Tagged: Business Model RSS

  • Gaurav Mishra 3:45 am on January 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Business Model, GlobalPost, , ProPublica, , ,   

    The (Not So) Bleak Future of The New York Times 

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    Emily Nussbaum at the New York Magazine profiles the Interactive Newsroom Technologies team at NYTimes.com –

    A group of developers-slash-journalists, or journalists-slash-developers, who work on long-term, medium-term, short-term journalism. … (a team that cuts) across all the desks, providing a corrective to the maddening old system, in which each innovation required months for permissions and design… (coders elevated) into full-fledged members of the Times—deputized to collaborate with reporters and editors, not merely to serve their needs.

    – and wonders if such innovations can save NYT.

    In another interesting piece, Michael Hirschorn at The Atlantic Magazine imagines a post-print NYT –

    Forced to make a Web-based strategy profitable, a reconstructed Web site could start mixing original reportage with Times-endorsed reporting from other outlets with straight-up aggregation. The remaining reporters—now reporters-cum-bloggers, in many cases—could use their considerable savvy to mix their own reporting with that of others, giving us a more integrative, real-time view of the world unencumbered by the inefficiencies of the traditional journalistic form. Times readers might actually end up getting more exposure than they currently do to reporting resources scattered around the globe, and to areas and issues that are difficult to cover in a general-interest publication.

    – even as he speculates that NYT may go bankrupt as early as May 2009.

    Rick Edmonds at Poynter disagrees –

    I don’t begrudge Hirschorn his meditation on a future in which print’s role is minimal or disappears. I don’t happen to think, as he does, that Huffington Post, with its mix of unpaid opinion blogs, news lifted from elsewhere and hype, is the model.

    How about getting your political news from Politico, your sports news from ESPN.com, your showbiz news from EW.com, your international news from an assortment of options, and your local news from somewhere to be determined? In short, the news would come from professionally reported and edited sites with standards — just not the single unifying standard of The New York Times or other quality publications.

    It all may come to pass within a decade or sooner. Not, however, at The New York Times in May.

    I think that all three of them have got a part of the future right. We will have a profitable (or non-profit) online-only version of NYT sooner than we expect it, and it will depend heavily on interactive features, blogger-journalists offering expert opinion, and editor-curators aggregating the best of third party sources like ProPublica (national politics), GlobalPost (international news) and TechCrunch (technology news), along with user generated content.

    Even though it may not have a paper version for long, the future of NYT may not be so bleak after all.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 12:31 am on January 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Business Model, David Carr, , iTunes, Music Indudtry, ,   

    An iTunes for News? Duh! 

    David Carr at The New York Times wants an iTunes for news –

    When iTunes began, the music industry was being decimated by file sharing. By coming up with an easy user interface and obtaining the cooperation of a broad swath of music companies, Mr. Jobs helped pull the business off the brink.

    Those of us who are in the newspaper business could not be blamed for hoping that someone like him comes along and ruins our business as well by pulling the same trick: convincing the millions of interested readers who get their news every day free on newspapers sites that it’s time to pay up.

    Jeff Jarvis points out that a news story or an opinion is not unique, unlike a song — it’s not that you can’t get it somewhere else and so you have to buy the original.

    Mathew Ingram points out that people want to listen to the same song over and over again, but that same isn’t true even for the best news story.

    Scott Rosenberg says that the news business already knows how to make money online — through advertising — it’s just that it doesn’t know how to make as much money as it made in print.

    I guess the newspaper industry will have to get used to it, just like the music industry is becoming used to making less money than before.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 11:56 am on December 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Business Model, , , , Intention to Purchase, Live Web, Mediashift, Richard Jalichandra, , Simon Owens, Static Web, ,   

    Why Live Search is Difficult to Monetize With Keyword Based Search Advertising 

    Simon Owens at Mediashift has a great post on the rivalry between the blog search engines by Google and Technorati, but it was this paragraph about the difference between static search and live search that caught my attention –

    But perhaps trumping all issues is the blog search engine’s still-ongoing quest for monetization. People use blog search engines much differently than they use regular ones; rarely will you find someone using Technorati to search for an electrician or where to rent an apartment. It’s because of this fact that keyword search advertising — an enormous moneymaker for Google’s main engine — has been unsuccessful on Technorati.

    “Blog search is very different,” (Technorati CEO Richard) Jalichandra said. “Blog search users are wanting to find content; they’re not necessarily looking for a plumber… With blog search people are really interested in looking for conversations or participating in conversations and it’s a very different reason for searching.”

    Twitter CEO Evan Williams has also talked about the difference between live search and static search to explain why an AdWord like search advertising model won’t work for Twitter.

    Here’s an interesting thought exercise then.

    Static web search often involves an intention to purchase. Therefore, static web search is easy to monetize with keyword based search advertising. Google dominates the static web search and its business model is basically built on AdWords.

