Apple stores may be a good place to peep at what websites people are
browsing and that may indicate some trends picking. I did that as well, and
in addition to
what Robert saw, I would add Orkut (surprisingly, but the two girls I
saw were Brazilians, and in Brazil Orkut got some traction) and the
unescapable My Space
August 2006
The strategy is simple: first create a community either centered around your
blog or a la Craiglist and then launch the job matching service. Om is the
last one to
jump on the ship - GigaOm Jobs fulfills a compelling proposition to his
own blog community around the GigaOmniMedia business.
More context here.
More context here.
Calacanis
take, now that he's on the top spot @ AOL. :) Been giving a few
interviews myself to the Romanian media lately, the email ones are the ones
that work best, and I always ask to see what's going to go into the article,
to be sure I wasnot misinterpreted.
...is the new Google Office
version 1.0. Om freaked
out due to privacy reasons, but I remember we had the whole debate back
on 2004, April 1, when Gmail was released. The offer includes IM, mail, web pages
and a calendar - the startups toolkit (if we count the Gspreadsheet and writely as well). On the other hand it is
true that this gives plenty of room
for going after the bigger enterprise clients, though the model is not
clear yet (licences versus advertising - perhaps a combination of the
two)
Nice business model relying on book recommendation by high profile people.
link
on why defining web 2.0 is less important than generating profits:
The significance of the Web 2.0 is more than just a trendy term heard in pitches -- but honestly, businesses should not be too concerned about this latest set of features. They should care about how it gets them from A to B. If it reduces the steps needed to fill out a form or make a transaction, then it will get the customer excited. Technology is only a small piece of the consumer's experience, the distinctive way you'll beat out the competition and how you'll generate profits.
Read the whole thing
The significance of the Web 2.0 is more than just a trendy term heard in pitches -- but honestly, businesses should not be too concerned about this latest set of features. They should care about how it gets them from A to B. If it reduces the steps needed to fill out a form or make a transaction, then it will get the customer excited. Technology is only a small piece of the consumer's experience, the distinctive way you'll beat out the competition and how you'll generate profits.
Read the whole thing
News of the day
is, as I guess you all know it, this morning deconspiring of a terrorist
plot and the consequent arrestings of the plotters. Evidently, this resulted
into a chaos to everything that means air travelling, in and within UK or
USA, further meaning severe changes in the air travelling conditions. (i.e.
only cash and keys, no laptops, playstation or ipod)
Espen provides the airlines with the solution:
All the airlines need to do is install in-seat terminals in business and first class along with in-the-air Internet connections. Throw in some decent food and you have a much lighter and more satisfactory flight.
Espen provides the airlines with the solution:
All the airlines need to do is install in-seat terminals in business and first class along with in-the-air Internet connections. Throw in some decent food and you have a much lighter and more satisfactory flight.
Via techdirt
here's the latest trick of newspapers for making their value propositions
more attractive to their readers as opposed to a web-based strategy:
shipping free multimedia CDs together with the printed editions.
This may be successful while considering some segments of the audience target - after all, there are people out there not using the internet. However, obviously this is a short term tactic that cannot be sustainable as more and more people switch their news getting habits on to the internet. Besides, the standard CDs and DVDs are becoming more and more obsolete and will, sooner rather than later, be replaced by new technologies like HD-DVDs just like CDs replaced videotapes about 10 years ago.
As such, soon the newspapers in case might as well realize that using the internet might be a better off proposition for themselves if they figure it out. Until then, shipping CDs as a business strategy is just fine and simply pretend that the internet exists only for sending/receiving emails for now.
This may be successful while considering some segments of the audience target - after all, there are people out there not using the internet. However, obviously this is a short term tactic that cannot be sustainable as more and more people switch their news getting habits on to the internet. Besides, the standard CDs and DVDs are becoming more and more obsolete and will, sooner rather than later, be replaced by new technologies like HD-DVDs just like CDs replaced videotapes about 10 years ago.
As such, soon the newspapers in case might as well realize that using the internet might be a better off proposition for themselves if they figure it out. Until then, shipping CDs as a business strategy is just fine and simply pretend that the internet exists only for sending/receiving emails for now.
Interesting review of the
way AOL makes money further underlining it's recent strategy shift towards
an entirely advertising based business strategy, considering various models
- Ted's listing 10.
So I'm back from the States and noticed that it's not possible to listen to
a US-based radio station
unless I am located there (or have an American IP). Right, a very good way
of keeping your audience loyal.
Google grabs a $900m deal in a 4 year time span with Fox with MySpace the
main attraction and involving that Google is the exclusive ad-provider on
Fox's properties (excluding Fox Sports - a MSN deal since 2004). So for
about 20 mil per month Google gets to be the sole search engine and
text-based ad revenue grabber for some of the hottest internet properties
nowadays (not only MySpace, but also Rotten Tomatoes or IGN sites). Om deconstructs the
deal.
