The official coComment weblog

coComment is partnering with Marina from HotForWords at the PopSugar/TechCrunch event … blogging live from the event! So be sure to go here during the event and post comments for Marina to respond to!

Here is the info on the event:

• Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008
• Time: 6:30 pm - midnight
• Venue: Vanguard, 6021 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood map
• Facebook Event
• Photo/Flickr Tag: PopCrunch2008

This should be a LOT OF FUN!

Marina will be asking random people if the know the correct origins of some common words and phrases.. we will be videotaping it and uploading the video LIVE during the event! We will also upload the answer videos at around 9pm.

Be sure to come here during the event to blog with Marina live.. or, perhaps we’ll see you at the event in person!

PopSugar TechCrunch

-Marina - HotForWords

coComment started, as a company, in January 2007. coComment, the concept, is significantly older having first seen the light of day as a proof of concept demo at the Lift 06 conference.

In that time, we have transformed what was a concept into a company with a very different (and much larger) product set, built a team of 22 people and acquired over 1.15million users.

However, in all that time, we’ve not made a cent/penny/grivna in revenues nor have we sought to do so. The funding from coComment has come solely from its investors.

For us, 2008 is a critical year. It is the time when we need to go from ‘promising startup’ to ‘viable business’ and a key part of that is starting to generate revenues. We want to do so in a manner that does not alienate our users nor distract them from what they want to do with coComment.

We have therefore started running advertising on the site, in our feeds to others sites and in coComment windows. I know, of course, that most people would prefer to see advertising-free services but the reality is, of course, that ultimately we cannot provide the service to you without generating revenues.

I also want us to offer our users the opportunity to have an ad-free service for an annual fee of $5.

I’ve seen some comments on other blogs … but not many. I therefore wanted to raise the issue here so that everyone has an opportunity to respond and let us know what they think. We’re all in favour of conversations so we’re happy to start one about this and get your views.

Best regards,

Matt.

coComment.com is taking a different approach to the Starbucks “The Way I See It” campaign by offering free coffee and thought-provoking unfinished sentences on coffee sleeves to start real conversations. If you are in San Francisco on April 4th, stop by and have a cup of coffee on us in Union Square or just jump in the conversation and win more free coffee.

Why are we doing this?
Starbucks launched their “The Way I See It” campaign as way of creating conversation. Putting supposedly interesting quotes on coffee cups only created controversy that Starbucks was ultra-liberal and looking to promote a political agenda. coComment, a service which allows you to enjoy the full potential of comment-based conversation on the web, is taking a stand to promote real conversations the old-fashioned way – by buying people a cup of coffee and asking them to complete thought-provoking sentences on their Web site (http://www.cocomment.com). Coffee drinkers can finish sentences such as “if I learned definitively that God does exist, I would _____” and “if I could name my own presidential candidate, it would be______” along with four others that people can finish online and review other people’s ideas. coComment team will be available at the event for interviews and talk about better conversations on the Web, or just email me at kristina@cocomment.com

Thanks
Kristina