Tag: app

For the last few years we have witnessed an incredible growth in the market for mobile apps, that is expected to generate over 268 billion mobile downloads and an income of $77 billion in 2017. But now many experts predict the coming of post-app era. This does not mean that apps on our smartphones, tablets and PC’s are going to disappear completely, but that we will be interacting with them differently. We are seeing the battle between the two most used platforms for mobile iOS and Android since the creation of the smartphone. And while the apps in Apple’s store make the most money, they account to only 15% of all downloaded apps. The market is changing fast and some apps just lose their attractiveness or becomes a built-in tool in the new phones. That was the case with the flashlight, most camera apps and other things, that your phone already can do. For example, usage of dedicated video apps declined four percentage points between 2015 and 2016, that of standalone maps apps dropped three percentage points while social media app usage reduced by two percentage points. On the other hand, the use of messaging apps increased 3% and shopping apps grew with 4%. According to the CEO of data quality services company PCA Predict Jamie Turner the significant work on newer browser technology that feels as fast as native apps will remove the need for hundreds of them to exist. Gartner expects that by 2020 almost 40% of mobile interactions will be made by smart agents, or virtual private assistants. This means that we can predict major developments of products like Google Now, Cortana, Siri and Alexa. For the last year the use of digital assistants increased by 4%. At this year’s Webit.Festival you can listen to some of the top Digital Transformation experts in the world, like the CEO of JetPack Aviation David Mayman, the Partner for Europe and Innovation at VCI Roby Strancel, the CMO of AngelHack Brian Collins and the Chief Designer at SAP Martin Wezowski. Here you can see a full list of the confirmed speakers at Webit.Festival, while here you can get all the information you need about the tickets for the event.

An app that can make it possible for you to live stream for a living just raised $25 million Series A funding! We are talking about Next Entertainment, Taiwanese startup, founded by Andy Zhong. Mr Zhong is very popular in the region, he already sold his previous startup FunPlus to Zhongji fo nearly 1 billion dollars. And now FunPlus is one of the investors in Next. Learn more about it here.

Meanwhile, there is information that Amazon is secretly building an app that matches truck drivers with shippers. It's a $800 billion industry, according to Business Insider. More on the matter, here.

Airfare prediction app Hopper has grown from 1 million downloads to over 10 million in the course of a year – a trajectory that’s allowed it to pull in $82 million CAD (~$61.2 million US) in additional funding to continue to grow its business. The Series C round was led by North American pension fund manager, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, and includes participation from existing investors, Brightspark Ventures, Accomplice, OMERS, Investissement Québec and BDC Capital IT Venture Fund.

NextView Ventures, one of few seed-stage venture firms in Boston, is looking to raise at least $50 million for a third fund, shows an SEC filing that was processed yesterday. The firm closed its second fund with $40 million in 2014 and its debut fund with $21 million in 2012.

IBM announced that it would be working with BMW on R&D where Watson sensors and computing will be integrated into BMW cars to pick up car data and help with new systems aimed at vehicles running more efficiently and with more personalisation for specific drivers and passengers.

Meet the founder Nadine Levitt and her Wurrly, helping you turn your phone into a professional recording studio. 300 000 users with 1.5 million recording sessions did it already.

Nadine Levitt, who will be speaking during Webit.Festival 2017, is a professional opera singer and if the name doesn’t ring any bells in your mind, you should know that she performed on one stage with people like Steven Tyler, David Foster, Christina Perri and Roger Daltry. So, she decided to create Wurrly, trying to erase some of the barriers for entry in the professional music world. Wurrly is an app, which transforms your phone into a recording studio – easy to use and delivering HQ records of performances on it. That’s an easy way to record good performances without paying huge sums for studio time. All you have to do is download Wurrly. “Location and economic differences should not be a barrier to entry for self-expression,” says Nadine about her try to disrupt the sector.

So here is the answer : because more than 80 % of all jobs and professions will be totally transformed within next 5-10 years. And we have to be ready so to take the advantage. It's not bad – it's just challenging and since yo read this and attend Webit – you will be among the prepared once.

And if you are still not impressed, Wurrly had already collaborated with the 'Lip Sync Battle’show, hosted by LL Cool J and airing on Spike TV. As we all know, celebrities appear on the show lip-syncing worldwide hits for the amusement of the audience. This is the place, where Channing Tatum is channeling Beyoncé, Joseph Gordon-Levitt can be seen performing as Janet Jackson, Anne Hathaway as Miley Cyrus and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson searching for his inner Taylor Swift personality. The app is based exactly on Wurrly’s engine and will help fans of the show record themselves and this way become part of the fun, challenging each other to a lip-sync duel. For just one year, Wurrly has tracked more than 1.5 million recording sessions and over 300,000 users. So, Nadine can really tell us more about her way of changing ways music is made, we are really impatient to hear more on the topic. About Webit.Festival 2017: Webit.Festival is the European edition of the Webit Series of events, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from the 25th to the 27th of April, 2017. The festival consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, roundtables and exhibitions. The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. The agenda includes Tech Summit, Marketing and Innovation Summit, Developers Summit and Smart Cities Summit. Separate area of the festival will be dedicated to startups from Bulgaria and other countries in the world. The agenda for the founders includes conference, meetings with investors, academy for startups and special stage for them to pitch their companies in front of a jury of investors, journalists and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Webit.Festival is the most influential event on the tech and digital industry in the region. To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival 2017, click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. To apply for our Founders Games, click here. To see the video gallery from Webit.Festival 2016, click here. To learn more about the events that are part of the festival, click here. To see pictures from our previous events, click here. For all this information and even more, visit our website www.webit.bg. Contact: Aniela Russeva

aniela@webitcongress.com