On January 19th China Internet Information Center announced that Number of Internet users in China rose to astonishing 500 million. By the end of 2010 the total number of Internet users in China increased by 73.3 million people compared to the end of 2009 and reached 457 million people. The prevalence of the Internet in China has grown to 34,3%.
The numbers are outrageous, and for you to perceive the giganticness of the plot here are little examples: the number of active users of QQ -instant messenger- is more than the population of Russia!And YES it is more than population of the United States by somewhat 40 million!! According to the report, the number of the Chinese going online via mobile phones amounted to 303 million people. In 2010, 78.4% of Chinese Internet users accessed Internet using desktops, 66,2% - by phone and 45.7% via notebooks. Xinhua reported ,that last year the number of Chinese visitors to online stores increased by 48.6% compared to the previous year stats.
Though Network security is a painful issue in China.For example, according to the center's info in 2010, 45.8% of Chinese Internet users faced nasty attacks by computer viruses, 21,8% of users complained about stolen password or login. But it is not even the scariest other side of excessive internet exposure and consumption. In line with headlines about Beijing planning to build the world's largest network of Wi-Fi in 2011,(building of Wi-Fi network in Beijing began in the year prior to the Olympics. Wi-Fi helped make business even more mobile and rapid for Chinese people) were much more disturbing ones publicizing the GAMING ADDICTION.
Here are the sad facts behind largest online users body.
The incident occurred Sunday afternoon at an Internet bar located within big city Chongqing. Witnesses described how a group of youngster began to fight over some computer game. But the argument went as far as using knifes and heavy metal rails."computer geniuses" killed five young people about 20 years young. Online induced motive crimes kept piling up.
Everyone became aware of teenage "gaming addiction" in China, which often leads to distinct destructive consequences. Thus,according to the Beijing Public Security Bureau, 76% of crime among teenagers in some degree IS motivated by an addiction to online games.The dependence on online gambling was officially recognized to be mental disorder.
"Almost four million young Chinese are addicted to Internet and display passion for "unhealthy" online games," said representative committee of the People's Congress of China.
According to him, "almost 10% of Internet users over 18 years old, suffer from Internet addiction. "
China was quick to respond with Chinese authorities tightening control over online games and their content.At least they said so. Also they planned to introduce such a game technology, that would automatically disable the program after several hours of continuous use.
Do you believe these measures would be enough? Is it possible to stop bloody murderous games from making billions of yuan to their producers? How far can they go with "controlling contest"? With piracy and black markets thriving I think nothing can stop teenagers from wasting away their lives in front of display with guts exposing kills on a favorite online game.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Mobile payments: cashing in on convinience
Starbucks-the most famous network of coffee houses in the US announced launch of mobile payments through Starbucks Card Mobile App available now in more than 1,000 stores in different states across the nation. Starbucks Card Mobile App allows you to pay for purchases in an ultra super cool way - with your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Starbucks began testing mobile payment in autumn 2009,reportedly in more than a dozen coffee shops of the West Coast. Particularly in Seattle and Silicon Valley. The new know how approach appeared quite successful encouraging the Company to implement it everywhere else. The Starbucks Card Mobile Application grants some bonuses, after downloading it to your iPhone or iPod Touch, bar code that appears on the display can now be used as the Starbucks Card, while carrying all the advantages of traditional registered membership cards,it will include free syrup or milk, brewed coffee may be topped up at no additional charge during the visits to coffee shops plus two hours of free Wi-Fi from AT & T a day. Besides mobile payment, Starbucks Card Mobile allows customers to register their Starbucks Card, check their balance and top up account with primary credit card.
As new and exciting this step seems to be it's no news that we breached into “Near Field Communication (NFC)" era and as Jim Greenwell ( Jim Greenwell ),the CEO of BilltoMobile, says :"the service continues to develop rapidly in the U.S., where mobile payments only began to be used in comparison with Europe and Asia." It is well known that leading providers of mobile communication in the U.S. tapped in the business of mobile payment systems. American operators T-Mobile , AT & T and Verizon Wireless want to create a mechanism which will enable bank cards to be replaced by mobile phones.
The wallets and purses of American citizens contain about one billion credit and debit cards from thousands of financial institutions, informs Bloomberg. Well-known credit card market giants Visa and MasterCard generate income of several billion dollars annually just processing the payments and the transactions. Now they are interested in mobile operations.
