News

eBay searches for future growth

marco Leave a comment

eBay’s growth slowed down in the last year(s). One of the major reactions to slowing down growth rates is to shift from a seller-centric approach to a buyer-centric approach. A sea change! For now the main focus is to advance search results (as eBay has a ever changing inventory).

In a recent article from FastCompany titled “eBay’s Chaos Theory” we learn:

“We haven’t even released an eighth of what we’ve done,” says Billingsley. “That’s what excites me. It hasn’t even begun.” Customized pages are in the works. More social-commerce features. An eBay to Go widget with your favorite auction listings to post on your Web site or your MySpace page, complete with a clock to remind you to bid before it’s too late. It all sounds good.

I am very curious how the currently introduced and the upcoming changes will help eBay to get back to a higher growth rate of soled items. Exciting times!

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Rebuilding Hollywood in Silicon Valley’s image

marco Leave a comment

Marc Andreessen has written a very interesting post about the current writer’s strike in Hollywood.

The writers’ strike, and the studios’ response to the strike, may radically accelerate a structural shift in the media industry — a shift of power from studios and conglomerates towards creators and talent.

We all stay tuned what the outcome will look like and if this really accelerates the shit he describes in his post.

Ze Frank says:

Download Link: Ze Frank on the Hollywood writers’ strike.

Let me know if you find other interesting articles about this topic!

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Are you ready for mobile ads?

marco Leave a comment

There is a very long article today in the WallStreetJournal called Coming Soon to Cellphone Screens — More Ads Than Ever.

Several US Mobile phone operators seem to test how they will be deploying ads on your mobile phone. Yahoo! seems to have a deal already that is placing it on the go2 directory where you find e.g. the nearest restaurant on your phone. In the new search results Yahoo! ads will be placed. Carriers using go2 search and having the links are Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Cingular Wireless.

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Utilizing a corporate blog for company communication

marco Leave a comment

More and more companies are using corporate blogs as part of their (marketing) communication.
But a blog should be a way to open up to your customers. Another example is the new corporate blog of Dell like Micropersuation writes:

Dell Starts Corporate Blog, But Fails to Address Critical Issues
More importantly, Dell really failed to get the blog going the way that they could have. This was a golden opportunity for the company. They could use the blog to engage the community in a genuine conversation on the critical issues that have dogged them for years now as well as the good things they are doing.

Is your company using or planning to use a corporate blog? What are your experiences with corporate blogs?

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Advertising in Blogs and Banner Blindness

marco Leave a comment

Forrester finds (via DM News) in their Report ,”Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch in 2006,” that the spending for advertising on the Internet is mostly e-mail, search, contextual targeting, and rich media. The advertisers are curious about social media things (like blogs) but do not plan to get “into the game” yet…
Let’s find out who will be the first to go deeply into social media advertising! And who will be left behind.

The Nielsen/Normal Group (via Clickz.com) reports that: Internet Users Plagued by Banner Blindness.
An eye-tracking study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group finds Internet users avoid viewing banner ads. Text advertising is read more often than display ads, according to the research.

So should the advertisers make the Internet not “too flashy”? And what kind of advertising should sites like YouTube use if the banner is competing videos?

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Podcasting, Audio, Video and iTunes

marco Leave a comment

There is a really good article on Wired today: podcasting after iTunes. If you want to learn the (still short and young) history of podcasting give it a read!

You also gets a little into video podcasting or video blogging. The ratio audio-video is about 10-to-1. And if we take the whole picture we maybe have text-audio-video radio of 100-to-10-to-1. So maybe if you plan to “do something” with blogging… You will find less competition with rising “production efforts”. But on the other side video will be consumed less time than e. g. audio…

What will you go for?

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