VentureBeat

SwitchGames builds the biggest market for used games

SwitchGames is a game trading site that has ridden the wave of demand for used games. Today, the company says its users are now offering more than 100,000 items for trade on its peer-to-peer game trading community.

The New York company, which was a finalist in the GamesBeat 2009 startup competition, makes it easy to trade games quickly and safely without fear you’ll be ripped off. The company hit its 100,000-item milestone in less than a… Continue Reading

Mobile payments firm Boku gets $25M in spending money

Boku is on a roll. The mobile payments company bought two companies, combined them and, in June, launched its service, which lets people pay for online goods and games with their mobile phone accounts. Now it has raised $25 million in a third round of funding.

The San Francisco-based company was one of the finalists in our startup competition at MobileBeat. Now its service is available in 58 countries, and it has more than 1,000 online… Continue Reading

How the iPhone built the mobile ad market, even as the rest of the economy tanked

Even as the global advertising industry entered a significant contraction last winter, the nascent mobile ad market started heating up.

Why? Credit the iPhone.

First, publishers of new mobile applications started paying other publishers every time a user clicked on their ad to download their applications (cost per click, or CPC). Second, brand advertisers sought to reach iPhone users as they surfed more frequently on their applications.

Back in November 2008, while the rest of the economy started… Continue Reading

Jivox video ads get social and interactive

Video ad network Jivox is the latest online ad companies t0 look beyond run-of-the-mill video commercials to offer something a little more interactive. The startup says it’s adding social and interactive features to its do-it-yourself ad creator.

There’s growing interest in creating web ads that don’t just replicate the television experience, and not just on PCs — last fall, AdMob launched the first interactive video ad unit for the iPhone. These kinds of ads will hopefully… Continue Reading

New site helps cancer patients network, improve treatments

Navigating Cancer, an organization dedicated to helping cancer patients find the best treatment options, has just launched a new, free web site to help its target audience keep track of their medical records, work more closely with their physicians and find other patients going through the same thing. The idea is to give users the information they need to take charge of their health.

The web site, in its beta version, offers all of these resources… Continue Reading

VEVO, the Web’s MTV, is winning the music wars

VEVO, the music video portal that launched in conjunction with YouTube and a number of music labels in December of 2009, is bringing back the glory days of music videos. And, based on its meteoric rise to the top of the online music charts even after a shaky at best launch, it’s working.

In December, VEVO had 35 million visitors to its site, and 13 billion videos viewed across all of its sites, mostly from YouTube… Continue Reading

Bikes get a tech upgrade to lure green commuters

Many people have been watching the technological advances coming to cars this year, with electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids finally becoming a reality. But there are plenty of high-tech changes coming to bicycles too. While the aluminum frame is staying the same, MIT, Cannondale, Sanyo and others are working to change just about everything else.

Very little has changed about the bike since its introduction in the nineteenth century. Until about the middle of last year,… Continue Reading

Cyclone Power to turn waste motor oil into clean electricity

Cyclone Power Technologies, maker of electric generator systems, has just received a tall order. As part of a new contract with the Phoenix Power Group, it will be building a prototype of a generator powered by the external combustion of waste motor oil (PDF) — a ubiquitous, renewable source of energy.

The first of these systems is predicted to churn out 50 kilowatts of electricity (enough to power about 50 American homes). Motor oil might not… Continue Reading

Apple sends invites for Jan. 27 event profiling its “latest creation”

Apple confirmed reports of its upcoming event on Jan. 27, where many expect it to unveil its iSlate tablet computer. The company didn’t say anything about the event except, “Come see our latest creation.”

It will be at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and it will likely be one of the most closely watched tech events since, um, Apple’s last press conference. We’ll definitely be there to write about the announcement… Continue Reading

MerchantCircle enlists its millionth small business for online marketing help

MerchantCircle may not be as well-known as business listing site Yelp, but its user base of small businesses who want to control their web presence keeps growing. The company says it recently signed up its 1 millionth business, about three-and-a-half years after launching.

Los Altos, Calif.-based MerchantCircle creates online profiles for every small business it can find (it has created 15 million profiles in all), then encourages owners to “claim” those profiles and start paying for… Continue Reading

Broadcom’s Scott McGregor aims to stay ahead of Intel in consumer electronics

There are a few companies that stand in the way of Intel as it tries to make an empire in consumer electronics chips. One of them is Broadcom, the Irvine, Calif.-based chip design firm that sells billions of dollars worth of chips in the home, mobile, and communications infrastructure markets.

Scott McGregor, chief executive of Broadcom, plans to dominate the markets for chips used in set-top boxes, digital TVs, modems, cell phones, and wireless networking chips…. Continue Reading

Intel makes new bid to get inside consumer electronics

TVs have been dumb for a long time, but now they’re getting more advanced as they become portals to the Internet. Sharp’s newest TV, for instance, has the same Cell supercomputing brain that powers the PlayStation 3.

To date, computer chip maker Intel has had a lot of abortive attempts at launching consumer technology, rivals say. But at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company launched a series of chips and initiatives aimed at moving deeper… Continue Reading

Russian online shopping club raises $20M to sell discounted designer clothes

Russian electronic commerce site KupiVIP.ru has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Accel Partners.

The Moscow-based company has been operating for a year and it has more than a million members in its online shopping club. KupiVIP.ru sells discounted fashion goods from 500 different brands. Oskar Hartmann, chief executive, said that the round was the largest investment to date in a Russian e-commerce vendor.

Other investors are Mangrove Capital Partners, ARLAN, Direct Group and… Continue Reading

Aliph launches latest Jawbone wireless headset for broader market

Aliph knows how to do good design. Its hot-selling Jawbone Bluetooth headset has won awards and seen great sales. Now the company is launching a new model of Bluetooth headset, dubbed Jawbone Icon, with an emphasis on intelligent audio processing.

This fourth-generation model will feature jewelry-like styles for women and cool gear for men. It also has more intelligence built into it, such as whispering into your ear when you have four hours of battery life… Continue Reading

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 Chinese entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who were part of a delegation that coincidentally visited the Googleplex this week.

Google’s Nexus One… Continue Reading

Don’t like online ads? Microsoft will let you generate your own

Microsoft has filed for a patent related to how users can generate their own ads on social networks, according to a published report.

In the patent, the company notes that ads in social networks aren’t that effective because of the low relevance to the users. With the patented technique, an original, less-effective ad can be supplemented with user reviews, both positive and negative.

Inventors say that subsequent visitors to the web site are shown reviews based on… Continue Reading

EC roundup: Quitting your day job and understanding securities laws

Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:

Ask the attorney: Securities laws - When friends or family want to invest in your start-up, do you need to comply with sercurities laws? Scott Edward Walker, founder and CEO of Walker Corporate Law Group, looks at what steps you need to take to protect yourself and your wannabe investors.

Snatching victory from adversity – Sometimes, bad news can actually turn out to be the best thing you can hear.  Serial… Continue Reading

Zynga and Haitian relief: How social games can make you more charitable

I experimented with a couple of ways of making donations for Haitian relief today. First, I visited the Red Cross web site and made a donation with a few clicks. It asked me for my credit card number and I entered it. Then it presented me with a thank-you note and a receipt, which I printed. It felt good, but it wasn’t necessarily a rewarding experience.

Then I visited my FarmVille game on Facebook. I’ve been… Continue Reading