In addition,bank Barclay and Discover Financial Services have been reported to be interested in entering the project. True testing of contact-less mobile payments actually has begun in Atlanta. For example, during the trial, Atlanta Thrashers and Hawks season ticket holders with Chase-issued Visa credit accounts and Cingular Wireless accounts can pay with their phones at concession stands and access mobile content from numerous locations throughout the arena. So,in the new world to pay for goods and services, the customers will need to sway their mobile phone near a cashier scanner.
Dear reader, remember that the services of a contactless mobile payments became recently popular in quite a few countries,so now in Japan, Turkey and Britain, users can make payments from app accounts on their mobile devices or from bank account, directly connected to it.
So long, Tatiana Kasimtseva.
Starbucks began testing mobile payment in autumn 2009,reportedly in more than a dozen coffee shops of the West Coast. Particularly in Seattle and Silicon Valley. The new know how approach appeared quite successful encouraging the Company to implement it everywhere else. The Starbucks Card Mobile Application grants some bonuses, after downloading it to your iPhone or iPod Touch, bar code that appears on the display can now be used as the Starbucks Card, while carrying all the advantages of traditional registered membership cards,it will include free syrup or milk, brewed coffee may be topped up at no additional charge during the visits to coffee shops plus two hours of free Wi-Fi from AT & T a day. Besides mobile payment, Starbucks Card Mobile allows customers to register their Starbucks Card, check their balance and top up account with primary credit card.
As new and exciting this step seems to be it's no news that we breached into “Near Field Communication (NFC)" era and as Jim Greenwell ( Jim Greenwell ),the CEO of BilltoMobile, says :"the service continues to develop rapidly in the U.S., where mobile payments only began to be used in comparison with Europe and Asia." It is well known that leading providers of mobile communication in the U.S. tapped in the business of mobile payment systems. American operators T-Mobile , AT & T and Verizon Wireless want to create a mechanism which will enable bank cards to be replaced by mobile phones.
The wallets and purses of American citizens contain about one billion credit and debit cards from thousands of financial institutions, informs Bloomberg. Well-known credit card market giants Visa and MasterCard generate income of several billion dollars annually just processing the payments and the transactions. Now they are interested in mobile operations.
In addition,bank Barclay and Discover Financial Services have been reported to be interested in entering the project. True testing of contact-less mobile payments actually has begun in Atlanta. For example, during the trial, Atlanta Thrashers and Hawks season ticket holders with Chase-issued Visa credit accounts and Cingular Wireless accounts can pay with their phones at concession stands and access mobile content from numerous locations throughout the arena. So,in the new world to pay for goods and services, the customers will need to sway their mobile phone near a cashier scanner.
Dear reader, remember that the services of a contactless mobile payments became recently popular in quite a few countries,so now in Japan, Turkey and Britain, users can make payments from app accounts on their mobile devices or from bank account, directly connected to it.
So long, Tatiana Kasimtseva.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
In the pitfall : music piracy
The new age entangled with web net is here and escaping it or not addressing issues that arise from ever reaching internet and users sharing is a pityful strategy. 95% of of music sales in China are of pirated copies
In Russia the number of pirates is approximately equal to the number of users. There are dozens of websites that provide free downloads for registraition or for nothing. But if you would want to be a paying customer and use ITunes that's where you run into many problems. The question of payment methods while shopping at iTunes store is figured all out for residents of Europe and the U.S. But what about Russians? Credit cards though well few years into introduction to the consumers , are still extremely rare and pricing in dollars against low wages in Russia makes it unpleasantly out of reach.One way out could be the introduction of iTunes in the payment system widely used in terminals for cell phone credits. I believe that if a person wants to receive media content fair way, the providers of service need firstly provide hassle-free way to pay. Then the situation might change as a lot of russians endure happiness through consumption and paying for things like music makes us feel good.
