State of Social and Internet 2017

A while back, my friend Jeremiah Owyang wrote his perception of the state of social to which I contributed. Decided I’ll add onto my blog as well.

Twitter: dumpster fire but central to US current events, news
Facebook: where The Olds who ‘don’t get’ other social networks congregate to get attention, Asia’s LinkedIn, and others have an account for the sole purpose of Messenger (messenger.com via web)
Messenger: communication utility (Skype / Hangouts replacement; the Westerner’s WeChat and Weibo — encrypted messaging and P2P payments? Yes please!)
LinkedIn: depot of shameless self promoters and what NOT to do cues for teens and millennials professionally networking. I.E., Stay away from descriptors such as, but not limited, to: ‘futurist’, ‘keynote speaker’, ‘innovator’, ‘change agent’, etc., etc.,
Snapchat: dancing Hot Dog and awesome filters to cross post onto IG
IG: branding tool for the non-olds (teens). Lifestyle diary for Millennials (food, beauty, fashion, etc.)
Google+: Huh? What’s that???
Telegram: status symbol to show you’re ‘in the know’ about cryptocurrencies.
Slack: quickly becoming the new email
WhatsApp: where European Android users are
LINE: only relevant to Thais and old Japanese people
Ding Talk: where Chinese who don’t trust Weibo or WeChat conduct business

Social networks aside, my phone is the place I do the most internetting and boy has my homescreen changed a lot. Take a look:

The three apps on the bottom are apps most used: Twitter, brower, mail.
1. Apple’s mail app has been replaced by Outlook (yes, Microsoft Outlook) because Gmail loads the quickest plus the experience is much better. I can’t believe I’m saying this either but hey — it is what it is.
2. Safari has been replaced by Brave — which I wrote extensively about here.

Despite having 256gigs on my phone, I only have one page of apps. Mainly because I realized long ago I only use a handful on the daily. I also turn off the little red circles because they induce anxiety and helped me wean off my addiction. (Read about that journey here.)

Funny how things change!

Related: Snap Chat should be worried — check out this neat graph I found. 300M daily active users for Instagram stories! Amazing.

4-7-8 Trick

I came across a post from a blog that taught me something so great, I wanted to share with everyone. However the writing was so painful to read (like fingernails on a chalkboard cringe worthy painful), I didn’t feel compelled to pipe it out on my networks, and did the next best thing: blog about it myself.

The 4-7-8 trick is actually not a trick. It’s a breathing technique used during meditation, yoga, wellness practitioners swear by it, etc. and now that I think about it, I’ve done it many times before during yoga. It never occurred to retain what I learned after leaving the session until now.

If you feel anxious, stressed, or have trouble sleeping, try this. I swear. It works.

1. breathe in through nose for 4 seconds
2. hold breath for 7 seconds
3. exhale from mouth for 8 seconds

The Science

Stress, anxiety → adrenaline pumps through veins → causing heart to beat rapidly = under-breathing.

4 second inhale forces more oxygen intake
↓
7 second breath hold allows oxygen to affect bloodstream
↓
8 second exhale emits carbon dioxide from lungs
↓
above slows heart rate and increases oxygen in bloodstream to relax your heart, mind, and overall central nervous system; almost like a natural sedative.

The human body never ceases to amaze.
To learn more, I think this man pioneered the technique.

Happy breathing!

*Sidenote: not sure how I feel about the first post of 2015 being about some metaphysical mumbo jumbo but whatever, maybe this is a sign I need to think of myself and my well being more? Who knows, not really reading deep into it.

Only a few reasons I love emerging markets

During conversations with one of my favorite VCs and separately, with one of my favorite tech bloggers, services I never heard of were brought up. I also learned a few things I’m just going to leave here — more like a note to self — before I forget.

Old age, the struggle is real.

