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This Hot New York Startup Looks An Awful Lot Like eBay After Six Years

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ebay-vs-etsy-2012-5

There’s a reason people call Etsy the next eBay. Six years after their founding, both companies are showing eerily similar growth curves. Admittedly, Etsy is tackling a smaller slice of online retail than eBay, but that didn’t bother the investors who valued the company at an estimated $688 million in its latest round of funding. 

chart of the day ebay vs etsy merchendise sales may 2012 This Hot New York Startup Looks An Awful Lot Like eBay After Six Years

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Thursday, May 10th, 2012 news No Comments

MIT and Harvard announce edX web education platform, make online learning cheap and easy

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/02/mit-and-harvard-announce-edx-web-education-platform-make-online/

mit and harvard announce edx   mit media relations MIT and Harvard announce edX web education platform, make online learning cheap and easy

We’ll forgive you if you failed to take MIT up on its offer take its courses for free when it rolled out its MITx online learning platform last year. However, Harvard took notice of its efforts, and has joined MIT online to form the edX platform and offer courses and content for free on the web. There’s no word on the available subjects just yet, but video lessons, quizzes and online labs will all be a part of the curriculum, and those who comprehend the coursework can get a certificate of mastery upon completion. edX won’t just benefit those who log on, either, as it’ll be used to research how students learn and how technology can be used to improve teaching in both virtual and brick and mortar classrooms. The cost for this altruistic educational venture? 60 million dollars, with each party ponying up half. The first courses will be announced this summer, and classes are slated to start this fall. Want to know more? Check out the future of higher education more fully in the PR and video after the break.

Continue reading MIT and Harvard announce edX web education platform, make online learning cheap and easy

MIT and Harvard announce edX web education platform, make online learning cheap and easy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 18:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 news No Comments

You Can’t Bully Users Into Loving A New Product

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/note-to-google-you-cant-bully-users-into-using-a-new-product-2012-5

girl afraid of google You Cant Bully Users Into Loving A New Product

We’ve written many times about how Google is turning into Microsoft. Here’s another example.

Recently, author and former Star Trek star WIl Wheaton noticed that Google was requiring him to sign up and log in to Google+ before he could give one of his videos a thumbs-up vote on YouTube. He posted a nastygram to Google about it on his Tumblr site.

(Google isn’t doing this for every YouTube user yet, but is trying it out, according to Danny Sullivan.)

Google should know better. Microsoft has tried this same thing for years, and it doesn’t work.

MSN.com has been the home page for Internet Explorer for more than a decade. That means that every single PC sold since 1995 has had a direct link to MSN built into it. MSN Search became the default search engine in Internet Explorer back in 2001, and has stayed that way more or less since (although its name changed to Bing in 2009).

But Microsoft has NEVER been able to leverage Windows into a successful online business. Microsoft gets lots of traffic to its Web sites — including Microsoft.com — but none of the individual services are market share or mindshare leaders.

Worse yet, Microsoft has lost billions on its online business — more than $2 billion just in the last year.

Meanwhile, dozens of other online companies have been able to build huge, thriving online businesses without leveraging another product — Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, and too many others to count.

And what was Microsoft’s most successful new product in the last decade? The Xbox, which didn’t have any ties to Windows at all for years. (Even now, the ties are minimal.)

Google has to make Google+ compelling enough on its own to draw users. Forcing people to sign up for it may give Google some nice user stats to share on its earnings calls, but it won’t build long-term success or engagement.

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Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 news No Comments

Friendster reborn as a gaming site, wishes Facebook cared

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/26/friendster-reborn-as-a-gaming-site-wishes-facebook-cared/

friendster Friendster reborn as a gaming site, wishes Facebook cared

Friendster’s as good as dead to the western world (it hasn’t really crossed our radar since 2005), but Forbes reports that the site is still huge in Southeast Asia — though not for the reasons you might think. It was the original social network when in launched in 2002, but its acquisition by e-payment provider MOL Global in 2009 led to its reincarnation as a top online gaming destination for countries such as India, Indonesia and Malaysia. The new Friendster just officially emerged from beta as a game-centric site, and the remaining vestiges of its social networking past — you can still add friends, after all — are gamified with reward points. Moreover, owner MOL Global has added e-payments to the mix, letting users buy Friendster Coins to purchase virtual goods. Given predictions that the Asian gaming community will exceed 1 billion by 2016, the site’s future is looking rosier than ever. That might lessen the sting of being plum blown out of the social networking game by the big dogs.