Here is what Jake Smith from the department of customer support in a major music store TuneCore has to say about it "It is useless to deal with changes in consumer behavior. In the old days, the biggest threat were the cassettes, that recorded music from radio. Piracy stinks, but as long as the music is being recorded, there is a danger of theft. "
According to Smith, only producers and distributors who stop fighting and resisting the progress and concentrate on selling goods that cannot be stolen and the quality of goods rather than quantity,will lead musicians to success in this uneasy market.Bono published his statement on worldwide issue of internet piracy in New York Times
"A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business." And as much as the world loves everything Bono does, but even he himself was surprised how much of negative response he got from online crowd. The problem of free use seems to root deeper and deeper. Artists are struggling to get contracts with record labels. The revenues have fallen sharply. Enthusiasts who are trying to establish legit and acceptable means of earning money in the music world, are now steamed by piracy . According to the latest data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI),(IFPI's mission is to promote the value of recorded music, safeguard the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music in all markets where its members operate) 95 percent of all downloaded music is illegally obtained. Record companies with a century long history in many countries, from Spain to Brazil, are nearing bancruptcy. Independent study, initiated by trade unions, informed us that the creative industries in Europe could lose more than a million jobs over the next five years.
If I would try to express crisis in the music industry over the past ten years in a singe word, that would be the word "free." The digital revolution has made music free. Now the same thing starts to happen to movies and books. For many years music business, musicians and creative businesses, governments and regulators are confronted with this new concept of "free". As consumers we love "free", but for creators seeking reward for their work, this word has become a nightmare. In recent years the music industry tried to fight "free of charge with free, looking for income from advertising, merchandising, sponsorships, and these efforts brought little success. "Free" is and will stay the biggest problem of the creative industry.
Tower Records and Virgin Records ceased to exist, and many independent shops are nearing the same bleak future.
In Russia the number of pirates is approximately equal to the number of users. There are dozens of websites that provide free downloads for registraition or for nothing. But if you would want to be a paying customer and use ITunes that's where you run into many problems. The question of payment methods while shopping at iTunes store is figured all out for residents of Europe and the U.S. But what about Russians? Credit cards though well few years into introduction to the consumers , are still extremely rare and pricing in dollars against low wages in Russia makes it unpleasantly out of reach.One way out could be the introduction of iTunes in the payment system widely used in terminals for cell phone credits. I believe that if a person wants to receive media content fair way, the providers of service need firstly provide hassle-free way to pay. Then the situation might change as a lot of russians endure happiness through consumption and paying for things like music makes us feel good.
Here is what Jake Smith from the department of customer support in a major music store TuneCore has to say about it "It is useless to deal with changes in consumer behavior. In the old days, the biggest threat were the cassettes, that recorded music from radio. Piracy stinks, but as long as the music is being recorded, there is a danger of theft. "
According to Smith, only producers and distributors who stop fighting and resisting the progress and concentrate on selling goods that cannot be stolen and the quality of goods rather than quantity,will lead musicians to success in this uneasy market.Bono published his statement on worldwide issue of internet piracy in New York Times
"A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business." And as much as the world loves everything Bono does, but even he himself was surprised how much of negative response he got from online crowd. The problem of free use seems to root deeper and deeper. Artists are struggling to get contracts with record labels. The revenues have fallen sharply. Enthusiasts who are trying to establish legit and acceptable means of earning money in the music world, are now steamed by piracy . According to the latest data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI),(IFPI's mission is to promote the value of recorded music, safeguard the rights of record producers and expand the commercial uses of recorded music in all markets where its members operate) 95 percent of all downloaded music is illegally obtained. Record companies with a century long history in many countries, from Spain to Brazil, are nearing bancruptcy. Independent study, initiated by trade unions, informed us that the creative industries in Europe could lose more than a million jobs over the next five years.
If I would try to express crisis in the music industry over the past ten years in a singe word, that would be the word "free." The digital revolution has made music free. Now the same thing starts to happen to movies and books. For many years music business, musicians and creative businesses, governments and regulators are confronted with this new concept of "free". As consumers we love "free", but for creators seeking reward for their work, this word has become a nightmare. In recent years the music industry tried to fight "free of charge with free, looking for income from advertising, merchandising, sponsorships, and these efforts brought little success. "Free" is and will stay the biggest problem of the creative industry.
Tower Records and Virgin Records ceased to exist, and many independent shops are nearing the same bleak future.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Having onling privacy issues?
Today fighting for consumers’ privacy is considered a popular trend. I bet you every user would like to know if his or her rights for privacy were disregarded by pushy advertising companies. It’s a fact that 70% of American consumers would never allow marketers to follow their actions online even if done so anonymously.
