Obamacare's Online Enrollment For Small Biz Delayed

In an era of Google Glass, Siri, and Snapchat, small businesses will still have to enroll for some new health insurance plans by paper or phone. The White House admitted that on-going problems with the federal e-commerce website, healthcare.gov, will delay the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchange until Nov 2014. “We've concluded that we can best serve small employers by continuing this offline process while we concentrate on both creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP Marketplace,” wrote the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Right now, the administration has conscripted every geek on hand to fix enrollment for the individual market, with the hopes of snagging enough young-invincibles to lower the costs of everyone else. The New York Times reports that the malfunctioning healthcare.gov website is now able to handle 50,000 concurrent users, the original goal for the failed launch on October 1st. “With this new delay, small businesses will likely see little change in the way they purchase health insurance until 2015. They will, however, need to use the SHOP exchange if they want to access a health law tax credit available to employers with fewer than 25 employees,” explains The Washington Post, in their early report of the announcement. When they do enroll, they'll have to figure out how to sharpen a pencil.

This Week On The TechCrunch Droidcast: We Give Thanks To BBM, Custom ROMs, And… Yoga?

Holiday weeks tend to be a little quiet, but there's always something going on in the world of Android to dig into. This time around, though, Darrell and I roped in MobileSyrup's Daniel Bader and our very own Natasha Lomas to liven things up before it goes quiet for a few days. And I daresay we pulled it off nicely. Oh, but you want details. We four jolly bloggers couldn't help but dig into BlackBerry's curious new BBM preloading deal with Android device OEMs, and it wasn't long at all before Dan and I shifted the conversation to the joys and tribulations of loading some custom ROMs on your smartphone (for the record, he's a fan of Paranoid Android). Throw in some kooky startup ideas and some even more outlandish funding offers, and you've got this week's show in a nutshell. We're not exactly the sappiest people you'll ever meet, but we even had ourselves something approaching a heartwarming moment. Despite the fact that I'm the only one of the four who's actually celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, I made everyone sit in a make-believe circle and share what they're thankful for. Guess who went the classy route and chose something alcoholic? (Hint: it was Darrell.)

We invite you to enjoy weekly Android podcasts every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and 2:30 p.m. Pacific (generally speaking), in addition to our weekly Gadgets podcast at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific on Fridays. Subscribe to the TechCrunch Droidcast in iTunes, too, if that's your fancy.

Firebase Adds Zapier Integration, Pairing Real-Time Infrastructure With The Ability To Connect Multiple Apps

Firebase, a real-time back-end service for managing apps, has added an integration with Zapier, a platform for connecting services such as SendMail, Twitter and Twilio. The new integration means developers can connect multiple apps without having to do any back-end server management themselves. A developer using Firebase can now integrate apps that before would have required a fair degree of work. “You do not have to do all these small server spinups,” with the new integration, said Firebase CEO and Co-Founder James Tamplin during a phone call today. It may only be five lines of code to connect a new app with Firebase, but with that comes the need to provision a server, run it on a service and then do the maintenance and everything else that comes with doing it yourself. All that goes away with Zapier connected to Firebase. Now a customer can use Firebase to connect different services to do a variety of tasks such as email notification.

Here are some additional examples.

Developers increasingly just have to learn how to code in JavaScript, use frameworks like Angular and then integrate platforms like Firebase to manage their back-end. It's this new generation of front-end developers who want to focus on the app, not the back-end that makes Firebase so pertinent. It manages the heavy lifting with its data storage API, which Tamplin says has the real-time capabilities that other back-end service providers do not have. He describes Firebase as a service that abstracts storage into a sync paradigm. Every time new data is added to the app, the end user sees it without refreshing the browser. With Firebase, developers focus on the app without having to manage any back-end tasks, such as the database or the server code. API Evangelist Kin Lane writes that this syncing capability makes Firebase a service that can scale from one user to millions without the need to change any code. The Firebase API is built from the ground up for performance and scale. You simply specify which data you would like to synchronize with each client, and Firebase calculates the minimum set of updates that need to be sent to keep everyone in sync. In addition, all Firebase API functions are designed to scale linearly with the size of the data being synchronized and to shard well into a distributed cloud environment. More importantly, Firebase handles all of the scaling and operations for you. Your Firebase app will scale automatically from its first user to its first million without needing any code changes With the help of syncing, Firebase handles all the authentications for the apps that a user connects through the Zapier service. That removes a level of complexity that gives users the ability to make apps talk to each other in new ways.

