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Friday, July 8, 2011

Challenge to Groupon's model with trio of deals (AP) : Technet

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Challenge to Groupon's model with trio of deals (AP) : Technet

Challenge to Groupon's model with trio of deals (AP)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 01:13 PM PDT

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – Fri Jul 8, 4:13 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Groupon's online coupons save people cash, but they're not always great deals for merchants. Some businesses complain that bargain hunters rarely return after scoring a cheap meal or massage.

A new site called LevelUp believes it has a way for restaurants, nail salons and other local businesses to keep people coming back. To drum up repeat business, the company offers consumers a series of three deals, each better than the one before.

Online deal sites abound, but LevelUp hopes to stand out by giving people an initial offer that's on par with competitors' — and following that up with even better deals. After three visits, LevelUp figures that customers will be familiar with the merchant enough to return, even without discounts.

It's still too early to say whether enough consumers will be willing to pay full price_ a key factor that will determine whether LevelUp becomes a serious threat to Groupon or remains one of hundreds of wannabes.

Groupon created a new marketing phenomenon catering to people's hunger for bargains. It offers the chance to purchase discounts targeted to a person's city and preferences. For example, someone might pay $20 for a $40 gift certificate to a spa, restaurant, car wash or yoga studio.

The Chicago-based company's upcoming initial public offering of stock is expected to be in high demand, even though it lost $413 million last year on revenue of $713 million.

The harsh reality of the online coupon business is that the concept of offering customers deep discounts is easy to replicate. All you need is a sales team to craft deals with merchants, and an email service for blasting those offers to people who sign up on a website.

But rivals have difficulty breaking through because market leader Groupon already has 83 million people subscribing to its daily offers by email, and second-place LivingSocial has 39 million. By contrast, LevelUp has just 100,000 subscribers.

Small businesses often prefer to partner with a service that can reach more potential customers, even though LevelUp is trying to sweeten the deal for merchants by taking no commission on the first of the three offers.

Others are trying to distinguish themselves by targeting niche audiences, such as nerds or moms, or people with specific interests, such as fitness or food.

Facebook is testing a deals program of its own in five U.S. cities, trying to rival Groupon by tapping Facebook's base of 750 million users worldwide. Google has one, too, rolled out first in Portland, Ore.

LevelUp comes from the folks behind Scvngr (pronounced "scavenger"), a mobile-gaming startup in Cambridge, Mass., created by 22-year-old Princeton dropout Seth Priebatsch.

LevelUp, whose name is gamer-speak for the act of rising to a higher status in a video game, launched in Boston and Philadelphia in March. It plans to expand this summer to major markets such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago, the home turf of market leader Groupon. Most of the businesses it works with are local, but deals have included larger brands, such as Levi's.

Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester Research analyst who covers online shopping, says LevelUp will have trouble competing not just because of its size. If LevelUp proves successful, competitors may apply the company's multiple deal model to their own sites. Mulpuru believes Groupon in particular could simply copy LevelUp's idea. In May, it did something similar by offering a half-off card for eight sandwiches at sub chain Quizno's.

But in the tech sphere, it's not unheard of for a tiny newcomer to best an early leader: Google surpassed Web search pioneers AltaVista and Yahoo, and Facebook triumphed over social networking site Myspace (which had itself trounced Friendster).

Much of Priebatsch's confidence comes from his insistence that the current online coupon model, where sites take a big cut of the revenue from each deal, is unsustainable. Groupon, for instance, takes up to half the price of the coupon, so if an Italian restaurant is offering $50 worth of food for $25, the merchant gets just $12.50.

That's a source of many complaints from merchants. They benefit only when a Groupon customer brings lots of friends who pay full price or comes back later to shop without the discount.

LevelUp is trying to persuade skeptical merchants to offer great deals by taking none of the revenue in the first round. After that, LevelUp takes 25 percent. Priebatsch believes that merchants will be more likely to offer bargains that can be used for repeat visits.

The setup also gives LevelUp an incentive to encourage repeat visits because it makes no money otherwise.

"If we can't get customers to level up, we're not doing anything of value," Priebatsch says.

Boston-based burrito chain Boloco offered $10 worth of food for $5 in the first level, $25 worth of food for $10 in the second and $45 worth of food for $15 in the third. Customers can use one level before buying the next.

Sara Steele-Rogers, who leads Boloco's social media and marketing efforts, says that a month after the promotion ended, the chain saw strong sales growth.

