Seven finalists were selected from more than 1,500 start-up entries
across North America, Asia Pacific and Europe to present to panel of
venture capitalists and AWS executives
SEATTLE, Dec 09, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Amazon Web Services LLC (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ: AMZN),
today announced M-Dot Network as the winner of the fourth annual AWS
Start-Up Challenge. The global competition received more than 1,500
applications from 22 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and
Europe. M-Dot Network was awarded $50,000 in cash and $50,000 in AWS
service credits at the finale event in Palo Alto, California. During the
final round of judging, seven finalists presented their businesses to
representatives from AWS and leading venture capital firms. M-Dot
Network was selected based on its implementation of AWS solutions,
originality and creativity, likelihood of long-term success, and how
well the business addresses a need in the marketplace. Amazon Web
Services provides highly scalable technology infrastructure that enables
organizations around the world to instantly acquire compute power,
storage, and other on-demand services in the cloud. To learn more about
AWS, visit: http://aws.amazon.com.
M-Dot Network's high-speed transaction network provides real-time
connectivity between Internet and mobile based technologies to in-store
retail point of sale systems for the purpose of enabling immediate
redemption of digital coupons and incentives. "We are honored and
excited to win the AWS Start-Up Challenge," said Mike Kavis, CTO, M-Dot
Network. "Two years ago, we set out on a bootstrap budget to enable
consumers to store digital coupons and incentives online and then
conveniently redeem them at physical retail locations through seamless
connection with point of sale systems. We always like to tell the story
about how we created a full service demo on AWS for only $86. By
building our business on AWS, we can process one million concurrent
transactions in a tenth of a second without ever having to buy or lease
a physical datacenter, purchase hardware or hire dedicated datacenter
staff."
"This year's Start-Up Challenge included finalists from North America,
Europe and Asia Pacific, and the record number of applications we
received illustrated the global innovation of start-ups running on AWS,"
said Adam Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services. "AWS gives
businesses access to highly scalable, on-demand technology
infrastructure with no upfront investment. The seven finalists are great
examples of how businesses today are using AWS to get to market quickly
with innovative and disruptive ideas, without having to expend
significant upfront capital."
For the first time, Amazon Web Services awarded 15 semi-finalists from
countries including Australia, England, Finland, France, India, Italy,
Japan, Spain, and the United States with $2,500 in AWS service credits.
Seven of the semi-finalists were then selected to move into the final
round and were flown to Palo Alto, California to attend the AWS Start-Up
Challenge finale event. At the event, each finalist presented their
ideas to a panel of judges with representatives from AWS. The finalists
also had the opportunity to present their business to venture
capitalists during "lightning round" sessions. At the end of the day,
the judges selected the winner and announced the results at the evening
awards ceremony. After accepting their award, the M-Dot Network team was
presented with the coveted "Golden Hammer," and then partook in the
annual AWS Start-Up Challenge ritual of demolishing a real server,
symbolizing how companies no longer need to own servers when they
operate in the cloud. The remaining six finalists were each awarded
$10,000 in AWS service credits.
AWS congratulates all seven finalists in the 2010 AWS Start-Up Challenge:
Compass
Labs- United States (San Jose, California)
The team at Compass Labs offers their strong expertise in Web and social
media technologies, natural language processing, machine learning,
artificial intelligence, data mining, and complex algorithms to help
merchants reach specific users who want to buy a particular product at
the moment they are contemplating a purchase.
Loggly- United States (San Francisco, California)
Loggly is a cloud-based server logging service. Loggly provides a way to
collect logs from servers in one centralized location and then quickly
search them with an intuitive user interface.
Mediology
- India (New Delhi)
Mediology DigitalEdition is a SaaS platform that enables print
publishers to digitize their content, add interactivity to it and then
distribute the content via web, mobile and e-reading platforms. The
system achieves its massive scale for content digitization and delivery
using event centric cloud computing services.
M-DotNetwork- United States (Erie, Pennsylvania)
M-Dot's high-speed transaction network provides real-time connectivity
between Internet and mobile based technologies to in-store retail point
of sale systems for the purpose of enabling immediate redemption of
digital coupons and incentives.
TellApart- United States (Burlingame, California)
TellApart helps ecommerce companies drive incremental sales and revenue
through applications built on its customer data platform. Predictive
modeling enables the ability to "tell apart" the highest value customers
and prospects, and TellApart Transactional Retargeting
serves personalized display ads to these best users, thereby lifting
conversion rates. TellApart's customers include some of the world's
largest online retailers, including: Diapers.com, CafePress, eBags and
Hayneedle.
Yottaa- United States (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Based on its cloud service platform, Yottaa enables web site owners to
assess, monitor and optimize web performance to make their web sites
faster.
Zoombu- Europe (London, England)
Zoombu is a travel search engine that helps find the best door-to-door
route from home to destination by searching thousands of routes across
multiple modes of transport (flights, trains, ferries, coaches, car
hire, private taxis and more).
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle,
opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's
Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything
they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the
lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home
& Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health &
Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any
type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G and Kindle DX are the revolutionary
portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers,
blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink
display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G and Kindle DX
utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so
users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1
bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de,
www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr,
www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.cn,
and www.amazon.it.
As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com,
Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the
Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly
from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to
competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international
expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center
optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and
strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption,
inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More
information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's
financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual
Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
Amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr