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Opera still has 300M MUAs.
Opera Mini (the mobile browser
– Indian users of the Opera Mini mobile browsers used 75% less mobile data in the first half of the year
– is compatible with over 3,000 mobile devices, dumb phones and smartphones
-works on basic Java to the latest Android and iOS platforms

Wow – who knew. It’s such a perfect browser for emerging nations where cost and access are barriers source

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Random thought: I wish I was passionate about logistics. So much money and room for disruption there. Imagine “between x and y is z” (where x, y = time and z = service ex: delivery, internet, cable, food, etc) is non existent. Time is precise. Or in plain English, parcels will be dropped off and service rendered at exact times.

The solution would involve an algo that calculates most cost efficient delivery radius in a way that’s never been done before. Combine that with a notification app like Yo, that’s a billion dollar business right there. And I believe the solution will come out of Asia.

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Binu

Which reminded me of Frontline SMS

 

Google APAC has WiFi enabled rickshaws to help people go online

*Pardon the lazy post

Why Aren’t More Tech Journalists Talking About This? #Apple

…this was my stance after the Apple announcements of iPhone 6, 6+, and the watch but all jokes aside, there is good reason Apple is the most valuable brand on the planet and simply “mind-blowing“.

Personally, the Watch does nothing for me. I would never own one. The app screen (points below)

triggers my trypophobia (yes, trypophobia is real) and the design is just outdated — totally 80s.

However, what Apple did with the watch, as well as all the iPhones after the 4, is create a problem then solved the problem for us. First world problem-ing in the highest order. Or in scientific terms: they tap into the last triangle of Maslo’s Hierarchy of Needs, by making us need things we didn’t know we needed.

This deep understanding of human behavior and finding ways to hook people with design and hardware is something very few companies can achieve. Apple consistently creates problems then seamlessly and elegantly solves them for us — truly, one of the most innovative companies of our time.

People say now, things like “why do we need payments on our wrists, when we can do them on our phones?” Or, “why would we need payments on our phones and wrists?” I say, just wait – people will start getting lazier because they’ll adopt to the convenience of phone functionalities on body parts (wearables) and soon, it’ll be the norm.

Think about it: everything about technology is creating and solving more convenient ways of living. Telephones, email, computers, laptops, mobile phones, smartphones, tablets… and the next: wearables.

With the Apple Watch, Apple is now giving us 1) predicted text so we don’t have to type. 2) a way to transact without the extra effort of pulling out our phones. 3) a new type of push-pull notification system in a way that no other product or software does.

Which to me, is the most exciting part of the Apple announcement – all personal thoughts about style aside. It’s a bit peculiar to me how a lot more people aren’t excited about that vs the new and shiny hardware.

Why You Should Care About Unconscious Bias

Nikesh Arora ex-Google exec, now Softbank Internet and Media CEO / vice chairman of the overall company tweeted he is looking for “ivy leaguers with US / Japan experience”. Why did he specify ivy leaguers? Does he realize he is biased?

Or, what about when we see someone in the US, who is using a smartphone other than an iPhone. What are your initial thoughts? It’s okay, be honest. You’re not alone. I’ve heard many girlfriends say things like “I’d never date someone with an Android phone.”

We automatically assume things about people born and raised in certain cities, countries, regions, etc. And judge people by how they look or present themselves to the world. We don’t do it on purpose but we are all guilty of some sort of bias and judgment.

But imagine if you unknowingly carry those thoughts into the workplace. Do you choose to do better work with colleagues you already have an unconscious bias towards? Or what if you are a hiring manager; are you confident your choices aren’t driven by bias?

Ponder that for a second.

I’ve expressed on Twitter how I am thrilled to the toes Megan Smith is America’s new CTO. And it seems most of the tech community is too. General consensus is because she is a female. Or part of the LGBT community. Or both.

I am excited because I have followed her and what she has been doing for Google as an individual (if you’re interested, YouTube her talks from Google I/O or interviews on Google.org and Google [X] to see the many reasons why she is such an excellent leader and technologist — if you love tech from the core like me, it’s really, worth your time.)

One of my favorite clips I’ve seen of her, is about bias — conscious and unconscious bias — which I believe, is important for everyone to be cognizant of. Especially, if you are management level or higher.

