32 posts tagged “web 2.0”
Users become more dependent on them for their central data storage.
[+] An ignored project of opening user profiles
A few days before the 512 earthquake in Sichuang, China, MySpace announced its plan of MySpace Data Availability, which was to open its users' profiles. A few days later, Facebook follow suit by launching Facebook Connect. The two companies, after the phase of opening their platforms for one year, have entered a new stage of open user profiles. Their plans were supposed to arouse extensive attention, yet they didn't draw too much attention of the press because it was overwhelmed by earthquake news.
What is open user profile? It is about allowing users the freedom to carry their social network profiles to other websites. One simple example: you can post your photo from your MySpace album on your Yahoo Messenger. Users are able to do so if Yahoo Messenger links to MySpace platform.
Such openness breaks the barriers between websites even further. As far as small- and medium-sized websites are concerned, open platform is about social network websites inviting them in to develop applications, while open user profile is about opening user profiles for them to do applications from the outside. The former is a centralized system with a social network website at its core, and the latter concerns exchange among websites on relatively equal terms.
What has been opened includes not only user registration data (e.g. names and addresses), blogs and photos but also users' friend lists - so that you can see if your MySpace friends log on the same website. Users can carry not only static data but also living relationships. The Internet has got to a point where the rules of the game have been constantly overwritten.
[+] Why open user profile?
Some people may think that these social network websites must have gone crazy to unconditionally open millions of their user profiles, and most important of all, the social network of users, they have accumulated for years. It is within users' discretion if they want their profiles open and to be accessed from other websites, yet should social network websites allow their users such an option that makes their user profiles available to other websites?
From the viewpoint of users, many of them have been fed up with filling personal registration data repeatedly. Web 2.0 websites in particular would ask you to provide loads of information of interests, hobbies and things, upload photos and most annoyingly, set up friend lists and invite your friends to join. Users may think: why can't I just use my MySpace friend list?
To streamline user registration process, small- and medium-sized Web 2.0 websites even encourage you to use the same ID you use to log on bigger websites. They, on one hand, access big social network websites' open platforms and develop small widgets to be embedded in big websites; on the other hand, they link to these social network websites' open profile plans so that users can carry their profiles with them.
It looks like small- and medium-sized Web 2.0 websites are getting more dependent on big social network websites. Indeed, the trend of opening up - both the platform and user profiles - has been pushing smaller Web 2.0 websites to lean on bigger social network websites. Smaller websites will find it harder to survive and get more attached to large social network websites which control the valuable and critical asset of user profiles.
[+] Demand for central storage of personal data
So, don't social network websites worry about small- and medium-sized websites stealing the data? Firstly, Westerners have high respect to users' privacy and it is a serious issue to access personal data without the owner's permission. Yet, even if the small- and medium-sized websites don't steal but just access and use the data normally, users may at the end turn to stick to them instead of the social network websites where they are from. Are these big websites not concerned?
The core of social network websites has been users' profiles and social relationships. Look at the illustration below that shows the four layers of the concept of social network websites. We can say that it is feasible for website operators to have third parties develop applications for them as long as they have good control of the core. As a matter of fact, users prefer to store their data in one single place, so social network websites will be taking up the role of data centers.
Imagine there is one place on the Internet where it is safe for you to store all your personal data. You can user your own discretion to access this data from other websites to save the effort to repeatedly fill in the same data, and when you move house, you only need to change your contact address once at this once place and the data at other websites will be automatically updated. Such convenience is beyond understanding in the Web 1.0 era.
No small- and medium-sized websites will be able to steal user profiles from big social network websites, and the significance of social network websites will not be reduced whatsoever. In fact, as social network websites are opening their user profiles to more other websites, their users become more dependent on them for their central data storage. The more you open, the better chance you have in the competition - this is the true meaning of online openness.
At the same time, what problems there will be when social network websites are becoming a personal data platform?
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Prev : Openness, where is it going to take us? (3)
Next : Openness, where is it going to take us? (5)
- Today in History
Openness, where is it going to take us? (4) - 2008/11/30
How Did Tablet PC End up in Failure - 2003/11/30
"To grow bigger" is an inevitable pressure rising from within.
[+] The Internet was born to be open.
The Internet was born to be open and free. Since the time when people established the underlying architecture of communications network, the Internet was endowed with the attributes of a decentralized architecture like its genes. Some negative impacts have come along, such as issues of online security and spams. Yet as such things are the consequences of the working of the Internet's genes, they are meant to subsist. For those Internet businesses that go against the Internet's innate characteristics, they would inevitably face tremendous pressure from competition.
Ten years ago, the Internet had posed a severe challenge to the conventional logic of business world – monopoly - , especially of the capital-intensive media industry. The Internet broke the structure and created an opening. An open Internet enabled more content partners to join. Free Internet services quickly drew in a large number of users. People running Internet companies were aware that only through opening up themselves could they continue to grow.
As the Internet follows the pattern of scale economy, inevitably, there is always an innate pressure for Internet businesses "to grow bigger." They need to quickly increase their user base and traffic to achieve a comparatively low marginal cost. One way to grow big fast is to offer free services; to open and embrace more partners is another. During the first decade of the Internet, these two methods seemed to work well.
Now we've seen a third method emerges with Web 2.0 - social network. The way social network works is similar to multi-level marketing. Spreading from one user's social network to another's and then many others', social network services quickly accumulate a huge amount of users. However, the pressure to grow bigger never wanes. Following the innate nature of the Internet - open and free - , renowned social network services providers have come up with solutions: an open platform and opening up users' profiles.
[+] No opening up, no monopoly
Doesn't it sound paradoxical? The only way to achieve a monopolistic position on the Internet is through opening up. In the conventional business world, businesses that survive fierce competition would build bulwarks to enclose its empire within and erect competition barriers. This is why we've seen the first-generation Internet companies, such as Yahoo!, developing into new monopolies. It seems that they have followed the same trajectory of history.
If its monopolistic advantage can last out, why would Yahoo! have Yahoo! Open Strategy? Why would a monopoly need to open itself up? The reason is new players keep coming on the stage, first Google, and later MySpace and Facebook. They have come with a new revolutionary power to rewrite the old business rules, and on the Internet, the revolution can happen at an astonishingly fast speed.
Openness is embedded in the genes of the Internet. It is difficult to monopolize the Internet marked with a decentralized architecture. Internet companies are constantly under pressure for growth, and putting up walls is not good for growing big because no Internet company, however powerful it may be, can monopolize the traffic on the Internet with its own websites - the majority of the traffic is always fall outside its own websites.