Friendster reborn as a gaming site, wishes Facebook cared originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thursday, April 26th, 2012 news No Comments

Microsoft Burns Another Half Billion Online

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-microsofts-online-operating-income-2012-4

The good news: Microsoft has stabilized the amount of money it loses online. The bad news: It’s still on track to lose almost $2 billion online this year.

This quarter Microsoft lost $476 million. But, a year ago in the same period it lost $776 million. So, progress!

chart of the day msft online operating income april 2012 Microsoft Burns Another Half Billion Online

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Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 news No Comments

Google announces Brand Activate Initiative for online advertising, hopes to establish new standard

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/18/google-announces-brand-activate-initiative-for-online-advertisin/

google Google announces Brand Activate Initiative for online advertising, hopes to establish new standard

When Google makes a new move in advertising, people are bound to take notice, and it’s made a fairly big one today. It’s announced what it’s dubbed the Brand Activate Initiative at the Ad Age Digital Conference today, something that initially consists of two new services for advertisers: Active View and Active GRP. The latter is a so-called gross rating point metric that’s modeled to some extent on TV advertising, while Active View is something that Google hopes will become a standard for all online advertising. In short, it measures both how long an ad remains on a person’s screen and how much of it is viewed — if at least 50 percent of it is viewable for at least one second it’s counted as an viewed impression. Both of those options are rolling out today, but they’re apparently just the beginning of the broader initiative. You can see Google itself explain it in the video after the break, and on its DoubleClick blog linked below.

Continue reading Google announces Brand Activate Initiative for online advertising, hopes to establish new standard

Google announces Brand Activate Initiative for online advertising, hopes to establish new standard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 news No Comments

7 Incredible Statistics Showing Why Companies Need To Advertise Online In China

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/7-incredible-reasons-why-companies-need-to-advertise-online-in-china-2012-4

china computer 7 Incredible Statistics Showing Why Companies Need To Advertise Online In China

Lau Seng Yee, president of online media business at internet portal Tencent, gave a pretty incredible list of reasons why companies should embrace online media and the digital ecosystem at Ad Age’s Digital Conference, Tuesday.

1. China has 513 million online users right now

2. 164,000 new Chinese join the internet every day

3. Approximately 1.3 billion hours are spent online every day in China.

4. China has more Android and iOS subscriptions than the U.S.

5. There were 1.74 billion RMB ($276 million) in sales of virtual goods in China 2011.

6. People take social media seriously: He cited a negative review of a refrigerator that was retweeted 170 times.

7. About 370,000 people are playing mahjong online at any time (we’re sure someone will find that useful.)

That’s pretty impressive for a country that, according to Lau, offered its first in-home telephone land lines a mere 17 years ago, Lau said.

China has a tradition of Guanxi, which translates to chain of connection. While the word has traditionally referred to the connection that people make in person, “the internet has unleashed the power of guanxi,” Lau said. “It has redefined everything we have known about connections … there are no more strangers in the world.”

It’s also changed social dynamics: “Consumers are now the emperors,” Lau said.

Of course, there is the itty-bitty problem that there isn’t free speech or transparency in China. Earlier this month, the government shut down 16 websites, including two sites that are similar to Twitter that had 250 million-plus users.

According to Dr. John A. Quelch, professor of international management and dean of the China Europe International Business School, however, ”We have had such an explosion of internet activity in the last five to 10 years that it is almost impossible for any government agency to put a lid on what goes on.”

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Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 news No Comments

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5902583/how-hulu-grew-into-a-network-tv-challenger

medium Compared to many TV streaming services, Hulu is a mature technology, created five years ago by some of TV’s biggest players. Now, the New York Times suggests it’s coming of age—and that events this week will see it truly become a network TV challenger.

The Times reports that, this Thursday, Hulu will pitch advertisers on its new, original programming. That might not sound like a big deal, but it is in fact an annual ritual called “upfronts”—usually reserved for cable channels and network broadcasters.

The fact that Hulu is sidling up alongside the big players of the TV world is a huge milestone for online TV. In the same week, Hulu will also announce that it now has more than two million subscribers for its $8-a-month Hulu Plus service.

