Ad serving company OpenX just announced that it’s moving into the Japanese market, thanks to a partnership with Cyber Communications Inc (CCI).

OpenX Chief Revenue Officer Jason Fairchild said the deal is similar to a partnership announced earlier this year between OpenX and European giant Orange — except that CCI is an ad agency holding group, not a telecom company like Orange. In both cases, OpenX provides the underlying ad exchange technology, where advertisers can bid on every impression in a website through a real-time auction. The local partner actually sells and operates the service.

In the case of of CCI, which is a subsidiary of Japanese advertising company Dentsu, the company will incoroporate the ad exchange into a larger suite of advertising products. OpenX and CCI charge a 20 percent fee on each transactions, although they aren’t specifying the split between the two companies.

Fairchild said Los Angeles-based OpenX is the only ad exchange company expanding through this partnership model, something that’s more friendly to agencies and media organizations than the approach of a company like Google.

“I think this is hugely impotent that a viable alternative to Google is emerging,” Fairchild said. “We think our technology, along with our regional partner model, offers that alternative.”

OpenX has now raised a total of $30.8 million.

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Oggifinogi, a startup that sells tools for building interactive display ads, said today that it has raised $2 million in its first round of funding.

Google (which has been emphasizing its display efforts recently), Gannett-owned PointRoll, and others offer rich media ad builders, but Oggifinogi said it’s the only company that integrates interactive ads with “real-time bidding” systems, where each ad impression is priced and purchased separately. Those systems are gaining support as a way to lower costs and give advertisers the opportunity to tweak their campaigns and ads as needed.

Greycroft Partners led the round, while iNovia Capital, Contour Venture Partners, individual investors also participated. In the funding press release, Greycroft partner Ian Sigalow says, “Oggifinogi allows advertisers to embed any functionality inside a standard ad unit –- from video to fully-interactive websites –- and the campaigns can be built in hours instead of weeks.”

Bellevue, Wash.-based Oggifinogi says it has created ad campaigns for more than 100 brands. You can see sample ads at the company’s website.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where the odd name comes from, TechFlash has the answer: “The name derives from two Italian words — Oggi which means ‘today’ and the slang term Finogi which translates to ‘finish what you start.’”

Tags: real-time bidding, rich media advertising

Companies: Contour Venture Partners, Greycroft Partners, INovia Capital, Oggifinogi

People: Ian Sigalow

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

It wasn’t too long ago that YouTube was one of the only online video sites, and online video had no trouble drawing in an audience. Now that a host of new players have hit the scene, including Netflix and Hulu to name just two, companies vying for eyeballs are having to come up with new ways to stand out in the crowd. One player, My Damn Channel, which launched in 2007, is focusing on producing original content featuring celebrities, and sponsored content made in partnership with major brands. The company announced a $4.4 million infusion of funding today.

You’re in the very early days of this business,” said Rob Barnett, the chief executive at My Damn Channel, which focuses on comedy and music video. “It’s like cable television in the early 1980s.”

Barnett says we’ll see consolidation in the coming years as different sites take leadership positions in the market the way HBO became a powerhouse for movies or MTV became the same thing for music back in the 80s. “Years later there’s a small number of places people go for news, comedy, sports,” he said. “We see ourselves as building something that can be a part of that.”

Other companies banking on original celebrity content to pull in an audience are Revision3 and Funnyordie. Funnyordie was started by Will Ferrell and regularly features SNL buddies and other famous comedians. My Damn Channel features work by Keanu Reeves, Jonah Hill and Sarah Silverman, as well as a music series from artist Don Was. My Damn Channel is also spending money on its marketing department and relies on social media “maniacs” in the company to bring eyeballs to the site.

“More times than not we’re stealing from the playbook of an HBO or Showtime — shortcutting to successful projects by turning to people who have experience creating successful entertainment and who bring large audiences with them from other media” Barnett said. “They are free of red tape that exists in every other aspect of their show business lives. They often only deal with one person here.”

Beyond banner ads and embedded video ads, one of the primary revenue drivers for these kinds of companies is corporate branding. IKEA is the sole sponsor of the ongoing original show “Easy to Assemble,” which features one character who is an employee of the company. “These deals are increasing in number and in size,” Barnett said. “With major players realizing that 18-34 year-olds, and especially 18-24 year-olds, are unplugging their television sets. The idea that you can reach people with 30-sec TV spots alone is antiquated.”

