Groupon in the Crucible

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (September 24th 2011)

Crucible over high flame

I can’t help but wonder What the hell is going on with Groupon?

Recently in THE TRUTH ABOUT GROUPON: Yes, It Can Make Money—No, It Won't Be Easy Henry Blodget suggested that the novelty for “daily deals” was wearing off. So goes Groupon’s business model with it. It was bold (but inevitably dumb) to turn down a big buyout offer from Google, as it directed itself for a future IPO. Apparently this is up in the air. 

Now the Chicago Tribune reports that its COO is going back to Google. CEO Andrew Mason says this is won’t have an impact on operations. Ah, excuse me, Mr. Mason, how can the departure of the top operations executive not have an impact on operations? 

Also, what’s the deal regarding your revenues reporting? Yes, it’s up dramatically in the previous quarter, compared to the same quarter last year. But this report suggests that some finagling of the numbers has occurred, no? 

What’s more, you fire off a “fiesty internal memo” to employees, which surely you should’ve known would find its way to the public. 

These are mistakes that can be corrected, departures that can be replaced, and consumer confidence that can be regained. But as much as Groupon has been a darling, this is a brutal business that can turn a 180-degree on those it loves.

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (September 18th 2011)

There is crowd wisdom. Scores of people have a much greater ability to figure things out and solve problems, than any one person or one company. More specifically, it’s among the millions of nondescript people who are in the trenches of day-to-day life, who come up with the neatest, most useful things, at a small fraction of the cost and time that big companies spend.

How about what the poor in India came up with, for example? Or a clever thing by a working class engineer in the US? How about the fun challenge that Volkswagen got the masses to ‘play’?

This morning I found this article by Amelia Naidoo - UAE students' aerial robot tops world entries -about a bunch of happy dudes, proudly displaying their winning but “weird-looking contraption with several propellers”:

Don’t know today, but can learn tomorrow

These deservedly proud boys hail from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani at the Dubai campus, and they entered the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) last month in the US. They had to create a flying machine that could think for itself and do its task, as human navigation was prohibited. In order to do this, they of course had to think carefully as well. I was impressed by the fact that they had to grasp cool subjects like “artificial intelligence, control systems, electronics and image processing.”

Some people face a tough problem, and give up, because they don’t know how to solve it. Maybe they’ve never seen such a problem before, and they’re quickly stumped, frustrated or discouraged. And give up. In fact, with just a bit of effort, they can learn something about how to actually solve that problem.

This is my personal rule: Whatever I don’t know or can’t do now, I can learn. With a wealth of information literally at my fingertips, I can get the knowledge or skill I need to figure it out and handle that situation. (In fact, as a secret between you and me [hehe], I’m working on a theoretical and practical framework that will solve absolutely any problem we face. So stay tuned, but hush in the meantime [wink].)

See something cool, don’t you

Maybe like Volkswagen, Intel knows when to search the masses for ideas and innovation, in this case university students. I was impressed that these winning lads got sponsorship from this technology giant. Intel apparently funded their software and hardware, and even wanted to buy one of their prototypes. How cool is that! They were clearly on to something.

For the greater good (yay), for the greater bad (sigh)

IARC set up this competition as a military mission. So I imagined an intelligent but compact flying machine in the future that could disarm enemy arsenal, free hostages, and do reconnaissance. Its being unmanned meant that it could enter restricted airspace and lives did not have to be risked. For the bad, however, I imagined high tech thieves conducting their due diligence and methodically picking off a precious piece of jewelry, an invaluable artifact, or a classified document. Clearly there is a place in the world for both kinds of people.

Flying machines were the fantasy through the 19th century. Then, in the 20th century, they became not only a reality but also ‘old hat.’ Fly me to Singapore (boring). Take me to the moon (yawn). Helicopter me amidst air traffic (been there, done that). Ah, but what everyday people are doing is slip out of their tedium, think differently about things, and solve problems that matter to them. It might be high tech, or it might be low tech.

Any tech is cool, as far as I’m concerned, if it works and serves its purpose!

Smart Phones, Smarter Ads

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (September 15th 2011)

I love the huge and growing possibilities of mobile technology and devices. Never mind the sophisticated tablet or smartphone, and the millions of sales in this space. Never mind, too, the tried-and-true, stay-at-home PC or the on-the-go but cumbersome laptop. In terms of sheer penetration around the world, all of these are easily trounced by the mobile phone.

