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Intuit to Acquire Demandforce for $424MM

Posted on April 27, 2012. Filed under: advertising, Internet, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , |

This morning, Intuit announced its agreement to acquire one of Benchmark’s portfolio companies, Demandforce, for $424mm. As with Instagram, Benchmark Capital is the largest institutional investor in Demandforce. Unlike Instagram, which is a consumer application and is extremely well known, Demandforce focuses on local professional businesses and has chosen to keep an intentionally low profile [...]

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You Don’t Have to Tweet to Twitter

Posted on November 15, 2011. Filed under: advertising, Facebook, Internet, IPO, social networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , |

Frequent comparisons to Facebook leave many confused about the true value of Twitter. [Follow Me on Twitter] “In a brand new direction A change of perception On a brand new trajection” – UB40 [Disclosure: Benchmark Capital is a major investor in Twitter, and my partner Peter Fenton sits on the Twitter BOD.] Twitter is having a remarkable year. Active [...]

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Understanding Why Netflix Changed Pricing

Posted on September 18, 2011. Filed under: Internet, online video, Uncategorized, video, Web/Tech |

Many journalists have offered their opinion on Netflix’s recent changes, its stock price decline, and their even more recent branding changes (Qwikster). Yet in each article, it appears as if the journalist all agree that the price move (creating separate prices for streaming and DVDs) was a bad strategic move. As an example, Techcrunch notes: “Raising prices for those of [...]

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Google’s Acquires ITA: Will Deeper Vertical Integration Lead to Higher Revenues?

Posted on July 8, 2010. Filed under: advertising, Internet, Uncategorized, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , , |

“It’s funny how fallin feels like flyin, for a little while…” – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart Soundtrack On July 1st, Google announced its intention to acquire ITA Software. ITA owns a primarily B2B airfare search and pricing system called QPX. Several of the leading online travel sites, like Orbitz, Kayak, and Bing Travel, use information [...]

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When It Comes to Television Content, Affiliate Fees Make the World Go ‘Round

Posted on April 28, 2010. Filed under: Internet, online video, Uncategorized, video, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , |

“The clock on the wall’s moving slower My heart it sinks to the ground And the storm that I thought would blow over Clouds the light of the love that I found” – Fool in the Rain, Led Zeppelin More often than not, we here in Silicon Valley are prone to idealism. We see a [...]

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Want To Know More About the Future of Internet TV?: Let’s Look to Korea

Posted on September 29, 2009. Filed under: Internet, online video, Uncategorized, video, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , , |

[Follow Me on Twitter] We are clearly at a very important point in time when it comes to Internet video, especially video that is served to your television, but over the Internet (also known as “over-the-top” Internet video). Christmas of 2009 and Christmas of 2010 will mark the point in time that Internet menus began [...]

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Bill Gurley on the “Free” Business Model

Posted on July 15, 2009. Filed under: advertising, Internet, online video, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, video, Web/Tech | Tags: |

I have been intrigued by the back and forth between Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mark Cuban on the topic of “Free” as a strategy and business model. For those that haven’t read the articles and posts, I highly reccomend them all. Here they are in a list: 1) Back in February of 2008, Chris [...]

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Bill Gurley’s Online Video Market Snapshot

Posted on May 10, 2009. Filed under: Internet, online video, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, video | Tags: , , , , |

I recently spoke at AlwaysOn’s OnHollywood conference on the subject of today’s extremely dynamic online/Internet video world. Things are moving so amazingly fast that its extremely hard to predict specific outcomes. That said, I believe there are a number of critical issues to understand as we watch this market unfold over the next  few years.  [...]

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How To Monetize a Social Network: MySpace and Facebook Should Follow TenCent

Posted on March 9, 2009. Filed under: advertising, casual games, Internet, social networking, Uncategorized, video, Virtual Goods | Tags: , , , , , , , , |

“Little Joe never once gave it away Everybody had to pay and pay”                   — Lou Reed, Walk on the Wild Side The consensus seems to be that social networks have a monetization problem.  On this topic, both the leading technology industry blogs and the world’s top news organizations agree. [...]

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Perfect Online Video Advertising Model: Choose Your Advertiser

Posted on February 27, 2009. Filed under: advertising, Internet, online video, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, video, Web/Tech | Tags: , , , |

Many companies and visionaries have pontificated about the future of video ads and different techniques for monetizing online videos.  A big part of this is driven by the fact that while YouTube is a huge user success, its a less proven monetization success.  On a recent trip to NYC, an idea came up which I can’t get [...]

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    About

    …focusing on the evolution and economics of high technology business and strategy. By day, I am a venture capitalist at Benchmark Capital.

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