ALWAYSON

|WINTER 2007WINTER 2007|

ALWAYSON

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AO MEDIA 100

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INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Greylock Partners,Omidyar Network, angels (Marc Andreessen,Reid Hoffman, Ron Conway, Mike MaplesJr., Al Avery)

AO TAKE:

Digg is a user-driven social contentwebsite, where users submit content or weblinks to the Digg community, which reads andrates what’s been posted. Highly rated sto-ries are promoted on the Digg homepage forusers to read and share. Digg is creating “ViralMarketing 2.0”—think word-of-mouth-on-ste-roids that can seriously inﬂuence web content,as a high Digg rating can move stories to thetop of the stack and create immense buzz.Services like Digg are turbocharging opinionand awareness, providing a ﬁlter for content,burying spam, and getting messages out toa wider audience.

FACEBOOK

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM

HQ:

Palo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

ark Zuckerberg

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Accel Partners, GreylockPartners, Meritech Capital Partners, angels(including PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel)

AO TAKE:

Facebook is a social networkingplatform made up of many networks. Initiallyfocused on students only, it now focuses onschools as well as companies and regions.Each network is independent and closed off to non-afﬁliated users; to join a school or worknetwork, users need to authenticate (throughan appropriate e-mail address), while joininga regional network requires less authentica-tion. Users can create proﬁles to connectwith friends, share interests, join groups,send messages, write notes, and post pho-tos, à la MySpace. After successfully captur-ing the college student market, Facebook isnow inching its way out of its university-onlyroots and taking on a bigger market. This willlet Facebook leverage its massive social net-work for one-to-many, one-to-few, and one-to-one marketing efforts—no wonder it’s fre-quently rumored to be on Yahoo or Google’slist of acquisition targets.

FRIENDSTER

WWW.FRIENDSTER.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2002

CEO:

ent Lindstrom

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Kleiner Perkins Cauﬁeld& Byers (KPCB), Benchmark Capital, BatteryVentures, angels

AO TAKE:

Friendster, one of the original socialnetworking sites, and often considered thepreeminent “also ran,” is making a comeback.It’s got a respectable 35+ million members,and although popular with teens, is focusingmore on young urban-oriented adults, launch-ing new features geared towards letting themmore easily stay up to date on their friends’activities and interests. Because social net-working offers users the ability to personalizeand target audiences of one, it’s opening upinteresting marketing and advertising oppor-tunities—and Friendster has recently beenawarded several of the wide-ranging socialnetworking patents it applied for; worth keep-ing an eye on.

LINDEN LAB

WWW.SECONDLIFE.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

1999

CEO:

Philip Rosedale

EMPLOYEES:

ca. 100

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Benchmark Capital, Cat-amount Ventures, Omidyar Network

AO TAKE:

Linden Lab develops and hosts thepopular virtual world/MMOG

Second Life

, anonline parallel universe in which membersplay, create, interact, and do business. Lin-den Labs remains a benchmark company inavatar-based virtual reality, with some usersmaking a real-life living by designing and sell-ing skins and objects, building training facil-ities, or leasing out real estate within theplatform. Masterful at promoting itself, thecompany understands the importance of buzz around a community. This could translateinto signiﬁcant potential for in-game, sponsor-ship, and other promotional revenue—whichLinden could pioneer and leverage to tremen-dous effect if its user base continues to grow.Meanwhile, the company closed an additional$11 million in March 2006, and some sur-prising players are promoting new productsthrough the

Second Life

platform, such asToyota hawking virtual cars.

LOOPT

WWW.LOOPT.COM

HQ:

Palo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Sam Altman

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Sequoia Capital, NewEnterprise Associates

AO TAKE:

Loopt uses GPS and other data todisplay the location of users’ friends on mapsand lists. Users can request alerts whenfriends are within a certain distance, sendmessages, and tag and blog physical loca-tions. Location-based contextual advertisingis a tremendous opportunity, and services likeLoopt are off to a strong start creating next-generation services. Just imagine the powerof instantly identifying a critical mass of drink-ing buddies—er, potential customers—andmatching them with a geographically relevantvenue, like a nearby bar willing to offer freebuffalo wings to Loopt groups! With its com-bination of a geospatial platform with mobiledevices, advertising and promotions, andsocial networking, Loopt is a location-basedservices player to watch.

WINNER

:MEDIANEWCOMEROFTHEYEAR

MERCHANTCIRCLE

WWW.MERCHANTCIRCLE.COM

HQ:

Los Altos, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

en Smith

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Bank of America Ven-tures, Steamboat Ventures, Rustic Can-yon Partners

AO TAKE:

MerchantCircle aims to help smallbusinesses get more local customers throughthe power of referrals, making online adver-tising accessible, affordable, and effectivefor local merchants and service providers.Businesses get a simple MySpace-like pro-ﬁle. It lets them promote themselves on theInternet to local users and lets them createafﬁliate networks, with referrals to other busi-nesses on MerchantCircle that they trust.MerchantCircle has positioned itself to offer awide range of “small-business marketing ser-vices made easy,” including coupons, blogs,and newsletters. By going after the Holy Grailof local advertising (historically the province of the yellow pages), services like MerchantCir-cle aim to bridge the gap between local mer-chants and online advertising—and take thepain out of it for the less-tech-savvy local mer-chant community.

NETVIBES

WWW.NETVIBES.COM

HQ:

aris, France

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Tariq Krim

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Accel Partners, Index Ven-tures, angels including Marc Andreessen

AO TAKE:

Netvibes provides users with a cus-tomizable startpage aimed at giving themcomplete control over their Internet experi-ence. What sets Netvibes apart from other up-and-comers in this space is its speed, and thedrag-and-drop simplicity of its customizationtools. Users can quickly change the appear-ance, and select modules that add RSS andnews feeds, e-mail inboxes and IM tools, orWeb 2.0 apps like photostreams or taggingand bookmarking services to their startpage.They can also drop in custom-built widgets andfeatures from other Netvibes users. The UI issimply compelling, drawing users right in—more than ﬁve million thus far. With portalsthis individualized, personalized advertisingthat’s spot on and actually valuable to usersbecomes a reality—which should give Net-vibes strong appeal for marketers aiming toreach highly targeted audiences.

RUCKUS NETWORKS

WWW.RUCKUSNETWORK.COM

HQ:

erndon, VA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

William Raduche

EMPLOYEES:

< 50

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Battery Ventures, Shel-ter Capital Partners

AO TAKE:

Social networking site Ruckus Net-works exclusively targets the college market,and now that Facebook has opened up to themasses, Ruckus might be able to dominatethat space. Aimed at a more sophisticated,post-teen crowd, the network delivers a mix of mainstream, independent, and user-generatedcontent to its target demographic. Its collectionof movies, TV shows, and (legal) songs—all geared speciﬁcally to college students—also sets Ruckus apart. Ruckus has shown itknows how to integrate promotions into con-tent and communities—including managingto obtain lots of e-mail addresses of potentialRuckus users through a proﬁle on Facebook.The company closed a $13 million round inAugust 2006, giving it additional resources totake over where Facebook left off.

TAGGED

WWW.TAGGED.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Greg Tseng

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Mayﬁeld Fund

AO TAKE:

Social networking site Tagged.comlets U.S. teens (most of them between 14and 17) express themselves and socialize ina safe, monitored environment—appealingto parents worried about sites like MySpace.The service makes it easy for advertisersto market to this attractive, money-spend-ing demographic. Creative hooks designedto bring teen users onto Tagged include theuse of “tags” as a way teens can expressperspectives on other members. The realtrick with this audience is keeping the ser-vice simple enough for teens to use, whileproviding plenty of fresh and entertainingcontent and services for them to try. Asthe current population grows up, recruitingusers from the next generation will be whatmakes or breaks Tagged and other servicesgeared toward this narrow—but lucrative—demographic.