Some
say that this is inconceivable, if only for the cost of the downloads on the
mobile. And it's not only that, having an iPod is fashion already, giving
status to people.
On the other hand, the one-device-only-in-your-pocket choice seems to be very appealing to a lot of people, and it is hard not to imagine Steve Jobs looking at the existing mobile phones and not trying to figure out something like an iPhone (though lots of rumours and fake have appeared in the last two years regarding a potential Apple phone device).
Until Stevie gives us something tangible Nokia specifically positions the N90 model as a mp3 player.
On the other hand, the one-device-only-in-your-pocket choice seems to be very appealing to a lot of people, and it is hard not to imagine Steve Jobs looking at the existing mobile phones and not trying to figure out something like an iPhone (though lots of rumours and fake have appeared in the last two years regarding a potential Apple phone device).
Until Stevie gives us something tangible Nokia specifically positions the N90 model as a mp3 player.
...with Ryan Air and AirPortugal, possible starting
with this fall.
So you have a hi-tech product/company that has a vision of 3 years,
competitive edge, ya know, all
that jazz, here's your
chance to sit in for some glow and cash.
Last year's edition (2006 is the second one) had three finalists:
- Alfama (Portugal) - discovery and development of anti-inflammatory drugs
- AsicAhead* (Belgium) - develops and sells reconfigurable radio IC solutions for the mobile handheld market
- Clear2Pay(Belgium) - worldwide payment technology solutions supplier
The winner was Alfama.
[via]
*strangely enough asicahead.com directs to a Romanian URL that is owned by the Romanian mobile operator Mobifon purchased by Vodafone
Last year's edition (2006 is the second one) had three finalists:
- Alfama (Portugal) - discovery and development of anti-inflammatory drugs
- AsicAhead* (Belgium) - develops and sells reconfigurable radio IC solutions for the mobile handheld market
- Clear2Pay(Belgium) - worldwide payment technology solutions supplier
The winner was Alfama.
[via]
*strangely enough asicahead.com directs to a Romanian URL that is owned by the Romanian mobile operator Mobifon purchased by Vodafone
Nice overview of
industries that were relying on business models speculating market
inefficiencies. Inefficiencies that nowadays are corrected due to the
internet power. That means plenty of entrepreneurial opportunities as music,
advertising and phone industries are having quite a big inertia when facing
change, while the services are always a territory with interesting avenues.
Now, what I have been discussing over and over in the last weeks is the question of what is more interesting:
A. to come up with something truly innovative in a segment/industry,
B. being the 2nd or 3rd mover by slightly changing the model (think today's Netscape versus Digg) or
C. replicating an existing succesfully model in a medium-sized virgin market?
A sounds the most intellectually challenging but executing in the C case is not as easy as it would seem.
Now, what I have been discussing over and over in the last weeks is the question of what is more interesting:
A. to come up with something truly innovative in a segment/industry,
B. being the 2nd or 3rd mover by slightly changing the model (think today's Netscape versus Digg) or
C. replicating an existing succesfully model in a medium-sized virgin market?
A sounds the most intellectually challenging but executing in the C case is not as easy as it would seem.
Looks
like on top of the monthly $1 million bill for hosting fees YouTube now
will pay for having the Norwegian search engine for supporting its search
capabilities.
Fast is a public company that offers enterprise search tools ("search is the heart of the web 2.0" they say) and which apparently focused its attention in powering with search capabilities some notable clients from the media industry. (i.e NYT, FT) and from finance industry (i.e. Reuters, Citigroup, UBS, etc)
At the beginning of the year the company was in the middle of some local media attacks (see the comments after the post and a FAST representative's response). Nevertheless, looking at this year's Q2 financial reports, the company shows revenues of $38.5m (+60% yoy), EBITDA of $9.6m and profits of about $6m. They currently employ 619 people.
Here's the official press release from FAST, on Youtube there's nothing announcing the deal, as of yet.
Fast is a public company that offers enterprise search tools ("search is the heart of the web 2.0" they say) and which apparently focused its attention in powering with search capabilities some notable clients from the media industry. (i.e NYT, FT) and from finance industry (i.e. Reuters, Citigroup, UBS, etc)
At the beginning of the year the company was in the middle of some local media attacks (see the comments after the post and a FAST representative's response). Nevertheless, looking at this year's Q2 financial reports, the company shows revenues of $38.5m (+60% yoy), EBITDA of $9.6m and profits of about $6m. They currently employ 619 people.
Here's the official press release from FAST, on Youtube there's nothing announcing the deal, as of yet.
websites like youtube and the like - I also like the ending phrase
stating that Murdoch paid for Myspace rather considering the audience than a
certain business model.
An idea that would also fly in Bucharest I believe - here's an
overview of four bike schemes from UK, Denmark, France and
Germany.
Savory NY restaurant
guide - filed under nyc links
Real estate is still one of the main investment atractions in Romania. It
seems that things are similar in Argentina.
