As the year comes to an end, we’d like to wish all of you a happy holiday season! For our “Christmas present” post, we’d like to share the TOP 10 most popular ArcticStartup posts of 2012.
Before we do, we’d like to mention that It’s been a rocky couple of months here at ArcticStartup, but we think that we’ll be able to announce some sort of a forward looking update soon.
So without any further ado, please check out this years TOP 10 articles:
10. Wired’s ‘Europe’s 100 Hottest Startups’ Picks Out Helsinki, Stockholm, Moscow
What better article to start out our TOP10 with than the fact that startups from Helsinki, Stockholm and Moscow (And by extension the whole Arctic region) were listed in Wired’s TOP100 Hottest Startups. This definitely shows that our region is going strong and we expect even more next year. Still, as mentioned in the article, we think there are a lot more start-ups from our region that deserve to be on that list. Especially considering the fact that Wired chose to only stick to 10 cities.
9. Rovio Ownership Structure Revealed
This was a very simple article, but apparently one that is very interesting for everyone to get acquainted with. We found out who exactly owns Rovio and how much the company is expected to be valued.
8. From Brink Of Bankruptcy Towards An IPO – The Evernote Story
This was an amazing story of Evernote and how they were bankrupt… almost. In fact it does not get much closer than this. Phil Libin was ready to announce to his employees that a decision was made to shut down the company. But on the night before the announcement, he received a 3AM e-mail from a fan who loved the product and who also said that he would be willing to make an investment into the company.
In 20 minutes, a basic agreement was done and in a week’s time USD 500,00 was wired to Evernote. If there is a similar Articstartup fan out there, please get in touch!
7. Rovio’s $42M Investment In 2011 Actually Went To Its Owners.
Controversy is always popular and when we announced that Rovio’s 2011 investment of €42 million, actually went to its owners – it surely raised a few questions and got people talking. Too bad that we did not hear back from Rovio about this.
6. Hay Day In The Top Ten World Wide, Flirting With Most Popular iOS Simulation Game
This was our review and launch analytics of Hay Day by Supercell. Boy was this a start to something big. They quickly launched Clash of Clans. and very soon after, both games were top grossing on iPad. Not too long after we were comparing Supercell to Rovio and just last week Supercell became bigger than Electronic Arts on iOS. It is safe to say that this was the success of 2012.
5. Finnish Operator Required To Block Access To ThePirateBay, Among Others
Not that we are all pirates and like illegal software, movies and what not, but this news really got our fans reading. Especially after “Anonymous” started acting on it.
4. It’s A Magical World Out There Hobbes Ol’ Buddy – Let’s Go Exploring!
This piece of news was very difficult to write and definitely brought the attention of our readers. After all, we were basically announcing a possible shut-down of ArcticStartup. The feedback was amazing and many people have got in touch with us offering free hosting, help, ideas for new revenue streams and a lot more. We are currently working pro-bono, but we are very thankful to our community and it is the only reason that we are able to continue. Thank you all very much for your help and support.
In January 2013 we will be actively looking for funding and ways to continue with Arcticstartup, so if you know anyone that may help us in our quest then please drop us an e-mail at [email protected]. Both of us are also looking for consultancy gigs in order to keep working full-time on Arcticstartup.
3. New Indoor Navigation Startup Uses Disruption Of Earth’s Geomagnetic Field From Buildings
This piece of news was stunning. Straight from science fiction if you ask me. Accurate in-door positioning without GPS or Wifi. This new technology is based on nothing else than a very technologically savvy update to your iPhone/Android built-in compass. We are really happy that this news got so much attention that it truly deserves. This is what our region is all about.
2. Fruugo Burned Through €40 Million To Generate €100k.
Fruugo has been in the list of our top performing article topics ever since we first covered them. However this news topped them all. After all, spending €40 million to generate €100k is hardly exciting. Still, a good lesson for everyone involved.
1. The Best April Fools Joke Is From Finland, A Couple of Days Late
Finally our absolute, perhaps surprisingly, top article for the year was about the fact that the Finnish government created a special task-force to formulate the growth strategy for the “industry”. In the article, Antti Vilpponen argued about the companies and people in this so called task-force as well as the whole concept and the definition of the ICT Industry. It is also worthwhile to check out the discussion as well.
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This is quite a list and we are confident that our next years list will be even more impressive. You can help us out with stories by either writing to [email protected] or by using the #Arcticrumor hashtag on Twitter. We thank all of our readers, fans, contributors and everybody else for an amazing year.
We’ll be back on the 27th of December with more news from the region. Merry Christmas everyone!
By Greg Anderson and Dmitri Sarle
P.S. If you want to give us a christmas present, check out the donations page for a lot of highly overpriced Arcticstartup gear.
*Christmas image courtesy of Shutterstock.
