In This Update:

• Facebook Gets Personal With Ad Targeting Plan
• Online P2P money exchange, Lending Club raises USD10.26m
• Multimedia Search Firm Pluggd Raises $6MM in VC Funding
• US Broadband Uptake Grows to 83.4% Among Active Internet Users IN Q1 07
• Zango, Pixsy Partner for Video Search and Ad Capabilities
• DivX Acquires Video Search Startup Veatros For $4.25 Million; Invests in DeviantArt
• Report: In-Game Ads for Console Titles to Generate $852MM by 2011
• Virgin Mobile Partners with Intercasting on Social Network Deal for Mobile Phones
• The Orchard Licenses Digital Jukebox Upstart, Broadens Distribution
• Comcast Denies Cutting Off BitTorrent Transfers
• Video Game Market to Grow 50 pct in 4 yrs: Ubisoft
• Video Dating Site SpeedEdate Receives $2.8MM Funding
• Chipset Maker, Luminary Micro, Raises $25MM

Facebook Gets Personal With Ad Targeting Plan
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves. Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area. As the industry watches the Palo Alto, Calif., start-up to see if it can translate its popularity into bigger profits, Facebook has made the new ad plan its top priority, say people familiar with the matter. The plan is at an early stage and could change, but the aim is to unveil a basic version of the service late this fall.
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Online P2P money exchange, Lending Club raises USD10.26m
GIGAOM
Online P2P money exchange, Lending Club raised USD10.26m in funding led by Canaan Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. Lending Club is an online lending and borrowing exchange which claims more than 135,000 members. It says it wants to use the money to expand beyond Facebook. It was one of the first to build an application on the social networking site and claims to have more than 13,000 users of the application. Dan Ciporin, a partner at Canaan says that whilst the market is still in its earliest stages, “the multi-billion dollar consumer lending market is just beginning to leverage the power of social networks.” Securing mainstream approval is also a key challenge for online P2P money lending services as well as competing in an already quite crowded market. Rivals include will Zopa, Prosper and CircleLending.
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Multimedia Search Firm Pluggd Raises $6MM in VC Funding
VENTUREBEAT
Pluggd, a US multimedia search startup, is receiving USD6m in VC funding led by existing investor Intel Capital. Other participants in the round include DFJ Frontier, Labrador Ventures and Band of Angels. Added to an investment it received from Intel in Dec, the startup has now raised USD7.7m in VC funding. Pluggd offers a video and audio search engine that uses speech-to-text technology to enable users to search for words within audio and video files. However, unlike other video search engines using the technology, like Blinkx and EveryZing, the startup’s “heat map” highlights points within a clip where the search word is mentioned. Venture Beat claims the US startup turned down an acquisition offer because of the intensive VC interest.
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US Broadband Uptake Grows to 83.4% Among Active Internet Users IN Q1 07
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
Reversing a previous trend, the US moved up from 25th to 24th in broadband penetration worldwide in the first quarter of 2007 (see Figure 1). At the high end of the broadband spectrum, South Korea retains its lead over Hong Kong, Monaco, and Iceland in household broadband penetration. At current growth rates however, Hong Kong should pass South Korea in the summer of 2007 to become the leading nation in broadband penetration. Meanwhile, broadband penetration among active Internet users grew to 83.43% in US homes in June, up 0.2 percentage points from 83.23% in June 2007.
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Zango, Pixsy Partner for Video Search and Ad Capabilities
MEDIAPOST
Online video and image search provider Pixsy announced a content and advertising partnership with online media company Zango. As part of the agreement, Zango will integrate Pixsy’s multimedia search technology into the Zango toolbar, a browser add-on that is packaged with the company’s desktop advertising software. Zango’s online videos, games, screensavers and software will also be integrated into the searchable content available on the recently relaunched Pixsy.com. As an advertising partner, Zango will have access to the full roster of ad formats and categories available on the site.
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DivX Acquires Video Search Startup Veatros For $4.25 Million; Invests in DeviantArt
ARS TECHNICA
DivX (Nadsdaq: DIVX), the video codec firm, has bought Veatros, a Kansas-based startup spun out of University of Kansas. Veatros’s technology is designed to conduct real-time digital video processing and will be used by DivX primarily for producing enhanced video search and discovery services, the company said. The search functionality will be integrated with the DivX Connected platform, for network-based media in the living room. The startup had investment from T2 Venture Capital. DivX also invested the full $3.5 million first round into DeviantArt, a Hollywood-based online art community.
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Report: In-Game Ads for Console Titles to Generate $852MM by 2011
ABI RESEARCH via DIGITALMEDIAWIRE
The market for in-game advertising on Internet-connected titles for game consoles is expected to grow from $80 million in 2007 to $852 million by 2011, according to a report from market research firm ABI Research. “At present, all three game console vendors are investing heavily in online gaming and commerce infrastructure,” said ABI research director Michael Wolf. “While these investments are not profitable today, we expect mounting acceptance of the online channel as one of the primary mediums to get new content on the console, causing online gaming to become a significant contributor to revenues for all three vendors within 3 to 4 years.” ABI expects Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will also see strong growth in casual game download revenues, which are expected to grow tenfold from $93 million in 2007 to $1.1 billion by 2011.
