At the eCommerce Expo in Two Pics
April 12, 2008
I had a ball at the EMERGE eCommerce expo which was here in Kingston, Jamaica at the Hilton Hotel. It was a decent first start, looking forward to next year. The highlight for me was the conversations I had with entrepreneurs who are just bursting with passion for this thing we’ve all embraced called the Internet.These are two pics for now. I have more coming. In the first one, I’m sandwiched between Maurice McNaughton, Chief Technology Officer for Paymaster Group and Neif Neamatt from Digicel Jamaica Business Division. And no I didn’t stick Maurice in the eye. The Second one is Heather and Chad from Jamdeal.com. Chad is a pioneering tech entrepreneur who’s brought us eBay like sites for the Caribbean. (Disclosure: Chad is one of my business partners in Caribclix.com)
ShoptheCaribbean.mobi-guide to hot,new, undiscovered Caribbean products
April 2, 2008
Caribbean products have gone mobile and global. ShoptheCaribbean.mobi is the insider’s guide to products,brands that are hot, new, undiscovered and Caribbean. The site covers from Caribbean food and drink, beauty and fitness and lifestyle to music and fashion, house and home plus sweet deals. They scour the Internet and other sources, then share the best and more interesting finds,reviews and observations with their readers online and those who access the site on their Blackberry,iPhone, Ipod Touch or other internet enabled devices. They launched yesterday.
Over 50 useful resources for online entrepreneurs
March 26, 2008
“Every day more and more entrepreneurs are building successful businesses using the internet. There is an abundance of opportunity online and depending on the venture, there is often less cost and risk involved when compared with traditional businesses.” Read more
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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iphonejamaica.com - the online buy and get it unlocked resource
February 18, 2008
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking after you read that headline. You probably said to yourself, but the iPhone hasn’t officially reached Jamaica in fact the Caribbean as yet. Read more
Flow gobbles up another Cable Company. We Watch,Wait and Worry
February 18, 2008
Jamaica- As we watch Flow gobble up Cable TV Companies, (the latest casualty was Entertainment Systems, a 12 year old entity that serves some of the more affluent areas in Kingston and St Andrew) in a bid to rule the triple play( Cable, high speed Internet and landlines) market in Jamaica, we’re asking again will Flow be a benevolent monopoly? In fact is there such a thing? Will Jamaicans have to contend with another Cable & Wireless type era 0f bad service and unwarranted price hikes for addictive bundled products they’ve gotten used to?
Flow, the brand of Columbus Communications Ltd, owned by Jamaican/Canadian billion Michael Lee Chin has spent billions of dollars in the past 2 years rolling out their watch, talk and click triple play. They’ve laid lots of fibreoptic pipe, bought cable companies and have been promoting the highspeed digital life. While I concede that these services are necessary to help push internet penetration higher than the measly 34% it is now, let’s watch the leadership, attitudes and what else they’re doing in 20 other Caribbean countries they operate like Trinidad and Bahamas.
See also: Grange unhappy with latest Flow deal
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BINARYADS.COM an ecommerce site…well sorta
February 12, 2008
Binaryads.com is a great idea waiting for proper execution. Binaryads.com is an ecommerce site now called by their owners as “The Caribbean’s 1st Online Computer Directory.” It has chosen a lucrative niche in tech products and offers the most comprehensive list of such products online in Jamaica and the Caribbean.They have aggregated from about 30 Jamaican retailers - descriptions, pictures and prices of products such as CDs & DVDs, Digital & Video cameras, cellphones, electronics, hard drives, computers, scanners, ink & toners and software in a single place online.! So easy for you to browse and look at prices. We love that!Having said that,here are my questions. Why the heck is it called Binary Ads? Why is the site positioned as The Caribbean’s 1st Online Computer Directory when in essence it’s an ecommerce site, mean to give an online shopping experience ( ah mean they offer you the option of building your own pc ? Why is the user buying experience compromised with bad design and out of what information architecture. I figure that if you mastered the challenge of getting over 30 retailers to use you as their online representative, why wasn’t just as much time spent on the GUI design and I’m not going to even mention the sense of being shortchanged by the shopping cart experience the site labels as a visiting cart and a members cart.I believe this site is a great idea, but I do hope they realize their amazing potential by getting a profession web designer, a more relevant, brandable name and an internet marketing plan.If you liked this post, why not Subscribe and get Silicon Caribe Today by Email
$1million for forexjamaica.com domain on jamdeal.com
February 4, 2008
Yes you read the headline correctly, someone has posted on jamdeal.com- the ebay of Jamaica, the domain name forexjamaica.com for sale at JA$1,000,000 or US$14,000. With the Forex Fever that’s gripped Jamaica over the past few years and especially last year anything to go by, this should be interesting to see if the seller gets any serious offers. We’ll keep you posted. Source
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VP Records launches online music store planetgreggae.com plus an affiliate programme.