Here are some figures to feast on:

Montenegro and Hong Kong are not big countries, but on average every person there has two mobile phones, at 193% and 188%, respectively. In countries like Saudi Arabia (170%), Russia (152%) and Lithuania (148%), there are three mobiles phones for every two people. The three most populated countries have lower percentages, but they’re close to a mobile per person: China (67%), India (72%), and the US (96%).

So as an advertiser, you must be salivating at the sprawling banquet in front of you.

Now there are probably many of us who don’t appreciate getting slammed with ads on our mobile. Some advertisers are, unfortunately, unethical in that they’ve retrieved our personal information without permission. Some may also be inept, for instance, by spamming with you stuff that bear little match to your interests or needs.

To wit, here’s an example of such an advertiser who’s aggressively pursued me on my mobile (texts), via e-mail, and with Facebook invites. Tons of spam from these guys!

So the girl is cute. Nice way to attract people to come to your club. Lots of vibrant pink. Even the name Candy Shop brings back childhood memories, when all the sweets we could ever want were right in front of our little noses and grabby fingers.

The problem? I don’t go clubbing.

I admit to having posted my mobile number and e-mail address on Facebook. Also, I don’t remember, but I must’ve accepted their friend request. But the word “club” isn’t even mentioned in my profile. I’d immediately delete all their messages, but when their spam persisted, I unfriended them. Still the spam and the invites continue, from all sorts of night clubs at that (sigh).

Oh, I stopped getting too angry or aggravated with these guys, when I realized that their ad algorithms, procedures or technology was clearly not up to par. I don’t begrudge them for promoting their business. Whether or not we’re entrepreneurs, we all have to make a living and that means selling something to customers, either directly or indirectly. But it’s their ineptitude in targeting and their aggressiveness in pursuing countless people like myself that are quite problematic.

Enter: InMobi. 

I hadn’t heard about these guys, until this evening, when I read that Japanese telecom and media company Softbank was poised to pump $200 million into InMobi to grow in an even bigger way. Big cash in a still struggling global economy. But here’s the reach of the world’s largest mobile ad network:

More importantly, InMobi boasts of sophisticated technology that helps advertisers focus their efforts, based on demographics, country, or category. My readers will have to correct me, if I’m wrong, but I imagine their technology approaches the fine ad targeting abilities of Google and Facebook. Then with video and music, or simply text and display, their banner ads serve big clients like Intel, General Motors, and Reebok.

Not to be left out of the banquet, Google of course is already in it, especially with its acquisition of AdMob.

While the smartphone is a growing market, with its operating systems, internet access, and multiple ‘app’ capabilities, the vast majority of mobile phones that people use aren’t, well, so smart. Their phones harken back to a simpler life, when the little devices in their pockets were mostly for calling each other and taking photos of whatever. It was also for texting each other.

What does all this mean for many of us?

Despite its wide reach of 340 million customers, InMobi connects with only 5% of the world population. That’s a whopping 95% it hasn’t reached, yet. Of course not everyone in the world has a mobile phone, but probably many more own one than a PC or a TV. So there is quite a market out there that is underserved by advertisers. If you’re a large enterprise, as clearly many of InMobi’s clients are, you’d have perfect reason to be excited about your opportunities, especially as mobile technology keeps on its pace of evolution.

However, the irony is this:  To reach this vast market with simple mobiles, sophisticated ad technology probably isn’t necessary. 

Rather, it’s about smarter, cost-effective targeting. Social media sites like Facebook and A Small World collates members particular interests, so this section is a place to begin and review periodically. This kind of targeting can be done fairly low-tech, that is, manually, if you’re a small or medium enterprise. But done this way, you’d know that I like sports and the arts. Done this way, I may actually read and respond to your text messages.

It’s also about choice. Once we opt-in to get ad messages, you need to give us an opt-out mechanism. It’s easy enough for much of the e-mails I get, that is, one or two clicks if I decide to unsubscribe. It was also easy to block spam on my old Samsung mobile, but I can’t seem to find out how to do so with my BlackBerry.

