Thanks, I guess?
#advertising
Tumblr just put up this site warning people about the dangers of PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Read up, kids. This is important.
Your morning homework: Read this letter from AOL, eBay, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo!, & Zynga. Then visit Tumblr’s page and take action.
Transformative Change That Begins Online
Union Square Venture’s Albert Wenger posed a fascinating question recently on his blog: “What is your favorite example of something that is already happening on the Internet today, that is a clear indication of the massive transformation to come?”
It may not be as new to us as other trends, but to my mind one of the most astonishing recent uses of the internet has been social media’s role in the Arab Spring uprisings. As many people have pointed out (or punned), the revolution may not be televised, but it will be tweeted.
I think there are two transformative trends at work here. First, it is part of a broad institutional shift: from secrecy to transparency, from suppression to freedom. We see this in marketing, as companies are forced to deal with customers, accusations, and complaints out in the open. (This post on Forbes has some great insight about what transparency means for businesses.) And it’s truly staggering to think that social media can help effect real political change, as it did in Egypt. The power of social media to give a voice to those who have had little opportunity to be heard will only grow—and continue to spread.
The second shift relates to the spread of technology to places like Africa. As internet access becomes more widely available worldwide (especially thanks to mobile), new populations are joining the online community in large numbers. This means that new internet users have access to new opportunities, and the online dialogue gets richer.. (And, of course, there are new advertising opportunities.) I think the growing online presence of populations in Africa, Asia, South America, and elsewhere amplifies the real-world shift to a more inclusive global politics—a trend perhaps best represented by President Obama. It will be fascinating—and essential—to watch.
Mobile App Use Tops Web Browsing
Yes, it’s happened, according to a new report by Flurry, posted on Read Write Web. Money quote: “In less than 3 years, mobile apps, and primarily those on iPhone and Android, now surpass both desktop and mobile Web use.”
The Flurry report does count games as apps—and given that almost half of app usage is attributed to games, that fact definitely shapes the data. It’s a fascinating look at how people interact with the web/app (or web vs. app) world.
Some of the other interesting findings from this study:
- The growth in mobile app usage, clocking in at a 91% increase year-over-year, has come primarily from more sessions per user per day, as opposed to growth in average session lengths
- Facebook use accounts for 14 of the 74 minutes per day on the Internet (cross-platform)
- In terms of mobile application popularity, games (47%) and social networking (32%) led the pack, rating much higher than news (9%) and entertainment (7%)
This shift continues to amaze me—mostly because of how sharply it differentiates from my own experience. I consider myself relatively tech-savvy and I’m certainly plugged into the online space. But my web use is primarily still through a browser on my laptop. Is it because I spend so much time on my laptop? I’m on it all day at work, and I also invariably have it on at home, while watching TV or doing other things. Other times I’m usually with people or zoning out with some music. Is it because I’m still on a Blackberry?
Either way, it’s probably another indication that it’s well past time to make the switch to a nice new iPhone or Android! I’ve got to know what’s all these kids are doing, after all. (That means I can deduct the expense, right?)
Continuations: NY Times Pay Fence and Kickstarter
Yesterday, the New York Times announced its long awaited pay fence. Today, we announced our investment in Kickstarter. These two represent different models for sustaining efforts that are socially important but are having their previous financial models disrupted by the Internet:…
Barack Obama
Obama to Propose Extending Partial Freeze on Domestic Spending - NYTimes.com
(via fred-wilson)
Continuations: Google Buying Groupon is a Flawed Idea
Really interesting perspective from Albert here. The businesses are fundamentally different. It feels to me like part of Google’s struggle, as it continues to fight off Facebook (and Apple), to figure out how it can tap into Web 2.0—to be more human, less engineer. I’m not trying to conflate people-on-the-ground with running a social network, but to my mind there’s a common thread running through these things. Local, human, social, curated: not part of Google’s (automated) DNA.
On one hand I can understand Google’s aggressive interest in Groupon. Groupon appears to be one of the few companies that has cracked the code on making money from local businesses. Groupon’s revenues are rumored to be around $50 million per month, which is impressive. But there are at least two fundamental compatibility problems.
First, Groupon is a feet on the street business employing over 3,000 people globally. So at $600 million in annual revenues, that amounts to only $200,000 of annual revenue per employee. Google on the other hand does about $30B in revenues with around 25,000 employees, which works out to $1.2 million in annual revenue per employee and that’s including all the employees that work in Google businesses that produce no revenues at all. In other words, Google is a technology company and Groupon is a people company. Business Insider made this point when the acquisition rumor first surfaced.
Second, Groupon’s business model does not seem super defensible. People who want deals will generally go look for them. And businesses that want to offer deals will do so on any channel that will let them. This suggests that the price for connecting a deal searching consumer with a deal offering business should get driven down quickly and that ultimately this will be a performance based market. Deal aggregation or search (e.g., Yipit) would seem to be a better model and one that fits more naturally with Google’s DNA.
So if I were on Groupon’s board, I would definitely vote for hitting this bid. Conversely if I were on Google’s board, I would seriously question why management wants to do this. This seems to be a deal driven by the wrong reasons, which makes me even more nervous about who is at the wheel at Google.
