This, the first of our regional blogs, is authored by the technology and financial journalist Dominic Basulto. Dominic is a New York native, has been a senior editor at Corante since day one and has written for a number of online and offline media companies. Send tips or story ideas to: basulto@gmail.com.
About this weblog
Here we'll report daily on the latest tech and business developments in New York City. Impossible we concede: comprehensive coverage of the city's every story. What we hope you'll find: tips, tidbits and perspectives you won't find elsewhere. As well as unique insights, original interviews and more that should be of interest to New York's vibrant community of technologists and those who track, invest in and report on them.
International investors attracted by favorable foreign exchange rates and record-low interest rates are tapping into the power of the Internet in order to scoop up New York real estate bargains. The city has always attracted deep-pocketed investors from Europe and Asia but "what is new is the ability to use the Internet to connect international real estate investors with local brokers through websites such as CityRealty.com... With Internet based services like CityRealty.com, foreign investors can obtain detailed market and property information (including photos and floorplans) and discuss their real estate investment plans with experienced market specialists before they set foot on a plane."
According to CityRealty.com, overseas buyers now comprise 15% of the total clientele, up from 5% just several months ago.
New York Craig's List is a great resource for finding new apartments, freelance gigs and potential first dates -- and now it's a great place to find a kidney. After a Queens woman placed an ad on Craigslist.com in an attempt to find a kidney for her cancer-stricken brother, she received five responses -- including one from a woman in Texas. One day after the article appeared in the New York Daily News, the woman received another 100 e-mail replies.
According to the latest data from TNS Media Intelligence/CMR, Internet advertising increased by 25.8% in the first nine months of 2004 compared to the year-earlier period. Overall, media advertising spiked by 10.3%. Two key factors: the Summer Olympics in Athens and the U.S. presidential election.
NewYorkChanging.com has an archive of photographs, showing side-by-side comparisons of various NYC landmarks and streets, then (circa 1920-1930) and now. (Hat tip: reBlog).
Getting to that job in New York City can be tough, with commutes of 45 minutes or more typical even for outer borough residents. But what happens when you live in a Pennsylvania resort town in the Poconos? Well, the USA Today feels your pain, with this look at "extreme commuting." Extreme commuters now comprise the fastest-growing segment of commuters, and that is having an impact on urban planners, transportation officials and housing developers.
An update from Barry Diller's far-flung Internet empire: the site Match.com, which has registered more than 42 million lonely hearts since its launch in 1995, was recently recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest online dating site in the world. Match.com operates online dating sites on six continents, in 32 countries and in 18 different languages. The site is an operating business unit of Barry Diller's IAC/Interactive Corp.
You know you've made it when... there's an off-Broadway play based on your company. It happened to Amazon, and now it's happening to Google. The one-man show "Googlewhack! An Adventure" opened in October for a six-week run, but audience response has been so great that the play has been extended through January 8. (It also won an HBO Comedy award)
So what exactly is a Googlewhack? A Googlewhack is that rarest of all animals: a two-word query in Google (no quote marks) that returns one -- and only one -- single answer. (Related to, but not the same, as "Google Bombs).
Ed Sim of Beyond VC conjectures that there are two ways that early-stage companies can view product releases: as an airplane shuttle that "takes off only when full" or as a train that "runs on schedule." The date-driven approach is preferable:
"It forces the team to clarify the absolute minimum requirements necessary to deliver the right product for the market. It also discourages feature creep and encourages highly disciplined prioritization. Most importantly, having a date driven release can get everyone at the company aligned. Everyone knows the ship date and sets their schedule accordingly to ensure that all pistons are running..."
In "Roaches and Reptiles," Britton Manasco offers readers insights into "what is wrong with Madison Avenue." As advertisers attempt to cut through the "vicious circle of clutter," they are turning to marketing gurus who are able to explain concepts like "reptilian hot buttons" and somehow have it all make sense... For more, check out this documentary hosted by NYU professor Douglas Rushkoff.