Of course many customers willingly share private information with companies. However businesses mindfully and purposely stimulate your personal information spill without informing you of arising risks. Let’s see what an expert Tim Vanderhook thinks about security issues consumers can experience while online. Tim is the CEO of Specific Media, advertising company that works with 80 million of unique users worldwide by implementing demographic, contextual and behavioral targeting. He is arguing that the online privacy issues are overgrown out of proportion mentioning that traditional marketing channels allow for even easier and more explicit sharing and selling of your information especially Personally Identifying Information PII and Non-PII between organizations. Buying a car, pharmaceuticals, applying for credit card or loan please be aware that your information will be sold to other companies. In case of Specific Media the company is gathering Non-PII allowing customers to control their evolvement and exposure at all levels.
FTC in attempt to protect the users from unwanted tracking while browsing and nosing through desires, habits and preferences by advertising companies has sent 79 page report with recommendations on how to regulate targeted internet advertisement and behavioral marketing to major browser conductors, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. In this document FTC is asking web based companies to comment on these proposals and may be turn up new ones in the matter of next two months.
Specifically, FTC is planning to limit activity of companies, who are gathering private information of users, following them in Net without consensus or mere knowledge of consumers, and selling passing on that information to interested parties. According to article in The New York Times such regulations can measurably influence multibillion business of personalized marketing.
For now the users who desire to enjoy privacy and turn off behavioral targting need to either change their safety settings in their browser or download specific plug-ins.
Of course many customers willingly share private information with companies. However businesses mindfully and purposely stimulate your personal information spill without informing you of arising risks. Let’s see what an expert Tim Vanderhook thinks about security issues consumers can experience while online. Tim is the CEO of Specific Media, advertising company that works with 80 million of unique users worldwide by implementing demographic, contextual and behavioral targeting. He is arguing that the online privacy issues are overgrown out of proportion mentioning that traditional marketing channels allow for even easier and more explicit sharing and selling of your information especially Personally Identifying Information PII and Non-PII between organizations. Buying a car, pharmaceuticals, applying for credit card or loan please be aware that your information will be sold to other companies. In case of Specific Media the company is gathering Non-PII allowing customers to control their evolvement and exposure at all levels.
FTC in attempt to protect the users from unwanted tracking while browsing and nosing through desires, habits and preferences by advertising companies has sent 79 page report with recommendations on how to regulate targeted internet advertisement and behavioral marketing to major browser conductors, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. In this document FTC is asking web based companies to comment on these proposals and may be turn up new ones in the matter of next two months.
Specifically, FTC is planning to limit activity of companies, who are gathering private information of users, following them in Net without consensus or mere knowledge of consumers, and selling passing on that information to interested parties. According to article in The New York Times such regulations can measurably influence multibillion business of personalized marketing.
For now the users who desire to enjoy privacy and turn off behavioral targting need to either change their safety settings in their browser or download specific plug-ins.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Branding, advertising, intergating
Integrated marketing is considerably new definition for mash up of above and below the line marketing strategies met with digital age and unprecedented reach. But from where I stand integrated marketing has been around quite long producing Wow results, as marketing messages and pursuits integrated into our consciousness. By the time usual american (or at this point citizen of any country) grows up he or she can recognize hundreds of brands. Forget the recognition what about interaction with brands? Our brains are bombarded with colourful and catchy campaigns all our life. For a vivid example, even decades after the campaign "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should" has been takes down, most of americans, non-smokers and fresh generation included, when asked to continue the phrase "Winston tastes good" would easily spell it out. So the damage is done and the marketing images are forever inprinted in our brains, overloaded with sense baring and non-sense stuff floating around in airtime, radio waves,newspapers content, pop up messages. Even if you run far and away the flashy billboards and radio waves will find you to bring the message from the businesses to us, consuming nation.Yes,I have said it. Marketing is about getting the advertizing message through and deep into our minds; it is not about the sales.The sale comes down the stream and makes or breakes the company. Everything in business is sale driven. with its profit estimates or simply put hopes and It is amazing what goes into the process before our eyes can see the final result, which may look to us simple and naive, but in real life it took all the market and environment analysis, strategic planning, processes organization, control and implementation that is known to modern marketing and business endeavor. It seems a little bit more down the road of marketing innovation and insight and maketers would be able to distinguish our favorite car brand by the color of consumer's eyes. They already know our behavior, our buying power and our preferences better than we do, may be not better but deffinately more extensive and cumbersome. As consumer is getting smarter with his decisions when buying services or products so are the marketing gurus. The paradox though lies with companies who spend millions of dollars on campaigns, advertising and reaching out to consumer but still do not reach the final destination and do not integrate an idea of their product/services to be distinguished, desirable, recognized and bought.
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