PostNL, one of the largest mail and parcel delivery firms in The Netherlands, has acquired (blog post in Dutch) a minority stake in mobile couponing startup Scoupy through its subsidary Netwerk VSP. Founded about a year ago, Scoupy offers free smartphone apps for iOS and Android that give consumers access to roughly 2.500 discounts...
Portalarium, the creators behind Ultimate Collector, a social garage sale game, has just become the latest of numerous companies to announce a partnership with Zynga. Zynga in the past was not known for bringing in outside game developers onto its site sans-acquisition, but recent deals with companies like Majesco and RocketPlay suggest this is becoming an increasingly popular trend for...
Amazon did not unveil a smartphone Thursday, despite speculation to the contrary. But its new Kindle Fire tablets give us some clues about an Amazon phone, reportedly in the pipeline. We see a $200 (almost) loss leader that makes buying anything from or through Amazon beyond easy. An All-Amazon-Controlled Experience The idea that Amazon will put...
While college recruitment and job fairs still have a place in the employment world, a little bit of creativity and social media know-how is worth its weight in talent if done the right way. Bringing new and creative people into a business is a difficult task, so some agencies are using social media and...
Accidental clicks cost mobile advertisers tons of money. The key to minimizing the damage is to insist on transparency before bidding on ads. Earlier this week, we reported on a study that found 22% of clicks mobile advertisements were accidental. Although some ads that are viewed accidentally lead to purchases, the proportion is vanishingly small, leading...
Well, so much for that. Once upon a time, 2012 was supposed to be the year that Apple made its big splash in television, as foretold by Steve Jobs’ declaration that he had “finally cracked it.” While the company may have nailed down a stellar user interface and product design, agreements with cable providers...
AcceleratorHK, a newly-launched accelerator program in Hong Kong designed for startups doing non-native development for multiple mobile devices, is taking applications for its first 3-month program, which will run from November 5th, 2012 to February 8th, 2013. Applications are due by October 1st, with positive responses promised by October 15th. The accelerator is intended for “early...
App.net, the subscription-based, ad-free Twitter alternative that is now fully funded and ready for extensive testing (you can find TNW’s profile here), is off to a relatively sluggish start. Diego Basch, currently ‘in between jobs’ after selling his company IndexTank to LinkedIn and briefly serving as the company’s engineering director, has compiled some initial...
Chinese ecommerce powerhouse Taobao and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that commits the online marketplace to better enforcement of audio-visual intellectual property rights. Often billed as the Chinese eBay, Taobao has led consumer ecommerce adoption in China. Its parent company, Alibaba, also operates a successful...