Not even out of the gate in a full beta, Joost which has been signing deals all across the world and even here in Canada has announced the TV startup has raised $45 million in a venture round of financing through Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, CBS Corporation, Viacom and Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing.
Yahoo which has purchased Canada’s own Flickr announced they are finally shutting down Yahoo Photos which makes sense as they try to consolidate their efforts. The question still on my mind is “how many places do portals think that consumers will share their content?” The Internet’s Big Three (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) have photo sharing capabilities, and the niche based sites such as Kaboose and Urban Moms have the feature. Will Cindy Jones really put her mother’s day pictures on more than one site?
Headlines:
Is there room for another social networking site in Canada, MySpace thinks so with the launch of MySpace Canada. Will they give all the Canadian Facebook users a reason to switch?
What would the week’s headlines be without some news on the search engine front? Sympatico/MSN announced a new partnership which gives them a deeper roots into the local search market in Canada.
AOL Canada has re-launched their entire portal network of portals around the globe and here in Canada they launched AOL Canada Music.
Deal Flow:
Over on the east coast of Canada, Bragg Communications announced their intent to purchase digital TV, Hi-Speed Internet and Telecom services provider Persona.
Upcoming Events:
State of the Nation – May 28
Canadian New Media Awards – May 28
Guiding Light – Social Media Marketing – May 29
Engage Me – May 29
From the research that I have done, they say that users join and actively participate in three social networking sites.
Photo sharing at http://www.mommyclub.ca has been launched and moms are filling their quota of 10 photos in their free personal photo galleries.
Nice upgrade to the site, btw!