Moreover, new comers will exercise the power of openness to challenge the success of existing players. One of the most successful products of Google is the omnipresent Adsense, but Google has been threatened first by Facebook, which took the lead to open its platform, and later by MySpace, which was the first to open up users' profiles. They have unsettled both Yahoo! and Google. More openness leads to greater competition.
[+] Technological innovation is a key catalyst.
The first-generation Internet aggregates and opens up "content;" typical examples are portals like Yahoo!, and issues concerned around copyrights, trading of content and the transformation of patterns of mass communications. The second-generation Internet aggregates and opens up personal relationships; typical examples are social network websites like MySpace, and issues concerned around privacy, property rights of personal data and the transformation of patterns of interpersonal communications.
A key catalyst of all the changes is technological innovation, such as standardization of data exchange and standardization of applications interoperability. The former refers to the prevalence of document (e.g. XML) exchange standards and the later the sophistication of Web Service. The former enables users to insert content of one website to other websites; the latter allows users to embed a function module of one website to other websites.
10 years ago, when a portal wanted to use the content of a certain media company, both parties would need to go through a lengthy process of program development and docking. Now, website operators share their content in standard RSS format freely. When this becomes a common practice, the barriers to content exchange are instantly pulled down, and content may flow more rapidly on the Internet.
The concept of open platform, first raised by Facebook, is to allow applications of other websites to be embedded on Facebook. On the other hand, the idea to open users' profiles, first brought up by MySpace, is to enable users to embed their personal profiles onto other websites. The mode of the former is like "one-stop shopping"; the latter is more like "take out" - portable personal profile.
Furthermore, the idea, initiated long ago, to integrate various login ID's for different websites into a universal one, has been back to the talk again. The Internet world is sure to become more transparent with data flowing faster and content and functions among websites more integrated. It will affect the closer integration of industry chains, the decline of old business giants and the emergence of new ones, disputes over privacy issues and so on.
Openness is a path of no return, but where is it going to take us?
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Prev : New Landscape in China's Telecom Market (8) WAP Sector Is Slowing Down Next : Openness, where is it going to take us? (2)
- Today in History
Openness, where is it going to take us? (1) - 2008/11/09
The Web 2.0 Revolution (10) the Big Future of Web 3.0 - 2006/11/05
Viral marketing will be the key word for marketing in the Web 2.0 time.
[+]The history of SNS
Last month, AOL's purchasd Bebo, the largest social networking site in Britain, for USD 850 million in cash. That once again highlighted the value of SNS (Social Networking Service). In the United States, Bebo is the No.3 social networking site, behind MySpace and Facebook, with more than 40 million users around the world.
Further back, News Corp acquired MySpace with USD 580 million in 2005; Microsoft paid USD 240 million for merely 1.6% stakes in Facebook. The first deal seems to be too hasty for MySpace and too juicy for News Corp. What, indeed, is the most attractive aspect about SNS to investors?
SNS is really a confusing concept when mentioned together with dating sites, community sites or Blog. Even SNS operators do not view themselves as dating sites, community sites or Blog sites. While those sites have been in place since the Web 1.0 time, or at least the end of that time, SNS focuses on inter-personal relations, and therefore is a mixture of all above.
Finally, it seems that only ambiguous terms such as "personal space" could differentiate SNS from those traditional concepts. In terms of functionality, SNS enables blog, photo album, friends, community (or group) as basic functions. With the intentional guide of the operators, users could visit the blogs and photo albums of others, eventually activating the social networking function.
In terms of social networking behavior, SNS depends on the migration of offline personal relations to online platforms to combine with those of others to build a larger relation network. While using the service primarily to interact with acquaintances, users might meet strangers for deeper communication intentionally or unintentionally, resulting in larger social communities. Hence, interpersonal relations could be maintained by paying attention to the activities of each other.
[+]How to convert page views into revenue
With more than 40 million users around the world, Bebo is worth USD 850 million. In China, the largest social networking sites, e.g., Tecent Q Zone and 51.com, have more than 100 million users, yet none is deemed to be worth that much. What, indeed, is the commercial value of the social networking sites? At the present time, it seems, the value lies primarily in being purchased.
Thanks to the high interactivity among its users, social networking sites have far more page views than conventional portals. What's more, each user would keep an eye on the presence of his/her friends, resulting in a much longer average online time. Many SNS users log onto the site as soon as they get off work/class, and remain connected until they go to sleep. How to convert the addiction into revenue?
There are 3 possible ways: 1) through Internet advertising; 2) by providing users with fee-based value-added services; 3) by offering e-commerce services in the communities and collecting commissions from transactions. In the foreseeable future, any social networking site is expected to reap revenue through all of these 3 approaches. The only difference lies in the revenue proportion because of different primary users of each SNS site
One of the most distinct features of SNS is its distribution by word-of-mouth. An article by a common person on MySpace or Facebook would get widely spread through his friends, or friends of friends. Such effect is what advertisers have been dreaming for, as distribution by word-of-mouth is the most cost-effective approach.
In the Web 1.0 time, however, this kind of viral marketing was only a result of sheer luck, rather than deliberate planning. Without a platform to operate on, most advertisers had to pay for the views of their ads, allowing their budgets to be washed away by the visit traffic of the portals. While the focus of Internet advertising in Web 1.0 time was target advertising, it would be viral advertising enabled by SNS in the Web 2.0 time.
At the 2008 Annual Conference for the New Economy hosted by iResearch, I gave a speech titled "The Key Word for Marketing in Web 2.0: Viral marketing". You can find and watch the video at: http://v.iresearch.cn/data/20080425/79812.shtml
[+]Impacting the traditional Internet advertising model
However, the business model has trouble facing advertisers, who generally accept it as a cost-effective approach. For example, one million clicks at a portal or one million users' interaction at a social networking platform, which one do you prefer? For online advertisers, the answer is the latter. The question is, however, how do you charge them for the one million users' interaction?
Currently, SNS is still not able to compete with portals by means of CPM or CPC. With surprisingly good results but no billing method available for SNS, there has appeared a weird phenomenon of "free interaction for ad exposure or clicks purchased". Unable to generate income from its most valuable part, SNS is not yet ready to compete with portals for users by means of CPC.
For advertisers, word-of-mouth-based distribution is the most cost-effective marketing method, as well as one of the reasons for them to move their budgets from portals to SNS. In addition, there's not yet a unified standard in the industry for billing by results. An event might have one million participants, however the extent of involvement varies substantially. There is not a simple and intuitive measurement like CPM or CPC.
