Want To Know What Your Friends Think? Ask Polling Site GoPollGo


Former TechCrunch developer Ben Schaechter left TC a couple months ago to launch his own startup and today we finally get to see the fruits of his labor. Sick of the poor analytics, lack of geographical information and little vote analysis on industry leaders like Poll Daddy, Schaechter built GoPollGo to maximize what he felt was the potential of polling services.

Says Schaechter, “The polling space is crying out for disruption and innovation. There is *so* much information that can be dervived from vistors.  When mashed up with users’ opinions, the data gets thoroughly interesting.”

The beautifully designed site is based on a freemium model. It’s simple to make an embeddable poll like this one, this one or this one. Users can then share it with friends via Facebook and Twitter, get comments or discover new polls. Premium subscribers can also access analytics on their polls, segment voting data and as well get reports like the one below.

Schaechter has already had hundreds of users and hundreds of thousands of pageviews since he launched the site two days ago and plans on opening up the premium features to big brands soon, “Think of it as a really simple method of market research.”

Schaechter’s future plans include building out the feature base and community for the bootstrapped GoPollGo as well as raising funding to potentially hire more people. “[We’re] focusing on building the best social polling website on the Internet,” he says.

You can take the “Apple vs. Google” poll here, or just have it out in the comments.


Information provided by CrunchBase


Ask a VC: Satish Dharmaraj on India, the Beauty of Fragmentation and Farmers Markets (TCTV)

I have a dilemma with Ask a VC. Generally, I’m trying to do shows that are under 10 minutes, so they’re more consumable. But in the case of Ask a VC, I want to get to as many reader questions as possible and would rather not cut someone off when they are giving you business advice. So starting this week we’re going to post the whole show as usual below, and give you links to each question and answer.

That way if you don’t have 15 minutes to watch it all, you can still find out the answer to your question or a question that you are grappling with. I usually find that its easier to consume long-form videos in podcast form than during my daily blog reading, so as a reminder, you can also download the episodes of any of our TCTV shows from iTunes.

This week, Redpoint Ventures’ Satish Dharmaraj was our first return guest and we got to a good number of questions including:


Cubeduel Goes Viral Too Quickly, Stumbles Over LinkedIn API Limits


Yesterday we ran a post about Cubeduel, a service that mixes the best (or worst) of Hot or Not with LinkedIn. Fire up the site and it will show you photos of two coworkers — pick the one you’d prefer to work with, and Cubeduel will present you with another pair of photos. It’s addictive, a bit evil, and has skyrocketed in usage over the last few days since it launched. Unfortunately, it took off a bit too quickly.

The service went down earlier today for reasons that were initially unclear — did LinkedIn block the site because it ranks coworkers in a way that isn’t exactly flattering to everyone, or did the site just get too popular, too fast? Turns out it’s the latter — Cubeduel has exceeded LinkedIn’s API limits (which is what one of the site’s creators, Tony Wright, initially guessed). Here’s an explanation from LinkedIn Director of Communications Hani Durzy:

We did not shut Cubeduel down. The application was using our open LinkedIn Developer Platform, which has a daily access limit that is publicly documented. Our developer platform limits are designed to protect our members, and have been in place since the platform program was introduced a year ago. We are in communication with the people behind Cubedeal to discuss how they can move forward. We are always interested in seeing our platform used in creative, innovative new ways by developers.

I followed up by asking if the site might be allowed to exceed the standard API limits, or if Cubeduel would have to find a way to restructure the site to fit within the normal constraints. The answer to that isn’t clear — Durzy says they’re still talking to each other.

Wright says that before the API limit was hit Cubeduel was far exceeding his expectations — he told me yesterday the site would get “hundreds of thousands” of ranked users by the end of the week. Now he says they were “well on our way to millions” before the API limit kicked in.

Information provided by CrunchBase


Andreessen Horowitz Hires a New Partner…from Sales?

When Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz launched their venture firm, they talked a good game about things being different; about having a smorgasbord of partners skilled in different areas that could tag in-and-out of portfolio companies as appropriate. And a lot of that sounded like the usual “value-add” venture capital spiel.

