TechCrunch Disrupt Champion Shaker Raises $15 Million | Hacker News Reader

TechCrunch Disrupt Champion Shaker Raises $15 Million

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20 pointssahillavingia13 comments

I think that VCs that restricted themselves to only 'social introductions' are indeed so desperate to have a way of meeting new people on the Internet. Also it looks like they don't know how to do it without an artificial engine and cannot understand how to do it without the facebook identity.

I would bet my mortgage if I had one shorting this stock if it were public.

I can't see it going anywhere!

What amazes me is that Shaker is almost a clone of Habbo Hotel, similar virtual hangout, which was started in 90's by a Finnish company Sulake and it's still going strong. While Habbo has been wildly successful it has always been a place for kids and teens and never attracted more mature audience. In 2009 Sulake tried to replicate the same concept for adults (with virtual bars and drinks) with Bobba Bar (http://www.bobba.com/), but this attempt has failed to gain traction . The major difference was that Bobba was aimed for mobile but it's hard not to see similarities. Call me a sceptic but I still have a hard time believing that Shaker will succeed as the whole concept of hanging out in a virtual world just feels weird to me. But then again some people seem to like Second Life.

Arctic Startup has few articles of Bobba in case someone is interested: http://www.arcticstartup.com/tag/bobba

What is the defensibility for this idea? Shouldn't be that in users?

Are they just hoping for a Zynga acquisition?

I think the idea is that it could create an experience similar to Turntable in the sense that you can "socialize" with strangers in a safe way. Many of those strangers also may be famous or influential; there may be something valuable in an experience where you can virtually hang out with Mike Arrington.

It's cool having that kind of interaction on Twitter--and it's certainly more "human" on Turntable since you're all engaged in a common activity that occurs in real-time: listening to music. Unfortunately for Shaker (or so I predict) virtually hanging out (apologies for the oversimplification) is hardly the same thing as listening to music with other people. This sounds like a bet on a trend...

Aye, but it's a bet on a ten-year old trend. Remember IMVU? One of the stories from that is they believed it was going to be a great way to hang out virtually with your friends, but it turned out that users wanted to meet new people, not simplified representations of their real friends.

The closest thing I can think of is IRC, and the way that (at least, to me) nothing has really topped it in terms of real-time communication with friends in the last ten or so years. Do we need a more graphical version? Maybe; but I'd put my money on doing something compelling with mobile, not a Facebook virtual bar. I do like the way Shaker tries to augment the world with little touches like "You share a birthday", though. We need that on smartphones!

Could be a bet on timing. Maybe they think IMVU was ahead of its time...

After watching their video and trying out their product I have no idea how they got to their conclusions.

The video keeps implying "You can't get real social interaction online", "Real life connections are much more solid". It seemed like they were going straight for "Hey, we are going to make a way to help your online presence meet offline".

Instead they poorly copied bars, which only facilitate meeting because of alcohol, and made it even more awkward.

Cool problem to solve, strange execution.

What if Google does it? http://www.lively.com/goodbye.html

How many social chat rooms can exist simultaneously? World of Warcraft, Second Life, Everquest, Facebook, Google Hangouts, Shaker, etc. Their success basically depends on marketing to individuals who are further from the neurotypical end of the autistic disorder spectrum.

Sorry - but what a joke. I don't see this working out for Menlo, but then again, what do I know.

Note this is also Arrington's CrunchFund, in the previous round and again this one.

I was surprised no-one really pushed them at Disrupt to explain how it's different from lively, habbo etc.

I'm guessing because no one has heard of those because no one wants to hang out at a virtual bar...?

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