Currently, advertisers are still testing SNS marketing, while SNS operators are exploring new billing methods. Therefore, there's a huge potential. Eventually, it becomes a process of negotiation between sales reps and advertisers, and the final result depends on who is going to convince whom. The criteria for advertising effect in the Web 1.0 time is no longer able to keep up with the market changes, but the Web 2.0 criteria are yet to be developed.
Viral marketing will be the key word for marketing in the Web 2.0 time, as SNS will become a platform enabling word-of-mouth-based distribution among advertisers. Share and recommendation by friends would enable higher market awareness and better marketing effect. What we don't have yet is a set of criteria to measure the marketing result, as CPM and CPC, which derived from traditional media, are obviously out-of-date.
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Prev : Initial Experience of Widget's Profit Model
- Today in History
Glimpse into Profit Model of SNS-based Advertising - 2008/05/11
3G Time Comes (8) Who Are First Users of 3G? - 2003/05/18
As a matter of fact, Apple's understanding of Internet remains to be around computers, not handsets.
[+]The rises and falls of Apple
In March 2008, Apple, led by "legendary" Steve Jobs, topped Forbes Most Respected Companies in the United State, where Google ranked No.4 and Microsoft far behind - No.16. Being respected while making money is not an easy thing.
Nobody foresaw the company, once in its low, would come back in glory. Back in history, Apple was left alone in the cold due to the introduction of product platforms (open standard) and industrial platforms (labor division within the industry) built by the PC group led by Intel and Microsoft.
Apple's proprietary system throttled the enthusiasm of players in the industry to collaborate in the manufacturing of hardware/software and peripheral products, resulting in few applications usable, which, on the other hand, held consumers back from buying its products. Eventually, Apple was cornered by the PC group into a niche market.
Nobody would deny that Apple's computers had more elegant and appealing shapes. However, it was no rival of the Wintel legion, because they could dig deep into the personal computer market with the power of the entire industry after open standards were formed.
Remarkably, the first surprise Steve Jobs brought the world after coming back to Apple was iPod, which was launched in October 2001. Back at the time, iPod could only be connected with Apple computers through iTunes. Persisting on Apple's tradition for fashionable design, however, it was able to win the favor of its loyal users.
In June 2002, Apple launched iPod Windows version, and then the mid/low-end series, and successfully infiltrated into non-Apple users. Once mocked by its rivals as a "clumsy MP3 player with a mini-hard drive", iPod finally became an icon of imitation.
[+]Beginning to reap the benefits of a "platform"
iPod successfully built two platforms. The first one was a platform of peripheral products, with open interfaces allowing other hardware manufacturers to develop products compatible with iPod, e.g., plug-in FM radios, special voice record pens and digital cameras.
The second platform was iTunes, the one most talked about but none of the rivals could successfully copy. It was first introduced to enable users to synchronize music files with iPod and assist them to manage music files in their computers. Surprisingly, Steve Jobs used it to build his music stores.
The more iPods were sold, the more likely users would buy music. For the traditional music industry, iTunes turned out to be a platform to sell music products in the digital world. With the increase of users who chose to pay for digital music, labels found themselves tied more and more tightly to the platform.
So when Steve Jobs insisted USD 0.99 per song, the labels that originally planned for a price rise had no choice but to agree. Some labels did build their own music distribution websites, but failed to achieve the sales level of Apple.
The support of the admirable iPod sales is the key to the success of Apple, which offers the benefits of a powerful platform of hardware + software + Internet service - benefits which Yahoo! and other Internet players cannot offer. Maybe it is the reason that Google wants to introduce its own cell phones.
The platform can be further expanded. The first approach is to infiltrate into the film distribution market. Now that Steve Jobs has reached his hand into their pockets, film makers, however afraid of following the fate of the music industry, cannot afford to ignore the presence of the platform.
[+]Building a powerful platform with contents
The second approach is that iTunes, while adapting to the Web 2.0 trend, enables ordinary people to make music, broadcasting programs or even films themselves and move them onto Apple music stores. A wide range of PodCast programs are really amazing and of good quality. What's more, the rich contents have increased the confidence of iPod buyers in its value.
However, it is time to use the content platform to introduce new hardware. In June 2007, Apple launched iPhone, an unprecedented achievement through a partnership with AT&T. To use iPhone, users had to register an iTunes ID, and telecom operators share income with Apple.
Such humble operator was never seen before. If not for Apple's bargaining ability backed by the powerful content platform and the user number, the arrogant operators would never have given in.
Interestingly enough, it is said that the same cooperation model proposed by Apple was rejected by China Mobile. Apart from that the latter was the largest mobile operator in the world and hence even more arrogant, it also indicated that the platform was not powerful enough in China to offer a bargaining ability against China Mobile.
Will Apple, which was beaten in the PC market a decade ago, realize the importance of platform and open its iPhone? Currently, iPhone uses Mac OS X operating system. With the increase in sales, there would be more hardware/software and service vendors around the OS, and eventually, new platforms would emerge.
This, however, is not the style of Jobs. iPhone is a proprietary device. In each country, Apple would choose only one operator as its partner. In addition, Mac OS does not have many software service developers. Completely relying on itself, Apple is expected to sell only tens of million cell phones at most.
In terms of building a large cell phone-based platform, wouldn't Nokia, which has much larger sales, present a bigger chance than Apple?
[+]Continue to be proprietary?
Currently, Google is trying to build a series of platforms ranging from cell phone operating system to browser to online service, which it intends to offer free of charge. Apple is doing virtually the same things, but doesn't seem to consider to offer them free to other manufacturers.
The key is Apple does not regard Internet as its core business, at least as of the present time. Both Google and Yahoo! hold Internet as their core business. While the former chooses to develop hardware standards independently and offers them free of charge to the public, the latter chooses to be compatible with all hardware standards.
Other than its own online stores, Apple does not seem to be interested in any other Internet service. Unlike ordinary cell phones, which can only view WAP sites, the iPhone browser enables the viewing of HTML websites. Nor has Apple considered building a wireless portal for all iPhone users to make itself more popular.
As a matter of fact, Apple's understanding of the Internet remains to be around computers. A China Mobile executive once had a negative comment on Apple, saying that downloading music from a computer to a cell phone was not consistent with the experience of cell phone users, who were supposed to download music directly from portals of telecom operators.
Anyhow, Steve Jobs has successfully attracted the eye of the world. Although traffic volume or ad revenue-based profit model is beyond his vision of the Internet market, the success of iPod, iTunes and iPhone is powerful enough to shock traditional cell phone manufacturers.
