While I was on Google searching for potential future television shows that Netflix might implement an interesting blog post from Macleans popped up. This blog was both relevant to what I was searching for and tied in nicely with the Netflix group activity we did in class.

Coincidentally, this article actually solved the Netflix team activity where we had to pitch which route would be the best approach for the company to investors. The method they used was definitely creative and convincing. Instead of a more normal approach to find out which T.V shows customers like, they used information from torrent websites. This will definitely be beneficial because people want the “best” possible and they want it “free”. Therefore the most popular television shows will be the most torrent-ed because people will not pay the expensive price that cable charges while they get just get every show for free. Tackling their thought process, implementing the most torrent-ed shows can potentially get “pirates” to subscribe to Netflix. They can essentially get all the shows they want with only one cheap subscription terminating the possible crimes of illegally downloading content. I will definitely be keeping a close eye in the upcoming months to see what this company has to offer.

In my classmate’s blog post The Risk of Natural Disaster in Tokyo, Yuki Maruoka shares his own experience of facing natural disasters in Japan and how it can be one of the essential risks for businesses in the area.

I personally agree towards his thoughts and would like to add a more in-depth opinion using my knowledge I gained from EOSC 114: Natural Disasters course as well as displaying how natural disasters effectively impacts company’s SWOT. In Japan, Tokyo is one of the riskiest cities to do business but it is not only because of the location of the city. It is considered “risky” and a “big disaster” only if it effects a large population and if it damages the city economically. To point out the obvious, no one would care if a 9.0 magnitude earthquake happened in the middle of the desert. Additionally, Japan is located in the collision point of three tectonic plates (Pacific Ring of Fire) so any movement between the three plates may pose a danger towards the country. Another important point is that natural disasters are considered a very likely external threat for most companies located in Japan. We can reduce the damage taken by businesses if they were to allocate production factories to a rural parts of the country. Ultimately, natural disasters are truly inevitable but the closest thing to avoidance is to reduce the damage that can be received.

Through browsing through my classmate’s COMM 101 blogs, I read a topic that appealed to my own personal interests. In this blog:  Fairfax Financial taking over BlackBerry my classmate Lance Wu shared his own opinion on the reason behind the downfall of BlackBerry in the smartphone market.

Though his opinions displayed very intriguing insights, I believe that there are other factors that impacted the fall of BlackBerry. I am convinced that the BlackBerry and Apple example he mentioned can be easily compared to the Kodak and digital cameras example we discussed in class. When BlackBerry revolutionized our lives with smartphones we never expected that BlackBerry phones would soon “disappear”. Furthermore, if BlackBerry effectively acknowledge Apple as a severe threat they wouldn’t be in a similar situation as Kodak was. I also believe BlackBerry changing their phone’s keyboard structure into touch screens is not really a prime factor. Something that BlackBerry lacks from Apple and other mobile phones is the amount of new innovative features they offer. The success of the Iphone is through the features they offer like the App Store where app developers are allowed to upload their creation for consumers to either download for free or pay for them. This was only one of the many factors that BlackBerry initially overlooked and it was too late when they realized producing relatively the same type of phones with minimal additional features became unsuccessful.

During this past month, my Facebook was bombarded by endless pictures of barcode-like images asking for people to ‘add them’. At first, I was quite confused thinking that everyone just switched their current phones to BlackBerry but everything made sense after I saw that the BBM app was the most downloaded app in both the Apple app store and the Android store.

Ever since the unexpected BBM launch into Apple and Android stores, there have been many thoughts and opinions floating around about BlackBerry potentially saving themselves from their current state. Some analysts say that the BBM has little to no correlation with the sales of current BlackBerry phones while others say that they gained over 20 million new users only weeks after release, which will indefinitely make BlackBerry more profitable.

Through my own personal experience in the last month I strongly believe that BlackBerry’s actions are headed towards the right direction. Considering their current state, they are only limited to a few risky options that can potentially bring themselves back into the competitive scene. Introducing the BBM App to Apple and Andriod markets allows the company to enter the same market as other popular mobile messaging apps like Snapchat and Twitter. However like those companies, they also technically make no revenue therefore BlackBerry has to figure out a way to turn their 20 million new users to “actual revenue”.

