• Gavin O'Malley, May 23, 2011, 11:36 AM
  • Is Union Square Divesting From Twitter? Venture Beat At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference on Monday, Union Square Venture's Fred Wilson would neither confirm nor deny that his firm has sold some of its Twitter stock via secondary markets. "When asked by TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld, Wilson said that he wouldn't comment, but he also 'wouldn't argue' with news reports that USV and other investors have sold some of their Twitter stock," VentureBeat reports.

    Wilson was an early investor in Twitter, which has recently faced increasing criticism for its management structure, lack of vision, and inability to profit from its vast popularity. According VentureBeat, Wilson clearly believes that "the Internet will serve as a greater force for societal change in the future, and somehow, he wants to make money off of it."

    That said, "he's still trying to figure out how exactly to invest in the Internet-driven cultural revolution." While Twitter isn't profitable yet, societal upheaval can still benefit existing tools, like the way the service has been used in the recent and ongoing Mideast revolutions, Wilson pointed out. Adds VentureBeat: "He seemed particularly interested in the anti-establishment potential of the Internet and future services." Read the whole story...
  • Blippy Goes Back To Drawing Board TechCrunch Think we've reached a point where there's no such thing as over sharing? Then consider the case of Blippy, a site that let users share information about their "favorite purchases" with friends, which quietly shifted strategies after failing to scale with consumers.

    According to CEO Ashvin Kumar, Blippy traffic would spike whenever press would cover it and then subsequently die down to levels that showed no signs of steady growth. Last April, Google Search results revealed that credit card numbers of a few Blippy users.

    Along the way, Blippy raised almost $13 million in funding and, as TechCrunch points out, at some point its valuation was at $46.2 million, with investor David Hornik posting his $8 million dollar purchase of Blippy stock on Blippy itself. Having already switched to a consumer review model, the company say it is now planning other unspecified products in the "social e-commerce" space. Read the whole story...
  • Video Q&A Site VYou Gets $3M TechCrunch Question-and-answer video platform VYou just secured $3 million in Series A funding, reports TechCrunch. VYou lets users converse through brief snippets of video. "Gunning for a media play, the New York-based VYou recently partnered up with Hearst Newspapers, MTV/VH1, Simon and Schuster and the Newark Peace Summit in order to help these brands better connect with their audiences," TechCrunch writes.

    Since its launch this past November, VYou says it has attracted over 20 million views and 30,000 user sign ups. Founder Steve Spurgat tells TechCrunch that he doesn't liken the company to a Quora or Formspring for video. Rather, he "chose the video element because it was simply the fastest way to achieve his ultimate goal of advancing how people communicate online."

    According to TechCrunch, the round was led by RRE Ventures and Highland Capital Partners, along with High Peaks Ventures, Broadway Video Ventures, Kevin Wall, David Tisch and Rick Webb. Read the whole story...
  • Toyota Driving Private "Social Network" The Next Web With some help from Salesforce.com, Toyota is launching its own social networking service. "Toyota Friend" will be offered first on Toyota's Electric Vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid cars (PHV), due in 2012, reports The Next Web. "Toyota Friend provides a platform for the car to relay key information to the owner. This could be general maintenance tips or notifications that that the car is running low on power. In this instance, the driver would receive an alert on their mobile, similar to a Tweet."

    Toyota Friend will be powered by Salesforce Chatter, which is an enterprise social network. Customers can also choose to make their communications public, by connecting their account with platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook. "Social networking services are transforming human interaction and modes of communication," Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda said in a statement. "The automobile needs to evolve in step with that transformation." Read the whole story...
  • Groupon In Talks With Foursquare All Things D Potentially helping Groupon break free of email inboxes, the deal giant is reportedly in partnership talks with location-based leader Foursquare. "The arrangement is likely to see Groupon deals targeted to Foursquare users' check-ins," writes All Things D, citing multiple sources. "Mobile app users who tell their friends that they're in the vicinity of a venue offering a discount are obviously prime customers."

    Only last week, Groupon announced a deal to distribute its new Groupon Now real-time offers with Foursquare competitor Loopt. Loopt users now receive alerts when they're close to a local deal, without even opening the app. "The move fits in well with Groupon modus operandi -- they are known move fast and be extremely aggressive to stay ahead of the competition," comments ReadWriteWeb. "With all of the Groupon clones and competitors lining up in the daily deals market, Groupon has to try and stay a step ahead."

    Meanwhile, "Groupon Now is so vital to the company that internally it's known as Groupon 2.0.," according to Mashable. "That's why we're not surprised to hear Groupon is in talks with Foursquare to integrate daily deals into Foursquare's app." "It's a smart idea where everyone wins," according to Business Insider. "Foursquare gets a partner with huge reach and some cash, Groupon gets a new customer acquisition channel and consumers get deals."

    "It was only a matter of time," writes WebProNews.com. "The check-in app and daily deals spaces continue to merge, and this time it looks like the poster children for both spaces are joining forces." "Social distribution could help Groupon move beyond email lists to a more precise and targeted audience, adds All Things D. "And Foursquare wouldn't mind the revenue it would get from these leads."

    Adds Business Insider: "From a business perspective, both Foursquare and Groupon are about bringing together the internet, small local businesses and consumers, albeit in completely different ways." Read the whole story...