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Prev : Great Changes in Wireless Internet Industry (3) Nokia's Strategy
- Today in History
Great Changes in Wireless Internet Industry (4) Apple's Strategy - 2008/04/06
The Mist of 3G in China (2) TD-SCDMA is a Hot Potato - 2007/04/08
The Mist of 3G in China (1) 3G Makes No Profit - 2007/04/01
Predictions on China Internet Market (6) Community Services - 2006/04/09
Media, Community, and Blog (5) The Power of Media - 2005/04/03
3G Time Comes (4) Video Phone - the Killer Application - 2003/04/06
A gradual blending of old and new.
[+] Web 2.0 is direct marketing
In the traditional business world, it may not be difficult for start-ups to innovate or produce good products, but it surely takes much more efforts for them to channel products to end-users. Finding a channel may not be very hard, but it would cost you dearly. Capitalist who own channels are tough guys to deal with.
Ten years ago the emergence of the Internet brought some changes for the first time. For Internet start-ups, their products are websites, and their services can reach end users directly. They don't need other channels. This was how the advantage of the capital-intensive newspaper industry, which controlled the distribution channel, gradually dissolved. The Web 1.0 world has taken its place.
This new channel of the Internet has impacted on traditional media, traditional business models and also traditional communications. Generally, in the Web 1.0 era, there are a lot of people with only a small capital starting their businesses. They can do so because they've found a low-cost marketing channel to break the blockade set by traditional capitalists.
Yet after 10 years, some startups, such as Yahoo!, have become new capitalists. They control the distribution channels and suffocate the chances of new Internet startups, which have to buy expensive advertisements from "traditional" channels - Web 1.0 websites - to draw visitors to their websites.
Many years ago in the traditional business world, there was a new channel called direct marketing. It was about bypassing the traditional distribution channel by marketing through social networks. Today with so many tycoons in the Internet, how can we avoid them and do business in a low cost way?
The answer lies in social networks. Web 2.0 startups make ingenious use of social networks or interpersonal relationship to do low-cost marketing. To market through social networks is a very smart strategy. Without this, we won't see significant growth in these new websites' user-base and traffic.
[+] Back to the basics is the key to growth
Many people have the experience of buying products via direct marketing, but they don't have much confidence in it. People who participate in the direct marketing system constantly come and go, making it not very stable. Web 2.0 services attract new users through interpersonal relationship in a similar way. Moreover, a brilliant marketing strategy still cannot solve the inherent problems of products.
The first article of this series talks about two problems of Web 2.0 websites. The first is high user churn rate, and the second is that once users decide to leave, they won't turn to other competitors but will quit all websites/services of similar kind for good.
For a website operator, this has two implications. Firstly, users who leave your competing websites won't go to yours, which means you have to target at first-timers. Think about those users who are still new to the market, and they are the ones your products should be designed for.
Secondly, users will leave sooner or later, so most importantly you should strive to capture heavy users. Only heavy users would migrate among Web 2.0 websites of similar kind or try new websites. An important step for your website to succeed is to seize this group of users.
Once a website can control a certain group of heavy users, it can then start to think about how to either make profits or stay small and survive gracefully, like all successful community websites. However, is there any way to expand the user-base by drawing in less-active users?
My suggestion is, get rid of the strong community atmosphere and cultural ambiance! They are incompatible with things that can meet people's basic needs, such as storage, tools and content.
These things, simply put, are products of Web 1.0.
[+] Next step: storage, tools and content
The founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerbery once said that Facebook is not a social network but a social tool. His words are often interpreted as "Facebook as an operating system or platform," and Facebook's open API implies such possibilities.
His words are impressive because he points out concisely that the key to get big is to serve as a "platform." My understanding of his words is that platforms and tools are things that have little to do with culture. They can be used by anyone and don't require users to change their habits.
You use Gmail to write emails and MSN to send messages very easily. These tools don't have much to do with culture (at least not as much as online community websites.) Operators who have been focused on developing a vibrant online community to retain active users need to think about what are the tools that are not so hot but can be used by all.
Instant messaging (IM), a tool that is highly related to social activities, is one example. For the past ten years, the IM market has been very stable. If a social networking service (SNS) provider with several hundred million users launches a new IM tool, it may have the potential to change the market dynamics.
In addition, people get tired of social activities once in a while. Maybe a user just needs a space to store their photos, documents and bookmarks. S/he doesn't want anyone to know the URL of his/her homepage or to bother her/him with status alerts. Is it possible that a SNS website can provide such functions?
Storage is one of such basic needs. Some active users may be happily busy with various social activities all day long, but there are still more people who need only basic services. What will make a user to keep on visiting a website once s/he gets tired of online social activities? Maybe s/he just needs a space to store pictures.
Active users visit a website because they need the social network there; other users do so simply because this is where they store their stuff.
[+] Web 2.0 evolution is about to complete
The third thing is content. This is easier to understand, and many Web 2.0 websites are doing it. For those who are not keen on social activities, let's give them some content. Using tags to aggregate content is a common method.
So at the end you'll find that Web 2.0 is still about the four pillars of the Internet, which I mentioned years ago: content, community, communication, and commerce.
In Web 1.0, a website operator would start from providing content and then functions of online community, communications and commerce. In Web 2.0, an operator would start from developing communities and then content and communications tools and lastly commerce.
We finally get a clear picture of Web 2.0 in the context of our time. It's about a grand evolution of websites all over the world. The result will not be about replacing old websites with new ones, but a gradual blending of old and new.
Whatever it is in Web x.0, it is all to be used by people. And the humanity of people do not change.
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Prev : Web 2.0 Finale (2) Websites With a Specific Culture Can't Grow Big
- Today in History
Web 2.0 Finale (3) Finally blended in Web 1.0 - 2008/01/06
The Fourth Generation of Internet Marketing (3) IM Marketing - 2007/01/07
The user-base size of a Web 2.0 website is determined by the social class it targets at.
[+] The social class a website targets at determines its size
The take-off of Web 2.0 has drawn in a huge number of startups; however, the prospects no longer look so rosy. Lots of websites are on the verge of closing down and are struggling to survive and make a profit. It becomes more difficult to get funding because venture capital in Asia is losing interest in this business.
The market situation has generally settled. In China, websites with over ten million users can expect to get funding in the third round, but they are also facing the challenge brought by major Web 1.0 websites interested in the Web 2.0 market. For those with only several million users, it's unrealistic to expect fast user growth; operators must strive to make profits.
In Taiwan, the no. 1 portal in the market, Yahoo! Taiwan, is playing a very powerful role, making it difficult to survive and prosper for small Web 2.0 websites in the already cramped market. Yet, at the same time, there are some established online community websites that are successful and making good profits.