This is the video, I’ve been tweeting a lot (with little to zero interest) but now that you’re here, watch:

I wish there were transcripts but some of my favorite soundbites – few are paraphrased:

“You hear venture capitalists talk about pattern matching when they are looking for the next young entrepreneur. But they are also pattern matching for things they have bias in, and not realizing they are doing that. So they might be more likely to fund a White or Asian man vs another (and she gets interrupted).”

“(Unconscious bias) is no one’s fault. It’s not like we are actively doing this. We all have it. It’s inherited. It’s systemic. What we have to do as an industry, is educate ourselves.”

“Diverse teams just make better products. Patents written with men and women on them, for example, are cited more. And the number of times a patent is cited, is a measure to know if a patent is better.”

“If you are applying for a role, a woman would only apply if they have 7 of the 10 characteristics required. Men would apply if they only have 3 of the 10. So as a manager, you just need to be conscious of that, look at all the candidates, and do a little more active work to make sure you’ve got the best pool.”

Google’s Diversity website also has a nice summary of what unconscious bias is:

The science of inclusion

Research shows that when we are more aware of our unconscious bias, we can make more objective decisions. In 2013, more than 20,000 Googlers (nearly half of our Googlers) engaged in workshops that focus on the science of how the brain works. This created a company-wide dialogue around how unconscious bias can affect perceptions of others, interactions with coworkers and clients, and the business overall. We hope our focus on making the unconscious conscious will not only foster a more inclusive workplace, but also make us a better company. Watch this video to find out more.

You can learn more about unconscious bias here, here, or here — or Google yourself.

We can do better. Let us be better.

43.3% of Japanese use LINE Professionally, 29.6% use Facebook

 

Wow — I knew messaging apps are huge in Japan but it still astounds me to see numbers.
43.3% of those in the sample pool use LINE professionally.
29.6% use Facebook as a professional communication tool.

Skype is 12%
KakaoTalk 6.1%
Followed by LinkedIn, Viber, communicator.

I guess as Hiroko Tabuchi of the NYT reported: “It’s just easier when a bear says it.”
*above stats provided by MMD — a Mobile Marketing Data Labo, a research company in Japan.

Popular Communication & Messaging Apps by Country

I spent the past week reading forecasts and reports from Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche, etc., etc.

It sounds a bit boring but really not. It was actually fun to read, consume, compare and contrast the different reports.

Quick takeaways:

Deutsche’s chart of messaging apps used in Brazil, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and the US.

 

Cross referenced with AppAnnie’s spend by country chart tells us:

• S. Korea consumes and spends on content. Kakao Talk’s success is likely due to that ecosystem.
• Japan leads in gaming, explaining the success of gaming companies as Capcom, DeNA, Gree, et al., and the reason the Japanese spend the most in both Google Play and iOS stores. Also explains success of LINE
• US has wide range of content spend but the US is a distinct market from the rest of the world with different economical factors.

This chart also from App Annie interests me more, as it shows spend vs device:

I agree with Goldman Sachs, stating BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are 3-5 years away from global scaling and spending.

South Korea, with the highest spend and technological advancements, is like China where the ecosystems are so tightly intertwined it’s a tough market to penetrate. Fun to watch, but just like China, certain models and strategies cannot be emulated because of the reliance on proprietary strong holds.

For people looking to enter markets, Japan, UK and US are the likely bets. Or at least if I were a VC, that’s where I’d be placing bets.

Still digesting but as my thoughts parse, I will be sharing.

Scale of Chat Apps in Asia

I don’t think America still understands how big chat apps are in Asia and that’s ok. Like I keep saying, the US is email, iPhone (iMessage), SMS and Facebook Messenger reliant.

In Asia, it costs money to SMS. It costs money to make phone calls. Not as much as Europe maybe, but it still adds up. The US may be the only country where SMS and voice are flat fee, unlimited.

Because we are charged by telecos, chat apps have become a solution to avoid fees for something basic and ubiquitous as communication.