It's hard to tell, but the increase may have been due largely to people redeeming their LevelUp vouchers: Of the customers who bought the first deal, 30 percent also bought the second and 26 percent of those who bought the second deal purchased the third, too.

Still, she says, "in terms of encouraging repeat business, that's awesome."

APNewsBreak: Visa again blocks funds for WikiLeaks (AP)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 04:02 AM PDT

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press – Fri Jul 8, 7:02 am ET

LONDON – Visa said Friday it has closed a donation channel to WikiLeaks after a payment processor briefly accepted money transfers to the anti-secrecy site.

Visa and MasterCard were two of several financial and Internet service companies that severed ties to WikiLeaks following its disclosure of thousands of confidential U.S. documents. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims the 7-month-long blockade has cost his online group millions.

But on Thursday both companies appeared to abruptly change course when WikiLeaks' payment processor, DataCell ehf, announced that donations to the site were again being processed.

That appears to have been an accident, at least as far as Visa Europe Ltd. was concerned. In an email to The Associated Press, the company said that one of its financial partners had "briefly accepted payments on a merchant site linked to WikiLeaks."

"As soon as this came to our attention, action was taken with the suspension of Visa payment acceptance to the site remaining in place," the company said.

It's unclear how many payments were accepted, or even if they were fully processed. DataCell Chief Executive Andreas Fink confirmed to the AP that credit card payments appeared to have halted, but said he couldn't know for sure why.

He added that he wouldn't know how many payments had been successfully made to WikiLeaks until technical staff examined the logs.

MasterCard did not return emails and phone calls seeking comment.

___

Online:

DataCell: http://www.datacell.com/

Raphael G. Satter can be reached at: http://twitter.com/razhael

TechLife on Facebook video chat, flying cars, iPhone 5 release date, and more! (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 09:08 PM PDT

Just Show Me: How to create new profiles on your PlayStation 3 (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 07:49 PM PDT

The Future of Mobile Payments [INFOGRAPHIC] (Mashable)

Posted: 07 Jul 2011 06:26 PM PDT

Ben Parr Ben Parr – Thu Jul 7, 9:26 pm ET

We know that mobile payments are redefining commerce, but will our phones soon replace our wallets? PayPal seems to think so. The payments giant boldly predicts that the wallet will be dead by 2015. It's putting its money where its mouth is: it recently acquired mobile payments provider Zong for $240 million.

[More from Mashable: 10 Top Google+ Users Weigh In on the Web's Newest Social Network]

PayPal isn't the only one getting into the game though. Google recently launched Google Wallet, the search giant's mobile payment system, and Visa recently made a strategic investment in Square, the mobile payments platform now worth more than $1.4 billion.

Professional community service G+ decided to look deeper into mobile payment trends and created an infographic that tracks what experts and analysts believe will happen to mobile commerce in the next four years, including what will happen with near field communication (NFC). G+ also compared some of the current players in the mobile payment space.

[More from Mashable: Nexus S 4G Update Paves the Way for Google Wallet?]

Check out the infographic, and let us know what you think is next for mobile payments in the comments.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Living Social taps banks to lead IPO, CNBC says (AP)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 02:04 PM PDT

By ELLEN GIBSON Ellen Gibson – Fri Jul 8, 5:04 pm ET

Online coupon seller Living Social has selected banks to underwrite a stock offering that will seek to raise $1 billion, CNBC reported on Friday.

The Groupon competitor tapped JP Morgan, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank to lead the offering, according to the report. Living Social has not yet filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the reported size of the offering implies a valuation between $10 billion and $15 billion.

The planned IPO was first reported by CNBC last week. The announcement comes a month after No. 1 daily deal site Groupon filed papers for a stock offering expected to raise at least $750 million.

Deal-a-day websites like Living Social partner with small businesses to send subscribers a local offer each day. The deals are usually good for half off on restaurant meals, spa services or other goods.

The offers are expected to generate $2.7 billion in revenue this year, more than double last year's total, according to Local Offer Network, which collects and distributes deals from hundreds of sites.

Washington, D.C.-based Living Social had 24 percent of daily deal revenue in major North American cities in May, according to a recent study by daily deal aggregator Yipit. Groupon's share of the market slipped from 52 percent to 48 percent, the report found.

A Living Social spokeswoman did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Einhorn dumps Yahoo stake after Alipay dispute (Reuters)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 12:26 PM PDT

By Alistair Barr Alistair Barr – Fri Jul 8, 3:26 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Greenlight Capital chief David Einhorn unloaded his stake in Yahoo Inc just months after building a sizable position, swallowing a "modest loss" after an ownership dispute tarnished the Internet company's prized Chinese assets.

