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Brightcove expands globally with customers in Japan

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Brightcove Inc. announced a series of major customer acquisitions in Japan, including Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc., Sony Music Network Inc., Asahi Breweries Group, Shueisha Publishing Co., Ltd., and Orange Page Inc. The adoption of the company’s platform in Japan continues to accelerate Brightcove’s global expansion and build on a customer base that includes leading media companies and marketers across North America and Europe.

Brightcove established its majority-owned subsidiary in Japan in 2008 with $4.9 million in new investment from Brightcove Inc. and four market-leading Japanese strategic partners: Dentsu, Inc., J-Stream, Inc., transcosmos, Inc. (transcosmos), and Cyber Communications, Inc. (CCI). Last year, Web TV distribution giant, Presentcast, selected Brightcove for gorin.jp, the exclusive online video portal in Japan for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. gorin.jp is backed by all of Japan’s commercial television broadcasters. Since then, Brightcove has continued to help Presentcast launch a number of online video properties, including the World Snowboarding Championship’s X-Trail JAM and the Inter-High School Football Championship.

Originally posted on March 22, 2009 @ 8:33 pm

Socialwise set to launch BillMyParents

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E-commerce payment solutions and social network gifting platform developer Socialwise, Inc. has finalized the production version of BillMyParents payment system. The system is set to go live wit its e-commerce partners soon.

BillMyParents is a safe, easy and secure way for kids to shop online, while enabling parents to track and maintain control of expenditures. Using BillMyParents, kids can shop online without a credit card and use the system to send purchase requests to Mom and/or Dad. Parents are notified of the potential item to be purchased, and can approve or decline the purchase, staying in control of their child’s online purchasing activities. If the purchase is approved, the parent can then enter the relevant credit card information and the BillMyParents system completes the transaction.

Concurrent with planned launch activities, Socialwise is working on continued enhancements to the system. These improvements include adding more security features and enhancing performance, scalability and ease of use, with the goal of establishing BillMyParents as the preferred payment utility for kids and parents.

Originally posted on March 24, 2009 @ 11:00 am

Video game trading website Mooch launches free beta

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moochMooch announced the launch of its new peer-to-peer video game trading website. By facilitating every aspect of the peer-to-peer trading process, Mooch gives video game players an affordable and easy way to trade the used games sitting on their shelves for ones they want to play.

Instead of exchanging used titles at retail stores for a fraction of the original price, Mooch subscribers can enter a list of the games they have as well as the games they want, and Mooch’s patent-pending trading engine goes to work. Each step of the trading process is intelligently automated, including finding potential trades, balancing each trade, and even allowing users to print postage directly from the site.

A limited number of free accounts will be available during the beta period. Following the free beta, membership to Mooch will require an annual subscription fee of $19.99.

Originally posted on March 23, 2009 @ 9:00 am

Filed Under: Web

Kayak.com launches what it dubs as the world’s largest hotel info website

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Kayak.com has launched TravelPost.com, a comprehensive hotel information website.  TravelPost.com presents hotel reviews, content and rates on more than 140,000 hotels from over 200 travel sites in one easy-to-use display. TravelPost.com content includes detailed descriptions, photos, maps and reviews from travelers and professionals, as well as integration with Kayak.com’s industry rate search. 
 
Hotel content providers from around the globe will be added each month.  Several new tools are scheduled to launch over the next few months, rolling out on a weekly basis.  These tools include but are not limited to hotel rate alerts that notify users when a rate meets or beats their desired price, enhancements to display algorithm, recent search history displayed on homepage, improved mapping capabilities and opportunity to score reviews as helpful or not helpful.  The site will also make it easier for hoteliers to track reviews and communicate openly and honestly with unhappy consumers with a tool that supports review rebuttal and resolution.

Originally posted on March 24, 2009 @ 10:32 am

Filed Under: Web

Photobucket launches mobile photo application with Danger

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Photobucket announced the availability of a mobile Photobucket application exclusively for the T-Mobile Sidekick. Built in conjunction with Danger, Inc., the software services provider for the mobile device, this application enables users to access and interact with Photobucket media directly from anywhere.

Users upload photos and videos from their handset directly to their Photobucket album. There are a number of options, including adding and editing titles, descriptions and tags, as well as rotating and resizing images. Additionally, users can:

• Create a Photobucket account
• Log into Photobucket to access their albums
• Browse and search images and videos on Photobucket
• Browse other users’ albums
• Share images

Originally posted on March 21, 2009 @ 2:03 pm