Online startups are interesting micro-economies. Most of the systems are based on several variables like number of users, conversion rate and others, directly depending on the type of business systems they do (or do not) develop.
I have been studying the whole concept and focused on some of the variables that are usually left out.
The assumptions
The [...]
The website as we know it, at least as a concept, is dying. It has been for the last 5-8 years and now its death is even closer. Let me explain.
A site on the web
If you think about the term it is composed of two words that explain what the concept represents pretty good. A place on the web. It was the perfect way to introduce the concept to the general public. People were already accustomed with the concept of “site”: be it a store, library, house – each of these were built upon a “site”. People would access this site using a address or, in the internet world, a URL.
As with physical address users would visit a certain (or more) sites, based upon their previous experience, friends recommendations and more. In the economic world brands got used to “kindly invite” (or not so kindly as some interactive advertising techniques show us) to the homepage and the user would browse around, consume content and hopefully come back.
The shift in user behavior
That was the case back in the day when the websites count reached numbers of, let’s say, tens or even hundreds of millions of pages. A lot you say. “A more recent study, which used Web searches in 75 different languages to sample the Web, determined that there were over 11.5 billion Web pages in the publicly indexable Web as of the end of January 2005″ states Wikipedia. And that, my friends, was 2005.
What is a user to do in such an environment. Browse? To hard. Visit the same websites? Extremely limiting.
The first big online brand to address this issue was Yahoo that started as a recommendation website founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo. For a short period they had a boom and people would relate to what Yahoo! as a helpful resource in the online jungle.
Things got bigger and bigger. The internet expanded and users needed even more. They needed answers, they needed something to guide them to what they were looking for. Thus Google started a long and successful journey that led to a multi-billion enterprise. Google helped by pinpointing exactly the website on was interested in. And people were thrilled.
Has the internet stopped there? Hell, no.
More and more information hit the interwebs. What was once a resource for mainly text and image documents had turned into the worlds biggest collection of data. Be it photos, documents, books, videos – the world started storing its information in the big reservoir that we call Internet.
So many options, so little time. What to choose?
Going back to basics
People relate to their closest human peers in times of doubt. Not even the mighty Google could replace a kind word or the warm advice a friend is able to offer.
But our friends were already there. People gathered in online social networks and interacted. They would recommend the things they liked asked for advice when needed.
It started with forums, continued with blogs, hit new heights in human interaction with social networks such as social networks and now we have Twitter, the global phenomenon that let people tell one another what are they doing (be it watching TV or fighting a dictatorial regime). Under 140 chars.
Follow the users
The fact is no one ever needed websites. They needed “stuff”. They were on the look for data, a nice gift to buy grandma on her 76th anniversary, a fun video to watch, the coolest hit to download. Never for a simple website.
Being focused on the industry of interactive advertising I will focus on brands and maybe offer good advice. Brands need to realize that their users and potential consumers don’t actually need another website. They need what they want. They want fast answers, they want brands to “follow” or “befriend” them, not the other way around. They have the options and they have the power to select.
Brands are not what they used to be. At this moment the vast majority of Brands are still the big Advertisers that still expect to spend money on big media advertisements and have consumers lining up to their store or website (notice I use the terms pretty close to one another. They are.).
This is not the way. Huge opportunities await those that will follow their users, build presence around their users and still maintain brand awareness and a coherent communication plan.
A short example and some advices
I reached Zynga Poker on Facebook. Played around a little bit on the Facebook app they’ve built. Downloaded the application on my iPhone and bought virtual upgrades with real money. Until today, I have never visited their website. Zynga is a startup that has revenues in the orders of tens of millions of dollars (and growing).
I will leave you with some advices I consider helpful:
Think outside the website.
Be present in the social media.
Stop thinking advertising. Think relationships.
Build mobile applications.
Study your market. Close. Closer.
Develop intelligent applications.
Let people play with your brand.
Cut the TV ad budget. Cut the radio and print ad budget. Move online.
First of all I think always is a very long term . So long that we should take into account the possibility of television disappearing. Even video as a concept. Secondly I believe watching TV passively is not the peak of human civilization. We would at least socialize television viewing.
Therefore I have to disagree with points 1,2 and 3.
I have to agree to points 4 and five and would add:
TV channels, in the way we see them now, will start disappearing in the next 15-20 years, which would be the moment the “dotcom boomers” (those born after 1990, well accustomed with internet media consumption) will reach consumer maturity and will dictate a new marketing and media approach.
We will see the rise of small and medium media producers (teams of 1-5 people), flexible, niched and adding up to a Long Tail of media that will rise up to challenge media conglomerates. News Corp. – watch out!
Mobile television will be more and more popular. Internet connected mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous. So will streamed mobile television.
