The Amazing £8 Million Raised Through No Make-Up Selfies!

It is truly amazing what we have all seen over the past few weeks! The 'No Make-Up, Selfies' that were done by ladies taking pictures of themselves with no make-up on went viral around the world and managed to raise millions for cancer research!

What started out as initially a non-official campaign has now become one of the biggest talks and actions around the world at the minute! With girls and celebrities getting involved it has raised the awareness massively and has spread around so fast that everyone everywhere is taking part.

This is a truly wonderful thing to see be happening and such a simple easy way to raise money for cancer research through taking a simple photo and texting BEAT to Cancer Research UK to donate £3.00.

At just £3.00 a time it makes us realise just how many people have done this and how successful it has been!

It has now raised a massive
£8 million in under 1 week! However this isn’t just all down to the girls!

The boys have now started to get on board with this and create a ‘cock in a sock’ campaign to raise awareness for testicular cancer!

Guys have either been putting make up on their faces and taking selfies to raise awareness or putting their ‘cock in a sock’ and taking Selfies to help others see and notice that they need to be made aware of testicular cancer.

All of this activity has helped tremendously and provided great inspiration to cancer research and awareness to everyone else to make sure that they are checking themselves for breast cancer or testicular cancer.

The campaign is related to now and digital technology through being able to do this but also has a human side to it. Everyone has been touched by cancer in some way so it is a great act for everyone to get together and get involved in a fun activity that is raising money through technology and helping to spread the word.

So if you haven’t already boys and girls then get your 'No Make-Up Selfies' created or your ‘Cock in a Sock’ done and donate that 3 pound to cancer research. It makes all the difference and everyone is getting on board with it so you’re not alone.

No one should be alone when it comes to cancer and you’re not alone in this. Everyone should always have someone there to support them and we are all supporting each other through this amazing activity that we hope can raise more in the future!

Keep Up the good work!

For more details on Cancer Reseacrh UK please visit:
www.cancerresearchuk.org 

skignz:// Here's what the students think?

We feel that skignz should be 'user led', so with that in mind we spend a lot of time gaining feedback from our users. 

After launching skignz for Teesside University on their campus, below is feedback from students on various courses, across all parts of the University, from freshers, to post grads, staff to visitors. 

Here is what some of them had to say about skignz:

“Basically, find out anything that you want to find out, whenever and wherever you are”

“It's essentially like a visual google or something of the sort”

“The skignz app could be quite useful for anyone really at Teesside Uni or anywhere at all”

“You could find whatever you’re looking for, you could find whoever you’re looking for”

“First of all, in the usability of this particular app, it’s definitely, definitely working”

“If you think about the fact that a lot of students come here relatively clueless, and you want to know where buildings are, you want to know what exactly is going on”

“To meet and discover, wow, this is being set up right here. It just sort of gave that potential, made it feel real, that certain things can be developed”

“Imagine going to somewhere like London or Tokyo and trying to meet someone or find jobs or anything. 

You could try to find bars, you could try to, well, meet people socially, that kind of thing. 

So, to me, I see the possibilities of this particular app to be, endless. It could be the next big thing, in my opinion”

“I'm not very good at navigating myself around, especially if I don't know the area”

“I find the app a lot more easier, like getting myself around Uni & different places where I actually am at the time”

“Obviously if you're doing team meetings or, like, a social night out! its good for that kind of thing. 

With a group of people as well, especially, just to get the information quickly, instead of, like, a text or, a phone call”

“I think it could be used for a variety of opportunities like just general interaction with friends or maybe on nights out, in and around the pubs/clubs, things like that, where you can't find each other. 

That'd be good and then just general busy areas like shopping centres or, in around the Uni when you can find anyone”

Key points about having skignz on campus:

• Never get lost on campus again!
• Find your friends in a crowd!
• Relevant content to you, when & where you need it!
• Induction & Orientation in a new place made simple!
• Linking to your social media opens up a whole new world
• Helping you help the environment!
• Real Time Public Information delivered in a focussed & interactive way!
• Increases the student and visitor experience to a whol enew level!