WINNER:

development, as well as the globe—werenominated. To make the ﬁnal selection of companies that excel in

AlwaysOn

’s ﬁveprimary evaluation criteria—innovation,market potential, commercialization, stake-holder value creation, and media attentionor “buzz”—the panel drew on industryexpertise from KPMG; Bridge Bank; Mer-rill Corporation; Manatt, Phelps & Philips;and AlwaysOn editors.To be effective, the new marketer mustunderstand how to leverage and build com-munities. Social networking sites suchas Facebook and Friendster, along withnewcomers Tagged and “social reviews”site Yelp, offer rapid access to like-mindedconstituencies. When companies want tobuild their own topical and product-centriccommunities, companies like LeverageSoftware offer the tools.New marketers also need big ears, totrack what’s being said about their prod-ucts, and even bigger nets to catch the rightaudience. Tools and services such as Buzz-Logic, BrandIntel, and Umbria—whichaggregate, organize, and interpret feedbackfrom structured and unstructured sourcessuch as blogs, message boards, and tradi-

ELCOME TO THE FIRST

annual

AlwaysOnMedia 100.

With thisfresh list of private com-panies, we highlightgame-changing players in advertising,marketing, and promotion. These venturesaren’t just redeﬁning the way marketersreach audiences, but they’re also changingthe very nature of the relationship betweenbrands and their consumers.Today’s marketing executive, or the“new marketer,” exists in a more dynamicuniverse than ever before. Seminal workslike

The Cluetrain Manifesto

and

The Cathe-dral and the Bazaar

showed the way to thisnew world, where many more voicesclamor to be heard. Instead of spouting“key messages,” brands engage in

discus-sions

, while spin turns into

context,

andaudiences morph into

communities

. The

AlwaysOn Media 100

offers a roadmapto the innovative tools, services, and ven-ues that new marketers use to engage theirtargets and grow their businesses.For the

AlwaysOn Media 100

list,hundreds of private companies—spanningnumerous sectors, all stages of corporatetional media—help in letting marketersmonitor the brand landscape.Viral marketing is turbocharged throughservices like Digg, where readers rate topicsand the wisdom of crowds becomes mani-fest in the prioritization of information.Novel advertising platforms like eCast(networked jukeboxes), Reactrix (in-venueinteractive “advergames”), and DoubleFusion (in-game advertising) let marketersextend their reach right into a user experi-ence. Think “Want a shot with that beer?Ask your bartender after you pick the nextsong—oh, and make it a Stoli!”Another hot frontier in marketing ismobile advertising. But made-for-mobileexperiences are a different ballgame. Com-panies like MyWaves and Saynow lever-age mobility’s real-time nature to createextremely interactive mobile communi-ties. Meanwhile, Smaato is blending use-ful consumer services with promotionalcontent—giving advertisers a persistentvehicle to keep their name and messagingin front of target audiences.Geographically, Silicon Valley is hometo 58% of the AO Media list, while NewYork, another signiﬁcant hub, harbors 15%.The next-greatest concentrations are in theBoston (5%), Los Angeles (4%), and Seat-tle (4%) areas. But those regions are not theonly star-studded ones. Startups elsewherein the U.S.—and the growth of companieslike Madhouse, BrandIntel, Clickdensity,and Netvibes—show that new marketingis a global phenomenon.In tune with our deeply held convic-tions on the importance of communitiesand conversation in the era of new mediabranding, the Community Platform cate-gory of our list yielded both our top MediaNewcomer, MerchantCircle, and our Con-sumer Media Company of the Year, Yelp.Our overall Media Company of the Year,Quigo, is—what else?—an Online Adver-tising Service Provider.To conclude, the

AlwaysOn Media100

offers a ﬁrst comprehensive index of companies that can help marketers developthe game-changing marketing strategiesthey need to thrive in this brave new world.Some may think that viral successes areaccidental and overnight hits are simplythe products of chance and fashion. Butwe don’t. Instead, we think this list offerssignposts to both overnight and long-termmarketing success.

Ezra Roizen

is a strategic advisor to newventures in the areas of private ﬁnancing,mergers & acquisitions, and strategic planning. To contact him, e-mail ezra@roizen.com.

Nina Davis

is a freelance technologyeditor and writer.

CATEGORY

Community Platforms

BIG FISH GAMES

WWW.BIGFISHGAMES.COM

HQ:

Seattle, WA

FOUNDED:

2002

CEO:

aul Thelan

EMPLOYEES:

100

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

angels

AO TAKE:

Big Fish Games develops, publishes,and distributes casual, family-friendly games,boasting more than 500 titles and a globalreach of more than 25 million monthly uniqueusers. Big Fish is one of the fastest-growinggame sites and is well positioned to turn itscommunity into a powerful ad platform. Thecompany is starting to explore new ways of monetizing its trafﬁc through creative ad andsponsorship programs. For instance, its newsocial networking service, My Big Fish Games,rewards active consumers and game develop-ers. Besides wanting to make it easy for usersof its social network to give referral rewardcash to charities, Big Fish has also pledged togive 5% of its proﬁts to charity. Altogether, BigFish has done a nice job developing a gamingcommunity with itself at the center, an exam-ple other publishers should take note of.

CRAIGSLIST

WWW.CRAIGSLIST.ORG

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

1995

CEO:

Jim Buckmaster

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

eBay has a 25% equityshare

AO TAKE:

Craigslist is a centralized network of online urban communities that features clas-sified advertisements—mostly free—in cat-egories like jobs/gigs/resumes, housing, per-sonals, services, and community, as well asforums sorted by various topics. With morethan 500,000 new job listings each month,Craigslist is one of the world’s top job boards.Around since 1995, Craigslist is the originalWeb 2.0 classifieds game changer; it hasredefined local commerce and classifieds,building itself into a network with more than450 local sites in the U.S. and abroad thatgets over 5 billion page views a month. Sinceits beginnings as a non-profit, and now as afor-profit, Craigslist has been opening eyes tothe fact that community and commerce canpeacefully coexist on the Internet. The siteand company continue to grow, but insteadof focusing on maximizing profits, Craigsliststates that it exists to help users find whatthey need, and relies on local communities tosuggest ways to make money without com-promising the site.

DIGG

WWW.DIGG.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Jay Adelson

EMPLOYEES:

•

AlwaysOn Media

The

Q U I G O P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F D O U G G O O D M A N

NEW TOOLS FORTHE NEW MARKETER

BY EZRA ROIZEN & NINA DAVIS

QUIGO TECHNOLOGIES

WWW.QUIGO.COM

HQ:

New York, NY

FOUNDED:

2001

CEO:

Michael Yavonditte

EMPLOYEES:

ca. 90

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Highland Capital, Steamboat Ventures

AO TAKE:

Performance-based advertising player Quigo offersonline marketing solutions for premium-branded websitesand advertisers. Its AdSonar network offers auction-based,pay-per-click advertising, while its Feedpoint product providestechnology and services to help customers with their search-engine marketing and optimization needs.In essence, the company offers a private-label alternativeto Google and Yahoo’s services, which portal clients like, as itgives them more control.

