Archive for the ‘social networking’ Category
Thursday, March 6th, 2014
Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr
New Zealand crowdfunding startup The Snowball Effect is gaining momentum and is ready to launch this April.
The company, founded by Simeon Burnett, Richard Allen and Francis Reid of Auckland is an equity crowdfunding platform, meaning investors give a business a small amount of money in return for shares in the company.
It will be legal in New Zealand from April when a change to the Financial Markets Conduct Act means anyone can raise up to $2 million without needing a formal prospectus.
The trio, along with full-time employee Josh Daniell, have been researching and building the company, with interested investors and businesses lined up for the launch.
The Snowball Effect hopes to have “couple of thousand” investors and fund 10 businesses by the year’s end.
Burnett says the crowdfunding platform will help businesses gain easier access to capital, including from New Zealanders living overseas.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Auckland, business, New Zealand, online, Snowball Effect
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government, social media, social networking, Success story | 1 Comment »
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014
Photo credit; Kirby Kerr on Flickr
Swap or Trade It is a newly launched grass roots New Zealand company that has built a website that individuals, businesses and communities can use to swap or trade, rent or hire, buy or sell or give away virtually anything.
It is designed to encourage recycling and encourage people to think about sustainability, director Sharon George says.
“Initially we set up Swap or Trade it because we saw a gap in the online market space that wasn’t being met. There weren’t any good quality websites where you could do more than just buy or sell,” George says. “There were no websites that gave you the option to buy, sell, swap or trade, rent or hire or give away. One size doesn’t always fit all.”
The website doesn’t just allow people to swap objects. People can also swap their skills for stuff they need.
While George says she wants the business to be profitable, it’s not the main point of the business. The focus for her is on helping others to find ways to swap or trade things and to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
“There are many different avenues that we can pursue to build profitability, George says. “We have invested a significant amount of money in our business, because we are passionate about building a more sustainable economy, environment and community. We are currently developing multiple streams of income from different areas other than fee collection from users which will allow more people to use the site for free.”
So far the site has seen things like household furniture being exchanged for gardening work and boats being exchanged for Harley Davidsons. George says she can’t wait to see the site’s first house exchange.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: business, New Zealand, Sharon George, Swap or Trade It
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Thursday, December 19th, 2013
Photo credit; Barry Skeates on Flickr
Pat MacFie, co-founder of OnSport and a partner at Socialize Group, recently snagged two investors for his startup social media platform at the NZ Angel Investment Showcase at the Icehouse.
MacFie sat down with the New Zealand Herald last month to talk about his vision for OnSport, saying the company’s goal was to build a sports media business of global significance.
“Our goal is provide our customers with a way to make money from every tweet or post and every member of their community,” he told the newspaper.
MacFie said investors liked the scalability of the business model and the fact that they’re solving a really big problem that’s particularly relevant to the current era of the social web.
The OnSport co-founder said the company plans to spend the new investment money on business development, signing up athletes, teams and ad partners.
The OnSport site launches in February.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: angel investors, business, investors, New Zealand, online, OnSport, social media, sports, The Icehouse
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, social media, social networking, Success story, twitter | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 19th, 2013
Photo credit; Andrew Evans on Flickr
A new a business-to-business sports-picking app that was developed in New Zealand is garnering a lot of attention in marketing circles.
The app, Go Team, features an engagement programme that enables brands to connect with customers, clients, VIPs and staff.
Developed by Auckland-based bkaBoom, Go Team has already been officially adopted by the All Blacks and is the official sports tipping game of New Zealand rugby. Already 10 companies are running competitions in the ITM Cup national provincial championship.
Go Team is designed to accommodate a variety of team sports across various high-profile competitions both nationally and globally.
Brands pick a competition, invite a range of audiences to participate — clients, friends, staff, endorsers and the like — add prizes and kick off. Players compete to predict results, make their way up the leader board and collect prizes along the way, simultaneously being exposed to brand messages.
predicts apps such as Go Team are the future of staff and customer engagement.
“The tradition of the rugby sweep goes back generations and supports the premise that sports picking is the most fun way to engage with the people. Go Team is where the sweep and digital meet,” says bkaBoom CEO Barb Anderson.
The Go Team app is available on iPhone, Android, iPad and Windows and Mac.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: All Blacks, app, bkaBoom, Go Team, New Zealand Rugby, sports
Posted in app, E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, smartphone, smartphones, social networking, Success story, tablet, tablets | No Comments »
Thursday, November 14th, 2013
Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr
With Kickstarter set to launch in New Zealand this month, crowdfunding has taken off in the island nation. But a law change next year will allow for the start of a new type of crowdfunding, and New Zealand’s Snowball Effect aims to take advantage.
Unlike crowdfunding platforms like the aforementioned Kickstarter and New Zealand’s PledgeMe, which merely allow people to make a contribution to a project, Snowball Effect will actually allow contributors to gain a stake in a business they contribute to, much like owning stock.
Snowball Effect is set to launch in April of 2014, the same time the law change will come into effect. The law will make it legal to offer equity for capital through crowdfunding.
When the system is live, a company would be able to approach Snowball Effect and raise capital through the platform from members of the public, who in return take a stake in the business.
Led by directors Richard Allen and Simeon Burnett, Snowball Effect is touted as a system would reduce the cost and complexity of raising capital and would let New Zealanders easily invest in small businesses.