Greenlight told investors saying it was exiting the investment after it emerged that China's Alibaba -- of which Yahoo owns about 40 percent -- had transferred its highly valued online-payments business to a separate company controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

That move marked the latest blow to Yahoo, which CEO Carol Bartz is struggling to get back on a growth track. Its Asian assets, including its slice of Alibaba, are deemed the most valuable portion of the company.

Yahoo shares were down 1.5 percent at $15.57 in afternoon trading Friday.

"The partnership bought Yahoo earlier this year based on a sum of the parts analysis which included putting substantial value on its Chinese assets," Einhorn wrote in a July 7 letter to investors obtained by Reuters on Friday.

"Shortly after the purchase, the value of the Chinese assets came into doubt as the CEO of the Chinese unit 'hived off' a valuable subsidiary into a corporation that he personally controls.

"From there the finger-pointing started going in every direction," the hedge fund manager wrote. "This wasn't what we signed up for. We exited with a modest loss."

FINGER-POINTING

Einhorn, head of the $7.8 billion hedge fund firm, told investors on April 29 that Greenlight had taken a "significant" long position in Yahoo stock at $16.93.

But on May 11, Yahoo said Alibaba Group had transferred ownership of its online payments business, Alipay, to a firm controlled by Jack Ma, Alibaba's chief executive. Yahoo shares tumbled more than 7 percent that day.

This year has been one of Einhorn's toughest, according to the investment results of Greenlight Capital Re Ltd, a reinsurer that invests its premiums with the hedge fund manager.

Einhorn was down 2.9 percent in June, leaving him 5.2 percent lower for the first half of 2011, Greenlight Capital Re disclosed recently on its website.

Last year, Einhorn generated 11 percent returns, Greenlight Capital Re data show.

Einhorn's sale of Yahoo stock was first reported by zerohedge.com.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Andre Grenon and Phil Berlowitz)

It's bye bye to Sony's MiniDisc Walkman (Digital Trends)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 08:16 PM PDT

Trevor Mogg Trevor Mogg – 1 hr 27 mins ago

Sony MD playerSony has taken the decision to stop manufacturing the MiniDisc Walkman, a product which first appeared on the market back in 1992. A report by Nikkei on Friday said that shipments would cease this September. Demand for the MiniDisc player has fallen off to such an extent that Sony has finally decided the time is right to send the player off to the great gadget store in the sky.

There was once a time, in the early 1990s, when owning a MiniDisc player was the epitome of cool. You could put a whole album (up to 74 minutes long) onto a disc just 6.4cm in diameter. Suddenly the massively popular Walkman cassette player (which, incidentally, ceased to be sold in Japan from last year), as well as the larger portable CD player, had a serious rival to contend with.

However, the storm clouds began to gather around the MiniDisc Walkman around ten years ago with the introduction of the iPod and a slew of other digital media players that sported internal memory, suddenly making the MiniDisc player look like a rather cumbersome piece of kit in comparison. It was no longer cool to be seen fumbling about in a bag looking for badly labeled discs.

According to Nikkei's report, up until a couple of months ago the MiniDisc Walkman had sold around 22 million units. Add to that sales of similar MiniDisc devices by other companies and it's fair to say this was a product of some significance, though it fell well short of the popularity enjoyed by its predecessor, the portable cassette player.

Sony will, for the time being at least, continue to make discs for MiniDisc players, together with stereos that can play the discs, so anyone with a sizable collection of the things won̢۪t need to consign them to the trash can just yet.

 

Image: Evan-Amos

Verizon unlimited data plans will carry over to LTE 4G (Digital Trends)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 06:33 PM PDT

Mike Dunn Mike Dunn – Fri Jul 8, 9:33 pm ET

Verizon 3g to 4g data plansThis week, Verizon stopped allowing new customers sign up for an unlimited data service plan. The timing just so happened to align with the announcement of the latest generation Droid phone. The big fear for the lucky Verizon users who currently have unlimited data was whether or not their unlimited data would transfer over to a shiny new 4G LTE device. The answer: yes.

Today via an official Verizon Twitter account, the company confirmed that if you currently enjoy unlimited data on your 3G Verizon phone that the you will keep the same data plan if you buy a new 4G LTE device. Verizon has been fairly generous thus far with its LTE network; all three LTE devices were launched with the unlimited data option. With how fast Verizon's LTE network has proven to be, it seems as though 4G users would be able to eat through a limited data plan very quickly.