    We are moving from the static web to the live web. Live web search often involves an intention to participate in conversations instead of an intention to purchase. Therefore live web search is difficult to monetize with keyword based search advertising.

    So the question is: What happens to search advertising on the live web (and, its corollary, what happens to Google on the live web?)

     

    • Buff Bowen 2:41 pm on December 23, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I think Live search and Static search connect where they are of value to each other. Blogging within a static library of related content is a great way to monetize Live search, and benefit from organic growth potential of Static search.

      Buff Bowen
      Boomja.com

    • Gaurav Mishra 10:14 pm on January 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Buff: I’m afraid I didn’t understand that comment. Can you elaborate on it?

    • Buff Bowen 11:42 pm on January 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Gaurav,

      I meant to write “Live search and Static search “should” connect where they are of value to each other.”

      The Live Web/Search will always remain isolated unless it is integrated within an online library, directory or information-rich resource of some sort. All information bits, for that matter, may remain isolated and disconnected if not purposely connected and organized.

      We have been structuring online information since 1995 and are in a pre-launch stage of enabling people to build massive libraries at http://www.Boomja.com. Boomja’s ability to create an unlimited number of static categorizations of closely related information are a phenomenal way to drive continuous traffic to blogs and the Live web within them, as well as a great way for blogs to drive reciprocal traffic to a supporting library.

      Boomja enables and encourages comments and discussions on any bit of Static content, increasing the use and value of all included information.

    • Gaurav Mishra 1:51 am on January 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Buff: Thank you fr the explanation. Boomja sounds interesting. I’ll be spending some time to figure out how it works.

  • Gaurav Mishra 4:36 pm on December 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Business Model, , , , , , Woot   

    Twitter has Produced $1 Million in Revenue for Dell + More Speculation on Twitter’s Business Model 

    Even though Twitter founder Evan Williams seems to be in no hurry to monetize Twitter, there is no dearth of naysayers like Valleywag and Business World saying that he can’t, or well-wishers telling him how to.

    Ad Age spoke to a bunch of Twitter watchers and came up with a list of ten ways to monetize Twitter, including enabling mobile payments, selling Twitter branded merchandise and selling out to Microsoft, Google or Facebook! It seems to me that AdAge had to stretch really hard to reach the magic number of ten.

    Rafe Needleman at CNet similarly suggests eleven potential business models for Twitter.

    However, Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson, who has invested in Twitter, seems to be in no hurry either –

    To me its really simple. You can’t monetize web services very well until you have an audience of scale. Jason Calacanis suggests that 10mm monthly uniques is where you have scale. I think it can be less in some cases (highly targeted services) and more in some cases (social nets). But every ounce of time, energy, money, and brainpower you spend on thinking about how to monetize will take you away from the goal of getting to scale. Because if you don’t get to scale, you don’t have a business anyway. (Fred Wilson)

    “It’s like the stupidest question in the world: How’s Twitter going to make money?,” said Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson, another investor. “It’s like ‘How was Google going to make money?’

    “Eventually Google was going to make money and they figured out how to do it and they figured out a great business, and I think the same thing is true with Twitter.” (Fred Wilson in Wired)

    VentureBeat summarizes the spate of speculations well –

    Everyone loves talking about Twitter’s business model — because there isn’t one yet, and they’ll keep talking about it until there is one. But it’s becoming more clear that while a business model is of course important, Twitter is perhaps the perfect example of a company that can afford to take its time in finding the one that is perfect for it. That’s because other businesses are building so much on top of the micro-messaging service and using it for their own services. If worst came to worst, and Twitter had to sell, there would probably be a bidding war of a magnitude that would make it seem like this country wasn’t in the midst of a recession.

    Evan Williams has often suggested that Twitter may consider search ads, but would like to focus on revenue streams that are organic to Twitter’s model of opting in to live content, like sponsored tweets enabling discovery of branded Twitter accounts, and charging for additional services for such commercial accounts, like verification and analytics (see his interviews at Conversational Marketing Summit and Web 2.0 Summit). He has also promised a firm announcement about Twitter’s business model in early 2009.

    In the meantime, Twitter has become an important business tool. Many business, including Dell, Red Cross, Jet Blue, and Zippo are using Twitter for customer outreach, sales and customer support. According to Internet News, Twitter has produced $1 million in revenue for Dell over the past year and a half through sale alerts (also see CNet) –

    People who sign up to follow Dell on Twitter receive messages when discounted products are available the company’s Home Outlet Store. They can click over to purchase the product or forward the information to others.

    Dell started experimenting with Twitter in March of 2007. There are now 65 Twitter groups on Dell.com, with 2,475 followers for the Dell Home Outlet Store.

    Dell had earlier estimated its Twitter revenue at $50000 in a Wired story.

