Bix, the online karaoke/dance competition site, launches

August 9, 2006 | Matt Marshall

Bix is a Palo Alto start-up that wants to feed off the popularity of American Idol.

It has just launched. We mentioned it here when it was still in testing mode.

It lets people compete in online karaoke, dance, and other contests. It kicks off with a $50,000 prize.

The company says the idea is to let other companies sponsor these competitions, thereby building their brands within what Bix hopes will be a young, attractive user base. But as you may expect from a start-up, it launches this first $50,000 competition without a sponsor.

One notable development at some of these recent Silicon Valley companies is how much experience they can draw on from local employees. In a press release (sorry, no link), the company boasts industry “veterans” from eBay, Symantec, AOL Netscape, BEA, Epinions, There.com, Intuit, Logitech, E*trade, A9 and Electronic Arts.

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About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.