Most New Yorkers probably know more about bioterrorism than biotech incubators, but that hasn't stopped Mayor Bloomberg and the Economic Development Corporation with pushing forward plans for a biotech R&D campus on the banks of the East River. According to city officials, the new site could create 2,000 permanent jobs and 6,000 construction jobs over the next 10 years and transform New York City into a leading biotech hub. In a best case scenario, the new incubator would make the city a magnet for out-of-state pharmaceuticals and medical devices companies.
A graduate student in urban planning from NYU asks: Why can't the MTA put Wi-Fi on its LIRR and Metro-North commuter trains? It could be a win-win for passengers as well as the cash-strapped MTA: "Market studies repeatedly indicate that ridership would increase tremendously if Wi-Fi were provided." New York is apparently lagging behind other cities such as London, Paris, Seattle, the Bay Area and Tokyo -- all of which provide Wi-Fi access for commuters. Heck, Lufthansa even provides it for its airline passengers now. For now, New York Wi-Fi users will have to settle for the Hampton Jitney.
As seen on Smart Mobs: Opsound is planning a CD release party and label launch at CBGB Lounge, December 2. Opsound is "a record label and sound pool using an open source, copyleft model, an experiment in practical gift economics and a laboratory for new ways of releasing music." To get in the proper frame of mind, check out this history of CBGB's glorious past.
Gotham Gazette takes a look at how the IT outsourcing debate impacts New York City. Surprisingly, "while there has been much attention focused on how outsourcing affects the United States as a whole, there has been practically no research done on the specific impact on New York City." In fact, the article notes that economists from the Partnership for New York City originally planned to examine the issue, but eventually gave up "for lack of information."
Cool feature from Yahoo! Maps: using the company's SmartView technology, it's now possible to populate a map with nearby Wi-Fi networks. Imagine, for example, that you're running to catch a train at Grand Central and want to know all the nearest wireless Internet nodes. So you generate a map of the streets around Grand Central. Then, you click on "Wi-Fi hotspots" at the bottom of the map (look for the Intel Centrino logo). Presto! The map is suddenly populated with a swarming mass of Intel Centrino logos.
A round of applause for Gawker Media (the umbrella company for the New York gossip/celebrity site Gawker) and ContentNext -- the two companies received honorable mentions from EContent for their innovative approaches to digital media and content. (Hat tip: PaidContent, who else?).
Business Week reports that women are opening up new businesses at nearly twice the rate as their male counterparts. An interesting stat: in terms of sales and employment figures, New York ranked among the top five states for privately held companies 51% or more owned by minority women.
After one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year, it only makes sense that holiday gift givers will want to consider their available online options. With that in mind, Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times looks at the Internet's retail appeal. Due to the continued proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, says Tedeschi, "e-commerce executives are operating with clearer consciences, unapologetically building sites with video, zoom and other advanced features to please high-speed surfers at the risk of outraging customers using dial-up connections." According to one analyst interviewed for the piece, broadband users surf more and spend more -- so it only makes sense for online retailers to add more high-bandwidth features.
It's still possible to sign up for Enpocket's free breakfast seminar (9th Avenue & 34th Street) on Tuesday, November 30: "Engaging, Personal & Interactive: How Mobile Can Spice up Your Media Mix." Enpocket is a global mobile media company that provides integrated entertainment and marketing services to build and retain mobile audiences. Among the company's backers: Nokia Venture Partners.
Is NYC-based Quigo Technologies fattening up to take on Google in the contextual advertising market? According to Venture Reporter, Quigo Technologies recently received an additional $6.6 million in Series B VC financing in mid-November -- and that's on top of $5 million the company received in March of this year. Quigo, which bills itself as "a developer of proprietary search solutions that facilitate online contextual advertising, search engine marketing, and business intelligence gathering," is apparently looking for ways to piggyback on the excitement around contextual advertising and search engine marketing solutions.
According to industry buzz, the company is already at a break-even point and has a proprietary technology that "does AdSense one better." Moreover, at AD:TECH New York earlier in the month, the company won an award for "Best Search Marketing Strategy/Campaign." Interestingly, the founder of Lycos, Bob Davis (a partner at VC firm Highland Capital), sits on Quigo's board of directors. For more on Quigo's possible aspirations, check out "Quigo A Go Go" from John Battelle at Searchblog.
