Jambo

Google almost never advertises with traditional media. However, here is an example of one ad they did run a while back.

The billboard was a math problem: find the first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e. If you were able to solve the problem, and put http://[very_long_numeric_answer].com into your browser, you were directed to Google’s jobs site. Too cool.

$646.2 million has been invested in 101 Web 2.0 deals world-wide in Q1 2007, according to DowJones VentureOne & Ernst & Young LLP. New England invested the most money with investments of $102 million in 10 deals, edging out the Bay Area, with $90.5 million in 25 rounds. Web 2.0 space was also active overseas. In Europe, investors committed $52 million in 20 deals, and in Israel, $15 million in 5 deals. Worldwide investments rose 6% from 2006 levels, attributed to more investments overseas.

“If you’re a venture guy there are few areas you can look now and find an equally attractive place to put your money,” said Scott Raney, partner at Menlo Park, Calif.-based Redpoint Ventures. “You can’t beat an investment of $5 million in a company that could get acquired for hundreds of millions.”

M:Metrics announced that over 12.3 million people from the U.S. and Western Europe accessed social networking services from their mobile devices in June 2007. Of that total, 7.5 million of those people were from the U.S., representing about 3.5% of mobile subscribers in America, more than the total number of people that downloaded mobile games in June, which was 6.9 million.

“With the mobile phone playing a central role in people’s social lives, it’s only natural that social networking sites are working to bridge the gap between the online and mobile worlds”, says Mark Donovan, senior analyst at M:Metrics.

MySpace was the most popular social networking site with 3.7 million U.S. and 440,000 UK mobile users, followed by 2 million Facebook users in the U.S. and 307,000 in the UK.

The bigger story could be the revenue MySpace might be making from this. Its partnered with AT&T, Helio, and Vodafone, and is charging $2.99 per month. If all 4,140,000 MySpace mobile users are paying $2.99 a month, then MySpace would be generating $12.4 million a month or $148.5 million a year, just from mobile subscriptions. Most likely many of these users are just accessing MySpace’s website off-deck, which is not as optimized as its mobile version. If we assume just 10% of these mobile users are paying for the MySpace service through its on-deck relationships with ATT/Cingular, Helio, and Vodafone, then 414,000 users would be generating approximately $1.24 million a month or $14.9 million a year. That figure seems reasonably when you consider that over 200,000 people signed up for the Cingular service within 2 months of rolling it out in Dec 2006 and 70% of Helio’s 100K subscribers use MySpace mobile. While that may be just a fraction of MySpace’s total online social networking users (160 million +) or online revenues ($550 million), it does represent the beginnings of a very attractive market for mobile social networking services.

We’ve been very quiet at Jambo for several months now.

One theory is that we’ve been working way too hard to have time for blogging – heads down, makin’ change happen. Another theory is that the Jambo team went down to Juarez on a 4 month tequila binge and forgot to write home. Either way, we’re back now and change is afoot. Our first announcement is that we’ve made a fantastic addition to the core team – one Kinan Sweidan. Our resident rock star. He is responsible for all of the success of Ximda, and brings a new, fresh perspective. Get ready, its going to be quite interesting.

So I talked with a friend of mine the other day and he let me know that he’s joining the “Something Better” bandwagon that so many are jumping on now. He’s a highly skilled web developer with good general business skills to boot. A high commodity these days. Well, the other day he was contacted by a recruiter that followed up with his job board response. As they came to realize, they both attended the same grad school at the during the same time. And what’s more? They even took the same classes. That was a year ago. Fast forward to today and he could have been doing “Something Better” a year ago, had he only known of the opportunity sitting on the other side of the auditorium.

Here at Jambo, we’re striving to bridge that connection and make these opportunities present themselves much easier. Had both been Jamboing on their Blackberries, this happenstance connection may have happened way sooner…and today, my friend would be one year wiser in “Something Better”.

As I’ve said before: With Jambo, Opportunity is Footsteps Away.

