Checking-In: The Geo-coded Status Update

Two excellent posts on the current status of geo-location companies by Robert Scoble and Hunter Walk (both bloggers are great and their blogs are must reads). Scoble argues that industry-first Foursquare is being squeezed by Gowalla (best UI) and Booyah's MyTown (best gameplay and my personal favorite!).

Hunter argues that, considering their rapid growth, there is room for Foursquare assuming they move beyond 'utility' and into an experience:

"If they get reduced to being a utility ("publish location") or end up focused on too narrow a group of users, they'll get passed by general purpose geo services or social networks on one side and out innovated by gowalla, mytown, etc on the other. [read more]" Both Hunter and Scoble are spot-on: Foursquare, Gowalla and others need to build social and/or finding experiences beyond the 'check-in'. Consider that Foursquare has 1,000,000 weekly check-ins. That's significant size and growth. But when Facebook and Twitter turn geo-coding on, they will dominate by volume (and I have written about this before): on Facebook, 40,000,000 users update their status each day.... and 20% of Facebook users are on their mobile platform. "Check-ins", whether passive or active, will be massive. Between Facebook, Twitter, and the development on their platforms - the "check-in" will be commoditized (and that doesn't include Google, Yelp and other big players).

That is why I believe that the gameplay is so critical: it creates an experience beyond the 'check-in' that is part social, part gaming and part finding. Booyah's MyTown is a terrific example: in an interview with Scoble, CEO Keith Lee said that the average MyTown user (and there are 850,000+) spends 50 minutes per day. Clearly there is more to it than 'checking in'... and the Booyah team's background is in traditional gaming: Blizzard, EA, etc.

Another way to think about it: Facebook's power is in the social graph and the experience they have created... not in the 'status update' itself. Surely statuses are a core part of Facebook, but status updates exist on numerous websites and in various forms. The conversation is powerful in part because of where it sits, the network it is in and the responses that it generated. The act of checking-in should be thought of similarly... after all, in its simplest form, it is a status update with a geo-code appended to it.

Terrific, Big Job at JibJab: Are you a Product & Social Media Maven?

JibJab is looking for a product and social media guru who is excited about: - joining the 2nd fastest growing website according to Comscore - working on the web's best Facebook Connect integration (by my account at least!) - being part of a terrific, smart and fun team - and impacting a big, exciting part of their business

If you are interested in applying please contact me via email or Facebook

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Director, Marketing / Product at JibJab Media Location: Greater Los Angeles Area General Business, Distribution, Product Management, Marketing

JibJab is seeking a passionate, entrepreneurial product & marketing maven to lead its most promising everyday greetings vertical: birthdays. The Director will have his or her own P&L and will be responsible for product development, customer acquisition, monetization, and ongoing engagement. This role is equal parts entrepreneur, product manager and quantitative marketing dynamo and you should love being accountable for results.

- Drive results by working directly with engineering staff, analytics personnel, and content team members. You will be accountable for business results and you will have the tools to succeed. - Create full-cycle marketing plans, from user acquisition through the resulting sale and, ultimately, retention. - Gather evolving business requirements and define responsive product features and specifications. You will drive specifications through the engineering lifecycle to deployment, iteration, and optimization. - Research competitive products and others in the space in order to assess, recommend, and implement breakthrough customer acquisition strategies. - Enhance monetization opportunity in your vertical via established distribution partners and new channels you identify.

Skills

- Must possess tactical experience with Facebook Platform, SEO/SEM and email marketing. Resumes without these qualifications will not be considered. - Experience in product development for consumer Internet products is essential. You must understand how to work in a startup web organization with folks across the functional spectrum. You love our engineers almost as much as you love our customers. - Ability to dig into and crunch on imperfect data. You love spreadsheets almost as much as you love hunches and assumptions! - Ability to work autonomously and to get hands dirty. You are comfortable with ambiguity and you are a proven self-starter happy in a start-up. - Deep understanding of social networking and search engine marketing. Your thinking needs to be current, but you should have enough experience to know the difference between hot trends and proven strategies. - Experience with a content-driven, programming-oriented product is a major plus. Company Description

JibJab is a leading provider of digital greetings and online entertainment. From irreverent viral videos to offbeat eCards and personalized Starring You!® products, JibJab has been at the forefront of innovating online media for over 10 years. In 2009, the company reached new heights with over 180 million visitors, 265 million content views and a thriving direct-to-consumer premium business model thanks to the herculean efforts of 36 artists, technologist and business people passionate about reinventing the traditional media model. JibJab is backed by Polaris Venture Partners, Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Dogpatch Labs Resident FanPulse Launches for Super Bowl

Congratulations to Dogpatch Labs residents Fanpulse on the launch of their iPhone App - just in time for the Super Bowl. FanPulse allows sports fans to "check in" to sporting games and interact with other fans in real-time. Congratulations to Vish Prabhakara (formerly Digg), Art Chang (Yardbarker) and Joe Pestro (Yardbarker). We are glad to host them at Dogpatch Labs San Francisco. For more information:

- read the TechCrunch launcharticle - download the FanPulse app here - visit them on the web at Fanpul.se

In Response to iPad, Amazon Pushing Kindle Through Email, Facebook

As many of us predict the iPad will lead to the Kindle's demise, Amazon has begun pushing the Kindle through email, Facebook and their homepage (in conjunction with Valentines Day).

Here is the Amazon homepage - promoting the Kindle as their best-selling, most-wished-for and most-gifted product, making it a great Valentines gift (which the iPad will not be released in time for):

And here is the email ("Kindle, Amazon's #1 Bestseller") that hit my inbox early this morning - again hinting at a Valentines gift. The email includes Kindle cases (which are also aimed at females). And at the base, there is a prominent banner to follow the Amazon Kindle on Facebook. Considering the success of the Kindle, it is surprising that the page only has 24,000 fans. It is updated quite frequently and is used to promote new titles, unique publications and special deals.

