Recently, Warner and Facebook announced that they will be offering the rental of the movie Dark Night on the social networking site.
I’m sure even if they wouldn’t want to accept it, this move by Facebook has given many new media startups and media incumbants sleepless nights. The announcement even sent Netflix’s stock down. The billion dollar question is, is this a real threat to media content distribution companies or just another move by an over-grown startup that is trying to own everything else online, of course apart from search which Google already owns.
If you have followed Internet companies for at least 6 to 7 years, you should know that every move facebook makes should be taken seriously.
If you look at their continuous iterations and for the fact that they have more than 600 million registered members, you will see the large distribution power they have over anything. If there is one thing they learned from creating a huge open platform, is that the money is not on the platform itself (facebook) but on ecommerce services third parties have shown them how to create, grow and monetize off their own platform. This is the best thing about creating an open platform and giving users and third parties control, you get to tap into their creativity and ultimately find monetization ways you wouldn’t have thought of. {This is a complete post on its own on how to get users to creatively show you how to monetize}.
So Facebook can definitely give media startups a run for their money and yes, we in the business should be worried. Even media companies and startups in Africa should be worried, this is why;
Facebook is good with taking things Global, advertisers may argue Facebook ads are not as effective as Google’s adwords but believe me, Facebook ads are more geo-targeted.
Facebook’s global strategy was one of the reasons they beat myspace. Facebook grew well with International markets and Myspace was still bigger than Facebook in America.
Big brands are all jumping on the Facebook ride. It’s completely debatable if this is going to last or not, afterall we’ve seen AOL. But personally I believe Facebook is different and could get even bigger than Google. Facebook taps into our behaviour to design how we interact and use the site, so unless human behaviour completely changes, Facebook is here to stay (I know this is a very bold prediction, still I’m ready and willing to make).
Social gaming is very succesful on Facebook, and social TV could even be more successful. Facebook can even make local social TV successful for their recorded success in scoring local advertising deals.
If Facebook could connect people based on their interest and location through movies and TV? Boom!! It would be the biggest media company. I’m not exagerating here...
So with all these, what do you do as a small video content startup?
1. Niche Distribution.
This is debatable because Facebook is divided into networks and that covers lots of niche markets. Still if you have a huge reach in a niche, lets say lovers of movies in a particular African language or setting, then you have a stay of execution.
2. Exclusive content.
Netflix is moving to create it’s own network quality TV content. You need exclusivity to differentiate and that exclusivity is going to be hard because the content owners will go to someone with bigger distribution to produce more revenue for their content.
3. User experience
This is the one that will actually determine if you’ll win or lose. User experience in media design is everything. Content of course is king, and once your technology doesn’t suck, the one with the best user experience wins. If you can beat the geeks in designing for viewing (social networking and watching a show or movie are active and passive things respectively) since the people at Facebook may not hit the nail on its head the first time, then you’ll get some much needed traction in time.
Even though the Netflix boss said “people don’t go to Facebook to watch movies”, we at AfricaMars media are taking nothing for granted.
Facebook is bigger than just a social network, its becoming a global community and in every community people live, eat, work and do so many other things. Same with Facebook, people mainly connect on facebook, but soon they will work on it, discover information and entertainment on it, may be even study and of course always go there to kill boredom (watching movies) ;)
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
The 2011 Forbes List (Tips another Bubble?)
Just read a report and went through the new Forbes top richest people's list and well, it shows an unexpected or even shocking increase in global wealth accumulation. I dont want to go into the detail of the list, here is a link for your thorough investigations of the complete list Forbes 2011 Wealthiest.
What I wanna do is discuss why I see signs of another bubble forming and how people should be careful not to fall into another unanticipated financial melt-down.
First-off I wanna start by saying that I am not an economist in anyway, I have no economic authority to issue any harsh warnings, rather, I have experience. A decade of closely monitoring patterns from stock rises to rich lists and so on.
Here is a bit of superstition....
In 2007 prior to the economic downturn, number of billionaire in China around doubled, same with this years list. Also prior to the burst Russia had the most number of billionaires. Russia has also claimed the most billionaire in 2011.
We also have a record number both in terms of billionaires and also their combined wealth. But I can't come up with a theory based on superstition.. I need genuine logical proof. Here we go
The Bubble..
