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Connectivity equals productivity, here’s a powerful reminder.

Published on August 30, 2010 in business, mobile, technology and video. View Comments

I think this TED Talk by Iqbal Quadir is a poignant and powerful reminder that connectivity equals productivity. For those of us who use the web and smart mobile devices daily, it’s easy to forget just how much these enable greater productivity, even if some of our time is spent on more trivial or entertaining activities.

In this inspiring, embedded video, social entrepreneur Iqbal Quadir tells how his experiences as a kid in Bangladesh, and later as an investment banker in New York, led him to start a mobile phone operator connecting 80 million rural Bangladeshi.

In the process, he became a champion of bottom-up development, rather than giving increasing amounts of aid money to top down development, which seems not to be working very well, if at all. In fact, he maintains that it only empowers authorities to maginalise citizens. Even in countries that have grown rich from oil reserves, autocratic regimes have grown hugely wealthy, while poverty among citizens remains entrenched.

Enter Iqbal Quadir. Not long ago in Bangladesh, only one in 500 people had access to a telephone. Quadir points out that “Vasts amounts of wasted time results. The only way people can depend on each other is to connect to each other, which leads to productivity.”

Watch the video to find out how he overcame the significant hurdles involved in what turned out to be a massive connectivity project and business. How could poor people afford to use mobile phones? Who would invest in such a project in such a poor country? This video is a must see.

via Entrepreneur

Report: 5 year Aussie digital media outlook not looking too shabby, mate.

Published on August 3, 2010 in Australia, business, mobile, politics and technology. View Comments

A comprehensive new report released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the Australian entertainment and media industry will grow by 28 percent over the next five years, at a predicted compound annual growth rate of 5.1 percent. This means that the industry is forecast to increase its revenue to $36.2 billion by 2014.

Newspapers and the changing media landscape

Unsurprisingly, magazines, newspapers and radio aren’t expected to lead the way in terms of growth. In fact, in 2009 the Australian newspaper market shrank by 11.4 percent. However, the PwC report expects that a compound annual growth rate of 1.8 percent will be sustained through to 2014. This includes revenues from newspaper websites of course.

However you look at it, the future for traditional newspapers doesn’t look particularly great. Clearly, major changes are taking place in the media landscape and media organisations running newspapers are (somewhat desperately) attempting to figure out how to continue to remain viable into the future. Everywhere you look people are taking about what’s going to happen. Just yesterday I was reading an interesting blog post by Malcolm Turnbull on the subject:  Twitter, Newspapers, New Media – Some Observations.

Increasing national broadband speeds and access?

David Wiadrowski, head of technology, information, communications and entertainment at PwC, states that, “With machines in homes becoming smarter, people sharing information through social networks and data being stored in clouds the appetite for content and speed strengthens. High-speed broadband connectivity is an opportunity to satisfy consumers’ growing appetites”.

I have no argument with this, however, given that the federal Opposition’s policy going into the imminent federal election is to call a halt to the building of the new National Broadband Network if elected, it remains to be seen whether broadband speeds in Australian will actually get the boost that is required. We’ll have to wait and see on that one. Personally, I’d like to see the new network built as soon as possible.

In any case, the report expects the local internet industry to grow from $7 billion in 2009 to $10.6 billion in 2014. Wireless broadband is the fastest growing kind of internet access.

Online social networking is also making a large contribution to growth in Australia. As I pointed out recently, Australians spend the most time social networking in the world. When I mentioned this on Twitter, a couple of people (only half jokingly) pointed out that “it’s because our TV is so crap”.

High growth in interactive gaming

The report observes that interactive gaming was the strongest performer of the industry sectors during 2009, and bucked the global financial crisis to grow by 7.7 percent. The prediction here is that gaming will continue to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 9.4 percent, to reach $2.5 billion in 2014. Growth from both online and mobile games is expected to account for the highest growth. Annual compound growth rates for online games and mobile games are expected to rise by 20.4 percent and 15.7 percent respectively.

Digital downloading expected to go ballistic

While filmed entertainment in general bucked the local economic slowdown to grow by 7.1 percent during 2009, in-home digital downloading is forecast to grow by a huge 117.8 percent per year to reach $126 million in 2014. Obviously, this only counts paid-for downloads. $126 million is surely only the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential future revenue from digital downloads.

Demand for DVDs is still expected to be strong for a few years until we see significant improvements in internet speeds and data download limits. Again, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the roll out of the National Broadband Network. There will be a lot of people in the industry hoping this goes ahead as soon as possible, and that when it does, prices are not steep.

Are these predictions in line with your expectations of the next few years on the Australian media and entertainment scene? Let me know your thoughts.

10 examples of businesses in Australia already using Foursquare for marketing.