In Asia we are so chat app reliant, my personal and even work emails have been reduced by at least 85%. The only people who actually email are my American friends and colleagues.

Because I stopped relying on email as my main form of communication, I now see what a massive burden email is and how much of my time email dictated.

Chat apps don’t restrict texts with character counts, but because of the context of the core products (real-time interactions, short mail, instant messaging like features and functions), it cuts out a lot of unnecessary bullshit and people just get straight down to the point.

Granted, this is only from my experience and doing business with the Japanese, but I much prefer interacting with colleagues on LINE or company approved Viber as we communicate more efficiently. (Quick contextual background: the Japanese language has four different ways of speech, two honorifics. The honorifics require buffer language — a lot of set phrases before getting to the point. Chat apps tend to cut all that out.)

Aside from the communication utility, chat apps in Asia are evolving from tools to full fledged platforms. I keep repeating this but it’s almost necessary, as there are people still comparing WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram and Snapchat to LINE, WeChat and KakaoTalk. WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram and Snapchat are used for communication only. With LINE, WeChat and KakaoTalk  usres can text, call, video chat, edit photos, play games, get coupons/discounts… and now WeChat allows their users to shop. In their app. Asian chat apps are more than chat apps, they are turning into ecosystems.

The Asia chat app market is truly something else but I think one has to live in China, Korea or Japan to experience the phenomenon for themselves. At least for me that was the case. In a mere six months chat apps have completely changed the way I communicate and also purchase via mobile.

God, I love technology and I love being in Asia seeing, breathing and living the evolving products and market.

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha.

There’s been some coverage on Wolfram Alpha over the past month or so. I’m not gonna lie – the only reason I know of Wolfram Alpha is because they hit the news launching a $50 iPhone app way back in 2009 and were ridiculed by the tech crowd.

Fast forward five years and they are back in the news again.

“Now it becomes realistic for someone to build out a complete algorithm and automation system in a few hours.” via Inc.

Venture Beat has a summary that’s more easy to understand – a snippet:

Google wants to understand objects and things and their relationships so it can give answers, not just results. But Wolfram wants to make the world computable, so that our computers can answer questions like “where is the International Space Station right now.” That requires a level of machine intelligence that knows what the ISS is, that it’s in space, that it is orbiting the Earth, what its speed is, and where in its orbit it is right now.

I still don’t fully understand what Wolfram Alpha is, but the notion of conversing with machines pulling up precise results based on scientific data vs now, where we tell machines what to do and look for excites me… and tells me, that Wolfram Alpha is something we should be paying attention to.

Oh, Wolfram also powers Siri.  Stephen Wolfram (found of Wolfram Alpha) and Steve Jobs were friends. Technology that has the stamp of approval from Jobs and a founder with a personal relationship with Jobs is enough for me to create a Google alert. Biased, maybe, but Jobs is a visionary.

Sources: 1, 2, 3 Link #3 – the Venture Beat piece – is highly recommended.

Japanese Mobile Market — a Brief History

Japan is an odd land where things are so advanced yet it can be backwards. Several times, I’ve been asked to fax my e-mail address, which sums up how ass backwards this country can be.

Back when Americans thought the Nokia 8890 was a status symbol, Japanese users were flashing their fancy flip phones (feature phones, as we call them here) with stunning color screens, amazing motion graphics and incredible audio speakers. Aside from basic phone functions, people browsed the Internet. Listened to music. Played games. Even watched TV on flip phones. I remember each Tokyo visit in the late 90’s-early 2000’s, looking down at my pixelated turtle-colored Nokia screen and thinking: wow, Japan is the future.

Fast forward to 2013 and that’s no longer the case. At least with mobile phones.

If you think Google is evil and Apple is too Draconian, they have nothing on Japanese telecoms. Japan is dominated by three major mobile carriers: NTT Docomo the Japanese equivalent of Verizon. au/KDDI which is closest to AT&T and SoftBank that would be T-Mobile, since they are the newest player in Japanese telecom.

