YouTube Launching Paid Subscriptions to Some Video Channels: Report

YouTube is set to launch a paid subscription model for its specialist video channels as early as this week, according to a report.

The move, which has been in development for months, aims to help channels finance a wider range of content such as television shows and films, and will serve as another source of revenue, according to the Financial Times.

The service will include up to 50 YouTube channels, and subscriptions to each channel will start as low a $1.99 per month, the newspaper reported Sunday, citing anonymous sources.

In response to the report, a YouTube spokesperson told Mashable, "We have nothing to announce at this time, but we're looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer."

Rumors that YouTube will monetize its premium content have circulated for some time. In January, AdAge reported that the site asked a small group of channels to apply to be among those paid.

At the time, a YouTube representative told Mashable, "We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models ... The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform. There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we’re looking at that."

Other signs suggest that YouTube is likely working on à la carte and pay-per-view options for its video channels. Code found in a February app update mentioned subscribing and unsubscribing from paid YouTube channels.

Happy 10th Birthday, LinkedIn!

The Evolution of LinkedIn

Back on May 5, 2003, Reed Hoffman launched LinkedIn in his living room and asked several hundred of his friends and colleagues to join. Ten years later, the social network for professionals has more than 200 million users, 3,700 employees and 26 offices around the world.

Looking back, it almost seems inevitable that LinkedIn would become a huge hit, but it took awhile before the network really started to take off. On some days, as few as 20 people signed up to use the service.

"At the end of our first month, we had 4,500 members in the network," Hoffman wrote in a post Sunday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of launching LinkedIn. "10 years later, we’re honored and humbled that so many of you have made LinkedIn a part of your daily professional lives."

It's an accomplishment for a startup in any industry to survive for a decade, but it's particularly impressive for Internet companies to enjoy that kind of longevity. LinkedIn was founded in the aftermath of the Dot-Com bust, at a time when the biggest social networks were Friendster and MySpace.

LinkedIn launched before most of the social networks that are considered big players today. It's about a year older than Facebook, three years older than Twitter and eight years older than Google+ — though it's younger than Google itself, which launched in 1998.

Unlike some of its competitors, LinkedIn's team focused early on creating a business model. In 2005, two years after launching, LinkedIn introduced job listings and tiered subscriptions to generate revenue. Now, LinkedIn is generating more than $300 million in revenue each quarter.

To celebrate its first decade as a company, LinkedIn put out a collection of pictures showing how the website has evolved over the years from a relatively static page with some basic information about your professional connections to a dynamic social network for businesses and individuals alike.

LG Is the World's No. 3 Smartphone Maker

(4.8%) for Huawei. Samsung and Apple, respectively, took the top spots at 69.4 million (33.1%) and 37.4 million (17.9%). ZTE took fifth place with 9.1 million (4.3%).

LG, which, like Samsung, is based on South Korea, covers a wide range of the market with its Optimus line. The company's most recent overture to the high-end market in the U.S. is the release of its LG Optimus G Pro, which retails for $199 with a two-year contract via AT&T. LG began taking orders for that phone on May 3 and intends to start shipping on May 10. The company also plans to release a smartphone with a flexible OLED display sometime this year.


The brand's chief rival for the No. 3 spot, Huawei, recently announced it was giving up on the U.S. market. Huawei and ZTE were both named security threats in a recent House intelligence report.

Facebook Makes Fortune 500 List for the First Time

Mark Zuckerberg can put another big accomplishment on his resume.

Facebook cracked the Fortune 500 list on Monday for the first time, about nine years after launching and less than a year after becoming a public company. In fact, it took Facebook less time to make the list after going public than any other company in history (excluding companies that were spun off from existing companies.)

Google, which previously held the record, first ranked on the Fortune 500 list after 16 months of being a public company. Facebook, by comparison, was only a public company for eight months of the last fiscal year before qualifying for the list.

The social network ranked No. 482 on the list, up from No. 598 the year before.

The Fortune 500 rankings, which have been released annually since 1955, are based on total revenue for U.S. companies during the fiscal year ending Jan. 31. Facebook, which raised $16 billion from its IPO last May, has steadily ramped up revenue from advertising and reported its first $5 billion year in 2012.

Several other tech companies were featured on the latest Fortune 500 list, including Apple (No. 6), Hewlett Packard (15), IBM (20), Microsoft (35), Amazon (49) and Google (55). Facebook may still be far behind these companies, but who knows where it will be in a couple years?

