Articles from TechCrunch

1. Shorthand Mobile Launches TextApps To Bring Web Content To Basic Mobile Phones

   Explore Article TechCrunch (7 hours, 47 min ago) Mobile , Social Networking

   TechCrunch50 2008 DemoPit company Shorthand Mobile (formerly Smart Touch) aims to help consumers who don't use mobile data plans to access SMS and web content. Upon launch in 2008, the startup had developed a suite of basic widgets for mobile phones that visualize SMS services, allowing users to navigate through an intuitive menu. Today, Shorthand Mobile is launching TextApps, a new category of apps that deliver content from websites via SMS in a rich, interactive interface, aiming to expand the capabilities of non-smartphones and provide access to web content for mobile users without data plans. Launching in beta today on ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Leena Rao   New York Times   Motorola

2. Vittana Applies The Kiva Model To Help Finance Education In Developing Countries

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 15 2010)

   The microfinance model has proved to be a valuable way to raise funds for entrepreneurs all over the country, as exemplified by the success of Kiva. Seattle-based Vittana is taking a similar approach to helping fund education in developing countries by allowing you to lend directly to students in the developing world. The idea is to bring student loans to the developing world through the power of person-to-person microlending. Today, the site is existing its beta period. Vittana partners with microfinance organizations located in developing countries to donate to students in need of funding. Loans for students range from $200 ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Leena Rao

3. Facebook Opens India Office To House More Sales And Operations Staff

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 15 2010) Social Networking

   Earlier this morning, social networking giant Facebook announced on its blog that, one week after it said it would be opening an office in Austin, Texas, it will set up an additional support center in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh. In the statement, the company says both offices will allow them to better serve its users, advertisers and developers. Facebook added that it is currently recruiting people to staff the online sales and operations teams for both office locations. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Dell   Deloitte   Don Faul

4. The Key To Gmail: Sh*t Umbrellas

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 14 2010)

   Today at the Gmail Behind The Scenes panel at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, key team members of the Gmail team revealed the true secret of the service: Shit umbrellas. Product manager Todd Jackson made the humorous revelation when explaining how the Gmail team works as a group of about 100 people, the vast majority of which are engineers. "You can either be a shit funnel or a shit umbrella," Jackson says. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Gmail   Microsoft Outlook   Google

5. Eko: Mobile Banking for India’s “Dial-Up” Internet

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 14 2010)

   I mentioned in my last post that mobile is bridging the digital—not to mention analog— divide in India, with almost half as many new mobile accounts being opened just last January as there are Internet users in the entire country. And there are a host of interesting companies seeking to leverage that network as some kind of rudimentary, literally “dial-up,” Internet that extends far beyond the country’s 50 million or so Web users. One of the most ambitious companies I met with during my last trip to India in November was Eko, a mobile banking company. There are a few ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   World Bank   Abhishek Sinha   State Bank of India

6. India’s Rural Cell Movement: Can You Hear Me Now?

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 14 2010) Mobile

   Last time I was in India I wrote about the amazing business model innovation that had allowed telecom operators in India to make money on a paltry $6 a month per average user. That compares to a desired average monthly payment of $50 or more in the U.S. The results have been phenomenal—550 million people in India have phones, and it has transformed the poorer service economy by giving them an affordable way to be reached and arrange jobs. Just last month, nearly 20 million new mobile accounts were opened. That’s more than double the people than have high speed ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Sarah Lacy   Technology Pioneers

7. South Asian Mobile Social Network Mig33 Sending Twice As Many Messages A Day As Twitter

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 12 2010) Mobile , Social Networking

   Mobile social networks have tremendous potential to flourish in developing countries where mobile phone usage trumps internet connectivity. SMS based social networks like SMSGupshup have gained considerable traction in Asia because of this. For example, in India, there is currently a 10 to 1 mobile-to-PC ratio. Mig33, a mobile social network that involves VoIP calls, instant messaging, e-mail, text messaging, and picture sharing, has accumulated 35 million registered users of its service and is growing fast in South Asian markets such as Indonesia and India. Assuming 3 to 10 percent are active on a monthly basis, that would be 1 ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Redpoint Ventures   Leena Rao   Accel Partners

8. Indiagames Partners With IPL And Facebook To Launch Social Cricket Games

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 10 2010) Gaming , Social Networking

   Earlier this year, Google landed a "landmark" deal with Global Cricket Ventures, the licensing partner to the Indian Premier League (IPL), which would give them the so rights to live stream cricket matches from the IPL on YouTube. This is a huge deal because the streaming of the 2010 IPL season (which starts on Friday and lasts for 45 days) is the first time a large-scale global sporting event will be streamed; with the reach expected to be at least a half-a-billion viewers. Now of of India's largest gaming companies, Indiagames, has bought the official gaming rights to the IPL ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Leena Rao   IPL   Google

