Google Gets Greenlight to Gobble Doubleclick
March 11, 2008
It’s not like we didn’t know it was coming, but they first made the annoucement like 11 months ago. So European regulators finally approved Google’s US$3.1 billion takeover of the online advertising company, the final hurdle to a deal that would strengthen Google’s already powerful position on the Web.
According to the New York times report “The merger had been opposed by rivals like Yahoo and Microsoft, which had voiced concern about Google’s advertising clout, as well as by consumer groups, which feared that the combined company would have access to a large amount of data on individual Web-surfing habits.”
IS this really too much power to Google or you all really couldn’t care less, since you’re Saying it Loud Google Adsense Ho’ and Proud.
Top 10 Trinidadian Sites visited by Trinidadians
March 10, 2008
SC FLASHBACK,Trinidad- The number one Trinidadian site visited by Trinidadians is trinituner.com, Trinidad’s largest car site that mixes car classifieds and community for car lovers. Second is the University of the West Indies Trinidadian campus, Third is the telecom provider TSTT, next is one of the daily newspapers Trinidad Express then an online community site called triniscene.com.
The TOP10
1. Trinituner.com
2. Uwi.edu
3. Tstt.net.tt
4. Trinidadexpress.com
5. Triniscene.com
6. Trinidadguardian.co.tt
7. Trinipulse.com
8. Uwi.tt
9. Carnivaltribe.com
10. Trinitaku.com
Targeting the Caribbean Diaspora online?
March 10, 2008
SC FLASHBACK- If IMMI-MERCE shows the business potential of millions of immigrants traveling back and forth between new and old worlds physically and by the Internet, then DIASPORA MANAGEMENT is all about governments putting their former citizens to good use.
And we’re not talking manipulative religious or political plots to use immigrants as evangelizing outposts to raise money, but establishing strong business and cultural communities that promote the best and brightest from the ‘motherland’ in their new countries of residence.
One nation exploring DIASPORA MANAGEMENT is India, whose government and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry recently invited 2000 extremely successful ‘non-resident’ Indians from 63 countries to New Delhi, to determine how the resources and achievements of Indians abroad might be used to uplift India. One juicy detail which hadn’t escaped the Indian government, is that Chinese non-residents have invested about $60 billion in China, while that number for India is only $1 billion from non-resident Indians. (Source: NYT).
In the Caribbean, The Jamaican government staged a Jamaican Diaspora conference June 2004 and launched a website, www.jamaicandiaspora.org soon after. Jamaica also hosted a Caribbean. Additionally, Caribbean governments has sent missions to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to sell immigrants and their families on the benefits of investing back home.
A study was done and found that Caribbean Americans have an annual of US$40b dollars and send home on average US$1b in remittances.
The opportunities that DIASPORA MANAGEMENT has to offer are endless. Very few nations have an active, creative business strategy for getting the most from their non-resident citizens. Country-specific promotions abroad still tend to focus on setting up semi-diplomatic representations, not involving local communities of fellow country-men. Think foreign investment agencies or the Thai initiative to set up a government-sponsored chain of Thai restaurants in countries around the world to stimulate tourism to Thailand.
Whether it’s a celebration of national culture, foreign investments, encouraging HOME TROTTING or improving ties in trade and manufacturing: nations from Hungary to Jamaica, Trinidad and Haiti have a world to gain.
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WHo’s Online Caribbean
March 10, 2008
SC FLASHBACK-With just under 40 million people living in the English, Spanish and French Caribbean, only 5.2 million or 15% of them are online, according to the stats from internetworldtstats.
By just looking at raw numbers, the Caribbean countries on top are Dominican Republic with 1,5million people online, Jamaica(1.06m),Puerto Rico(1m),Haiti (600,000), Cuba (190,000) and Barbados and Trinidad (160,000). But when you look at the internet penetration rates which indicates the percentage of the country’s population are internet users in the region and compare, what you see is Barbados leading in the region with 59.8%, then Antigua 40%, Jamaica 39.4%, Aruba 34.1% and St Lucia 32%.
It is interesting to note that the Caribbean’s overall internet penetration rate is three percent below the world average and also that of Central America, both are 18%.
Additionally, a quick look at where things are worldwide shows, The United States leads the world with 69% internet penetration…not hard to see why they have dominated the online culture and commerce for so long. Then there is Asia which has 11.8% percent of their population online and Europe 39.8%.
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My 3 month old MacBook died on Friday(Thank God for the warranty)
March 9, 2008
Having been born,bred and Mac fed since 1994 I bought my midrange MacBook in New York last December at the Apple store. The sucker died on me on Friday. I became confused,pissed then calm when I found the receipt I kept.
It turns out that the logic board is toast but I can get all my data has been recovered execpt the tonnes of email I tend to save. Funny this is what happened to my iBook a few years go, but I didn’t keep the receipt and then,there was no authorised and certified Apple service provider in Jamaica. I head back to New York end of this month for client business, so you know I am going back into the store calm, smiling and demanding a completely new replacement…thank God the warranty is in place.
Yeah I know it’s a machine and things do happen, but you know how we Mac addicts can be about our babies, we do not expect flaws, we demand the impossible…perfection. I am writing this on a borrowed iMac until my new baby is once again home with me. *sniff* *sniff*
CaribConfessions.com- just let it out!
March 6, 2008
Ahhhh where anonymity is king and queen. Here is a site to go confess to pretty much anything that’s taboo - Cheating/Infidelity, Love/Hate, Gross/Disgusting, Gay/Straight, Sex,Religion,Weird Fetish, Girlfriend/Boyfriend, Husband/Wife,Home & Family. And while you may be there to unload a confession, you can vote on others too. They use the popular pligg (digg clone) site setup. It’s brought to you by the developers of caribsingles.com…hmmmm some experimentation happening here!