If you would like skignz to benefit your students, staff and visitors to your University Campus(es) then please contact us as discover@skignz.com or call +44 (0) 845 058 0519

skignz is 'Born in the USA'

skignz are delighted to announce that we have now opened an office in the US, not just anywhere in the US but Las Vegas! As part of skignz ambitious growth plans we have been looking at key places across the globe to establish the skignz brand yet provide an unrivalled and enhanced customer experience.

Las Vegas is perfect for skignz; a destination for millions of people year on year and one so huge it's hard to find your way around. skignz is here to help you never get lost in Las Vegas again!

skignz: Welcome to Las Vegas, Nevada, US

Whether you are looking for somewhere nice to eat, a different environment to gamble or somewhere nice to shop? All of these places are a plenty in Las Vegas, so by using skignz, you will be able to find your way around, access special offers, interesting & interactive content and even use the App to find each other if you get lost?

Getting lost in a crowd is a problem all over the world, but in Las Vegas it's magnified a thousandfold due to the amount of people, the scale of the place you are in and all those bright lights and attractions to divert your attention!

skignz helps you find somewhere or someone in such a way that it can only be compared to, 'If all the electricity went off in Las Vegas and all the lights went out ... then a spotlight appeared above the place or person you are looking for, surely that will help you find that needle in a haystack!'

Si Brown, Co-Founder & CMO, skignz says: 
"Nick's background in providing leading edge technologies to increase event and customer experience and engagement, so he is the perfect fit for skignz, as skignz aims to take this whole concept completely off the scale!

We have been establishing a relationship with Nick for nearly a year now, but it struck us very early on that Nick could really get the skignz message across and explore the possibilities across a range of sectors in the US, such as Leisure & Tourism, Live Events, Education and Corporate Hospitality. All of these sectors Nick has already got experience in and we look forward to supporting him and his team in showcasing skignz incredible capabilities to them." 

Las Vegas:  It's easy to 'get lost in a crowd' here or find that 'needle in a haystack'

So now you know why Las Vegas? The 'Who' is just as important! We are very proud to announce that leading our US team will be a guy with over 20 years experience of living and working in Las Vegas and across the US, please take a bow; Mr Nick Vilardell, EVP, US Business Operations & Sales.

Nick Vilardell EVP, US Operations & Sales says:

"When I first came across skignz it was through their blog online, quite by accident when I was researching some new technology. Their video blog was funny but got me thinking I wanted to know more about these guys! The more I looked at them and read about them the more I was conviced that this was a company with a great future and undoubtedly some incredible ground breaking technology, that maybe others had touched on but nothing that had been put together and packaged in this way. 

From my inital conversation with Simon I was sold on their vision and since then I've been working closely with Simon and the rest of the skignz team to define the offering not only for Las Vegas, and its obvious potential, but also for a number of other markets and sectors I have contacts and experience but whilst still focussing in the US.

I actually feel quite lucky to be working with skignz at such an exciting time in their growth. I look forward to helping Si and Gary move forward, especially at the rate they are growing and attracting other prominent people into the business, the brands and companies coming onboard, this business will prove to be a phenomenal part of the future digital landscape. 

I could not be more excited at what lies ahead for skignz and the opening of the office in Las Vegas is the next logical step and a clear indication of skignz's ambition"

skignz at Rhodes Ranch Golf Club

Nick already has a number of companies and organisations keen to take up the skignz offering, a number of the key brands on the 'famous Las Vegas strip' are already in the process of looking at how they can pilot it across their facilities. One skignz environment is already in place, at the Rhodes Ranch Golf Club where Nick is a member. 

Nick is currently working to utilize the skignz platform across many different aspects of their business, providing a simply awesome showcase for others to come along and experience.

Rhodes Ranch Golf Club, Las Vegas

Although it's early days for skignz in the US, the future looks to be an exciting and interesting one as Nick and his team showcase the power of what skignz can do across Las Vegas, Nevada and in time the wider US. 

So if you would like to talk to Nick and his team about how skignz can work for you in Las Vegas or elsewhere in the US, then please contact them on us@skignz.com or call on +1 (702) 433 3889

Why wouldn't you sell? What's your price?

Many things have been happening lately that seem strange to us and we cannot understand. One of them being the founders of Snapchat turning down the $3bn offer they got which resulted in a lot of people talking about it.

