500 Startups today presented its 14th batch of companies at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, with a spooky twist. Dave McClure said this batch was less international than previous batches, with only 39% of founders hailing from outside the United States. Of the 36 startups that went through the program, 25% had female founders. He made no mention of people of color.… Read More
Startup Monclarity announced today that it has raised $5 million in seed funding from Access Industries. And it recently unveiled Brainwell, a brain-training app available on iOS, Android, Kindle and the web. Now, there’s been a lot of skepticism around brain-training games like Lumosity, particularly after a recent study of the existing research found that these games may improve… Read More
http://ift.tt/1Oeijg2
Small business owners looking to entice new customers through deals and discounts will soon have one less option to market themselves. Amazon announced that it will shutter its Amazon Local service starting December 18.
The move is unsurprising given that Amazon Local competitors have not fared well. Groupon announced it would lay off 1,100 employees last month and LivingSocial announced this month that it is trimming its workforce by 20% as it moves away from deals.
"From October 30, 2015 until December 18, 2015, you can continue to purchase deals at Amazon Local as usual," Amazon announced on its website. "All purchased vouchers will not be affected by this change and remain valid according to their terms."
As deal hosting companies like Amazon Local, LivingSocial and Groupon change their business models, small businesses will also have to evolve the way they market to consumers.
LivingSocial, for example, is changing its focus to delivering experiences to customers.
"We've learned a great deal from the daily deals business and will look for ways to apply these lessons in the future as we continue to innovate on behalf of our customers and merchants," an Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Amazon's new direction with local commerce seems to be around partnering with local merchants rather than highlighting individual businesses. For example, Amazon Home Services allows customers to choose and hire a local repairman that's part of the Amazon network, and Amazon is working with local restaurants for food delivery through Amazon Prime Now.
Amazon is also working on expanding the availability of its same-day Amazon Prime delivery service, which means the company will be competing more directly against local merchants. If you're a business that sells goods on Amazon, the e-commerce giant still offers platform-wide deals through its Deal of the Day and Gold Box Deals.
There are still opportunities for small businesses to promote, but new business models from Amazon and LivingSocial may be less centered on discounts, and more about quality service, like a local pizzeria offering fast delivery through the Amazon Prime Now network.
http://ift.tt/1NephQM
If you’re not familiar with Shark Tank, it’s ABC’s show that drops companies in front of investors from all walks of life, including the very loud Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks. It’s oddly become a family favorite for a lot of people I know, mostly because they get to shout at the TV and make predictions on whether someone will invest or not, or talk about… Read More
Today, there are a variety of apps to choose from if you just want to privately chat with friends or even place phone calls without having to give out your real phone number – for example, Google Voice, Burner, kik, Viber, Whatsapp and others are popular choices. But these apps aren’t fully private. Users still have to provide a phone number or email when creating an account, or,… Read More
Super-fast 5G mobile networks have just got another kick into action after the UN has agreed on a new roadmap for the developing technology.
Radio communication experts from the UN's 193 member countries came together to approve the roadmap for the next generation of internet. The technology could allow for driverless cars and the internet of things.
Head of the ITU Radio communication Bureau, Francois Rancy, said in a statement that the roadmap "opens the doors to innovation that will determine how we communicate in the future, meeting the trend towards high data traffic in the Age of the Internet of Things."
The roadmap is dubbed IMT-2020 and will become the name for the next generation of celluar networks – but it'll keep being called 5G to you and I. 3G is officially named IMT-2000 while 4G is actually called IMT-Advanced.
Next year will see the technical requirements for the tech decided. Proposals for the new technology will begin at the end of 2017 with workshopping happening at the same time.
5G internet is currently undetermined in its speeds and spectrum making it difficult to show exactly what it can do. Reports have claimed 5G will be 1,000 times faster than 4G internet but the truth is that is currently unknown.
Representatives from the member states will come back to the UN to decide on spectrum as well as speeds in the future though with close cooperation of organisations on the industry standards.
http://ift.tt/1jWwZDX