Why is it so? I mentioned before that the rationale of Web 2.0 development is based on sociology. As such, the size of a Web 2.0 website's user-base is very much determined by the social (or cultural) class it targets at.
Web 2.0 websites grow along with the expansion of user's social networks. Users bring in other people whom they meet in their daily life, including strangers or acquaintances. As more and more people of the same class gather at the website, it will become more difficult for those who belong to other classes to join.
Once the initial user-base is formed, a website operator would study these users' way thinking and social behaviors more carefully so as to retain and encourage them to bring more new users. This consequently reinforces its focus on a specific cultural ambiance or social class, and the cycle then goes on and on.
[+] The management team's social class determines the size of user-base
To observe the development of a Web 2.0 website, one needs only to look at its initial user-base. Google's social networking service (SNS) website Orkut has got very popular in Brazil unexpectedly and this has made it difficult for users from other countries to join. Look around and you can hardly find anyone using Orkut, even though we are all Google users.
The biggest online community website in Korea, Cyworld, attempts to enter the US market. Its initial target users are white Americans; however, it turns out that the website is more appealing to young Asians. The reason is simple: the design of the website's interface, including functions and the overall feel, is more friendly and attractive to Asian users.
Another example is Friendster, a SNS website, which is very popular among Philippine users. Again, users from countries outside the Philippines would find it not easy to become a part of the community. You can call it cultural barrier. Look closer and you'll find that although transnational Web 2.0 website can reach users all over the world, it is always those who share something in common would flock together.
In China, 51.com, a Web 2.0 website, started from Internet cafes in provincial cities to build its user-base, and now it is struggling to draw in white-collar users in major cities. On the other hand, other Web 2.0 websites also meet difficulties in entering provincial cities. The above cases illustrate the effects of cultural ambiance and social classes in the real world on the user composition of Web 2.0 websites.
Those Web 2.0 websites targeting at the "upper classes" (the white collars) are sure to have limitations 0n user growth. Particularly in China, white collars, mostly living in coastal areas, make up only a fraction of the population. It would be a tough challenge for Web 2.0 websites aimed at this particular group of people to grab more than ten million users.
In Taiwan, two leading social bookmarking websites, HEMiDEMi and funP, have very different user communities in terms of their cultural ambiance. While the former is more attractive to elites, the latter is more proletarian. Yet both websites are focused on the class of white collars, and their performance is not as good as established grassroots online community websites in terms of traffic and profits.
If you move a step forward, you'll find that by looking at the founders of a Web 2.0 website, you can almost tell what the website will be like. Founders will naturally apply their way of thinking, which is surely conditioned to the social class they belong to, to developing online communities.
[+] Cultural products are for niche markets that never grow too big
Instead of aiming at a specific social class, some Web 2.0 websites would target at a group of people who share the same interests. There are online communities devoted to subjects of comics, sports, literature, book reviews, or food and restaurants.
These communities will definitely be conditioned by the size and scope of these social groups. For example, how many comic fans can you find in China? How many people in Taiwan love good food? What about the market prospects? In China, it may be feasible for website operators to cater for a specific niche market, but it may not be sustainable in Taiwan.
Why are there growth limits on Web 2.0 or online community websites? In addition to the conditioning of social classes, cultural products are for niche markets instead of for mass markets. A website that has specific cultural ambiance can never grow too big.
Does it mean that only websites that have "no particular culture" can grow big? By "no particular culture" I mean that there are no specific cultural features that can be attached to the websites. It is not about high culture versus vulgar popular culture. What I am trying to say is, as long as a website can be linked to a specific culture, there will surely be people who don't like it. You cannot please all and, as a result, the website will never be able to grow too big.
This is such a dilemma: an online community is always formed by people who are attracted to its cultural ambiance and who share similar interests. These people gather and stay and naturally develop a certain culture. Consequently, people who don't like its cultural ambiance go away. Many established online community websites remains the way they have always been for years without much change.
Surprisingly, you may find the solution in Web 1.0.
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Prev : Web 2.0 Finale (1) An Inherent Problem Unsolved Next : Web 2.0 Finale (3) Finally blended in Web 1.0
- Today in History
Web 2.0 Finale (2) Websites With a Specific Culture Can't Grow Big - 2007/12/30
Why the user churn rate of Web 2.0 websites is so high?
[+] Users' typical Web 2.0 experience
Mr. X is an ordinary white-collar worker. He uses the Internet to search information and contact customers at work, and after work he may spend some time on the Internet for leisure. The Internet is a medium he uses frequently in his daily life, but it is not particularly important in his life. At least he is not a person who hangs on the Internet everyday.
Recently though he has been getting emails with subjects like "you have been added to somebody's friend list" and the like. Clicking the hyperlink he found that it's by a friend on MSN. How could you decline a friend's invitation? So he signed up that social networking service.
By this way, Mr. X has joined Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn and a bunch of local Chinese language websites. Registering at these websites is a lot of pains. Every website asked him to fill in his profile, upload photos and even contribute his MSN contact list.
At first he was worried that if these friends would visit his personal blog, and it would be impolite if he didn't call at theirs in return. Such relationship pressure was such that he spent two hours after work to reply these messages online for a period of time.
(Interestingly, he didn't know that his friends were tied up on the Internet for the same reason.)
First it was acquaintances, then a bunch of strangers, who added him to their friends list. In the beginning it was fun and nice to socialize with these people online, checking out their newly updated blogs and photos and leaving messages to each other.
After about three months, Mr. X started to get bored socializing with these people online. As the number of friends kept growing, he could not but spend more time on the Internet visiting these websites. At the end two hours a day was not even enough.
He finally decided to quit such Internet services that he had been addicted to when he had almost reached the verge of breakdown. What was the meaning to spend so much time on this stuff? Life should not be like this, and he had to get things back under control.
[+] Typical experience of Web 2.0 website operators
All Web 2.0 websites operators are asking why the user churn rate is so high, and there is seemingly no way to remedy this problem as if it is inherent in Web 2.0 websites. New businesses planning to ride on the force of social networking, which continues to wane, are declining.
These Web 2.0 websites are like a big sieve, trying to capture a large number of users at a time; yet after three months, it always turns out that only half of them remain as effective users, and the rest simply disappear. The size of users may seem big but it is not substantial at all.
For a Web 2.0 website to enjoy growth, its social networking expansion needs to be faster than its user churn, so that, overall, its scale would be increasing. Yet what about when the growth of user numbers slow down?
