Jason Kalakanis, the Greek-born Silicon Valley mega-investor, is creating a new social media platform that aspires to displace Facebook. His alternative search engine Mahalo.com has millions of daily visitors. They are using this site as their go-to resource for everything from finding a job to tracking down someone who needs help. “Unlike the existing one, it will also contribute positively to society,” he says of his future venture.
He is from Brooklyn, New York, and has already had an impressive career in innovative technology.
A respected Silicon Valley entrepreneur, the 47-year-old experienced technology investor is already a success. He has invested in numerous companies before the general public even discovered them. Now, he manages an immense fortune and thanks to his vision, the Mahalo.com search engine was established. It is an alternative to Google.
Mahalo
Mahalo.com is an online platform that has achieved a common goal of delivering positive impact to people all over the world. It provides a lot of value, innovative features and its algorithms have their own unique philosophy.
Kalakanis started his blog to update the public on the latest tech trends. From there, he caught wind and amassed a large following of people looking forward to his updates. He sold it to the AOL company in October 2005 for $25 million. “Somewhere around there my name started to get known and I started to be taken seriously by people who really counted in our industry,” he says. The money he made from his blog were used to create the company Weblogs Inc and oversee the creation of successful websites such as Engadget and Joystiq. Years ago, he turned down huge opportunities to go into YouTube. In an interview with the New York Times, he even said that “YouTube is a great place to build your reputation, but it’s a terrible place to do business.”
The challenge of social media
He has invested in many high-profile companies early on before they became public knowledge. He is said to be making a great deal of money today. Plus, he has his sights fixed on social media. Mark Zuckerberg’s recent privacy scandal gave him the motivation he needed. In fact, Jason Kalakanis has created an online platform, the Openbook Challenge. He’s an online competition with a mission to discover the next “poster boy” of social media. He offers $100,000 to 7 teams. Kalakanis is hoping one of them will succeed in creating a social media platform that can stand up to Facebook.
He has set the winning team the threshold of creating a platform that will attract a billion users. “We wish to invest in alternatives (solutions) that do not manipulate people and protect our democracy from malicious individuals who wish to spread misinformation,” it says on the platform’s website.
As soon the teams submit their application to the platform, they will take part in a 12-week training programme to develop the new social media. “All the communities and social products on the Internet have had their day, from AOL to MySpace, and typically the government didn’t shut them down – they were gradually replaced by better products,” Jason Kalakanis said in a statement posted online, adding: “Accordingly, let’s begin the process of replacing Facebook. First, Zuckerberg has done an excellent job of buying out his competitors, and second, he is quickly stealing innovative features from young entrepreneurs who refuse to sell to him.”
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Author: PC-GR
The World of Technology
