Posts Tagged ‘NC’
Posted on April 18, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
Is the future of location-based services that great or should they sell, sell, sell?
Remember this scene from the movie Trading Places?
Yesterday Ben Parr co-editor at Mashable wrote an article called “Dear Foursquare: This Is Not the Right Time to Sell” in which he discusses the uncertainty of the location-based industry and recent rumors of Yahoo buying FourSquare for $125 million. It’s an interesting argument to make if the Foursquare team decides to sell or work towards being the “next big thing” as they have been called by so many industry leaders. In the post Ben highlights 5 factors to consider should Foursquare decide to sell or not: Those factors were:
- Potential market size: Currently, Foursquare has almost 1 million users. But what is its potential market size? It’s essentially anyone with a smartphone capable of GPS. And while that number is relatively small now, it’s rapidly rising.
- Competitors: Foursquare’s primary competitor is Gowalla, but it has been breaking away from the app ever since the South by Southwest conference (SXSW) in March. It also faces competition from Yelp and potentially Facebook, which will likely be revealed next week at Facebook’s F8 conference. Yet despite these external threats, Foursquare has a commanding lead and all of the media’s attention.
- Potential worth: Foursquare’s worth around $100 million currently — can it reach $500 million? $1 billion? $10 billion? Where is the ceiling?
- Business model: Foursquare currently burns more cash than it takes in — can it create a business model that will make it profitable and sustainable? I believe there’s a ton of potential in location-based advertising, especially now that Apple and Google are helping pioneer this market.
- Exit strategies: If Foursquare were to turn down the Yahoo offer, who would be able to buy it? Or is there legitimate potential for an IPO?
Here’s my comment on the article
Ben, as a Foursquare user/friend of the team and with the current state of yahoo, I understand your post title and the points you make about selling. But as someone with a location based startup (http://TriOutNC.com) I think if Foursquare decided to sell right now, it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Just look at recent Ning news. Also the LBS space is getting more crowded by the day and they have a lot more competition beside Gowalla. The last time I counted there were over 17 different LBS apps and we haven’t seen what Facebook will launch as you mentioned. But we do know it will be big for the LBS industry and it seems almost weekly that Google is making their apps location aware.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the team, that they can succeed and continue to grow their user base along with showing their value but a $125 million buyout vs raising $3 & $5 million in a competitive uncertain space sounds like a good number to me. Would you have turned down the half billion from Google like Yelp did?
But hey, what do I know, I’m just a LBS geek from North Carolina. Good luck Foursquare either way and nice post Ben.
Also see:
- Location Based Poll: What is your favorite Location based social network/app?
- Check-Ins are Coupons. Game Mechanics are Bulls***. Show Me The MONEY or Go Home (Loser).
- Your feedback and results from the location based social network/app poll
*Disclaimer: I’m a partner with TriOut a location-based startup in NC where I serve as the Business development/marketing strategist.
It’s one of those cases where you agree but disagree with someone but only time will tell for everyone in the location-based industry.
To answer my own question, “Is the future of location-based apps that great or should they sell, sell, sell?” As we continue to grow and market TriOut, I believe the answer is yes, the opportunity is that great but we’re hyper-local to NC and have our business strategy with financial goals in place. For the rest of the location-based apps, good luck. What are your thoughts?
Posted on April 13, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
Video: Dr. Jim Goodnight CEO of SAS on cloud computing, iPad, social media analytics & more. #SGF10
Yesterday at the SAS Global Forum in Seattle Washington, SAS launched their SAS Social Media Analytics product along with other announcements on the company’s products and culture. The SAS Global Forum is the world’s largest gathering of SAS users, attended by more than 3,000 business and IT users of SAS software and solutions. During the forum I had chance to interview SAS’s CEO Dr. Jim Goodnight along with a other members of the press. Watch the interview below as Dr. Jim Goodnight discussed his thoughts on Cloud Computing, SAS’s new social media analytics product, handling data, the iPad and being named number one company to work for in the USA.
I have more post on SAS Social Media Analytics product coming soon.
*Disclosure”SAS invited me to their SAS Global Forum user event as their guest to attend the launch of SAS Social Media Analytics. They paid my airfare, hotel and conference registration fees and gave me access to the product for evaluation.”
