Seven finalists selected from more than 1,500 submissions in 78
countries demonstrated their AWS-powered businesses to a panel of judges
and VC’s
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2011--
(NASDAQ: AMZN) Amazon Web Services LLC (AWS), an Amazon.com company
(NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced Fantasy Shopper as the winner of the
fifth annual AWS Start-Up Challenge. Fantasy Shopper was awarded $50,000
in cash and $50,000 in AWS credits, AWS premium support services for one
year and technical mentorship from Amazon Web Services. AWS also awarded
Localytics with the second place prize, and the company received $25,000
in AWS credits and AWS premium support services for one year. The
remaining five finalists were each awarded $10,000 in AWS service
credits. Amazon Web Services provides highly scalable, reliable and
low-cost technology infrastructure that enables organizations around the
world to instantly acquire compute, storage, database and other
on-demand services in the cloud. To learn more about AWS, visit: http://aws.amazon.com.
This year AWS received more than 1,500 applications from 78 countries
across the globe. During the final round of judging, seven finalists
presented their businesses to representatives from AWS and leading
venture capital firms. The winners were selected based on their
originality and creativity, likelihood of long-term success and
scalability, how well the business addresses a need in the marketplace,
and implementation of AWS solutions.
Based in Exeter, UK, Fantasy Shopper has created a social game platform
focused around real-world apparel. In this community application,
shoppers browse actual selection from top stores in fashion centers such
as London, receive “paydays” with which they make virtual purchases to
create their own outfits, share their creations with others, comment on
their friends’ outfits, and can even purchase the actual apparel items
offline. “Without AWS, we wouldn’t have even been able to think about
launching this business. After watching the insane growth rate during
our private test sessions, we knew we needed to build our business on
highly scalable technology infrastructure, and AWS was our only choice,”
said Fantasy Shopper Co-Founder and CEO Chris Prescott. “Our goal for
Fantasy Shopper is to become the world’s number one social shopping
platform, which means we’ll be going global very quickly. Thankfully,
AWS provides us the foundation to make this ambitious goal possible. As
the only tech start-up in a small town 150 miles outside London, we’re
honored to win this year’s AWS Start-Up Challenge. We truly believe that
because of AWS, start-ups from small towns everywhere will be able to
successfully bring their ideas to market.”
Localytics is a real-time mobile application analytics service that
provides app developers with tools to measure usage, engagement and
custom events. All data is stored at a per-event level to give customers
detailed segmentation of their user’s usage, behavioral and demographic
profiles. “We are currently processing more than 100 million data points
every day, and because our business is built entirely on AWS, we’re able
to process this data in real-time in a highly scalable and
cost-efficient environment,” said Raj Aggarwal, CEO, Localytics.
“Localytics is helping thousands of mobile application publishers better
understand their customers and make their applications more successful
and profitable. AWS is critical to scaling our infrastructure to handle
our explosive growth and to meeting our customers’ needs.”
“This year’s Start-Up Challenge received a record number of applications
from 78 countries including the Czech Republic, Spain, Estonia, Egypt,
Congo, the Philippines, Vietnam, Honduras, Brazil and Canada,” said Adam
Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services. “The finalists
demonstrate the amazing breadth of innovation coming from the global
start-up community, including disease research and information,
peer-to-peer car sharing, video creation and sharing from smart phones,
integrated management solutions for human resource departments, and
social media analytics. AWS lets entrepreneurs access the resources they
need to put their ideas to work so they can grow and even go global as
their business succeeds.”
Amazon Web Services recognized 15 regional semi-finalists from Asia
Pacific, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and the Americas. From these, seven
finalists were selected to move into the final round and were flown to
San Jose, 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 Fantasy Shopper team was presented with the coveted
“Golden Hammer,” and then partook in the annual AWS Start-Up Challenge
ritual of using the hammer to demolish a real server, symbolizing how
companies no longer need to own servers when they operate in the cloud.
AWS congratulates the 2011 AWS Start-Up Challenge finalists:
Booshaka -
United States (Sunnyvale, California)
Booshaka simplifies advocacy marketing for brands and businesses by
making sense of large amounts of social data and providing an easy to
use software-as-a-service solution. In an era where people are bombarded
by media, advertisers face significant challenges in reaching and
engaging their customers. Booshaka combines the social graph and big
data technology to help advertisers turn customers into their best
marketers.
Deputy.com
- Australia (Sydney)
Deputy.com is an online business management solution specifically
addressing the HR department. The powerful online and mobile platform
engages all staff across an enterprise, builds positive culture and
drives business growth.
Fantasy
Shopper - UK (Exeter)
Fantasy Shopper is a social shopping game. The shopping platform
centralizes, socializes and “gamifies” online shopping to provide a
real-world experience.
Flixlab
- United States (Palo Alto, California)
With Flixlab, people can instantly and automatically transform raw
videos and photos from their smartphone or their friends’ smartphones,
into fun, compelling stories with just a few taps and immediately share
them online. After creation, viewers can then interact with these movies
by remixing them and creating personally relevant movies from the shared
pictures and videos.
Getaround
- United States (San Francisco, California)
Getaround is a peer-to-peer car sharing marketplace that enables car
owners to rent their cars to qualified drivers by the hour, day, or
week. Getaround facilitates payment, provide 24/7 roadside assistance,
and provide complete insurance backed by Berkshire Hathaway with each
rental.
Intervention
Insights - United States (Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Intervention Insights provides a medical information service that
combines cutting edge bioinformatics tools with disease information to
deliver molecular insights to oncologists describing an individual’s
unique tumor at a genomic level. The company then provides a report with
an evidenced-based list of therapies that target the unique molecular
basis of the cancer.
Localytics
- United States (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Localytics is a real-time mobile application analytics service that
provides app developers with tools to measure usage, engagement and
custom events in their applications. All data is stored at a per-event
level instead of as aggregated counts. This allows app publishers, for
example, to create more accurately targeted advertising and promotional
campaigns from detailed segmentation of their dedicated customers.
To read more about the AWS Start-Up Challenge finalists and
semi-finalists, visit http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2011/11/aws-start-up-challenge-2011-finalists-semi-finalists.html
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. The new latest generation Kindle is the lightest, most
compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch, most advanced
electronic ink display that reads like real paper even in bright
sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the Kindle family with an
easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages,
search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most
advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line
e-reader and offers the same new design and features of Kindle Touch,
with the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the
Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and
web browsing with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud,
Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon’s new revolutionary cloud-accelerated
web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and powerful dual-core
processor.
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,
www.amazon.it,
and www.amazon.es.
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
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