Time Magazine

wondered if Quigowould become the next Google. Quigo certainly seems to be qui-etly and effectively slipping into the open space between Googleand Yahoo as an independent online ad service option, and hasgreat customer traction with brands like ESPN, Fox, and ABC.

•

Michael Yavonditte

CEO, Quigo

ALWAYSON

|WINTER 2007

coupons. By turning them into a real-time,mobile promotional tool, Cellfire is redefin-ing the concept of coupons. Its field of oppor-tunity is open, particularly as more and morelocation-based services get deployed and inte-grated with real-time, geographically contex-tual promotional campaigns. Cellfire recentlyraised a $10 million round, offering validationfor its new approach to an old problem: gettingtargeted promotions for specific products tointerested consumers.

ENPOCKET

WWW.ENPOCKET.COM

HQ: FOUNDED:

2001

CEO:

ike Baker

EMPLOYEES:

100

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

BlueRun Ventures, Grand-Banks Capital, Dolphin Equity Partners, BruVenture Capital

AO TAKE:

Marketing and advertising platformEnpocket manages and optimizes consumer-brand communications on the mobile hand-set. Enpocket helps brands effectively marketand drive sales by offering integrated, end-to-end mobile marketing and advertising solu-tions. An established leader in its space, withstrong global presence and good customeradoption, Enpocket brings tools from theonline world, such as predictive and behavior-based marketing, to the mobile platform. Tohelp marketers keep the attention of their tar-gets, the company is also extending into newkinds of mobile applications, such as game-vertising and social networking.

GOTV NETWORKS

WWW.GOTVNETWORKS.COM

HQ:

Sherman Oaks, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

avid Bluhm

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Bessemer Venture Part-ners, Charles River Ventures

AO TAKE:

GoTV Networks provides on-demandmobile television programming, delivering real-time sports scores, music videos, and otherentertainment programming. The companyruns its own production facility, producing awide range of original programming. AlwaysOnis watching the development of next-genera-tion media networks with great interest. Thequestion is: Are services like GoTV the nextCNN and ESPN, or are they more specializeddelivery platforms? Either way, GoTV is wellpositioned to take advantage of new forms of advertising targeted at mobile phone-basedentertainment.

GREYSTRIPE

WWW.GREYSTRIPE.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

ichael Chang

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Incubic Venture Capital

AO TAKE:

Greystripe’s AdWrap delivers adsthrough a network of free mobile games. TheAdWrap technology adds advertising supportthat automatically integrates with the mobilegame after its development is completed.This means no additional code to write orlibraries to include in the game—game pub-lishers just visit Greystripe’s web interfaceto upload their game, then download it againonce it’s “AdWrapped.” AdWrap’s adjunct siteGameJump.com provides distribution for thefree mobile games, so that the quantity of itsgame offerings increases along with what ithas to offer to ad publishers. While the com-pany continues to push its concept, it couldalso become an interesting acquisition targetfor one of the bigger ad networks.

ILOOP MOBILE

WWW.ILOOPMOBILE.COM

HQ:

San Jose, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Steve Koskie

EMPLOYEES:

AO TAKE:

iLoop Mobile offers a comprehen-sive platform for mobile promotion and mer-

WINTER 2007|

ALWAYSON

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AO MEDIA 100

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TOPCONSUMERMEDIACOMPANY

YELP

WWW.YELP.COM

HQ:

co, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Jeremy Stoppelman

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Bessemer Venture Part-ners, Benchmark Capital, PayPal cofounderMax Levchin

AO TAKE:

Yelp is a local review site and cityguide that combines “real reviews by real peo-ple” with local advertising and social network-ing—to excellent effect. In its key markets(San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Chicago,Boston, and LA), Yelp reviews can noticeablyaffect a local business. Rewards (mostlyintangible, such as ranking and status) forwell-written or first reviews of businesses of interest, and the ability to rate other Yelpersand IM with them through the site make it anextremely sticky user destination. By mak-ing it easy to spread that most valued formof marketing—positive word of mouth—Yelpis already driving opinion. It should be able tocommand significant advertising revenuesfrom savvy “new marketers” interested inreaching a highly targeted, influential, andinterested audience. PayPal alumni JeremyStoppelman and Russell Simmons went toLevchin for incubation money to create thesite; since then they’ve raised $16 millionin two rounds.

CATEGORY

User-Generated Media

ABAZAB

WWW.ABAZAB.COM

HQ:

os Gatos, CA

FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

Itzik Cohen

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Draper Fisher Jurvet-son (DFJ), Geneva Ventures, KPG Ventures,Advanced Equities, angels

AO TAKE:

Abazab offers a universal mediaplayer that makes it easy to upload digital con-tent and share it with others. Primarily aimedat the tween and teen market, Abazab wantsto make it very easy for users to publish theirmedia, whether they’re using mobile phones,webcams, or PCs. Abazab’s newly launchedClipSync application adds a social dimensionto users’ YouTube habit, by allowing them toIM as they simultaneously watch clips andgenerate shared playlists to create “onlinevideo parties.” This could potentially makeonline video-watching even stickier, encour-aging marketers to come up with new ways toreach not just individual online video watch-ers, but ready-made online video-watchingcommunities.

THE MANIATV NETWORK

WWW.MANIATV.COM

HQ:

enver, CO

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Drew Massey

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Benchmark, Intel, Cen-tennial Ventures

AO TAKE:

ManiaTV streams live and on-demandtelevision programming on the Internet, includ-ing music clips, short ﬁlms, user-generatedcontent, action sports shows, and premiumshows with hosts such as comedian TomGreen. Part TV station, part Web 2.0 user-gen-erated content channel, ManiaTV is an inter-esting hybrid that is pushing the boundariesof content consumption. For advertisers aim-ing to reach the elusive and ﬁckle young adultmarketplace, this service could be a good tar-get. The company is partnering with social net-working communities MySpace and Friend-ster and taking ads from blue-chip clients likeCoke, Pepsi, Sony, Nike, Ford, and GM. Tokeep enjoying the attention of a lucrative audi-ence, ManiaTV just needs to remember that“It’s the content, stupid!”

METACAFE

WWW.METACAFE.COM

HQ:

Tel Aviv, Israeland Palo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Arik Czerniak

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Accel Partners, Bench-mark Capital

AO TAKE:

Metacafe is a full-service Internetvideo and media sharing community thatgives its users end-to-end online video tools,providing a nice platform for video creation,management, and distribution. The site alsooffers a desktop application for heavy usersthat can download high-quality media whilethe PC is idle. Metacafe’s built-in monetiza-tion tools give publishers an incentive to usethis service. This leads to a higher quality of content, as does MetaCafe’s VideoRank tech-nology, which lets users rank videos, ﬁlteringout multiple instances and low-quality clips.A rising star in online video, Metacafe repre-sents tremendous advertising and sponsor-ship opportunities. The company raised $15million in July 2006, and an acquisition exitmay not be far off.

MUZILITY

WWW.MUZILITY.COM

HQ:

Palo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Tony Horwath

EMPLOYEES:

AO TAKE:

Muzility is a community-based Inter-net video service and website that lets userspost videos publicly or privately for a small fee.Individual users get a personal video website,while small- to medium-sized businesses cancreate company-branded ones. Unique con-tent can be sold or just shared with friendsand family. A new and scrappy player in theonline video space, Muzility is creating a mar-ketplace for independent video, primarily tar-geting long-form video content—up to and,in some cases, over an hour. For those wholike to watch long-tail, long-form content—and for those who want to reach that audi-ence—Muzility could provide an interest-ing exchange.