@RyanSpoon - My New Twitter Name

A quick note to announce the move of my Twitter handle to @RyanSpoon (from @berecruited). I am not sure there is a better way to make the username move - but it was creating confusion between my personal account and the beRecruited.com brand, which will soon take the account over. Please follow me there: @RyanSpoon

The iPad: The Price is as Important as the Tablet

30 hours after Apple's iPad announcement, everyone has expressed their opinion (examples: Benioff, MG Siegler, and New York Times) ... which seems to be more negative than positive. Not that you need another opinion, but here is my short review:

1. Brad Stone disagrees, but the Amazon Kindle is dead. Why? 2. Because the price of the iPad is surprisingly (and impressively) low. The biggest announcement yesterday was the price. I kept waiting and waiting for the big "splash" and then Jobs said it would start at $499. That price point is low enough that it is immediately competitive with the Kindle while alleviating the pain of not having other key features (more below).

3. The iPad hums. It is a powerful, fast machine that is ideal for web and content consumption: email, web, video, books, etc. The ability to store video, books and music - and access the web through wifi and 3G - in a 1.5lbs device is rather remarkable. Add a 10 hour battery and a familiar touch interface... and content can will consumed in a powerful, brand new way.

4. Many of the iPad's shortcomings can be resolved by software upgrades... whenever iPhone OS 4.0 comes out?

5. Speaking of those shortcomings: Five particular concerns for me:

A. Multi-tasking. Part of the value of a large screen is having the real-estate to run different applications and programs. Fortunately, this can be resolved through a software upgrade.

B. Video camera. I was hoping for an integrated camera for video-chat... this unfortunately cannot be resolved!

C. Flash. As an example, the iPad + Hulu could entertain you during a cross country flight.... but unless it evolves to support Flash, there will need to be "an app for that".

D. Widescreen. Particularly useful for video... but widescreen dimensions would have been nice.

E. The iPad's bezel is ugly. Why is it so thick? Minor complaint but it is wasted space.

Had the device been $1,000 (as we all expected), the above five complaints would have driven me (and many others) away... but at $499, the first two points are incredibly compelling: at the price point, it is the ultimate content machine and nothing else comes close.

Twitter Local Trends: Local Search is About to Change

I might be in the minority here, but I consider Twitter's launch of Local Trends Twitter's most significant product advancement since... launch? It will no doubt be overshadowed by tomorrow's Apple announcement - but local trends are important for, among numerous others, three primary reasons: 1. It marks the next generation of Twitter: geo-location posts, communities and trends. Tonight is step one (you could argue the Town.me acquisition and some of their key hires were actually the first steps... but you get the point). 2. Twitter's Developer-friendly platform will enable rampant development and innovation in the local and social spaces. Imagine Foursquare, Gowalla, MyTown, etc all on steroids.

3. Facebook's location play must be coming. With Facebook and Twitter already dominating social discussion and mobile usage, they both have a chance to redefine 'check-ins', location based services...

4. ... and geo-location based advertising. Which could be Twitter's revenue fountain, open up a compelling off-Twitter ad network and/or be the next evolution of mobile advertising. Each of these points are relevant to Facebook as well - should they move aggressively into local.

Sure... I might be speculating too big and too far - but Twitter and Facebook can (and I predict will) revolutionize "local", both disrupting the landscape and enabling development / innovation.

As an aside, take a look at the difference between the national Twitter trends and San Francisco's trends... it is very clear (as if we didn't know), that we are far geekier than most. Our top trends are: "iPad", "McGraw-Hill", "Local Trending", etc:

Tapulous' Tap Tap Revenge: A Top Grossing App Despite Being Free

A week ago, I wrote that only three of Apple's top twenty grossing iPhone Apps feature in-app purchases. I wondered whether developers have determined that direct sales were more dependable and profitable than relying on user-engagement to derive revenue. Proof it can be done the other way: Tapulous' hit iPhone application, Tap Tap Revenge, is a free application... and it has now cracked the top twenty-five grossing apps - purely through the in-app downloads / purchases. Tap Tap Revenge went free just before Christmas and had over 2,000,000 downloads in the subsequent week:

Tapulous, developers of the popular Tap Tap Revenge series, check in with good news. They’ve pulled down over 2 million installs of Tap Tap Revenge 3 since going free last Wednesday, 700,000 of which came on Christmas day. Between Tap Tap Revenge 1/2/3 and the Metallica/Lady GaGa editions, Tapulous now has 5 applications in the Top 100 grossing apps. (More on TechCrunch from Daniel Brusolovsky)

Tap Tap Revenge's top in-app purchases are all 'packs': nine of the top ten are either two or six-track downloads. Two-packs are $0.99 and six-packs are $2.99. Interestingly, the only individual track is the Avatar theme song (Avatar also has the #22 top-grossing app at $6.99). The paid applications are in addition to the weekly free apps released each Thursday:

Tap Tap Revenge comes with more than 40 free songs! Best of all, we offer Tap Tap Thursdays: every Thursday we feature a FREE hot new or exclusive track from top artists. So far we've featured songs by Katy Perry, Anberlin, Everlast, Michael Franti, Lady Antebellum, Lee Perry, 3OH!3 and Bitter:Sweet, to name just a few. Check out the full list here.

Not that it is directly related to the their revenue success, but Tapulous also does a great job communicating with their users through their outstanding blog. It is regularly updated with status updates, contests, new music, etc. But despite having over 4,000 Facebook Fans, their Fan Page is totally empty: