Wednesday, 15 February 2012
Key Russian Social Network Adds Facial Recognition To Photos
TechCrunch Europe is edited by Mike Butcher (FRSA, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts). As well as editing TechCrunch Europe, Mike is involved in a project to bring European technology entrepreneurs and investors together in a club environment called TechHub (@TechHub), in London initially. A long time journalist, Mike has written for UK national newspapers and magazines including... ? Learn More
Odnoklassniki, is the second largest social network in Russia, behind Vkontakte, and is part of the recently floated Mail.Ru Group. Facebook’s market share in Russia has never passed 5%, according to ComScore (or 5 million people a month). Odnoklassniki has 25-26 million visitors a month. That gives some context to the news today that Odnoklassniki today launches a new face detection feature powered by Israeli-based startup face.com, which already provides its technology to Facebook.
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Health 2.0: Innovators, Opportunists & Delusionals
Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Dave Chase, the CEO of Avado.com, a Patient Relationship Management company that was a TechCrunch Disrupt finalist. Previously he was a management consultant for Accenture’s healthcare practice consulting to 25 hospitals and was the founder of Microsoft’s Health business. You can follow him on Twitter @chasedave.
Last week, Health 2.0 wrapped up its largest ever event with 50 percent more attendees than their previously largest event. A number of companies launched during the conference, but like many events the most interesting activity wasn’t what happened on the main stage but the many side meetings/events that took place. The other notable item is the recasting of major corporations from within and outside of the traditional healthcare arena. This is further evidence highlighted in the Healthcare Disruption series (see links below).
One of the most intriguing quotes was by Mark Bertolini CEO Aetna who stated “We’re evolving into a HealthIT company with a health insurance component.” He stated that $12B out out of their $34B in revenue was from non-insurance revenue streams and they have done over $1.6B in acquisitions in the last year. There’s much more to come from large corporations. I had several conversations with Fortune 100 companies who are extremely serious about having a presence (or expanding their existing presence) in the healthcare industry. Most haven’t announced anything but don’t be surprised to see more in the coming months.
Broadly speaking, my takeaway from Health 2.0 was there were three categories of people leading projects and startups – Innovators, Opportunists and Delusionals. In all three cases, Tom Evslin’s quote “nothing great has ever been accomplished without irrational exuberance” captures the state of the industry. Naturally, many will wash out but some huge successes will emerge.
The most interesting, of course, are the Innovators. More on that in a moment. The Opportunists remind me of many companies in the dotcom boom. Consultants, Investment Bankers and the like chase the almighty buck as they see Healthcare as a place to make a quick buck. Unlike the dotcom boom, there’s not many quick flip opportunities in healthcare though expect to see some micro transactions that can provide a modest return for developers. It’s easy to sniff out the Opportunists as they have little background or true passion in healthcare and sprinkle in the right buzzwords like “Meaningful Use” to act like they understand the landscape.
The Delusionals were all over at Health 2.0 demo’ing “cool apps” yet sadly falling into the same trap that many startups that were rubble from the Internet bubble. They have familiar quotes from that bygone era – “we’re not worrying about revenue.” I’ve seen this movie before and know how it ends. Apparently, they didn’t read HealthTech FAIL: Lessons For Entrepreneurs From Health Startups Gone Awry.
The Innovators are where the real action is. I’ll highlight a couple examples where I spent much of my four days during the Health 2.0 event. There was a two-day Code-a-thon sponsored by Novartis. I believe Novartis publishing an API will be looked back as a seminal moment in the shift to Pharma 3.0.
I outlined the implications of this in Health 2.0 Code-a-thon: Novartis invites all comers to innovate around their API [Disclosure: Avado provided the underlying platform for the implementation of forms and services integrating with the API]. More than even the implications of the API, Novartis did a great job of signaling to the market that they are “open for business” to working with innovative individuals and startups that they can partner with to evolve their business.
As interesting as the disruptive technology is, I’m most fascinated with disruptive new healthcare delivery models. Clayton Christensen’s ground-breaking book was The Innovator’s Dilemma, however he followed that up with his co-author Jason Hwang, MD with a book entitled The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care.
In that book, he highlights many of these disruptors. Earlier I highlighted a couple examples of disruptive new healthcare delivery models in MedLion: The Most Important Organization In Silicon Valley That No One Has Heard About and WhiteGlove Health’s Funding Round Powered by Technology-enabled Services.
It’s hard to argue with the case made by Christensen and Hwang that in order to slay the healthcare cost beast that is bankrupting local, state and federal government, disruptive innovation has to happen. One of the most respected economists in the world, Laura Tyson, stated “We don’t have a debt problem, we have a healthcare problem.” The newly formed group, the Healthcare Delivery Innovators Alliance (HDIA), was founded with the purpose of identifying and advancing standards for new healthcare delivery systems that can demonstrate that they can dramatically lower costs while improving the health outcomes and consumer experience.
Having played a role with the IAB (the industry association for the Internet ad market) in the aftermath of the dotcom bust, I was asked to share how that experience can be instructive for accelerating the growth of disruptive innovators in healthcare delivery. Also presenting and participating in the first in-person meeting of the HDIA was the Innovator’s Prescription co-auther Jason Hwang. [Disclosure: Avado has joined HDIA as a founding member of the alliance.]
I was pleased to find out that the founders of the HDIA have a similar plan to the “Prescription” that I outlined in the embedded presentation below. As with the turnaround of the Internet Ad industry, proof, standards and education are critical to accelerating the growth of these exciting new models. The Alliance is inviting organizations to join their movement. While welcoming any organization that is sincerely driving innovation, the HDIA is particularly interested in employers who share the interest in reversing healthcare’s hyperinflation.
Naturally, if employers (who pay for the majority of healthcare) signal to the market that they are going to buy from healthcare delivery models that are really making a difference, it will accelerate the growth of these models. The reality is that any disruptive innovator has nothing to lose while incumbents are primarily focused on preserving current revenue streams. With those revenue streams in healthcare adding up to almost 20% of the economy, rest assured the incumbents will use FUD and every other tactic in the book to protect that ocean of revenue.
As with any group that brings change, the Innovators are going through the 3 Stages of Truth articulated by Arthur Schopenhauer – first it is ridiculed, second is violently opposed and finally it is accepted as fact. Organizations such as MedLion, WhiteGlove, Qliance and others are in the second phase as they have proven their models work and it threatens status quo. The HDIA’s purpose is to get it to the final stage of truth.
View HDIA Introductory Presentation and Getting healthcare innovators their fair share on Slideshare or view the embedded slideshow below.
The following is the Healthcare Disruption series referenced above:
Healthcare Disruption: Pharma 3.0 Will Drive Shift from Life Science to HealthTech Investing
Healthcare Disruption: Providers Will Use HealthTech to Differentiate and Produce Better Outcomes (Part II)
Healthcare Disruption: Providers Are Making Newspaper Industry Mistakes (Part III)
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A Ten-Minute Charger For The Nissan Leaf – In Time
Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. ? Learn More
One of the drawbacks of current (if you will) electric cars is the rather long time it takes to charge their batteries. We found with the Leaf that as long as you adapt your lifestyle to it a bit, it’s not a problem, but the unexpected happens and it would suck to be at low charge when you suddenly need to get to the hospital, or what have you. Quick-charge solutions are out there, but few are really practical and many still take hours to reach full charge. Nissan says they’ve created one, however, that could charge a car in only ten minutes.
It’s a collaboration with Kansai University in Japan, and the technology breakthrough has to do with the electrode material used, though it’s not clear where in the process the new vanadium oxide and tungsten oxide electrodes are being implemented.
The ten-minute charge uses a new compact charge station that costs less than half what the previous quick charger did, and could also be used on other automakers’ vehicles. Still, at around a million yen (~$13,000), it’s more suited to institutional use. Gas stations, parking lots, that sort of thing. It’s bad enough already that you have to get a 220V adapter in order to get your Leaf back on the road in good time.
The advanced processes and materials used mean that this isn’t likely to be found at your local shop any time soon, though. And of course there aren’t really enough electric vehicles out there to make this a priority just yet. But by doing the theoretical work now, Nissan can be ready with a product when the time is right.
[via SlashGear; image: AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno]
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WD TV Live Media Streamer Skips Internal Storage For Spotify
Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More
Western Digital is getting a lot of mileage out of their WD TV media players, and that trend continues today with the announcement of their new WD TV Live box. Unlike its big brother, the WD TV Live is strictly a streamer, but it has a reason to boast: it’s the first WD product to ship with Spotify support
The WD TV Live doesn’t have any internal storage to speak of, but it does sport 2 USB ports for all of you who carry thumb drives full of illicit TV shows.
Once it’s set up on a wireless network or an ethernet connection, the WD TV Live can access media from computers on your home network, or from content partners like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and Pandora. It’s got enough horsepower to playback video content at 1080p, and supports a boatload of media formats from the mundane (like AVIs) to the more obscure (hello MKV!).
Ardent Spotify fans need not worry about missing out here. The WD TV Live supports a majority of Spotify features, like managing playlists, sharing songs, and subscribing to friends and fellow music lovers with good taste.