Docomo and KDDI dictated the mobile landscape for years. I say that lightly but in a country that is mobile-centric, controlling mobile is controlling most of Japanese tech. Telecoms maintained closed market places, ensured software was proprietary, steered hardware movement, had a grip on the content space eg: ringtones, wallpapers, video, music, and even managed email.

When the iPhone arrived to Japan in 2008, it basically turned the market upside down.

SoftBank — the youngest carrier of the three — took a gamble and was the only telecom in Japan to carry the iPhone. au/KDDI woke up three years later following SoftBank’s lead in 2011. Docomo, the most dominant carrier in Japan, refused to carry the iPhone until the 5s. Yes, the 5s in September of this year. They tried to sustain their old world order. They ignored the iPhone. They pretended a market shift wasn’t happening and refused to accept the change of consumer needs until the last possible minute.

Docomo’s stubbornness didn’t seem too tragic in 2008, yet five years later, their dominance of Japanese marketshare isn’t as prominent as it once was. At a total of 62 million subscribers, they are still the leading carrier but SoftBank’s growth rate is incredible.

In only five years, they doubled their subscribers, a 78.69% subscriber difference. This number is insane.[source]

This is only the beginning for the Japanese mobile industry and boy, am I glad I am here.

Messaging Apps are Not Social Networks

There is a lot of emphasis on Facebook’s youth demographic decreasing and how messaging apps like Snapchat, LINE, WhatsApp and KakaoTalk are becoming the new Facebook and I can’t help but to think: wow, people don’t understand product and technical differences.

Facebook is a social networking platform. Messaging apps are tools for communication.

It’s not that people are leaving Facebook or Instagram for messaging apps, it’s that people are using messaging apps as tools to communicate differently.

There is room for both in the world. It’s just that people are choosing how to talk to those they want to talk to (messaging apps), rather than putting themselves out there for everyone and – literally – their mothers to see (Facebook).

So just like how most people don’t want to socialize with tens and hundreds of people every second of every day, many are choosing to socialize with people in different ways. And they are doing so with photos, videos, text and content.

Facebook and messaging apps are two different things.

1, 2

Why I Still Believe in Japan

Thanks to Serkan Toto (who is by far, one of the most brilliant people I have ever met), I attended JapanNight, a start-up competition and boy, am I glad I did.

The winner was a wearable technology company called Ring and the promo video, had the entire room buzzing:

They are on their second prototype and Ring’s purpose is to complement wearable tech vs competing with monster companies like Google and Samsung — that approach is why I became a believer.

Ring, to me, epitomizes Japanese ethos: taking great things that exist and making them better. In Ring’s case, it’s taking wearable tech: Google Glass, Pebble, Samsung watch, etc. and made it stylish, minimalistic and more compact.

The other products really didn’t do much for me (some hipster app, a few niche gaming apps, a Japanese solution for Survey Monkey, some learning platform, etc.) but the websites and presentations were really well done. As we enter into the age of user experience and design, I’m excited to see how the Japanese will deliver our creativity to the world and where I fit into the equation.

I got to Japan at the perfect time, as I believe the next few years will showcase exactly why I chose to live in Tokyo — one of the best cities on the planet.

If you’re interested, Japan Night’s finalists are on their Google+ stream here.

What Wall Street Analysts are Forgetting About Technology

I get it. I do. And I would be lying if I didn’t say I’m slightly concerned that with

1. Steve Jobs gone
2. Android taking the smartphone marketshare in 2011
3. makers like Samsung, Xiaomi and now even Sony are shipping massive quantities of affordable smartphones and
4. as always, Apple sales are performing lower than expected

I see it. I do. I find myself agreeing with arguments like this one.

But what analysts forget is how technology rapidly changes human behavior. Human behavior is consumer behavior. Human behavior is predictable… yet not. Technology is predictable… yet not.

What people like Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, Jack Dorsey + company at Twitter and even the people at Naver (the company that owns LINE) get, is deep comprehension of the intersection between human psychology, technology and the instinct to cherry pick data that drives decision making.

While decisions focused on design and user experience can not be measured, they certainly can be felt by people who are consumers and users.