We will see the rise of television syndication. Passive viewing will not be that passive. We will be able to mix many televisions, ignore shows we hate, watch shows our friends recommend, mix and mash up as we want.
User Generated Television. This is not a new thing but the Internet adds traction to it. Think Candid Camera Home videos meets YouTube.
…Is that there is no conventional advertising. There is only “now advertising”. If thirty years ago “now advertising” meant TV, “now advertising” is now Internet.
No matter how much Advertising Gurus would try to understand online and try to explain the phenomenon with buzzwords they kept telling clients for years, they can’t. Because they are not open to new. They’re stuck in brand awareness, Cannes festivals, expensive budget video shoots, GRP’s, TRP’s and others.
People – get over it. Admit you know nothing and start learning. Online, interactive, digital – call it whatever – is still an infant. You can still get a chance to learn its language.
The experiment gathers status updates from Twitter users, mixing them in a 347430 verses (so far) piece of art.
“I soon found that people were very excited to be part of this and consider it some form of artistic expression of the collective consciousness of Twitter.” declared Andrei for the Telegraph.
This is not the first time Andrei experimented with social media interaction. His Quizoo game was a hit when launched.
If you find the idea interesting, don’t forget to digg it.
Without hesitation I would categorize this book as one of those mind-boggling, enlightining concepts. At least for me. The impact of the highly improbable.
We humans are used to see the world through patterns and information filters that enable us to comprehend a little bit of the reality arround us. Enough to survive. Self sufficient beings as we are, we like to minimize the importance of the unknown and the impact it has on us.
We, the self-sufficient simians
We are taught to think the circle is one of those perfect geometrical figure and disconsider nature for its inability to reproduce it. We overstate our intelligence and forget we might be unable to understand the perfect compostition of nature’s complicated geometrical figures.
We are taught we can predict and, my God, do we fail. The 1973 Oil Crisis was not only unpredicted but experts stated, in 1972, that 1973 was going to be a steady year in the cost of oil. They even thought it may decrease. It grew ten times. The world was in shock.
This was improbable. It had a huge impact. In hindsight, it was rationalized as expected and even predicted. Just like any other Black Swan event.
So…what’s with the birds?
The term comes from the fact that in the 17th century people assumed that all swans are white. The opposite was impossible or, at most, improbable. The 18th century brought the discovery of the Black Swan species in Australia. The impossible became possible and retrospectively, probable.
Who wrote this?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, as improbable as it might seem, deals with prediction. He held a job applying financial mathematics that were used to predict stock market evolution in a couple of Wall Street companies.
The book itself describes some of his experiences in the field, some of the interesting people he used to know and autobiographical stories about his path to the Black Swan theory.
Webstock, the local Internet UnConference has now a brand new look, thanks to … us.
It’s fun, funky fresh and friendly. Just like it was supposed to be.
Users can view news and info on the event, interact, subscribe as participants to Webstock Awards ‘09 and during the event view the live stream on Webstock TV.
As a boy I remember I was dreaming, while watching Star Trek (I am a huge trekkie), of one day to “boldly go where no man has gone before”. I still have this dream.
Several months ago I’ve met some people that share the same dream. ARCA Space. These people dream of putting a man in space but first they will land a rover on the moon, as part of the Google X Prize.
The Road to the Moon
They have already developed the cheapest space technology that may some day make the dream of space flight available to anyone. They have already developed the first eco-friendly rocket engine. They are the favourite team in the Google X Prize.
The Problem
But now, they need founding.
So we thought of offering everyone a different kind of trip to the moon. We launched ARCALunar.com where you can send your personal information to the moon. Through a time capsule you can send photos, text, audio files and even videos. Send them to the moon and to future generations.
Your financial efforts will keep the ARCA Space program live and who knows – maybe some day make space flight as cheap as a low cost plane flight.
Although you know my opinion on statistic samples, a recent study on LinkShare stated that ads ran on social networks “are unlikely to be effective as direct marketing tools”.
Rich media banners seemed to be the most intrusive ones, “with almost two thirds (62%) viewing this tactic as an interference when browsing the web”.
59% stated promotions offered online are useful and , joy – joy, only 18% thought ads to be an intereference in their online browsing. My opinion is they’ve ignored them .
Social media communication VS Advertising
It’s interesting for me to find advertisiers thinking of social media marketing as running ads on social networks.
I feel this media as a new way of brand – consumer interaction. I can’t stress enough the “interaction” part. It’s just not about shouting. It’s about interacting, being there, talking, chatting, joining the masses, not ordering them to consume.
. So long that we should take into account the possibility of television disappearing. Even video as a concept. Secondly I believe watching TV passively is not the peak of human civilization. We would at least socialize television viewing.
