My Internet Notebook

a journal on software, mobile, marketing

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

WolframAlpha.com is Impressive

leave a comment

Within 5 seconds of going to WolframAlpha.com, I decided to enter this query just for fun, without much expectation.

“loan amount $400,000 interest rate 5%”

Wow, I was impressed. WolframAlpha.com just gave me exactly what I expected.

mortgage calculator WolframAlpha.com

Enter the same search phrase in Google.com, you got at least 4-5 steps away before you get the same information. I think WolframAlpha.com really found a niche to beat Google. A very welcome development in the search space.

Written by Y.

May 16th, 2009 at 10:07 am

Posted in Business

Social Apps Monetization Methods

leave a comment

Social apps, mostly games, on Facebook and MySpace can make a lot of money. As long as you have a good game play designed, you have a couple of monetization options that are commonly used/proven by the existing players today.

Virtual Goods

Players of social games are ready to pay for a) customization and decoration of the game environment; b) advancement in game levels. For example, Tencent made a lot of money with premium instant messaging, pet penguins, page decorations. Playdom did with clothing, weapons & adornment for cars, and advancement in the game. Zynga did with poker chips, mystery crates, home improvements, flame throwers. (Via: paidcontent.org)

Free v.s. Pro

Games designed with two or multiple levels of players can charge for a Pro experience. For example, in Playfish games “Who Has The Biggest Brain?” and “Word Challenge?” users have the opportunty to access additional content by “Going Pro” payable either via payment methods like PayPal, PayMo or PayByCash, or by using affiliate programs such as Trial Pay.

Advertising

Social games can also monetizing their audience by advertising, with direct or through a ad network. For direct advertising to work, you probably will have to already have a sizable player audience so that direct advertisers are willing to work with you.

For advertising through an ad network, you have quite a few options: Offerpal Media, adparlor.com, tattomedia.com, Super Rewards, etc.

If you are still looking for evidence on whether there is a serious business in social applications and social gaming, just take a look at the big players such as Zynga, Playfish, Playdom, SGN, RockYou, Slide and how much venture capital money they have raised so far.

Written by Y.

May 7th, 2009 at 9:02 am

Posted in Business,Web2.0

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Recession and Innovation

leave a comment

microsoftontheissues.com carried the full transcript of Mr. Ballmer’s speech at the Democratic Caucus Retreat.

It is a fascinating read, a refreshing take on the current economical situation from a business person’s perspective, without beating the dead horse (a.k.a the wall street). He strongly believes that technology innovation is one of the three forces that is going to save the day again. Interestingly, he highlighted user experience and cloud computing as the next phase of technology transformation: “The next few years are going to see dramatic changes in the way you interact with technology: touch, gestures, handwriting, speech recognition.” and “these trends are going to help create a computing platform that extends from PCs and phones and TVs out into the massive storage and connectivity out in the Internet. ”

You should go read the piece.

Written by Y.

February 6th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

Posted in Business

Is Seamless Online Offline Computing Finally Coming?

leave a comment

In a NY Times article: Adobe Blurs Line Between PC and Web – New York Times, John Markoff features Adobe’s fisrt official release of AIR, a runtime that allows online applications (i.e. browser based applications) to be taken offline (i.e. disconnected desktop application).

This is clearly going to have big implications for the existing software developers and companies because all existing applications have to be re-written to take advantage of the capability of AIR. But the advantage is that potentially your applications could also work on many types of devices (such as advanced mobile phone) if and when Adobe ports their AIR runtime to these mobile platforms.

As with all things software, the concept is clearly very good. But there will be a number of players that all want to be the de-facto standard bearer for the new paradigm. So Adobe is not alone in this space.

Small players like OpenLazlo and Xcerion are creating “Web-top” or “Web operating systems” intended to move applications and data off the PC desktop and into the Internet through the Web browser.

Mozilla has created a system known as Prism. Sun Microsystems introduced JavaFX. Google is testing a system called Gears. Microsoft is pushing its alternative to Flash, called Silverlight.

Written by Y.

February 25th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

Posted in Business,Web2.0

Listen and Win

leave a comment

I rarely post on political issues on this blog. But Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s recent win in New Hampshire primary warrants some very interesting mentioning. Not because of this win’s importance one way or the other, but because of how she attributed her success and I quote:

"over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process, I found my own voice. I felt like we all spoke from our hearts, and I am so gratified that you responded."

This can’t be more true in software business as well. If you, whether you are CEO, CTO, product marketing or product manager, listen to your customers and markets, you will eventually win. 

Written by Y.

January 9th, 2008 at 11:35 am

Posted in Business,Software