So, Hulu’s first piece of original programming, Battleground, wasn’t great. And, sure, the firm has to put up with its parental companies feuding most of the time. But that doesn’t seem to matter too much when Hulu is pitching at the same meetings as the biggest national TV providers. [New York Times]

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Tuesday, April 17th, 2012 Uncategorized No Comments

Amazon’s Plague of Fake Books

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5902283/amazon-is-overrun-with-a-plague-of-fake-books

medium Amazons Plague of Fake BooksIf you search for popular books on Amazon, it turns out you’ll turn up intentionally misleading knockoffs. Publishers obviously aren’t happy about about it, but some of these titles are hilarious. I Am The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, anybody? Seriously, who falls for that? Apparently, a lot of people.

Fortune found a slew of these ripoffs on Amazon. Currently, the online retailer’s bestselling book Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. If you’d been searching for the popular romance novel would you have been fooled by the very similar Thirty-Five Shades of Grey by J.D. Lyte? Maybe, actually!

Not only are the people who are putting these books up for sale reaping profits and ripping people off, Amazon is complicit in the whole affair:

It’s perhaps more shocking that Amazon (AMZN) not only sells the books, it’s also helping their authors create them. All of the apparent copycat books that Fortune found on Amazon were made through CreateSpace, which is a division of Amazon. Authors can use CreateSpace’s system to design and self-publish their own books. The books then go on sale on Amazon and other sites. Amazon splits the proceeds with authors. It’s a different relationship than most publishers have with their authors, but there is no way for consumers to know that. On Amazon and other sites, CreateSpace is listed as the publisher of the books.

medium Amazons Plague of Fake BooksUnfortunately some of the best knockoffs are no longer available as far as we can tell. According to Fortune, Steve Jobs by Isaac Worthington was tearing up the charts on Amazon at one point, but we haven’t been able to find it.

Obviously, book publishers have wised up to the scam and are getting some books pulled down when they’re discovered. But this problem isn’t going anywhere fast. Amazon is just too big. Next time you’re searching for a book, be careful which one you buy. [Fortune]

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Monday, April 16th, 2012 digital No Comments

These Statistics Should Scare Every Business Owner Into Paying Attention To Yelp

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-statistic-should-scare-every-business-owner-into-paying-attention-to-yelp-2012-4

yelp These Statistics Should Scare Every Business Owner Into Paying Attention To Yelp

When it comes to swaying consumers, nothing beats word of mouth. That’s because, 92 percent of people trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising when making a purchase decision, according to a new study. That number was up nearly 20 percent from 2007.

Those findings, however, only begin to highlight the changing advertising model. According to research by Nielsen, fewer than half of all people still find paid traditional television, magazine and newspaper ads credible. Those numbers, however, were down 24 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent respectively across those mediums since 2009. As for online customer reviews, 70 percent of people profess trust in the appraisals, up 15 percent in the past four years

“While brand marketers increasingly seek to deploy more effective advertising strategies, Nielsen’s survey shows that the continued proliferation of media messages may be impacting how well they resonate with their intended audiences on various platforms,” said Randall Beard, global head of advertiser solutions at Nielsen. “Although television advertising will remain a primary way marketers connect with audiences due to its unmatched reach compared to other media, consumers around the world continue to see recommendations from friends and online consumer opinions as by far the most credible. As a result, successful brand advertisers will seek ways to better connect with consumers and leverage their goodwill in the form of consumer feedback and experiences.”

Online advertisements, on the other hand, are a growing medium. Consumers who find online banner ads credible grew from 26 percent in 2007 to 33 percent of people today. Additionally, ads viewed in search engine results and on social networks were trusted among nearly 40 percent of people. Consumer trust in ads from mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones as well as text message ads grew 61 percent since 2007.  

More creative forms of ads are also starting to grow in credibility. According to the research, nearly 60 percent of consumers responded to advertising on company websites, while 50 percent of consumers responded to company emails. Surprisingly, slightly more than 40 percent of people were swayed when seeing product placements in television shows, radio ads and movie ads.

“The growth in trust for online search and display ads over the past four years should give marketers increased confidence in putting more of their ad dollars into this medium,” said Beard. “Many companies are already increasing their paid advertising activity on social networking sites, in part due to the high level of trust consumers place in friends’ recommendations and online opinions. Brands should be watching this emerging ad channel closely as it continues to grow.”

The information in the Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising survey was based on the responses and behaviors of 28,000 people from 56 countries around the world. 

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Sunday, April 15th, 2012 news No Comments

Dr. Augustine Fou is an advisor on digital strategy and social media marketing, with over 16 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience. He provides client executives with objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI with digital insights.

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