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Virgin Mobile Partners with Intercasting on Social Network Deal for Mobile Phones
MOBILECRUNCH
Virgin Mobile USA is partnering with Intercasting Corporation to offer a selection of social networking and community websites to its customers on Intercasting’s ANTHEM platform. No deal terms were disclosed. Virgin Mobile’s service now includes access to LiveJournal, Glee, MiGente, Rabble, Vox, Xanga, BlackPlanet, and AsianAve. Virgin Mobile already supports other mobile social networks including Peepsnation. Java-enabled Virgin Mobile phones including the Slider Sonic, Cyclops, and Switch_Back phones currently have the service available and Virgin plans to offer the service on a bigger variety of phones in the future. Optimising social networks for mobile use is a specialty of Intercasting’s Anthem platform. Users can choose to pay for the service by the day, by the month or by volume. The daily fee starts at USD1 which allows users access to each social network for up to 0.05MB of data or they can pay USD3.99 a month for a maximum of 5MB. The Anthem platform is a Java app and it costs USD0.10 to set up. Another network offering mobile access to Rabble, Xanga and LiveJournal is Sprint Nextel. Nokia is creating another network called Mosh after its recent acquisition of Twango.
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The Orchard Licenses Digital Jukebox Upstart, Broadens Distribution
DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS
The Orchard has now licensed its catalog to digital jukebox provider Ecast, according to deal points disclosed Wednesday. The licensing pact allows Ecast to greatly expand its existing selection, which currently includes content from all major labels and Orchard rival IODA. The Orchard deal will position songs from member labels Discos Musart, Shanachie, Plug Research, Frenchkiss, Daptone Records, and others into roughly 10,000 jukeboxes. The broadband-connected Ecast units are found in bars, restaurants, taverns, and other public places. Ecast investment partners include Crosslink Capital, DCM, El Dorado Ventures, Focus Ventures and Mobius Venture Capital.
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Comcast Denies Cutting Off BitTorrent Transfers
MARKETCLUSTERS
Comcast is rejecting suggestions highlighted in the TorrentFreak blog that it and other ISPs are cutting off BitTorrent P2P transfers. Blogger, Ernesto, claims Comcast and others have been limiting BitTorrent bandwidth and stopping users’ ability to seed downloads. Ernesto claims most Comcast customers have been subjected to a marked drop in their upload speed although they are able to connect to a few peers. Any reduction in the ability to seed downloads makes it difficult to maintain a positive ratio between uploading and downloading, a statistic which is important for private BitTorrent tracker users, Ernesto says. Although Comcast says it does not interfere with its users’ traffic, it says it reserves the right to cut off customers who use excessive amounts of bandwidth.
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Video Game Market to Grow 50 pct in 4 yrs: Ubisoft
REUTERS
The market for video games is expected to expand by half over the next four years as it extends beyond hardcore gamers, the chief executive of French video game publisher Ubisoft said on Wednesday. “There are so many new customers to the business; this is going to grow the market tremendously. I expect the market to grow by 50 percent in the next four years,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told Reuters at the sidelines of the Games Convention in Leipzig.
Driven by the runaway success of Nintendo’s motion-controlled Wii console, so-called casual games that are targeted at families, older players or women have become the industry’s new buzzword. Ubisoft, known for its realistic military games, on Wednesday announced a new title in its “Games for Everyone” range. “Cranium Kabookii,” based on the award-winning board game Cranium, will be made for Nintendo’s Wii console and is slated for a December release.
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Video Dating Site SpeedEdate Receives $2.8MM Funding
ALARM:CLOCK
Online video dating site SpeedEdate is receiving USD2.8m in Series A funding. No deal terms were disclosed. The round led by Menlo Ventures, with other investors not disclosed. SpeedEdate is yet to launch publicly but promises a service allowing users to conduct speed dates via webcam. Three minute clips are uploaded and viewers tag each one as a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ after viewing. The service then pairs up those who positively tag each other and filter the results according to other information provided. No information was given as to how the service will generate revenue or what subscription system will be used.
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Chipset Maker, Luminary Micro, Raises $25MM
PE HUB
Luminary Micro, a US chipset maker and fables semiconductor company, raised USD25m in Series C funding from Adams Street Partners. Return backers, New Enterprise Associates, EXA Ventures and ATA Ventures also featured in the round. The funding will be used to launch the company in China, with its memory chipsets and chip cooling systems to prevent units overheating. The company says its 32-bit chipsets are comparable in price to most eight or 16-bit controllers, which it sells for USD1 each. This is the third round of funding for Luminary, which has raised USD44m so far.
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Tags: Band of Angels, BitTorrent, DivX, EMI, Facebook, Intel, IPO, Microsoft, Music, Nintendo, Nokia, P2P, Pixsy, RIM, Seed, Series A, Social Networking, Sony, Speech-To-Text, Sprint, Turn, VC, Venture Capital, Video, Wii