TigerLogic Acquires Storycode For Up To $7.25M To Bolster How Brands Reach Mobile Users

TigerLogic, a company with a market cap of about $56 million that provides data management and app development solutions for enterprises, said it agreed to acquire Portland mobile developer Storycode for up to $7.25 million in cash and stock today.

The Irvine-based company says it will integrate Storycode’s technology into its social visualization platform called Postano. Yes, “social visualization” platform is a little vague, but basically Postano lets brands embed widgets with content froms social networks on their sites. They also offer an internal dashboard that lets clients monitor what people are saying about them on Twitter or Facebook, and they can also help with creating custom Facebook tabs and apps.

Storycode has a mobile app publishing platform that media companies like Thomson Reuters, USA Today, NBC and CBS use to create iPhone and iPad apps. The mobile publishing platform will plug right into TigerLogic’s Postano product.

According to an SEC filing, each share of Storycode’s stock will be converted into $6.75 million worth of TigerLogic’s stock. On top of that, a single share of preferred stock in Storycode will get converted into the right to receive $250,000. TigerLogic is also giving Storycode $100,000 in bridge financing and is taking on up to $150,000 in the company’s liabilities.

Storycode actually has been through one previous acquisition. It was previously called FreeRange Communications after it spun out of Handmark in 2011. The company changed its name to Storycode last May after acquiring a Portland-based mobile agency.

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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Instagram Denies 25% Holiday User Drop From TOS Backlash, And Here Are Real Explanations For A Usage Dip

Sure, it’s not unlike the New York Post to be sensationalist. But in this case it misinterpreted data to suggest Instagram was hit harder by backlash to its terms of service changes than it actually was. Combined with it being a quiet-ish holiday news week, I am taking a story it published today on a 25 percent drop in Instagram users with a little more than a grain of salt.

Basically, it notes that figures from AppData demonstrate that Instagram lost 4 million daily active users — nearly a 25 percent drop to 12.4 million from 16.4 million — between December 19 and December 26. And as the NYP terms it, people are walking away in a “rage against rules.” The Post blames the decline on Instagram’s new, more commercially-minded terms of service — which it rolled back on December 21, i.e., in the middle of its DAU plummet, in response to public outcry.

To balance out that one-sided view, here are some further observations that give a slightly bigger picture about what is going on:

– Yes, AppData notes that Instagram lost 4 million DAUs over the holiday period, as based on Facebook logins via the app. But it’s also seen some gains (according to the same data): weekly active users in that period are up by 1 million (currently at 28.5 million), and monthly active users are up by 1.1 million (currently at 43 million). DAUs also seem to be up a bit since Christmas, and they are now down by only 3.5 million over the last seven days.

– AppData doesn't show an app's full user count or even a representative sample. In this case it shows users who connected their Instagram accounts to Facebook and either logged in with their Facebook credentials, searched for their Facebook friends, or shared to Facebook. That leaves out tons of users who use Instagram independently. The decline in Instagram usage may have been more pronounced amongst Facebook-connected users as they may have been exposed to more viral backlash to the TOS change via the news feed.

– There are other photo apps that have seen fluctuations in DAUs and MAUs in the last week. Look at Hipstamatic, or Snapseed, or Flickr, whose well-timed launches made some people wonder whether it could replace Instagram.

– The NYP story compares this to last Thanksgiving, which was rich pickins for Instagram. Then it celebrated record postings as people rushed to snap their turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. But this time around, the Christmas “Poke” effect may be at work:

As Josh pointed out in reference to stories of how another photo app from Facebook, Poke, is slipping after an initial burst of interest, people who would have received new iOS devices will be downloading essential apps this week rather than the second wave of nice-to-have apps. The same could apply to apps like Instagram — not just on iOS but Android as well.

– A week and a half ago, we published some data looking at whether Instagram traffic had dropped off as a result of the removal of preview “Cards” on Twitter. The answer: Yes, referral traffic went down from Twitter, but Instagram traffic overall appeared to be holding up, at least at that point.

In that post, I noted that any decline could have to do with Twitter, but could also be related to the hullabaloo over terms of service; or even a newer version of the app that is getting worse ratings than older versions. The same applies here.

In short, there are a number of reasons for a decline in daily active users at Instagram (some alarming, some seasonal). Yes, it may be that people are voting with their fingers, and if that’s the case it will likely be something that Facebook and Instagram will have to consider as they think of how to make money with the app. But to directly relate it to an already overblown situation smells off.

The scare caused Facebook’s share price to drop nearly 3% this morning, but as the truth proliferates and the markets close, $FB has recovered and down just 0.5%.

