Peter Kafka

Recent Posts by Peter Kafka

Check Off Another Check-In Company: Dijit Buys Miso

Can you make a business out of TV check-ins? Here’s another argument against that theory: GoMiso, the company behind the check-in app Miso, has sold to Dijit Media, the company behind NextGuide, a video discovery app.

The companies haven’t disclosed terms, but my understanding is that GoMiso’s investors, who include Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures and Hearst Interactive Media, won’t see all of the $5.5 million they put into the company.

And this isn’t an “acqhire,” because Dijit hasn’t said they’re bringing any of the Miso team on board. They will, however, make GoMiso founder Somrat Niyogi an adviser.

While they’re not shutting Miso down, Dijit seems primarily interested in the service’s IP and technology, not its user base. In other words: Dijit seems to view Miso’s check-in service as a feature, not a company.

My hunch is we’re going to see that thinking play out elsewhere, and that the services that get the most check-in activity will be the services that get the most activity, period.

Twitter, most prominently, has worked very hard to align itself with TV networks and TV watchers. But there are probably more people talking about TV on Facebook at any given time than anywhere else. That’s the kind of thing that happens when you have a billion users.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google