The “Assemble” series has brought 13 million page views to the site in its most recent season. That’s a television show-sized audience that Barnett thinks could be popular with advertisers.

The new funding will go towards sales personnel in the company’s LA and New York offices, as well as some new management.

Barnett says the company will roll out paid-for premium content in the 4th quarter, introducing another potential revenue stream.

Companies: Funnyordie, My Damn Channel

People: Rob Barnett

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories published in the last seven days:

Hacker shows how he can intercept phone calls with $1,500 device — A security researcher showed in a live demo at the Defcon security conference how he can intercept cell phone calls on 80 percent of the world’s phones with just about $1,500 worth of equipment.

PlayOn brings Hulu and Netflix to the iPhone — without Apple’s help — PlayOn, the service that allows you to view streaming media from the Web and PCs on a variety of devices, finally made it to the iPhone.

iPhone 4 jailbreak lands with JailbreakMe 2.0, no computer required — The moment many intrepid iPhone 4 owners have been waiting for is here: The iPhone Dev Team has released a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 via their JailbreakMe 2.0 tool — and this time around, users can perform the hack right on their device.

How North Korea could build a cyber army to defeat the U.S. — It wouldn’t be that hard for North Korea to build a cyber army to take on the U.S. in a war fought only in cyberspace. That’s the assessment by Charlie Miller, a veteran computer security tester whose accomplishments include hacking Apple’s operating system and the iPhone.

Reformed hacker reveals “My life as a spyware developer” — Garry Pejski’s tale is a cautionary one for young hackers, and it offers a rare glimpse inside the shadowy world of spyware, a massive underground industry which dances on the edge of legality.

And here are five more articles we think are important, thought-provoking, or fun:

18 new ways Mark Zuckerberg rules social networking — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is already the undisputed king of social networks, but now he has one more prize: 18 key patents related to social networks, quietly purchased this summer from the industry’s faded pioneer, Friendster.

Tesla Motors reports wider $38.5M loss, but says it’s on track — As predicted, Tesla Motors posted higher losses for the second quarter during its earnings announcement this week — its first as a public company.

RIM fights back against the iPhone and Android with touchscreen BlackBerry Torch and BlackBerry OS 6 — We knew that BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion was going to announce something big at its joint AT&T event Tuesday, and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

Google confirms acquisition of social app startup Slide — Google announced Friday that it has acquired Slide, the social application maker headed by PayPal cofounder Max Levchin, confirming reports from earlier this week.

Shopkick’s mobile shopping app tracks you in stores, delivers real-time deals — At the San Francisco Best Buy store, Shopkick founder and chief executive Cyriac Roeding unveiled the company’s free iPhone app that rewards users for visiting partner retailers.

Tags: Defcon, iPhone, iPhone 4

Companies: Facebook, Friendster, Google, PlayON, Research In Motion, Shopkick, Slide, Tesla Motors

People: Charlie Miller, Chris Paget, Cyriac Roeding, Mark Zuckerberg, Max Levchin

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Business Insider, the popular and controversial business news site founded by former Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget, announced this morning that it has raised $3 million in new funding.

Originally named Silicon Alley Insider (which has become a subsection within the larger Business Insider brand), the site has been around for three years, but has apparently seen big jump in traffic in the last few months, according to data from both Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner and Compete. DoubleClick, for example, shows Business Insider reaching 38 million monthly pageviews and 1.9 million unique visitors (overtaking TechCrunch in pageviews, at least).

(Disclosure: VentureBeat has a syndication deal with Business Insider, where each site can repost the other’s stories.)

Business Insider has been pretty shameless about growing those pageviews — there’s original reporting, but it’s usually packaged with sensationalistic headline and often sliced up into a 10-page slideshow. In a recent BusinessWeek profile, Blodget made no apologies for his approach, saying, “Part of the job of our editors is recognizing that what we’re trying to do is create content that people want to read. … And I’m under personal pressure to build a self-sustaining business. Without that, we disappear.”

As explained the BusinessWeek story, Blodget is trying to build a second career for himself — he was barred from the securities industry following accusations of fraud. Gawker’s Nick Denton approvingly described Blodget as having “the determination of someone digging themselves out of disgrace.”

The new funding was led by RRE Ventures, and brings the New York company’s funding to $5.7 million. Previous investors include Allen & Co., Kohlberg Ventures, Pilot Group, Marc Andreessen, Gordon Crovitz, and Ken Lerer of Lerer Ventures.