Update: Instagram itself has now sent us the following statement:
“This data is inaccurate. We continue to see strong and steady growth in both registered and active users of Instagram.”

[Additional reporting by Josh Constine]

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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Instagram Denies 25% Holiday User Drop From TOS Backlash , And Here Are Real Explanations For Any Usage Dip

Sure, it’s not unlike the New York Post to be sensationalist. But in this case it misinterpreted data to suggest Instagram was hit harder by backlash to its terms of service changes than it actually was. Combined with it being a quiet-ish holiday news week, I am taking a story it published today on a 25 percent drop in Instagram users with a little more than a grain of salt.

Basically, it notes that figures from AppData demonstrate that Instagram lost 4 million daily active users — nearly a 25 percent drop to 12.4 million from 16.4 million — between December 19 and December 26. And as the NYP terms it, people are walking away in a “rage against rules.” The Post blames the decline on Instagram’s new, more commercially-minded terms of service — which it rolled back on December 21, i.e., in the middle of its DAU plummet, in response to public outcry.

To balance out that one-sided view, here are some further observations that give a slightly bigger picture about what is going on:

– Yes, AppData notes that Instagram lost 4 million DAUs over the holiday period, as based on Facebook logins via the app. But it’s also seen some gains (according to the same data): weekly active users in that period are up by 1 million (currently at 28.5 million), and monthly active users are up by 1.1 million (currently at 43 million). DAUs also seem to be up a bit since Christmas, and they are now down by only 3.5 million over the last seven days.

– AppData doesn't show an app's full user count or even a representative sample. In this case it shows users who connected their Instagram accounts to Facebook and either logged in with their Facebook credentials, searched for their Facebook friends, or shared to Facebook. That leaves out tons of users who use Instagram independently. The decline in Instagram usage may have been more pronounced amongst Facebook-connected users as they may have been exposed to more viral backlash to the TOS change via the news feed.

– There are other photo apps that have seen fluctuations in DAUs and MAUs in the last week. Look at Hipstamatic, or Snapseed, or Flickr, whose well-timed launches made some people wonder whether it could replace Instagram.

– The NYP story compares this to last Thanksgiving, which was rich pickins for Instagram. Then it celebrated record postings as people rushed to snap their turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. But this time around, the Christmas “Poke” effect may be at work:

As Josh pointed out in reference to stories of how another photo app from Facebook, Poke, is slipping after an initial burst of interest, people who would have received new iOS devices will be downloading essential apps this week rather than the second wave of nice-to-have apps. The same could apply to apps like Instagram — not just on iOS but Android as well.

– A week and a half ago, we published some data looking at whether Instagram traffic had dropped off as a result of the removal of preview “Cards” on Twitter. The answer: Yes, referral traffic went down from Twitter, but Instagram traffic overall appeared to be holding up, at least at that point.

In that post, I noted that any decline could have to do with Twitter, but could also be related to the hullabaloo over terms of service; or even a newer version of the app that is getting worse ratings than older versions. The same applies here.

In short, there are a number of reasons for a decline in daily active users at Instagram (some alarming, some seasonal). Yes, it may be that people are voting with their fingers, and if that’s the case it will likely be something that Facebook and Instagram will have to consider as they think of how to make money with the app. But to directly relate it to an already overblown situation smells off.

The scare caused Facebook’s share price to drop nearly 3% this morning, but as the truth proliferates and the markets close, $FB has recovered and down just 0.2%.

Update: Instagram itself has now sent us the following statement:
“This data is inaccurate. We continue to see strong and steady growth in both registered and active users of Instagram.”

[Additional reporting by Josh Constine]

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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Stuck For New Year’s Eve In London? YPlan Takes Last-Minute Booking Mobile

With over 5 million Twitter followers, UK actor/author Stephen Fry is the closest thing we get to an “Ashton Kutcher”, given that he has a big following and occasionally takes an interest in tech startups (sometimes a financial interest). But his choices are hit and miss. One was a startup which allowed you to put virtual post-it notes on websites… But his picks have improved and recently Yplan, a VC-backed startup with real execution credentials, benefitted from his largesse. Like HotelTonight, YPlan [iTunes link] is a way to book events (like plays, shows and concerts) via iOS mobile with literally a couple of clicks. And it’s going to come in handy for New Year’s Eve and other holiday events in the UK capital.

Founded by Viktoras Jucikas and Rytis Vitkauskas, YPlan provides handpicked London highlights and an ability to then book them, drawing on a team with experience at Time Out, toptable, Songkick and lastminute.com.