The question now is, does this mean the next iPhone will be LTE? Verizon offered the iPhone 4 with unlimited data, even after AT&T stopped offering it, and that was one of the selling points for new users to switch to Verizon. With all signs pointing to a September announcement for the next generation iPhone, the question still remains whether that phone will offer 4G. If it is, current Verizon iPhone early adopters will be able to breath easy knowing their unlimited data plans are safe.

LinkedIn passes Myspace in US traffic: comScore (AFP)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 03:31 PM PDT

– Fri Jul 8, 6:31 pm ET

NEW YORK (AFP) – LinkedIn leapfrogged Myspace in June to become the second-largest social network in the United States in terms of traffic behind Facebook, tracking firm comScore reported Friday.

LinkedIn had 33.9 million unique US visitors in June compared with 33.5 million for Myspace, which was sold last week by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Twitter was next with 30.6 million unique US visitors in June, comScore said.

Facebook was the runaway leader with 160.9 million unique US visitors during the month, according to comScore. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that the social networking site now has 750 million users worldwide.

Myspace was bought by News Corp. for $580 million in 2005 and was sold to Specific Media last week for just $35 million.

LinkedIn launched on the New York Stock Exchange in May and its price more than doubled on the first day of trading.

LinkedIn was listed at $45 per share. It closed at $99.60 on Friday.

Electronics, Valuable Tech Gear Should Be Carried on, not Checked (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 03:40 PM PDT

Jason Gallagher Jason Gallagher – Fri Jul 8, 6:40 pm ET
Contribute content like this. Start here.

Traveling has taken on many changes over the course of the last view decades. One of the most obvious changes is the amount of technology that usually gets hauled on business trips and vacations. Everything from portable DVD players, laptops, iPads, MP3 players, cameras, game systems and other gizmos regularly log as many miles as the travelers themselves. Recently, a TSA employee was arrested for allegedly stealing electronics. According to CNN.com, the total take over a period of time was around $50,000 worth of high-tech wizardry. The employee had such a streamlined operation; he often managed to sell the electronics before the end of his work shift.

Considering the TSA employee in question was caught stealing an iPad out of a suit case, any traveler should always pay close attention to what is placed into their suitcase. While some vacationers and business travelers trust that TSA approved locks will keep their precious items safe from harm, the locks are designed to be opened by the TSA should the need arise to inspect the bag. Therefore, the locks are something more of an indication that something is worth protecting, than actual deterrents to theft.

Electronic and other valuable items should be carried on. Families may find it difficult to keep track of all the electronics throughout the trip, but a lost unit is usually a little easier to swallow than one removed from a suit case. At one point in time, laptops had to be removed from their bags for screening; however, the TSA has also issue guidelines for special scanner friendly bags. Anyone that is looking to fly often should probably invest in one of those specialized pieces of equipment or be prepared to remove the computer and submit it separately.

Smaller items, like Nintendo DS handheld games, iPods, etc, can remain in carry-on luggage through the scanning procedure. Of course, the chance always exists that someone may want the items removed for efficient screening, but the small inconvenience pales to being compared to having a screener take out the luggage when it is out of sight.

As a general rule, anything valuable should never be packed into checked luggage. Aside from the possibility dishonest folks could remove it, the chances of a $500 piece of technology being ruined because of rough handling also exists. Travelers and vacationers should always take a better safe than sorry approach.

Jason Gallagher is a former travel professional and long-time Pennsylvania resident. These experiences give him a first-hand look at developing situations in the state and everything included in the travel industry from technology to trends.

New Jersey judge rules using GPS to track spouse’s location is legal (Appolicious)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 12:11 PM PDT

Rumor: Google gets Punchd, a mobile loyalty card startup (Digital Trends)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 07:01 PM PDT

Jeff Hughes Jeff Hughes – 2 hrs 43 mins ago

punchdIt's rumored that Google plans on acquiring the San Francisco based loyalty card service called Punchd Labs Inc., or Punchd. The move by the search engine giant is most likely an attempt to bolster their NFC payment system Google Wallet.

The financial details aren't official as neither parties have confirmed the deal, but according to TechCrunch two of their unnamed sources say that the acquisition price is between a low seven figures and $10 million.

Punchd is a digital customer loyalty program for mobile devices which replaces those buy-10-get-1-free cards at coffee shops, frozen yogurt, bagel stores, supermarkets and other places. All you do is point your phone towards the punchcode at the register after your purchase and your punch gets recorded.