MetaPack Gets $33M From Index To Help Businesses Beat Amazon In The Delivery Dept

We're entering the peak season for shopping, and along with it a big rush on e-commerce services and getting packages before the 25th. Timely news, then, that MetaPack, a London-based provider of delivery management technology, is picking up a round of £20 million ($33 million). The funds will be used to take MetaPack international - with acquisitions a key focus - and to swing at the biggest e-commerce retailer of all, Amazon. Or, in the words of MetaPack's CEO and founder Patrick Wall, “help retailers stay ahead of the Amazon proposition.” Index Ventures is the sole backer in this deal. MetaPack's business has two parts to it, consumer-facing and enterprise-facing. Its technology sits behind the feature that you see when you order something and select options (and delivery pricing) for a parcel. Its tech also powers pricing and availability for different parcel carriers to the business itself so that it can select the most cost-effective option for how to deliver that parcel and then analytics on how performed and overall cost breakdowns - an important part for retailers to get right to have parity or even a better experience than a shopper might get on Amazon. MetaPack's sales have been growing on average 60% annually for the last four years. Now more than 75% of the UK's top 100 retailers are clients of MetaPack with some 400 million parcels delivered in total to date. Clients include brick-and-mortar companies like John Lewis but also pure-play e-commerce storefronts like eBay and ASOS. Metapack has actually been around since 1999, and this is the company's first major rase from a VC, but not the first high profile investment. In 2011, it picked up a £2 million investment from the former, iconic head of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy, which valued the company at about £20 million ($33 million). (Prior to that, Metapack had received a small $467,000 Venture round in 2006.) Although Metapack is not revealing revenue or current valuation, it's a testament to its growth that the round getting announced today is the same as its valuation was in 2011. Wall tells me that the investment is getting spread across three areas that point both to MetaPack's own business strategy, as well as changing tides in the delivery business. Part of the investment will be going towards international expansion through acquisitions, starting first in Europe, to bolt on relationships with local parcel delivery companies; and to establish business with local retailers. Who might MetaPack buy? Right now a key competitor, Wall says, is XLogics based in Germany, which may either mean a bid for them, or another company to get more competitive with XLogics. Another priority is to invest in core technology and new products. The majority of MetaPack's business is based on supplying delivery data covering the transfer from retailers' warehouses to their customers. But increasingly Wall says that the delivery chain in the “global commerce trade lanes” is getting shorter, with more demand for deliveries to come straight from the factory or company that supplied the retailer. “We see that coming as a development,” he says. “Right now have 700 suppliers shipping direct from the UK for major retailers, but where the market will go eventually is that companies will ship form the source.” That will inevitably lead companies like MetaPack to work more in countries like China, where most of its work today involves helping retailers export goods in bulk to their own warehouses. The other area will be to look at more sophisticated forms of delivery. Wall points to the rise in same-day delivery services from companies like Amazon and eBay as setting a new standard for what customers now expect from their online shopping. “Today you see the emergence of same day and we think that there will be more of those services, also shipping directly from retail stores and more complex multichannel supply chains.” That will also likely lead MetaPack to the U.S., where its main business today involves helping U.S. retailers export out of the UK. “We have the world's largest label library,” - that is, the labels that you put on parcels and the subsequent integration into the parcel carrier networks - “we provide that plug in and can help us retailers export all over the world,” he says. As for why the choice to go with a VC now and for that VC to be Index, it was a mutual understanding of what the opportunity was in this space, and also the fact that Index has in its portfolio a number of e-commerce companies and enterprise software companies that complement MetaPack's business. Dominique Vidal, the Index partner (and former Yahoo exec) who led this investment and now joins its board, notes that what MetaPack is doing is akin to developments in the payments market. “They bring to delivery what payment service providers brought to the payment market: choice for the customer and the merchant,” he says. “It is a long term trend. Most merchants need to offer better services to their customers. Delivery is pretty painful for most merchants they need to bring specialists to help them.” Other board members include Sir Leahy, Iain McDonald, David Burtenshaw and Mike O'Connell; Bob Willett, former CEO of Best Buy, who is also chairman.

