Loogic English

Enrique Dubois confirms the news that Carlos Blanco had advanced about the acquisition of Wamba by Mio.tv. The figures of the operation, not refuted until now, could be between 4 and 6 million euros. Some considerations with respect to it:

In the sector, people had commented on the interest of the founders of Wamba to grow the project and sell it off when presented with an interesting offer, but what was not expected was such a fast sale mostly because of the current economic situation. It must be taken into account that the initial capital invested in the company was 650.000 euros by the founding team and Matias de Tezanos and in September 2007, Morten Lund purchased a 40% stake in the company for 3 million euros, although it’s not clear whether the investment was realized in its totality. In case of confirming the figures of a sale of between 4 and 6 million, it seems that the return on investment obtained would not be too big. Also should be considered the purchase of the forum Vagos.es that considerably increased the traffic at Wamba and although it surely has given them many integration headaches, it also should have been a decisive factor to set up the social network in a good situation for a sell off.

Mio.tv? Frankly it’s the first time I have heard of this project founded by Manuel Garcia-Duran, who had been a director at Telefonica and Antena 3, and who wants to revolutionise the internet TV sector targetting the hispanic community in the United States. At the presentation of the project at the end of 2007, they said the company would be worth 1.000 million dollars in 2008. I think they haven’t achieved that goal (in one year, they wanted to be worth more than half of what Google paid for YouTube, now that is setting high goals) although they must have some cash on hand to carry out an operation such as the purchase of Wamba. I’m not sure if this acquisition fits very well in the strategy of Mio.tv. At first glance, it could seem like an acquisition similar to that of Vagos.es, mainly done to add users.

Now I understand why they postponed the launch. They were developing a marvel and such things should not be done with haste. Domestika has just turned into a social network for designers and programmers, the evolution from a forum to a community where sharing knowledge is very important.

The main services of the new Domestika are:

Forums, of all kinds of subjects related to design, programming, photography, …
Jobs, where companies can publish their offers and professionals can find employment
Coolsites is the compilation of websites recommended by the users.
Resources are links to websites that could be of utility to other users
Portfolios, where users can demonstrate their work
Groups, for users of the community to organize themselves around different projects

And for me the best of all are the topics, where in a snapshot, one can access all the content generated in the community around these topics. And also the profiles of the users which indicate their participation in the community.

Without doubt, the new web of Domestika is an example to follow for all of us who develop social networks on the internet.

It was time we dedicated some words to Psicofxp, an internet community founded by Ismael Briasco in the year 2000 and which is now one of the most important websites in Argentina.

I find it interesting to see how a site established since so many years renews its design and offers many new functionalities to turn itself into a site that is much more social. Psicofxp should become an example for all those sites who continue with their outdated design since years thinking that if they tamper with it, their users will leave the site en masse. As long as the interests of the users are respected and the main line of the site is maintained, a change of design should be positive as it shows that the site is evolving and adapting itself to the changing times and styles.

This new design of Psicofxp is the most visible part of the evolution of a forum towards becoming a social network, where the users, apart from sharing opinions and conversations, can upload their photos, videos and create their profiles to strike up connections with their friends in the community.

Lastly, the employment section of Psicofxp is managed by Bumeran, which I understand is some kind of commercial agreement. This contrasts with the tendency we were lately observing in other social networks of creating a classifieds channel with the platform of OLX.

Seen in Kabytes.