Blodget said the money will allow Business Insider expand the newsroom, do more original reporting, launch a research service, hire international editors, and more.

“Someday, the money may even allow us to hire a copy editor,” he said.

Companies: Business Insider, RRE Ventures

People: Henry Blodget

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

Trada, a Boulder, Colo. startup allowing businesses to tap into a large pool of experts to manage their search advertising campaign, just announced that it has raised a $5.75 million funding round led by Google Ventures.

The idea behind Trada is that rather than trying to run a search advertising campaign yourself, or relying on a single consultant, businesses are able to used a crowdsourced approach, where a group of search advertising experts can contribute their knowledge. So a Trada customer creates a campaign, specifying things like the product being sold and the daily budget, then experts can decide to join the campaign. Each expert can generate their own ad groups, search keywords to advertise on, and ads. The advertiser only pays for clicks and conversions.

Since the public launch in March, Trada has grown dramatically, said founder and chief executive Niel Robertson. It’s now running more than 200 ad campaigns, with an average customer now spending about $5,000 a month. The number of experts in the system has doubled to 500. And some of those experts are starting to make some serious cash — Robertson said his goal is that the experts should be able to make a full-time income from Trada if they wanted to, and that at least one expert is already approaching that level.

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » Deals & More

A big chunk of the new wireless broadband spectrum that President Obama wants to make available in the next five years would come from television broadcasters, who will be asked to give up radio spectrum slots for which they have fought and paid so that wireless data carriers can use them mostly for mobile Internet access instead.

The proposal would nearly double the available amount of bandwidth for wireless broadband, from today’s 547 megahertz to about 1,000 megahertz. (Don’t confuse these megahertz of bandwidth, which counts the amount of the radio dial allocated to Internet access, with the megabits used to measure throughput speed of a connection. “Bandwidth” is a popular misnomer for connection speed rather than actual wireless radio band width.)

Obama’s Presidential memorandum issued today, “Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution,” could just as well be called, “Taking Back Lots of Wireless Spectrum Assignments.” Obama’s proposal is based on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, a wonky but pragmatic proposal to reassign 300 megahertz’ worth of bandwidth between now and 2015.

The Obama administration wants to make a full 500 megahertz of bandwidth available for auction to companies that would use it for wireless broadband data connections for consumers and possibly first-responder networks. About 120 megahertz would come from broadcast TV. Administration officials told The New York Times that around 45 percent, or 225 megahertz, would come from various government spectrum blocks that are used lightly or not at all.

The FCC’s plan comes with a footnote: “Timing and quantity depends on Congressional action to grant incentive auction authority as well as voluntary participation of broadcasters in an auction.” Broadcasters, represented by the National Association of Broadcasters, may not be too voluntary about participating. They’ve complained that the government’s most recent spectrum auctions took parts of the airwaves that had been reclaimed by disabling traditional analog TV broadcasts, and sold these radio frequencies to buyers who are now “warehousing” it, i.e. letting it lie idle rather than developing new consumer services. An NAB spokesman told The New York Times that broadcasters hope “further reclamation of broadcast television spectrum will be completely voluntary.”

Tags: broadband

Companies: FCC

People: Barack Obama

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » MediaBeat

Two separate reports have emerged tonight that point to Hulu’s long-rumored premium service finally arriving soon. The service, dubbed Hulu Plus, may be available for some 10,000 testers next week, according to All Things Digital. In addition, there’s talk that Hulu will announce a partnership with Sony next week to get its content on the Playstation 3.

The news follows rumors from earlier this month that said Hulu would be headed to the Xbox 360 soon and that it was developing an iPad app as well. With all of these separate rumors coming in so close to each other, there’s a definite possibility we’ll finally see some big announcements from Hulu soon.

It would make sense for Hulu to announce Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 support, along with its iPad app, when it launches Hulu Plus. While some of Hulu’s website viewers may find a reason to pay for the service, it has the potential to find more support among users who want to bring its content to their televisions and the iPad — much like how Netflix’s Watch Instantly found success on the Xbox 360, iPad, and a variety of other devices.

As I’ve written previously, the company has been quick to block methods of viewing its content on televisions via Boxee and Sony’s Playstation 3 Web browser — most likely due to pressure from its corporate overlords NBC Universal, ABC, and Fox. While it would be nice for Hulu to bring its free ad-supported content to other devices, the company’s past actions have made it clear that if users want its content on their TVs, they will likely have to pay.

