901am

New Media News Every Morning

KickApps raises $14 million in Series C funding for expansion

By 1 Comment

KickApps has closed its Series C funding of $14 million to accelerate company expansion into new markets and continued product innovation. The round was led by North Atlantic Capital, with participation from existing investors Softbank, Spark Capital, Prism Ventures and Jarl Mohn, former CEO of Liberty Digital, Inc.

The financing follows the company’s rapid growth and adoption of its Platform by web publishers and brands worldwide over the last eighteen months. During this time, digital strategists, developers and designers turned to KickApps to integrate social features, such as social networks, media sharing, commenting, rating, blogs, widgets, online video and message boards, throughout their websites.

KickApps currently powers social and media experiences on over 48,000 websites in virtually every industry, including media, entertainment, sports, magazine publishing, travel, live events, radio, television, online retail, food, healthcare, fitness, education, non-profits and B2B online communities. This was also fueled by the company’s international expansion, through a growing market presence in Europe, South America and Asia, representing approximately 35 percent of its customer base.

Originally posted on November 25, 2008 @ 8:08 pm

UMG, Meebo bring real-time social interaction to music videos

By Leave a Comment

Universal Music Group (UMG) and Meebo have entered into an agreement to provide Meebo users with ad-supported videos from many of the most popular chart-topping artists in the world. The agreement will kick off by Meebo featuring artists Kanye West, Ludacris and The Killers at Meebo.com, where users will be able to view videos from the artists to promote their new albums. To augment the promotions, UMG will embed Meebo Rooms on official artist pages to enable real-time social interactions among fans.

The agreement with UMG creates opportunities for Meebo users to enjoy premium content and gives UMG access to premium promotional space to create significant online buzz for their artists. In addition to featuring new, hit videos on Meebo.com, UMG will utilize Meebo Rooms to enable real-time social interaction for fans visiting UMG artists’ official web properties. In the past, UMG has used Meebo Rooms to power a number of popular events, including an online listening party for Kanye West’s Graduation album and a live chat with hip-hop icon LL Cool J.

Originally posted on November 25, 2008 @ 7:27 am

Online marketplace BuyerZone hits milestone with 3 million registered buyers

By Leave a Comment

BuyerZone, the marketplace for business purchasing, announced that its free Request for Quotes (RFQ) service has now been used by a record 3 million buyers. In addition, a survey of recent buyers shows that, on average, BuyerZone’s RFQ service has saved buyers more than 4 hours in their vendor search and reduced their costs by 12% on each high-value purchase.

BuyerZone’s free RFQ service streamlines the purchasing process by connecting active business buyers with a select number of leading local and national suppliers in more than 150 categories – from phone systems, copiers, and payroll services to construction equipment, security systems and modular buildings. Three million registered buyers, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to public sector organizations, have used BuyerZone to request quotes for major business purchases. BuyerZone has also gleaned from buyer surveys that more than 90% of its buyers plan to return to BuyerZone.com for their upcoming needs.

Originally posted on November 20, 2008 @ 11:54 pm

Filed Under: Web

24-hour live Christmas channel launches

By Leave a Comment

Gen2Media has launched www.ChristmasTV.com, the world’s first fully digital television network which offers 24-hour, 7 day-a-week Christmas programming. The one-of- a-kind site features hundreds of hours of continuous Christmas-themed music videos in several genres: Country, Christian, Adult Contemporary, Urban, Spanish and Classics.

ChristmasTV.com has already scored big with the broadcast media, with more than 30 radio and TV affiliates jumping on board with their own private label version for their listening audience. ChristmasTV.com can also be private labeled for private corporate clients as well. The site will continue to offer holiday-themed music videos at no charge until January 02, 2009.

Gen2Media burst onto the digital media scene in early 2008 by landing major partnerships and contracts with Clear Channel Communications, Tribune Company and Emmis Communications.

Originally posted on November 24, 2008 @ 2:21 pm

Breaking News: Breakingnews.com launches

By Leave a Comment

PV Media Group, an online marketing company, has entered into a joint venture with Breaking News Network, Inc., securing as a domain name one of the most valuable and highly searched search terms in online news, BreakingNews.com.

“Perhaps the most exciting component of BreakingNews.com is the domain name itself,” PV Media Group CEO Steve Rosenberg says. “Instantly securing a highly trafficked domain name like this, encompassing a term that has become such a significant part of the global vernacular, holds tremendous value for advertisers seeking prime online real estate with guaranteed traffic.”

Rosenberg has named newspaper veteran James McDonald, the company’s VP of corporate sales and development, to serve as president-CEO of the joint venture, which aims to create a unique online social news community.

“BreakingNews.com will be designed to bring about a more informed global news conversation in both open and closed communities. Its posts offer readers coverage from every vantage point. They can also share a variety of unique widgets and tools, including some that we will add soon, that offer greater insight into the news than typical aggregation sites,” McDonald said.

By offering multiple perspectives on significant breaking stories and news events—aggregated from the media, firsthand blog posts, pod- and video-casts, news buzz from around the web, opinion polls and comments—users can make instantly informed decisions based on verified information posted 24/7.

Originally posted on November 21, 2008 @ 1:00 pm