Tag: launch

IT@Cork

Salim launches Confabb

My good buddy Salim has taken the covers off his latest venture Confabb and it has received a glowing review from TechCrunch, amongst others.

Confabb is a conference aggregation and organisation site. It has a database of over 16,000 conferences and the ability to log in and add more or use the site to help plan a conference.

Robert Scoble has posted a great interview with Salim where Salim talks about how they brought the site to launch without spending any money!

I’m looking forward to seeing Salim when he comes back to Cork for the 2006 it@cork conference to speak about global domination on a limited budget – an apt talk for Salim, methinks!

Technology

Reddit acquired by Cond̩ Nast РAnother bubble?

Following on hotly from yesterday’s big news about Google’s purchase of JotSpot, comes news today that Reddit has been bought by Condé Nast (owners of Wired Digital, Epicurious.com and Style.com, among other properties).

Reddit had been licencing its technology and allowing people to white label it but as Richard McManus notes, this deal with Condé Nast is an outright takeover. Condé Nast, in a statement have said:

CondéNet, … plans to incorporate Reddit’s personalized news aggregation and other Web 2.0 technologies into the various online destinations maintained by CondéNet and its parent company, Condé Nast Publications.

CondéNet has already used Reddit technology to launch Lipstick.com, a beta site that aggregates links to celebrity gossip news stories.

“Our aim is to grow our internet position through acquisitions and innovative partnerships,” said Steve Newhouse, chairman of the Advance.net web division of Advance Publications, the parent company of Condé Nast.

In case you are thinking that all these acquisitions means another bubble is happening, check out Joe Kraus’ post on the differences between launching a successful site years ago and today. The key point is:

Excite.com took $3,000,000 to get from idea to launch. JotSpot took $100,000.

If sites are being built for $100,000, there’s far less to lose than there was in 2,000.