Comments on: Funambol Raises $12.5 Million Series B: AOL Signs Up As Customer

By: TechCrunch en français » [fr] Pleex boucle un tour de 750 000 euros, mais à encore du boulot

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:30:43 +0000

[...] Maeglin Software l’éditeur de Pleex, le service de sauvegarde de votre carnet d’adresse mobile dont nous avons couvert le lancement annonce un tour de 750 000 € auprès de CDC Innovation et Innovacom. L’ambition de la société semble selon ses propos vouloir aller au delà du service actuel et c’est plutôt une bonne chose au regard des alternatives plus complètes sur le marché, notamment Funambol qui a aussi bouclé un tour récemment. [...]

By: Multiplex Incomes System » Blog Archive » Open Source Mobile: Funambol keeps growing and raises 12.5 Millions in Venture Capital

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:44:44 +0000

[...] Investors are banking in a long term perspective, while Funambol is cash flow positive from the beginning of this year, so I asked my friend Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of Funambol, the following question: [...]

By: Funambol Raises $12.5 Million Series B: AOL Signs Up As Customer | Xaby.com | Singapore Web Design Company Blog

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:04:34 +0000

[...] Full Story at TechCrunch addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xaby.com%2Fwebtalk%2F2008%2F06%2F20%2Ffunambol-raises-125-million-series-b-aol-signs-up-as-customer%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Funambol+Raises+%2412.5+Million+Series+B%3A+AOL+Signs+Up+As+Customer’; addthis_pub = ”; Sphere: Related Content [...]

By: Frank Church

Frank Church — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:32:34 +0000

#Fabrizio

Stop using Gmail? WRONG! I use IMAP and POP (depending on the account) access.

Nice try though, you can keep your banners, thnx.

By: LouN - Nexthaus

LouN - Nexthaus — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:55:33 +0000

@14 That’s just a little of me trying to think things through in my head…

Nothing wrong with a little competition. There always seems to be a place for both open and closed source.

As for openness, I am always available to talk, and I participate as much as possible in discussions like this. Even though the code isn’t open, I would say that we are quite open as an organization.

I also find the secrecy around “tips” a bit ironic =)

By: Ron Towns

Ron Towns — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:17:47 +0000

Free service would be sweet. There’s been speculation that Google at one point was interested in purchasing sprint and turning it into a free ad-supported service…. http://www.read...ex.php?rta=blog

By: June 17, 2008 | next media update

June 17, 2008 | next media update — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:22:34 +0000

[...] Funambol Raises $12.5 Million Series B for Mobile Synching TECHCRUNCH By taking an open-source approach to mobile mail and contact syncing, Funambol is cracking the problem of creating applications across 850 different mobile handsets. The company raised $12.5million in a series B financing led by Nexit Ventures. Castile Ventures and existing investors Walden International and H.I.G ventures also participated. Funambol previously raised $5 million in a series A in August, 2005, and then a previously undisclosed follow-on of $5.5 million in December, 2006. The company is based in Redwood City, California, with most of its employees and development engineers located south of Milan, Italy. It is behind one of the largest mobile open-source projects. Its syncing engine has been downloaded more than two million times by developers. Source> [...]

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 携帯同期のFunambolがシリーズBで$12.5M調達、AOLも顧客に

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » 携帯同期のFunambolがシリーズBで$12.5M調達、AOLも顧客に — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:32:18 +0000

[...] [原文へ] [...]

By: George

George — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:27:59 +0000

AOL is still running? I thought they moved to farming or doing something else by now.

Regarding the service, “spamming” might become a tool for carriers to offer discounted or free services (adding a “few” ads to your messages)

There are many ways in which carriers can offer a free service. Maybe they’ll try a couple if marketing department finds a good way to sponsor them.

By: Fabrizio Capobianco

Fabrizio Capobianco — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:02:44 +0000

Hello,
since I am the one quoted in the article, let me answer a few comments.

@2, 6, 7, 10 : No, we do not spam anyone. The ad is a microbanner on the top of the email client. Check http://www.funa...bile_Email5.jpg and let me know if that bothers you. If it does, you should also stop reading emails on Gmail and searching with Google… If there is something we are going to be very careful on doing is making ads not intrusive and useful. If they are not, we are screwed
@6 : Yes, we are making money. Cash flow positive at the beginning of the year
@12 : No comments, we are not sharing tips with competitors ) Good luck on your efforts, I see you are doing great things and I am impressed by the quality of your work. Being a bit more open would help you greatly, if I might add a suggestion
@5 : Agreed, go download Firefox today. It is download day. Go open source. http://www.firefox.com

Cheers,

fabrizio

By: Search Marketing Center

Search Marketing Center — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:15:18 +0000

this opens up the market even further for mobile advertising, spam? maybe not, but for smaller market companies and even large ones, they can now target the user directly, especially when syncing aol’s mobile and email. I like this, besides AOL this could be used for anything, from ads, to mobile mail awareness.

