Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for September, 2010

In Kara Swisher’s (http://kara.allthingsd.com) excellent Boomtown blog today she offered an ‘exclusive’ that Skype and Facebook are close to a deal. Kara started out with ‘You didn’t think Facebook would integrate with Google (GOOG) Voice, did you?’ I love that! But what immediately struck me was – why didn’t I think of that?

Per Kara, according to her sources close to the situation, Facebook and Skype are poised to announce a significant and wide-ranging partnership that will include integration of SMS, voice chat and Facebook Connect.

According to the post, Facebook’s goal, (according to sources) is to mesh communications and community more tightly together and add more tools to allow users to do so. And FB was not going to create an internet telephone service anyway.

With more than 120 million people using Skype at least once a month and 560 million registered users, the 500 million Facebook users would now be able to use it more seamlessly within Skype.

That will include allowing users to SMS and call Facebook friends from Skype, which will now deploy Facebook Connect. It all will be available in Skype’s newest version, 5.0, which emerges from beta in a few weeks. This is a big win for the Luxembourg-based Skype, who is supposedly readying a public offering.
Skype, while dominating the online calling arena is being proactive and realizes that it needs to be present where users are now moving, such as FB. And for Facebook, this is also helpful to its international push, making it more appealing globally since Skype is much more popular outside the U.S. It would make sense for both Skype and FB to integrate the partnership into their popular mobile apps too.

I use Skype more and more often now, particularly since we are actively pursuing business in China, Asia and beyond. It’s really a very useful tool and only getting better. I was at the OMMA conference yesterday in New York and David Kenny spoke about HD video chat being the next BIG thing. Skype is poised and ready to jump on that opportunity.

I was a bit concerned about Oovoo.com moving in on Skype’s territory but Oovoo.com has done little to make any real headway. This likely partnership between Skype and FB puts Skype far out in front and is a game changer as far as I am concerned.

But I keep asking myself – why didn’t I think of that?

As a voracious consumer of information both online and offline I am finding it increasingly difficult to keep track of all the articles and stories that interest me. In fact it gets so bad sometimes that I find out halfway through an article that it is a different iteration of the same article with a different slant or skin.

To add to all that, even with all that I read I feel like I am missing things that I wished I would have read. Maybe there is now a solution. I can now create my own personal e-newspaper, using the Instapaper platform. I guess the name is okay, but the idea seems like it has a lot of merit.

In an article in the New York Times last week http://nyti.ms/dyVlV5 it was noted the founder Marco Arment created Instapaper for himself but his friends began asking about gaining access to his service. Mr. Arment had not apparently quit his day job (CTO at Tumblr) until just recently. He has not yet gone to outside financing either preferring to self-fund. At least for the present time.

Instapaper has an iPhone app as well as an I-Pad app. To date there are no plans for an Android or BlackBerry application although Mr. Arment has discussed an HTML 5 web versions that would cover Android devices. To put it simply, Instapaper takes online article content and saves it on your bookmarked toolbar.

There is competition in this ‘space’. Readitlater and InstaFetch (for Android devices) have been around for a while but the early buzz is that Instapaper is a preferable platform. As a BlackBerry user I am not feeling the love here at all.

If Instapaper gains in popularity Google Chrome to Phone has something to lose here. So I am wondering WWGD? We know Google can easily crush such an unfunded and under-resourced entrepreneur like a bug.

But I think there’s something so cool about one guy coming up with a concept, developing it and trying to make it work for everyone else as well as himself.

Will he make it? Would you buy the app?

In thinking about today’s post I was determined to not post about what’s dominating my thoughts lately – China. I was having a little trouble and then I went to get my hair cut. I really like the woman who both owns the shop and cuts my hair.

Liz and I often talk about her business (she’s been running it for close to two years now after taking it over from the guy who used to cut my hair). I ask questions, she asks questions and the conversations are interesting and the time (only about a half hour) passes quickly. I look forward not only to having my hair cut but catching up with her.

Today when I walked in things were a bit different than what is customarily the case. Usually Liz is waiting for me (I am always on time) and like clockwork 30 minutes later I am walking out the door next appointment in hand. But today there were lots of people milling about – hairdressers (no barbers here folks) finishing up a number of customer ‘do’s’, and Liz had someone in the chair. She looked at me and almost apologetically rolled her eyes as she could tell I am not accustomed to waiting and probably don’t like to wait (she’s right).

But no big deal as it a rarity that I have to wait for any time at all. However as I sat and watched what was going on I observed several things.

1) More hairdressers than I can ever remember working – looks like Liz’s business is growing (no hair jokes here for all you bald readers out there)
2) There was not a computer in sight. They have no website, no Facebook page, no blog, no advertising of any kind. Business is word of mouth and people driving by who might walk in.
3) I know that she has an answering machine to take calls when there’s nobody in the shop or when the hairdressers are too busy cutting hair.