MYWAVES

WWW.MYWAVES.COM

HQ:

Sunnyvale, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Rajeev Raman

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Menlo Ventures

AO TAKE:

MyWaves lets people share videosand pictures captured on mobile phones. Ituses its web application to enhance usabilityon the mobile device—applying the principlesthat helped iTunes drive the iPod’s success.At the same time, the mobile application hasa viral effect: By sharing the MyWaves mobileapplication, users can easily share their vid-eos with other mobile phone users. The cre-ation of a mobile video platform and servicethat combines user-generated and profes-sional content into customized mobile con-tent experiences is exciting, and MyWaveslooks well-positioned to blend into a variety of contextual advertising services.

PHOTOBUCKET

WWW.PHOTOBUCKET.COM

HQ:

Palo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Alex Welch

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Trinity Ventures

AO TAKE:

Image hosting site Photobucketmakes it easy for users to share and publishphotos and other graphic art online, on theirown sites, or on their eBay listings, hostedblogs, and so on. Members can custom-ize images and create unique slideshows,scrolling strips, and other collages. They canalso upload three- to ﬁve-minute videos andpost them. Photobucket has made its nameby offering a great service to its customers,but now it’s time to turn the corner and showthe world it can make money. This should

KONTERA

WWW.KONTERA.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Yoav Shaham

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Sequoia Capital, LehmanBrothers

AO TAKE:

Kontera aims to solve the short-age of online advertising real estate by offer-ing in-text advertising. With Kontera’s Con-tentLink, a contextually relevant keyworddiscovered in real time on a publisher’s web-page is automatically turned into a link to themost relevant ad from among Kontera’s sta-ble of advertisers. By creating online “in-con-tent” placement opportunities, the companyis opening a entirely new area of advertis-ing real estate, and establishing a leader-ship position in that emergent space. Kon-tera can target promotions to highly speciﬁccontexts by presenting them inline with “reg-ular” content. Sequoia and Lehman think theidea has legs, having just plunked down $7million in funding.

REACTRIX

WWW.REACTRIX.COM

HQ:

Redwood City, CA

FOUNDED:

2001

CEO:

ichael Ribero

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Thomas Weisel Partners,Worldview Technology Partners, Mobius Ven-ture Capital, Tim Koogle

AO TAKE:

Reactrix lets advertisers, marketers,and venue managers reach consumers with ahigh-quality interactive advertising experience.Using an infrared camera, projector, and com-puter, an image is projected onto a ﬂat-surface“reactor,” and users can interact with it—forexample by letting people “kick around” a vir-tual football. The company is rapidly growingits “in-venue” ad network based around thehighly engaging ads that create an interactiveexperience for the user. For advertisers, Reac-trix makes it possible to stand out and getattention in very crowded and busy venues.The “wow” factor is real—and the ad recalland retention statistics are impressive.

SPOT RUNNER

WWW.SPOTRUNNER.COM

HQ:

Los Angeles, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

ick Grouf

EMPLOYEES:

100

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

WPP, Interpublic, CBS,Index Ventures, Battery Ventures, Allen &Company, Lachlan Murdoch (son of Rupert)

AO TAKE:

Spot Runner is a web-based, self-ser-vice platform that offers TV commercial pro-duction, media planning, and media buyingservices. Through a simple online process,advertisers choose from a library of ads thatcan be viewed, purchased, and personalized.Spot Runner is bringing efﬁciency to the highlyinefﬁcient television advertising market, andopening up TV advertising to an entirely newkind of small business player. The companyclosed a $40 million round in October 2006,which included investment by advertisingpowerhouses WPP and Interpublic as well asmajor television network CBS, bringing its totalcapital raised to nearly $60 million.

VIBRANT MEDIA

WWW.VIBRANTMEDIA.COM

HQ:

New York, NY

FOUNDED:

2000

CEO:

oug Stevenson

EMPLOYEES:

140

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

ABS Capital, FortisBank

AO TAKE:

Vibrant Media provides in-text andcontextual video advertising. The service givesmarketers and advertisers a way to deliverhighly targeted, user-initiated ads within thetext of website content, making every worda promotional opportunity. Vibrant Media’snetwork is growing, and still has potential toexpand, especially internationally.

WILDTANGENT

WWW.WILDTANGENT.COM

HQ:

Redmond, WA

FOUNDED:

1998

CEO:

Alex St. John

EMPLOYEES:

104

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Greylock Partners,Advanced Technology Ventures, MadronaVenture Group, IDG Ventures

AO TAKE:

WildTangent delivers online games toconsumers, and in-game advertising to adver-tisers looking for new ways to reach this desir-able, but elusive, demographic. With morethan 100 million users and distribution dealswith Dell, HP, and Toshiba, WildTangent cur-rently leads the casual gaming space. It alsooffers a branded games service, which trans-lates advertisers’ brand messages into inter-active games. The company is positioningitself as both a game publisher and ad net-work offering in-game, around-game, andsponsorship opportunities. With the $13million round it closed in July 2006, WildTan-gent’s future looks bright.

CATEGORY

Mobile Marketingand Advertising

AD INFUSE

WWW.ADINFUSE.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

an Johnson

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

ComVentures, StormVentures

AO TAKE:

Ad Infuse helps advertisers bringhighly personalized marketing messages andpromotions to mobile devices, with dynamicdelivery to highly targeted consumers. Ini-tially focusing on video and podcast advertis-ing, the company has teamed up with MondoMedia, an online distributor of animatedshorts. Advertisers can insert 15- to 30-sec-ond video commercials prior to each animatedshort on Mondo’s Mini Shows Post Network.The company’s next step: bringing brands tomobile phones and moving content beyondthe subscription model. Ad Infuse offers awide variety of ad placement strategies andstrong technology, letting publishers experi-ment with which advertising strategies workbest with their content.

ADMOB

WWW.ADMOB.COM

HQ:

Menlo Park, CA

FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

Omar Hamoui

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Sequoia Capital, eBayalum Maynard Webb

AO TAKE:

AdMob brings buyers and sellers of mobile ads together. Advertisers place somecode into mobile webpages, and AdMobserves pay-per-click advertising directly totheir users. Anyone with a budget of around$50 can get up and running right away. Incu-bated by Sequoia Capital, AdMob is pioneer-ing the development of an ad network in themobile sector, and has strong global reachand customer adoption for such a smallcompany. If mobile ad placement developsinto as distinct a niche as in-game advertis-ing, AdMob looks to be in a very good posi-tion for growth.

CELLFIRE

WWW.CELLFIRE.COM

HQ:

San Jose, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

rent Dusing

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Menlo Ventures, StormVentures

AO TAKE:

Cellﬁre is a free mobile coupon ser-vice. To eliminate the spam issues that existwith many text-message products, usersdownload an opt-in-only application to theirmobile device. Once they’ve opted in, retail-ers can offer discounts directly through mobilenot be impossible, since Photobucket ranksas a Top 100 website by trafﬁc. So the com-pany is sitting on an advertising goldmine,and as it begins to—carefully—test ad strat-egies, the rest of the industry will be observ-ing closely.

PICZO

WWW.PICZOINC.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Jeremy Verba

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Sierra Ventures, Cata-mount Ventures

AO TAKE:

Photosharing site Piczo has been ahuge hit with teens—about half its users aregirls under 18. The reason for this particu-lar popularity: Piczo lets its users (with shortattention spans) create highly individual andcustomized websites around their photoswithout learning HTML—just by dragging anddropping. As the service evolves from con-tent aggregator to social networking portal,Piczo becomes an interesting example of acompany focused on creating a tighter socialnetworking platform. The big opportunity?Closely knit communities in highly personal-ized, one-to-few marketing campaigns. Overthe long run, Piczo and other tightly targetedcommunities like it could even start nibblingaway marketshare from less-focused sitessuch as MySpace and Facebook.