Social networking websites MySpace and Facebook have shown strong performance and they are yet to hit the growth ceiling with the whole world as their market. (MySpace should reach its growth limit sooner than Facebook as the former has more users.) Therefore, seeking to expand foreign markets seems to be a solution to sustain growth.
Nevertheless, an inherent problem remains unsolved.
Another amazing effect of Web 2.0 websites is that, heavy users are very committed. They are very active and they remain so for a very long period. They visit the websites and stay there everyday.
From registered users to effective users to active users, the number of users continues to get smaller. Is it normal? I would say yes. In terms of online community, it's just the way it is. Just as I mentioned years ago, online communities are where "people of similar attributes gather to warm each other. And these people are the so-called "heavy users," such as active bloggers.
The characteristic of Web 2.0 is high interactivity, which means highly demanding for users. Those who are willing to interact with others and write blog articles are not normal people. They have stronger achievement motive and desire to express themselves, and they find their stage at some community website and feel a sense of belonging.
The question is, while these heavy users are having fun, what are the ordinary netizens doing?
[+] People can get sick of Web 2.0
As to those who quit some Web 2.0 website, do they turn to similar services of competing websites? Some of them (well, the heavy users) do, but for most people who leave, they just won't touch such kind of services and they leave forever.
Only a few people who, after quitting Facebook, would turn to MySpace. Most people would just quit social networking services (SNS) for good. It's the same for blogging. Only a limited number of people would migrate from one blog service provider to another and continue writing. Most would simply stop blogging.
Quitting a website is totally different from quitting a kind of service. For example, we know very clearly the difference between "turning to sohu.com from sina.com because of getting tired of the latter" and "quitting new websites for good."
Woops! It turns out that people can lose interest in Web 2.0 services.
Woops! So what's next when all netizens have become users of my Web 2.0 website?
If market development is like a chess game, then Web 2.0 websites that have been so popular for the past couple of years are entering the endgame phase. These websites operators may appear successful, but in fact they are getting uneasy. How to get away from the doomed path of Web 2.0 websites is an inevitable challenge.
Surprisingly, you may find the solution in Web 1.0.
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Prev : Mobile TV Market (3) Terminal Manufacturers & Content Providers Next : Web 2.0 Finale (2) Websites With a Specific Culture Can't Grow Big
- Today in History
Web 2.0 Finale (1) An Inherent Problem Unsolved - 2007/12/23
The Fourth Generation of Internet Marketing (2) RSS Tracking - 2006/12/24
Dream of "Digital Furniture" Store - 2003/12/28
"Dear, we have been apart for too long. So you're here. We are as one from the beginning. Let me hold your hand once again."
[+] Collective spiritual power
This is the third article of the series. I spent two weeks thinking how to put it into words because, as the series goes, we will inevitably talk about issues related to philosophy and religion, which is of much greater complexity and diversity than the sociological topics regarding Web 2.0 we previously mentioned.
If you cannot see what philosophy and religion has anything to do with the future of Web 2.0, or even feel offended, I can only regrettably admit that my attempt is a failure. Every religion has its god(s), and it is difficult to use a single theory to cover everything while avoid offending other people. May I ask for your pardon in advance.
Almost every religion in the world, wherever it comes from, has the ritual of group worship (or chanting and the like). Such ritual implies that we all believe that the collective spiritual power of a group of people can change the way the world runs. We call it divine power. When changes do happen because of the power, we call it a miracle. At bottom, it's the collective will of man. The source of the power to change is blessing, especially collective blessing.
Blessing is a kind of tremendous spiritual energy endowed by god to man. Amazingly, when you give your blessing to other people, you'll receive even greater positive energy than that you give. Similar effect happens to hatred. Therefore we realize that one cannot get happiness by cursing others.
Such spiritual energy exists not only in religion, but in our daily life and in our mind. Just think about it: how many thousands of millions of people in the world that bears hatred towards the U.S. over the past few decades? At the end there was the 911 incident. So who is to blame for the evil summoned? Don't point fingers at others.
[+] The world as one
"Collective will" is the cornerstone on which the world operates. Some thoughts buried deep in your subconsciousness are unknowingly taken as true. In the Bill Clinton era, there had been considerable progress towards world peace; yet later the Americans' collective will summoned a belligerent president onto the stage.
In the area of religion, it is easy to see how collective will works. If you look around, you can also see how people's collective will changes the fate of a country - good leaders always work on forging collective will that is positive and uplifting . Moreover, the fate of humans is summoned by themselves collectively. There is no exception to that.
How can humans uplift themselves collectively? The ultimate truth behind the "collective will" is "the world as one." The hell exists only where this truth is blinded.
The country that inflicts violence on another will receive the evil consequence in the end, because to do harm to others is to do harm to oneself. We all feel sorry for victims of 911 incident, but we cannot ignore what the Americans had done in the Middle East before. That may be one reason for this hostility to American people.
Similarly, the group of people that send blessings to another will receive the positive energy of the blessings as well, because we are as one. You may say that I am talking about Buddhist causality, but more simply, it's just "what you get is what you give."
So smart people are never sparing in giving. The Bible tells us that, "It's better to give than to receive." To give you something does not mean that something will be taken away from me because you and I are as one. On the contrary, the positive energy created by sharing will ultimately benefit you and me.
[+] The desire that lies deep inside our hearts
I hope that what I just mentioned above reminds you of the Internet. Indeed the Internet is a giant network that carries the collective will of all human beings. In the previous Web 1.0 era, "Its" purpose was to carry all kind of information and make our life more convenient. In Web 2.0, "It" starts to carry the shared will of people increasingly.
The original spirit and the essence of the Internet are openness and sharing. Through the connection of networks, people are getting closer to one another. In Web 2.0, with the emergence of various services such as Blog and social networking services (SNS), people are exchanging not only information but also emotions.
I once wrote to my colleagues that, "Think about it: our users shed tears when reading their own Blog articles, behind which is the platform, tens of thousands of lines of program code, constructed by you. There is nothing more significant in your work than this."
If a Web 2.0 website operator does not know how important "emotions" are, or how Web 2.0 can help people communicate and exchange feelings, then s/he doesn't know what else s/he can do, so to speak. Nowadays people are not looking for information tools or operation platforms.
Major Web 2.0 websites like MySpace in the US have every capability to facilitate global exchange. Moreover, through proper guidance, maybe they can allow users to enhance themselves a little bit and positive thoughts to generate during interpersonal interaction. Just imagine how people have shared will flows on the giant network of the Internet….
I do not intend to preach about "website operators' social responsibility." Internet companies are not charities. They are not obliged to do charity. However, everyone wants to bless and be blessed. If website operators do something about it, it's just to 'satisfy consumers' needs." Isn't business opportunities come from fulfilling consumers' demands?
