Sarah Perez
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Verious Launches First Marketplace For Mobile App Components
Today, TechCrunch Disrupt finalist Verious is launching the world’s first marketplace for mobile application components – that is, the libraries, the SDKs (software development kits), the add-ons, the open source code and other third-party services which specifically cater to mobile app developers. Until now, there hasn’t been a centralized repository of these resources.
But Verious isn’t just organizing mobile app components on its site, it’s also offering a way for developers to sell their components to others through a copy-protected licensing system.
According to analysts, the market for mobile application development services is expected to reach $100 billion by 2015, as many independent developers are now working on a combination of consumer-facing apps alongside mobile app component development. That no one has thought to launch a service like this until now is actually somewhat surprising.
With Verious, the goal is to help developers speed their time to market by offering the components they need, but don’t have either the time or resources to build themselves. For example, there’s a 3D globe which consists of 20,000 lines of code, built over the course of 5 months with $50,000 worth of labor. It’s listed on the site for less than $1,000 to license.
Pre-launch, Verious’ founders talked to thousands of developers and have compiled a list of 1,000 components along with $100,000 worth of component requests. The size of this initial catalog demonstrates the need for such a service’s existence in the first place – there are a lot of mobile app components for developers to keep up with!
In addition to organizing the components on the site for easy discovery, mobile app developers are allowed to test out the components in a 30-day free trial. They can also post and “follow” component feature requests, so sellers know which ones to prioritize in their development to meet market demands. In the future, the ability to rate, review and comment on components will be added, too.
The site’s patent-pending License Manager lets sellers enforce different types of licensing models, including annual fees, perpetual fees, volume-based tiered pricing, source code buyout and more. Verious will charge a 20-40% commission on components (20% for charter developers), a referral fee for premier partners listings SDKs, and revenue share for server-side partners.
At launch, Verious supports iOS and Android, but will expand to other platforms as the market demands.
Verious’ management team is composed of industry veterans with CEO Anil Pereira, VP Marketing Don Pitt and Web Strategy/Ops head Michael Coleman. Their combined work experience includes time spent at VeriSign, American Express, DataSphere, VMWare, Samsung, Openwave and TRUSTe.
The company, founded in 2011, is backed by seed and angel investors including Charles River Ventures, X-G Ventures, Mark Britto, Iggy Fanlo, Gil Penchina, Krishna Vedati and others.
Judges Q&A
Expert Judges: Aileen Lee (Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers), Dustin Moskovitz (Asana), Michael Parekh (MPi Capital), Joshua Schachter (Jig)
AL: Estimation of addressable market?
A: 1) App services market – $100 B by 2015, plus app tools market – $30 B by 2015, according to analysts.
DM: Dev tools companies have failed to make business of it. Who is doing it well?
A: Plenty of companies doing marketplace models out there.
MP: Quality control? Rating system?
A: Developers have to produce a sample app with the code, or have an app on the App Store. Yes, ratings, reviews, community are coming.
JS: How to be first stop for developers?
A: Every day, companies are launching SDKs. Companies are working with Verious now to get their libraries listed. They want to be on site to grow their install base.
Mobile Developers See More Promise in Google Plus than iCloud
Mobile application developers believe that Google’s new social network Google Plus will have more impact on mobile growth and adoption than Apple’s iCloud, or even iOS 5’s Twitter integration. This is just one of the fascinating findings related to Google Plus revealed within the results of a new developer survey led by mobile cloud platform provider Appcelerator and analyst firm IDC. Together, the two companies had surveyed 2,012 app developers to better understand their take on current and future mobile trends.
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The interest in Google Plus is somewhat surprising, considering that the social network’s age is still measured in weeks, not months. But, according to Appcelerator’s VP of Marketing, Scott Schwarzhoff, developers often take the long view when considering new services such as this, thinking 12, 16 or 18 months out into the future.
For example, last year, Appcelerator saw developers were displaying great enthusiasm for Apple’s iPad pre-launch. And it’s now seeing the same excitement for Google Plus.
