… the combined monthly active users of WeChat and Weixin (the version available in China) reached 355 million as of end 2013, an increase of 121 percent year-on-year and up six percent quarter-on-quarter.
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Tag Archives: neato
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We’ve heard that Google Voice is getting dragged to the trash can and most of its functionality will be incorporated into the G+ Hangouts apps on both Android and iOS. This has already happened to …
I’m really, really not enjoying the Hangouts app on my Android device. Since it’s a Nexus 5 I have no choice but to use it for SMS; it’s slow, sometimes crashes, and makes me miss iMessage (one of the few iOS things I really miss, a lot).
It is good, however, to see the convergence Google is doing (as a consumer). I can’t wait to see how big of a lid the big carriers are going to flip when Google allows you to drop your normal carrier and map your number to Hangouts.
Google plans to kill Google Voice in coming months, integrate features into Hangouts
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Fleep is adding Android, Mac and Windows to the list of supported platforms for its team-messaging app.
We’re trying out Slack right now instead of Skype. Considering this one too.
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The week in cloud: Oracle and Microsoft put the finishing touches on a surprise alliance announced in June. What brought these two rivals together? A common adversary.
Interesting (powerful) move by MS and Oracle in their fight against AWS.
Microsoft and Oracle solidify cloud coexistence as Amazon’s cloud turns 8
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The experience made it clear that WhatsApp, even with more than 450 million users, by no means has certain domination of the free texting market — and you would think it might if Facebook paid up to $19 billion to acquire the start-up.
“For Free Texting Apps, the Market Is Far From Conquered” via NYTimes.
I also have this “which app are you on?” experience whenever I meet people at conferences or networking events, especially internationally. My “messaging” folder of apps gets a workout daily as I switch between WhatsApp (friends in Mexico and Spain), GroupMe (Seattle friends), Skype (work), Facebook Messenger (NYC and Boston friends), then a much smaller percentage of time on Line and Viber (random international folks).
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Event ticketing startup Eventbrite has raised a new round of funding at around $50 million, Fortune’s Dan Primack reports, which values the company at over $1..
Eventbrite valued at $1 billion. Wow.
Eventbrite Raises Around $50M At A Valuation North Of $1B, Fortune Reports | TechCrunch
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With an app like Secret, a user could post an original photograph and write a post about it, and people connected to that user can help the secret propagate through the app’s network, as well as through the web.
“How Secret May Uncover A New Secret To Mobile Growth” via TechCrunch
I’m interested in what Secret is doing; not so much as an app on its own but instead as a lighthouse for seeing which types of content could find a new home in anonymous posting networks (beyond just NSFW Snapchatting).
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Most of the smartphones sold last year in China, or 57%, were Android devices that cost less than $350. But there is still strong demand for more expensive handsets. High-end smartphones priced above $500 accounted for 27% of smartphones sold last year; of that amount, 80% were iPhones.
“China Now Has 700M Active Smartphone Users” via TechCrunch
“China became the world’s largest smartphone market in November 2011, but sales have gradually slowed as mobile penetration rates increase. Shipments decreased for the first time in more than two years at the end of 2013, according to a recent report from IDC. As the price of smartphones drop dramatically, however, more first-time users are buying their first device.”
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These companies have everyone — Silicon Valley and Wall Street alike — excited for their initial public offerings.
Gotta love enterprise software.
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San Francisco-based MuleSoft announced today that it has raised a $50 million round that was led by existing investors New Enterprise Associates and Lightspeed Venture Partners as well as new inves…
More money headed towards the enterprise space. Lots of focus lately on integration (SkyGiraffe, Zappier, etc.) as companies see the need to bring order to the chaos which is their (typically) complex IT environments (cloud or on-prem).
#neato 