Despite a resurgent IPO market in which "Wall Street is giving away big bucks again," there has been little of the hype that accompanied the tech boom of the late 1990's. Since August, at least four deals (Google, Shanda Interactive, DreamWorks Animation, Shopping.com) should have sparked investor attention -- but they didn't. The ever-controversial James Cramer, co-founder of TheStreet.com, describes why:
"Why haven’t people talked much about the new IPO boom? Why hasn’t the financial press taken notice? I think it’s because the market itself has become such a hated animal. We all pay way too much attention to the financial-scandal follies and the boring same-old same-old techies—Intel, Oracle, Cisco, Sun Micro, Microsoft, Dell—and not nearly enough to the RightNow Technologies or the Volterra Semiconductors, both up more than 100 percent since they came public earlier in the year. Those two companies can’t buy a word of ink despite their fantastic Internet-tracking and mixed-signal chip-sets businesses, respectively. Their cause isn’t helped by research analysts who are afraid to be promotional, lest they be accused of shilling for bankers and be in the crosshairs of the regulators. You just can’t get the pizzazz IPOs formerly generated with these now-silent housemen sitting on their hands instead of pounding the table for new orders."
Apparently, Santa has opened an R&D laboratory in Chelsea. On December 4, Eyebeam is offering tech enthusiasts and their elf friends a chance to take part in the "Holiday Hackshop": "Eyebeam's exhibition space is transformed into Santa's tech-workshop with a day full of artist-led sessions followed by a holiday party from 5-6pm. Create your own unique and affordable DIY gifts including radio transmitters, hand-held portable projectors, custom snow-globes and t-shirts and perform circuitry-bending with toys and more..."
The Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) has two RFPs out for bid: a voice and data RFP and a mobile wireless network RFP. In addition to managing the city's 311 service, DOITT also runs NYC TV, the official television network of the City of New York.
24 New Yorkers share their photos and commentary over a 48-hour period, creating a kaleidoscope view of the city as part of this group moblog event. Among the contributors: Corante's own Clay Shirky.
Outsource Partners International, recently ranked as the 2nd-fastest-growing private company in the Los Angeles area, is opening a new office at 477 Madison Avenue on December 1. The business process outsourcing company, which specializes in finance- and accounting-related functions (e.g. payroll, accounts receivable, financial reporting), also raked in another $4 million in VC financing in November. As OPI explains, it's all part of a well-documented trend in which companies "insource" all core functions like strategic planning and marketing and "outsource" everything else to lower-cost providers.
Corante contributors such as Michael Tietelbaum, a demographer at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, will take a closer look at these issues in Outsourcing, a recently launched industry insider blog.
It's the day after Thanksgiving, and that means the streets of midtown Manhattan are filling with hordes of would-be shoppers. According to Yahoo, it's also a great opportunity to educate consumers about the ease and efficiency of online shopping. For the next 48 hours, Yahoo will host a Shopping Snow Globe in Times Square: "The Absolute Hollywood-designed globe, big enough to hold 20 adults, also boasts a photo-ready Santa Claus, falling "snow" made out of potato starch, and a computer with Wi-Fi access inside. Nearby will be four other Wi-Fi computers, so that passersby can do some on-scene Internet shopping."
Most wireless laptop users already know that NYC Wireless is a great resource for tracking down free wireless networks throughout the city. (117 wireless nodes and counting...). Now, there's a new service available for NYC Wireless users concerned about unscrupulous hackers: SafeMail, a new secure email service for the wireless community.
In this Inc. Magazine piece, New York VC Jerry Colonna discusses the reality of raising venture capital in the current economic environment. While the VC world sometimes seems like a private club with arcane membership rules, there are real, concrete steps that any entrepreneur can take:
"You MUST get connected. You know that business relies on people connecting with other people and that few great ideas are truly great enough to break through and emerge as successful companies without the founder/entrepreneur/CEO going out and pressing the flesh. So you don't have an MBA. So what? Go out and find a network you can join. If there's none in your area, start a chapter of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) or Young Entrepreneurs' Organization (YEO). Go to you nearest university and meet with the professors there..."