PODSHOW

WWW.PODSHOW.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

on Bloom

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

KPCB, Sequoia Capital,Sherpalo Ventures

AO TAKE:

PodShow’s network aggregates avariety of communities and personalitiesin podcasting and offers production anddirectory services to businesses and bigmedia companies. The company’s busi-ness model: promoting and ﬁnding spon-sors for podcasts. Not only does PodShowsimplify the creation and production of pod-casts, but by making it easier for the grow-ing number of listeners to ﬁnd podcasts,PodShow offers marketers a handy chan-nel. The company closed a $15 millionround from two rather well-regarded funds,and is jumping out to a leadership positionin podcasting and alternative media.

REVVER

WWW.REVVER.COM

HQ:

Los Angeles, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Steven Starr

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

DFJ, Bessemer VenturePartners, Draper Richards, Comcast Interac-tive Capital, Turner Broadcasting

AO TAKE:

Revver lets creators of original videocontent share, track, and monetize their vid-eos—wherever online they end up. A pioneerin online video revenue sharing, Revver’ssponsor-supported revenue model for digitaldistribution ensures that video makers actu-ally get paid for their work. The company con-tinues to create ways to turn online video froma gimmick into a business, and the Google/YouTube deal makes it likely that Revver isactively being considered for acquisition.

CATEGORY

n-Content Advertising

DOUBLE FUSION

WWW.DOUBLEFUSION.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Jonathan Epstein

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Norwest Venture Part-ners, Time Warner, Accel Partners, Jerusa-lem Venture Partners, Hearst Corporation,Sedona Capital

AO TAKE:

Double Fusion provides dynamic, in-game advertising, creating immersive expe-riences that deliver video, interactive ads,3D objects, music, and other fully integratedproduct placements into video games. Thecompany works directly with advertisers,developers, and content owners, providingseamless campaign execution and creatingan additional revenue source for videogamepublishers while protecting the core game-play experience. Double Fusion has beenfocusing on ad placements in real-time andonline games (rather than boxed, CD-basedgames), and recently announced a place-ment partnership with Cyworld, Asia’s wildlypopular social network/virtual environment.Microsoft’s $400 million purchase of Mas-sive earlier in 2006 could spark acquisitioninterest; in the meantime, Double Fusion issitting pretty, having just raised $26 millionin December 2006.

ECAST

WWW.ECASTINC.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

1999

CEO:

John Taylor

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Focus Ventures, MobiusVenture Capital, Doll Capital Management,Electronic Arts, El Dorado Ventures, CrosslinkCapital, Escalate Capital Partners

AO TAKE:

Ecast runs a network of on-premise,digital touch-screen jukeboxes. Each jukeboxis broadband-enabled, so it can offer the fresh-est music catalogs (through weekly updates),and help track user data and play informa-tion across the entire network. By reinvent-ing the jukebox industry, Ecast has created anew platform for highly targeted advertising.Its solid uptake and adoption promise steadygrowth, and the company closed a $20 millionround in September 2006.

IGA WORLDWIDE

WWW.IGAWORLDWIDE.COM

HQ:

New York, NY

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Justin Townsend

EMPLOYEES:

ca. 50

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Intel Capital, Morgentha-ler Ventures, DN Capital, Easton Capital

AO TAKE:

IGA Worldwide delivers targeted adsand product placements to gamers while theyplay. The service is a fusion of agency expe-rience, videogame culture, and proprietarytechnology. Brands can place and exchangeadvertising within games on the ﬂy, inte-grating in-game advertising with their real-world campaigns. IGA is one of the leadersin in-game-advertising, with exceptional cus-tomer traction and a strong market position.The company closed a $17 million Series Around in July 2006, giving legs to the in-gameadvertising concept and ensuring a solid posi-tion for IGA.

JINGLE NETWORKS

WWW.FREE411.COM

HQ:

Menlo Park, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

George Garrick

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Liberty Associated Part-ners, First Round Capital, IDG Ventures Bos-ton, Comcast Interactive Capital

AO TAKE:

Jingle Networks offers an adver-tiser-supported directory assistance ser-vice through its 1-800-FREE411 number.Instead of paying for each call, customersmay hear a short marketing offer and getthe chance to either respond, or continuewith their lookup request. Highly interactivebut otherwise offering the same servicesas paid directory assistance services, Jin-gle and companies like it are reinventingthe way people use 411 and other informa-tion services. Bolstered by the $30+ millionround it closed in October 2006, Jingle couldbecome an interesting disruptor in the direc-tory assistance market.chandising. Its product suite lets content own-ers create, connect, and control their mobilephone campaigns across the U.S., Asia, andEurope (where iLoop’s acquisition of Denmark-based InAphone helped it establish a firm foot-hold). The platform also lets users track andmanage their content, downloads, revenue,and traffic. iLoop is pulling the pieces togetherfor an end-to-end mobile experience—frompromotion to transaction—and has a strong,high-end customer base and mature products.Still, enormous growth potential remains inthe mobile services market, from which iLoopstands to benefit.

MADHOUSE

WWW.MADHOUSE.CN

HQ:

Shanghai, China

FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

Joshua Maa

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Gobi Partners, JAFCOAsia

AO TAKE:

Shanghai-based Madhouse offersmobile advertising services to the—poten-tially vast—Chinese mobile market. Its Mad-Serving platform intelligently serves targetedads to mobile websites and client media andprovides detailed reports on performance.MadSolutions is its mobile marketing solu-tion and campaign management service,which includes a mobile interactive messag-ing platform and WAP-site building; and itsMadNetwork is China’s largest mobile adver-tising network. Its execs have backgroundsin the advertising and interactive media sec-tors as well as with mobile services and carri-ers. Although Chinese markets can be toughto crack, as the top local player in the world’sbiggest local market, Madhouse may be ableto do extremely well.

MOBILEPLAY

WWW.MOBILEPLAY.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

CEO:

James Ryan

FOUNDED:

2005

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Rustic Canyon Partners

AO TAKE:

Mobileplay provides a free, adver-tising-supported service for PDAs, smart-phones, BlackBerrys, and Java-enabledmobile phones. With the service, users canaccess news, games, lifestyle content, andlocation-based services—either through aWAP portal designed for their mobile device,or by downloading the proprietary Mobileplayapplication. The application also lets usersshare articles with buddies and cache con-tent for ofﬂine viewing. By integrating mobilecontent with an easy-to-use delivery platformand impressive content-delivery speeds, Mob-ileplay is unlocking the mobile device as a con-sumption platform that will truly support ad-supported content. For publishers, serviceslike Mobileplay are worth checking out, asthey strengthen the ability to get messagesinto the mobile market.

