Is Facebook the portal to the Internet?

Many publishers rely on traffic from Facebook (sometimes generating as much as 90% of overall traffic). One challenge is measuring the importance of Facebook as a channel. A current Wall Street Journal article highlights that, contrary to conventional wisdom, information isn't perfect at all when it comes to measuring leads. Publishers have to rely on their own experience to judge what works best. I think this is interesting, especially in the context that we discussed in class that Facebook's algorithm makes it more and more difficult to create viral hits organically.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-facebook-driving-less-traffic-to-publishers-sites-1449041402?mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_NeedToKnow

Creative ways to assess creditworthiness - a tool for marketers?

According to a Wall Street Journal report, smartphone usage offers such rich data that it can even serve to assess the creditworthiness of a customer. Even obscure data, like how often a user charges his battery helps to project the creditworthiness. 

See the full story below:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/lending-startups-look-at-borrowers-phone-usage-to-assess-creditworthiness-1448933308

One could ask, if marketers are already tapping the full potential of more subtle data available to them (e.g. number of times that an app is used, or the lengths of any given session) to create custom marketing solutions. What do you think?

Black Friday Shopping - The Internet Wins!

It was reported that online was for the first time generating more sales than traditional offline channels during the annual black friday sale. This is yet another sign for how fast shopper habits are changing. More and more people appreciate the convenience of online shopping, many deals were also already available ahead of time. I think this is a very interesting development - what is the purpose of cyber monday if the deals are already happening online a couple of days earlier?

Where did you do your black friday shopping?

WSJ for more details: http://www.wsj.com/articles/online-shopping-tops-stores-on-black-friday-weekend-1448832594?mod=LS1

Spotify addresses two sets of customers

Spotify is competing with Apple Music, Pandora, etc. for the attention of music listeners. They are also stepping up their game when it comes to making the platform more attractive for artists, because a music platform without content would be boring. Spotify just launched a beta version of an analytics tool, which allows artists to get deeper insights on their listeners.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/spotify-to-offer-artists-data-on-fans-1447768800

A disaster like the Taylor Swift retreat has to be avoided to stay relevant. Dual audiences are becoming more and more relevant. Uber for example sees their primary customer group are drivers, not riders. Another sign that power is shifting towards suppliers of content?

Is the tech bubble bursting?

Many people believe that high growth technology companies are overvalued. Just by looking at today's paper one can see signs that would support that hypothesis. Facebook Inc.'s Marc Andreessen is feathering his nest by selling nearly half his stake. Additionally, Fidelity marks down the value of it's Snapchat stake by 25%.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-director-sells-nearly-half-his-stake-1447168207

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fidelity-marks-down-value-of-snapchat-stake-by-25-1447187088

Coincidence or trend? What do you think?

Facbebook tests "M" - How to market within digital assistants?

Apple (Siri), Google (various) and Microsoft (Cortana) already have voice recognition services. Facebook now tests an assistant which can be launched from it's messenger app. The rationale is clear - all tech giants want to interact as much as possible with the customer, ideally becoming the single contact point for any task.
How can other businesses differentiate themselves from those services (e.g. Shazam is integrated into Siri and thereby seen as an apple service).
How can marketers position their messages within those tools? Providers of digital assistants have an incentive to present the most relevant result for any query. How do you end up on the very top of the list? (Worse than only hitting page 1 on google search results).

Read the full article in today's wsj.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ask-m-for-help-facebook-tests-new-digital-assistant-1447045202

The tablet market is not dead!

Some pundits predict that the future of computing are traditional laptop/desktop pcs and smartphones. The tablet category is supposedly doomed because of declining sales. These predictions might be wrong. One sign against the trend is that apple unveiled a super big and super powerful new iPad pro, with an external keyboard and pen.
The WSJ calls this new category ultra tablets (like Microsofts surface pro).

A consequence of this might be that marketers can increasingly rely on apps that run on a bigger screen and are accessible for consumers for the better part of the day.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-tablets-are-the-future-of-computing-1442203331?mod=LS1

Technology tears down industry barriers - the age of convergence.

Apple is breaking with a tradition by partnering with the luxury fashion company Hermes for the Apple watch. This is the first time that the company did this.
It is another signal, that companies aren't one thing anymore. Virtually every industry is converging around technology. Newspapers, television, sports, communication, productivity - everything is done with devices. The Apple Watch is the first believable attempt of making wearables happen without being geeky and now the company is partnering with someone who has a lot more experience in that space.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-breaks-traditions-with-first-foray-into-luxury-1441944061

The golden age of television - on any device?

Many people call these times the golden age of television. Apple renewed it's commitment to that market with an overhauled AppleTV a couple of days ago. Other players like Amazon or Spotify are also flooding the market with content.
Verizon now announced another service called go90, which is a mobile video service targeted at millennials. It sounds like a mix of Youtube, cable channel and Netflix. With so many players entering the space who are battling for consumers limited attention it seems like that prices will inevitably continue to go down.

See the article that I mentioned for further reference.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/verizons-go90-video-service-targets-millennials-1441906523

Signs of a maturing phone market?

Apple is expected to unveil a new device today and a disappointment might be coming. Not because of the features, but because Apple might be it's own biggest competitor. Apple set the bar so high with the spectacular iPhone 6 sales, that it will be hard to outperform that.
As the WSJ puts it - Google might not be Apples biggest competitor.
In the light of yesterdays discussion, I do think that Apple sees Google as a fierce competitor. The maps attempt is a sign of that and also that they may introduce ad-blocking is clearly targeted at Google.

In general, this could be an additional sign that the market for devices is maturing. Already now, only Samsung and Apple are really earning money with device sales.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-real-rival-isnt-google-1441642255