How Developers See Google Plus
At 25% of respondents indicating interest in Google Plus, the results show it ranking higher than other products and trends, including Apple’s iCloud (22%), NFC (18%), iOS 5’s Twitter integration (14%), Android patent issues (13%), Amazon’s forthcoming Android tablet (6%) and the HP TouchPad (2%).
In addition to Google Plus’ impact on mobile growth and adoption, developers also said they believed Google Plus could catch up to Facebook in the long-term. Two-thirds said that the new social network would be an asset for Google in gaining mindshare among consumers and developers alike in addressing both the Facebook challenge and the Twitter/iOS 5 integration.
Why Mobile Developers are Excited About Google Plus
The reason developers feel this way has largely to do with Google’s ability to leverage Google Plus across a portfolio of products, including Search, Maps, YouTube and more, all of which also have a mobile presence.
Other popular responses to the “why Google Plus” question included positive sentiments about the innovations Google Plus delivered (e.g., Sparks, Hangouts and Circles), its overall user experience, and Google’s ability to bake in Google Plus deeply into its Android operating system.
That last item is an especially notable key advantage over Facebook, which does not yet have a deeply integrated Facebook experience on any mobile platform in particular, although there are some phones, like the HTC ChaCha (aka the HTC Status on AT&T), HTC Salsa and INQ's Cloud Touch, which offer a Facebook-focused experience.
But for developers, there’s an understanding that what Google Plus may soon offer is not just another way to integrate “social” into their mobile applications, but an ability to map a user’s particular “interest graph” into their apps, as well. For example, if a user has a Google Plus Circle of friends who like to discuss movies, explains Schwarshoff, an app like Flixster could take advantage of that for a more personalized and customized social experience. Similarly, a photo-sharing application could allow you to share some photos with just a Circle of family or friends, instead of the general public or a wider network of “followers.”
For Now, Facebook Still Wins
All that being said, developers aren’t jumping to use Google Plus within their applications immediately. For one thing, Google does not yet offer developer tools for Google Plus (i.e., a Google Plus API – application programming interface) so it’s not even a possibility at this time.
However, although Facebook is the API leader over the next 12-18 months, according to the survey, Google Plus and Twitter are tied for second place in terms of future API usage.
Of course, it should be noted that what any survey respondent says they will do and what they actually end up doing can sometimes be very different things. But Appcelerator’s surveys in the past have usually been on target when it comes to spotting trends.
And lest you think that Appcelerator’s core audience is biased towards Android developers somehow, you’ll be interested to know that, in fact, the opposite is true. iOS apps make up 75% of Appcelerator’s 25,000+ mobile applications. The apps are Web developers primarily, not those coding in Java or Objective C. Web developers are those who are most focused on building cross-platform applications, which makes this group’s thoughts on Google Plus most interesting indeed.
It looks like Google Plus will soon see itself integrated into iPhones and Androids alike through mobile applications, even though Apple has anointed Twitter as its social network of choice.
Discuss
AOL’s Patch Takes on Groupon with Patch Deals, Powered by AmEx’s Serve Platform
The recently launched digital payment and commerce platform from American Express known as Serve has just announced a new partnership with Patch, AOL’s big bet on hyperlocal news and content. Under the new partnership, Serve will power the Patch Deals platform, which will now offer Patch users deals and discounts, Groupon-style, with local merchants on the American Express network.
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Patch Now Doing Local Deals
Patch Deals, like Groupon, Living Social and other similar coupon-sharing startups, is a group-buying deals program that targets local communities. Users sign up for free to receive email alerts from businesses and can then click on any deal that is of interest to them. As is typical with group-buying deals programs, businesses can set a certain number of deals they need before the deal is “on,” or “tipped,” in the discount shoppers’ lingo.
On Patch, merchants can list their deals for free, but will not have to share as high a percentage of revenue as with Groupon or Living Social, a strategic move that could spell trouble for its rivals.
