The online field has been one of the mainstays since I started writing online in 2003. My act of writing online was partly to understand online as a medium.
Online has changed in nature. It was first a destination and plane of travel. Early netizens saw it as virgin frontier territory, rather like the early American pioneers viewed the open vistas of the western United States. Or later travellers moving west into the newly developing cities and towns from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
America might now be fenced in and the land claimed, but there was a new boundless electronic frontier out there. As the frontier grew more people dialled up to log into it. Then there was the metaphor of web surfing. Surfing the internet as a phrase was popularised by computer programmer Mark McCahill. He saw it as a clear analogue to ‘channel surfing’ changing from station to station on a television set because nothing grabs your attention.
Web surfing tapped into the line of travel and 1990s cool. Surfing like all extreme sport at the time was cool. And the internet grabbed your attention.
Broadband access, wi-fi and mobile data changed the nature of things. It altered what was consumed and where it was consumed. The sitting room TV was connected to the internet to receive content from download and streaming services. Online radio, podcasts and playlists supplanted the transistor radio in the kitchen.
Multi-screening became a thing, tweeting along real time opinions to reality TV and live current affairs programmes. Online became a wrapper that at its worst envelopes us in a media miasma of shrill voices, vacuous content and disinformation.
CML Earth – the sudden disappearance of a social network
Yesterday Novartis Oncology sent out an email to the subscribers of a small global community called CMLEarth.
Dear Subscriber,
Since the launch of CML Earth in December 2008, the mission of the social network has been to provide members of the CML community with a place to give and receive support, make valuable connections and share personal experiences, and connect with members for further support.
At this time, Novartis Oncology, sponsor of CML Earth, has decided to close the social network. The platform is not optimized for current technologies (such as mobile devices and tablets), which compromises the user experience and lessens the value of the platform.
Thank you for your participation, dedication, and support of the CML community.
Sincerely, Your CML Earth Team
CML Earth was designed to support a small global community of patients, healthcare professionals and patient families – all of whom were dealing with a rare form of leukaemia (Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia). What’s interesting about this is:
How sudden the shutdown seems to have come
Where was a migration strategy? There was a community that had value to each other, if not to Novartis, what about having a Facebook group that they could self-administer?
That there wasn’t an opportunity to hand the community over to the members, nor a migration strategy articulated to say form a Facebook group, there are a number of existing groups on there
It also is a classic example of the transitory nature of platforms. What seemed hip just a few years ago is now a technology that is no longer supported (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight – not that Silverlight was ever hip outside Redmond, WA).
It was even odder, that this decision was not shared on the home page of CML Earth, here is a screen shot that I took this evening.
Privacy As A Competitive Vector | AVC – Fred Wilson on the market for privacy. The difference that I don’t think Wilson addresses is the demand for privacy and the price people put on it. I think that there is a market, but the business model is critical as I don’t think consumers put a high price on privacy yet
ZTE to cut smartphone models by half | SCMP – cut half of its smartphone models available in the domestic market this year, while expecting total shipments in the world’s biggest smartphone market to remain stable, a company official said yesterday (paywall) – potentially smart move to reduce number of SKUs
‘Fuerdai’ groomed to become China’s next business leaders｜WantChinaTimes.com – damned if they do, damned if they don’t kind of scenario looking at the criticism online. Fuerdai or ‘rich second generation’ are the children of China’s nouveau riche. Their parents were called ‘tuhao’ and were known for their over the top consumption. This trait has been passed on to many of the fuerdai
Business
End of ‘Golden Age’ for Multinationals in China? – of course, growth is lower, but what we could see is different European businesses doing better as the focus moves towards domestic consumption in the Chinese economy
B52 receives first tech upgrade since 1961: Now with color screens and wireless networking – this is a credit to the engineers that designed and manufactured to the B52. The longevity there was something dieselpunkish about mixed analogue and digital controls that appeals to me though. The B52 was originally designed as a nuclear bomber, but has only been used in action with conventional weapons. The B52 served in Vietnam, the first Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq. The B52 may serve for close on to a century in the US Air Force
Kakao And Daum To Merge, Creating One Of South Korea’s Largest Internet Companies | TechCrunch – this is a really big deal in South Korea. Daum is big in areas such as mobile search and social networks, KakaoTalk has gained ubiquity amongst Korean phone users and made a profitable business from games and stickers. I wonder what Tencent’s share will be in the combined company?