9. Brazil: Copy Cats? What Copy Cats?

   Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 10 2010)

   I’ll say this about Brazilian startups—they’re certainly not dominated by Web copycats. Perhaps it’s because there aren’t a huge number of Brazilians who’ve made it big in the Valley transmuting the local way of doing things back home or because there’s not a lot of US venture capital flooding into the country. Perhaps it’s the country’s noted isolationist streak, or perhaps it was just the startups I lucked into meeting. But whatever the reason I saw fewer “We’re-the-fill-in-the-blank-Web-company-of-Brazil” ventures than I have in any other market to which I’ve traveled in the last few years. Many Brazilians I spoke with ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Nasa   Sarah Lacy   Sao Paulo

10. Canada Now Somewhat Less Anti-Startup

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 8 2010)

    Canada isn't shy about making life difficult for startups, and we've had one or two personal brawls with the country as well. But a change in Canadian tax law last week is designed to spur U.S. venture investments in Canadian startups and make Canada less of a leper colony for tech entrepreneurs. The change allows foreign investors in most Canadian startups to avoid "literally hundreds of pages of documents" to be filed and processed on a sale of a startup, sometimes by each limited partner in a venture fund. That burden meant that most venture firms simply ignored the Canadian ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Terry Matthews   Deloitte   Michael Arrington

11. Brazil: The New Home of Financial Innovation?

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 7 2010)

    Brazil is sort of a strange country to throw into the “emerging market” category. It’s not a particularly young country like India or Israel, nor is it a country like China or Russia that embraced capitalism fairly recently. Brazil is as old as the US and has had a decently built out infrastructure of things like roads and phone lines for some time. Yes, it’s a growing country with a young and stabilizing democracy that has a long way to go in terms of technology, modernization and bridging a quality of life between very wealthy and very poor. In that ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Cisco   Toyota   Sarah Lacy

12. India’s Twitter SMS GupShup Gets An App Store

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 3 2010) Mobile

    Fresh off a $12 million investment, SMS GupShup, a Twitter-like service in India that is primarily accessed via SMS, is launching an App Store. The store aims to expand SMS GupShup's ecosystem by allowing developers to create SMS-based mobile applications based off of the microblogging service. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Leena Rao

13. Google Testifies Before U.S. Senate On Ways To Fight Global Censorship

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Mar 2 2010)

    Today, Google is testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law to address internet freedom and censorship, particularly calling attention to the recent security and censorship issues in both China and Iran. Google's Deputy General Counsel Nicole Wong is presenting testimony on behalf of the search giant, which we've embedded below. Much of the testimony outlines the background on what happened in the China security breach, where the Gmail accounts of human rights activists were breached by hackers in China. The attacks were systematic and also extended to 20 other companies, including Intel. Google ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   senate   Google   Nicole Wong

14. PayPal To Restore Bank Withdrawal Service In India On March 3rd

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 27 2010)

    About three weeks ago, eBay's electronic payments daughter PayPal suddenly started blocking personal payments going in or coming out of accounts from Indian customers, resulting in a flood of online complaints from the latter that ranged from accusations of racism to sheer amateurism. Last week, rumors that PayPal was actually forced into halting personal payments by Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) because they did not comply with all relevant regulatory requirements, were confirmed. Last night, PayPal posted a status update on its corporate blog, saying that they anticipate to resume part of its service, namely bank withdrawal abilities, as of ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Reserve Bank of India   Robin Wauters

15. Zynga Heads To India For First Office Abroad

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 17 2010) Gaming

    Social gaming behemoth Zynga is going international. The company is opening an office in India, in the hopes of capitalizing on the rapidly growing market. Zynga says that India has 81 million internet users, and is projected to become the third biggest online market by 2013 (behind the United States and China). The new development house won't be building games that are specific for the Indian market, nor will they be modifying existing games. Instead, it sounds like they'll be building new games that Zynga will deploy worldwide (the company is also hoping a local presence will increase popularity of ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Jason Kincaid

16. LinkedIn Now 60 Million Strong

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 11 2010) Social Networking

    Professional social network LinkedIn has just added its 60 millionth member, according to a Tweet issued by the company this afternoon. Over the past year, network has seen a significant amount of growth, especially internationally. As of last December, the network had 55 million members, so its grown by 5 million in less than two months. In October, LinkedIn's network's CEO, Jeff Weiner, said in the post that half of LinkedIn's membership is international. To manage this growth, LinkedIn has also been expanding its operations in international markets, opening offices in The Netherlands, and India, two areas where LinkedIn is ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Leena Rao