That’s why I don’t need numbers or data or research to know that after using iOS7 and the 5s people will continue to line-up for Apple products. That even with only 200M users vs 1.1B of Facebook, Twitter will be the more valuable social network than Facebook — long term.

And for those who still don’t understand, watch this and listen closely:

This is it. This is what matters. The experience of a product. How it will make someone feel. Will it make life better? Does it deserve to exist? We spend a lot of time on a few great things, until every idea we touch enhances each life it touches. You may rarely look at it, but you’ll always feel it. This is our signature, and it means everything.

Oh, Pinterest. What a bummer.

Update: four months later, content marketing is on its way to take off
“As marketers fight to engage with users [and] readers in a noisy, competitive world, marketers have all become publishers,” — Jed Hartman, group publisher of Time Inc. news and business, with oversight for Fortune via “Fortune will sell original editorial content to advertisers for up to $1 million”, AdAge

Day two after reading this and I am still confused. With the brand equity Pinterest has, they certainly could have been more creative at their first attempt to get closer to brands.

Pinterest is a goldmine for brands and advertisers.

• 80% are women, 50% have kids and likely to live in a Midwestern state (read: Walmart demo = cha-ching)
• Pinterest users who shop online follow 9.3 retailers while FB users follow 6.9% retailers and Twitter users follow 8.5%
• CTA pin sees an 80% increase in engagement
• Referrals spend 70% more money, also spend 10% more

The astounding stats go on and on…but they chose Business Pages and widgets?

I mean. Really?

From a brand perspective, what is the value proposition of having another business page to maintain? Business pages aren’t billboards on the Internet. Internet users expect more and paying Pinterest to add to workflows with sentiment, reputation and click-throughs as the ROI is backwards. And don’t get me started on widgets. What is this, 2001? Moving forward, major brands are becoming publishers, media companies, moving away from traditional ad models.

Pinterest is rich with content. If products like Pulse, the joke of the tech circle Mashable is experimenting and even brands like Coke and Nike can figure out content strategy to drive revenue, I’d assume the very smart people at Pinterest should be able to, too. Oh, well.

What a huge bummer.
(Top image screen shot of AdAge article found here)

Product of Our Environments

I cannot stress enough: The Bay Area, is a very special place.

This past week, re-connecting with the tech community in SF and the Silicon, reminded me of Paul Graham’s ‘Cities and Ambition’. Paul Graham wrote that in 2008 and itstill rings true.

In NY, we talk about money. How technology is changing the way we monetize. I’ve subconsciously turned into someone who combines tech with money. How can I best package x in order to meet $y?

In SF, the conversations are technology focused. How far we’ve come, where we are going. What’s the next wave of innovation?

As I am sitting on the airplane, I can’t help but to think about the differences between NY and SF, then humbled by this incredible era we are living in. How fortunate we are, to be a part of a community changing the world, whether I am in NY thinking of monetization strategies or innovation in the Valley.

I’m still high from my week in SF. I want more. My brain won’t shut up and I am looking for someone, anyone, with the Bay Area DNA to talk to about anything and everything. Even a topic silly as socks can turn into an app or service.

Silicon Valley is a very special place.

Some may argue the Bay Area is too techie. People even joke about the over-saturated market and how startups have the same “We’re the ____ of ____.” (i.e. Fashion for Pinterest) elevator pitches.

And I’m not gonna lie, I was one of those people outside of the Valley, rolling my eyes at how everyone is an entrepreneur for the sake of being an entrepreneur. How entrepreneurs are the new struggling actors and Crunchbase is the new IMDB.

Yes, it seems like that on the outside. But if you are immersed in the environment, you just can’t get enough. At least I can’t. Perhaps spending time away, made it easier to appreciate the Silicon Valley ecosystem.

The biggest takeaway from this trip, is how saturation is necessary, as it drives innovation in the way it can and in the only place it can: the Valley.

