By Jessica Roy 6/21/12 8:57am

Paypal Mafia

Zeen's splash page. (Photo: Zeen)

YouTube Founders Launching Zeen, a DIY Online Magazine Builder, Next Week

Having already succeeded in building two of the most spectacularly successful Internet companies of the modern age–PayPal and YouTube–what on earth do you do next? We’d be inclined to buy an island and never touch a computer again, but that’s not the plan for Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who just announced that their digital magazine building platform, Zeen, will roll out next week.

Zeen is a part of AVOS, an Internet company helmed by the duo that acquired bookmarking tool De.licious last year. Precious little info is known about the mysterious Zeen. “Discover and create beautiful magazines,” reads the sparse splash page.

Perhaps the biggest hints about Zeen’s ethos come from its Facebook page, where avid fans have been posting about beta testing and wanting more information since April. Read More

By Steve Huff 4/07/12 2:39pm

Startups

zeeen

YouTube Founders Take Aim at Online Magazine Publishers With Zeen

YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen’s AVOS is on the move with a new project, Zeen. Zeen, which currently exists as a minimalist website, Twitter feed and Facebook page, promises users will be able to “discover & create beautiful magazines” and offers prospective users the opportunity to reserve a username. The site allows users to register via Facebook, Twitter or with an email address. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 9/26/11 3:41pm

Summer Jamz

No, not that kind of bear.

How Users Self-Categorize on Turntable.fm

Now that Turntable.fm courts celebrities as investors, it’s fair game for the likes of The Hollywood Reporter, which had an interesting interview with co-founder Seth Goldstein over the weekend. In it, Mr. Goldstein discusses monetization (with engaged users it’ll come naturally) and how DCMA-compliant listening makes for a passive experience (“it’s primarily read-only”).

As an early investor in the taxonomic trailblazers behind Delicious, Mr. Goldstein also had some telling observations about how TTFM users have scrapped traditional genres for a different approach to categorization. Read More