For readers of Watblog.com, this is a unique way to checkout the past newsletters of the website. This is an archive of newsletters from Watblog.com

Friday, February 13, 2009

WATBlog Update There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

WATBlog.com


Here are the WATBlog email updates for watblogna@gmail.com



There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Will You Pay to Download YouTube Videos?

Sometime between yesterday and today Google announced paid downloads of YouTube videos. Yes, YouTube’s partners can now offer their videos for paid downloads.

The help section of YouTube speaks about this feature, thus -

Learn More: Video downloads

You have the option of downloading and storing your favorite Partner videos and watching these videos even without an internet connection. To download Partner video:

  1. Find the video you’d like to download.
  2. Below the video’s play bar in the lower left hand corner, you’ll see a ‘Download‘ button.
  3. Click the ‘Download‘ button to indicate that you’d like to download the video.

Purchasing a video download

Some videos require purchasing before you can download them to your computer. Once you’ve opted to download the video you will be directed to Google Checkout to finalize your purchase:

As mentioned in the help page and it’s announcement, Google is offering this service as a test to a few of its partners. So not all partner videos would have this feature enabled. However, the team asks potential partners who are interested in participating, to touch base here. Downloads will only be available as MP4 files and reports regarding this feature suggests that most paid downloads currently hover around $1 (sounds like iTune yes).

YouTube has been the problem child for Google for monetary reasons, that despite having as huge a user base as it has, it still hasn’t become the cash cow it was meant to be. This paid download feature certainly seems a new way to add monetization options to the video sharing site and look beyond advertising.

However, as most reader’s of WATBlog would know better than me, a variety of download tools and hacks are available for YouTube videos already. How will Google tackle such a menace? Will you pay for a video you can get for free? Will you pay to download a YouTube video even if there is no other way to have it on your computer?

While you decide, don’t forget to watch our WATShows .. for free of course.

Related Posts

Also Check Out:

WATShow.com - Our Video Show

WATJob.com - Our Job Site

WATGame.com - Our Gaming Blog

WATSearch - Our Search Engine




Funding Updates: Valuefirst raises $6mn From NEA, Canaan Invests in mCarbon While VC’s Start To Disappear..

Mobile VAS space is lately getting a lot of traction and it is an obvious move from the indurstry as the VAS revenues are huge estimated at Rs 5780 crore and growing rapidly at a rate of 70% year-on-year estimated to be Rs16520 crores by June 2010. The same is evident in the latest funding news of Valuefirst and mCarbon.

valuefirst-logoValueFirst messaging. a Delhi based SMS services provider has raised series B funding of $6 million from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). In 2006, the company raised its first round of funding of $250,000 from Emergic Ventures of Rajesh Jain. ValueFirst plans to increase its workforce by double from the current 200, and enhance its presence in 35 cities in India. ValueFirst also has plans for international expansion, especially in East Africa and Middle East. Valuefirst claims to have more than 1,300 corporate clients such as ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered, Bajaj Allianz, HCL, Nicholas Piramal, Nortel, Proctor & Gamble, among others.

Reportedly mCarbon another Delhi-based mobile value-added services company, has raised an undisclosed amount of series-A funding from Canaan Partners. mCarbon is in the utility and services space and was founded in late 2007. It has a product that helps manage VAS services, along with other products mcarbon has two products in it flagship platform called Greenroom awaiting patent grant.Impressive enough mcarbon already has Airtel,Idea and MTNL as their clients.This is Canaan’s second investment in the mobile VAS space. It has also invested $5.25 million in mobile TV firm Cellcast Asia.

VC’s Disappearing Act!
Amid this funding news,Venture funding has already taken a downturn in India. Reportedly over ten India-focused venture capital  funds withdrew their registration applications with  SEBI, during 2008. The total investment proposed by these funds is estimated at Rs 1,000-1,200 crore. Besides liquidity crisis  the new guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India have supposedly discouraged foreign VC funds from investing in India.

Experts are not optimistic about the venture capital fundings in India in the current quarter….”At the moment, there is a significant gap between the valuation that promoters are seeking and the amount that funds are willing to give. We can expect VC investment to pick up only when the valuations demanded by promoters come to a rational level, in line with the reality” said K Srinivas, vice chairman and managing partner, BTS Investment Advisors as quoted in financial express.

VC funds invested Rs 33,939 crore in Indian markets for the quarter ending December 31, 2008, against Rs 34,772 crore during the previous quarter.

Related Posts

Also Check Out:

WATShow.com - Our Video Show

WATJob.com - Our Job Site

WATGame.com - Our Gaming Blog

WATSearch - Our Search Engine




Merger & Acquistion Updates: Mobile2win - Altruist / ApnaCircle - Viadeo

Consolidation seems to be the name of the game with mergers and acquisitions being announced this week. One in the mobile space which one in the social networking space.

Altruist Acquires Mobile2win India

mobile2win-altruistMobile2win India a VC backed VAS company in the SMS and mobile marketing space has been acquired by Altruist Group, a wireless voice services provider based out of Chandigarh. Altruist Group currently has a company in Altruist Technologies which operates a Mobile Social Networking Service and JobsOnPhone, a phone based recruitment service provider.

Mobile2win India had raised funding from Nexus India Capital and Norwest Venture Partners who had invested $15 million in 2006.

What will be the impact of this deal?

According to the release with this consolidation, the Group turnover will exceed Rs 200 Crores (~USD 40 mn) this fiscal. The companies shall continue to operate independently but they will take advantage of their complementary Voice, SMS, WAP solutions and offer it to all the leading mobile operators, media companies and brands.

What kind of deal is this?
As part of this deal existing investors in M2W will get shares in the Altruist Group and Rajat Jain, who is currently the MD and CEO of Mobile2Win will now join the Altruist Group board.

Apnacircle.com Merges With France Business Networking Site Viadeo

apnacircle-viadeoApnaCircle.com the Sabeer Bhatia backed social networking website has announced its merger with Viadeo the france based business networking site.

What will be the impact of this merger?

This merger  would help in expanding the horizon of Apnacircle which till now has been pretty much under the radar as far as Indian Social networks are concerned and will also help the registered users of ApnaCircle to be linked to more than 6.5 million members of Viadeo.

ApnaCircle has a current membership of more than 300K from all over India and with this merger Apnacircle hopes to get this number to 1 million by the mid of 2010. As per this deal Viadeo will retain the name of ApnaCirlce.com.

Related Posts

Also Check Out:

WATShow.com - Our Video Show

WATJob.com - Our Job Site

WATGame.com - Our Gaming Blog

WATSearch - Our Search Engine




More Recent Articles



Click here to safely unsubscribe now from "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" or change subscription settings

Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498

 

No comments: