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Tag: GigaOm

  • Gigaom Is Coming Back Under New Ownership

    In March, the tech news industry was shocked by the news that one of its most prominent blogs, Gigaom, was shutting down after revealing it was unable to pay its creditors. On Tuesday, it was announced that the site will be back. It just won’t be the Gigaom that you knew.

    In other words, the domain will be there, along with its archives of content, but what the new content that comes with the relaunch consists of remains to be seen.

    Gigaom.com was purchased by entrepreneur Byron Reese on Friday. His Austin-based startup Knowingly plans to relaunch the site on August 15. In the meantime, you can visit the site and see it basically as it’s been without any new content.

    In a press release, Reese described Gigaom as “second to none in what it does,” adding, “We are excited to be a chapter of the Gigaom story and look forward to continuing its mission of ‘humanizing the impact of technology.’”

    “We live at what I believe is the great turning point of all of human history, and that is being driven in large part by the technologies we are creating. This new world we are making will not just be more prosperous, but it will be more fair and more just than any time in the past,” he said. “Gigaom will continue documenting this transformation and the technologies which are driving it.”

    Still, it’s going to have to do so with a different staff of content creators. The former reporters have been hired away. Fortune hired Stacey Higginbotham, Barb Darrow, Katie Fehrenbacher, Mathew Ingram, Jeff John Roberts, and Jonathan Vanian. Variety hired Janko Roettgers, and Signe Brewster joined Backchannel.

    Om Malik (pictured) launched Gigaom in 2006, and left day-to-day operations in February of 2014. To our knowledge, he has yet to publicly comment on the site’s acquisition.

    Image via Olivier Ezratty, Wikimedia Commons

  • Gigaom Shuts Down, “Unable to Pay Its Creditors”

    Prominent tech blog Gigaom is shutting down, after it revealed it “recently became unable to pay its creditors”.

    Here’s what Gigaom management had to say Monday evening:

    Gigaom recently became unable to pay its creditors in full at this time. As a result, the company is working with its creditors that have rights to all of the company’s assets as their collateral. All operations have ceased. We do not know at this time what the lenders intend to do with the assets or if there will be any future operations using those assets. The company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy. We would like to take a moment and thank our readers and our community for supporting us all along.

    The site’s founder, Om Malik, says that his company “is winding down” and that its assets are controlled by the company’s lenders at this point.

    “It is not how you want the story of a company you founded to end,” he writes in a blog post.

    “There will be time for postmortems, but not today. Today, I want to thank all the people who make (and have helped make) Gigaom. Their role in this journey was what really made it all worth it. They are great people and they will all do great work wherever they go. I want to thank our investors who believed in the business long before it became fashionable. And most importantly, I want to thank you dear readers for coming along on this trip of a lifetime,” he says.

    Om Malik launched Gigaom in 2006. He left day-to-day operations at Gigaom in February of 2014.

    Image via Olivier Ezratty, Wikimedia Commons

  • Chromecast Usage Growing Rapidly, New Version On The Way

    Google’s Mario Queiroz spoke at a Gigaom event, and talked about the company’s hit streaming device Chromecast. He provided some new numbers (some of which are encouraging for users), and confirmed a new version of the device is on the way.

    While we don’t know much about what the new version will bring to the table, we did know another one was in the works. Reports recently surfaced about a device appearing in an FCC document .

    Gigaom recaps part of Queiroz’s talk:

    Three months ago, Google claimed that Chromecast users have tapped the cast button about 400 million times, signaling how fast the streaming device has grown in the marketplace. That number is now at 650 million, Google VP of product management Mario Queiroz said at Gigaom’s Structure Connect conference Tuesday.

    And it’s not just Chromecast’s popularity with consumers that’s growing. Queiroz also said more than 6,000 developers are building more than 10,000 apps for the Google Cast ecosystem, signaling a rising developer community.

    Chromecast is gaining new app support all the time, and that means the $35 device automatically gets more useful and attractive as time goes on. More support means more entertainment options for users.

    The device also recently got a pivotal update with Android screen mirroring, enabling users of certain Android devices to cast whatever is on their screen to their television, which lets you get around a lack of direct support from other apps. The device list for this is growing as well.

    Chromecast also recently got an update to include a more personalized experience, enabling users to display photos from their own collection on the screen when the device isn’t actually in use.

    Image via YouTube

  • Gigaom Shuts Down PaidContent As A Brand

    Gigaom Shuts Down PaidContent As A Brand

    Gigaom is shutting down paidContent.org as a standalone brand, and is rolling it into the Gigaom site.

    Last year, Gigaom acquired paidContent along with the rest of the ContentNext Media assets (which included mocoNews.net, contentSutra and paidContent UK – all of which have been living on paidContent.org) from Guardian News a & Media. The amount wasn’t disclosed, but was reportedly low.

