The Next Web

Andreessen backs Qik with a “significant investment”

Written on August 26, 2008 – 11:44 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

On December 17 we reported about a new video streaming service, called Qik. Scoble was their apostle, and The Next Web their platform to explain why homemade porn wasn’t welcome (it concerns the bible). In July Joop wrote about their open beta launch. Now it’s up to me to tell you Qik has received a “significant investment” from Netscape-pioneer Marc Andreessen and his favorite business partner Horowitz.

Andreessen has an impressive track record. He’s the co-founder and chairman of Ning (valued at $500 million) and an investor in several startups including big guys like Digg, Plazes, and Twitter. Horowitz and Andreessen were two of the most important men behind Netscape in the nineties.

Their advice and money will help Qik to firm up their position in the rapidly developing live video streaming market. Flixwagon, Floobs (interview), Kyte, Bambuser (review), and maybe Seesmic are all competitors who are addressing the same eager-to-share smartphone owners. With the Andreessen-Horowitz combo in their team and Scoble as their source of publicity, it’s definitely 2-0 for Qik versus the competition.

(By the way, did you know Qik also works on a jailbroken iPhone? Yeah, video!)

I hope you like that post!

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digg, investment, kyte, Marc Andreessen, netscape, ning, Plazes, qik, twitter

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Travel sites wake up: Nokia to offer €8 mobile Lonely Planet guides

Written on August 22, 2008 – 7:39 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Cnet reports that Nokia has announced a deal with travel guide empire Lonely Planet to sell mobile versions of their books to Nokia Maps 2.0 users. Traveling Nokia users will be able to download information for than 100 cities - and that’s just the first shipment.

This perfectly fits into Nokia’s plans to become a service company. To honor this strategy, the Finnish company earlier acquired Navteq ($8.1 billion) and geo localization social network Plazes (undisclosed)

What struck me about the partnership, is the price for each download. Nokia users will have to pay €7.99 to download the maps and background info to their mobile. I’m pretty sure people would be willing to pay this if there were no free alternatives. Isn’t it about time for some travel sites to offer some?

Of course there are services like Tripsay (review here) and Wikitude, which are accessible via mobile phone. Wikitude even works like a location based service, offering you Wikipedia pages based on your GPS position. But the problem is, mobile Internet in other countries than your own is way too expensive.

As long as international data plans aren’t mainstream, mobile travel guides are not so interesting when traveling abroad. What we really need, is a service that offers travel guides of great quality which can be installed as apps. Maybe they are around already, but not really salient. But as soon these guides become more popular, Nokia and Lonely Planet will only reach the hardcore fans and those afraid of new ideas. The rest will be savvy enough to look it up for free. So Tripsay, Wikitude, and competitors.., wake up!

gps, LonelyPlanet, mobile, Navteq, Nokia, Nokia Maps 2.0, Plazes, travel, tripsay, wikitude

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