    In fact, it seems that Twitter may be at the verge of breaking through into the business mainstream, even as the confusion about actual Twitter usage continues. It’s a proposition that has prompted Shel Israel to write Twitterville, a business book on Twitter. Shel Israel has earlier written Naked Conversations, a book on business blogging, with Robert Scoble.

    It seems that Twitter’s strategy of first focusing on its functionality and infrastructure, before worrying about its business model is beginning to pay off.

    Update 12/16: Michael Arrington reports that Twitter is looking for a product manager to bring in revenues.

    Update 12/17: StockTwits triggers off the debate on whether third party applications built on top of Twitter are easier to monetize than Twitter itself –

    The problem is that when looking at the value stack, it seems that the stuff people might be willing to pay for resides largely on top, and not inside, of Twitter. In short, I believe Twitter needs a robust and well-resourced business development function to cut deals with leading applications and to get into the flow of the revenue. (Roger Ehrenberg)

    Also see: Andrew Finkle, Mathew Ingram, Sarah Milstein, Allen Stern, Dave Winer, Jason Calacanis, Peldi Guilizzoni, WATBlog.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 4:06 pm on December 16, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Business Model, , Current TV, , , Joel Hyatt, Ken Auletta, , , US 2008 Election, Web 2.0 Summit   

    Current TV CEO Joel Hyatt and Twitter CEO Evan Williams Discuss How Media is Evolving at Web 2.0 Summit 

    Here’s a video of Current TV CEO Joel Hyatt and Twitter CEO Evan Williams discussing how media is evolving with Ken Auletta from The New Yorker at the Web 2.0 Summit –

    Here are some of the key sound bytes from the panel –

    - Twitter hasn’t yet focused on monetizing its service, but there is both commercial and personal value in Twitter and, at the right time, it won’t be hard to monetize Twitter.

    - Brands like Woot and Dell are creating commercial channels to reach out to their consumers and users are opting in to these channels. All the commercial activity on Twitter is opt in, charging brands for enterprise channels will be more valuable that charging brands for advertising.

    - Many major news organizations are now referring to Twitter as a source in their news reports and journalists are using Twitter to find stories and sources.

    - Twitter and Current TV tied up to bring interactive coverage of the 2008 US presidential debates at election.twitter.com. Then, they tied up with Digg to cover the 2008 US elections in a way that involved the audience in a way never seen before.

    - Current TV was the first player to marry the power of television with the interactivity of user generated content, even before video sharing websites like YouTube became popular.

    - Almost 40% of the stories on Current TV are user generated and such citizen journalism has broadened the scope of the type of stories that are being covered. Not only that, user generated ads are more popular on Current TV than ads created by ad agencies.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 9:36 pm on December 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Business Model, , , , , John Batelle, ,   

    Video: John Batelle and Evan Williams Talk About Twitter’s Business Model 

    Federated media founder John Batelle interviewd Twitter co-founder Evan Williams at the Conversational Marketing Summit (via J D Lasica) –

     

    Here are the top sound bytes from the interview –

    - The unique visitors at http://www.twitter.com are much higher than the 2.2 million reported by Quantcast and the 3 million reported by Compete. Only 50% of the updates are created on http://www.twitter.com

    - Marketers love Twitter because it is unique in combining one-to-many with real-time. Many use it for marketing; Dell sold $500,000 worth of products through Twitter last year. Many, like Comcast, use it for customer service, often through Twitter Search.

    - Many think of Twitter as a social network, but the one-way nature of relationship is an important distinction.  

    - Twitter will consider charging brands to use additional functionalities, like verification of branded Twitter accounts.

    - http://www.election.twitter.com was the first experiment in Twitter positioning themselves as a media company, by curating conversations around an event or topic.

    - Twitter sees its application partners as a growth opportunity as of now, but may consider working with them if their entire business model is based on the Twitterstream.

    - Twitter may consider search ads, but would like to focus on revenue streams that are organic to Twitter’s model of opting in to live content, like sponsored tweets enabling discovery of branded Twitter accounts.

    - Twitter has not integrated Twitter Search on the homepage because of concerns about infrastructure (remember the fail whale?) So far, traffic from Twitter Search has mostly come from application partners.

    - Twitter’s biggest priority right now is to tweak the user interface to enable easier navigation and discovey to increase its reach beyond the early adopters.

    - Twitter doesn’t have firm demographic data, but based on anecdotal evidence, the average Twitter user is older than the average Facebook user and less than half the users are in the United States.

    - Twitter is working with news organizations to use it as a tool for breaking news, especially in fast developing crisis situations. Twitter trends is one way to highlight such dvelopments. 

    - Twitter and Facebook status are technically similar, but the actual use tends to be different, as  Twitter is primarily one-way while Facebook is two-way. 

    - Twitter doesn’t like the idea of a freemium model because it restricts its overall value and diverts too many engineering resources from focusing on growth. 

    - The biggest challenge for marketers is how to go beyond the campaign mentality and engage in scaled conversational marketing with millions of followers.

     

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