Finally, it’s about respect and responsibility. Just because many of us on Facebook, for example, post our mobile numbers and e-mail addresses, it doesn’t give advertisers license to freely message us. Once you’ve gone through proper channels to review our interests and needs, then it’s a simple matter of asking us permission to send such messages. And respecting us, when we ask you to stop.

In the meantime, unfortunately, text messages are still a steady rain of products I don’t care about and events I’ll never attend. 

That’s dumb advertising, isn’t it.

In Memory of Steve Jobs, Poem by Ron Villejo

Tim Cook, Crucible

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (October 7th 2011)

Yesterday morning, in Dubai, I awoke at about 5:15. Before getting out of bed, though, I checked Facebook on my BlackBerry. There it was, Steve Jobs had died. For the next two hours, I was planted at my desk, mesmerized by the glow of the laptop, hardly noticing that morning light had come.

After a short blog in memory of Mr. Jobs, I posted this on my Facebook.

All eyes on this man, of course.

To wit, Dan Lyons from Powerwall reports Cook as having said to the staffers, “I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change.”

After the debacle and tragedy of the Bush administration, President Obama entered with the venerable ‘house’ strictly in disarray, as was the yard outside and much of the neighborhood and beyond. Cook’s situation is obviously very different and nowhere near the scope of the US and its international affairs. Nevertheless, he’s faced with a super-tough succession challenge.

Two things are common among us, in the face of loss, anxiety and grief:  One is continuation. 

 We want the people around us and the situation we’ve come to love to stay. To keep going.  We could still have that hope when Jobs resigned in late August. That as Chairman of the Board, he’d still have an active role in the operations, strategy and innovation at Apple.

Two is replacement. Now that Jobs is dead, we want someone exactly like him to take over and thus continue on as him.

From a strictly practical yet humanistic point of view, neither continuation nor replacement is possible. No one lives forever. No situation is permanent. What’s more, we’re all unique. To think that anyone could ever replace Jobs (or any of us, for that matter) is wishful thinking. It’s foolish but understandable. Just part of what makes us quintessentially human.

Cook is exactly in this understandable but foolish situation. Excuse me, come again, I don’t think I heard you. You said, “Apple is not going to change,” right?  It makes sense to say this to console his grieving rank-and-file. But you just don’t lose an icon of Jobs’ standing and impact, and say nothing is going to change.

As I argued in another blog, the real issue now for Apple as a business and for Mr. Cook as the top dog is of evolution, and evolution is about change.

Remember the inspiring lessons of the Think Different campaign? Apple is about thinking differently about things. Jobs would not have followed himself and been same-old, same-old. He would’ve changed his own paradigms, and come up with a truckload of new ones.

So the super-tough challenge for Cook is to carry the company on his shoulders, NOT to continue as it is or to try to replace Jobs, BUT to evolve it into a wholly new Apple over this decade.

Does he have what it takes to do this? Apologies, but I don’t think so, or else we would’ve seen something different by now.

No "Steve Jobs Ill" Photo

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (October 7th 2011)

We all know that social media is dominated by images, and advertisers and promoters clamor to exploit this to draw customers. We also know that the internet is a dizzying network of links, much like the nerves in our brain. But this article will have neither images nor links.

The First Post asks, "Was it right to publish the ‘Steve Jobs ill’ photo?"  The photo in question is of a more sickeningly gaunt Jobs, apparently being helped to stand up by another man. It garnered both sympathy and outrage. There was even talk that it was faked, with one site detailing exactly where it was photo-shopped. No matter. In either case, it was in poor taste to publish it.

Jobs was exceedingly private about his personal life, never mind the inner workings of Apple. So it’s hard to imagine that he would’ve given anyone permission to take this photo, let alone publish it. In the book The Long Tail Chris Anderson talks about how the internet has made regular people capable of producing, distributing, and accessing a wide range of content. True. But whether journalists, photographers, bloggers, or whatever, we must carry ourselves responsibly on the internet.

Thankfully, aside from the couple of sites I found, there was no publication of this photo. Among the many posts on Facebook about Jobs, for example, I saw that photo only once.

Lay Your Sleep Head

My article from an old Media & Tech blog (October 6th 2011)

(image credit)

May Steve Jobs now be cradled forever.

This is from the first stanza of a poem by WH Auden, sometimes titled "Lullaby," which I have loved since I first read it.

Thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

Ron Villejo, PhD