Look at it this way: It’s the reason Mark Zuckerberg was able to take Facebook’s social sharing to the next level (bet you didn’t know the LIKE button was built by the FriendFeed founders, who before FriendFeed, built Gmail and Google Maps respectively). It’s also the reason Steve Jobs redefined branding, user experience and consumer marketing and all the other products that change the way we think and behave.

Silicon Valley is such a special place and I can’t wait to return.

I am just privileged to be a part of it all and if you don’t feel the same, step outside of the Bay Area Bubble to appreciate your environment even more.

*This was written in 2012. It is now 2014 and I still feel the same exact way.

The Great Technological Divide

The other day I had dinner with an antitrust lawyer and can’t stop thinking about our conversation. The discussions were intense – in a good way. We have opposite backgrounds but similar expertise. He addressed technology representing the law. I have close to zero knowledge of patent or antitrust law but understand technology inside out.  We argued about the technological divide between the public, the state and corporations. We agreed on the same conclusion: why aren’t leaders in the respective industries, working closer together to close the gap?

It seems the general public lacks a fundamental understanding of technology (and that is ok) but what can we do to change that? Once I started paying attention, I noticed the conversations are out there.

– MG Siegler talks about misunderstandings from a content stand-point and how journalists/bloggers aren’t doing their jobs to properly inform the public.
– Michael Arrington talks about it from a start-up point’s point of view.
– The VCs and Angels are ranting about it from an economic stand-point. (the ongoing tech bubble 2.0 debate; most recent piece by a VC.)
– And the general public turn to their trusted networks for questions i.e. “You work with computers, what is this fuss about Facebook privacy I read on The Wall Street Journal?” or “Why does your face show up on top when I Google something?”

All of these problems have the same baseline issue: lack of education.

So what do we do?

Well I think it’s up to companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple to get together to figure out how to fix this. Yes they may be competitors but they have the brainpower, resources, network and reach to take the first step towards improved public education. Just like how we are informed about drugs (D.A.R.E.), disease (World AIDS Day, breast cancer awareness campaigns, etc.) and homosexuality.

After all regardless of profession, everyone is first and foremost a human. And with education, comes greater understanding…at least in my ideal world. ;)

I Told You So: Groupon Edition #dailydeals

When I first Tweeted this in January, I received a lot of backlash as Groupon -along with the other daily deal sites- are tech’s darlings. Or shall I say were, as today Groupon announced their IPO filing. When the public read Groupon’s S-1 the Silicon Valley tech crowd seemed the most astonished by -GASP- Groupon actually losing money despite their profits.

At first glance, the YOY numbers are pretty impressive:

• 1Q 2011 Revenue: $644.7 million
• 2010 revenue: $713.4 million
• 2009 revenue: $30.47 million

And I’m not going to pretend a net loss of $146.5M wasn’t a tad surprising. And even more shocking is how Groupon hasn’t turned a net profit in any of its first three years of operations, including a net loss of $389.6 million in 2010.

But still. One doesn’t have to be an economist to see right through their faulty model. If you know how the Internet works, a scientific calculator is far from necessary to know: their customer acquisition budget is sky freakin’ high. How else did Groupon gain so much traction in such a short time? Google fairies?

What’s more baffling, is, even with these near comedic metrics, Groupon is still valuated at an astronomical figure. The founders and investors are walking away super wealthy. And I still stand by what I Tweeted back in January: Groupon’s legacy will be an economic dissertation or a B-school case study.

Though the real winner? Google.
For 1. not spending $6B because Groupon turned down the acquisition offer and 2. all the $ Groupon will continue spending on AdWords.

Either which way, I’m just glad the daily deal craze will finally slow down. I’m so sick of hearing how amazing Groupon et al. are, because frankly? They are not. Daily deals are (were?) a hot trend.  I’m ready for some innovation.  A product with such mind-blowing technology it will stun me stupid.

It’s days like these, I wish I was an engineer.

P.S. If anyone has any inkling on how much Groupon spends a month on Adwords, do share. I tried Googling with no luck. Even Quora didn’t have an answer.

Step Aside, Flickr. Instagram is Replacing You.