MOZES

WWW.MOZES.COM

HQ:

alo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Dorrian Porter

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

angels

AO TAKE:

At its roots, Mozes is an amped-up,SMS-based bookmarking service. It combinesopt-in mobile social networking with compel-ling content and, in the process, is creating apowerful next-generation advertising platform.Users text message selected keywords onany subject to Mozes, and Mozes sends therelated information to their mobile numbersas well as their online Mozes account. Sincethe company’s revenue comes from adver-tising, content publishers can get set up forfree, while for users the cost of getting infor-mation using a Mozes keyword is merely thatof sending a text message. Mozes effectivelyconverges marketing and communication,and its creative approach gives advertisers

•

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AO MEDIA 100

|||||

WINTER 2007|

ALWAYSON

|||||

AO MEDIA 100

|||||

ALWAYSON

|WINTER 2007

|||||

AO MEDIA 100

|||||

CEO:

ggy Fanlo

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Sequoia Capital

AO TAKE:

Online ad network AdBrite wants tomake it fast, easy, and efﬁcient to buy andsell online ads—and increase the transpar-ency of the process. By letting advertisersselect speciﬁc properties on which they wantto advertise and giving them access to thestats before they buy, and letting site pub-lishers decide their pricing, AdBrite is add-ing more control to the advertising space. Atthe same time, it’s keeping its services andtools simple to use for both ad buyers andsellers of any budget.

ADIFY

WWW.ADIFY.COM

HQ: FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

awrence Braitman

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Venrock Associates

AO TAKE:

Adify gives publishers tighter controlover online ad inventory. Publishers providedetails about what inventory is available, inwhat formats, and at what price. Adify pro-vides the back-ofﬁce functionality, including admanagement, tracking, reporting, billing, andpayment. The company has come up with asimple and usable service that’s getting trac-tion with smaller publishers by providing ver-tical advertising networks that connect nichecommunities to potential advertisers. It’s aninteresting approach—ﬁnding the high-valuemiddle ground between unbranded and highlytargeted advertising space. Other factorsthat could make Adify a very disruptive playerin the space: its aggressive pricing and highlevel of service.

ADKNOWLEDGE

WWW.ADKNOWLEDGE.COM

HQ:

Kansas City, MO

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Scott Lynn

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Technology CrossoverVentures

AO TAKE:

Adknowledge offers online adver-tising services that use behavioral market-ing. Its technologies use predictive analysisto study how consumers interact with previ-ously viewed online ads, and forecast the addi-tional offers to which they are most likely torespond. With Adknowledge, publishers out-source their inventory, but the ads on theirsite become more relevant, yielding revenuerates above industry average as well as lowermanagement costs. Advertisers beneﬁt byhaving their ads shown only to those mostlikely to respond, improving ROI. The com-pany remains an innovator in behavior-awareadvertising and algorithms, and it looks likeits time may have come. Its VCs seem to thinkso; they pumped $48 million into the companyearly in 2006.

ADTERACTIVE

WWW.ADTERACTIVE.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2000

CEO:

Sy Fahimi

EMPLOYEES:

150

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

General Atlantic Partners,Perseus Group

AO TAKE:

Adteractive creates online ads thatsend consumers to websites to capturetheir data. Advertising companies then payfor each potential customer, depending onthe type of business. At its heart, Adterac-tive uses a software platform for customeracquisitions that processes transactions ona daily basis, recording how web users areclicking on the ads and how many “convert”to potential customers. Adteractive doesn’t just look at delivering clicks but at deliveringsales leads. This is shown in the company’send-to-end approach, which ranges from cre-ative services to data scrubbing. To its fast-growing customer base, Adteractive is a salespartner rather than a banner ad service. AOalso likes its scrappiness and strong pub-lisher network.

BLUELITHIUM

WWW.BLUELITHIUM.COM

HQ:

San Jose, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Gurbaksh Chahal

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

WaldenVC, 3i

AO TAKE:

BlueLithium combines a large onlineadvertising network with innovative ad target-ing and serving technologies. The companyuses placement algorithms that add efﬁ-ciency to the market; its AdRoll and AdPathproducts collect and analyze dozens of vari-ables to determine the best placement andtarget audience—creating a customized sitenetwork for each advertiser that’s optimizedto its marketing objectives. The company, anAO favorite, continues to execute exception-ally well and grow at a rapid pace.

CONTEXTWEB

WWW.CONTEXTWEB.COM

HQ:CEO:

Anand

FOUNDED:

2000Subramanian

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

DFJ, DFJ Gotham, DFJNew England, Updata Partners

AO TAKE:

ContextWeb delivers contextualadvertising through its real-time contextu-alization engine. The automated serviceuses categories and keywords for analysisand matching, promising accurate delivery,extended audience reach, and increasedsales conversions. ContextWeb’s strongmatching technology “deﬁnes” content (thecontext), then serves appropriate ads to con-sumers based on that context. This content-driven (as opposed to search-word driven)approach ensures the ad is in sync with therest of the online experience. The companyclosed an additional $15.5 million in June2006, and has a strong network and goodclient adoption.

EYEBLASTER

WWW.EYEBLASTER.COM

HQ:

New York, NY

FOUNDED:

1999

CEO:

Gal Trifon

EMPLOYEES:

> 150

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Insight Venture Partners,Cubit Investments

AO TAKE:

Simply put, Eyeblaster creates, deliv-ers, and manages interactive advertisements.But the strength of the service is its ability todeploy behavior-based ads with a host of eye-catching properties, such as dynamic contentserving within the ad or intelligent expandablebanners. Eyeblaster has created a compellingonline advertising campaign managementproduct suite, and is one of the few compa-nies that handles everything from online toin-game advertising. This could nicely posi-tion it as a full-service provider of next-gener-ation online ad services, since for media com-panies whose offerings range across video,text, and gaming, Eyeblaster offers a nearlyunbeatable solution.

INGENIO

WWW.INGENIO.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

1999

CEO:

ark Britto

EMPLOYEES:

105

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Benchmark Capital, Car-lyle Group, Vulcan Ventures

AO TAKE:

Ingenio’s pay-per-call advertisingservice lets service-oriented users maximizeInternet commerce by delivering phone calls—not clicks—to its users. The applications siton a blend of web, traditional telephony, andVoIP technology, making it possible for any-one with a web connection and a phone num-ber to participate in “voice commerce.” Thepay-per-call market looks like it is ﬁnally setto take off, and Ingenio has the technologyto be a leader in this space, which could be alogical advantages. When advertising on cer-tain radio stations to reach a chosen demo-graphic is considered “targeted,” it suremakes advertising on Mercora sound like aguided missile.

OODLE

WWW.OODLE.COM

HQ:

San Mateo, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Craig Donato

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Greylock Partners, Red-point Ventures

AO TAKE:

Oodle is a localized classified adver-tising aggregator and search engine. OnceOodle is set up for a specific region, it scanseBay listings, Craigslist, online classifiedsfrom newspapers, local dating sites, andother sources where individuals might beoffering just the right opportunity or item.Users can search on terms and refine withinresults, or receive alerts for classifieds thatinclude selected search terms. This is a verycool approach to adding a meta-layer on topof classified services; integration of locationand mapping services seems a natural nextstep. Oodle’s clean UI and simple approach tothe massive amount of content that’s aggre-gated make it attractive to use. And althoughrecent disputes between community sites likeCraigslist and aggregators like Oodle may puta temporary hitch in its giddyup, the serviceis really of benefit to everyone involved: user,aggregator, and community.

OPINMIND

WWW.OPINMIND.COM

HQ:

Santa Clara, CA

FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

James Kim

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

angels

AO TAKE:

Blog search service OpinMind letsusers poll the blogosphere for opinions ontheir topics of interest. Its algorithms deter-mine whether a blog is positive or negativeabout the topic you searched on, based onsurrounding context. By ﬁnding and collect-ing opinions and perspectives that interestreaders, OpinMind creates a compelling userexperience, and shows the natural debate inan entertaining way. While the search resultsmay not necessarily be statistically relevant,this approach could morph into compellingpromotional concepts, especially around com-munities of interest—and opinion.