February 1, 2008
VP Records, dubbed the world’s leading reggae record company, has launched planetreggae.com, an online music store selling MP3s, music videos and ringtones. Along with it an affiliate programme, which allows anyone to set up, a co-branded planetreggae.com store and make 10% on each item sale.
The online music store will have VP Records digital reggae music catalogue including music from Channel One, Joe Gibbs, Penthouse Productions, Techniques, Dynamic Recordings and King Jammy to name a few. It sells single track for US$.99,full album downloads for US$9.99 and videos for US$1.99, ring tone prices though yet not finalized are likely to be sold for US$1.99.
Additionally, the planetreggae online music store will accept Paypal and all major credit card and debit cards (Visa and Mastercard). If you sign on as an affiliate, you will receive monthly statements but will be paid your money quarterly to coincide with artist royalty payments.
VP Records, headed Chris Chin and Randy Chin, was in the news this week when the company made an offer to buy Greensleeves Records & Publishing from Zest Group plc, subject to the approval of Zest’s shareholders. If the sale is approved, then VP Records will inherit a catalogue comprising some of the most notable albums of the genre, from Elephant Man to Yellowman and hit songs recorded by such acts as Rihanna, Sean Paul and Shaggy. Greensleeves is said to have a comprehensive reggae back catalogue of 400 albums and 900 singles, dating from the 1980s.
Get new business out of Trinidad with Caribbeantenders.com
January 31, 2008
Whether you’re a startup or pretty establised, you’re always looking for new business. If you’re doing business in Trinidad or seeking new business from that country, check out Caribbeantenders.com.
What they’ve done is to list tenders and consulting opportunities in a central place,so you can view in full and see which ones you want to pitch for. CUrrently they have 1000 tender notices listed covering industries such as Construction and Energy (Engineering), Consultancy, Transport, Information Technology, Printery & Packaging, Finance, Pharmaceuticals, Electrical, Security Services, Janitorial Services, Agriculture, Furniture & Fittings, Real Estate, Health Equipment and many more. The b2b site also allows you to post your own tender notices and sign up for email and SMS alerts.
clocking US$32 million, with US$28 million of that raised online.
Barack’s US$28 million in online contributions came from more than 250,000 contributors- 90% were under $100, 40% were $25 or less and 10,000 people gave $5 or $10 to the campaign, Techcrunch reported.
All this comes one day before Super Tuesday, with Barack trailing Clinton by 1% in the California Polls, an important state for both parties. McCain who we clearly believe is the best Republican endorsement is leading the California polls with a comfortable margin.
We believe that when the United States votes this year, history will be made, it’ll either be the first woman President with first husband being a former president or the first black President who we feel will not assassinated some people’s thinking and fears.
The Republicans are going to be retired, pretty much how the Bruce Golding led Jamaica Labour Party sent home the Portia Simpson led People’s National Party. Americans, Caribbean people and indeed the world has heard enough and had enough of the Republicans. See barackobama.com and the facebook.com to join his group.
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