Mark Kolier’s Blog

Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

One of the benefits to my studying Mandarin is recognizing some Chinese words and phrases. This week RenRen http://www.RenRen.com – a Chinese company raised $ 740 million in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. RenRen in Chinese means ‘everyone’.

With 450 million internet users in China and Facebook access disallowed by the PRC, buying RenRen stock is a bet that despite Mark Zuckerberg’s continuing efforts, Facebook is not likely to make any headway in China in the near future. Since I don’t see too many people outside of China using the RenRen platform, RenRen isn’t for ‘everyone’.

The IPO was successful in that it was offered around $ 14/share and closed today at just under $ 17/share. Not a home run but something to consider as a buy and hold since its potential user-base of 450 million people and counting is a number to reckon with.

The problem with RenRen right now is that in 2010 the company lost money. That is in stark comparison to Facebook’s $ 2 billion annual income projection. However it does not take a huge leap of faith to believe that RenRen will be profitable shortly and quite possibly in a big way.

Alternative social networks to Facebook pop up all over the place but companies trying to make a dent in Facebook’s lead have been largely unsuccessful. RenRen will by default be successful unless the Chinese government allows Facebook access for Chinese citizens. Something I don’t suspect will happen in the near or even far future.

I think it’s sad that Chinese people will continue to not have the opportunity to interact on the world’s social network – Facebook. So while RenRen serves a purpose of offering Chinese people a social network interface, we all suffer due to the limitations of access.

I am guessing non-Chinese people will not be in a hurry to set up their own RenRen account. But maybe I am wrong?

Yesterday Amazon.com introduced the concept of a ‘Music Locker’. As a longtime advocate of Amazon I have been following the development of this release and was excited about its practical nature and customer-centric approach. Amazon is trying (unlike its rivals) to offer cloud access to music independent of the device being used. The music industry is not happy about this at all and is already jumping up and down screaming foul.

From an article in Tuesday’s New York Times – http://nyti.ms/f2lEbJ …The dream of these companies (like Amazon, Google, and Apple), along with many start-ups, is for people to be able to listen to their music from any computer or phone. But they have all run into the same problem: music labels and publishers would prefer that listeners buy a new copy of a song everywhere they want to listen to it.”
I don’t know about you but the idea that I should have to pay for a new copy of the song on any device that I own does not work for me – or anyone else I suspect. Are they serious? Yes there are problems with the technology’s inability to recognize whether or not a song has been purchased ‘legally’ or not. But the solution is not to throw the burden back on the purchaser to then buy it individually for whatever device on which he or she wants to listen.
One of my early careers was a musician – composer/artist. I did not have the discipline to slog day-to-day through the difficult music business. However I do recognize the effort and artistry that goes into creating music (and art or prose of any kind for that matter). Yet having people pay for individual device access to a song (or article) does not serve the artist or author – it serves the label or publisher.
There has to be a better way. I don’t believe it is incumbent upon me to come up with that better way but I will give it some thought. In the meantime I am very interested in what you think. Could you see yourself paying for individual access to music on your IPod or MP3 player, I-pad or tablet, computer, or in your automobile? Or would it just aggravate you as much as it does me?

A business associate of mine recently moved to an interesting new startup in Silicon Valley called Inkling. The more I learn about this iPad application the more I like it – and like Adam Lashinsky’s fine March 23rd article in Fortune Magazine http://bit.ly/gG3Yhb – it makes me wish I could go back to college and use ridiculously cool tools like this to help me better appreciate things and learn more.

From Mr. Lashinky’s article: “Inkling, a San Francisco startup, recently added textbook giants McGraw-Hill (MHP) and Pearson (PSO) to its roster of investors, which includes Sequoia Capital as well as Felicis Ventures, Kapor Capital and Sherpalo Ventures.”

As a parent having one current college student already and another to enroll this fall, I am particularly sensitive to the cost of college textbooks. They were expensive when I went to college and are even more so now. Having college textbooks on an iPad (or any kind of tablet for that matter) makes all the sense in the world. Think about the many advantages of having all your college textbooks on a tablet. In fact I expect that high schools will follow suit shortly and have all of their textbooks available for tablet download –this is happening already in some places but is far from being adopted in any significant manner.

1) Less weight to haul around campus. Not only for college kids but how about that 94 lb. high school freshman whose back is being thrown out of alignment due to hauling around an Earth Science textbook, Algebra, English, Social Studies…you get the idea. Medical school students should particularly cheer the Inkling iPad application as they have to feel carrying around bricks disguised as books is way beyond getting old.

2) It’s greener by far ¬– And I will bet that you have a few old school textbooks lying around somewhere in your house or apartment – I know I have at least one that I’ve not opened since graduating and it will eventually be thrown out.

3) Web links don’t work using conventionally printed textbooks – need I say more?

