Qualcomm’s Flo TV to Debut Datacasting; Nissan Leaf EV Rollout Begins in San Diego, TipCity Launches “Flash Deal” Technology, & More San Diego BizTech News

Not all our biztech news last week was about debuts; We also have a denouement or two, and maybe even some news that’s somewhere between. So here’s our summary, from beginning to end:

—San Diego-based Qualcomm’s Flo TV plans to “datacast” background information related to some sporting events later this month. Flo TV President Bill Stone told me the datacast could include player stats and video interviews. The Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) subsidiary also is considering datacasting books, magazines, and newspapers to mobile devices.

—Nissan, the Japanese carmaker, is making San Diego “ground zero” for its launch of the zero-emissions Nissan Leaf—a 100-percent electric vehicle. Nissan plans to begin Leaf deliveries in San Diego this December, and thousands could be driving around the San Diego area by this time next year.

—San Diego’s latest startup, TipCity, made its debut last week. TipCity is both a hyper-local web-based search engine for restaurant-goers and a location-based marketing tool that enables restaurants to offer “flash deals” to customers by text or e-mail. Former Widcomm CEO Liep Pham is TipCity’s founding CEO.

—Former PayPal marketing director Dave McClure is an expert in microfinance, consumer Internet strategies, and entrepreneurship, among other things. He’s also a self-professed Silicon Valley geek, angel investor, fund manager, and startup advisor who urges aspiring entrepreneurs to make products that really matter. In a presentation in Seattle last week, McClure said entrepreneurs need to tap into the “reptilian psyche” of consumers by appealing directly to their primal need for things like sex, money, and power.

—Playdom, a social gaming company based in Mountain View, CA, has acquired Metaplace, the San Diego-based startup that introduced two Facebook social games, Island Life and My Vineyard, after

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Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.