But two funds into the firm’s life, that vision is starting to take shape. Witness today’s announcement that Mark Cranney will be joining the firm as a partner. Cranney isn’t some techy whiz-kid, visionary founder or even a financial wizard. He’s a sales and operations guy and his job will be to help teach Andreessen Horowitz’s predominately engineer-centric founders and CEOs to be a little bit more like those things many of them decry: a sales guy, an MBA, a grown-up manager. Look at him! He even looks like a sales guy!

In addition to coaching founders and helping them find the right management talent to hire, Cranney will be building essentially a pre-sales organization within the firm that will constantly scout purchase-level managers at Fortune 500 companies, to pave direct lines to them and know in advance what kinds of products they want to buy, leading to a shorter, almost pre-qualified sales cycle for Andreessen Horowitz’s companies. “The weakness at a lot of venture capital firms is that we know the CEOs or CIOs, but we don’t know the managers making the purchase decisions,” says Horowitz.

I asked how big this group would be and Cranney declined to answer saying that was “proprietary” (See! He talks like a grown up manager too!) but he scoffed when I called it a “gargantuan task,” pointing out he’d built huge sales teams from scratch several times in his career. “That’s the easy part,” he said. Not for the typical geeky founder, of course, and that’s the point.

Like a lot of the firm’s team, Cranney worked at Opsware with Horowitz and Andreessen, where he was the executive vice president of worldwide field operations. He grew the headcount from 10 people to 350, grew revenue from $18 million to $150 million, and had four years of 100%+ growth in new bookings. That’s just not a skill set you see at most VC firms.

If this team works as advertised, it’ll be a huge, huge advantage for the firm. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this become a trend among the well-heeled venture funds, especially if this renaissance in business software blooms. As Cranney says: “If you want to sell to companies you gotta put boots on the ground. That’s not changing.”


PM puts focus on reforms ‘legacy’

David CameronMr Cameron will say he wants public service modernisation to be a “legacy” of his government

Prime Minister David Cameron will set out his determination to modernise Britain’s public services during 2011, in a key speech later.

Mr Cameron will say he wants reform to be a legacy of his government, despite planned spending cuts of £81bn.

He will tell an audience in London that it is a “personal and political” priority for him to improve services.

However, his speech comes as NHS reform plans for England face increasing criticism from medical groups.

Ministers will publish a health bill this week that will pave the way for GP consortiums to take over management of the NHS from primary care trusts.

But the Royal College of GPs and the British Medical Association say the upheaval is unnecessary as the same results could have been achieved by a small change in the current structure.

At the same time, the heads of six health unions, including the BMA, have warned in the Times of their “extreme concerns” about greater commercial competition between the NHS and private companies.

However, in his speech, Mr Cameron will praise news that 140 GP groups have come forward to take on the new commissioning powers ahead of their introduction across England in 2013.

The prime minister will dismiss suggestions that public spending cuts will mean a deterioration in services, but he will say that urgency is a must, arguing Britain can be one of the “great success stories of the new decade”.

“I’ve experienced first-hand how dedicated, how professional, how compassionate our best public servants are.”

David Cameron Prime Minister

Mr Cameron will say that even after the cuts are complete, public spending will still take up 41% of national income – the same level as in 2006.

And he will say that at £5,000 per pupil, spending on education will be the same as in Germany and more than in France; London will have as many police officers as New York; and health spending will match the European average.

“It’s just not true to say that the spending taps are being turned off,” Mr Cameron will argue.

He will also try to shake off claims by Labour that his reform agenda is driven by the wish to save money and an ideological desire to reduce the size of the state.

“My passion about this is both personal and political,” he will say.

“Personal because I’ve experienced first-hand how dedicated, how professional, how compassionate our best public servants are.

“The doctors who cared for my eldest son, the maternity nurses who welcomed my youngest daughter into the world, the teachers who are currently inspiring my children, all of them have touched my life, and the life of my family, in an extraordinary way and I want to do right by them.

“And this is a political passion – and priority – of mine too.”