Poor Flickr.

For years, photographers and amateur photographers had only one hub: Flickr. I also used to be addicted to Flickr and made many great friends on there. It’s a huge bummer they became stagnant and really hard to use. I don’t even remember the last time I logged in…  And I noticed more and more of my friends using Facebook as their main outlet for photographs.

Enter Instagram.

Now I didn’t understand Instagram either, until I actually created an account and started using it. And the more I use it, the more it’s clear, Instagram is the next social platform for photographers. There are already ridiculous amounts of insanely talented photographers on there. I can’t wait to see the community keep growing.

So what makes Instagram so great? Well:

• discoverability with solid filtering. The noise to signal ratio is on. point.  From the popular page to following your immediate friend’s photos, to even seeing activities from your friends (what they liked, what they commented on, etc.) Reminds me of the FriendFeed friend of friend feature, but it’s filtered, so you can choose to look any time you want to and doesn’t clog your feed. (News -> Following)
• community: interaction is pretty much like Flickr, where people can talk to each other without reservations. Plus, you can use handles, which is rare for newer sites these days. Part of the reason so many Asians are on there, to protect their identities.
• shareability is seamless — such a smart implementation, perhaps the best out there.
• MOBILE — it’s in all CAPs because that’s how important mobility will become. I’m excited to see how Instragram will keep iterating its product. And when the Android app comes out? I think the adoption will snowball, trickling down to the mass.

Hopefully, the Instagram team is working on an archiving system with option to store photos at higher resolutions. But I still stand by my statement from a few weeks back: “Finally get Instagram. It’s like Flickr (community and discovery), Myspace-Livejournal (hot girls posting self portraits) but way better.”

If you’d like to connect on Instagram, my user ID is ‘monagram’

Bonus: Check out these two photos from me and Christine. We were at the same place, sitting next to the other, drinking the same thing but the photo, well, take a look.  It was so neat when it popped up in our feeds — we both said WOW at the same time.

Tuesday #nerdmusings

I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by so many brilliant people — even more so now than ever before. New York is in an interesting place, where there are tons of companies building products catering to the critical mass. The intersection of business minded teaming up with the technically savvy are more prevalent here, than in the Silicon Valley, and the problems they are solving aren’t ones created by the SV tech circle.

Which is a problem on its own.

A lot of successful companies solved a problem they created. Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, even Amazon are almost all products and / or services we could’ve lived without, but now inevitables. Frankly, I am torn, as innovation comes from the technically brilliant, offering things we never knew we wanted, needed and now cannot live without, but where is the limit? How do we get over the Silicon Valley myopia?

The other day, I met with a company working on a product that blew me away (I’ll eventually share who and what) and we discussed in depth consumer behaviors, needs and desires. We talked about flash mob buying and agreed how we don’t see them having sustainable business models. I’ve repeated how Groupon, Living Social, et al.’s legacies are going to be economic dissertations or a Wharton case study.

We moved on to the topic of location based services and how we believe if done right -whatever right may be- mass adoption is highly likely.

But the question still remains: is there a way to elegantly introduce the habit of checking in? Or even initiating action via QR codes?

I’m excited to see who will solve that problem and how.
Just some quick thoughts on a rainy April Tuesday afternoon.

Bonus: Morgan Stanley’s Mobile Internet Report (summary) — pretty neat deck.

McDonalds 33% check-in vs foot traffic: does it matter? #perspective

The buzz today seems to be about McDonalds and the ROI discrepancy but does it really matter for a brand the scope of McDonald’s?

Consider:

1. In 2008, McDonalds’ net profit was 4.3 billion dollars and their advertising budget was $823 billion
2. Foursquare Day took place on April 16th. Six months ago. McDonalds and Foursquare are still getting press
3. Of the 45 brands/businesses that participated, McDonalds is the only company still being mentioned in press

Looking at the above, I wonder what McDonalds’ goals for participating were and if 33% more check-ins or 33% increase in foot traffic really matters to McDonalds.

Just throwing it out there.