DAD: Digital Assets Deployment » blog

Things Go from Bad to Worse for Facebook Founder

admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:51:50 +0000

The latest at this point has been a claim from a designer who says they compensated him with more than an 80% share in the company for breach of contract, an accusation launched against the founder of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg who, doing honor to his name (in German it means sugar mountain) seems to attract lawsuits like flies from almost all of his old friends and acquaintances from University.
With several of them, he has reached settlements, but, if we read the (unauthorized) book on the history of the creation of Facebook and the movie that has been generated as a filmed version, it is clear that Mark, today so open to the public, has had to “bury” some bones to get to where he is.
It is clear that you don’t have to make friends to triumph, but, although in this latest case the claim seems meaningless, Mark already has a good collection of personal enemies. He will make millionaires of many and will gain many new friends, but, in many cases, it will be sacrificing the old ones.

Translated by Babelic.com

Searching for Hidden Treasures

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:34:13 +0000

Internet entrepreneurs visit us increasingly more frequently to offer their companies up for us to participate in. They no longer want investment -that also- in the majority of cases they want us to explain to them how to create a great global company, complete their team, or modify their business model for growth.
Little by little, word has spread that DaD helps entrepreneurs even when it doesn’t invest in them. In many cases -we cannot invest in everything that comes our way- the entrepreneurs will end up taking away a series of comments that, on multiple occasions already, have helped them to modify their model to achieve -through another investor- the money they were looking for.
Our own global expansion -each day more clearly- gives us a worldwide panorama of the Internet that very few have in Spain, and the word has spread. We already have received offers for strategic alliances, where they are not looking for investment but to understand what they are missing to succeed.
“Give me cash, not advice” is evolving gradually into “tell me what I need to better my business and how can I complete my team for global expansion.”
Unfortunately, we cannot help everyone; our resources are limited and the day only has 24 hours, so if our turnaround time is longer than expected, my apologies, we try to improve every day.

Translated by Babelic.com

Google Thinks It Has to Stop Facebook

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:26:27 +0000

Google is starting to see a red light for social searches. What would happen if the paradigm changed and searches went through a filter of friends. What would happen to Google in a market where Facebook dominates access to your friends? A personalized search system by Tuenti? Social networks are worth more than they seem.
It is obvious that Google is not going to disappear, therefore it seems it has recruited a select group of “googleites” to lead the development of its own social network. Google’s search algorithm -its CocaCola formula- could go by the wayside if someone reinvented the paradigm and made the search engines run through an optimization of what friends look for. In this new environment, Facebook (or Tuenti at a local level) would be king and Google would have to fight to not entirely lose leadership.
Microsoft has invested “a few quarters” in Facebook, maybe that’s nothing compared to the billions it has saved up for its defense. Desktop is threatened by Google, and online its Bing, though already much improved, still does not take market share away from Google. A joint force with Facebook could turn the tables and make the market open to new ways of doing social searches based on combinations of the searches in your most immediate surroundings. The Semantic Web could have something to offer in this sense.
A large field of action and the anxiety of Google indicates that they don’t want things to go from bad to worse making social networks form part of new advanced search algorithms.
Everything can change…and will change…that’s what makes it so fun.

Translated by Babelic.com

Jeff Bezos Wants to Convince the Small Publishers. They Need to Think Big

admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 08:17:12 +0000

With a 68% rise in profits last quarter, 299 million dollars, Amazon doesn’t seem to be anxious over the success of the iPad and the news that Apple has already sold 1.5 million books. The market for eReaders has warmed up with the launch of the iPad and its unprecedented success. Amazon at the moment, however, dominates the publishing sector Apple is just now entering for the first time.
In a recent interview in Fortune magazine, Jeff Bezos talks about the opportunity for small pubishers to become established on a global level using eReaders like the Amazon Kindle. Have publishers realized this? Their survival depends on it.
Today, they no longer just have to choose good authors who are well-known in their territory, but those who, perhaps less famous at a local level, can carry their books to millions of readers in other countries, on a global scale. In Spain, a good print run of a novel that’s not a best seller is between 50 and 100,000 copies, though there are cases of multiple publications -very few- that are in excess of a million. Made available to Amazon’s audience, with its hundreds of millions of buyers, the channel is opened so much so that from now on the sales would have to be in the millions to be noticed.
Let’s see if the Spanish speaking market soars and soon we will have more global writers to compete by number of copies sold with the Anglos. I know, we already have some, but they seem few to me…

Translated by Babelic.com

Amazon Patents the Social Network Model

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:45:09 +0000

In 2000, from Netjuice I invented a business model I called digital profiles. Curiously, for the first time that I know of, several aspects of the model were very similar to the current concepts of social networks. We started the patent process, but then, when the bubble burst, we could not continue any longer since it was impossible to get the 5 million dollars that we had projected to invest in launching the business plan and it didn’t seem worthwhile to do it. It’s a shame…
Today, if we had received the patent -before Amazon- we would have been able to dispute it and take away the majority of the model as part of the digital profiles I had invented. Well, now that Amazon has the patent, what are they going to do with it? Will Facebook have to pay them royalties? Will all of those who have a social network have to?
Patenting business models, something only possible in the U.S., is a long road but, once achieved, can be a source for great positioning to make significant returns.
For me, this patent could turn Amazon into an arbiter of the future world of intermediaries. Being, as it is, the largest e-commerce company in the world, now it has a trump card to, for example, negotiate a sale of their products on Facebook’s social network.
I am not a lawyer and I do not know the strength of this patent, but in any case, it seems to me that it could change a lot of aspects of the monetization of social networks in general.
Will all of them have to form a pact with Amazon?