Search Data Points To Stronger Launch For Surface 2 Than Its Predecessor

The Surface 2 appears to be easily besting the consumer interest that its predecessor, the Surface RT, engendered during its release in late 2012. In fact, the Surface 2 is now the most-searched-for, single device among the larger Microsoft line of tablet hybrids. Here is the Google Trends for Search data regarding the four discrete Surface devices that have been released: Surface RT, Surface Pro, Surface 2, and the Surface Pro 2. Here's the chart, tracking search volume from late 2012 to the present day (yellow: Surface RT; red: Surface Pro; green: Surface Pro 2; blue: Surface 2.)

The Surface RT had a very modest launch in terms of consumer interest. The Surface Pro spiked following its later introduction. This mirrors with its sales that were stronger than some anticipated (myself included). The Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 have had twin spikes, hitting on their unveiling and release respectively. The Surface 2, however, has enjoyed the sharpest spike, reaching search volume levels that are unmatched by any of the other Surface devices. However, there is a wrinkle to the above chart that could indicate that, among some consumers, the Surface Pro line remains supreme. Searches for “Surface Pro,” even after the original model was discontinued, have remained strong (second place), overshadowing the new Surface Pro 2. Does that mean that among potential customers, there is nostalgia for the first-generation product? I don't think so. Instead, I think that people are merely searching “Surface Pro” when searching for the new model. The following graph charts searches for the generic expression “Surface” over time:

What we can see here is declining interest in the search “Surface” since the introduction of the line despite obvious spikes that coincide with the peaks in the first graph. Consumers are therefore more savvy in searching for the device they want, and not the line itself. That's good for Microsoft, I think. Connecting the two, we're seeing increasing savvy, and strong Surface 2 interest, in comparison to other Surface devices. This puts the strong Surface Pro searches into question. I wonder if the larger difference between Surface RT and Surface 2′s names than between Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2′s names is helping people keep them apart. Still, it appears that the Surface 2 is doing a far superior job at capturing consumer interest this holiday sales cycle than the Surface RT did last year. If you want to see Microsoft succeed in the space, you should find this encouraging. The fun part to this is that we will get a simple revenue report card from the company after the current quarter is over, which we will be able to measure on a sequential quarter basis. How much total top line can Surface drive for its parent? That I can't say, but reading the entrails, things aren't looking too bad for the end of calendar 2013.

Amazon Japan Launches Instant Video Service

Amazon Japan has launched its Instant Video online platform, with more than 26,000 imported and local films and TV shows for streaming or download. Amazon's decision to enter the online video market in Japan is interesting for two reasons. For starters, it is entering an already crowded marketplace with several major local competitors. It's also another sign that the competition between Amazon and its Japanese counterpart Rakuten is heating up. The launch of Amazon Japan's Instant Video service comes just before the debut of the Kindle HDX, which goes on sale in Japan tomorrow. The device will come with a 2,000 yen ($20) coupon for Instant Video as a promotion. Instant Video's pricing tier begins at 100 yen (about $1) for a 24-hour rental. Amazon Japan also started selling e-books at the end of last year and now has more than 25 million songs on its music service. The debut of Amazon Japan Instant Video pits it against local competitors like GyaO Corp, Tsutaya TV and NotTV, as well as Hulu and Apple's localized Japanese services. Amazon Japan's new focus on streaming video comes after competitor Rakuten took several big steps to position its $16 billion Internet services ecosystem as a significant worldwide competitor to Amazon and Netflix. Over the past two years, Rakuten has acquired e-reader services provider Kobo, European streaming video platform Wuaki.tv and Viki, a global video streaming platform that crowdsources translated subtitles. Rakuten is probably best known in the U.S. as the lead investor in last year's $100 million Pinterest round, but it is also one of the world's largest e-commerce companies with a current market cap of about 1.9 trillion yen ($18 billion USD). That amount, however, still puts it far behind Amazon's market cap of $177 billion. With e-commerce's extremely thin margins, Rakuten's decision to focus on aggressively expanding its digital content business makes sense. Amazon Japan's move into the online video market is another sign that, despite its much larger size, the e-commerce behemoth will not take its business in Japan for granted.

