As a follow-up to our January 2009 Canada Startup index yesterday, comScore has provided us with their take on the top contenders.
In the above chart, the Online % Reach is the percentage of Canadians online that each entity reaches. As an example, Metrolyrics reached 8.9% of all Canadians during November 2008, making them the hands-down leader.
ZipLocal had the biggest month-over-month improvement rising from 2.7 to 3.2 and leapfrogging RedFlagDeals.
Thanks again to comScore for sharing this valuable data with Techvibes.
RedFlagDeals.com is Canada's largest bargain shopping community! Saving money is as Canadian as poutine or rolling up the rim on a double double.... [more]
Founded in 2004, MetroLeap Media Inc. is leading provider of entertainment content within the music and video game Internet market. Its flagship... [more]
ZipLocal is the difference between getting advice from the phone book vs. your trusted friends and neighbours. ZipLocal makes it easy to find what... [more]
Portland bloggers have another valuable resource coming their way - the newly-formed Portland WordPress User Group is hosting their first meeting on Thursday, January 15 at CubeSpace. The meeting will go over future meeting times and dates; topics, ideas and speakers; ideas for regular help sessions; and an overview of cool new WordPress 2.7 features.
Portland is definitely a blogging town: on January 16, check out the one year anniversary party for Beer and Blog. Beer and Blog meets every Friday between 4:00pm and 6:00pm at Green Drago.
Portland has lots of opportunities to get involved with the blogging community, network, and learn some new tricks - all bloggers are encouraged to come out to these meetups!
Techvibes is pleased to welcome Vancouver, BC based Zapp Worx Design on board as a sponsor.
Zapp Worx is situated in Gastown and pride themselves on being one of Vancouver's longest-standing graphic design firms, offering outstanding service and delivery under the most difficult situations.
Luie Zappacosta created Zapp Worx Design in 1987. Zapp Worx has grown into a full-service design and print firm, with services ranging from brand creation to web design and print design, complete with an in-house digital print facility.
Luie's team of graphic designers have trained in some of the most prominent art schools locally and internationally including Emily Carr School of Design, the University of Macedonia and The Human Academy in Japan.
Websites and print communications that entice customers, empower clients and out-do the competition. [more]
Seattle's Picnik - #2 on our January 2009 Seattle Startup Index - has had quite a year and to top it off they have been named to Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites.
Today they announced that their site visits from 2007 to 2008 exceeded company and industry expectations with a 1,400 percent increase in site traffic in the last year.
In December 2007, Picnik had 1.7 million monthly visits, with 631,000 unique visitors -- in December 2008, Picnik reached over 24 million monthly visits and 7.4 million unique visitors. From the most recent numbers, this translates to a month-to-month increase of 25 percent.
"Within the last year, the landscape for Web-based computing and online photo editing have changed dramatically and we think Picnik has been that change agent," said Jonathan Sposato, chief executive officer of Picnik.com. "We are heartened by how far Picnik has come in less than two years, and can't wait to see our momentum continue to rise in '09."
Picnik gives real people photo-editing superpowers. Since Picnik lives online, users get fast, easy access to a powerful set of photo editing tools for editing, sharing, and printing images using any Internet browser on any computer platform. Most importantly, Picnk is integrated with a wide variety of photo sites including Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Photobucket, and MySpace - so you can edit your photos wherever they are from wherever you are.
The Picnik team is headquartered in downtown Seattle. We love making great software for real people, eating the food at Pike Place Market, and... [more]
Looks like the battle between Toronto's Yangaroo and Vancouver's Destiny Media is far from over. Today Yangaroo announced that it has received allowance of its United States Patent Application #10/431,854 titled "Content Distribution System and Method" from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
"The allowance of this patent confirms YANGAROO as the foremost innovator in its field," said John Heaven, President and CEO of YANGAROO. "The formal Letters Patent grant is expected to follow shortly. This patent will provide us with another significant competitive advantage and will add substantial value to our company. The music and advertising industries understand and respect the value of intellectual property and we will continue to lead our sector through innovation and invention. We will maintain our focus on expanding our patent portfolio and plan to vigorously defend our intellectual property rights."
In October Destiny Media announced that it received a “Notice of Allowance” from the USPTO for their digital music distribution patents and Yangaroo reacted swiftly with a press release claiming that it would not impact their pending patents or infringement and defamation claims against Destiny. Looks like they were right. Stay tuned to see how Destiny Media reacts.
Either way, it's great to see Canadian companies lead the way in the digital delivery service space.
Destiny Media Technologies, Inc. is a leader in developing easy-to-use tools for distributing digital media through the Internet. The company's... [more]
YANGAROO's patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS) is a leading secure B2B digital delivery solution for the music and advertising... [more]
Philadelphia's First Round Capital just announced that they're coming to Vancouver to host an Office Hours event.
The First Round Capital team had such a good time, at our inaugural Office Hours, that we’ve decided to make it a semi-regular practice. Back in October, Josh Kopelman, Rob Hayes and myself met with more than 50 entrepreneurs. The energy from the event proved what we already knew: the economic downturn hasn’t dampened the entrepreneurial spirit.
On January 15th, we’ll be partnering with our good friends at W Media Ventures to host an Office Hours in Vancouver. Chris Fralic and Kent Goldman will represent First Round Capital, with Boris Wertz of W Media Ventures acting as the local host. And just like the original Palo Alto edition, we’d love to meet with entrepreneurs, people thinking about becoming entrepreneurs or folks who would like join a start-up. We’ll be available for a bunch of informal ~15 minute chats. Again, there’s no agenda. We’ll provide the napkins to write on and the coffee to keep you warm while you wait.
