Economic downturn drives merger of teen sites Stardoll and Piczo
Girl teen-site Stardoll, backed by Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, is acquiring Piczo, a social networking site that focuses on teen users. The amount is undisclosed, but the transaction was a mix of cash and equity.
According to Stardoll CEO Mattias Miksche, who is based in Stockholm, Sweden, the acquisition was driven by an apparent interest by Stardoll’s users to express themselves in more ways, including through publishing. It didn’t hurt that the economic downturn means… Continue Reading
Roundup: The growing internet ad market, San Francisco’s carbon tax, Google Maps and more
Here’s the latest action:
1) US internet ad market is big, getting bigger
2) San Francisco, home of the carbon tax?
3) Google Maps adds user ratings to local search
4) Wal-Mart launches cleantech accelerator
5) Visits to Facebook appear to drop
6) Proofpoint raises $28 million for email security
7) Piczo suffers from walled garden approach
Covad could save Silicon Valley municipal wireless
9) Fundability funded for entrepreneur/investor network
10) Google joins group to build transpacific optic cable
US internet ad market is big, getting… Continue Reading
Social network Piczo raises $11 million more, shows momentum
updated
Piczo, the social networking company that tries to distinguish itself as the safer place for teens, has raised $11 million in a third round of funding, it tells VentureBeat.
Piczo is one of handful of sites gunning for “second place” behind MySpace, the overwhelming leader with 65 million unique users a month. Facebook is around 17 million. Piczo boasts 10.5 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, mainly in Europe and the U.S. Bebo and Hi5 are around… Continue Reading
Roundup: PixSense, Piczo, Imeem’s new model & more
PixSense, latest start-up to offer video compression, is hiring! — This Santa Clara start-up claims no one has been able to compress a video by 85 percent to share it via mobile phone.
It is offering such a feature to consumers and carriers. Some 90 percent of cell-phone users don’t have a set data plan, meaning they pay for bandwidth they use while sending pictures. PixSense will lower costs. It will also sell its technology to… Continue Reading