Gaming’s Next Revolution Will Be Live Streamed, And The PS4 Has A Nice Lead

This holiday season, only one of the two major next-gen consoles will feature an out-of-the-box game-streaming solution: Sony’s PlayStation 4. And that streaming feature taps into some powerful trends that should act as an ambassador for the hardware and Sony’s online network. If you’re not familiar with the feature, it’s very simple. The PlayStation 4 controller has a streaming button that you tap at any point while playing a game. From this screen you can upload a clip of your last 15 minutes of play (the console buffers a chunk at all times just in case you do something cool you want to share). But you can also choose to live stream your gameplay, with or without a feed from the PlayStation camera or mic that carries your image or voice. You can also choose to allow comments to be displayed on the screen during your stream. This is all powered by Twitch, the gaming video network born of Justin.tv. You can also use Ustream to send live video, but the majority of gamers I’ve seen are using Twitch. I’m not sure it matters which you use, as the audience is likely coming mostly from your shared links, not the networks themselves. Though this could change if either/or builds special browsing tools that surface new streams faster. While Microsoft has plans to implement game streaming, also via Twitch, those plans hit a snag and the only option available at launch is to save a video and upload it for later watching. You can’t do the same kind of real-time streaming on Xbox One as you can on PS4, at least not yet. Microsoft says that this functionality should arrive early next year. I’ve been testing out the live streaming on the PS4 and it’s a pretty awesome experience. The streaming is incredibly easy to get going. You can sign up for a Twitch account right in the flow and get going. You can share the stream to Facebook or Twitter so that people can hop in and watch, and a channel gets made on Twitch as well. People can comment on your gameplay as you run through Knack or Call of Duty or what have you. There’s something invigorating about having people watch your play in the game live. This partially taps into the ‘let’s play’ movement that’s been gaining steam on video sites like Twitch and YouTube in a big way. Millions of people watch pre-recorded videos of other people playing games. It’s a crazy phenomenon that seems counter-intuitive. Why wouldn’t you just play the games yourself? The answer, I think, lies in the realm of spectator sports. Yes, we can all play basketball or football in one form or another, but there is a pleasure in watching people play that are really good at what they do. And there’s a sort of thrill that comes in seeing people fail as well. In addition to the charge you get out of having an audience, there’s also the collaborative aspects. People watching my streams give comments, advice, encouragement and, yes, insults. I’m able to respond with the mic without having to type anything. It’s a super fun mechanic and really well executed on PS4. Both ‘let’s play’ and the PS4′s live-streaming feature tap into something primal; games as performance art, to a degree. I used to play games competitively in ladders, climbing rung after rung with every match, until I was close to the top of one of the biggest amateur leagues. Those matches often hosted spectators, who watched and chatted as they went on. This was long before the days of Major League Gaming or the Pro Gaming League or any of those huge formal events. It was cool then, but now the audiences are massive, with finals held in huge arenas. Live streaming allows anyone to get a small taste of that kind of performance. Live game streaming is set to be the next big social layer for platforms big and small. Yes, it’s on the major consoles now, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see most portable devices, including those running iOS and Android, get some support for this kind of thing. Playing a game is fun, sure, but playing in front of an audience gives it another kind of punch, something I haven’t felt for a lot of years. Sony and Microsoft have tried for years to get people to share achievements and trophies on social networks, or even to passively send status updates like ‘watching Netflix’ or what have you. But this is another level entirely. Sony has a nice early start on the streaming layer for the holidays, and I think it’s going to be a big win for them. Microsoft’s Xbox One has a host of media-related features that outstrip Sony’s offering, and I’m enjoying both consoles. But when I play the Xbox One, I’m immediately missing the ability to just ‘pull’ people into my session to see what they have to say. Not having streaming ready to go on launch day has to irk them. Now, Sony has roughly two months to capture the interests of gamers with its streams and the network effects of the social followers of those streamers. People are going to be seeing tons of these Twitch.tv links on Twitter and Facebook over their winter breaks of whatever sort, and they’re going to be intrigued. Clicking on them and seeing a human playing a fighter or shooter in real time is a compelling sales tool. Beyond that, once both consoles have the capability, It will be interesting to see how fast and how far it spreads when it comes to other platforms. Twitch recently announced it had 45 million monthly viewers, and raised $20 million in a series C. That’s growth of roughly 10M viewers in 3 months and all of that was before the PS4 and eventually the Xbox One. Game streaming is just getting on its feet, but the possibilities are strong.