FRC Office Hours Vancouver takes place on Thursday, January 15th from 4-6pm at Agro Cafe at 1207 Hamilton Street in Yaletown. If you'd like to drop by, be sure to fill out this quick form - while it's not required, I'm sure it will help get you in the door.
Disclosure: W Media Ventures' Boris Wertz is a Director of Techvibes Media Inc.
W Media Ventures is a Vancouver-based venture capital firm focusing on Consumer Internet opportunities in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.... [more]
First Round Capital is a venture capital firm dedicated to helping talented entrepreneurs build remarkable companies. We are not afraid of... [more]
Via David Crow's Blog, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation announced funding today of up to $500K in 8 companies through the Investment Accelerator Fund.
Ontario has announced new investments in eight promising high-tech companies. The funding comes from the $29-million Investment Accelerator Fund, which helps eligible start-up companies develop their technology and gain entrepreneurial expertise to bring their product or service to market.
The eight lucky companies are listed after the jump.
C2C Link (Hamilton) – This McMaster University start-up makes optical crystal chips that efficiently convert laser light from one colour to another. The company’s technology is the only known method for producing commercially viable green and blue optical chips. Industry experts believe these chips will be the driving force behind a new generation of laser-based displays so advanced that they will even replace LCD-based TVs and monitors, due to better quality and greater energy efficiency.
Echologics Engineering (Toronto) – According to an International Water Supply Association study, 20 to 30 per cent of drinking water produced gets lost on the way to the tap. A December 2007 Sustainable Asset Management study estimated that total water lost in the US alone is 23 million m3 per day – roughly the equivalent of 9,200 Olympic-size swimming pools. Leaks are considered to be the major cause of this water loss. Echologics Engineering Inc. is developing and commercializing technology to reduce leaks in water distribution systems.
IPeak Networks (Kanata) – IPeak Networks has developed a solution for improving the performance of applications across wide area networks like the Internet. IPeak's technology dramatically reduces packet loss and boosts file delivery speed. The results include smooth and uninterrupted VOIP calls and video transmissions, and increased realism for online games. In December 2007, the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation voted IPeak one of Canada’s Top 10 technology companies.
Kneebone (Toronto) – Kneebone Inc. offers proprietary software and related services to corporate clients seeking to make their marketing more effective. Marketing performance measurement tools make it possible for clients to measure the impact of their marketing initiatives, helping them maximize the return on their marketing investments.
Nulogy (Toronto) – Nulogy Inc. develops supply-chain management software for logistics and contract manufacturing companies. Its flagship PackManager product provides real-time labour, production and inventory information, helping businesses operate more efficiently. Nulogy has received several accolades, including winning a 2008 Red Herring Award for being one of the most innovative and promising companies in Canada.
Regen Energy (Toronto) – A building’s 15-minute peak demand can account for 20 to 50 per cent of each month’s electricity bill. Regen has developed a wireless controller that automatically manages electrical peak demand levels for commercial heating and cooling applications, potentially reducing energy consumption at peak demand by up to 25 to 30 per cent. Historically, optimizing peak demand has only been an option for large commercial operations that could afford complex building automation systems. Regen controllers promise to bring better energy management to smaller organizations.
Skymeter (Toronto) – Skymeter Corporation is a Toronto-based company that provides vehicle-use information using a combination of in-vehicle sensors and a patented data processing system. Potential applications of its system (either available now or in development) include road-use charging, parking metering, location-based marketing and pay-as-you-drive insurance.
Sysomos (Toronto) – Sysomos Inc.’s patent-pending technology can monitor the entire social media space, including blogs, social networks, online forums and news sources. Customers use the company’s data analytics services to monitor how their products and brands are perceived online, and gauge customer reaction to ad campaigns and media coverage – all in real time.
Mashable's Jennifer Van Grove wondered aloud today if paid online dating sites are dead? She wonders if the recent launch of DowntoEarth, a completely free dating site with an interesting pedigree.
According to DowntoEarth’s Privacy Policy, this new, free entrant is “part of the IAC/InterActiveCorp family of businesses.” IAC, of course, acquired Match.com in 1999, and is also behind Match.com’s spin-off site Chemistry.com. Despite its success with paid dating, then, IAC is testing the waters with a free model.
Free dating site rival (and Vancouver resident) Markus Frind of Plentyoffish has an answer for Van Grove. YES.
In a post titled It's official - Match.com Abandons Paid Dating, Frind claims that IAC's launch of DowntoEarth is a victory for free dating sites.
It looks like match.com realizes they are losing marketshare fast and paid sites don’t really have a future. 15% of my users in the US pay on other dating sites every month, but they all say if there was another big free site like plentyoffish they wouldn’t pay elsewhere. This has already happened in Canada where plentyoffish is pretty much the only dating site people use, and eHarmony a distant second.
Plentyoffish.com is a 100% FREE online dating site, and is constantly improving based on your feedback. You will notice everything on this online... [more]
In the world of social media marketing, Twitter is being touted as the new hot tool to add to your marketing mix.
At this month's High-Tech Communicators' Exchange event Twitter guru Stephen Jagger will educate attendees on what Twitter is and how they can use it to increase profits. Most importantly, he’ll share examples of how some of his customers are using Twitter and other social media tools to enhance market share and increase traffic to their website.
HTCE's Twitter event takes place on Monday, January 19th at 6:00pm at the YWCA Hotel at 733 Beatty Street. RSVP the old-school way by emailing rsvp@htce.org but look for event registration by Twitter to be the new hot Twitter application in '09.
The High-Tech Communicators’ Exchange comprises corporate, marketing, visual, and technical communicators primarily serving the high-tech and... [more]
Twitter is a privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Started as a side project in March of 2006,... [more]