He will say that the coalition government has a better chance of implementing successful reform because it has “tried really hard to learn the lessons of the past” and will avoid repeating the mistakes of previous administrations.

“These reforms aren’t about theory or ideology – they are about people’s lives. Your lives, the lives of the people you and I care most about – our children, our families and our friends. We should not put this off any longer.”

Meanwhile, changes to parental leave to give both mothers and fathers more flexibility are going to be considered, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg is to announce later in a separate speech.

Describing the current system as “Edwardian”, Mr Clegg will say the coalition will introduce in April measures drawn up by the Labour government to allow fathers to take up any remaining unpaid maternity leave if mothers go back to work early, up to a maximum of six months.

Additional reforms could be introduced in 2015, he will say.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Bank ‘must keep nerve on rates’

Shoppers in GlasgowSome economists fear that price rises caused by the VAT increase will fuel inflation

The Bank of England should “hold its nerve” and avoid pressure to raise interest rates, an influential economics forecaster has said.

The Ernst & Young ITEM Club says any increase in the bank base rate from the current historic low of 0.5% could endanger the economic recovery.

The bank should stand firm against temporary pressures such as the VAT rise, it says.

Meanwhile, Deloitte is warning of a “bumpy road to recovery”.

In its 2011 UK economic review, it says it expects GDP growth this year and next of just 1.5%.

Meanwhile the more-optimistic ITEM Club forecasts UK GDP growth of 2.3% this year, rising to 2.8% in 2012.

Deloitte believes the UK economy is building up momentum but that “the true test” – the severe fiscal squeeze – is yet to come.

And it warns that fiscal tightening could leave the recovery looking lacklustre over the next couple of years.

Deloitte also says current rates of inflation – with the CPI rate at 3.3% and RPI rate at 4.7% – will add further pressure to household incomes.

The accountancy and consulting firm says despite these high rates, its expects inflation to fall by about 1.5% next year, to about 1.8%.

The ITEM Club is also predicting inflation will drop back to the 2% target in 2012.

It says that as the government’s austerity measures start to take effect, inflationary pressures will be coupled with below-trend GDP growth.

“It’s going to be a tense start to 2011,” says Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club.

“The fiscal retrenchment will keep GDP subdued, while commodity price rises and the VAT hike will push inflation close to 4% and leave the MPC agonising over whether to increase the Bank base rate.

“However it’s vital that the MPC stands firm. These are temporary pressures, domestic cost inflation remains low and CPI inflation will come back to heel in 2012 once the VAT increase falls out of the figures next January.”

Deloitte says that although government cuts are spread over many years, it points to public sector employment already falling, the recent VAT increase, and the national insurance contributions hike in April.

The report says that the only alternative to the government’s current strategy appears to be if the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee conducts more quantitative easing and pumps money into the economy.

Deloitte also points out that pressure is on the private sector to keep the recovery going, but that questions remain over whether it can generate enough jobs to offset the public sector job cuts.

“The onus is therefore firmly on those parts of the economy which are relatively immune from the direct effects of the fiscal squeeze – namely exports and investment – to drive growth instead,” says Deloitte economic adviser Roger Bootle.

“At least exports have been rising strongly. What’s more, the recently announced plans for an extra fiscal stimulus in the US should leave the outlook for global demand a bit brighter.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier back in Haiti

Jean-Claude Duvalier in March 1982“Baby Doc” was only 19 when he inherited power from his father.

The former president of Haiti, Jean-Claude Duvalier, has returned to the country, 25 years after he was overthrown by a popular revolt.

Mr Duvalier – also known as “Baby Doc” – arrived on a flight from France, where he has been living in exile.

It is not clear why he has returned to Haiti, where he is accused of massive corruption.

Haiti is in the midst of a political crisis over disputed presidential elections.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Victoria towns brace for flooding

Volunteers clean up flood debris in Brisbane, Australia (16 Jan 2011)Thousands of people are involved in the clean-up operation in Brisbane

Thousands of people have fled their homes in Victoria as major flooding hits the southern Australian state.