U.S. Companies Hacked by Chinese Didn’t Tell Investors – Bloomberg – which is pretty shocking. They would have at least been at a disadvantage trading with Chinese state-owned companies and the disclosures may have impacted goodwill as partners would be concerned about what information was disclosed. I would have thought all of this would have been meaningful to the share price?
Microsoft’s golden era in China coming to an end | WantChinaTimes – Microsoft will not only lose government purchase orders, but will also lose the central enterprise purchases and OEM market–the three major revenue sources for Microsoft in China – according to a Chinese newspaper, if true then this clobbers Microsoft in China
Web of no web
Watch Skype translate a video conversation in real time | Quartz – you know that time when you first saw the internet and it was a thing of wonder, rather than where you go to work? That’s how I felt when I saw this, mixed up with feeling dirty realising that Skype is actually Microsoft
Am I Crazy For Wanting A 4-Inch iPhone 6? | BusinessInsider – good points in terms of usability. It does beg the question do consumers actually want a phone anymore? I suspect some of them do, but handset manufacturers tend to disagree if one where to believe the big screen trend
Yesterday evening I read that two Korean companies were merging: Kakao Corp. and Daum Corp to form Daum Kakao. Kakao Corp. are the makers of KakaoTalk a mobile messaging application with more sophisticated functions than Whatsapp. It has over 90% penetration of the Korean smartphone market and is more popular than Facebook. The application has also built a user base outside Korea in other South East Asian countries. On the back of the popularity of KakaoTalk, Kakao Corp. has build a successful business selling enterprise accounts to businesses like Uniqlo and virtual goods including stickers and in-game purchases.
Daum is an internet company which would be more analogous to Yahoo! and Facebook. It has a mix of services including search, email, social networking, news, online comics. Daum is number two in the Korean marketplace behind Naver – the dominant search engine for Korea.
Ok, but why care about Daum Kakao, when it’s half way around the world, between media companies that aren’t European household names?
This merger is happening because the online world is changing. Mobile is now the driving force, this has been happening faster in Korea because it has the highest penetration of LTE and smartphone adoption in the world. They are living in the future.
Daum already has mobile versions of it’s traditional products, for example above is a screen shot of Daum mobile search as the call-to-action of a TV advertisement. But mobile is no longer an adjunct to online, it is at the core; Daum needs to inject more mobile DNA into its business and Kakao Corp. needs more money to help it further expand internationally.
What can brands learn from this?
Brands need to change the way they think about mobile marketing by putting it at the centre rather than as another channel. At Racepoint we have experience of working on online campaigns for a range of clients including from and IBM to Reebok. We also have team experience looking at everything from strategy and content, to complex app and web development. Our team spends a large amount of time exploring new technologies and considering how they can provide a better customer journey for our clients. Here are our five recommendations on how you can become a more mobile-centric business, rather than as an adjunct.
Consider how mobile integrates into your customer experience. Have trade show attendance planned for next year or opening a new store? Talk to me now about how you can use Beacon and Pointcast localised connection technologies to improve the call-to-action
Designing a website? I can explain why you should take a mobile-first approach rather than a responsive design. By assuming a lowest common denominator on the browsing device it means that all users end up with a fast, lean web experience. It has been well-known for the past 20 years; that the longer a page takes to load, the more likely the audience is to surf on to a competitor site
Thinking about advertising? I can tell you what formats work better, which platforms work and ensuring that providing a mobile optimised call-to-action is as important as a mobile ad itself
Mobile social interactions – I can optimise the content and any clickable call-to-action for mobile users that will improve conversion rates
Consider what kind of content would work best on a mobile device. Concise, informative, useful and relevant – consider context. In the case of a real-world business this could be location, it could also be weather. Racepoint can look at your business and think about not only what content to write, but what APIs (application programme interface) could be used to pull in context and provide a customised experience that will improve conversion rates