With companies like Microsoft looking to own the living room with their new media initiatives, it makes it harder and harder for boxes like the WD TV Live to pick up any steam. Still, its price point is sure to help: at $99, the WD TV Live is an inexpensive way to start streaming with minimal headaches. It’s set to appear in Western Digital’s online store shortly, and it shouldn’t be long before it hits your electronics retailer of choice.
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And The Lion Shall Lie Down With The Lamb: Nintendo Issues Blue Sega-Themed Wii
Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. ? Learn More
I remember the time when you were either a Nintendo kid or a Sega kid — assuming you were lucky enough to have one of the consoles at all. You’d ask your friend if they had played Super Mario Bros 3 warpless, and they would respond that no, they were still trying to beat their Casino Zone times in Sonic 2. Things would be a little tense after that. And this was a prejudice that I felt would never be mended. But when Sega went all-software after the Dreamcast (R.I.P.), things changed.
Sure, we’ve had Sonic games on Nintendo systems — have for years. But a Sonic-blue Wii? According to my inner child, they’ve finally crossed the line.
The reason is normal enough: it’s a Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games bundle. The Wii itself is of the new, slightly crippled variety (doesn’t have wi-fi or play Gamecube games) but it’s a perfect little collaboration for the upcoming Olympics — if you lack the soul of a gamer. To anyone who grew up in the 80s, this is a gross dereliction of fanboy duty by the obsessively self-centered Nintendo.
It also comes with a sticker sheet. I have to assume that someone at Nintendo threatened to disembowel themselves if Sonic were permanently placed on a Wii.
This abomination will be available in Europe starting November 18th. Or as they might say, 18 November.
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Thanks To Whole Foods Deal, LivingSocial Grew Five Times Faster Than Groupon In September
Erick Schonfeld is the Editor of TechCrunch. He oversees the editorial content of the site, helps to program the Disrupt conferences and CrunchUps, produces TCTV shows, and writes daily for the blog. He is also the father of three adorable children. He joined TechCrunch as Co-Editor in 2007, and helped take it from a popular blog to... ? Learn More
LivingSocial is still less than half the size of Groupon in terms of gross revenue, but in September it grew five times as fast largely thanks to one deal: Whole Foods. According to new data from daily deal tracker Yipit, LivingSocial’s gross revenues for deals in North America grew 32 percent in September, compared to 6 percent growth for Groupon. (Both figures are monthly growth versus August, 2011).
Yipit estimates that LivingSocial sold $59.3 million worth of deals in September, a month-over-month increase of $14.6 million. As much as $10 million of that amount was related to a very successful Whole Foods deal which offered $10 off a $20 purchase. Which just goes to show how one popular national deal can really move the needle for the daily deal sites. Groupon saw similar success with a Gap deal last year.
Even if you back out the impact of the Whole Foods deal, LivingSocial still would have shown 10 percent growth during the month. That is still faster than Groupon, but off a smaller base. Groupon sold an estimated $143.4 million worth of deals in North America in the same period. Groupon maintains 54 percent market share of daily deals in North America, versus 22 percent for LivingSocial—a number it has been hovering around since July. But both are doing very well, with a $3.2 billion annual gross revenue run-rate for Groupon and a $1.7 billion run-rate for LivingSocial, based on September’s numbers.
The Daily Deal industry overall grew 12 percent in September to an estimated $266.6 million in gross revenues, a faster pace than the 9 percent growth rate in August. The industry as a whole is at a $3.2 billion annual run-rate, based on September’s numbers (with Groupon representing $1.7 billion and LivingSocial $712 million of that total). Note that these are the gross revenues the deals represent, and not the direct revenues each company gets to keep after it splits the value of each deal with merchants.
Groupon and LivingSocial together make up 76 percent of the daily deals industry,but a dome of the newer, smaller players are growing even faster (again, off a smaller base). In September, No. 3 player TravelZoo grew 37 percent. AmazonLocal grew 177 percent, and Google Offers grew 236 percent. Something tells me that No. 3 spot is going to change fairly soon.
LivingSocial is the social commerce leader behind LivingSocial Deals, a group buying program that invites people and their friends to save up to 90 percent each day at their favorite restaurants, spas, sporting events, hotels and other local attractions in major cities. LivingSocial has an extensive user base of more than 85 million, and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Learn more Launch Date: November 11, 2008 Groupon features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in more than 565 cities around the world. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, Groupon can offer deals that aren’t available elsewhere. Groupon brings buyers and sellers together in a fun and collaborative way that offers the consumer an unbeatable deal, and businesses a large number of new customers. To date, it has saved consumers more than $300 million and claims it...
Learn more Yipit aggregates and recommends the best daily deals based on users’ locations and interests. Yipit draws its deals from 330 active daily deal services including LivingSocial and Buy With Me, then ranks them according to users’ preferences. Yipit is available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York.
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