Howcast

Howcast was launched just two years ago, a site filled with originally produced how-to videos on everything. Howcast uses videos from its own site and other channels such as YouTube and Hulu.

I especially like this video from the article:

http://www.howcast.com/videos/37713-How-To-Deal-With-a-Mean-Boss

Howcast is continually growing, from streaming 10 million videos a month last year to about 25 million videos a month today. I am amazed by the growth of this niche video site, and its ability to expand its audience in just a couple of years. Like many video sites, Howcast makes profit from selling ad space to increase its CPMs (Cost per thousand impressions). Furthermore, it has taken advantage of its business model for a instructional short-form how-to videos to earn additional revenue. The online community collaborates with independent film makers to produce instructional and entertainment videos for top brand names such as AT&T, Kodak, Twitter, Jetblue.. This idea not only helps leverage Howcast's brand name recognition by associating itself with these reputable names, but also helps with monetizing. Although video production and distribution for brand names for 10% of the videos Howcast produces, it takes up a majority of its sales. Currently, they are producing an average of 1,000 how-to videos a month. Looks like its concept is working! However it usually take a good five years for a business to mature, which means Howcast is still growing. I guess we'll see how well this model works out for Howcast in the next few years!

Twiistup

Stayed over at a friend's last night in Santa Monica, so that I could attend the Twiistup event that was held at the Skirball Cultural Center today. Although I was mostly helping out at the registration and did get a peek here and there to listen to the panel speakers at the conference. Very interesting topics were covered about start-ups. Amazing to hear people with much passion speak and give in put on their experiences and recommendations.

On another note, Zach also brought in an internet lawyer for our Wednesday night class. Without question, starting up a business is involves a lot of planning, logistics, and intricate decisions. However, I was shocked by all the different regulations and law practices a company needs to follow. Besides understanding all the internet privacy policy rules, an entrepreneur must recognize and foresee obstacles to be able to protect him/herself. While a companies may have a great concept model and business plan, sometimes they fail due to internal disputes and disagreements. Our guest speaker talked about Partnership Agreements and Work for Hire Agreements. It's important for the owner to make sure and communicate clearly about their goals and objectives when dealing with other individuals, whether it's within the company or third party. Funny how the issues he preached about seem so logical, yet people often times overlook out of carelessness.

iPad versus the Kindle

Steffie my muse for the day... :D

I just saw an email reminiscing the days we played the Nintendo, and you had to pull out the cartridge to figure out and fix the problem. Seems like all gadgets made today to avoid problems for us, better convenience. The person in the email also talked about dreading the day for whats to come after DVDs. iPad vs. the Kindle is exactly this.

It seems over a blink of an eye that the iPad is making presence in the market after the launch of Kindle. Even though Kindle's price level is half of an iPad, the iPad offers an abundance of entertainment value to this small gadget. In addition to the reading functionality, it can also be used for watching, listening, gaming, browsing, sharing photos, and communicating with friends & family. Over time as prices drop over demand, consumers will begin to evaluate the purchase value of an iPad vs. Kindle. "For the same price, more is better."

It's funny to see all these different gadgets consolidate to one over time. New additions and innovations are also being produced faster than ever. Similarly to the email I read, I dread the day DVDs become obsolete. VHS tapes were introduced in the 70s and remained popular up until the mid-90s. DVDs only lived to be popular for a rough 10 years, before BluRay was introduced. There seems to be a pattern for the lifespan of these new inventions - they're becoming shorter. This really means as a consumer, we need to be more conscious about making a purchase, do the research - make sure it will be a good investment!

Reference: iPad versus Kindle

HipChat

I just learned about this chat application that can be used across enterprises. I have a friend that works at Boeing and I believe they have an internal built chat system that they use. However, I was never aware of these 3rd party chat programmers catered for business models. Apparently, this type of application has been around, similar concept to Yammer and Campfire. In the past, I have used my personal accounts -- AIM, Gmail, Yahoo chat programs at work to communicate with coworkers.

I think this concept is very interesting and unique. The application is well-thought out for companies to use to communicate/get feedback. With this sort of technology, people will not need to email files and wait for recipient to receive, download and then respond back with email or phone. This makes communication much more efficient and separates employees' work from personal accounts used for social purposes. In addition, HipChat allows for group chats and individual private chats to occur simultaneously. Group chats are a great way to discuss and generate ideas. With these sort of capabilities, employees can cutback on time held in meetings and in sending emails throughout the day.