By: LouN - Nexthaus

LouN - Nexthaus — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:35:52 +0000

Before getting into the other stuff, the funambol iphone app only syncs contacts, which is hardly a competitor for mobileme.

…

The thing about sync apps is that they should be invisible. Once you set it up, it should just work from then on. You should never have to go into the sync app, so no point in putting ads there.

So where is the connection between funambol and serving ads?

Funambol isn’t an IM service, so no ads for IM.

So that leaves ads in email…

Most sync apps work by syncing the data into the appropriate datastore on the device (email db for email, cal db for calendar, etc), which is then accessed by the native built in app for that data. IE. You would sync your email, then access it with the standard iphone email app.

The best devices have email clients (BlackBerry, iPhone), so guess what the followers will also do?

So most devices will have built in email clients shortly…

How does funambol help serve ads for AOL?

A proprietary Funambol/AOL app to read your email? I can already easily sync up my email with free email services on the iPhone, why would I download a new app, full of ads?

An aol version of yahoo go?

AOL inserts ads into emails? Free services have been doing that for a while, nothing new there…

I’m sure I missed something here… I don’t understand how this would work.

Lou
http://nexthaus.com

By: Nick Halstead

Nick Halstead — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:28:40 +0000

test comment

sent from: fav.or.it [FID160692]

By: Frank Church

Frank Church — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:25:50 +0000

Maybe you didn’t RTF, so I’ll help you out:

“The real focus is ad-based mobile messaging. It is an untapped market. It is huge. The mobile messaging client is the most used client on the device. It is a communications device—you either talk or you message. So that is the best conduit for advertising.”

Not sure what you make of that, but all of us certainly understood what was meant. The location-based services (loopt, brightkite) companies also think they will be able to spam you based on how close to a store you are. Rude awakenings are ahead.

Here is another choice quotation from the article you failed to read or understand, “And he splits that three ways with the service provider and the ad network supplying the ads.”

By: Andy Wong

Andy Wong — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:51:01 +0000

@2,6,7
I don’t quite understand why these comments tried to link Funambol with spamming. I think Funambol is just Sync product with SyncML. And everyone can purchase a copy of Funambol server to run sync or spam messaging. Who run spamming? Funambol or ISPs?

By: Frank Church

Frank Church — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:04:16 +0000

This is ridiculous, and most of the comments reflect that fact. Mobile messaging, where a message from my friend is sandwiched between ads sounds like a way to encourage me never to install this crap.

“Get your free FIMA phone with a bucket of Popeye’s!”

not sure why that quotation seems relevant, it just does.

By: Mogilny

Mogilny — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:49:17 +0000

“It is a communications device—you either talk or you message” or read spam or click on spam because users love spam. Oh yeah, messages on how i can hook up with Kate, a lonely local blonde, are going to fetch $15 CPM. Spam in mobile messaging is an untapped market, i wonder why.

I hope they have some other business plan in stealth. Is this company actually making money? It has been 3 years since round A. The investors are banking on a very long hockey stick.

By: Vish Techo

Vish Techo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:40:48 +0000

FIREFOX 3 is released and they are looking for a GUINNEESS WORLD RECORD.

Check out http://vishtecho.blogspot.com

By: Andy Wong

Andy Wong — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:52:30 +0000

As a sync client developer, I regard Funambol is the best implementation of SyncML so far. They deserve big investment, and hopefully they will also use the funding to improve the slow and not reliable my.funambol web service.

By: Cam

Cam — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:39:37 +0000

I’m not 100% on the online advertising game, so please forgive my ignorance, but isn’t CPM a measure of how much an publisher can get for showing an ad to 1000 viewers? If that’s the case, then how can one user be a CPM?

Also 10 emails = 30 impressions? Does that mean there will be 3 ads per email? Sounds like a bum deal to me.

By: George

George — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:04:30 +0000

So the business model is basically a mobile spam enabler?

By: Dr.

Dr. — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:12:17 +0000

$5M Series A, $5.5M Series Follow-On, $12.5M Series B. I know later stage rounds can make you think the company is spinning its wheels, but even my 6-year old knows his A-B-C’s.