[+] Collective enhancement of all humans
In Web 1.0, we think about how to promote the exchange of information; in Web 2.0, we think about how to establish relationship and to increase interpersonal interaction. In Web 2.0 Next, we need to think about "what can touch our hearts." What we need to connect is people's hearts but not information.
We need to turn the Internet into a medium of emotions, a platform of exchange of souls, so that users will feel more emotions when using it. This echoes to the desire deep inside our hearts. When that desire is fulfilled, we feel close to god.
Some friends wrote to me, saying that online emotions are not real. Some are worried that spending too much time on the Internet may impede the emotional exchange with other people in our daily life. Think about it: in your daily life, the number of people you are familiar and share feelings with may be within five. This is your social network, much more lonesome than you may think.
And these few people constitute the world you recognize. You never think there is any relationship between you and African people, nor do you understand what is "the world as one." The Internet Next brings forth a brand new chance that we've felt 10 years ago. Now it's finally mature with full energy.
Web 2.0 Next will seek to satisfy users' emotional needs (love and blessing), and encouraging sharing (open oneself) and exchange (global integration). It will need an upgrade from information exchange to emotion exchange. Human beings need to enhance themselves collectively, and they should start from getting in touch with each other. The Internet can make all of this possible.
"Dear, we have been apart for too long. So you're here. We are as one from the beginning. Let me hold your hand once again."
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Prev : The Next Step for Web 2.0 (2) The Fourth Flow: Emotion Flow Next : Mobile TV Market (1) Cell Phone plus TV, the Dream of Everybody
- Today in History
The Next Step for Web 2.0 (3) Collective Will Is the Cornerstone of Everything - 2007/09/16
The Web 2.0 Revolution (4) the Google Paradigm - 2006/09/17
The Web 2.0 Revolution (3) Advertising Revenue is Not Enough - 2006/09/10
Envisioning China's 3G Market (3) Systems & Markets - 2005/09/11
Three Musts of Digital Content Biz (2) Stop Selling "Containers" - 2004/09/19
Three Musts of Digital Content Biz (1) Content is Cheap - 2004/09/12
Easy profits from virtual business are what Web 2.0 should aim at.
[+] Changes in money flow, logistics flow and information flow
After 10 years of development of the Internet, people have become very familiar with the terms of "money flow, logistics flow and information flow." Especially in the area of eCommerce, the three flows can generate much business value. Some businesses are very successful by taking advantage of only one of the three flows.
Although "logistics flow" is a bridge between the Internet and the physical world, its importance has reduced with the introduction of Web 2.0. On the other hand, "money flow" and "information flow", though remain unchanged in forms, have experienced significant change in essence.
In Web 1.0 era, we spent great efforts to enable the money flow to move smoothly between the Internet and the physical world, so that financial tools in the physical world, such as credit cards or ATM cards, can be applied online, and that there are C2C payment tools such as Paypal.
We think a lot about how information should be transmitted (results are e-mails and real-time massaging tools) and gathered (results are portals and content websites) and how to cope with information asymmetry by inventing new business models (results are online job site and online auction).
The Internet has driven the cost of information transmission down. The revolution in money flow, logistics flow and information flow has made the Internet world as it is today. Yet we have sensed an emerging force of the fourth flow - the emotion flow -, which is about to change the three flows.
[+] Emotion flow will bring forth "the emotion highway" and "the media of emotion"
In the past, when you were done with a piece of online news, you were done with it. Maybe there were some people who would leave a comment below the news, but most people left quietly. Then some website operators made some changes to allow readers to score the importance of the news from one to ten points. Yet few people chose to leave a score.
The scoring system has finally been simplified to two options: "push" and "bury." If you are in favor of an article, you push. That is how the news article popularity website, digg.com, in the US succeeds. Then, we start to see news websites provide a function to allow readers to express their feelings about news articles like " happy," "sad," "confused" and so on.
The dawn of the Internet Next is upon us. Indeed, what really matters is not information per se, but what people think of the information and furthermore, how they "feel" about it. A simple "agree" or "disagree" is not enough.
You must have seen in commercials a network of beaming cables through which information flows freely. The so-called "information superhighway" has embodied people's imagination of the Internet. Now what is ahead of us is "emotion superhighway."
There must be many ways to reflect people's emotions flowing around global networks and represent these emotions on websites. Blog have been seen as grassroots media, and social networking websites a tool for social networking or meeting friends. Web 2.0 Next application will be "emotion media."
[+] Emotion: the next thing Web 2.0 is to deal with
Wanna know the moods flowing on the Internet globally? Check out http: //worldmood.info/. This service simplifies moods into smiley face and frowny face. Maybe it can be used to predict stock market performance - isn't it the sum of investors' confidence and moods?
In the time of emotion economics, the ability to control a tremendous amount emotional data will be highly valuable. We do know that emotions affect our consumption behaviors, but we do not have a chance to quantify the relations between emotions and consumption. Web 2.0 may provide a solution.
Indeed, it is very difficult to control a huge amount of personal emotional data. Yet it may work if we focus only on a specific kind of emotion and develop an emotion-centric website. Instead of attracting heavy traffic and drawing revenues from advertising, the strategy of focus survives by selling virtual products. Examples are:
Flowers for Hope: http: //www.flowersforhope.com/garden/ This website allows you to make a wish. Each wish is represented by a flower. Other people can water your flowers, while you can also check out other people's wishes. You know that you are not alone. Your wishes are being taken care of.
Secret: http: //secret.moumentei.com/ This is a very simple website in terms of technology and interface design. Yet it offers thrills to peepers and exhibitionists and even the peeped. I marveled at my first sight of this website.
[+] As emotional products get more popular, micro payment becomes a challenge
With the emergence of emotion flow applications, the selling of virtual products will become a major revenue source for Web 2.0 websites mentioned above. Some people are willing to spend 1 US dollar for a virtual object to express their detestation or some small money just to play kids online. "Emotion" has become a real product.
At the time of purchasing a virtual emotional product, the expression of an emotion, or psychological therapy, is completed. That is the magic of emotional products. A successful design of emotional products is really a test of creativity and understanding of human nature.
However, how do you pay small money like 1 US dollar, by credit card or ATM card? Virtual emotional products are absolutely linked to impulsive spending. Entry of long credit card numbers and repetitive confirmation can kill that impulse of spending.
In Web 2.0, micro payment becomes a challenge, because the profit from each virtual product is too small to make up for the credit card processing fee. Those who can solve the problem of micro payment will be able to reap the profits of the long tail of virtual emotional products.
