An Ignoble Experiment

eBook: TV Everywhere Gets Personal

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is close to an agreement to acquire fast-growing over-the-top messaging application WhatsApp, insiders tell Digital Trends.

Sources close to the talks say Google and WhatsApp first entered negotiations roughly a month ago, adding that WhatsApp is "playing hardball" and seeking a purchase price in the neighborhood of $1 billion. Although WhatsApp has never disclosed details on its finances, Digital Trends reports the startup now generates roughly $100 million in annual revenues. Neither Google nor WhatsApp has responded to requests for comment.

WhatsApp Messenger enables users to share text messages, voice notes and photos with contacts across the globe, without international messaging fees. The company has chosen to avoid advertising support, instead offering its iPhone app for a one-time download fee of $0.99 while billing Android, BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) and Windows Phone users $0.99 per year after a one-year free trial period. WhatsApp users across all mobile platforms now transmit roughly 17 billion messages daily (7 billion inbound and 10 billion outbound), with more than 100 million users on Google's Android OS alone, CEO Jan Koum said last month.

Acquiring WhatsApp would help Google to unify its disparate messaging services under one umbrella. Last month, Geek.com reported Google is readying Babble (or possibly "Babel"), a cross-platform application that combines messaging and chat options like including Google Talk, Google+ Messenger, Hangout and Drive Chat into a single service. Insiders say Babble will integrate signature features of each service, enabling users to share photos in chat windows à la Google+ Messenger or start Hangout conversations with anyone in their contacts list.

It is unclear exactly how WhatsApp would fit into the Babble model, but the service's popularity and multi-platform reach would undoubtedly help Google mount a serious challenge to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iMessage (which transmits more than 2 billion messages per day between iOS devices) and BlackBerry Messenger (used by three out of every four BlackBerry device owners, corresponding to roughly 60 million active users worldwide) as well as conventional operator messaging offerings and OTT options like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Messenger and Viber.

Late last year, AllThingsD reported both Google and Facebook have explored buying WhatsApp at different times, adding that Google Corporate Development Manager Neeraj Arora found the startup so compelling that in November 2011 he joined the WhatsApp staff and now holds the title Business Guy.

For more:
- read this Digital Trends article
- read this AppleInsider article

Read more about: Google, VC/M&A
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FierceCable discusses the latest technologies TV networks and content owners use to drive increased ratings and revenue from various video devices. Download for free today.

2. AT&T, Scanbuy team on mobile barcode services platform

By Jason Ankeny

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3. Apple yanks AppGratis discovery service from the App Store

AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) is partnering with Scanbuy to introduce new services enabling business customers of all sizes to roll out QR Code-based mobile marketing campaigns.

The new AT&T Mobile Barcode Services platform leverages Scanbuy's mobile engagement technologies to let businesses execute barcode-enabled campaigns supporting a variety of customer interactions, including voice, video and email. Business users may also create mobile-optimized landing pages, design customized QR Codes showcasing their brand's signature logo or colors, implement advanced code actions that respond to user behavior and prompt custom content.

AT&T and Scanbuy will additionally offer analytics data, making it possible for businesses to deliver targeted experiences based on criteria including age, gender and scan location, as well as device type, operating system and time and date stamp. All data is obtained with the user's prior consent.

AT&T and Scanbuy promise that all codes created via the Mobile Barcode Services platform are compatible with virtually all mobile QR applications, including the AT&T Code Scanner and Scanbuy's ScanLife, which is now installed on more than 67 million mobile phones worldwide.

Forty-seven percent of U.S. consumers now recognize QR codes, NeoMedia CEO Laura Marriott told FierceMobileContent earlier this year. "Ninety-five percent of the codes that you see today are QR codes," she said. "Consumers understand what they are and are recognizing them."

For more:
- read this release

Read more about: Location-Based Services
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By Jason Ankeny

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4. Facebook divulges Home data collection policies to quell privacy fears

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has removed the popular discovery and deals service AppGratis from its App Store, continuing its efforts to eliminate iOS applications that promote apps other than the developer's own.

The free AppGratis spotlighted premium applications offered for free or at heavily discounted prices, also promoting "freemium giveaways" like free in-app purchases and level unlocks. The AppGratis partner network spanned more than 6,000 iOS developers worldwide--in March, the app topped the 12 million user mark. Earlier this year, AppGratis also completed a $13.5 million Series A financing round led by Iris Capital and the Orange Publicis fund.