While Patch is better known for its hyperlocal editorial content – i.e., local news reports on over 800 Patch.com sites – it also provides a platform for local business listings. At present, over 850,000 small businesses across the U.S. are featured on its network.
Where Serve Fits In
In the new partnership with Serve, Patch users may be offered co-branded American Express cards which would allow them to take part in a deal without having to print out physical coupons to show to the merchant. Instead, the card itself would function as the means for using the deal in the offline world. In effect, this turns the American Express Serve card into something more like a store loyalty card, but pre-loaded with coupons from local businesses all around town.
Serve, which launched in March, is aimed at attracting new market segments who don’t rely on credit cards. Serve accounts are pre-loaded with funds from a bank account, a credit or debit card, or money from another Serve account. Then, using these pre-funded cards, Serve customers can shop anywhere a merchant accepts American Express, both online and off. And through an existing partnership with a mobile payment startup Payfone, Serve users can also purchase digital and physical goods using their mobile phone. In addition, users can check on their accounts via Android and iPhone apps and through Facebook.
For AOL Huffington Post Media Group, which oversees the ever-expanding Patch operation, a local deals platform only makes sense, given its goal to be the de facto source of local and neighborhood news and information, as well as a place to connect with local businesses. If anything, it’s sort of surprising that nothing like this had existed before now on Patch.
Correction: An earlier version of this article implied that Patch Deals was different from Groupon because merchant listings were free. The key difference will be in revenue sharing, which is reportedly lower on Patch than on its rivals.
Discuss
AOL’s Patch Takes on Groupon with Patch Deals, Powered by AmEx’s Serve Platform
The recently launched digital payment and commerce platform from American Express known as Serve has just announced a new partnership with Patch, AOL’s big bet on hyperlocal news and content. Under the new partnership, Serve will power the Patch Deals platform, which will offer Groupon-style users deals and discounts, on the American Express network.
Sponsor
Patch Now Doing Local Deals
Patch Deals, like Groupon and Living Social, is a group-buying deals program that targets local communities. Users sign up for free to receive email alerts from businesses and can then click on any deal interests them. As is typical with group-buying deals programs, businesses can set a certain number of deals they need before the deal is “on,” or “tipped,” in the discount shoppers’ lingo.
On Patch, merchants can list their deals for free, but will not have to share as high a percentage of revenue as with Groupon or Living Social, a strategic move that could spell trouble for its rivals.
While Patch is better known for its hyperlocal editorial content – i.e., local news reports on over 800 Patch.com sites – it also provides a platform for local business listings. At present, over 850,000 small businesses across the U.S. are featured on its network.
Where Serve Fits In
In the new partnership with Serve, Patch users may be offered co-branded American Express cards which would allow them to take part in a deal without having to print out physical coupons to show to the merchant. Instead, the card itself would function as the means for using the deal in the offline world. In effect, this turns the American Express Serve card into something more like a store loyalty card, but pre-loaded with coupons from local businesses all around town.
Serve, which launched in March, is aimed at attracting new market segments who don’t rely on credit cards. Serve accounts are pre-loaded with funds from a bank account, a credit or debit card or money from another Serve account. Then, using these pre-funded cards, Serve customers can shop anywhere a merchant accepts American Express, both online and off. And through an existing partnership with a mobile payment startup Payfone, Serve users can also purchase digital and physical goods using their mobile phone. In addition, users can check on their accounts via Android and iPhone apps and through Facebook.
For AOL Huffington Post Media Group, which oversees the ever-expanding Patch operation, a local deals platform only makes sense, given its goal to be the de facto source of local and neighborhood news and information, as well as a place to connect with local businesses. If anything, it’s sort of surprising that nothing like this had existed before now on Patch.
Correction: An earlier version of this article implied that Patch Deals was different from Groupon because merchant listings were free. The key difference will be in revenue sharing, which is reportedly lower on Patch than on its rivals.
Discuss