17. Bubble Motion Launches Twitter-Like Voice Blogging Service For Mobile Phones

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 9 2010) Mobile , Social Networking

    Sequoia-backed voice messaging company Bubble Motion is getting into the microblogging space today, that is the voice-based microblogging space. The startup is launching Bubbly, a voice-blogging social network built for mobile phones. With Bubbly, you can record and broadcast messages from any mobile device. When a users records audio messages and updates, followers can listen in whenever they want. To start voice-blogging, you enter a short code onto your phone, and start recording your messages. To follow another voice-blogger, users dial the phone number for whomever they want to follow. Whenever there’s a new audio update, followers are notified via ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Bubble Motion   Leena Rao

18. Indian IT Giant Tata Consultancy Services Hacked

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 7 2010)

    The website Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software vendor, has been hacked. The hacker has posted a "For Sale" message on the site, which is written in both French and English. Ironically, the company produces security systems software. The hack is believed to be a DNS hijack, which is similar to the breach that Twitter succumbed to last year. TechCrunch was also recently hacked earlier this year. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Tata Consultancy Services

19. Piazzza Gives Classmates An Online Forum To Trade Their Knowledge

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 5 2010)

    Ah, the college library photo. Look through any school's brochure, and there's a good chance you'll see photos of an ethnically diverse group of students pouring over the same math problem together, all of of them inexplicably grinning ear to ear. It's a nice thought, but unfortunately it doesn't happen all that often — instead, many students wind up studying alone, and when they can't figure something out, they're out of luck. Now, entrepreneur Pooja Nath is looking to turn this kind of group learning into a reality for more students (at least online) with her startup Piazzza. Piazzza is ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Oracle   Jason Kincaid

20. PayPal Halts Personal Payment Transactions In India

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 5 2010)

    PayPal isn't working properly in India. eBay's electronic payment juggernaut appears to be blocking personal transactions to or from accounts of India-based users. It is reversing personal transaction. Transactions involving businesses are still allowed. A reader checked in with us yesterday to let us know PayPal notified him that the company had stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India (full e-mail can be found below). This does not appear to be an isolated incident: see here, here and here for more reports, although we gather commercial payment transactions are unaffected at this point. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Robin Wauters   USD

21. A Massive $75 Million Round Streams Into Ustream. And More Is On The Way.

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 2 2010) Funding

    Streaming video site Ustream has just pulled in a massive new round of funding: $75 million. This second round was led by SoftBank, a Japanese telecom giant. Previously, the site had raised just below $13 million in funding, which came from its Series A in 2008 and its angel round in late 2007. Perhaps even crazier is that the service is saying that additional funding commitments are pending from other investors in the U.S. and Asia, so the round will likely actually be larger than the $75 million, which is all from SoftBank. We're hearing reports that there was quite ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Ustream   Softbank

22. Ambient Industries Gets More Funding To Build Out Its StumbleUpon For Location

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 1 2010) Social Networking , Funding

    Location-based services continue their hot streak when it comes to funding, as Ambient Industries has received an extension to their seed round to build out their application Flook. Alongside this news, Flook is gaining a number of new features to expand it location-based discovery elements. The extension of the funding from Amadeus Capital Partners and Eden Ventures totals close to $1 million, we're told. This is on top of the undisclosed amount they raised from the same investors in late 2008. Flook is a location-based service that has both a web app and an iPhone app. It can probably best ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   SAM

23. Facebook COO: 175 Million People Log Into Facebook Every Day

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 1 2010)

    Last year we interviewed Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This year we interviewed her again. Notably, this time I brought a tripod with me and didn't cut off Sheryl's forehead. A year ago Facebook had 150 million users, and more than 200 million people visited the site monthly. I noted "You realize it’s like 1 in 5 people in the world that are on the internet visit Facebook." Sandberg replied, joking "So we have 4 in 5 more to go." The thing is, they're well on their way to getting those other 4. ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Google   Forrester   Coke

24. Interview With Senate Candidate Carly Fiorina: “The Nation With The Best Brain Power Wins”

    Explore Article TechCrunch (Feb 1 2010) Social Networking

    On Friday, I caught up with Carly Fiorina by phone for 30 minutes while she was in between stump speeches in her campaign for U.S. Senate for the state of California. We covered a lot of ground, including the new competition in the Republican primary from Tom Campbell who recently bowed out of the governor's race, the need to cut spending, grow the economy, rethink government contracting, China, H1B visas, the burdens of Sarbanes-Oxley on small companies, and how technology can help women in the workforce. "In this day and age where it's all about brain power," says Fiorina, "the ... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Yahoo   senate   Hewlett Packard

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