Laurie Simon Hodrick, a finance professor at Columbia Business School, takes a look at the pros and cons of the Dutch auction format IPO, which Google used in August to sell shares to the public in a massive blow-out-the-doors tech IPO. According to finance theory, a dutch auction should determine the market-clearing price efficiently and effectively -- yet the Google IPO experienced a sharp first-day price spike (from $85 to $100.34). Theory differs from actual practice, says Hodrick, meaning that the Google IPO deal was neither an "unambiguous success" nor an "undisputed triumph."
Quick item from Crain's about a Manhattan-based VC firm, SAS Investors, that raised an additional $10 million to invest in early-stage tech deals. (If the name sounds familiar, it's because the firm was formerly known as Silicon Alley Seed Investors). The three-year-old firm has already invested in 10 portfolio companies -- a possible sign that the investment climate may be brightening for garage (loft?) start-ups and other early-stage tech companies. AltAssets notes that the portfolio companies include Enpirion, Hydroglobe, Lemur Networks, Protonex, Reactive Nanotechnologies, Cebatech, and Tacit Networks.
The Center of Excellence in Wireless Internet and Information Technology at Stony Brook University received a $1 million federal grant, courtesy of New York Senator Charles Schumer. The money won't be used to develop wireless technology, though -- looks like the money will be used to detect pathogens in the air. Clean air, clean Internet connection.
If only we had known about this Web site a few days earlier: the unofficial U2 Web log. Has the inside scoop on how U2 managed to keep the site location for its big Brooklyn gig top-secret until the final hours -- that is, just before the Internet turned into a massive communication hub for U2 fans. On an ironic note, this U2 Weblog is based in Amsterdam -- meaning that our friends across the pond may have known more than the office workers of New Amsterdam.
The executives of Long Island-based software maker Computer Associates are attempting to shrug off a multi-billion-dollar accounting scandal and move on with life. The company's newly-appointed president and CEO discussed the company's strategic agenda in a press conference on Tuesday, emphasizing that acquisitions will power the company's growth engine in the near-term future: "My bias will be, frankly, to look for early ways of entering a market even with relatively undeveloped or immature technology teams or even immature market and sales teams..."
Wall Street seems to like the story -- and the fact that the new CEO is a long-time IBM veteran. Several Wall Street analysts have already set a $35 price target for the company's stock, which is currently selling around $30.
Steven Berlin Johnson takes a closer look at NYC's 311 service in the November issue of Wired Magazine, concluding that "it may well be the most radical enhancement of urban information management since the invention of the census, and it promises to make urban centers into more livable spaces." What's more, we may have Mayor Bloomberg to thank for the 311 service -- the service is loosely based on the on-demand tech support found in Bloomberg News terminals. Johnson wraps up the piece with the big-picture importance of 311:
"When people talk about network technology revolutionizing politics, it's usually in the context of national campaigns: Internet fundraising, political blogs. But the most profound impact may be closer to home: keeping a neighborhood safe, clean, and quiet; connecting city dwellers to the immense array of programs offered by their government; creating a sense that individuals can contribute to their community's overall health just by dialing three numbers. Even in an age of global networks, 311 reminds us that all politics is local."
When you think of Flushing, you probably think of the Mets, the US Open tennis tournament, or Chinatown. There's now another reason to hop on the 7 train to Queens... The New York Times reports that a new $89 million wing of the New York Hall of Science in Queens is opening up this weekend. While some of the exhibits are geared towards kids (Internet arm wrestling), that's not always the case. For social networking gurus, there's the new exhibition "Connections: The Nature of Networks" that "tries to demonstrate how complex phenomena grow out of simple rules, how networks work, and how they affect everything from social interaction to electric grids."
Attention all last minute turkey shoppers: FreshDirect, which has almost single-handedly revived the online grocery scene in New York, has sold out for Thanksgiving. And for good reason... For the past year, the company has drawn nothing but rave reviews from New Yorkers as it has slowly expanded out of Manhattan into other neighborhoods of the city -- including a mention by Time magazine in June 2004 as one of the "50 coolest Websites."
