Jack Dorsey, Ron Conway to attend The Crunchies Awards
It’s time to get excited for The Crunchies Awards. The final line-up of notable guests has been released, making us all the more excited to co-host this star-studded event.
Harris Wittels, “Parks and Recreation” writer and all-around funny guy, will take the stage as the host of the 2011 Crunchies Awards next Tuesday night, January 31. VentureBeat, GigaOm, and TechCrunch are hosting the event, awarding the best tech innovation of 2011.
The event is chock-full … Continue Reading
Jack Dorsey: Twitter seeing 3 to 5 percent engagement on Promoted Tweets and Trends
The market has tested Twitter’s Promoted Products business model and found it good, chairman Jack Dorsey confidently asserted today at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich.
Twitter’s Promoted Products — including Promoted Tweets, Accounts and Trends — are seeing 3 to 5 percent engagement, Dorsey said. “Advertisers are coming back … [the market] is proving that this is something people want to see more of.”
The company’s Promoted Products offer advertisers a way to … Continue Reading
Mobile payments wunderkind Square hits 1M merchant milestone
Mobile payments startup Square now has more than 1 million merchants charging credit cards with the service, the company announced today.
“Just as small businesses are growing with Square, we’re growing with them: Over 1 million merchants now accept credit cards via Square,” the company said on Twitter.
Square is one of a handful of companies, along with names like PayPal, Google and Intuit, that are quickly transforming the mobile payments landscape. The company’s service … Continue Reading
Twitter launches new, glossy, engaging pages for brands
With a bevy of new profile features, Twitter is giving brands even more control over how they present themselves on the site.
Today at a press event to announce a complete design and functionality overhaul for the service, Twitter executives also announced new brand-focused pages, which are enhanced profiles meant to entice marketers to think of Twitter as an essential, expressive destination for consumer interaction.
“We have tons of businesses on Twitter today,” said Twitter … Continue Reading
Here’s a first look at the “New-New Twitter”
Thursday morning, Twitter started its launch of a brand-new interface.
The changes are fairly drastic, but they have a surprising and delighting effect (as opposed to a shocking and awing one). It might remind you a bit of the design of Facebook’s Timeline or the sadly underrated Yahoo Meme.
Here’s how you can get it for yourself right now: If you have an iPhone or Android device, download the new app from the App Store … Continue Reading
How charity:water became tech’s favorite non-profit
“I had a model girlfriend and a BMW. I wore a Rolex. But I was really miserable,” says Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water, on the period leading up to its genesis.
charity:water has already brought clean drinking water to 2 million people around the world and is supported by some of technology’s biggest names including Sean Parker (Napster), Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Marissa Mayer (Google), Dennis Crowley (Foursquare) and Michael Birch (founder of social network Bebo). … Continue Reading
Ditch those coupons: Square updates iOS and Android apps with loyalty features
Mobile payments startup Square has updated its popular iOS and Android apps to include loyalty tracking and discounts for regular customers and further hardware support for brick-and-mortar stores, the company revealed today.
“We’re enabling merchants to recognize regulars that use the Card Case application,” Megan Quinn, Square’s director of products, told VentureBeat. “With this update, there’s no need for coupons, punch cards or third-party apps.”
Square’s mobile payments service has seen incredible growth since its … Continue Reading
Square announces Sir Richard Branson to its lineup of storied investors
Mobile payments company Square announced that Sir Richard Branson is an investor today, after a Form D filed with the SEC recently confirmed its $100 million round of funding.
“As you know, I’m interested in a variety of sectors,” Branson told VentureBeat in an e-mail. “In recent years, thanks in part to Virgin America (being based in the Silicon Valley and doing a great job serving tech-savvy guests), I’ve learned more about tech in general … Continue Reading
In a commitment to honesty, Twitter tries to bury the hatchet with third-party developers
Ryan Sarver had just come back to work after his wedding.
Notice I said “wedding” and not “honeymoon.” Sarver has for some time been Twitter’s first line of defense between the company and a occasionally disgruntled army of third-party developers. The relationship between those two entities has been testy at best and an out-and-out war at worst for the better part of two years. Unfortunately, mid-2011 was no time for a honeymoon.
I met with … Continue Reading
Twitter’s NYC office opens with Mayor Bloomberg on hand
Twitter officially opened the doors of its New York office today, and even New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg showed up.
Twitter executive chairman and Square CEO Jack Dorsey joined Bloomberg on stage to announce the opening, coming at a somber time, since Apple’s Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. But Dorsey kept the conversation light and even offered Bloomberg a job, saying, “I know you have an engineering degree, Mr. Mayor, and you may be … Continue Reading
Confirmed: Square raises $100M, Mary Meeker, Vinod Khosla and Larry Summers now on board
Earlier reports of mobile payments provider Square raising $100 million that arose in June are now confirmed thanks to a Form D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Chief operating officer Keith Rabois said the company is processing nearly $4 million in payments every day, and it expects to surpass $1 billion by year’s end. The company is signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month. The new funding round reportedly values … Continue Reading
Square upgrades iOS app for faster purchases, launches Card Case app
Mobile payments startup Square on Monday launched a new version of its iOS app that speeds up purchases and no longer requires signatures for payments under $25. The company also officially launched its Card Case app for customers who use Square merchants.
The new apps announcement adds to a long list of headlines Square has made lately as a serious disruptor in mobile payments. In late June, the company raised a reported $100 million with … Continue Reading
Twitter vs. White House Journalists: Who asked the most questions about marijuana?
Wondering what the difference between mainstream media and Joe Sixpack is? Take a look at the types of questions directed at President Barack Obama by Twitter users compared to those asked by White House journalists, in an outstanding visualization by the Boston Globe.
Twitter hosted a live video Twitter Town Hall on July 6 by Twitter, during which the President chatted with the microblog service’s Executive Chairman, Jack Dorsey. (Note his fantastic posture!) During the … Continue Reading
Obama’s Twitter Town Hall: Dorsey lobs hardball questions
Barack Obama sent his first tweet since announcing he would begin personally updating his social media accounts rather than have a campaign staff member do it.
The tweet was sent today during Obama’s Twitter Town Hall live broadcast hosted by Twitter Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey. The event let citizens ask the president questions by adding the #AskObama hash tag to the end of their message.
The tweet, sent from the White House’s official account, restated … Continue Reading
Square snags $100M at massive $1B valuation
If you need any further evidence that the mobile payments arena is going to be huge over the next few years, just look at Square.
The mobile payments startup, created by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has raised $100 million in a third round of funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, skyrocketing the company’s valuation to more than $1 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The funding has quadrupled Square’s valuation — the company’s … Continue Reading
Former White House aide joins startup’s board of directors
Mobile payment company Square today added former Obama Chief Economic Advisor Larry Summers to its board of directors.
If you didn’t follow Summers’ political career, you may recall him as Harvard’s President in The Social Network. Although the movie is fictional, earlier this year Summers said the scene in which he dismisses the Winklevoss twins’ claim that Facebook was their idea ”was pretty accurate.”
“We are proud to have Larry join our board and we … Continue Reading