Published on July 29, 2010 in Australia, Facebook, Foursquare, business, mobile and social media. View Comments

This is part 2 of a two part post about businesses in Australia using Foursquare. Part 1, ‘Local businesses: to use Foursquare (yet) or not, that is the question’, can be found here.

So let’s take a look at what some businesses have been doing with Foursquare in Australia so far. Who are some of these initial experimenters and what are they up to?  There are of course many more examples than I’ve described below.

Café Foursquare Specials

There are many Foursquare Specials already being run by cafés in Australia. In fact, loyalty programs run by cafés, bars and restaurants seem to make up the bulk of all Foursquare specials right now, and perhaps into the future. Here’s just one with a bit of a difference in my hometown.

VIVO Café in Sydney (the George St location) is offering a free coffee with your meal when you check–in. In addition, Angela Vithoulkas, Director of VIVO Café tells me that VIVO is currently inviting people to unlock the Foursquare ‘Swarm’ Badge at the a VIVO Cafe Swarm event, with five dollars of the fifteen dollar cost of a specific meal going to the Sydney Community Foundation.

One thing I noticed about VIVO when I visited the café and met with Angela, is that this particular café is located very close to the Sydney Apple Store, so when you check–in to the Apple Store (which I did before going there), you see an in–app banner notifying you of the “Special Nearby”.

Apple Store on Foursquare

At present, there would have to be a higher percentage of Foursquare users visiting tech stores such as this than many other places in Sydney, so that’s certainly an added bonus for a nearby venue with a Foursquare special.

Multi–City Chain Venue Specials

The Wagamama chain of restaurants offers a Foursquare special that consists of a complimentary miso soup with every main meal, for every fifth check–in. If you’re the Foursquare Mayor you get a free juice with any main meal.

Wagamama has also trialled Twitter tweetups as a way to incorporate social media into the restaurant experience. Michael Fieldcom, who has been involved with their social media strategy, tells me they have run ‘sneak-peeks’ of the new menu to various social media groups. People receive a free meal from the new menu in advance of its release. The sneak peeks are being held at five restaurant locations around Australia.

Ah tweetups, that takes my mind back to the very first Sydney Tweetup in mid 2007, which I co-organised. Twitter was a LOT smaller back then, that’s for sure :)

Curve Cafe + Bar at Vibe Hotel (also at their other venues, including Melbourne) for every second checkin is offering a “buy a drink and get a drink for a friend” deal, plus if you’re the Foursquare mayor you receive a “buy one get one free meal”.

Considering how easy it is to become the mayor in these early days of Foursquare, that’s not a bad deal at all.

Grill’d restaurants in both Melbourne and Sydney are offering a free Mini Chips with a burger or steak sandwich purchase. If you’re the mayor you get a free burger on Fridays.

Corporate Foursquare Special + Meetup

A Microsoft Office Mayor Meetup was held in Martin Place (a central CBD location) back in mid June. Organised by agency Ogilvy 360, Microsoft hosted the “world’s first Foursquare Office Mayor Meetup”, for the launch of Microsoft Office 2010.

Foursquare office-types were encouraged to check–in at the meetup to receive a copy of Office 2010. The first 110 office mayors to queue up got copies, and 300 Office Mayor Meetup t-shirts were also available. 141 people ended up checking in at the meetup.

Potential Local Foursquare Special Clusters?

You know how people often copy what plants and features their neighbours have in their front yard? Well it only stands to reason that we may find that Foursquare offers take off in certain areas in clusters, as venues see other venues in the area take the initiative. “What’s that window cling they have there? Foursquare? What’s that?”.

Melt Bar in Kings Cross, Sydney is offering a “Staff price round of drinks on your 3rd check in”. And just along the road a bit, BurgerFuel is also offering a “buy one, get one free” offer, if you check–in with Foursquare and you bring a friend along.

Not only Food and Drinks

In Brisvegas, at Casa Perdomo, I see an offer for one free Perdomo Cigar for every new visitor who checks in for the first time. Also in Brisbane at Anytime Fitness, I see a free 7 day pass  is available on check–in; a pretty standard gym promo offer.

At the rather exclusive Sanctuary Cove resort on the Gold Coast, I see that Harry’s, boutique is offering a “Check–in and sign up as a VIP to receive a $25 voucher for your next purchase.” deal.

Over in Perth, I see that Connections Nightclub is offering free entry on Friday or Saturday if you check–in before 1am.

On the travel front, in Adelaide the South Australia Visitor and Travel Centre is offering a third night free if you check–in and book a 2 night stay from them.

These are just some examples of Australian businesses using Foursquare right now. As I said at the beginning, there are plenty of others too. If you have any other new and noteworthy examples of Australian businesses using Foursquare already, feel free to tell us about them in the comments.

If you are part of an Australian business and would like to get involved with Foursquare, and would like help with how to approach it for your specific business, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

Local businesses: to use Foursquare (yet) or not, that is the question (part 1).