Translated by Babelic.com

Are You Global?

admin — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:40:37 +0000

What does it mean to be global from the beginning? Having a global business vision you want to launch. What are the most obvious premises? The approach must have a minimum destination of three countries in the first two years of the company. The software should be multilingual and the employees should - if possible, all - speak English well.
The market study of your competitive environment should take several countries into account, especially those you are trying to reach in the first two years. Above that, you should have a clear idea of who the big players are in your sector in the U.S.A., Germany, France and England.
You should select and attend the conventions held in countries where you’re located and really know who the big players are - as competitors as well as investors - in your environment.

Translated by Babelic.com

Steve Jobs Wants to Know where I Am

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:05:56 +0000

According to what I read in this Baquía article, Apple wants to have their users geolocalized at all times with their iPhones and iPads. Steve Jobs doesn’t stop. Now he wants to become the “natural partner” in any sector that wants to geoposition their clients and, logically, earn money with it.
The success of both devices makes a decision of this type mean a lot to the multitude of companies like Foursquare, Toioo, Bliquo and so many others that want to win their bread by daily positioning their clients. Can they compete with the Internet giants? Tuenti as well as Google and soon Facebook will geoposition their clients and begin to offer services for geopositioned publicity that will be a great competition for new companies needing to access a critical mass with high costs.
It is clear that the online capacity to generate critical mass, any time now above millions of daily users, makes the investments that must to be looked at with the overall purpose of marketing, to need to reach this critical mass. On the other hand, they need to understand what their long term model is going to be if the big guys begin to offer their specialized services as part of their general offer since they can be much more competitive due to their pool of clients.
I would like to know what you think.

Translated by Babelic.com

Second Life. Success or Failure?

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:01:30 +0000

From the point of view of their expectations, Second Life is a failure, and yet I think it could still be a success if it changed some of the problems that have plagued its development. From the fact that it wants to generate its own currency even for the aspect of its usability (or lack thereof) that always makes it seem like you are starting from the beginning if you go one month without visiting.
I am currently reading a book that I would recommend to you, “The Singularity Is Near,” that tells us how the process of innovation in all environments is accelerating and that, soon -maybe fewer than 5 years - the lenses to be integrated into special glasses with body sensors which it uses to direct our desires to a computer. A natural environment for “life” - though temporary - is in virtual worlds like Second Life.
If we analyze the exponential growth that the book shows us, we will see projections that previously took a generation now barely take a couple of years, and what is today a failure for the lack of adequate interface, could very soon be a great success.
We expected too much out of Second Life, but the next two years will bring us a lot of new virtual worlds and Second Life can have a second youth, though it be in hands different than that of their original creators. It is enough to see how to improve the interface and how, despite everything, there are companies that learn to generate very advanced teaching environments that compensate for the investment.

Translated by Babelic.com

Rakuten. Japanese e-Commerce Leader Buys Priceminister

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:56:17 +0000

Rakuten. Japanese e-Commerce Leader Buys Priceminister
Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce leader buys Priceminister. Apparently, according to Techcrunch, it shot like a bullet into the European electronic commerce market buying Priceminister for 200 million Euros.
The market changes and their entrance will cause new movements in the sector. The Japanese and Chinese, until now not very active outside of their countries of origin, will begin to understand that making themselves global is crucial to growth and we will soon see more purchases in Europe by oriental companies.
They are unknown players in Europe, since going abroad for them until now was going to the U.S.A. Rakuten’s move changes a lot of things.

Translated by Babelic.com

Twitter’s Inebriation

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:38:12 +0000

It seems, in the last week, Twitter has been assaulted by a binge of new features that has even made it slur - sending dozens of repeated tweets - or even losing files, anything is possible. It has been a bit of a disaster for all of “twitterworld” that, despite not paying, is demanding, which is typical online. The acquired rights - though they be a gift - are defended with tooth and nail as if they were our real rights.
We are in a curious environment in which you have to be very fast, very cheap or free, and on top of it all make movies. I believe that Twitter felt the rush to give value to its millions of users and wanted to shut down the path to Foursquare, offering geopositioning services in competition with this company.
As always happens, the implementation of a new feature - in this case it was several - creates an additional load for servers and resources in general that, almost always, leaves you having to return to the previous version and let a couple of days go by before understanding what went wrong.
Nothing new for an Internet company, but we have a demanding temper…good thing we didn’t pay for the service.
The clamor of the blogosphere should have caused great uneasiness for the entire senior management of Foursquare and its investors.

Translated by Babelic.com