IvyCap Ventures invests in ad tech startup Sokrati

Advertising technology & analytics venture Sokrati has raised a series B round of funding led by IvyCap Ventures with existing investor Inventus Capital also participating in the fresh fund raise. The Pune-based Sokrati was recently chosen as one of the three Indian startups by the Silicon Valley chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) for its Billion Dollar Babies initiative. Founded by Amazon colleagues Ashish Mehta, Santosh Gannavarapu and Anubhav Sonthalia, the five-year-old startup is now looking to aggressively grow its sales and marketing efforts within India as well as in the US with the fresh financing in place. 

IvyCap Ventures, which makes early-stage investments, had recently pumped in capital in beauty and grooming e-commerce portal Purplle.com and is in the midst of raising a new Rs 900 crore fund. 

Mehta of Sokrati said that more than 3,000 marketers leverage the startup's multi-channel digital marketing platform currently. "This fresh round of funding will allow us to aggressively expand our technology and big data engineering teams; while building out our marketing presence globally." It competes with other ad affiliates including Komli Media, Interactive Avenues among others. Sokrati is said to be search giant Google's largest preferred partner in India. It has built proprietary algorithms to manage performance-driven marketing spends on paid search, social and display networks. 

"There is a definite need for a one-stop platform that consolidates the major digital channels and offers a media spend optimizing solution especially for businesses that do not have the expertise for performance oriented digital spends, or the need or budget for in-house teams" said Vikram Gupta, Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures.

Clickbait has a new address: Funny URLs

Some of the most popular reading material on the internet, at least among the meta-humor-loving tech-industry types, is now being provided by URLs. You know, the name of the website you are perusing, plus the string of words, numbers and dashes that follow. 

Dean Praetorius, a 26-year-old media consultant in Manhattan, keeps an eye out for URL jokes when he is checking out articles and blog posts that have been shared with him on social networks. 

"I especially look for the URL when the article itself has a ridiculous tint to it," he said. Take, for instance, an article posted on Engadget, a website that reports on and reviews tech products, about a wearable device that monitors sexual activity. In the URL, the writer issued something of a mea culpa: engadget.com/2014/08/07/bondara -sexfit-i-used-to-be-a-serious -journalist/. "I'm not laughing at the article, I'm laughing at the URL," Praetorius commented in posting the link to Reddit."This is journalism in 2015," he said. 

The internet is at peak saturation, and news sites and popular blogs are toiling to leverage every possible piece of web real estate to capture readers' attention. The URL, also sometimes referred to by techies as the "slug" or the "permalink," is the latest spot for exploitation. Quite literally, the clickable link is the new clickbait. 

"The slug can often be fodder for in-jokes and fun," said Kwame Opam, an editor at The Verge. After the trailer for the new "Star Wars" film directed by J J Abrams was released, The Verge published an article about light sabers. The headline: "I designed a better lightsaber than J J Abrams while I was in line for coffee this morning." The URL: theverge.com/tldr/2014/11/28/7303233/please-hire-me-jj. 

"Especially in the realm of editorials and the kind of voice-y blogging that so many outlets trade in," Opam added, "the URL is branding." 

As with many internet micro trends, it is tough to pinpoint the genesis of the jokey URL. But the practice has certainly taken on steam, since BuzzFeed began to ramp up its integration of what Jack Shepherd, the site's editorial director, calls the "social URL." Shepherd's hope is that the humor in these URLs will compel readers to share the link. An example of this would be the URL buzzfeed.com/kaelintully/ditch-that-turkey-skin-real-good-son, which in fact directs to a listicle with the far more servicey headline, "16 Tips to Keep Your Pets Safe and Happy This Thanksgiving." 

Traditionally, URLs have always closely mirrored the headline. The so-called social URL is written not with Google analytics or search engine optimization in mind. The hope is that a story will get shared by those who appreciate a cleverly placed joke. 

Jane Pratt, the editor of the website xoJane, said she began trading in this type of meta-commentary back when she was the founding editor of the now-defunct young women's magazines Sassy and Jane. "We always put little notes on the spines of magazines to get readers sharing/talking," she said in an email. At xoJane, Pratt has morphed that practice into URL writing. 

Lindsey Weber, an editor at Vulture, said she had assumed that URL robots were somehow generating links that to human beings seemed slyly worded. Upon learning that people were actually committing time and brain space to URLs in an effort to grab reader attention, she was disheartened. "Oh that's a bummer, it ruins it to know they're in on the joke."

E-book readers fail to ‘kindle’ sales in India

Srishti Khanna is never without a book. A literature teacher in a Delhi college, the 27-year-old's room is overflowing with contemporary and classic novels, books on history, literary theory, and philosophy. And so is her e-book reader. However, in the year-and-a-half that she has had the reader, which she keeps encased in a black, book-like cover, she has not bought a single e-book. "They're all available online for free. And anyway, if I have to buy a book, I might as well buy a hard copy," she says. 