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Who’s website is it anyway?
March 6, 2008
It’s 2007 and I’m hearing this still. Web designers or web hosting companies holding their client’s domain name and websites hostage. So let’s get this straight, when a client asks the professional individual or company to register a domain name and pays for it in full, the client owns it and they can do what they want with it. Charge them if you must for transferring it to another hosting company.
Also when you are hosting a client’s website and they are paying you that monthly hosting fee that you are making at least 200% profit from the get go, they are entitled to full access to all the information that comes with the hosting package via a username and password access so their programmers can do what they want back there. Playing on client ignorance is not an competive advantage and is so 1998! And clients grow some cajones, get educated about your rights so when these guys mess with you, you can send email campaigns to your friends and colleagues telling them what happened to you.
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The $40,000 Macbook Air
March 5, 2008
I was following my love for all things Mac, when I happened upon one that costs US$40,000. Yep, it’s a Macbook Air decked in 12,000 Swarovski crystals that has also been dipped in 24k gold. This blinged out MackBook Air is called “Golden Age” and is done by the service found at the following site..bling-my-thing.com. Only 20 exists and are being sold to who are called true luxury addicts.
e-Videos.com.jm- 4 reasons why it’s dead in the water
March 3, 2008
This Jamaican startup has erected billboards, created a sweet website and book online ads on high traffic Jamaican sites, yet this business I believe is dead even as it has just begun. Here’s why.
1.The domain name. Why they chose e-videos.com.jm and not just evideos.com.jm especially since it’s a .jm extension and more than likely quite available. Why make it harder for your customers to remember your domain name.
2. The Borrowed Business Model. There’s nothing wrong in borrowing a successful business model, but always beware that they don’t always have cross pollinate well. You see e-videos.com.jm borrowed the almost now abandoned business model of NetFlix.com, the US based company that pioneered this DVD rental by mail service.Here’s how it works – You go to e-videos.com.jm and create and account. You then select the DVDs you want to rent from their “extensive collection” and put them in your rental queue. They go on to say that within 1-2 business days you selections will be delivered to you free of cost. And of course what’s delivered to you is based on priority placement and availability. In others words instead of waiting in a line in a video store you are in a waiting line online. When you are done watching the movie, you can drop it off at one of their drop boxes-all for the delicious cost of US$19.95 a month. In short you are paying to rent 1 DVD per month, if you want to rent two then it’s US$29.99.Netflix the US-based startup that pioneered this same kind of service, except they mail it to their subscribers by first class mail, something that really couldn’t be done in Jamaica. Jesus would arrive sooner. BUT, because of people’s changing habits, Netflix is fast abandoning that model and the company now offers movies immediately for direct download to your PC, simply because people want their movies NOW, not later, maybe of they have it, they want it NOW, it’s a staple habit for anyone living in this digital age. For this reason also I believe evideos.com…oops e-videos.com.jm will flop in less than a year.
3.Target market: Netflix.com has a much larger market in fact- it’s a mass market, e-videos.com.jm has a niche market and a niche market that does not need this kind of service. Most Jamaicans like most Americans want their movies now, they want the latest and they want it when the rest of the world has it, not two weeks or 30 days later. It’s a powerful business lesson Palace Amusement had to learn, it’s what the guys selling the pirated DVDs on the streets understand and it’s what people who use peer to peer sites like Limewire.com, Bitorrent.com crave. And of course it’s what Apple understands hence Apple TV, never heard of it? Google it and gloat!
4. Piracy is still big here. Whether you buy it on the roadside in Half Way Tree, get it from a well connected friend with DVD burners and the right software, downloaded it using LimeWire, Bittorrent- Piracy, as illegal as it is, is what almost killed Palace Amusement Ltd and what actually made Viewer’s Choice 2000 fold. It’s a practice,almost a culture that won’t be stopped here anytime soon, simply because the laws are not being enforced.Evideos.com…ooops …e-videos.com.jm is a business that’s already dead in the water, they sought not to map the trend and place themselves ahead of it, instead they sought to borrow a business model that’s dwindling in its appeal, that won’t cross over well here- still thinking that hey Jamaica is a few years behind. Yeah we are with a few things but in a lot of ways we’re on par or ahead. I am prepared to be wrong, but I am calling this now. If evideos.com…oops there I go again…if e-videos.com.jm is around in a year, I’ll stop drinking Café Mochas for 6 months.
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Music Lessons….The global music industry..disrupted
March 1, 2008
I read Seth Godin, marketing guru at least 3 times a week. He recently wrote this post on the global music business. Since I live in the Caribbean and Reggae and Soca music is invented here, I think our music industry could stand to take a whiff of this.
MUSIC Lessons
Things you can learn from the music business (as it falls apart)
The first rule is so important, it’s rule 0:
0. The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late. Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.
1. Past performance is no guarantee of future success
Every single industry changes and, eventually, fades. Just because you made money doing something a certain way yesterday, there’s no reason to believe you’ll succeed at it tomorrow.
The music business had a spectacular run alongside the baby boomers. Starting with the Beatles and Dylan, they just kept minting money. The co-incidence of expanding purchasing power of teens along with the birth of rock, the invention of the transistor and changing social mores meant a long, long growth curve.
As a result, the music business built huge systems. They created top-heavy organizations, dedicated superstores, a loss-leader touring industry, extraordinarily high profit margins, MTV and more. It was a well-greased system, but the key question: why did it deserve to last forever? It didn’t. Yours doesn’t either. More