The floods have already swamped some of the state’s northern towns and are threatening 1,400 homes in 43 others.

At least 18 people have lost their lives in Australia’s flood disaster so far. Dozens are still missing.

All the deaths were in the northern state of Queensland, where water levels have now largely receded and a major clean-up operation is now underway.

Victoria state officials said the flood is set to be one of the worst ever seen in the state.

Around 3,500 people have left their homes so far.

”The message to Victorians is that we are not out of the woods yet as far as this flood crisis is concerned,” said Trevor White of the State Emergency Service.

“We still have four river systems in major flood, being the Wimmera, the Avoca, the Loddon and the Campaspe rivers.

“And of course we are seeing unprecedented stream rises not witnessed for decades, and in fact that’s leading to widespread flooding over vast areas of Victoria that haven’t been seen for decades,” he said.

The towns of Echuca and Horsham are expected to be the worst hit.

Paula Ryan in Echuca told Reuters news agency the military had been laying sandbags in the town to try protect it from the Campaspe River.

Echuca’s mayor, Nigel Pankhurst, said he believed the town’s levee, designed to withstand once-in-a-century flood levels, would hold.

“Some properties will have water on them but we’re not expecting any homes to be inundated or have water above floor level,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Map

Map of Brisbane floods Suburban garden – before and after

Some towns in northern Victoria have also ready been inundated, including Charlton, in the south-west, where locals said three-quarters of the town was underwater after the Avoca river burst its banks.

“The force of the water was just unbelievable. Every street that the river was running down was just like a torrent,” said resident Gary Tonkin.

“It has uprooted fences and a lot of people’s house fences are washed away. The power came back on half an hour ago. The water is just brown and stinks.”

Charlton resident Peter Gretgrix said the scale of the damage was “heartwrenching”.

“It’s just total devastation, some of the shops in the lowish area are just a mess, windows smashed out, it’s terrible,” he told AFP news agency.

Residents of the southern town of Rochester were attempting to clear their homes of mud and debris as the Wimmera river continued to rise.

“I’ve never seen it this high ever, so this is the worst,” said Noel Mitchell.

“But I think it probably did peak at probably a little bit lower than they thought, so we’re pretty thankful for that.”

The premier of Queensland, Anna Bligh, said 18 people are now known to have died in the state, after the bodies of an elderly man and woman were discovered in Lockyer Valley.

A massive clean-up operation is taking place in the state capital Brisbane and surrounding areas.

At least 30,000 properties in the Queensland city have been swamped and many areas remain without power. Officials say the clean-up could take months.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Golden Globes kick off Oscar race

A sign promoting the Golden Globe awards in Los AngelesSigns promoting the Golden Globe awards can be seen on the streets of Los Angeles
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The Hollywood awards season kicks off later with the Golden Globes, where British film The King’s Speech leads the pack with seven nominations.

The Social Network and The Fighter follow with six nominations apiece.

Presented annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the Globes are first major film awards of the year.

Comedian Ricky Gervais is to host the ceremony, beginning at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at 1700 LA time (0100GMT).

Television shows are also celebrated at the gala, where the prizes are divided between dramas and comedies or musicals.

High school comedy Glee has the most nominations for a TV show, having been shortlisted in five categories.

Colin Firth, who plays a monarch battling a stammer in The King’s Speech, is widely expected to win the best actor in a drama prize.

The 50-year-old is one of four actors in his category nominated for playing real people.

MOST NOMINATED FILMSThe King’s Speech – 7The Fighter – 6The Social Network – 6Black Swan – 4Inception – 4The Kids are All Right – 4

Jesse Eisenberg is also in contention for his role as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, as is James Franco for playing climber Aron Ralston in 127 Hours.

Wahlberg completes the quartet for his performance in The Fighter, a film about US boxer Micky Ward.

The biopic has additional acting nominations for Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo, while its director David O Russell is also up for a prize.

In the best actress in a drama category, Natalie Portman has received a nod for her role in Darren Aronofsky’s ballet-based Black Swan.

Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence and Michelle Williams are also in contention for that award.

