Week in review: China and Google, Facebook and privacy
Here’s our rundown of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last six days:
Chinese entrepreneurs, investors on Google: ‘Just quit. We don’t care.‘ — What does the Chinese tech community think of Google’s controversial plan to uncensor search and possibly leave the country? We talked to several [...]
EC Roundup: Preventing executive fraud and keeping your data safe
Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:
There’s no medal for first to market – While there’s a sense of pride in introducing a new category, there’s rarely a competitive advantage. Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson runs down the threats that come with being first – and the advantages latecomers have that can put them in a [...]
Change is in the air for venture capitalists
A lot of changes are in-store for venture capitalists in the second half of 2009, and recent data published by the National Venture Capital Association shows concerning trends. Venture capital firms raised a meager $1.7 billion in the second quarter of 2009, almost six times less than the $9.2 billion raised in same quarter last [...]
Q2 venture investing looks like it’s 2005 (and that’s a good thing)
Hey, that wasn’t so bad. Dow Jones VentureSource has released its data on venture capital investments during the second quarter of 2009, and while the numbers might look bleak in most years, given the broader context, they look … okay.
In Q2 (from April to June), venture capitalists invested a total of $5.27 billion in 595 [...]
MobileBeat: Listen to panels on mobile investing and marketing
Stitcher has posted two more audio recordings of our MobileBeat 2009 panels. Here’s the links to our panel on venture capitalists and strategic investors discussing Where’s the ROI? What’s Not Working? (above) We also have an audio recording of our fireside chat on Taking Mobile Marketing Mainstream. (Pictured below).
New Game Informer Unleashes Rage [Rage]
id Software hasn’t shown much of its id Tech 5 powered Rage, the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter-slash-racer it announced almost two years ago. That’s about to change, thanks to the newest issue of Game Informer.
Rage won’t be out until 2010, according to id’s Tim Hollenshead, meaning this summertime preview of the game will still mean a [...]
Roundup: VCs more confident, Apple patents future iPhone ideas
Here’s the latest action:
Confidence is coming back among venture capitalists — So says the Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist Index, which measures the mood among dozens of well-known VCs.
Facebook sued for click fraud — RootZoo says its own analytics show discrepancies over how many Facebook users clicked on RootZoo’s ads.
Gawker says ad revenue up 35 percent [...]
CHART OF THE DAY: VCs Are Very, Very Worried About Exits
Liquidity flowing into venture-backed companies fell 57% from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009, from $6.48 billion to $2.8 billion, according to Dow Jones Venture Source.
That’s the lowest quarterly amount since 1999, and according to a Polachi Inc. survey of 138 venture capitalists, it has the early investing class very, very worried about “exit markets — [...]
