Three cool companies at Plugg 09

Tattletech was at Plugg last week in Brussels (that Robin Wauters puts on a good show) and it was one of the best events we have been to in a while. The agenda was superb, the speakers were excellent and the food was outstanding. The start up rally was fun with our audience participation paddles, but the majority of the start ups were not that compelling, with the exception of three that stood out WAY above the others. We are planning on having all three of them do a Tattletech Hot Seat in the coming weeks.

Here are the three companies we think you should keep your eyes on. (Plus one extra)

Jinni – Everything is changing so why not how we search for TV shows and movies. Long time IPTV industry veteran and former Oracle guy, Yosi Glick thinks its about time we re think how we search for movies. So enter Jinni. Tattltech saw a super secret demo of Jinni last fall at IBC and now the train is on the track as Jinni has brought its new search technology to the forefront. Blending both a social networking element with a more logical way to search for what you want to watch (a social search and recommendation engine), Jinni will change the way you think about searching for content. They will. Sign up for the beta online. Watch them, get on board now, this would be like missing the Skype train. Yes, I said that. A fantastic management team makes all the difference and Jinni has that.

Myngle - Learn a language online. Okay, so at first glance that may not sound innovative, but it is. It is because it connects you to the global marketplace where you are talking with folks that know that native language. Its interacting with them in a way you would normally if you knew a language, not the “phrases” that you normally go through in an old school language class. It’s e learning mixed with educational social networking and we think that this is one of the best ideas for applying elements of social networking today. Imagine the possibilities this could have on developing nations.

Global classroom, cultural exchange takes on a whole new meaning. Founder by Marina Togenetti and based in the Netherlands, this woman gives entrepreneur a whole new name. Winner of the Plugg Audience Choice awards and more than 20,000 users in seven months.

Softatutor – It is unfortunate that their site is only in German, but trust me when I say to you this CEO has his eye on the big picture. And like Myngle, Sofatutor is focusing on applying the elements of social networking to education. Sofatutor blends video with social interaction to create an online “tutor”. And the CEO, Stephan Bayer at Plugg 09 says that he wants tutors to get paid for their work – educational advocate. Nice. Not to mention the fact that if we did a Top 10 list of sexy tech guys at Plugg, he would be on it.

Now, also on our list is Nimbuzz who has won all sorts of awards and plans to become the gobal communications platform for IP-based communication between mobile devices and social media platforms. Watch for their upcoming Tattletech Hot Seat interview with Tobias Kemper. And rounding out the trip was the excellent conversation spent with  two fantastic “personalities” we had the great pleasure of spending our breaks with – Nicolas Mertens (picture a young David Spade with the same sense of humor), The Next Web and Jeroen Mirck.

– JLH

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Tags: Myngle, Nimbuzz, Robin Wauters, Social network service, Yosi Glick

Day 1, Mobile World Congress, Barcelona

First, we woke dreading the crowds, the lines, the herds of people that would slow down my routes. Then we got to MWC and found no lines, no waiting and bocadillos to spare. And, taxis. Taxis everywhere! What was going on here? Was this MWC in Barcelona? It turns out, it was and is Barcelona – the lovely feel of Cannes in Barcelona. People were in a good moods, there were no annoying crowds and busines was being conducted.

Today on the list for cool things was a Dutch company called zCapes, which is making a mobile mini blog. We met them at the Mobile Monday Peer awards and they had just launched one day ago and as we move to more start ups that start with the letter Z – here is Zentym – a mobile TV advertising company based out of Madrid that we had previously met at the European Venture Summit – this time out of the gate with a powerful message and lots of operators nibbling at their toes.

One of our favorite companies from Sweden, JayCut was on of the hosts at the Sweden Mobile Association cocktail hour and proved their online video editing product has a B2B play. Another cool company from Sweden was TAT – The Astonishing Tribe. I think by far they have the coolest logo and they are 100% focused on delivering a god user interface for mobile — combining design and technology. Tattletech will post an interview with Charotta Taranger of TAT this week.

But the one thing that we believe is out of control is all the emphasis on mobile in terms of LBS. Yes we know it is a mobile show – but can we have a reality check? Forty mobile companies presented at the Mobile Monday Peer Awards today – 40!  Lots of duplicates and clones and look alikes out there – the market will consolidate and in six months, many of those companies will be gone.  In the long term, yes its true, all that we know and love will be on the mobile, but the Web will not go away. The lines will become blurred so this means that when we are talking about LBS – we should remember that there are more than 500 million users on Web based social networking sites and those users will want to evolve their social network.

According to Frank Schuil, CEO, IRL, the Web will not go away – the web is a natural extension of mobile and vice versa – they complete each other. Innovation will take place at the intersection of the web and mobile. The key will be to unlock the value of location for those 506 million online users and then bring them to the mobile.

On another note, there are less scantily clad women at this show – thank god for the recession. --JLH

Tags: Frank Schuil, IRL Connect, IRL Corporate, Mobile World Congress, Social network service

How to tell your mom what Twitter is

So you know when you have those conversations with your mother and try explain what social networking is all about? And then you get frustrated and just end up telling her she will never get it so why bother? Well this blog should do th trick. Great great entry on what Twitter is all about, and how to use it to grow your business. It’s a great story with fantastic references. Read it and go forth and Twitter!

Tags: Facebook, Social network service, Twitter

Joost lets go of P2P service

We didn’t like reading this story in Contentinople, but thought it might happen. Joost recently stopped its P2P services that was launched in 2007 because they just didn’t have the views like Hulu (plus their name is just fun to say). But don’t count them out – -where there is a will, there is a way and they are turning to niche programming and turning to social networking tools.  And on the same day, Brightcove let go of its consumer product the Brightcove Network Service, leaving YouTube standing in the ring – this doesn’t mean that YouTube is the best, its just the biggest and in our opinion, sevenload should be seriously looked at because it was built around and from the ground up on social newtorks via your videos. Technically and business savvy global team.

But it’s a bit easier for Joost and Brightcove to breath with mostly deep pockets in the funding arena, but it sort of makes us crinkle up our nose when we see true innovation coming from companies like Yasmo Live and In Real Life (IRL) companies with dynamic CEO’s, great business models based on achievable ROI and a “change agent” attitude about their respective markets (IRL wants to make presence part of society’s infrastructure by adding it to your social media and social networking and Yasmo Live wants to make your life at a conference much more productive through a mobile application that lets you see who is around you via your own mobile) These CEOs are working with some advanced technology  and right now some of the money stream is blinded by all things mobile and all things video. We believe that there are some angel investors out there that will see the light – maybe grabbing onto a company that is a true trail blazer and propelling it to become the fabric of our social and digital lives. – JLH

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Tags: Frank Schuil, Hulu, IRL Connect, Joost, social media, Social network service, Yasmo Live

Missing from ETRE – Noovo

Image via CrunchBase

Noovo. Andrej Nabergoj and his brilliant team have delivered the next generation for social networking centered around content creation. That is what we think. We use it. Daily, like oxygen. It is more than Facebook, more than MySpace  – it’s usable, practical and brings in feeds from all your other applications. No, not like that traffic jam of a mess over at FriendFeed, but real convergence of your social networking applications and real content. Creation of content! You just don’t pass it around or send a fun game or tag, you create content and that content generates more content so your pool grows. Your access to content expands and is related to you because you decide what to read, share and send.

It is what the next billion users will turn to – as systems that is fluid, intuitive and  a part of your community and who you are. Feel the force, Luke.

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Tags: Andrej Nabergoj, Facebook, MySpace, noovo, Social network service