There was money changing hands and a hubbub around the desk as it seemed at least 3 people were finished at the same time and there is one central area (pictured above) where appointments are made and kept by hand in an old-fashioned appointment book. I watched with wonder as there was no point of sale system, no automated appointment system and everything was being done the way it had always been done and the way salons operated five, ten, even fifty years ago.

I asked Liz how she kept track of everything. ‘It’s not like I don’t think about it all the time and I know we are getting busier but I just haven’t done anything about it yet’. She even agreed that she was running the place like it was 1999 (my words not hers).

But here’s the thing. The customers were happy. They had that one to one personal connection with their individual hairdresser. That connection with customers is really what makes a place like Liz & Company special and why they keep coming back for more. Look, if the client gets a lousy haircut, or bad coloring job they are going to complain and either get it fixed to their satisfaction or look somewhere else. Operator competency is a given when it comes to getting your hair cut or done.

The difference maker is the relationship you have with the person who cuts your hair. If you don’t like that person I guarantee you will find someone else even if you are ok with the way they cut your hair.
Liz knows she can get a POS (point of sale) system that will track appointments, revenue and offer a dashboard so she can better evaluate the performance of her business. She can also hire an administrative person (she does not have one now) to manage the process. But will she?

So the question is – should you run your business like 1999 if your customers are happy with the way things are?

I’ve posted 6 blogs about China and this is the last one for a while. I am planning my next visit and what needs to be done in order for our agency to succeed in helping Chinese companies market into the United States.

The numbers in China are almost hard to fathom. China has over 500 million that are internet users, over 300 million watch online video, nearly 800 million (http://bit.ly/bPPMqs) mobile internet users. While the CPM model has been dying a slow death here in the United States (and I say thankfully), it is alive and very well in China. Why? Because marketing in China does not need to advance past the CPM model right now.

This is not to suggest that there are not analytics companies in China or that they lack the ability to do deep drill downs of customer data and customer segmentation. It’s simply that there is no need for detailed analytics when the numbers coming into the funnel as the numbers continue to rise as fast as they have in this and in recent years.

When you consider the fact that there are half a billion Chinese on the internet that means that there are 900 million Chinese who are not yet on the web. Granted many of those are located in remote areas and are thoroughly unconcerned about internet access as having electricity and hot water is a much greater concern. But that will change. And as the world flattens (apologies to Tom Friedman) they too will be potentially connected on the web if not on mobile.

Professor Scott Galloway (founder Red Envelope) says that you can get just about everything else wrong but if you get China right you can still be a huge winner. The numbers certainly don’t lie.

It’s the wild, wild, west in China right now with ecommerce and interactive land grabbing reminiscent of the Oklahoma land rush of the 1880’s. An article in today’s New York Times (http://nyti.ms/cMXtUy) reported that a Dr. Oz. type show is being readied for broadcast in China. Also, that there are more than 850 million Chinese who watch television. To have a #1 show in China would result in 80 million viewers. Yet it’s only 1% of the viewing audience. 80 million viewers – that’s close to Super Bowl numbers!

It’s an exciting time and one that offers great opportunities for growth for companies that are ready to step and be counted. After all like I said, in China it’s all about the numbers.

Does this impress you as much as it impresses me?

Before I left for China I was told a number of different things about the levels of security – my ability to use Facebook (or lack thereof), ability to visit websites like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and YouTube.

As you can see from the photo, security is not always quite as tight as I would have expected. The photo was of a security guard in a building in Shanghai out of the center city.

In the hotels where I stayed there was full access to all sites I tried to access. Facebook, YouTube, NY Times and Wall Street Journal were all readily accessible. However when I was traveling from Shanghai to Beijing we went out of the commuter airport in Hongqiao (Hong-zhio) and when I used the ‘free’ internet access all of those sites were blocked. So internet access is somewhat dependant on geography – or so it appears.

The Chinese government does monitor internet traffic and individual behavior to some degree but I don’t believe at an individual level unless that individual has distinguished him or herself as a person of interest as the saying goes.

Nor did I see the cameras in the trees as I did while in Singapore ten years ago. That was really creepy. The Singaporean authorities had video cameras everywhere and our friends in Singapore noted that ‘they know when you come and they know when you go’. I guess it’s just that much more difficult when you are trying to somehow monitor the comings and goings of 1,400,000,000 people.

There were police cars and sirens and policemen around but I felt a much greater police presence while I was in Hanoi earlier this year. And in no way did I find the police presence off-putting or intimidating in China.

I’m not attempting to represent that the Chinese government does not shut down things it does not like. It does and keeps things as quiet as it can but today’s media outlets have much greater reach and penetration than ever before and it seems that eventually things do come to light – even unpleasant things that do not depict the Chinese government in a positive way.

But all in all the two major cities I visited seemed like – major cities – the same as anywhere I’ve visited around the world. I always felt safe and never had the feeling I was being ‘watched’.

What are your thoughts on China – have you been there yourself? If so what did you think? If not do you want to visit it more than before?