The Punchd startup is part of the venture capitalist Dave McClure's 500 Startups, an internet startup seed fund and incubator based in Mountain View, California. The startup's team consists of developers Xander Pollock, Niket Desai who replaced Grantland Chew and Reed Morse. These developers will reportedly still be working on the Punchd project within Google, according to one of TechCrunch's sources.

The mobile loyalty card service is made for Android and iPhones, and it makes sense combining with the recently announced Google Wallet. The Google Wallet near-field communications (NFC) plans for all store loyalty programs, credit cards and coupons to become compatible with the the application. While Wallet has loyalty provisions already, these could be enhanced through Punchd. The acquisition also may mean a more polished interface for Google Wallet.

Electronista comments that the San Francisco based start-up buyout could be a counter to a feature found with Jack Dorsey's mobile payments service Square, which is one of the major competitors to Google Wallet. Square's Card Case app allows users to start a tab at business and streamline payment options.

Telecoms take aim at pirates (Investor's Business Daily)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 03:20 PM PDT

– Fri Jul 8, 6:20 pm ET

Internet service providers in the group agreed to alert customers by email or pop-up six times when it appears their account is used for illegal downloading of movies and music. After that, the provider might slow Internet speed or redirect the browser to a specific website. Content piracy is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than 373,000 jobs a year. In addition to Internet service providers like Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - News), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA - News) and Cablevision Systems (NYSE:CVC - News), the coalition includes movie studios and record labels.

Apple makes 50 percent of all handset industry profits, says analyst (Digital Trends)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 03:35 PM PDT

Andrew Couts Andrew Couts – Fri Jul 8, 6:35 pm ET

Apple iPhone 4

Google Android may have Apple beat in terms of the totally number of users. But when it comes to making money, Apple reigns supreme. According to market analyst T. Michael Walkley of Canaccord Genuity, sales of Apple's popular iPhone handset brought in 50 percent of all smartphone profits combined, in the first quarter of this year.

"Our [June] checks indicated continued strong sales of the iPhone 4, as it remained by far the top-selling smartphone at AT&T and Verizon despite the continued popularity of 4G smartphones and several new high-end Android smartphones," said Walkley, who spoke with AppleInsider.

By Walkley's count, iPhone 4 was by far the top-selling smartphone at Verizon, where it beat out all six new high-end Android devices, which include the HTC Thunderbolt and Incredible 2, Motorola Droid X2, Samsung Droid Charge, Sony Ericsson Play and the LG Revolution.

iPhone-Apple-sales

Walkley says the iPhone 4 "will remain the top-selling smartphone at Verizon throughout 2011." Despite this, he expects iPhone unit sales to drop from an earlier estimate of 16 percent to 15.2 percent. At that rate, Apple is still on track to sell 100 million iPhone units during the course of 2011.

During the same period, Walkley says that the number of devices running the Android operating system, from all companies, will rise from the 67.2 million units sold during 2010 to a total of about 329 million units sold throughout 2011.

Currently, Android devices make up about 45.3 percent of the market, more than any other OS. That compares to No. 2 Apple's 15.6 percent share. By the end of this year, Walkley expects Android to account for about 50 percent of all smarphones sold.

Walkley expects the number of users with iOS-based gizmos — that includes all iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices — to rise from 250 million in 2011 to about 415 million by the end of next year.

Zynga buys Toronto mobile software studio (AFP)

Posted: 08 Jul 2011 11:57 AM PDT

– Fri Jul 8, 2:57 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Online social games sensation Zynga on Friday announced it has bought a Canadian firm specializing in software applications for mobile devices.

Mobile Five has become "Zynga Toronto" and is part of the San Francisco startup's mobile team headed by David Ko.

"As a key component of our mobile efforts moving forward, Zynga Toronto will help position us in a hotbed of mobile development talent," Zynga said in an online message.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Zynga has bought 15 companies in slightly more than a year.

Zynga, maker of FarmVille and other popular online games, recently filed paperwork for an initial public offering aiming to raise about $1 billion from the markets.

"By offering our shares to the public we hope to enable Zynga to invest more in play than any company in history," Zynga founder and chief executive Mark Pincus said in the company's IPO registration statement, posted on the website of the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Founded in 2007, the San Francisco-based software company makes notoriously addictive games which run on top of social networking site Facebook, including Zynga Poker and Mafia Wars.

The company boasts more than 250 million players per month, dwarfing its competitors in the social gaming space.

More than 2,000 employees work at Zynga developing games such as FarmVille, which allows users to run virtual farms with crops and livestock, including unusual creatures such as purple sheep.
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