PIXSY

WWW.PIXSY.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

1995

CEO:

Chase Norlin

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Intel Capital, angels

AO TAKE:

Pixsy is a media search distributionplatform that lets websites or applications runtheir own branded image and video searchengine. It aggregates photo and video contentfrom across the web in the form of thumbnailimages, which are then indexed so users cansearch and browse them. The company bringsa new suite of tools to the multimedia searchsector, and is creating new search-based adopportunities in the process. Pixsy’s multime-dia spiders and index also let it create com-pelling vertical search applications that canserve as multimedia launching points for ver-tical portals—potentially enabling a whole raftof future vertical-market YouTubes.

PLUGGD

WWW.PLUGGD.COM

HQ:

Seattle, WA

FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

Alex Castro

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

angels

AO TAKE:

Pluggd’s combination of social net-working, advanced search, and podcast-index-ing technology lets users quickly find andshare the exact audio and video content theywant. The service mines podcast, audio, andvideo content through semantic analysis, let-ting listeners find and comment on the specificclips and shows they want to enjoy or share.The new level of targeting and interaction thatPluggd provides for multimedia content couldtranslate to opportunities for improved tar-geting in promotion and experience manage-ment. Pluggd’s fresh approach and nifty tech-nology could make it an interesting contenderin the rich media search space.

RETREVO

WWW.RETREVO.COM

HQ:

Sunnyvale, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Vipin Jain

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Alloy Ventures

AO TAKE:

Consumer electronics search ser-vice Retrevo helps people research, install,use, fix, and upgrade their consumer electron-ics products. Retrevo uses machine learningto perform deep content analysis, classifica-tion, and information retrieval, giving usersan enhanced shopping, comparison, andresearch tool. And it’s all combined into onesite, adding up to “power shopping at its fin-est.” By mixing a contextual experience withvertical online search and discovery, serviceslike Retrevo are shaping an interesting mid-dle ground between search and content. Theadvantage to marketers: the ability to havetheir messages reach the right audiences atthe right times.

SKYRIDER

WWW.SKYRIDER.COM

HQ:

Mountain View, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

dward Kozel

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

ComVentures, SequoiaCapital, Charles River Ventures

AO TAKE:

Skyrider lets businesses and con-sumers use peer-to-peer (P2P) search technol-ogy in commercial applications. The service isdesigned to let the P2P environment and webcoexist, creating opportunities in keyword-based P2P search, unrestricted and dynamiccontent access, and new applications basedon P2P architectures. Adding search mar-keting to P2P networks is a cool idea, and itwill be interesting to see if Skyrider can pull itoff. For those who feel they’ve lost the copy-right protection game, Skyrider could be theultimate way of saying “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em—and let’s ﬁnally make some moneyback from P2P networks.” Clearly, there’senough action in the P2P market to supporta dedicated ad supplier, so Skyrider might beon to something....

TECHNORATI

WWW.TECHNORATI.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2002

CEO:

avid L. Sifry

EMPLOYEES:

a. 30

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

DFJ, Mobius VentureCapital

AO TAKE:

Blog search pioneer Technorati stillleads the pack with its wide range of tools andfunctionalities, tags, and near real-time listsof the most-blogged posts, bloggers, videos,music, and more. By positioning itself as thego-to portal of the blogosphere, Technorati isputting itself in a prime position for targetingthe highly segmented audiences that couldbe reached through search-based advertis-ing. In addition, expansion into video and otherforms of rich media search could open upnew markets for Technorati and help it staya step ahead of its competitors.

CATEGORY

Service Providers

ADBRITE

WWW.ADBRITE.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2001

a compelling, content-rich, and value-addedway to reach target audiences.

NELLYMOSER

WWW.NELLYMOSER.COM

HQ:

Arlington, MA

FOUNDED:

2000

CEO:

John Puterbaugh

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Softbank

AO TAKE:

Nellymoser is a provider of mediasolutions for mass-market, network con-nected mobile devices. Its product suiteoffers modular and scalable end-to-endmobile delivery solutions that support alltypes of rich media. Media companiesand network operators can deliver interac-tive, personalized mobile experiences thatinclude video, music, ringtones, graphics,and games—and let consumers preview,purchase, and share content directly fromtheir mobile devices. Nellymoser has built astrong mobile marketing and merchandisingplatform and impressive set of customerson limited ﬁnancing (a $5.3 million Series Araised in mid-2005), attesting to the power of its solutions. This mobile content enabler def-initely punches above its weight.

SAYNOW

WWW.SAYNOW.COM

HQ:

alo Alto, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Nikhyl Singhal

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

angels

AO TAKE:

SayNow delivers a suite of voice ser-vices that let groups exchange voice mes-sages from their mobile phones. With its“ShoutOut” service, SayNow targets musi-cians who want to stay in touch with theirfans—artists can broadcast messages tofans, who can respond, all from their mobilephones or the Internet. Building communitieswhere performing artists can directly connectwith their fan base gives everyone involvedlots of interesting promotional opportuni-ties—and creates signiﬁcantly more person-alized entertainment experiences. The com-pany is in its infancy, but the idea is a goodone. Not only that, but SayNow and its com-petitors are worth keeping an eye on as greatexamples of Marketing 2.0: Is it advertising,or is it community?

SMAATO

WWW.SMAATO.COM

HQ:

San Mateo, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

Ragnar Kruse

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

self-funded, angels

AO TAKE:

Smaato’s SOMA platform dynami-cally serves interactive ads into mobile appli-cations. It wraps ad functionality aroundexisting third-party mobile apps, games, andentertainment content, whether accessedonline or ofﬂine. The company is creatingnicely packaged mobile applications—like abill manager and news reader—with an eyetoward seamlessly integrating advertising andpromotional messaging. This dovetails wellwith our view that the next generation of adver-tising will be highly integrated with content andservices, to let marketers engage their audi-ences in new, compelling ways and on an on-going basis. With Smaato’s simple, turn-keysolution, content providers can quickly reacha targeted customer base and beneﬁt fromthe mobile advertising revenues.

THIRD SCREEN MEDIA

WWW.THIRDSCREENMEDIA.COM

HQ:

oston, MA

FOUNDED:

2002

CEO:

Thomas Burgess

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

TD Capital Ventures, BlueChip Venture Company

AO TAKE:

Third Screen Media offers a web-based mobile ad management and deliveryplatform that connects advertisers, publish-ers, and carriers. It gives them a commonview of all available mobile inventory, as wellas the tools to capitalize on the opportuni-ties. Publishers and advertisers are racingto ﬁnd ways to capitalize on the mobile explo-sion, and Third Screen is positioning itself as the Cadillac provider of mobile advertis-ing services and campaign management. Onthe ad placement side, Third Screen has astrong network, with clients such as MSN,

TV Guide

, and

USA Today

, while on the ad buyingside, major buyers like Digitas and Ogilvy havealready signed up.

VOICEINDIGO

WWW.VOICEINDIGO.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2005

CEO:

John Mayerhofer

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

angels

AO TAKE:

VoiceIndigo offers podcast servicesfor mobile phones. Its mobile distribution infra-structure provides podcast creators with incre-mental ad revenue, which in turn inspires con-tent creation. Its Ambient Advertising productmatches ads to podcasts, displaying the adon the mobile phone’s screen while the pod-cast plays. VoiceIndigo’s creative advertis-ing strategies include integrated contextualgraphical advertising, while the company hasevolved with a strong bent toward advertis-ing and monetization. As other podcastingnetworks begin to work their way into moneti-zation, they’ll have a tough time catching upwith VoiceIndigo.

