VentureBeat

VentureBeat is a technology news site that focuses on disruptive technology. VentureBeat publishes news stories, analysis pieces, long-form features, interviews, product reviews, and videos. The company also produces several annual technology-focused conferences.

History

The company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall. In 2008, the New York Times called VentureBeat one of the "top blogs".^[2] In March 2009, VentureBeat signed a partnership agreement with IDG to produce DEMO, a conference for launching emerging technology products.^[3] In 2012, the partnership with IDG ended.^[4] In 2012, "SF Weekly" called VentureBeat the "Best Tech Zine" in San Francisco.^[5] The site has taken less than $1 million of outside investor funding, and has disclosed all of its investors, but is otherwise self-funded, on revenues.^[6] VentureBeat attracted about 3.9 million visitors per month as of September 2012, according to Comscore.^[7]

Contributors

The editorial team behind VentureBeat is composed of editors from a variety of disciplines and focus areas. They include:^[8]

• Dylan Tweney, who is the editor-in-chief, and is a former editor for Wired.com, editor at Mobile PC Magazine, and contributor to Business 2.0. Tweney also publishes tinywords, a journal of haiku and micropoetry.
• Dan Hsu, who is the editor-in-chief for GamesBeat and formerly ran Bitmob
• Dean Takahashi, who covers gaming and previously worked for WSJ, LA Times and others
• Devindra Hardawar, the New York-based national editor and mobile lead
• Christina Farr, a writer covering education technology, big data, the cloud, and health IT
• John Koetsier, a writer covering Apple, Twitter, and online marketing
• Jolie O'Dell, a writer covering developer issues, Google, and Yahoo, who formerly worked for Mashable and ReadWriteWeb
• Meghan Kelly, a writer focusing on cybersecurity
• Rebecca Grant, a writer covering early-stage startups and funding news
• Ricardo Bilton, a New York-based writer covering gadgets, general technology, New York startups, and 3-D printing.
• Sean Ludwig, a New York-based writer covering the cloud, mobile technology, and general tech topics
• Tom Cheredar, an Austin-based writer covering online media.
• Jason Wilson, copy editor for VentureBeat and GamesBeat and occasional writer for GamesBeat.

Layout

The site is broken up into a series of distinct news "Beats": Big Data, Business (general news), Cloud, Deals, Dev, Entrepreneur, Gadgets, Green, Health, Lifestyle, Media, Mobile, New York, Science, Security, Small Biz, and Social. Each area specializes on said topic and the companies and executives making news within. In addition, VentureBeat includes a semi-separate publication, GamesBeat, as one of its major sections. GamesBeat focuses on videogames and the videogame industry.

DEMO participation

In September 2009, Matt Marshall took on the role of executive producer for the DEMO conference, and has helped showcase it as the premiere launchpad event for emerging technologies. Over the years a variety of companies have either launched at DEMO including Boingo, TiVo, ETrade, VMware, Palm, Java, Symantec, Salesforce and others. In September 2012, VentureBeat ended its partnership with DEMO.^[9]

Events

VentureBeat produces a variety of themed industry conferences, including HealthBeat, MobileBeat, GamesBeat, CloudBeat, and DevBeat.^[10] In addition, it produces a small, annual conclave of mobile industry executives called Mobile Summit.^[11]

References