It’s all about communication with the customers. 50 years ago when “tante emma” (german expression for the lady who owned the corner grocery store) sold the products as mouthpiece of the industry and even more important now in a globalized market where you easily can serve customers thousands of kilometers away from your location.

No doubt, the future of advertising is based on the dialog with internet users. Internet and TV are consumed already parallel by teenagers and TV looses more and more ground.

„Web 2.0 goes corporate“ – is the name of the game.

join us at october 9th and 10th in Berlin, German - visit the 3rd WEB 2.0 congress held in the Hollywood Media Hotel, Kurfürstendamm 202.
Learn out of 30 practical crases and expert rounds how to use the WEB 2.0 successful.
The Agenda includes topics such as: Marketing and Media 2.0, Social Commerce, Sematic Web, Law 2.0, Corpoarte Communication 2.0 as well as the latest technologies of the WEB 2.0.

If you not already a registered attendee, we are
sorry to say that the pre-Registration has passed,
but we are glad to announce that you can use the
promotion code T8074-CNM for any further registration.

On Friday, the 28th of Sept., LinkedIn will provide the ability to upload & show a 80×80 pixel sized photo within profile page. This is a clear step towards a better usability and to compete with Facebook and XING.

LinkedIn will also allow you to control who is able to see your image (people within or outside the network).

This is a valuable feature, since it is extremely hard to remember people without faces based on the name alone.

VentureBeat provides an interesting analysis of a survey released Sept. 17, 2007 by Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young. (Press Release can be read here in PDF.)

SAN FRANCISCO (September 17, 2007)—It’s official: Web 2.0 has gone global. What was once an industry focused almost entirely in the San Francisco Bay area has expanded into new markets within the U.S. as well as in Europe and Israel, according to new data released today by Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young LLP. The global research showed that investors directed US$464.2 million into 101 deals worldwide in the first half of the year, the highest half- year total on record for the sector and more than a 7% increase in investments over the same period in 2006.

Essentially, while investments in Web 2.0 companies are up globally, they have declined in the U.S.

From VentureBeat:

Venture capitalists invested about six percent more into Web 2.0 companies in the first half of 2007, but the increase was attributable to more deals in Europe and Israel.
Notably, early investors in Web 2.0 slowed their pace. For example, Silicon Valley’s Benchmark Capital backed just three deals during the first half of the year, with only one in the Bay Area. In 2006, Benchmark was the sector’s top global investor, with 16 deals. It was a similar story with Omidyar Network, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Storm Ventures, the survey found. The data comes from a survey by Dow Jones VentureOne and Ernst & Young.

Is the smart money leaving Web 2.0?

Not necessarily. Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, two respected firms, are the most active investors in Web 2.0 globally in 2007. However, both firms invest widely outside of the U.S. Maybe Web 2.0 is over in the U.S.?

In the U.S., investments in Web 2.0 were virtually unchanged from the first half of 2006, with 67 deals and $357 million invested.

Globally, investors pumped a record $646.2 million into 101 deals worldwide in the first half of the year. Within Europe, the United Kingdom posted the most activity, with a record seven deals accounting for $22 million invested. Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands each saw their first Web 2.0 deal completed in the first six months of 2007, the survey found.

From 2002 to 2006, some 40 percent of Web 2.0 deals were located in the Bay Area. That figure dropped to just 20 percent during the first half. Even New England drew more money for Web 2.0 deals than Silicon Valley, according to the survey.

Finally, valuations of Web 2.0 companies have more doubled over the last year, meaning venture capitalists are having to invest more than double the amount to get the same ownership slice as they did last year.

via: meventures.com

In addition to the existing 350 vicinia users, you have now the unique
opportunity to become a member & tester of the youmato alpha release.

Just go to youmato and enter your email address.
150 out of all applications will be selected within 4-6 weeks for the
exclusive alpha test.

The limited alpha membership will include some nice gimmicks and a
outstanding platform about people, party, places. You can help us sharping
the product.

Be a part of it: apply on youmato

Tags: youmato, vicinia, lifestyle, web20, social, network, places, party, community, people, nightlife, MoMB, deutsche-startups

youmato is to be the first real global but also true local web 2.0 community platform aligning the three important Ps in live such as people, parties and places.
Speeding up time to market youmato recently aquired vicinia (www.vicinia.de) aiming to hit the markets as soon as possible.

youmato is all about ease of use, best of breed usability, a bag of new functionalities and of course mobile convergence.
Uploading and/or importing new contents will extremly easy to be managed.

Having closed a content deal with a site called future4, the team already started uploading available top content into youmato´s content repositories.
Hence the closed alpha phase invitations will be sent out in due course. Followed by a closed beta end of 2007.

youmato intially will become available across Europe to be expanded into Asia, the US and Australia.
Targeting families, friends, jet–setters and back packers witihn an age bracket from 18 to 50+ , youmato will connect/ reconnect people across continents providing top locations, parties and places to be.

Where does the name “youmato” come from?

“Mato” is the name of the mark used at the japanese art of archery called Kyūdō (弓道:きゅうどう) meaning the way of the bow.
The different rings within the mark, which is youmato´s logo representing “you” (in the center) “me” (around you) and “the others” (in the outer-ring).
The logo as such is seen by the youmato team as an analogy for the entire social network Web 2.0 experience.

After users have learned how to use social networks, they will move to youmato targeting their friends and contacts as a kind of natural life style evolution.

coverages and listings in English:
[MoMB] Museum of modern Betas

coverages and listings in German:
[Deutsche-Startups.de] http://www.deutsche-startups.de/2007/09/05/aus-vicinia-wird-youmato/

Tags: youmato, vicinia, lifestyle, web20, social, network, community, nightlife, MoMB, deutsche-startups