More and more Indians may be getting comfortable with online buying, but that has not translated into comfort with paying for e-books. Publisher Penguin Random House says that e-books constitute about 1% of their total book sales currently. Flipkart and Amazon did not share numbers regarding e-book sales, though Amazon, which produces and sells the Kindle e-book reader, said that the market for e-books in India was still "incipient". Flipkart, meanwhile, cited industry reports to say that in the next three to four years, e-books could constitute about 25% of the total book sales in India. However, globally too, e-book sales have flattened out. According to the new report from the Bookstats Project, US publishers raked in $3 billion from e-book sales last year, which is nearly unchanged from 2012. "Low internet penetration, low confidence levels on credit card usage, a lack of subscriber billing facility or mobile commerce and, ironically, a lack of knowledge of e-books are among the hindrances to growth," says Ananth Padmanabhan, senior VP (sales), Penguin Random House. Digital marketing professional Karthik Srinivasan feels the lopsided pricing could be making people go in for free downloads over torrents or through websites hosting the latest books in PDF format. "The price difference between a physical book and an e-book on some stores is very low. Moreover, the perceived value of something comes down if it can be replicated. People see anything "e-" as replicable — be it music, or books," he says. 

On Flipkart's e-books section, one can find a digital copy of Fifty Shades Darker priced at Rs 254. The physical book is available for Rs 250.

Micron revenue outlook misses Street

Memory chipmaker Micron Technology gave a quarterly revenue forecast that missed Wall Street's expectations, hurt by an output drop as it upgrades DRAM production lines, and its shares fell. 

Micron, which makes DRAM and NAND chips for personal computers, smartphones, servers and other devices, said in a statement that its revenue rose 13% to $4.57 billion in its first quarter, which ended on December 4. 

But for its upcoming second quarter, Micron said it expects revenue of between $4.1 billion and $4.3 billion. 

Analysts on average had expected revenue of $4.614 billion for the first quarter and $4.528 billion for the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. 

Micron expects production of its DRAM chips to be down in the second quarter as it reconfigures production lines with improved technology, Chief Executive Mark Durcan told analysts on a conference call. 

"This production lull is occurring in a normally seasonally slower demand period," he said, adding that Micron would increase its overall DRAM production at a slower rate than its competitors this year. 

Demand for DRAM chips for personal computers remained strong in the first quarter, Micron said. 

Micron's stock surged 61% last year, helped by optimism for strong and stable prices for memory chips. 

Investors have also applauded Micron's acquisition of Japanese DRAM maker Elpida Memory, which the US chipmaker bought in July 2013 in a bid to improve economies of scale. 

Micron posted a first-quarter net profit of $1 billion, or 84 cents per share, compared with a net profit of $358 million, or 30 cents per share, in the same quarter a year earlier. 

Excluding items, Micron earned 97 cents per share in the quarter. Analysts on average expected 92 cents per share.

Intel CEO shows wrist-worn drone

Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich showed off a computer built into a jacket button and a wristband that transforms into a selfie-snapping flying camera, as the chipmaker extends its push into smart wearable gadgets.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Krzanich also announced a five-year, $300 million investment in math-related education and other programmes to help employ more women and minorities in the technology and the video game industries.

Krzanich used most of his keynote to talk up Intel's efforts in computerized apparel and other sensor-packed gadgets - nascent markets that the chipmaker and other technology companies hope will fuel future growth as demand for smartphones and tablets loses steam.

Curie, a new button-sized computer for smart clothes, is due out later in 2015 and includes Bluetooth radio as well as the latest from Intel's Quark line of low-power chips. Intel's chips so far have not made significant inroads into wearable gadgets such as fitness bands or smart watches.

"With this product they can deliver wearables in a range of form factors," Krzanich said of Intel's manufacturing customers. "Rings, bags, bracelets, pendants, and yes, even the buttons on our jackets."

Intel is working with Oakley to launch a smart gadget for athletes later this year, Krzanich said. The chipmaker in December announced it was developing smart glasses with Luxottica, which owns the Oakley brand.

Krzanich demonstrated autonomous flying drones able to navigate around obstacles. He also showed a smaller drone worn on the wrist until it is launched into the air. Called Nixie, the camera-equipped gadget in November won a wearable computing contest sponsored by Intel.

Intel was slow to launch chips for smartphones and tablets, and Krzanich, who took over as CEO in 2013, has made it a top priority to avoid repeating that mistake with future computing trends.

Krzanich announced a goal to reach full representation of women and minorities in Intel's workforce by 2020.