“What this is about is opening up and liberating and democratising the whole investment process,” Burnett says.
“One thing which has really come through strongly in the work that we’ve done is Kiwis love the idea of being able to back New Zealand businesses. They’re hugely passionate about that. So this is opening up an opportunity for New Zealanders to absolutely get in there and support businesses they like the look of.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, crowd sourcing, crowdfunding, Kickstarter, New Zealand, online, Snowball Effect
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government, social networking, Success story | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013
Photo credit; Butch Lebo on Flickr
New Zealand expat Rebekah Campbell, who started Posse.com, which she says is the world’s first social search engine, started selling flowers and golf balls by the side of the road when she was a child just because she likes the idea of starting a business.
The former Wellington native evolved to managing bands and originally established Posse.com as a way for bands to engage their fans to help promote them and sell concert tickets.
But after selling the fan engagement platform, Campbell rebranded Posse.com as a social search engine that helps people find the favourite places of their social network. The mobile app and site launched in March of this year and has signed more than 35,000 merchants worldwide, including 7000 New Zealand stores.
Users tell Posse what they want, such as “great coffee”, “brunch” or “a gym” anywhere in the world and they will get recommendations from their “posse” of friends and local experts.
It covers most world cities, including Auckland and Wellington. The denser the population the better.
A two-tier subscription model lets businesses send customers gifts and special offers. From next year, $50 and $100 monthly subscriptions will give stores access to additional features to help them build customer communities.
The successful business has attracted a lot of attention from major tech players.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: New Zealand, Posse, social network
Posted in consumers, E-mail & the internet, Facebook, New Zealand, new zealand business, online marketing, Online Sales, online shopping, onlines store, social media, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Thursday, October 17th, 2013
Photo credit; epSos.de on Flickr
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter will be live in New Zealand as of Nov. 13.
The US-based platform, which has helped raise more than $US800 million for creative projects broke the news recently via its online blog.
“In August we announced that Kickstarter would soon open up to projects based in Australia and New Zealand for the first time. Today we’re happy to announce that the day has finally come!,” the blog read.
The company said New Zealanders could start building their projects now and would be able to launch those projects on Wednesday, November 13.
“We thought the month-long gap would give everyone plenty of time to build and tweak their projects before launching. Beginning November 13, they can launch and share their projects with the world.”
Crowdfunding is a modern alternative to traditional funding avenues such as bank loans. It enables people to raise money through pledges from a large number of people, usually through a web-based campaign.
Until now, Kickstarter has only been open to US, UK and Canadian citizens.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: crowdfunding, Kickstarter, November
Posted in E-mail & the internet, New Zealand, new zealand business, social networking | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 11th, 2013
A New Zealand carpet company was appalled that its online advertisements had been running on a social media site associate with a rash of teen suicides.
The site, ask.fm, is aimed at insecure teenagers, who are encouraged to ask anonymous questions. But, showing social media’s dark potential, the site has attracted trolls who post spiteful comments on the site in response to the questions.
Ads from New Zealand’s Cavalier Bremworth were running on the site, prompting the company to request that Google cease running their ads on it.
Company spokeswoman Desiree Keown says the company’s media agency briefed Google on where to place its ads, but it was obviously ignored.
“I was alerted late yesterday afternoon and we asked immediately, our media agency contacted Google immediately to ask them to take it down.”
She says: “We were not happy at all to be associated with a website like this.
“It’s not a good look and obviously we were very concerned to have it removed immediately.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: ask.fm, Cavalier Bremworth, New Zealand, online advertising
Posted in Google, New Zealand, new zealand business, offensive material, online marketing, social media, social networking | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013
Two New Zealand women have tapped into the the country’s tourist trade to create a burgeoning online business.
Wendy London from Hawera and Deborah DeNard of Wellington are set to launch CruiseBubble.com, New Zealand’s first online guide specifically for visiting cruise passengers, in October.
Currently, the two women are accepting registrations from businesses that want to be featured on the site.
“Our target is 1500 for this season and anything above that is really cool,” London said.
The idea was born in 2005 out of Tourism New Zealand’s desire to use the internet more to promote the island nation.
“Tourism New Zealand released the 2005-2015 strategy and one of the key issues there was to ensure tourism businesses could utilise broadband,” London said.
CruiseBubble.com does just that, telling cruise passengers where to shop, what attractions to visit and who to call for anything they might need, all in one handy internet location.
In 2012, 130 cruise ships visited New Zealand with 755 port calls and a total of 209,000 visitors – compared to 17,000 in 1996. Contribution to GDP was $410m with 5633 jobs created.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: business, cruise, New Zealand, online, tourism
Posted in broadband, New Zealand, new zealand business, New Zealand government, online marketing, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Whilst Google is still the most popular website in the UK, Facebook is now in 2nd place, overtaking Microsoft related websites (MSN/WindowsLive/Bing).
A report from online measurement body UKOM/Nielsen has found, for the month of May,
- Facebook attracted 26.8 million visitors
- Microsoft wasn’t too far behind, on 26.2 million visitors
- Google was the clear leader however, with 33.9 million visitors
- Twitter had 6.1 million visitors
- While LinkedIn had 3.6 million visitors
You can read more over at stuff.co.nz
Tags: Facebook, Google, linkedin, Microsoft, twitter
Posted in Facebook, Google, linkedin, Microsoft, social networking, twitter | No Comments »
