Deal Radar 2008: Mercado

Mercado started ten years back and is the first search engine especially for ecommerce. The company provides search, navigation and merchandising solutions that supposedly lead to sales, revenue growth and profitability for their customers. The technology behind Mercado brings the final shopper closer to the seller with every click of their mouse through a series

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Qualcomm: Valuation Revisited

By Vijay Nagarajan, Guest Author It has been around six months since I wrote my Qualcomm valuation series. I had at that time valued the company at $44.60. Following the company’s fiscal second quarter 2008 earnings conference call I reviewed its mobile opportunities, strategy and also its product strategy for convergence and mobile computing in

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Deal Radar 2008: Groople, Interesting Use of Context

Groople is an online group travel site, which helps with searching, planning and booking group travel. (Read my Interview with Groople CEO Mike Stacy) Groople is different from Expedia and Kayak in that it serves only group travelers, no individuals, and is thus a great focus on a specific “Context“.

Vertical Travel Ad Network CEO Cree Lawson (Part 4)

SM: How big is the market? How do you calculate TAM? What is your business model? CL: We’ve reviewed a great deal of research on how large the market is for online travel advertising and very specifically banner advertising on travel websites. Forrester says that online travel advertising is an $8-billion-a-year industry in 2007, growing

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Deal Radar 2008: Bill Me Later – Blessed by Amazon

Bill Me Later is a safe and convenient payment system that allows people to purchase on the phone or over the web. The service is in direct competition with eBay’s PayPal. It was recently judged as the sixth-fastest-growing U.S. firm by Inc. magazine. It has around 200 employees and is based in Baltimore. Bill Me

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Trend Radar 2008: Verticalization Everywhere

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know, I am a huge believer in verticalization of the web. In fact, my entire Web 3.0 thesis is based on this idea. In 2007, we saw the beginnings of verticalization. In 2008, I expect this trend to become rampant in all aspects of the

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Deal Radar 2008: Kayak Consolidates Travel

As we have discussed, Online Travel is a large category, and active in entrepreneurship. Web 1.0 produced giant companies (Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline), and in Web 2.0 we have a couple of vertical search engines that are pulling ahead. Kayak, the world’s largest travel search engine, receives more than 6 million unique visitors per month.

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Web 3.0 & Google (Part 5)

Conclusion Google is a global technology leader focused on providing people access to information. The Company’s website is a top Internet destination and its brand name is one of the most recognized. Google generates revenues by delivering relevant online advertising to its users, mainly through sponsored search ads. The Company is a clear leader in

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