The cause of the last financial crisis was the housing bubble, the one before it was caused by the Internet bubble. So, what bubble do I see for ming now?
I think the bubble may not have formed yet, but its gathering momentum and getting ready to form, blow up and burst in the future.
Why do I see a bubble now?..
We are still in the road to recovery while we are see bloated valuations for companies, assets and net-worths. The truth is the Global economy hasn't fully covered, may be not even halfway but we are seeing record wealth and net-worths. By the time the economy fully recovers, we'll completely be in a bubble.
Internet assets..
Internet companies are being valued much higher than media companies, while the Internet companies can't earn half in revenue of what media companies earn given the same content.
Due to this, many TV shows are skeptic of forgoing Network dollars of streaming chicken change.
Africa..
There isn't a bubble forming here, Africa is actually undervalued and has lots of potential in the coming future. As economies improve and new development comes to Africa, we will see similar growth rates to what we have seen in India and China in the past decade.
What I wanna do is discuss why I see signs of another bubble forming and how people should be careful not to fall into another unanticipated financial melt-down.
First-off I wanna start by saying that I am not an economist in anyway, I have no economic authority to issue any harsh warnings, rather, I have experience. A decade of closely monitoring patterns from stock rises to rich lists and so on.
Here is a bit of superstition....
In 2007 prior to the economic downturn, number of billionaire in China around doubled, same with this years list. Also prior to the burst Russia had the most number of billionaires. Russia has also claimed the most billionaire in 2011.
We also have a record number both in terms of billionaires and also their combined wealth. But I can't come up with a theory based on superstition.. I need genuine logical proof. Here we go
The Bubble..
The cause of the last financial crisis was the housing bubble, the one before it was caused by the Internet bubble. So, what bubble do I see for ming now?
I think the bubble may not have formed yet, but its gathering momentum and getting ready to form, blow up and burst in the future.
Why do I see a bubble now?..
We are still in the road to recovery while we are see bloated valuations for companies, assets and net-worths. The truth is the Global economy hasn't fully covered, may be not even halfway but we are seeing record wealth and net-worths. By the time the economy fully recovers, we'll completely be in a bubble.
Internet assets..
Internet companies are being valued much higher than media companies, while the Internet companies can't earn half in revenue of what media companies earn given the same content.
Due to this, many TV shows are skeptic of forgoing Network dollars of streaming chicken change.
Africa..
There isn't a bubble forming here, Africa is actually undervalued and has lots of potential in the coming future. As economies improve and new development comes to Africa, we will see similar growth rates to what we have seen in India and China in the past decade.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Lessons Entrepreneurs should Learn from the Uprising in the Middle East
The #1 lesson entrepreneurs could learn from the recent uprising in the Middle East is ...... No, not Social Media.... Guess again! Social media is surely one of the top lessons but the top-most lesson you can get out of the events in the Middle East isn't so obvious.
#1. Momentum in a trend is good.
I know most people won't agree with me because Social Media organized and spread the whole revolution so it should be number one on the list. The truth is, I disagree.. Without my number 1 lesson to be learned here, the revolution would have taken place in Tunisia alone or may be Egypt and wouldn't have spread protests and potential (as for now) regime changes in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and the minor demonstrations we are starting to see in Saudi Arabia and Iran. The momentum created a wave across the whole region, and now that the momentum is still building, it's really a crucial and fragile time for regimes in the region and elsewhere to hold on to power to survive the momentum's waves.
Increasing momentum convinces people in business, warfare, politics and so on (by building a growing hope for change or a certain event). When people see build of power, confidence or activity, they tend to believe in some sort of coming result and they follow.
With this strategy, entrepreneurs can learn to project confidence with investors, employees and even customers by constantly achieving milestones. You could stay silent for a while, but once you start, keep moving with a series of activities and coverage. Inconsistency kills (kills momentum and confidence).
