Loogic English

Ruben Colomer, Juan Luis Hortelano and Mariano Amartino present us their new project, Media Reload, an advertising network specialising in blogs, social networks and the new media.

It’s very interesting to read the principles upon which Media Reload is based with regards to the support and the advertisers. The principles are the ones that we all look for when it comes to advertising on our blogs, but unfortunately do not always coincide with the principles followed by the advertising agencies. Hope that at Media Reload, they will always maintain these ideas and that the work that they do from now on will help improve the business of advertising in the world of blogs.

Right from the start, Media Reload can count with two blog networks, the social network Catodicos and two important blogs: Online and Celularis.

From Loogic, I wish them lots of success to these three entrepreneurs, whom I also consider to be friends, and I know that they will do a great job with this new company and that we all will benefit from it.

Every time it’s getting more difficult to do such selections as the majority of the really interesting projects in the hispanic web 2.0 have received funding during the course of 2007 or are about to get funded.

Summarizing a bit we can see that I haven’t erred much in my selections:

The prediction of end of 2006 has been realized in its entirety. Panoramio purchased by Google, Econozco purchased by Xing and Mobuzztv hasn’t disclosed any information but I’m almost certain that they have received investment.

In the summer of this year, I dared to do a second selection with Festuc, Trovit and eyeOS. The only one that has been confirmed has been Trovit just a few days ago. At Festuc they still haven’t gone for the first round of financing, but I’m sure that they will find the money as soon as they decide to get funded. And eyeOS doesn’t lack suitors, Martin Varsavsky was very close to investing but it seems that they couldn’t agree on the valuation of the project.

I didn’t want to end 2007 without making another selection of projects in which to invest, so here are those who I believe will receive funding during the course of 2008:

Catodicos: it’s a social network for aficionados of television series, created by Ivan San Martín and has the support of Fivelab. With a rage for television series these days and taking into account how well designed this social network is, I have no doubt that VCs will be interested in investing in this project.

Ebuga: is a social network about the world of cars and motor, founded by Edu Bayo and John Shaw. As far as I know, it hasn’t received investment although it’s founders have had to put a good amount of money as the development has been of a high standard. When they do receive external funding, I’m sure it will be of several million euros.

Escapada Rural: is a directory of rural cottages which is slowly incorporating social functionalities. For the moment, it’s a simple project but it has been designed with such care that it could become a huge hit amongst its users. My advice for its creators is to keep going on the same lines and to be seen at events where projects are presented to investors.

Other projects worth following which I believe haven’t received any investment are: Kroonos, 20palabras, RedKaraoke, Omemo and Adnstream.

With this I conclude, and all that’s left for me to do is to wish you a Happy 2008!

Read the original article in Spanish.

The staff of Fivelab is announcing the coming-out of Catodicos, the social network for aficionados of televesion series of which we talked when it was released in private beta.

Now Catodicos is open and everyone can participate in this community where basically you can follow your preferred television series and discover new ones.

As I have said previously, I like Catodicos a lot but I think there are some things which can be improved. Here are my recommendations for its creators:

Make the user’s page as the point of entry to the site. This way the user will see the calendar and timetable of his favourite series as soon as he enters the site, and also view other users involved in the community, … This will make the user identify more with the application.

Recommend a series to a friend from the page of the series itself. When you are discovering new series through the list of series, enable the possibility of sending recommendation messages to other members of the community from the page of the series. (This already exists, the people behind Catodicos are involved in everything)

List of series by types. I generally like series that have an argumental thread like 24, lost, heroes, … I don’t quite like series in which each episode is a different story, that’s why I think it would be useful to know the type for each series.

Vote for Catodicos in Loogic Rank.

Read the original article in Spanish.