Films up for best musical or comedy include Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Burlesque, The Kids are All Right and The Tourist.

Johnny Depp has landed two nominations in the best actor in a comedy or musical category, for Alice in Wonderland and The Tourist.

Glee’s competition for the best TV comedy or musical prize includes 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory amd Modern Family.

Ricky GervaisRicky Gervais returns to host the ceremony for a second consecutive year

Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, The Good Wife and Mad Men vie for the best TV drama series award with zombie thriller The Walking Dead.

The Globes have traditionally been solid indicator as to which films and stars will be recognised at the Academy Awards.

Yet in the last six years, the only winner of a Globe for best drama that went on to Oscar success was 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire.

Last year Avatar was feted at the Globes, only to be beaten at the Oscars by Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker.

However, all four of last year’s Oscar-winning actors – Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique – were also successful at the Globes.

Gervais’s first stint as host in 2010 saw the British comedian take gentle jabs at the Hollywood glitterati.

Earlier this week, though, the Office and Extras star said he didn’t think he “went far enough”.

“So I’m going to do it again [and] do a proper job,” he continued. “And I guarantee they will not invite me back.”

This year’s Bafta nominations are announced on Tuesday, with Oscar nominations to follow on 25 January.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Call to step up fight on grooming

Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27Mohammed Liaqat (left) and Abid Saddique were convicted of sexually abusing teenage girls
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A government minister needs to be tasked with the responsibility of protecting children from sexual exploitation, a leading charity says.

Barnardo’s said across the UK there was a lack of awareness “from front-line children’s services to the corridors of Whitehall” of grooming and trafficking.

The charity said exploitation was happening in “every town and city” and it was seeing victims as young as 13.

The Department for Education said it was focused on tackling the issue.

A spokeswoman said: “Child sexual exploitation is an appalling crime – it is a form of child sexual abuse and must not be tolerated.

“This is a complex problem and we are determined to tackle it effectively by working collaboratively right across government and with national and local agencies.”

Barnardo’s said its specialist teams had worked with victims who had been moved between towns and cities, a form of trafficking which suggested that the exploitation of young people was becoming more organised.

“Barnardo’s knows that sexual exploitation is going on in every town and city in the UK and child victims continue to go unidentified”

Anne Marie Carrie Barnardo’s

The charity said it worked with around 1,000 sexually exploited girls and boys last year but she said that was “likely to be the tip of the iceberg”.

It added that some victims as young as 10 years old had been helped.

The call comes as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) begins a study to “to identify any patterns of offending, victimisation or vulnerability”.

Earlier this month two Asian men were jailed in Derby for sexually abusing several teenage girls. The former home secretary Jack Straw later claimed some Asian men believed white girls were “easy meat” but he was immediately criticised for his remarks.

Anne Marie Carrie, who has taken over as Barnardo’s chief executive, said the children at the heart of the issue had “been forgotten as discussion has focused on the ethnicity of perpetrators in high-profile cases”.

Ms Carrie said “without a minister with overall responsibility the government response is likely to remain inadequate”.

Jack StrawJack Straw was criticised for playing up the racial angle of the abuse

“Barnardo’s knows that sexual exploitation is going on in every town and city in the UK and child victims continue to go unidentified as tell-tale signs are overlooked due to a lack of awareness that stretches from front-line children’s services to the corridors of Whitehall,” Ms Carrie said.

“These vulnerable defenceless girls and boys, who crave love and attention, are groomed then abused in the most callous and calculated way, leaving them deeply traumatised and scarred for life.”

She warned that internet and mobile phone technology were also increasingly being used by abusers.

Penny Nicholls, director of children and young people at The Children’s Society, echoed Ms Carrie’s remarks and urged the government to make a single government minister responsible for the issue.

She said: “Too many children and young people are being sexually exploited in the shadows of society, groomed in secret by heartless gangs of sexual predators or bogus boyfriends who shower vulnerable children with gifts and lure them to be horrifically exploited, sometimes for years on end.

