a San Francisco VC firm.

As expected, the marketing startup will use the new funding to expand its software products and features, to gain new clients and other partners, and to grow its own sales and marketing efforts for the Leads360 software.

“The new funding validates Leads360’s vision for a combined sales and telephony software platform focused entirely on companies that sell to consumers,” said Leads360 chief executive Nick Hedges in a release today.

“Leads360 does a better job than CRM systems at driving an efficient, responsive and high-touch consumer sales process that many companies spend vast amounts of time and money trying to achieve through CRM customizations.”

Image courtesy of Diego Cervo, Shutterstock

Filed under: deals

Telemarketing is a dirty business, but someone’s gotta do it — because somehow, it’s still profitable.

Also profitable is selling software to telemarketers that allows them to track the calls they make, the responses they get (or don’t get) from consumers, and the next follow-up actions they need to take to close a sale or get a meeting.

The Leads360 team has just closed a significant funding round for building exactly that kind of software.

It’s not a lead-gen company; rather, it makes tools that help telemarketers manage and convert the leads they get elsewhere. And it’s not a CRM product, either; its software is specifically for those tricky consumers who haven’t yet been converted into customers.

The company’s cash infusion of $15 million today will allow it to keep creating and selling that software to telemarketers and other salespeople in verticals like insurance sales, for-profit universities, mortgages and other loan products, and more.

Leads360 says its software is all about marketing automation combined with telephony. The company tells us it currently has more than 40 million prospects (potential customers) being managed by its software for more than 2,000 clients, some of them among the Fortune 1,000.

The most recent round of funding, which a team member describes as “validating,” comes from Boston-based Volition Capital with participation from existing investor Rustic Canyon Partners, a San Francisco VC firm.

As expected, the marketing startup will use the new funding to expand its software products and features, to gain new clients and other partners, and to grow its own sales and marketing efforts for the Leads360 software.

“The new funding validates Leads360’s vision for a combined sales and telephony software platform focused entirely on companies that sell to consumers,” said Leads360 chief executive Nick Hedges in a release today.

“Leads360 does a better job than CRM systems at driving an efficient, responsive and high-touch consumer sales process that many companies spend vast amounts of time and money trying to achieve through CRM customizations.”

Image courtesy of Diego Cervo, Shutterstock

Filed under: deals

Yahoo’s board is considering selling its holdings of Alibaba Group and its Japanese affiliate back to the majority owners, a move that would score the company around $17 billion as it tries to find solid footing in troublesome year.

Yahoo has been shaky in 2011 with falling revenues and uncertainty after the firing of CEO Carol Bartz. A cash infusion and and restructuring of assets might be just the thing to help the company find its center again.

The company is expected to sell its entire stake of Yahoo Japan (current homepage seen to the left) back to majority shareholder Softbank and sell most of its stake in huge Chinese Internet company Alibaba, according to the New York Times. It will likely keep a 15 percent stake of Alibaba Group.

Along with today’s reports on the Asian assets, AllThingsD is reporting that Yahoo has intensified its difficult search for a CEO replacement. Potential candidates in the running include Google business lead Nikesh Arora, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson.

However, take those names with a grain of salt because the report is using unnamed sources, and Yahoo’s board is notoriously fickle with its decision-making. But at the heart of the matter, a new CEO, if they could install one soon, could help lead the sale of the company’s Asian properties and re-focus the company on products.

Yahoo’s stock on the Nasdaq exchange increased nearly 6 percent today on the Asian asset sale and CEO rumors, and now sits at about $16 a share.

Filed under: deals, media

Gaming hardware company Razer has been on our radar for quite a long time: they’ve made high-end gaming peripherals like mice and keyboards for years, and have recently expanded into more esoteric devices and game-specific partnerships. They’ve been running under their own steam this whole time as what’s called a “successful business,” but they’ve decided to take a big funding round to expand their reach.

IDG-Accel, specifically their joint China Capital Fund, has chipped in to the tune of $50 million, a minority investment that allows the fund to join the board at Razer, and allows Razer to expand further into the whole-systems business, something that requires considerably more R&D and space to manage.

Razer tells us that the new money and board member shouldn’t affect day-to-day operation, and says the investment was “fairly straightforward,” though they wouldn’t say whether it was contingent on any goals, markets, or products.

The money will largely be used for R&D, particularly in gaming user interfaces and systems. The company has been putting more effort into partnership deals, like World of Warcraft branded mice and keyboards, and most recently they put out a full-on gaming laptop, the Blade, with a built-in touchscreen and LCD keys among other things. Presumably more systems like this or product partnerships with larger OEMs will be enabled by the cash infusion.

And the fact that the fund is China-focused is not trivial; the Chinese gaming market is exploding and is considerably more PC-based than the US and Japan, where consoles are more popular. PC gaming is the primordial ooze from which Razer emerged, and although it is still going strong here, it’s going stronger in China and Razer likely senses the magnitude of the opportunity.