    Apparently the paidContent brand itself was not worth enough to Gigom to keep around. Unique visitors on the site have been on the decline with a much more positive picture being painted for Gigaom:

    PaidContent

    Gigaom

    Gigaom Executive Editor Tom Krazit writes, “In a recent survey of paidContent readers, over 75 percent of them told us that they wanted to see more coverage of emerging technology. That’s a natural fit with everything Gigaom stands for, and we therefore decided that honoring the same paidContent commitment to quality under the Gigaom umbrella was the best way to explore the future of emerging media startups, business models, and technologies for our media industry readers.”

    That’s from the last post that will be written for paidContent. The site will remain at the URL for a few more weeks, but all its content will be transitioned over to Gigaom.

    Gigaom sent subscribers of the paidContent newsletter a notice. Here’s the full text of that:

    Thank you for being a paidContent newsletter subscriber. As one of the last remaining independent tech media startups, we have a keen interest in the future of the media business. And, for that reason among many, Gigaom bought paidContent in March 2012 in order to bring increased coverage to our company. But we believe in looking forward and standing together, and in that spirit as of today, we’re going to begin the process of closing down the paidContent site and moving all paidContent content over to Gigaom.

    You’ve probably noticed our recent brand refresh, in which we sought to re-emphasize our blogging roots and organize our efforts around a common theme. This chapter is just part of that story; we want to be a unified company presenting one vision of the future of technology to our readers.

    Starting today, you’ll find the same content you found on paidContent under a new Gigaom channel called Media, in which Janko Roettgers will continue to define the cord-cutting movement, Laura Owen will explore the future of the printed word in a digital world, and Mathew Ingram will proselytize, antagonize, and philosophize about the intersection of journalism, social media, and whatever crosses his Twitter stream.

    As a paidContent newsletter subscriber, you will continue to receive daily updates of our media coverage via the daily paidContent newsletter. In the next few weeks, your subscription will be automatically transferred to the gigaom.com newsletter with a focus on media coverage. If you already subscribe to a gigaom.com newsletter, the media stories will be added to your existing selection. There is no need to do anything but if you would like to update your subscription preferences, please visit gigaom.com/newsletters.

    Thank you for your support of paidContent over the years, and stay tuned for more of the same content you’ve come to expect from the site over at Gigaom.

    Cheers,

    The Gigaom Team

    It wasn’t long after Gigaom’s purchase of PaidContent that rumors came out that Gigaom itself was for sale, but obviously nothing ever came of that.

  • GigaOm For Sale, According To Rumors

    This is certainly only in rumor stage at this point, but Business Insider is reporting that popular tech blog network GigaOm may be for sale.

    Nicholas Carlson reports that a couple “insiders” have said GigaOm is “on the block,” with one saying the company has been “flirting with Bloomberg and Dow Jones.”

    Earlier this year, GigaOm acquired PaidContent, another industry publication.

    Time is already republishing PaidContent articles. If GigaOm is really looking to sell, perhaps Time Warner could be a potential suitor. GigaOm also partnered with TheStreet in 2010 to share content and audiences.

    GigaOm has yet to respond to our request for comment.

    On the company’s about page, GigaOm claims to have an audience of 5.5 million monthly unique readers. While Compete’s numbers are often much lower than publishers’ internal analytics, the firm had GigaOm at 219,288 unique visitors in the U.S. for the month of May. Here’s a list of some of the top industry publications and their numbers.

    For perspective, Business Insider itself announced that it hit 15 million uniques yesterday (compared to Compete’s U.S. count of 2,681,606 for May), and WebProNews had 5.2 million in May (compared to Compete’s count of 2,239,178 in May).

    GigaOm isn’t the only industry publication rumored to be for sale. Rumors of talks between Mashable and CNN have recently been back in the media as well.

  • Splash.FM Thrives On In-Group Influence

    Splash.FM Thrives On In-Group Influence

    Yesterday at 12pm EDT, just three months after its Private Beta launch, Splash.FM—a social music discovery platform that measures your musical influence—officially launched in Public Beta, making the once exclusive platform available to the masses.

    Splash.FM is a site that allows you to create a profile, follow your friends and other influencers, browse for songs, and “Splash” the ones you love. Billboard Magazine called Splash.FM “a Twitter for music discovery.” In a quick snapshot, users are able to view song charts of which tracks are trending amongst their friends and on the site overall, as well as what has been “splashed” most recently. Best of all, users get credit where credit is due; users are assigned a “Splash Score” (from 0-99), a ranking system that visibly rewards users for discovering good music early.

    Splash co-founder Jason Fiedler explained the Splash score to Janko Roettgers, a writer for GIGaom, via email:

    “I think a Klout-type score is extremely powerful for two reasons. First, it quantifies something that is extremely abstract- influence. Second, the ability to compare people’s influence as a score creates competition and a gamification layer that drives further engagement. We’re all ‘virtual narcissists.”