Posted on April 10, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
Video: Goals, highlights, crashes & falls from NC's first Segway Polo Game. via @TriSegway
Today history was made when Triangle Segway held North Carolina’s first Segway Polo game at the City Plaza downtown Raleigh. I was fortune enough to take part and record some video footage. Take a look below and if you want take part in the next game contact Todd at Triangle Segway or come out and watch on April 24.
Here are a few photos from today’s historic event:
*Discalmer: This is not a sponsored post but I’m friends with the owners of Triangle Segway and they are awesome.
Have you rode a Segway or played Segway Polo before? If so tell me about your experience in the comments.
Thanks.
Posted on February 15, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
Upcoming events in the Triangle: tweetups, launch party, camps, clubs, Ignite & more
If you didn’t know, OurHashtag sends out a bi-weekly email newseletter of upcoming technology events in the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, NC). We call our events newsletter and site Social Carolina, http://socialcarolina.org. You can subscribe to our Social Carolina events newsletter and submit events on the site. Here’s a highlight of some of the upcoming events we featured in last weeks email newsletter.
| Upcoming First Quarter Events |
The NC Comedy Arts Festival
The NC Comedy Arts Festival is the largest comedy festival in the Southern U.S. featuring improv, standup comedy, sketch comedy and film & video.
Dates: February 11-14, 16-21, 25-27
More info: http://www.nccomedyarts.com
NC Comedy Arts Festival Tweetup
Date: Thursday February 18, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
More info: http://nccomedy.eventbrite.com
TriOut Launch Party – Sponsored by the Research Triangle Park
Date: Wednesday, February 17, 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM (ET)
Location: The Research Triangle Park
RSVP: http://trioutlaunchparty.eventbrite.com
NC jQuery & JavaScript Camp: Winter 2010
Date: Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:00 AM – 4:00PM
Location: Durham Arts Council
RSVP: http://ncjquerycamp2.eventbrite.com
February Triangle Social Media Club
SXSW Preview
Date: Thursday, February 25, 7:00 PM
Location: Bandwidth – http://bandwidth.com
RSVP: http://smctrianglefeb10.eventbrite.com
Triangle FreezeUp! FreezerBurns Live! @DQ
Date: Monday, March 01, 2010 7:00 PM – 10:00
Location: DQ Grill & Chill
RSVP: http://freezeup.eventbrite.com
Ignite Raleigh 2
Date: March 3, 2010
Location: Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh, NC
Now taking submissions for presentations at: http://voting.igniteraleigh.com
RSVP: http://igniteraleigh2.eventbrite.com
TedxTriangleNC
Date: March 6, 2010.
Location: RTP Headquarters
More information: http://www.tedxtrianglenc.com
Date: March 8, 2010.
Location: Six Plates Wine Bar
More information: http://www.fizzleddurham.com
Be sure to check out the full caleneder of weekly events and more at http://socialcarolina.org.
Posted on January 2, 2010 - by Wayne Sutton
Looking for iPhone news? There are plenty of blogs for that. iPhonesinRTP.com is no more.
Back in June of 2007 I had this grand idea of launching an iPhone blog called iPhonesinRTP.com. The RTP part was for Research Triangle Park, NC. Meaning the blog was going to be about iPhone users and apps from the area, along with general iPhone and iPhone app news. Since the launched of the iPhone I have published over 255 post and have covered various local Apple events such the original iPhone launch in 2007, along with the iPhone 3Gs launch in 2009. Other blog entries included featuring iPhone wallpapers, tips and iPhone app video reviews.
For the readers of iPhonesinRTP.com I want to say thank you for your support but do to other projects, working at Twine Interactive and launching TriOut with @LawPower my time is very limited. Plus there’s tons of iPhone blogs and it seems like everyone is talking about the app store and covering niche apps on most gadget blogs. I’ll still cover iPhone news and apps here on SocialWayne.com from time to time and will redirect the iPhonesinRTP.com url to this post.
If you would like for me to review your iPhone app please email: pitches at socialwayne dot com .
2007 1st Generation iPhone launch at the Apple Store Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, NC
2009 iPhone 3G S launch at the Apple Store Crabtree Valley Mall, Raleigh, NC
Binary Game for the iPhone screencast video review
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About
Wayne Sutton helps individuals, startups and businesses succeed in understanding how to communicate on the social web via web development, user experience, brand strategy and marketing (Mobile and Social).
Wayne Sutton is an Entrepreneur, Advisor and Partner of NewMe Accelerator.
Ph: 919-816-2230
@: wayne@socialwayne.comSubmit