HipChat flat fee ranges from $9 a month for (12+ members) and up to $99 a month for 100 members. However, I'm not sure if this model will last if it can only house up to 100 members. I think this application should be especially helpful to large corporations with 500+ employees, which will allow you to chat with people throughout the corporation in different regions as well. HipChat could integrate the idea of Outlook to include each members profile: name, title, department, office location. Members would be searched by region or office location, and then by department. I feel that these enhancements to the tool would be more useful in large companies, since it is often times difficult to reach out to the appropriate contact.

Reference: HipChat application

Google Pulling out of China

In the past few weeks, people have been talking about the possibilities for Google to call it quits if China continues its censorship on the internet. I personally don't think China will bend rules for Google. It's understandable that Google is making a clear distinction to protect its business; however, is this the best way to negotiate for a change in censorship and freedom of speech? It's obvious that Google will be losing a huge account if they pull the plug, and it seems doubtful they may be able to get a second chance. Many of the China's internet services have remained silent about Google's decision, which means they are probably prepared to compete as the new service provider in China.

Censorship and freedom of speech in China

My parents moved to China beginning of 2009. I visited them that summer to see this newly developed city, Shanghai. Shanghai was definitely not what I had imagined in my mind. This city stretches miles long ... and it sure isn't walking distance like New York City. I could not believe my eyes -- the advancements in technologies and the beautiful buildings of old architecture and modern day.

While on vacation, I would often log online to check emails, chat online to keep in touch with my friends. It was only a few days later, when my mother called me over, and asked me, "what sites did you visit?" I blanked, and was confused. What sites? These sites ran across my mind (gmail, yahoo mail, hotmail, facebook, twitter, random blogs.. ) Nothing out of ordinary. My mother was very upset at the time, explaining that the government had already shutdown several sites that she was visiting. Apparently, I may have shutdown another one of her privileged sites. Moreover, she recently had to create a new gmail account, because the government would control emails she can/cannot receive in her hotmail.

It is evident that censorship and freedom of speech in China is a huge problem, especially for foreigners living in the country. It's a difficult adjustment knowing that you have limited rights and access to the rest of the world. In addition, search results and instant messengers are screened as well. If Google does decide to pull of China, this may be the first baby step to influence change on censorship.

metered newspaper!

Few days ago, I read about New York Times' plan for a metered billing system on its website some time next year. Imagine that! Jeff Cole mentioned in our first meet the hard hit that print newspapers have been getting since the increase of internet usage. A print subscriber will never be replaced -- it will only be replaced by more digital readers..(offspring)? Sad. Those days will be missed.

Back to my main point, newspaper companies are hanging by the thread, finding ways to survive online. To make matters worse, last year's advertising recession contributed to revenues losses for all newspaper companies. So, the new solution - charge the readers online!

New York Times will base its metered billing system on Financial Times' model. Frequent online readers (1o or more visits a month) will be charged at a flat rate. I wonder how this model will work for New York Times. The Financial Times subject matter is tailored for a niche group, while content for New York Times is rather comprehensive. How many of the New York Times' readers will remain loyal or switch brands?

Other thoughts: how will they keep track of readers? People have so many different gadgets now adays! I have an iPhone, laptop, desktop...

Reference: New York Tines Online Meter

The Other Road Ahead

In 1998, Paul Graham made a huge deal selling his start-up company Viaweb. It's obvious that he thinking was far beyond the time. This has really got me thinking about ASP (Application Service Provider), is where the next generation of software will be written. This model / concept would probably mean that our CPU would diminish in size, or would we even need one? The iMacs already have computers built in the monitors. Ironically, for some time in the tech industry, we have always been searching for ways to store more memory in a condensed model. Based on Paul Graham's concept, we probably won't be needing much memory on our personal computer in the future. Hulu is a good example -- so it seems very possible that DVDs will become obsolete..

Reading about ASP's -- so embarrassing. For the longest time in my prior job, I had the most trouble explaining what I do and what I operate. I was basically doing content management on the back-ends of an ASP! Everything just came together after reading this article. And now I've gained depth/knowledge about my last job. haha funny..

First meeting - apoc 2010

I was a little surprised that this class entails mostly guest speakers. However, this seems logical to help us gain a general understanding about the industry. John Cole spoke during our first meet about the consolidation of print media companies as most of news content is rapidly growing and converted to digital space. In addition, the increase of broadband users have affected our daily lives. As broadband becomes more common, the cost will decrease and the use of broadband will be similar to that of electricity. Something that intrigued me was that notion that cable television may eventually become obsolete. As we begin to see cable television companies feel threatened by the internet. Eg. Time warner cable promotion, offering cable subscribers free viewing anywhere.

I have also signed up to volunteer for Twiistup coming up end of January. I'm still a little uncertain what or how this will turn out. However from my understanding, this is an tech0 industry conference/social event to give entrepreneurs a chance to shine and promote themselves. This will be interesting and I look forward to this..