Then comes the new game Flappy Birds, which has become so popular with everyone and addictive, that the founder of Flappy Birds then decided to shut the game down and refuse to sell it. Why would they want to do this? We struggle to know but let’s see if we can find out why. Do they an ulterior motive?

Flappy Birds became the number one top app. Everyone was playing it, no matter how tired they were or sick of it, they still played it, simply because it was addictive. 

Just look at how much people are talking about it. So many people on twitter were showing just how addicted they were to that game and how much it was affecting their lives. Whether they hated it and were sick of playing the game, they would still want to play it. 

With it being such a simple game yet so hard to play, they needed to accomplish themselves of beating their own score or beating other peoples score. It would go on and on, until someone got a higher score then it comes around again where they need to go higher and so on to keep being the best.

So I guess what we all want to know is why did he shut the game down and refuse to sell it when it was doing so well. Dong Nguyen was making $55k a day in revenues from the game. He could have easily become one of the richest men around and nothing was stopping him. 

Although there was a dispute that Nintendo were giving a lawsuit to Flappy Birds for copying off the design of Super Mario Bros pipes used in his games. However Dong Nguyen denied that this was why he had taken the game down, he simply stated that he just wanted a simple lifestyle and did not like how complicated his life had become since he had designed the game and it became so popular.

Since taking the game down, people have seen this as a way to make themselves some money. The game is that popular that people have been selling their phones with the game on for certain amounts of money, starting from small amounts leading to around £75,000!

Knowing how popular the game was, we think that there must have been a better reason that Dong Nguyen took the game down and decided not to sell just to have a simple lifestyle. Look at other companies that have been in similar positions and decided not to sell to others. Snapchat turned down $3bn for their app because they probably most likely think that it is worth more and they will be able to do more with it. 

This thought must have entered Dong Nguyen’s thoughts at the time. Maybe he will take the game down and see how much havoc it causes, then realising how popular it is he will bring the game back up again or think about selling it to people who believe the game could make more in the future.

To not sell an app that is so obviously popular within the market they must have a very good reason behind it. We, however, are struggling to see what these reasons are? It doesn't seem logical to us not to sell something you don’t wish to have anymore and just close it down or turn down an lucrative offer. We can't help but think there is an ulterior motive behind it. (But hey, that's just our opinion!). We don’t know what this is yet but let's hope this will be revealed.

What would stop you taking $3bn or stop you making $55k a day revenues?

What do you think the reason behind Flappy Birds not selling and just shutting the game down is? Feel free to leave your comments below and have a discussion on this!

However it shows that a few weeks is a long time in the tech world, or no time at all, no soon as we have been amazed by the turning down of an offer by Snapchat and the closing down of the Flappy Birds game ... it's all well and truly gazumped by Facebook again making (and succeeding this time) a multi-billion dollar offer on another company, but this time they not only went a few billion dollars over what they offered for Snapchat, but they have bought 'WhatsApp' for the astounding amount of $19 billion (yes spelt correctly, your eyes are not failing you).

Now it's been a week or so since this was announced and it's certainly put the 'cat among the pigeons', where company valuations are concerned! The guys who owned WhatsApp are now multi billionaires, but according to reports just over five years ago they were looking for jobs at Facebook now they are senior directors with huge amounts of stock! 

Something that may have gone a little under the radar is that their investment partner Sequoia Capital has probably closed out the biggest investment return in history, also in record time! All of this should level the score with Facebook as they were the ones that got away nearly 10 years ago from Sequoia Capital when Mark Zuckerberg turned them down. It's estimated that Sequoia Capital will see a return of between $3-$7billion from their reported $60m investment in WhatsApp!

Below is an infographic from 'We Are Social' outlining some of the reasons why WhatsApp became so attractive to Facebook, however the pricetag remains to be seen whether it's a bargain or ridiculously over priced - only time will tell, it was not so long ago (2013) that everyone was borking at the $1billion paid for Instagram!

Sources: We are Social / WhatsApp. / Deloite

Never mind WhatsApp, Whats next? What will be the next technology company snapped up by the likes of Facebook, Apple, Google etc ... and for how much? How far away are we from the first $50billion or even a $100billion purchase by one of the giants? 

What do you think? Please share your thoughts with us?

Get your copy of skignz now: 

www.skignz.com/download