In the spirit of the holidays, we at Spark wanted to share something very, very funny. It’s a spoof Christmas speech with an increasingly inebriated monkey. What more do we need to say, really?
Monthly Archive for December, 2008
The Spark team wants to congratulate Stardoll for being included on AdWeek’s list of the top Media and Marketing Innovations of 2008.
Here’s what they have to say:
‘Call it theintersection of kids, fashion, celebrity and the Web. While virtual worlds like Gaia, Zwinky and There.com have built a sizable following and landed big-name advertisers, Stardoll was a real standout in 2008. The two-year-old Swedish site has built a virtual playground for tween girls (with 22 million members and counting in 200 countries). Users can play dress-up using avatars of their own creation or virtual (and fully licensed) versions of celebrities like Hillary Duff and David Cook; fashions come via partner brands including DKNY and Vivienne Tam. Recently, Stardoll inked a pact with Italian designer Alberta Ferretti to open a virtual boutique in StarPlaza, the site’s shopping galleria. As part of the deal, teen celeb Zelda Williams (daughter of comedian Robin) appeared as a virtual brand ambassador, modeling Ferretti’s designs. In October, Stardoll announced a deal with Hachette Filipacchi Media’s Elle to launch a virtual fashion magazine. While more static social-networking sites continue to search for a workable business model, virtual worlds like Stardoll are taking online playtime to a whole other level. -MS’
-Paula
Spark held an informal end of year tech panel today in London and it was great to hear from companies that are feeling positive despite (or because of) the current climate. Much of what you read these days is doom and gloom – layoffs, businesses shutting down, others having difficulty raising money – and while all of those things are happening, there are also companies hiring, growing, expanding into new geographies, and feeling bullish about 2009. So, in an attempt to get that side of the story told, we got together founders and execs from some of London’s most interesting tech companies.
Participating in today’s panel were: Cesar Mascaraque, the European MD of Ask.com, Matt Jones, founder of Dopplr, Frank Meehan, founder and CEO of INQ Mobile, Martin Stiksel, co-founder of Last.fm, and Richard Moross, co-founder and CEO of moo.com. Reshma Sohoni, CEO of Seedcamp, was the moderator.
Of companies on the panel, most, if not all, talked about plans for fairly aggressive growth in 2009. MOO will be expanding into the US and is currently hiring. Ask.com grew 25% this year and will be increasing its marketing spend next year (in Europe at least). Last.fm is focused on expanding in the US market. INQ Mobile has impeccable market-timing with a low-cost, social networking phone for the masses, and Dopplr is capitalizing on the trend of the internet becoming truly mobile, and helping people optimize their travel (at a time when people are concerned both about cost and their carbon footprint).
Another common theme of the day was focus – this word was probably mentioned 100 times. Everyone agreed that to be successful in a challenging climate, the single most important attribute for a company is focus. Martin, who started Last.fm in the last downturn, said the restricted economic environment really helped them because they had to focus on their core value proposition and not chase the many other things that might have been possible. Cesar from Ask.com said that they would continue to focus on their core customer, while much of their competition was worried about who was going to buy who and for how much. Richard from moo.com believes that this environment will be good for companies who can focus and execute because a lot of the noise will fall away, reducing distractions, eliminating some of the competition, and making it possible to hire amazing talent.
While things are certainly not as stable as many would like, what the people on today’s panel talked about more than anything was the opportunity this presented if you were in a position to take advantage of it. On that note, here are a few predictions for 2009:
Matt from Dopplr expects companies like Last.fm, Mint and Wasabi to do well – he calls these “personal informatics” companies. They measure, analyze and help you visualize your behavior. They can reflect your behavior back to you so you can make decisions and optimize what you’re doing. Like a personal dashboard – great when people are trying to cut the fat out of their lives and do more with less.
Cesar from Ask.com is planning to take advantage of the falling price of TV ads – he says they’ve fallen 25% already this year and thinks that will happen again. It’s a great opportunity for companies to get high profile advertising at a low cost.
Frank from INQ Mobile thinks that mobile advertising still has a way to go, mainly because the current interfaces don’t yet deliver relevancy to the customer and the trade off isn’t worth it.
Martin from Last.fm said that the online music industry is really still in its infancy and he expects consolidation in the market. He also pointed out that recessions can be good for music in general – developments like punk and raves both happened in recessions.
Reshma from Seedcamp said funding will continue to go to companies that can show that people are willing to pay for their services or products right away. It will be difficult for those who don’t have a proven business model that results in near-term revenue.
So with that dose of inspiration, here’s to finishing 2008 with a bang and starting off strong in 2009!
–Rachel
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