Neither Apple nor AppGratis has commented on the App Store ouster, but conventional wisdom suggests AppGratis ran afoul of iOS developer clause 2.25, which reads "Apps that display Apps other than your own for purchase or promotion in a manner similar to or confusing with the App Store will be rejected." Apple instituted clause 2.25 in September 2012, and in December ejected the popular AppShopper price tracker tool for violating the rule.

Mahmoud Hafez, CEO of iOS review site AppAdvice.com, questions whether clause 2.25 is the root of AppGratis' removal, citing the continued App Store availability of rival app discovery and recommendation services, including his own.

"We have not heard about any specifics about AppGratis, but given the fact that their iPad app was just approved days ago means some new information must have come to light which caused Apple to respond with such vigor," Hafez said in a release issued to PaloAltoPatch. "I do not know if AppGratis was using illegal tactics to gain App Store chart position, or some other method that has marred the app discovery industry, but I think Apple must have found something new over the past few days… It's easy to bash Apple and paint them as control freaks, but I don't think this is a case of Big Brother trying to squash the little guy."

Hafez speculates that AppGratis may have instead circumvented App Store rules preventing applications from leveraging services that promise to artificially inflate App Store rankings. "This unique business model might have been troubling to Apple, as it operates outside of the framework Apple has set up, in which the App Store was meant to be a meritocracy," Hafez said. "Clearly AppGratis' proposal was good for developers with deep pockets (that) want exposure, but it was done with the developer in mind first, not the user."

For more:
- read this TechCrunch article
- read this PaloAltoPatch article

Read more about: AppGratis, AppAdvice.com
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By Jason Ankeny

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5. Mozilla introduces Web payments API for Firefox OS

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) has vowed its forthcoming Home launcher will not violate consumer privacy rules, outlining its data collection practices and assuring users they can disable location-based services at any time.

Facebook Home

Facebook unveiled Home last week. The alternative homescreen for Android smartphones promises users more immediate and efficient access to applications and social media, deeply integrating the social networking platform into the mobile user experience. Features include Cover Feed, essentially a home page presenting apps and media, as well as Chat Heads, which offers similar functionality to the social network's standalone Facebook Messenger app. Facebook will officially roll out Home on April 12 as a standalone application available from the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Play storefront; that same day, AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) will introduce the HTC First, a $99 smartphone that preloads the Home skin.

Facebook said Home collects information from user interactions like commenting on a post or sending a message. "Home also may collect other information about how you use it," Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Michael Richter and Chief Privacy Officer of Policy Erin Egan write. "For example, Facebook maintains a list of the apps that you have in the Home app launcher. We store this information in identifiable form for 90 days and use it to provide the service and improve how it works. For devices that come with Home preinstalled, Home can display system notifications, meaning that it will show notifications from apps on your phone. Since these notifications appear in Home, Facebook collects information about the notification (such as which app is generating them) but not the content of the notification itself. We remove identifying information from this data after 90 days."

Facebook Home leverages location data in the same way as the company's flagship app for Android, Richter and Egan state: "You can learn about how location works across Facebook in our Data Use Policy and Help Center." Users can also turn off location services via the location permission in their phone's settings.

Richter and Egan add that Home does not collect information from user activity inside non-Facebook apps. "Home will only see how you interact with Home itself," they explain. "For example, Facebook could see that you launched a map application using the app launcher, but Facebook would not receive information about what directions you searched for or any other activity within the app itself. Of course, some apps already are Facebook-enabled so that you can share your activity within the app back to Facebook. This kind of integration existed long before we launched Home, and apps that have it will tell you if it is available."

Critics were quick to speak out against Home, maintaining that Facebook's track record on privacy is cause for concern. "From a privacy perspective, Facebook is an unstable platform for a communication service," Electronic Privacy Information Center President Marc Rotenberg said in an email to MediaPost. "The company changes privacy settings of users too frequently. And in the U.S. there are too few legal safeguards for users."

For more:
- read this Facebook Newsroom post
- read this MediaPost article

Read more about: Google Play, Facebook Home
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By Jason Ankeny

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