CATEGORY

CRITICAL MENTION

WWW.CLIPSYNDICATE.COM

HQ:

ew York, NY

FOUNDED:

2002

CEO:

Sean Morgan

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Silicon Alley Venture Part-ners, CIBC

AO TAKE:

Critical Mention’s ClipSyndicate plat-form is a simple video-capture mechanismthat pulls clips from content providers or alive TV stream. After the content is uploaded,it’s run through a voice-to-text engine, so thatit becomes searchable and available for syn-dication. ClipSyndicate delivers a thumbnail,headline, and summary for simple integra-tion onto websites via HTML, XML, or Java-Script. Critical Mention’s technology is robustenough to track the massive volume of broad-cast output—often producing reports withinseconds of an airing. And with its ability toautomatically track topics of interest onbroadcast television, ClipSyndicate just couldbecome be a key tool in the next-generationPR exec’s toolbox.

EUREKSTER

WWW.EUREKSTER.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

Steven Marder

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Tapit Partners, angels

AO TAKE:

Eurekster provides customized andsocial search technologies. By taking advan-tage of the knowledge and behavior of onlinecommunities and the context of the websiteusers are performing a search on, resultsbecome more relevant and valuable—to vis-itors and publishers of the site, and to adver-tisers paying for search terms. Although thebig search engines have recently launchedcustom search products, Eurekster hasbeen focusing on this area for several years,giving it a nice head start as well as severalpatents. Eurekster’s search engines, called“swickis,” currently power search for siteslike Six Apart, Friendster,

Forbes, Popular Sci- ence,

TechCrunch, and yes, AlwaysOn. Eurek-ster’s 37,000-plus swickis are serving morethan 20 million queries a month, nicely vali-dating the concept.

GUBA

WWW.GUBA.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

1998

CEO:

Thomas McInerney

EMPLOYEES:

AO TAKE:

Multimedia search engine Gubaindexes a large catalog of images and vid-eos. The company’s roots are in Usenet, oneof the oldest pre-Internet communicationsnetworks still in widespread use. However,Guba is expanding into the mainstream andcommercial video distribution market; recentannouncements include deals with Sony andWarner Bros. to offer their titles on a down-load-to-own and rental basis. Additionally,Guba continues to be the online video ser-vice of choice for folks with an edgier palate—it already has a strong, fee-paying communityof users and a large catalogue of ready-to-play video. For Guba, the future looks bright,as it begins to move up the revenue curve bymixing both subscription and advertising rev-enue models.

JUMPTAP

WWW.JUMPTAP.COM

HQ:

Cambridge, MA

FOUNDED:

2004

CEO:

an Olschwang

EMPLOYEES:

100

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Valhalla Partners, Red-point Ventures, General Catalyst Partners,BCE Capital

AO TAKE:

JumpTap provides carrier-centricmobile search and advertising solutions. ItsMobile Search Index is designed to discovercontent by returning relevant websites from theindex, complete with title, page snippet, andURL. JumpTap is bringing a full suite of searchand advertising services to the mobile plat-form, which could not only help drive mobileadvertising, but also improve the mobile userexperience all around by making mobile con-tent services more accessible. The $22 millionSeries C the company raised in October 2006should help it capitalize on the opportunity.

KOSMIX

WWW.KOSMIX.COM

HQ:

Mountain View, CA

CEOs

: Venky Harinarayan

FOUNDED:

2004Anand Rajaraman

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Cambrian Ventures, Light-speed Venture Partners, Jeff Bezos

AO TAKE:

Kosmix has developed algorithmsand technology that categorize the entireweb into understandable categories, suchas health, video games, ﬁnance, and travel.In the massive healthcare market and thepopular travel segment, Kosmix chose excel-lent verticals to start with. And although stillin its infancy, Kosmix is worth visiting to seehow next-generation vertical search is takingshape. On the front end, its clean, attractiveuser interface and its seamless integrationof useful content with commercial messag-ing are particularly striking. Meanwhile, thestrong back-end technology results in morerelevant placements for advertisers.

MERCORA

WWW.MERCORA.COM

HQ:

Santa Clara, CA

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Srivats Sampath

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Norwest Venture Part-ners

AO TAKE:

Social music network Mercora letspeople search for, ﬁnd, and listen to legal,CD-quality music from their PCs and wirelessmobile devices. The combination of music dis-covery and community is exciting—by devel-oping dynamic music communities, Mercorais deﬁning segments of like-minded peopleand creating compelling advertising opportu-nities. For “new marketers,” Mercora couldbe an attractive alternative to radio and otherforms of audio promotion, and its onlinedelivery platform offers interesting techno-key component in the highly competitive local-search market. The company is celebrating byannouncing a big deal with MSN—a big valida-tion of the solution.

OVERSEE.NET

WWW.OVERSEE.NET

HQ:

os Angeles, CA

FOUNDED:

2000

CEO:

Lawrence Ng

EMPLOYEES:

< 150

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

self-funded

AO TAKE:

Oversee.net operates several sitesgeared at “delivering eyeballs to advertis-ers” using search engine optimization andonline advertising techniques such as directnavigation, lead generation, and displayadvertising. Oversee.net is an interestingcombination of ad network and consumersite operator. This scrappy company with a“make it happen” vibe may operate mostlybelow the radar, but it seems to be quietlybuilding an interesting business by stayingvery customer-focused.

PAYPERPOST

WWW.PAYPERPOST.COM

HQ: FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

Ted Murphy

EMPLOYEES:

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

DFJ, Inﬂexion Partners,Village Ventures

AO TAKE:

PayPerPost is attempting to cre-ate the first marketplace for consumer-gen-erated advertising. By letting marketers paybloggers to post on specific topics, it aims tobring a business model to user-generatedmedia. PayPerPost can be used to generateword-of-mouth marketing, site traffic, and over-all brand awareness, all fueled by the—sud-denly sponsored—self-expression of blog-gers, photographers, vloggers, podcasters,and social networkers. The business modellooks clever, and PayPerPost is tackling theproblem of helping individual publishers cre-ate meaningful income with a creative solutionset—but it remains to be seen if the companycan actually create a user-generated mediaadvertising network.

RIGHT MEDIA

WWW.RIGHTMEDIA.COM

HQ:

ew York, NY

FOUNDED:

2003

CEO:

Michael Walrath

EMPLOYEES:

200

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Yahoo, Redpoint Ven-tures

AO TAKE:

Right Media’s ad system lets web-site publishers participate in multiple adnetworks, and automatically displays adsfrom whatever network will pay the highestprice—in real-time bidding—per impres-sion for the ad space. The service includesa ﬁltering system to prevent malware distri-bution through ads and enforces publishercriteria. Publishers have a very high levelof control over what ads run on their sites.While some ad networks focus on end-to-end solutions or creative and other ancil-lary services, Right Media is fully focusedon the price. That, and the way its networkis strong and expanding, make Right Mediaa company to watch.

SEESAW NETWORKS

WWW.SEESAWNETWORKS.COM

HQ:

San Francisco, CA

FOUNDED:

2006

CEO:

Peter Bowen

EMPLOYEES:

< 25

INVESTORS INCLUDE:

Sutter Hill Ventures

AO TAKE:

SeeSaw Networks is creatinga large network of “out of home” digitaladvertising screens in venues like bars,stores, elevators, train stations, and col-lege campuses. For owners of digital adver-tising screens, SeeSaw makes them morevisible to and easier to access for advertis-ers—upping their revenue opportunities.By aggregating screens, SeeSaw givesadvertisers access to a larger network for