The smartphone app has already garnered $1.7 million (£1.06 million) from Wellington Partners and Octopus Investments and is very much part of this new wave of “effortless transactions” on mobile. Taxi apps like Uber and Hailo in London are educating user to the idea of a simple app, with credit card details plugged in, that can literally make your life easier.

In the U.S., there is WillCall, currently only available in SF. It’s a talented, small team and does web/mobile and general ticketing, but tends to focus on gigs and theatre rather than YPlan’s full range of events. There is also ScoreBIG, but it focuses only on sports.

Of course, YPlan’s ‘competitors’ are myriad. Time Out, for one. But the latter is an editorial business, not transactional, and mobile and bookings are an after-thought. Ticketmaster stops selling tickets online 24-48hrs before a show starts, so it’s not set up for the last-minute ticket market which is pretty big in a city like London. It’s also not really a mobile business. And whereas Groupon is focused on 50%+ discounts, their mobile offering has been stillborn.

YPlan’s other backers include Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman, Sherry Coutu (advisory board member at LinkedIn), Songkick’s Peter Read and Andy Philips of booking.com, Tom Hulme (IDEO), Gi Fernando (Techlightenment) and Robert Linney (Chemical Brothers) and Baltcap, a VC fund directed at the Baltic region.

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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Instagram Denies 25% Holiday User Drop

Sure, it’s not unlike the New York Post to be sensationalist. But in this case it misinterpreted data to suggest Instagram was hit harder by backlash to its terms of service changes than it actually was. Combined with it being a quiet-ish holiday news week, I am taking a story it published today on a 25 percent drop in Instagram users with a little more than a grain of salt.

Basically, it notes that figures from AppData demonstrate that Instagram lost 4 million daily active users — nearly a 25 percent drop to 12.4 million from 16.4 million — between December 19 and December 26. And as the NYP terms it, people are walking away in a “rage against rules.” The Post blames the decline on Instagram’s new, more commercially-minded terms of service — which it rolled back on December 21, i.e., in the middle of its DAU plummet, in response to public outcry.

To balance out that one-sided view, here are some further observations that give a slightly bigger picture about what is going on:

– Yes, AppData notes that Instagram lost 4 million DAUs over the holiday period, as based on Facebook logins via the app. But it’s also seen some gains (according to the same data): weekly active users in that period are up by 1 million (currently at 28.5 million), and monthly active users are up by 1.1 million (currently at 43 million). DAUs also seem to be up a bit since Christmas, and they are now down by only 3.5 million over the last seven days.

– AppData doesn't show an app's full user count or even a representative sample. In this case it shows users who connected their Instagram accounts to Facebook and either logged in with their Facebook credentials, searched for their Facebook friends, or shared to Facebook. That leaves out tons of users who use Instagram independently. The decline in Instagram usage may have been more pronounced amongst Facebook-connected users as they may have been exposed to more viral backlash to the TOS change via the news feed.

– There are other photo apps that have seen fluctuations in DAUs and MAUs in the last week. Look at Hipstamatic, or Snapseed, or Flickr, whose well-timed launches made some people wonder whether it could replace Instagram.

– The NYP story compares this to last Thanksgiving, which was rich pickins for Instagram. Then it celebrated record postings as people rushed to snap their turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. But this time around, the Christmas “Poke” effect may be at work:

As Josh pointed out in reference to stories of how another photo app from Facebook, Poke, is slipping after an initial burst of interest, people who would have received new iOS devices will be downloading essential apps this week rather than the second wave of nice-to-have apps. The same could apply to apps like Instagram — not just on iOS but Android as well.

– A week and a half ago, we published some data looking at whether Instagram traffic had dropped off as a result of the removal of preview “Cards” on Twitter. The answer: Yes, referral traffic went down from Twitter, but Instagram traffic overall appeared to be holding up, at least at that point.

In that post, I noted that any decline could have to do with Twitter, but could also be related to the hullabaloo over terms of service; or even a newer version of the app that is getting worse ratings than older versions. The same applies here.

In short, there are a number of reasons for a decline in daily active users at Instagram (some alarming, some seasonal). Yes, it may be that people are voting with their fingers, and if that’s the case it will likely be something that Facebook and Instagram will have to consider as they think of how to make money with the app. But to directly relate it to an already overblown situation smells off.

(And yes, I’ve reached out to Instagram, Kevin Systrom and AppData for further clarification. Happy Holidays.)

Update: Instagram itself has now sent us the following statement:
“This data is inaccurate. We continue to see strong and steady growth in both registered and active users of Instagram.”