I'm pretty sure the leaders whose regimes are facing these protests wouldn't want to see any more leaders step down due to pressure because that would build confidence in their own protesting oppositions and increase the whole Middle East uprisings momentum. I predict if one more regime should fall, then it wouldn't be the last ruler we'll see step down due to protests in 2011... The fall will make the protests spread more across the region and beyond. Also, if no leader should fall in the coming weeks or days, (Libya being a crucial point) then the momentum may begin to die down... Therefore, the fate of many other Middle Eastern regimes facing protests may lie in Tripoli. Just saying... ;)
#2 Social Media
The lesson #1 would be an entrepreneurs greatest take-away from the recent uprisings. Understanding this whole psychological concept of using momentum to project confidence would be a great asset to you. Lesson #2 is obviously everyone's favorite lesson from the happenings. It is SOCIAL MEDIA..
Social Media gave power to the people in these regions through mass real-time connection, spread and organiztion.. The campaigns that toppled decades long regimes started on the 2004 founded social network Facebook. Give people social media and they have freedom..
Also, engage your users on social media and they'll work for you through spreading your message. Especially if you can relate to a cause, social media sites like Facebook or Twitter can make your message go viral.
#3 Greed isn't good afterall.
Another take-away for entrepreneurs from the recent events is the fact that greed isn't good for anything you are doing in the long term. The toppled regimes have been accused by their followers of embezzling of billions and not providing necessities and jobs to their followers.
Therefore, what this means to entrepreneurs is, if you want to build the next big thing, don't be greedy towards your employees, investors and customers... Don't be too self focussed.. Stand up for them if you want your venture to go far.. Don't focus on yourself, focus on the company's interest.. Forget making a huge net-worth for yourself, rather, build a very valuable company. If you think in the long run and shun greed, you and your company will do more financial and the party will last much longer.
Lastly, if you believe there is more to be learned from the recent uprising in the Middle East both as business or life lessons, let us know in the comments below.
#1. Momentum in a trend is good.
I know most people won't agree with me because Social Media organized and spread the whole revolution so it should be number one on the list. The truth is, I disagree.. Without my number 1 lesson to be learned here, the revolution would have taken place in Tunisia alone or may be Egypt and wouldn't have spread protests and potential (as for now) regime changes in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and the minor demonstrations we are starting to see in Saudi Arabia and Iran. The momentum created a wave across the whole region, and now that the momentum is still building, it's really a crucial and fragile time for regimes in the region and elsewhere to hold on to power to survive the momentum's waves.
Increasing momentum convinces people in business, warfare, politics and so on (by building a growing hope for change or a certain event). When people see build of power, confidence or activity, they tend to believe in some sort of coming result and they follow.
With this strategy, entrepreneurs can learn to project confidence with investors, employees and even customers by constantly achieving milestones. You could stay silent for a while, but once you start, keep moving with a series of activities and coverage. Inconsistency kills (kills momentum and confidence).
I'm pretty sure the leaders whose regimes are facing these protests wouldn't want to see any more leaders step down due to pressure because that would build confidence in their own protesting oppositions and increase the whole Middle East uprisings momentum. I predict if one more regime should fall, then it wouldn't be the last ruler we'll see step down due to protests in 2011... The fall will make the protests spread more across the region and beyond. Also, if no leader should fall in the coming weeks or days, (Libya being a crucial point) then the momentum may begin to die down... Therefore, the fate of many other Middle Eastern regimes facing protests may lie in Tripoli. Just saying... ;)
#2 Social Media
The lesson #1 would be an entrepreneurs greatest take-away from the recent uprisings. Understanding this whole psychological concept of using momentum to project confidence would be a great asset to you. Lesson #2 is obviously everyone's favorite lesson from the happenings. It is SOCIAL MEDIA..
Social Media gave power to the people in these regions through mass real-time connection, spread and organiztion.. The campaigns that toppled decades long regimes started on the 2004 founded social network Facebook. Give people social media and they have freedom..
Also, engage your users on social media and they'll work for you through spreading your message. Especially if you can relate to a cause, social media sites like Facebook or Twitter can make your message go viral.
#3 Greed isn't good afterall.
Another take-away for entrepreneurs from the recent events is the fact that greed isn't good for anything you are doing in the long term. The toppled regimes have been accused by their followers of embezzling of billions and not providing necessities and jobs to their followers.
