Jambo » Mobile Social Software

What a cool way to advertise.

Jim Young — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:36:12 +0000

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.

Web 2.0 Investments Continue to Thrive

Charles Ribaudo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:43:42 +0000

$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.”

Mobile Social Networking Is A Growing Market

Charles Ribaudo — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:01:48 +0000

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.

Welcome Kinan – champagne toast

Jim Young — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:31:12 +0000

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.

The Serendipitous Job Interview

Dennis Szot — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 17:18:16 +0000

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

Pure Dental Discovery

Jim Young — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 21:25:04 +0000

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

Hi I’m Dennis. Meet me Face-to-Face

Dennis Szot — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:12:28 +0000

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

P(Z>1.96)? given Z has the sn dist(Z~N(0, 1)). HELP!!!!

Jim Young — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 22:54:02 +0000

That’s probably the coolest tagline I’ve seen in a while (although Dennis isn’t doing too bad, with “Corporate America: Where Fun Goes to Die.”)

But, soliciting other Jambo users for hard-core statistics, not bad at all. If anyone can help her, fire up your Jambo client and get in there. Thanks people.

Technorati Tags: jambo, jambonetworks, osx, statistics, mba

Baal Dan – Helping Children in Need

Charles Ribaudo — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 08:15:08 +0000

Mother Teresa said “if you can’t help 100 people, then just help one.” Everytime I hear that quote, it gives me goosebumps. Given the roller coast life of a startup, when I need a recharge, my inspiration is Tanya Pinto, who founded a charity this year called Baal Dan to help children in need. Last year, Tanya took a three month sabattical from The Richards Group, the largest independent advertising agency in the U.S., to work for Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta, India. (How many of us actually do something like that?) The experience changed her life and she came back determined to do even more. She discovered that there are over 18 million street children in India. I can’t remember the last time I saw a child living on the street in the U.S., but in India, the number of homeless children is equivalent to the population of Texas.

Inspired by Mother Teresa’s philosophy, Tanya created Baal Dan. . . if you can’t help 18 million children, then just help one. . . Simple, manageable, actionable advice. Start small and work your way up. (Great advice for startups too!).

Given the exchange rate, $50 can can go a long way, so your money can make a meaningful impact. Last year, a friend gave her $50 and she was amazed to learn that it bought 300 pairs of underwear, 100 notebooks, 100 pencils and 2 bags of candy for the kids there. Another thing that makes Baal Dan different from most other charities is her transparency. She involves donors in how the money is used and she will be blogging, podcasting, and vlogging about the impact she makes. Tanya is leaving on Nov. 22 for Calcutta to help these children. I hope that some of you will help make a difference to even one child’s life by donating to Baal Dan too before she goes.

Tanya has also created a group on Jambo for Baal Dan to connect those that are passionate about helping children in need, so join this group to get notified when others that are making a difference are nearby.

St. Louis Cardinals Win the World Series!!!

Charles Ribaudo — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 17:06:19 +0000

Its been a terrific post-season for baseball fans, with plenty of nail-biting playoff games that sometimes went unexpectedly to the team you never imagined. This brings out the best of baseball. For Cardinal fans, its been the most improbably run we have seen in a long time. The numbness from sitting in the stands of the fourth game of the 2004 World Series watching the Red Soxs sweep the Cards, has finally worn off. Its a new day, and the Cardinals are finally World Champions again!!!

This year I wasn’t able to make it to St. Louis for game since I live in Dallas, TX, so I have been glued to the TV cheering them on, which pales in comparison with the adrenaline rush of standing with 40K other Redbirds fans in Busch Stadium. I’ve tried to watch the game at local bars in Dallas, but it doesn’t seem like any of the bars realize its the post season, which is why I rarely saw another Cardinals fan nearby. This year, I plan to change that. I’ve created a group on Jambo for St. Louis Cardinals fans to discover when other fans are nearby, so we never miss a chance to connect with other fans that are nearby, wherever we happen to be. We can meet up, chat about our favorite team, and maybe make plans to watch the next game together. Can you say Repeat?