Technorati Tags: serendipity, mososo, interviews, opportunity, mobilesocialnetworking

Quick…When you think of Web 2.0, what’s the first city that pops in your mind? Ok, time’s up. That’s right, you guessed it – Dallas, Texas. Yep, Dallas! And if Dallas is the glittery, neon, honkytonkin’ “city of web apps”, then one Mr. Kinan Sweidan is the J.R. Ewing of Web 2.0. You heard it here first.

Last night, after 1 week of development, dealburnr went live. Yet another app in Ximda’s stable. And let’s not forget other notable Dallas apps like DayTripr, Bambora, isportif and many, many more on the way. Yeee haw.

Ok – this was really weird. I’m sitting in my dentist’s office, getting my teeth cleaned. Pretty mundane stuff… I pick up the 2 month old issue of People. 30 seconds later, I’m bored so I pull out my PDA, and start looking for some WiFi. I see a network called “PureDiscovery”. Weird – that’s my friend Dave Copps‘ company, which was on the other side of town, last I heard. I finish up my appointment (no cavities!) and I’m standing in the lobby, fumbling w/ my Blackberry looking for Dave’s number to see if he’s around, and in walks my friend, Adam Keys. It turns out Pure Discovery is not on the other side of town, its on the other side of the wall from my dentist, haha! Had a great conversation w/ Adam, Dave, and Dan – all by pure SSID wifi chance. All by Pure Discovery.

Technorati Tags: purediscovery, adamkeys, davecopps

No, its not me. But, it is someone I know quite well. My dad recently showed up on CBS in an interview about the outstanding TED conference. The piece really captures the essence of TED and the amazing community that has blossomed under its curator Chris Anderson. This post from the TED blog is a good next click.

Technorati Tags: ted, sergeybrin, mattgroening, algore, jimyoung

There has been some noise from behind the doors at Jambo. To start, we have a fresh new look at Jambo.net. [A long time coming...I know.] This is the direct result of feedback we’ve received from you, our devoted and unconditionally-loving (ok ok…taking a bit of creative liberty here) community.

The great thing here is that this is just one of MANY fancy-schmancy new things to to come in the weeks ahead…

So I’ll keep this one short, but for those of you that haven’t noticed (which, I’ll assume is due to your newly-formed habit of surfing the Internet sans contacts or glasses), please go see it now! And if you haven’t already…go ahead and create your Jambo profile today…it only takes a minute…really!

Finally – and most importantly – please let me (or Jim, Charles, et. al.) know what it is you like or dislike about the new look and give us any relevant, constructive feedback you can think of. We’d really appreciate it!

Thanks for stopping by,

Dennis

Technorati Tags: Create.html, www.jambo.net

Hello World, My name is Dennis. Though we may have crossed paths, we have not been properly introduced…

I have been a long-time collaborator with Jim and Charles here at Jambo. Since meeting Jim and Charles back in 2005 at a presentation at The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management, I have been following their progress on bringing social networking back to the real world…just where it belongs. Over these years, I have become increasingly intrigued and excited by the possibilities here and am proud to be a contributor.

This…is innovation. This is making meaning in what you do (Thank you, Guy Kawasaki)

In addition to other tasks, I’ll be writing some thoughts (however random, trivial, or insignificant they may seem to you people) here. With any luck, I’ll even have an interesting post or two that just might humor you just enough to generate some interesting, constructive discussion.

Yes, constructive.

[Hey, no one loves friendly banter, smack talking or an all out flame-fest more than me, but please take it offline so we stay on topic.]

Now while I love hearing myself talk (or write) just as much as the next guy, I really want this to be an outlet for you. An outlet for you to individually and directly effect change. An outlet for you to speak your mind and tell us what you want to get out of this thing. We are striving each and every day to make Jambo even better and help push this Mobile Social Software aka MoSoSo (MoSoSo: isn’t that such a fun made-up word?) revolution into the mainstream.

Good to Meet You,

Dennis Szot

Discover When I’m Nearby

Technorati Tags: charles, Dm.vm?id=2f009d258fac789f8bfa5b797bf27ed6, Mobile Social Software, MoSoSo, www.jambo.net