“It can happen to any child and it is time we shone a powerful light on this hidden abuse suffered by children as young as 11 and 12 in cities and towns across the UK.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Mothers admit to parenting lies at school gates

Children's paintingMothers are under pressure to keep up an image of coping, says the survey
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Many mothers are under so much pressure to appear like perfect parents that they cover up how much television their children watch or what they cook their families, according to a survey.

Such “white lies” also extend to how much “quality time” mothers spend with their partner, website Netmums said its survey of 5,000 people suggested.

The parenting site said mothers often made each other feel “inadequate”.

“Mums need to be more honest with each other,” said Netmums’ Siobhan Freegard.

The website is calling for a more honest approach to family life and an end to the guilty subterfuge of mothers who feel unable to achieve an idealised view of parenthood.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said they had been less than honest with other mothers about how well they were coping and almost half covered up financial worries.

Almost a quarter of mothers admitted to downplaying how much television their children actually watched – and one in five “span a yarn” over how long they played with their children.

Ms Freegard, a co-founder of the site, said there had been another example of a mother who was exhausted and went back to bed during the day, but explained her failure to answer the phone as being because her hands had been covered in flour while making cookies.

“It’s just very difficult to put your hands up and admit that you parent differently to your friends”

Becky Mother

The need to keep up a good impression among other parents becomes even more important for mothers who are living far away from their own extended families, she said.

But the survey suggested that this fear of not being a perfect parent was not driven by images of celebrities in glossy magazines.

Instead the sense of inadequacy was caused by peer pressure from other mothers at the school gate or the nursery, the survey found, with more than nine out of 10 comparing themselves to other mothers.

The website is launching what it calls The Real Parenting Revolution, which encourages parents to accept the reality of how they live, rather than feeling bad about not living up to a myth of perfection.

“It’s the imperfections that make us human,” Ms Freegard said.

One mother, known as Becky, who responded to the survey explained that it was difficult to be honest: “My friend was telling me about how she limited her son’s access to the PlayStation and I agreed, telling her that I also limited my son to an hour a day, after homework.

“After I’d said it, I kicked myself for not telling the truth – I mean, it’s no big deal.

“It’s just very difficult to put your hands up and admit that you parent differently to your friends.”

Parenting expert and sociologist Frank Furedi said that parents were under “profound pressures” from society. He said that a culture of parenting “incites parents to lie and to turn child rearing into a performance.”

He added that even with the best intentions, reports such as these increased the pressure on parents: “Parents are always being judged in one way or another – including by this report. The real solution is to lay off parents and publish less reports.”

Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos said that it was common for people to feel that they were being judged in a variety situations. She advised parents to avoid comparing themselves with others.

“You’re in competition with no-one but yourself – all you can do is the best for you and your kid.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Risk contained

No sign of Tunisian uprising spreading to Egypt

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Snow hits Scots economic recovery

man in foundryDemand from abroad meant that manufacturing companies did better than service firms in December
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There is further evidence that the harsh weather at the end of last year hit Scotland’s economy.

A Bank of Scotland report said businesses recorded a sharp drop in new orders and output.

The bad weather caused consumer spending to fall – and that in turn hit the service sector in particular.

Foreign demand held up and manufacturing companies fared better than others and they took on new staff, while other firms laid off workers.

Every month the Bank of Scotland produces the Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) which monitors activity in the manufacturing and service industries.

About 600 companies are asked about their business and some of December’s results are among the weakest for almost two years.

Scotland’s private sector economy contracted in the final month of 2010, falling almost 10 points on the PMI index to 39.6 from 49.5 in November.

Manufacturers reported continued growth of new export orders from 55.1 in November to 51.5 in December.

If the figure is above 50 it shows there is growth in that area.

Overall, new business receipts in the Scottish private sector fell.

Donald MacRae, chief economist at Bank of Scotland, said: “December was a difficult month signalling a weak last quarter of 2010 for the Scottish economy.

“However, there were encouraging signs of continuing robust export demand.”

Costs continued to rise for companies – driven by higher fuel prices and increases in raw materials.

The report warned that the higher costs would squeeze profit margins even more if companies were not able to pass on the increases.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.