4 Things Your Startup Needs to Attract Venture Capital

So you've finally finished developing your product or service, flushed out your business model, and you're ready to dive head first into your new business venture — but how the heck do you raise enough capital to get started?
Taking venture capital is one way to secure the funds necessary for starting your business.




 According to recent statistics from Reuters, venture capital firms invested over $4 billion dollars in start-ups in 2012, and more than $900 million was invested in the first quarter of 2013.

Although there is a lot of potential with venture capital firms, it is important to make sure this is the right path for your start-up  In exchange for the high risk that venture capitalists assume by investing in your company, they generally receive significant control over company decisions — in addition to a portion of the company's ownership. But, V Cs can definitely be an attractive option for start-ups unable or unwilling to secure bank loans or complete debt offerings; so, if you've decided that applying for venture capital is the right move for your start-up  read on to learn about the must-have traits your business needs to attract funding.

1. Have a Unique Idea With High Barriers to Entry
In order for venture capitalists to justify the large risk they are taking with your company, you must offer them a fresh business venture that promises to fill a void in the marketplace. In an interview with Mashable, Charley Polachi, partner at Polachi Access Executive Search, elaborated on the importance of having a truly unique idea with high barriers to entry.

"Venture capitalists are looking to fund projects that are unique and can't be easily replicated."

"Venture capitalists are looking to fund projects that are unique and can't be easily replicated. Ideally, the technology or service can be patented or trademarked to give the start-up some breathing room and really allow the business some time to gain traction and market share."

Anyone can sell something online, but there are certain products that have yet to be developed — like the car battery that goes forever, or innovative, accessible and low cost energy sources, these are the ideas that venture capitalists would drool over — they are motivated by the next big thing like anyone else.



2. Develop a Compelling Value Proposition

hugely important, and is often overlooked by first-time entrepreneurs.

Michael Goldstein, founder of DC-based startup accelerator Exhilarator, stressed the importance of determining customer interest.

"My personal gauge when evaluating a startup is, would the target customer wait in line for five minutes to get access to the product/service, or would they abandon? If it took five minutes to download an app or to access a site, would the customer persist?"

Another important factor of creating a value proposition is scalability. Are there enough people interested to scale the business? Even if you have a really cool, unique idea, it's not fundable if it's not scalable. What market are you going after, and how large is it? Investors need to believe that the market opportunity is sizeable, and that your company can generate substantial revenue at scale. Prahar Shah, CEO and co-founder of Mobee, elaborated on the importance of recognizing the opportunities in your market of interest.

"Be sure to size the market correctly and educate the investor not only on how large your market opportunity is, but also why it's ripe for disruption.

"Be sure to size the market correctly and educate the investor not only on how large your market opportunity is, but also why it's ripe for disruption. When I asked one of Mobee's investors why he decided to back us, he quickly responded: 'You're going after one of the only billion-dollar industries — Mystery Shopping — that's still run on pen and paper!' "

So, the takeaway is this: If your business is a product, demonstrate that people are willing to pay for it and have an unmet need that your product fills. If your business is a marketplace, be ready to show traction on both supply and demand sides.

3. Demonstrate Market Traction

In a competitive economy where only 2.5% of angel-funded companies go on to raise venture capital, it's important for a startup to show cognizance and relevance in their market. Early-stage VCs want to see a sizable market opportunity before writing a check, and startups can demonstrate this through a pilot or beta customers.

More importantly, startups should demonstrate the ability to convert that pilot into a paying customer. Nina Nashif, founder and CEO of Healthbox, believes that showing market traction is critical, and startups should be able to replicate the process of turning a pilot into a paying customer over and over again. "The greater the number and the quality of early customers displays the startup has the ability to grow past the initial interest from early adopters."

4. Assemble the Perfect Team

Some think that having the right team is the most important factor in attracting venture capital funding. Startups rarely have the perfect product and market fit right away, and they will probably need to pivot based on customer needs, competitive factors and industry transformation.

Ryan Feit, CEO and co-founder of SeedInvest, an equity-based, crowdfunding platform that connects investors to high-quality startups told Mashable about the importance of finding the right team.

"Given the high degree of uncertainty associated with early-stage investing, VCs bet on the jockey over the horse because they need to have a high level of conviction that the team has the necessary skills, domain expertise and diversity to evolve just as quickly as the industry does."

So whether your team is made up of experienced entrepreneurs, or recent college graduates — as long as your team members have complementary skills with a track record of collaborating well, you should have a solid shot at attracting some venture capital funding.