4) Student’s natural curiosity can be more fully explored using a tablet – if you are using a conventionally printed textbook and want to investigate something more deeply you either have to pick up another book or volume (unlikely to say the least) or go to the web. With a tablet you are already on the web.

5) You can pay for what you need – the current model allows students to purchase chapters for $3. I suspect that model is still being tested but the ability to buy incrementally is a good idea by spreading out the cost of purchasing a textbook over a longer period of time. And we all know there are many teachers that don’t always instruct from every chapter in a textbook.

Right now Inkling is only available as an app for the iPad since the company was started by CEO Matt MacInnis who worked at Apple before founding Inkling. I expect an Android app is in the works and when RIM releases its PlayBook tablet in April one would be developed for that as well in time.
Here’s a link to a CNN Money video on the Inkling Application featuring Mr. MacInnis from last year – http://bit.ly/bcA192.

It is often joked that education is wasted on the young. Even if that’s not true I am really jealous and wish I could go back to college and have my iPad with this application in my backpack.

Wouldn’t you?

Now that Motorola has its Xoom on the market, and RIM is ready to take orders for its new PlayBook tablet in April, Apple’s iPad will have to stand up to some competition after having the market all to itself for just over a year.

As more and more magazines utilize digital tablets as a method of distribution much has been made of the reader experience in reading magazines on tablets. Despite the killer technology few publications have truly embraced the tablet medium for all it is worth by using video links, photo links and in so doing providing a much more rich experience for readers.

I don’t yet have a tablet (but I am thinking about it and getting the iPad is most likely) but have seen a few of the magazine applications on tablets and often they look like magazines on a digital flat screen. Nice but nothing earth shattering.

One advertising medium that many people will not be sad to see go is magazine insert cards (there are two kinds 1) the bind-in which is either stapled into the book or glued to the spine, or 2) the blow-in which really is blown into the magazine with air so that it floats loosely inside). The cards have been a part of magazines for as long as I can remember- that’s more than forty years and I bet it’s longer than that. In fact I tried to find out when magazine insert cards were first put into newsstand and subscriber publications and had some difficulty finding any information I could be confident was correct.

Our company has produced more than a billion insert cards (both blow-in and bind-in but almost no smelly ones for fragrance companies) over the years. Clients like to use them because – they work. Those of us in the business know that the magazine (or book as we like to call it) is ‘broken’ which is to say it opens where the cards are inserted and stops the reader even if momentarily. A corresponding advertisement with the bind in offers the reader and opportunity to respond in a number of ways. By phone, over the web by using a landing page or personal URL (PURL), or even to call a phone number listed on the card. Different phone numbers are frequently used for different publications so that we can accurately track response by individual publications.

But that cannot happen in a digital publication. Of course ‘interruptive media’ like a bind-in card can be done as a pop-up in a digital magazine but the effect is decidedly less impactful. As more and more people adopt tablets to read publications what will be lost to marketers is an opportunity to stop the reader and allow them the chance to reply when they want – now, later or never. The plus side is that people will no longer have to complain about ‘annoying bind in cards’ that are seen as a waste of paper (true if you are not interested in what is being offered). But I bet people will complain about something else. They always find something.

Have you ever responded to blow-in or bind-in cards in magazines?

Last week I posted that I thought Facebook was heading toward being the new telephone. Social media is now the ‘party line’ platform where people are congregating both personally and professionally. In the last few weeks I have received many LinkedIn invitations which makes me think that the business side of social networking is becoming a mainstream channel and is still maturing.

What I am finding is that in both my personal and business life the telephone is being used less frequently than ever. I don’t know about you, but contacting people by telephone (in business) has become increasingly difficult. In fact I know a number of people that intentionally leave their voice mailbox full so they don’t get any additional messages. This is particularly true if these people have any buying responsibility as they are often assaulted with constant phone calls by salespeople.

On some occasions I send a business contact an SMS message on their mobile to try to get their attention. This is because sending them emails appears to get lost in a sea of hundreds of emails they (and I) receive daily. Sending SMS messages is not always possible as I don’t always have a mobile phone number for a business contact. And I am noticing that response to SMS messages is declining rapidly as well.

I am also LinkedIn with a large number of my business contacts. But I find sending a LinkedIn message can be no more effective in generating a reply than sending an email. And while I am not connected on Facebook to any substantial number of my business contacts, (I had the idea of trying to keep business and personal contacts separate but it’s a losing battle), when I send people messages on Facebook I am surprised at the rapidity in receiving a reply.

So what I have learned is, if I cannot get you to reply to a phone call, email, or SMS message because you are too busy, I can send you a Facebook message and it appears I have the best chance of receiving a timely reply. What does this mean? To me it means that accepted entry into one’s Facebook circle warrants a reply over just about any other channel. The trust factor compels people to respond.

I wonder how long that will last.