The FT reports that Google could this week unveil “an à la carte subscription service” for some of its specialist YouTube channels as part of an effort to finance a broader range of content.
The initiative would echo recent moves by those such as Netflix and Amazon moving into original content. Read More
Netflix’s unique content play, “House of Cards”, starring Kevin Spacey, has satisfied its subscriber base in the US according to a small survey by Cowen. It has also made their subscribers more loyal.
However it failed to take off from a word of mouth perspective and the content was mediocre rather than exceptional. In light of this both move from Netflix what is the future of content v’s distribution channels in the digital age and who will gain the most from this change in dynamics?
Amazon is launching a new service called ‘Auto-Rip’ which will give customers a free MP3 digital copy of CDs they have ever purchased, or will purchase in the future. Users will be informed that music they have bought in the past is already there, waiting for them in the cloud.
The service will sadly at present only apply in the US. It initially covers about 50,000 albums so far including new ones from Adele, and timeless classics like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
While Starbucks wilts under the pressure of protest and public boycotts Google is showing no such qualms as its chairman, Eric Schmidt, says that he is “very proud” of the company’s tax structure and that efforts to lower its payments to governments like Britain are just “capitalism”.
It is an interesting communications approach to take. Brazen almost. It gives the impression that Google does not care what anyone thinks of it. As the Telegraph reports Schmidt’s certainly comments risk inflaming the row over the amount of tax multinationals pay, after it emerged that Google funnelled $9.8bn (£6.07bn) of revenues from international subsidiaries into Bermuda last year in order to halve its tax bill. Read More
With over half of all shoppers reported to be using smartphones as an aid to so-called Robo (Research offline, buy online) shopping, you would expect Britain’s major retail chains to be walking the walk when it comes to digital retail services. But how much of the alleged £222,222 of customer spending that takes place every minute during the UK’s Cyber Monday are the traditional retailers actually getting a share of?
There may be a spike in Christmas spending with department stores such as John Lewis, Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Argos, but recent research into online spending, shows that 62% of UK consumers don’t rate the top high street brands when they’re shopping online. Read More
Twenty-three percent of the top 100 brands enable consumer outreach and engagement via mobile and social networks using phones, smartphones and tablets, according to a new report from Brand Keys.
Apple and Amazon dominate. You have to go to number 12 on the list before you are not dealing with a tech brand that has a natural fit into mobile.
The 16th annual loyalty leaders gives the loyalty rankings for the top 100 brands out of 598 brands assessed in 83 industry categories in the 2012 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index.
So what are the main specific areas where mobile users are expanding their horizon’s by using mobile apps? Well photography, travel and finance lead the way with above 100% year on year increases in app use.
Photography is being fueled by Instagram amongst others as mobile phones develop more sophisticated and powerful cameras.
People are using travel apps to do everything from researching hotels to booking flights, reading reviews to redeeming offers, all on their mobiles, ironically while travelling.
Twitter has given an update on how its expanded Tweet programme is going, which it introduced with a few media partners back in July.
The expanded tweets was a play by Twitter to both make Tweets more valuable, with content previews, photos and videos right within a Tweet, and the platform more sticky.
It follows the news earlier this week that Twitter is testing a new “like” button with a small group of users and testing a new “star” feature with others.
“ Password-based security mechanisms — which can be cracked, reset, and socially engineered — no longer suffice in the era of cloud computing.”
If you haven’t read Wired writer Mat Honan’s gut-wrenching play-by-play of how his entire digital life was evaporated in the matter of hours, as his Twitter, iPhone, Mac, Gmail and iCloud were all hit, do yourself a favour and Instapaper it.
Or, if you’re too busy to read the whole article, I’ve created a quick-and-dirty summary that retraces the hacker’s steps and highlights some steps we can take to protect ourselves from similar attacks. Read More
Facebook has announced today that it is opening its first engineering office in London and is looking to hire an engineering team.
It has openings for as many as 22 engineers in London which will become Facebook’s first international engineering office joining its Menlo Park HQ, New York and Seattle.
The new office will be headed by Philip Su, a software engineer at Facebook who previously worked at Microsoft, who is moving to London. Read More
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