    The site, co-founded by Alex Gatof and Jason Fiedler, was created based on the premise that friend-sourced song recommendations are more powerful than any other algorithm that currently exists in online music consumption. “Nothing beats friend-based recommendations. It’s true with many categories—clothes, television shows, movies—but especially true with music,” says Fiedler, “There is something about the social nature of it; music just sounds better on Splash.FM.”

    During the past three months of Private Beta testing, Gatof and Fiedler have absorbed feedback and implemented several key changes designed to make Splash.FM even stronger for its Public Beta Launch. Users can expect to see the following new amenities in the Splash.FM public beta suite:

    Sign-Up: Anyone can sign-up via Facebook, Twitter, or create a username / password.

    Home Page: Non-logged-in users will be able to browse the “Everyone” splash feed and trending “Top Tracks” chart to get a taste of what’s happening on the site before they sign-up.

    Filters: The Most Splashed Songs can now be filtered to include just the “Last 7 Days” or “All-Time” on the site; amongst both the people you follow and everyone site-wide.

    Roll Down: The site will automatically play from one song to the next.

    Global Search: The search tool allows you to search songs, artists, and users – so you can easily find what/who you’re looking for.

    Comments: These are now displayed as part of each Splash (without clicking to expand) so that you can add more flavor to why you’re splashing a particular song, and compel friends to Ripple (ie: Re-Splash) you.

    Splash Score: The algorithm has been improved.

    Featured Splashers: This is a new “icon” indicating verified splashers with established music taste and credibility, such as: DJs, artist, industry, radio personalities and cool brands (essentially a stamp-of-approval that these users are worth following).

    Layout: Based on user feedback, Splash.FM has implemented a more intuitive site layout for sharing and discovery.

    Looking Forward

    The next phase of the site is going to be even more catered to the artist and the user, offering artists valuable analytics and the user exclusive perks, all with the ability to monetize the Splash Score. The mobile application is also a core focus, expected for release within the next two months.

    Feedback On Twitter

    Many people are tweeting in approval of Splash.FM:

    @thejanedoze
    The Jane Doze    cool new music site @splashfm launched today & and they’re giving us some love…go check it out! http://t.co/dDvdtpu4 22 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @och_ali
    Ali Och    actually cannot do work right bc i cannot get off @SplashFM @beckytweetslol @BarbieGirlBetch you understand 11 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @JoshNettoR
    Josh Netto-Rosen    havent splashed in a while..getting back on it @SplashFM @BMRosen1 #splashin 13 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @toufiqlipu1
    toufiq    Splash.FM, a Klout for music discovery, opens up beta — Tech …: Digital narcissists, here’s your next guilty p… http://t.co/1aAIuuks 14 hours ago via twitterfeed ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @JordanKurzweil
    Jordan Kurzweil    Music recommendations from people with cred (nay kred) Splash.FM, a Klout for music discovery, opens up beta http://t.co/cMUKqqK0 14 hours ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @TheRealWizman
    Greg Wizman    check out the best new music sharing website… post ur own music or find the newest hits @SplashFM . 14 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @kfitchard
    kevin fitchard    The ultimate app for record store clerks turned digital narcissists: Splash.FM, a Klout for music discovery @jank0 http://t.co/1OkFpd1z 22 hours ago via Tweet Button ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Will Splash.FM be the next guilty pleasure for music snobs? Tell us what you think of this new platform.

  • GigaOm and TheStreet Combine Content and Audiences

    AOL buying TechCrunch isn’t the only news happening in the tech content world today. GigaOm and TheStreet.com have announced a partnership, which will see the two publications sharing content and audiences. Both will share and co-author editorial and research content across their network of sites.

    "TheStreet is a leader in high-quality, professionally-produced financial content, and their coverage in the technology, communications, and cleantech sectors and the attractive audience that content attracts makes them an ideal partner for GigaOM," said Paul Walborsky, CEO of GigaOM. 

    "We look forward to working hand-in-hand with the editorial, analyst, and business teams at TheStreet to share content across our joint network of sites, to co-author research reports that deliver critical insights into the technology-driven industries we jointly cover and to introduce our respective audiences to each other’s brands and service offerings," added Walborsky.

    GigaOm and TheStreet Team Up"Our partnership with GigaOM builds on TheStreet’s recent content and audience-sharing arrangements with other best-in-class partners from Newsweek to Nightly Business Report to the personal finance site Bundle – all organizations that understand the distinct value of TheStreet’s quality, action-oriented content in the financial vertical," said Daryl Otte, CEO of TheStreet. 

    "As a well-followed brand in the leading areas of technology with a highly-engaged audience and deep roots into the vibrant West Coast technology community, GigaOM delivers to TheStreet great incremental distribution while lending significant new resources and insight to our already strong offerings in the technology sector. We are pleased to be teaming with such an influential partner," said Otte.

    GigaOm and TheStreet have already released a co-branded report available through GigOm Pro, the publication’s paid service.