Tags: Hulu Plus, ipad, Playstation 3, xbox 360

Companies: Hulu, microsoft, Sony

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » MediaBeat

GumGum started out a few years ago with a technology for tracking photos published on the web so that content owners could generate revenues from those who published the photos. But the company found its calling with the creation of “in-image” ads for web photos. Today, it is announcing it can automate that process.

By overlaying ads on top of celebrity photos and other published web photos, GumGum enables web publishers to make money from content on their sites. Since the ads become part of the photos, the publishers don’t have to set aside ad space on a web page to monetize the photos.

And the company has now created a self-service platform that allows publishers to register a GumGum account and go live with in-image ads in a completely automated way. The in-image ads have been so successful that GumGum now reaches 65 million unique monthly visitors, with growth continuing at a rapid rate, as you can see with the Quantcast chart below.

The company was founded in 2006 by Ophir Tanz and Air Mir. They started with a technology to track photos so that content owners could generate royalty revenue from the people who published the photos on web sites. Now they have completely transitioned to in-image ads. Four months ago, the company began testing its self-service in-image ad automation service, and now the service is live. Publishers can now insert ads into pictures without hassle. In that sense, it’s just like Google’s AdSense platform for automatically creating Google ads.

Tanz says that the click-through rates — which determine how much an advertiser will pay for an ad — are higher for the in-image ads than they are for typical Google ads. Those click-through rates vary, but estimates are that users will click on a Google ad about 0.15 percent to 0.3 percent of the time. With GumGum, the click-through rate varies from 0.1 percent to 3 percent.

Brand marketers have taken to the in-image ads. That’s because the photos — from Britney Spears photos to anything that the paparazzi shoot on a given day — are magnets for eyeballs. That is, people pay attention to them. GumGum’s brand campaign customers include Sony Pictures, Jack-in-the Box, Universal Pictures, Curves, AEG Live, and American Idol. (See live demos here).

Publishers include sites such as TMZ, Essence.com, MTV, Glam and hundreds more. The publishers have figured out that in-image ads — like the ads you see in the middle of shows on TV — are something that your eyeballs can’t escape. The in-image ads are also a new way for publishers to monetize their content without replacing existing ad units.

The company has 10 employees and has raised $3.9 million from First Round Capital, GRP Ventures, and Crosscut Ventures. Rivals include PicApp and Image Space Media.

Companies: GumGum

People: Ophir Tanz

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » MediaBeat

Marvel Comics made a splashy entry into the digital comics industry in April when it launched a slick comics reader for the iPhone and iPad. Now its big competitor, DC, is following suit with its own iPad app and more.

Besides being good news for comics readers, this is a big win for New York startup ComiXology, which built the Marvel Comics app. Not only did ComiXology build the DC Comics app (iTunes link), it’s also selling DC’s books within its own ComiXology-branded app as well.

With this deal, ComiXology has enlisted the two biggest comics publishers for its plans, plus a number of other smaller ones. All of the apps use the company’s “guided view,” which helps users glide between panels by swiping their touchscreen rather than reading a whole page at once, or awkwardly trying to zoom in to different parts of the page. ComiXology built a reader for your desktop Web browser, too.

In addition, DC has announced a deal with Sony PlayStation to sell comics for reading on the PlayStation Portable. (Sony Online is developing a multiplayer game based on DC’s characters, called DC Universe Online.)

Comics will cost between $0.99 and and $2.99, DC said. As far as the actual content goes, DC is only selling a fraction of its library for now — about 100 issues with ComiXology and 80 issues with PlayStation, including the first issues of popular titles like Sandman and All Star Superman.

Most of the comics are at least a few months old or are previews rather than full comics, so they don’t compete directly with the issues in stores (something that store owners have understandably been concerned about). DC said it will experiment with releasing digital issues of a miniseries called Justice League: Generation Lost on the same day they go on-sale in physical stores. Marvel has been dipping its toe into the same model, but so far only with one issue of Iron Man.

In an attempt to assuage the concerns of store owners, DC (which is owned by Warner Bros.) said it will “collect a portion of digital revenues to be invested back to and on behalf of comic book retailers in a variety of initiatives.”

There seems to be a big demand for these comics. The Marvel app has been hovering near the top of the most popular free book apps in the App Store since it launched, and today DC’s app shot past Marvel, as well as Amazon’s Kindle app, to become number two. (Number one is Apple’s own iBooks.)

Companies: comiXology, DC Comics, Warner Bros

Article courtesy of VentureBeat » MediaBeat