[Additional reporting by Josh Constine]

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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Flying Home? Airport Chatter Brings Airport Info To iPhone, Socializes Travel

Airport Chatter, which debuted just in time to take advantage of the busy holiday travel season, is a new mobile application aiming to be the one-stop shop for everything related to air travel, from the time of departure to the time of arrival. The app includes venue profiles for the shops and services inside airports, allowing users to not only discover the hours of operations and other business info, but also post check-ins and reviews. That makes it something like a miniature version of Yelp, specifically designed for airports.

But co-founder and CEO Mark Wagner explains that the company’s goal is bigger than that – the venue listings feature is only one of many they have in store. The goal is to go beyond becoming the next “Gate Guru,” for example, in order to offer users a more complete travel platform that can help them with every aspect of their trip, including tracking flight status, booking ground transportation, tracking the progress of checked baggage, and most notably, socializing with fellow travelers.

Some of these features are further along in development than others. For example, Airport Chatter’s website speaks of a forthcoming feature called “Radar” which will allow users to meet new friends to “make trips more exciting.” Radar, however, is not yet available in the current iOS release. Wagner says the team debated about the launch timing, but decided that it would be better to launch before the holidays to gain that early boost in new users.

That bet paid off, it seems. Since its late December debut, Apple has featured Airport Chatter on two of its lists – “New & Noteworthy” travel apps, and another featured list called “Traveling Home.”

Wagner explains he came up with the idea for Airport Chatter around a year ago, having always been a big aviation geek, who loved everything about airports, airplanes and travel. “For me especially, [it was about] ‘what can technology do to help the travel experience?’ because A) there are so many travelers, and B) everyone is on smartphones,” he says. He and his friend Izzy Kirsh began working on an earlier version of what is now Airport Chatter, and launched it as a web app this April.

Not surprisingly, they soon found that the majority of the traffic hitting their website, essentially a list of airport venues, was coming from mobile. After joining forces with Sydney-based Rab Memari, who had been working on a similar concept, Wagner then tracked down developer and CTO Ygor Lemos using AngelList, to help them move to mobile.

The end result, created over six months of remote teamwork, is today’s iOS app, Airport Chatter. At launch, the app features 30 airports across the U.S. and 4,600 venue profiles offering the hours, phone numbers and other business listing details. Users can check-in and review these locations, as well as track the live feed for their airport, or the global feed for all airports within Airport Chatter.

The startup has also partnered with SITA, which provides air transport communications and info technology. This will allow Airport Chatter to integrate other flight-related information into its app in the future. For example, one of the more promising features the SITA partnership will bring is baggage tracking. “You’ll be able to enter your baggage number and we’ll provide you real-time updates throughout your trip,” says Wagner. This service is still in beta on SITA’s side, so it will be some time before it’s available in the app, however.

Airport Chatter is available for free from the iOS app store, and the startup plans to develop an Android version in the future. Eventually, the goal is to monetize by offering mobile coupons for the venues in the airports, as well as by helping users with bookings for ground transportation and hotels.

Airport Chatter is currently bootstrapping, but plans to start raising seed funding after the holidays.

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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Nook Media Takes $89.5M From Pearson, Says Holiday Sales Fell Below Expectations

Nook Media, the Barnes & Noble subsidiary that handles Nook e-readers and digital content, announced today that education publisher Pearson has invested $89.5 million, giving it a 5 percent stake in the company.

Nook Media spun out from Barnes & Noble earlier this. B&N owns 78.2 percent , while Microsoft (which made a big investment aimed at  bringing Nook content to Windows 8 devices) owns 16.8 percent, according to the press release. The deal gives the company a post-money valuation of $1.789 billion.

The companies paint the deal as a partnership allowing Nook to improve the experience it offers to students. In the release, Pearson North America CEO Will Ethridge says:

Pearson and Barnes & Noble have been valued partners for decades, and in recent years both have invested heavily and imaginatively to provide engaging and effective digital reading and learning experiences. This new agreement extends our partnership and deepens our commitment to provide better, easier experiences for our customers. With this investment we have entered into a commercial agreement with NOOK Media that will allow our two companies to work closely together in order to create a more seamless and effective experience for students. It is another example of our strategy of making our content and services broadly available to students and faculty through a wide range of distribution partners.

In the regulatory filing discussing the investment, Nook Media also says that it “expects” its holiday sales numbers, which it plans to release on January 3, will fall below the company’s previous projections.

[via PaidContent]

Reference: MobileGames.vn

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