Like most Silicon Valley companies, Intel has a poor track record employing women and some minorities. Just a quarter of Intel's US employees in 2013 were women and 12% of its workforce were Hispanic or African American, according to company data.

Last year, the chipmaker found itself in the midst of a controversy over gender equality in the video game industry after it pulled advertising from a gaming website in response to an email campaign.

In a movement that has come to be known as "Gamergate," self-described videogame fans lashed back aggressively online at criticism about sexism in gaming culture. A portion of the responses have come in the form of threats of violence on Twitter against the women in the video game industry.

Curbs on web freedom to go up?

Government censorship of the internet is a cat-and-mouse game. And despite more aggressive tactics in recent months, the cats have been largely frustrated while the mice wriggle away. But this year, the challenges for Silicon Valley will mount, with Russia and Turkey in particular trying to tighten controls on foreign-based internet companies. Major American companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google are increasingly being put in the tricky position of figuring out which laws and orders to comply with around the world — and which to ignore or contest. 

On Wednesday, Russia's president, Vladimir V Putin, signed the latest version of a personal data law that will require companies to store data about Russian users on computers inside the country, where it will be easier for the government to get access to it. With few companies expected to comply with the law, which goes into effect September 1, a confrontation may well erupt. 

The clumsiness of current censorship efforts was apparent in mid-December, when Russia's internet regulator demanded that Facebook remove a page that was promoting an anti-government rally. After Facebook blocked the page, dozens of copycat pages popped up and the word spread on other social networks like Twitter. The Turkish government faced similar embarrassment when it tried to stop the dissemination of leaked documents and audio recordings on Twitter in March. The administration of Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the shutdown of Twitter within Turkey after the company refused to block the posts, which implicated government officials in a corruption investigation. Not only did the government lose a court fight on the issue, but while Twitter was blocked, legions of Turkish users taught one another technical tricks to evade the ban. 

Despite such victories for free-speech advocates, governments around the world are stepping up their efforts to control the internet, escalating the confrontation. 

Pakistan, for example, bombarded Facebook with nearly 1,800 requests to take down content in the first half of 2014, according to the company's most recent transparency report. Google's YouTube video has long been blocked there. And the government briefly succeeding in getting Twitter to block certain "blasphemous" or "unethical" tweets last year until the company re-examined Pakistani law and determined the requests didn't meet legal requirements. 

It's not just autocratic regimes that are pressing for limits on free speech. In the EU, a court ruling last year established a "right to be forgotten," allowing residents to ask search engines like Google to remove links to negative material about them. Now privacy regulators want Google to also delete the links from search results on the non-European versions of its service because anyone in Europe can easily get access to the alternate sites.

South Korea nuclear operator finds computer 'worm' in control system

South Korean authorities have found evidence that a low-risk computer "worm" had been removed from devices connected to some nuclear plant control systems, but no harmful virus was found in reactor controls threatened by a hacker.

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co Ltd said it would beef up cybersecurity by hiring more IT security experts and forming an oversight committee, as it came in for fresh criticism from lawmakers following recent hacks against its headquarters.

The nuclear operator, part of state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp, said earlier this month that non-critical data had been stolen from its systems, while a hacker threatened in Twitter messages to close three reactors.

The control systems of the two complexes housing those reactors had not been exposed to any malignant virus, Seoul's energy ministry and nuclear watchdog said in a joint statement, adding the systems were inaccessible from external networks.

Energy Minister Yoon Sang-jick told a parliamentary session that evidence of the presence and removal of a "worm" — which the ministry said was probably inadvertently introduced by workers using unauthorized USB devices — was unrelated to the recent hacking incidents, drawing scepticism from some lawmakers.

"I doubt control systems are perfectly safe as said," Lee Jung-hyun, a lawmaker in the ruling Saenuri party, told the committee hearing.

Worries about nuclear safety in South Korea, which relies on nuclear reactors for a third of its power and is the world's fifth-largest nuclear power user, have mounted since the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan and a domestic scandal in 2012 over the supply of reactor parts with fake security certificates.

"We will prepare fundamental improvement measures by enhancing nuclear power's safe operation and hiking information security systems to the highest level following this cyber attack case," Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power said in a statement.

Seoul prosecutors have not ruled out possible involvement of North Korea in the cyberattack on the nuclear operator, which Pyongyang has denied.

Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power President and CEO Cho Seok told the hearing that all control systems of the country's 23 nuclear reactors were safe against malignant codes. Recently, he said that cyberattacks on non-critical operations at the company's headquarters were continuing, although he did not elaborate for security reasons.

The nuclear plant operator said it was increasing the number of staff devoted to cybersecurity from 53 to around 70, and would set up a committee of internal and external experts to oversee security.

Chun Soon-ok of the opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy party said, "The government's nuclear power policies have lost people's trust and whatever broke out only makes people concerned more."