As Handelsblatt pointed out, the funding of most projects is in jeopardy because the investors and business angels are losing money elsewhere and need to concentrate on reducing the damage. Qitera had to find this out the hard way now after having already shifted to the Silicon Valley to be closer to the investor, stated Handelsblatt.com. That implies that either they stop funding new projects and/or the investor needs to focus on the projects in the portfolio and start cutting costs. The difference to the many industry sectors is that internet start-ups always take significant time to gain a critical mass and break-even because the margins are usually in the cent-area and not hard dollars.

Therefore the financing is very important in the initial start-up phase so get what you can now because the tech-bubble is not actually a bubble but sonner or later as exposed to the harsh financial conditions as everybody else. Be ready because reducing staff in an already small team, really hurts!

Does that mean that content production companies like Blinkenlichten, the German startup that produces professional, journalistic video content, is the way for the future instead of UGC?

Our favourite video:

These short, animated videos show a car driving along a road until an obstacle appears, that will get the car to crash. However just before the potential crash the YouTube Annotation shows a little button in the video. By clicking on this button the car crash can be avoided and the player will be led to the next level. With each level increase this button appears for a shorter period of time, which makes it more and more difficult.

The game might not be ingenious however this might the beginning of an entirely new wave of other YouTube embedded videogames! There is a high potential for a viral effect! Let me know if you of any other games!

Despite his impressive size, his gigantic antennas and a shoe size of 72, Billy was received with a warm and heartedly welcome by the crowds. You can also check out all the photos of his little red-carpet moves on Picasa as well as on Billy’s FaceBook-Profil!

We would like to thank you all for your support that allowed Billy to conquer those 14.000 m² of exhibition floor… And a special thanks needs to be extended to LeadShare for their help and warm welcome!

The big challenge „Bag in as many ants as possible!“ will remain online at letsbuyit.com until the 31st of January 2009. The first draw will be taking place on the 15th of October 2008! So you should hurry up and get your chance to win one Sony VAIO laptop…

eCommerce-Convention 2008

eCommerce-Convention 2008

23rd-25th September 2008; Porte de Versailles, Paris

And don’t forget to stay in touch because Billy has many more surprises up his sleeve!

The rules are really simple: You have 10 seconds to catch as many ants as possible! Just watch out and pay attention because the ants are quite fast! Every ant caught increases your chance to win. You can double your winning chances by challenging your friends to participate as well!

Are you up for the challenge?

The next draw will be taking place on the 15th of October 2008 so you got to hurry!

Our entire team has been testing the game and the largest amount of ants caught has been 13 ants!

And you? How many will you be able to catch?

Don’t hesitate to talk to Billy or our team and ask about our new Letsbuyit, the new innovative way of shopping! You can also find out what Billy is doing by following his twitter and check out his facebook profile (Billy Letsbuyit) or our posterous!!!

Yammer is just like twitter however a corporate version for only colleagues and log-in, which makes it much easier to communicate with your colleagues and see what they are up to. Makes the team work more efficient! You will always be up to date what you are colleagues are working on, how everybody is progressing, when the next meeting will take place, etc.! This small intranet works well however the question is whether the users will animate it, like always!

As long as your colleagues are not trying to spam, control or bully you it is all good and a really good team-work tool!

This TechCrunch-certified tool gets our thumbs up and the account is set up.

First judgement: only useful when you are colleagues are using it (along with skype, msn, twitter, gmail chat, icq, etc.

Windows users will be able to download a test version from 9 pm tonight.
To understand the concept and Google’s aims regarding this new browser, read the very clear and simple comics by Scott McCloud !

Let’s remember that lovely moment when you finally bought it, and ripped the blister off to discover those songs you’ve waited for such a long time. The book is just waiting for you : photos, lyrics and other comments that make you feel you’re just sharing a perfect and unique moment with the artist. According to the study, people keep on spending 15 euros a month to enjoy this simple pleasure.

Another figure to keep in mind: 80% of the Internet users don’t care about professional critics! However, 40% of them are more to trust advice coming from social networks. The same part of polled say they’d prefer to be advised by relatives or other web users…
What else than social shopping could it be ?