Therefore, what this means to entrepreneurs is, if you want to build the next big thing, don't be greedy towards your employees, investors and customers... Don't be too self focussed.. Stand up for them if you want your venture to go far.. Don't focus on yourself, focus on the company's interest.. Forget making a huge net-worth for yourself, rather, build a very valuable company. If you think in the long run and shun greed, you and your company will do more financial and the party will last much longer.
Lastly, if you believe there is more to be learned from the recent uprising in the Middle East both as business or life lessons, let us know in the comments below.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Does saying goodbye to user uploads put zoopy in direct competition with Africamars?
I got an email in January from zoopy.com about the new change on the site. In the email, their CEO Jason Elk talked about a change in Zoopy’s strategy to focus more on Zoopy TV. The African online video streaming site will discontinue user uploads and focus more on the more popular Zoopy TV section of the site which delivers TV content like shows and other programs.
Well, Zoopy started a few years back and grew popular in Africa, I think mostly in Southern Africa. In startups, pivoting a product or service to focus on an area with more traction or revenue potential is very vital for long time success. The same happened with my own African video startup AfricaMars TV. We from the beginning did not want to host user videos, because we thought Google was doing that for everyone in the World with Youtube. What we wanted to do was provide live video streams from African TV stations online.
Our Initial idea had lots of setbacks both infrastructure wise and biz dev wise. Then, after all the setbacks, we were forced to re-think how we were going about the whole project, then it hit us.. Boom!!! "Users don't want live streams (with a few exceptions like sports programming) on the Net, they want convenience. TV Anytime, anywhere."
When you look at all the Live TV streaming and User generated video sites that popped up between 2007 and 2008 and see how many of them have grown or gained usage anything close to what Netflix and Hulu have, you'll find out that there are none.. Once upon a time, there was Jhoost, Zattoo. Where are they now? Overshadowed by Hulu and Netflix like how Youtube overshadowed anything else including Dailymotion and Vimeo.
With all these at the back of our mind, we decided to carve a niche which we were already targeting but to do it differently, cost effectively and more convenient for the users.
We decided to go for TV shows, drama, news clips and movie clip streams on-demand. A model similar to that of Hulu but for African TV content. We believe this model is the way to go in-order to really solve a problem in the African entertainment market and not to jump into a very competitive market for user generated content or even a service whose market rarely exists.
So by going this way, the big question is, are we really in direct competition with Zoopy another African online TV service?
I think only time would tell but some regional factors may carve each service's niche for it. By the way, Zoopy is gradually broadening to a Global entertainment site while AfricaMars will focus more on African entertainment.
Well, Zoopy started a few years back and grew popular in Africa, I think mostly in Southern Africa. In startups, pivoting a product or service to focus on an area with more traction or revenue potential is very vital for long time success. The same happened with my own African video startup AfricaMars TV. We from the beginning did not want to host user videos, because we thought Google was doing that for everyone in the World with Youtube. What we wanted to do was provide live video streams from African TV stations online.
Our Initial idea had lots of setbacks both infrastructure wise and biz dev wise. Then, after all the setbacks, we were forced to re-think how we were going about the whole project, then it hit us.. Boom!!! "Users don't want live streams (with a few exceptions like sports programming) on the Net, they want convenience. TV Anytime, anywhere."
When you look at all the Live TV streaming and User generated video sites that popped up between 2007 and 2008 and see how many of them have grown or gained usage anything close to what Netflix and Hulu have, you'll find out that there are none.. Once upon a time, there was Jhoost, Zattoo. Where are they now? Overshadowed by Hulu and Netflix like how Youtube overshadowed anything else including Dailymotion and Vimeo.
With all these at the back of our mind, we decided to carve a niche which we were already targeting but to do it differently, cost effectively and more convenient for the users.
We decided to go for TV shows, drama, news clips and movie clip streams on-demand. A model similar to that of Hulu but for African TV content. We believe this model is the way to go in-order to really solve a problem in the African entertainment market and not to jump into a very competitive market for user generated content or even a service whose market rarely exists.
So by going this way, the big question is, are we really in direct competition with Zoopy another African online TV service?
I think only time would tell but some regional factors may carve each service's niche for it. By the way, Zoopy is gradually broadening to a Global entertainment site while AfricaMars will focus more on African entertainment.
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