Emotion flow will get even more important in Web 2.0 Next. Before, people discuss on whether online users would be willing to pay for information or the use of information processing tools. Now, people who can control the emotion flow of online users will have a chance to pull the money out of users' pockets.
As virtual emotional products get more popular, dependence on logistics would only decrease. Why? Because it is all about psychological satisfaction, and there is no physical thing involved - no delivery, no guarantee and no product return. Easy profits from virtual business are what Web 2.0 should aim at.
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Prev : The Next Step for Web 2.0 (1) The Dawn of Emotion Economics Next : The Next Step for Web 2.0 (3) Collective Will Is the Cornerstone of Everything
- Today in History
The Next Step for Web 2.0 (2) The Fourth Flow: Emotion Flow - 2007/09/02
Envisioning China's 3G Market (2) 3G License & Market Strategy - 2005/09/04
The Internet in the future will become a place for group therapy.
[+] Emotional products in the physical world
There are many ways to sell "happiness." One is to write a book on "happiness" (hedonics), turn it into some kind of study and sell it in bookstores. Or, you can package it in a mineral water advertisement and represent the bottle of water as an indispensable thing when families and friends get together happily.
In a fiercely competitive car market, a car dealer seeks to boost sales by presenting its car as "the only car that equipped happiness." In a trendy sitcom, the leading actor would win the heart of thousands of female audience by calling," I swear I'll bring you happiness."
This is the power of "emotional products," Marketing experts in the traditional business world have long noticed that the key to a consumer's purchasing decision, sometimes, is not the function or price of the product, but something that can trigger certain memory or emotion deep inside the mind of a consumer.
For those who buy the book/mineral water/car/trendy sitcom DVD, do they then live happily ever after? No. More precisely, their feeling of happiness reaches completion right at the moment of consumption. Emotional products that cannot achieve such effect would definitely fail.
Certainly you can say that emotions are added value to the above mentioned products; they are not the products themselves. Yet after ten years of development of the Internet, we begin to see that "emotion" per se can become a product and has the potential to change the look of the business world.
Yes, the dawn of emotion economics is upon us. In the past, "It" is the added value of some products; now "It" will become a product and will revel "Its" value through the form of Web 2.0. Strong emotions will become a kind of belief, so the reference for emotion economics will be religion.
[+] Internet from physical to spiritual
I sort out the characteristics of traditional Internet, Web 2.0, and Web 2.0 Next in the following chart. Simply put, the mission of the Internet will evolve from "carrying information" to "carrying emotion."
From eCommerce to emotion-centric websites, ordered from left to right of the chart above, we can see that during these 10 years, the Internet has evolved from more physical to more virtual and from material to spiritual.
Though eCommerce is an important business of the Internet, 70% of the operation, such as warehousing, logistics and payment processing, is done in the offline world in a way similar to that of mail order or brick-and-mortar retail stores.
Information processing is a critical issue in Web 1.0. The lessening of the problem of product information asymmetry has led to the emergence of eCommerce. Users can compare prices online with just a click, and they can easily find product information or even other people's experience of the product before making purchasing decisions.
Web 1.0 media have moved a lot of content online and even produce their own in order to reduce the cost of acquiring information. Too much information however creates the problem of overload. Then there is the search engine that provides precision to help filter undesired information.
In this phase, the trait of the Internet as a "tool" is very obvious. People use the Internet to make their life more convenient, with a focus on how to "improve efficiency." As a result, many traditional business models are gradually replaced by the Internet for better efficiency.
[+] Web 2.0 Next: the emergence of "emotion centric websites"
Blog ushers in the era of Web 2.0, empowered people to publish their own work - the so-called "individual publishing" - for the first time. There is no problem for us to download information anymore; now it's time for us to upload and express our voice.
Such characteristic then starts to push Blog to the way of Social Networking. People of similar interests and tastes are gathered and get to know each other through well-designed guidance. Content on Blogs only provide an excuse for people to start a talk.
Well, the kind of blogs mentioned above are only those that are focused on content sharing. The number of bloggers is increasing, and it is impossible that every one of them is good at writing or photography. As a result, a lot of bloggers are just letting off their feelings of these days. Normally there are only a few words on the Blogs.
Yes it's about emotions. So what to do next is to lead the people who have similar or opposite emotions to get gather and allow their emotions to vent and thus reach completion through some kinds of rituals or activities.
Just like the one who buys "the only car that equipped happiness" - his desire for a happy family reaches completion at the moment when he pays for it. It is easier for us on the Internet than in the physical world.
What kinds of (good and bad) emotions and desires do people have? They may include:
- Hope. (It's said that among all living beings, only humans will have hopes.)
- Happiness. (Longing and expectation for happiness that one lacks or desires.)
- Hatred. (To smooth it away through some kind of ritual.)
- To be loved, cared and blessed (and thus gain strength).
- To know if there are other people in the world who have similar weird thoughts or particular experience or so on.
- To enjoy solitude (while keep in touch with the world!)
- To fulfill the desire and enjoy the excitement to peep and to be peeped.
- To satisfy the sense of vanity or accomplishment (or to find motivation to catch up) through comparing with others.
- To do good and help others (everyone wants to do a little good as long as s/he has a chance.)
- A secret whim to "kuso" or to do non-sense reckless doings (and enjoy the pleasant sensation to break the rules and customs of the society).
- Greed (and jealousy and desire to monopolize that comes along.)
- Innocence and the desire to be like a kid. (This is why Little Prince is so popular.)
- The hobby to collect things (We are all more or less obsessed with collecting some things.) and fetishism.
- Hesitation when faced with choices and desire to pry into the future. (This is why fortune telling is so popular.)
- ...
The more subtleness of human nature you observe, the more you can grasp the essence and spirit of emotion economics. What will people get gather for, and what kind of emotion will they pay for its completion? Through creative packaging, the items listed above can be developed into interesting and colorful "emotion centric websites."
Simply put, the Internet in the future will become a place for group therapy.
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Prev : The Spirit of Web 2.0 New Media Lies in "Inter-personal Communication"
- Today in History
The Next Step for Web 2.0 (1) The Dawn of Emotion Economics - 2007/08/26
The Web 2.0 Revolution (2) the Emergence of New Media - 2006/08/27
The Web 2.0 Revolution (1) the Root Cause is Cost - 2006/08/20
Envisioning China's 3G Market (1) 3G Will Not Increase ARPU - 2005/08/28
PDA in Siege (2) Bottlenecks of the Smart Phone - 2004/08/22
