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tap tap tap ~ Fuck the VCs
Bezos Gets His Game On
With an undisclosed investment in Social Gaming Network by his personal fund, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is proving Om right. Back in May, when Bezos invested in Kongregate, another casual gaming site, Om thought it might be the first of many. May is also when SGN raised a $15 million round from Greylock Partners and the Founders Fund.
SGN makes games for social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and has titles that include WarBook and Superlatives. Now that casual gaming has exploded onto the web, the business case isn’t too far-fetched. Revenue comes from ads, selling virtual goods, subscriptions or some mix of those options, with advertising being most prevalent but least effective for casual games.
Gaming has made money, but monetizing social networks is still a struggle, which makes SGN worth watching. Succeeding with advertising depends on getting large numbers of users, which Social Gaming Network — with its 1.1 million daily users — has. It’s facing a Facebook crackdown on spammy applications, which could hinder growth on that site, but is still growing on MySpace and Hi5, which have recently opened up their sites to outside apps. In order to really make money, it needs to push the sale of virtual goods. That might make it the most likely Bezos investment to succeed.
[from bushwald] How to Change the World: Panel of Web Community Founders: Utter Defiance of the "Venture Capital" Model
Firefox to go head-to-head with Flash and Silverlight | APC Magazine
Firefox to go head-to-head with Flash and Silverlight | APC Magazine
Sean “wild boy” Parker Returns
Silicon Valley’s bad boy Sean Parker is back in the start-up game. The 28-year-old, who in the past has been associated with fast growing Internet phenomena such as Napster, Plaxo and Facebook, is working on an ultra stealthy start-up that is going to be tackling the “activism” space.
We picked up this rumor over the weekend while chatting with some Silicon Valley insiders. We admit we are short on details, but are digging hard for more information, and will be updating the post as we find out more information. The company hasn’t decided on a name just yet, and will launch later this summer, our sources say.
Parker was a co-founder at Napster and then at Plaxo, and later founding president at Facebook. He left the college-focused social network in 2005, and recently joined San Francisco-based The Founders Fund, a venture capital fund started by Peter Thiel, who in past life had co-founded PayPal.
Though he is still a managing partner at Founders Fund, Parker is currently rumored to be devoting all his energies on this new company. Parker is a colorful fella, often subject of speculative gossip in Silicon Valley. Why else would we be talking about him on the weekend, right? Regardless, there is no denying that he has a knack for smelling opportunity, especially when it comes to the consumer Internet.
He often finds viral-growth business opportunities – a trait three of his more known endeavors share. If he has figured out a similar opportunity in the “activism” space, then it might turn out to be a worthy cause.