China's Tencent growing fast in internet messaging and gaming
China’s chat and gaming service Tencent reported revenues and earnings today that should make everyone take notice. As the company prints money in its domestic market, it is amassing more capital to become a player on a worldwide stage in the social and gaming markets.
Rich with cash from its QQ games and chat, Tencent recently agreed to buy U.S. online game maker Riot Games for $315 million. Observers believe that the company will acquire … Continue Reading
Convore gives online chatting a needed upgrade
Do you really need another way to chat with your friends? The founders of a new startup called Convore think so — and after poking around the site this morning, I’m starting to agree.
The company is being incubated by Y Combinator, and it was co-founded by Leah Culver (formerly a co-founder of simple blogging service Pownce), Eric Florenzano (a developer at games company Mochi Media), and Eric Maguire (also from Mochi Media). Culver said … Continue Reading
Kik, the Skype of text messages, continues crazy growth (chart)
Kik, the new chat application for smartphones that is faster and more social than standard text messages, continues to report astounding growth in traffic after exclusively revealing the launch of its service to VentureBeat.
The company tells me it registered 250,000 new users in 24 hours yesterday, pushing it over 900,000 total registrations. It’s on track to blow past a million users today, just two weeks after launch. That growth would be unprecedented for any … Continue Reading
Microsoft lifts New York City into the cloud
Earlier this week, VentureBeat reported on New York City’s efforts to modernize its government. The Big Apple is moving ahead quickly, announcing a partnership with Microsoft today that will anchor the city’s technology infrastructure firmly in Microsoft’s cloud.
The five-year deal will move the city’s 30,000 employees to Microsoft’s Internet-based service, including email, instant messaging, and collaboration tools like SharePoint. The deal will also deliver email to an additional 100,000 city employees who currently lack … Continue Reading
Skype 5 launches with Facebook integration and group video calls
After a beta test which lasted since May, Skype today has officially released the next version of its Windows client, Skype 5.0, which brings with it group video conferencing and Facebook integration.
Group video calling is a feature the company slowly ramped up throughout Skype 5′s beta. It first offered the ability for five-person video chats in May. At the time I argued that group video chat would become the next killer webcam feature. In … Continue Reading
DEMO: eM Client's new version aims to replace Outlook
eM Client is one of 70 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2010 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.
Microsoft’s Outlook has dominated the desktop email software market to date, but as the product ages, a few independent contenders are on their way up. One of them is Czech Republic-based eM Client, which … Continue Reading
Instant messaging: feature or product?
eM Client is one of 70 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2010 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.
Microsoft’s Outlook has dominated the desktop email software market to date, but as the product ages, a few independent contenders are on their way up. One of them is Czech Republic-based eM Client, which … Continue Reading
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