Published on July 27, 2010 in Australia, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, business, mobile and social media. View Comments

This is part 1 of a two part post about businesses in Australia using Foursquare. Part 2, ‘10 examples of businesses in Australia already using Foursquare for marketing’, can be found here.

Foursquare only arrived in Australia last November, just 8 months ago. Needless to say, it’s still fairly early days for the location-based service on these (digital) shores.

Foursquare Window Cling

I’m not exactly sure how many Foursquare users there are in Australia right now, but according to one source, there are at least 60,000 in Sydney. It would be great to get a current, official number from the company (none has been forthcoming from the company by the time of this post). It has however been confirmed by Foursquare that they have passed 100 million checkins and have over 2 million users worldwide. This is not huge compared to the likes of Facebook, with now over 500 million users, or Twitter with well over 100 million, but as I said, it’s still early days.

I remember back when Twitter had about 2 million users and was a relatively small community locally. It’s taken about 4 years to go from zero to over 100 million users. It’s changed quite a bit, especially from a marketing standpoint!  With Foursquare, the second million users have been collected in just three months, and they have recently raised $20 million in funding for further development. However, Facebook has flagged that it will be launching a location feature soon, so it’ll be interesting to see how that impacts Foursquare’s fast growing user base.

Forrester has just come out with some research that suggests that Foursquare is still too small for major agencies and their clients to be bothered with, as even in the U.S. only 4% of adults online have ever used location-based mobile apps. Whereas, more than 11% of adults online have used Twitter and an estimated 28% of all internet users have signed up for Facebook.

Well it might be correct to say that in many cases, but I’m here to say that this certainly doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t be used right now in certain circumstances, especially as Foursquare has the potential to be beneficial for many small and medium enterprises, as well at larger companies. I think it all depends on how and why you intend to use it, and how you approach using it.

For instance, if you are wanting to attract tech savvy early adopters (who are all using up-to-date mobile devices and using mobile data regularly) to your business or service , and there are plenty of businesses who would like to do that, why wouldn’t you think about giving it a go? Quite a few of these people are also likely to be heavy users of services such as Twitter and Facebook, which Foursquare checkins are often crossposted to. This group is also also more likely to write blogs.

Foursquare is also at the stage where, if you are a business using it to attract new customers and to reward loyal customers, you might actually get some welcome free media attention (traditional or otherwise) for taking the initiative. This certainly happened when Twitter started to catch on. Journalists take notice of local examples of wider tech and social media trends being used.

When Twitter eventually broke into mass pop culture, when celebrities started using it and talking about it, and it started being the talk of tv the talkshow circuit, some businesses and individuals who had been using it for quite a while benefited from already having experience with this new communications tool. They were one step ahead of the pack.

Could it be similar with Foursquare? Not sure but it’s certainly possible. Time will tell.

So, having said that, in my next post I’m going to take a look at what some businesses have been doing with Foursquare so far in Australia. Who are some of these initial experimenters and what have they been doing with it?

What are your thoughts on businesses using Foursquare at this stage?

Part 2, ‘10 examples of businesses in Australia already using Foursquare for marketing’.

How do you use Posterous or Tumblr? Here’s how I do.

Published on July 5, 2010 in blogging, mobile and social media. View Comments

Posterous

Today came the news that Posterous has grown by over 700 percent during the past year. As TechCrunch points out, Tumblr has been around for longer and is seeing around 23 million unique visitors a month, and Posterous (launched in June, 2008) is now seeing around 5.3 million a month.

The increased growth in Posterous over the past year seems to be in no small part due to its introduction of an iPhone app that allows you to post photos and thoughts. Even without the app, it’s easy enough to email content in from a mobile device, which is my preferred method if I’m mobile. It’s also easy to cross-post to other services such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and many others, even WordPress.

So, if you use either Tumblr or Posterous, how do you use them? I’ve found myself using Posterous on a increasingly regular basis lately. I’ve tried both these services over the years. Although I think it’s good, I gave up on my Tumblr account because I couldn’t really think of a decent use for it. I found that I already had more than enough to be going on with. I guess it just wasn’t the right time for me.

Having said that, later when I found out about Posterous and tried it, I found the fact that you can send images via email from a mobile device very handy. In addition to using it for posting various images and videos from my iPhone, I’ve also found myself using it for increasingly regular posts on various subjects I’m interested in that don’t fit the theme of this blog.

It’s really a way for me to discover and comment on additional themes and subjects I’m interested in, and to share them with others. Maybe some of these thoughts will turn into other more substantial projects later on, maybe not, but for now it seems an appropriate place to experiment. Also, sometimes the 140 character limit of Twitter is just not enough.

How about you? Do you use either Tumblr of Posterous, and in what way? Feel free to share your URL in comments.

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