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Hyped AR Tech Firm Blippar Collapses Into Administration (bbc.com)
One of the great hopes of the UK tech sector, Blippar, has collapsed into administration over a funding row. BBC News reports: The augmented reality firm was co-founded by Ambarish Mitra, and its technology was used in a partnership with the BBC's Planet Earth II series. Blippar was one of the UK's tech "Unicorns" -- start-up businesses that are worth $1bn or more. Mr Mitra became a brand ambassador for the UK to promote British innovation around the world. He claimed to have founded his business from a Delhi slum, leading him to be dubbed a "real-life Slumdog Millionaire". However, the Financial Times ran a profile disputing many of Mr Mitra's claims about his birth and his business development.
It seemed to be one of the brightest stars in London's tech firmament, raising big sums from American and Malaysian backers who bought into the message that augmented reality was the next big thing. So why has the Blippar bubble burst? A few years ago it did appear to have something groundbreaking -- you could point its phone app at everyday objects and they would animate into action, give you useful information or serve up an advert.
But the business appeared to depend on a very fickle set of customers -- advertising agencies wanting to use its augmented reality tools in their campaigns. Not only are much bigger firms offering similar technology but big brands seem to have concluded that it's a gimmick whose time may already have passed. What's more Blippar suffered from a lack of focus, trying out a range of ideas -- making an app for Google Glass, opening a Silicon Valley office, launching a facial recognition service.
It seemed to be one of the brightest stars in London's tech firmament, raising big sums from American and Malaysian backers who bought into the message that augmented reality was the next big thing. So why has the Blippar bubble burst? A few years ago it did appear to have something groundbreaking -- you could point its phone app at everyday objects and they would animate into action, give you useful information or serve up an advert.
But the business appeared to depend on a very fickle set of customers -- advertising agencies wanting to use its augmented reality tools in their campaigns. Not only are much bigger firms offering similar technology but big brands seem to have concluded that it's a gimmick whose time may already have passed. What's more Blippar suffered from a lack of focus, trying out a range of ideas -- making an app for Google Glass, opening a Silicon Valley office, launching a facial recognition service.
A random collection of characters would be superior to suggesting that you will be a blip at best.
Has anyone ever heard of these guys? Blipper indeed.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
>> (something no one has ever heard of) has collapsed into "administration" over a funding "row"
Better watch out for all the depressed hedge fund managers jumping in front of lorries or taking the lift and jumping out of the first floor window onto the concrete below. It's all a bit sticky.
... with Unicorns is that they're both fantasy.
Just who are the clueless financial fuckwits who value these companies? Whoever they are I do hope they're not involved in managing my pension pot.
When you're a small startup you concentrate on one thing and do it well. You don't throw money at a wall and see where it sticks. Sure , when you're a multi billion dollar company like Google then you can blow all the money you like on pie in the sky, but when you've got bank loans and/or vencture capitalists on your back you need to make damn sure you concentrate all your resources on producing a working product.
Can we go back to one sentence summaries (or maybe even multisentence summaries) that aren't just verbatum pulled from the article. For instance, "Blippar, once valued at the unicorn level of over a billion dollars, is bankrupt because they couldn't get more VC funding". You could even go on "Two hypothesized causes are that AR is no longer a technology VCs believe will be exciting, and Blippar hopped on every bandwagon tangentially related to AR because they lacked direction."
How hard is that?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Here you go....
https://www.ft.com/content/d9b...
VR and AR are offering solutions to problems that no one has.
... I mean administrators do kind of reek of failure but really, this isn't called for ...
(Yes, I know it's Brit speak. It was a joke. I'll show myself out.)
So why has the Blippar bubble burst?
Beginning to believe that the Blippar bubble burst because it was being blatently balderdash, bless your heart!
When you're a small startup you concentrate on one thing and do it well. You don't throw money at a wall and see where it sticks. Sure , when you're a multi billion dollar company like Google then you can blow all the money you like on pie in the sky, but when you've got bank loans and/or vencture capitalists on your back you need to make damn sure you concentrate all your resources on producing a working product.
In any other industry, a 'small startup' wouldn't be valued at a billion dollars, and wouldn't give the founders anything like the same delusions of grandeur.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
It was a blip on the radar? I just had to say that
"...Collapses Into Administration"
Wat does that mean? Is that similar to bankruptcy or Chapter 11?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
AR, AI, VR - synonymous of hype.
Arrays of floors start at ZERO!
They don't exist, but everyone wants to think they do.