Works Cited:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/bbm-success-won-t-guarantee-blackberry-s-future-1.2254087

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/blackberrys-bbm-wins-over-20-million-iphone-android-users/article15132162/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/blackberry-boasts-of-smashing-success-with-20-million-new-bbm-users/article15134557/

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57612359-94/bbm-and-its-quest-to-become-a-social-phenomenon/

Just this past weekend, the long anticipated video game console PS4 finally hit the shelves of many local retail stores including Best Buy, Future Shop and GameStop. However, the short supplies for this product left many customers empty handed. Many customers were disappointed since they waited in line for hours looking forward to get their hands on the new console on the day of the launch.

Many analysts perceive that the demand for the console during the opening weekend displays a positive sign of future sales in the upcoming months. Though this may be true, I believe that Sony could have executed their supply and inventory distribution to satisfy both their revenue income and consumer demands. They should have had a larger inventory supply during the opening weekend, the reason behind this is because Sony holds a competitive advantage over their long term rival Microsoft by releasing their console a week prior to the XBox One release. By having more inventory they would reduce the number of unsatisfied customers leaving the store empty handed as well as reducing the number of customers deciding to buy XBox One because PS4 was sold out. Though the second part of the argument only applies to a small number of people, it is still significantly relevant because some customers who want both consoles will usually by console first and the other console months or years later.

Extra Update: I tried to see if the PS4 was purchasable directly from the Sony store website so the customers who didn’t get it from retail stores will have another option. Sadly, it is unavailable so maybe another improvement would be to offer online orders as well.

Work Cited:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/playstation-4-release_n_4280599.html

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303559504579200310734889426

http://store.sony.ca/gsi/webstore/WFS/SNYNA-SNYCA-Site/en_CA/-/CAD/ViewProduct-Start?SKU=31-PS410036

In recent news Snapchat, an overwhelmingly popular mobile app messaging service rejected Facebook’s $3 billion dollar buy-out. This action indefinitely helped the company attract attention and led many investors to question the true value of the company as well as evaluating its potential growth. 

In our previous lecture, we discussed how entrepreneurs develop successful start up companies and certain risks/obstacles that they had to overcome in order to get the result they wanted. Moreover, this article displays relevance to that topic since Snapchat, a relatively new start up company is worth more than $3 billion dollars in just 2 years. How is it possible that mobile app messaging companies like Snapchat, Twitter and Pinterest that technically make no revenue be worth millions of dollars? I am convinced that the sole reason behind their success is because that the companies are built around an unique product that attracts a tremendous customer base. The value of these companies are determined through their users whether its the amount of messages sent per second or the amount of users active daily. With proper execution, these types of start ups can easily bypass the barriers of entry and threaten existing companies like Facebook. Conclusively, if companies like Facebook want to stop their active customer base from declining they have to think of an immediate solution and an easy solution would be to buyout the competitor. However, this solution gives the start up companies a pretty good approximation of the threat level they impose on competitors as well as determining their growth potential in the upcoming years.

Works Cited:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/snapchat-rejected-facebook-buyout-offer-report-reveals/article15417646/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/11/15/should-facebook-put-a-knockout-punch-offer-on-the-table-for-snapchat-say-5b/

General Motors introduces an online shopping platform that allows customers to purchase new cars on the internet. This allows customers to skip the showroom ritual when buying new cars. This expansion of a web-based application is primarily targeted towards online-savvy consumers as well as customers who does not have the time to go to a car dealership. This implementation allows easy accessibility to the company’s products and may include more of a variety than local car dealerships.

Though GM’s message to expand their market and open to a larger customer base is clear, I do not believe that the company will gain much success with this action. There are certain products that are not meant to be sold online like groceries or everyday necessities. Personally, there are several factors I must take into consideration when purchasing a car. I must be able to test drive the vehicle making sure that I am comfortable with it as well as being able to instantly acquire the vehicle after purchase. Many of these factors can potentially “make or break” a deal when it comes to customer values. However, I may be completely wrong as the company have taken appropriate amount of steps to evaluate their customer’s preferences and demands. It is too soon to determine whether this online platform will be able to benefit or destroy the company in the future.

Work Cited:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303492504579111752452221502

Twitter announced that before their initial public offering they have been hard at work towards forming potential partnerships with a variety of different television networks. They believe these partnerships will assist them in searching for new types of advertising revenue as well as appealing to future investors.

Though I may not be an avid Twitter user but however, I believe that they are currently headed towards the right direction. They stated that their initial goal for the IPO is to reach 1 billion US in stocks. Forming partnerships with television networks will doubtlessly help them reach their aspiration. Before considering these partnerships, Twitter has always been a place for people to discuss various topics, especially about current news or popular television shows. Some examples that comes to mind would be the Game of Thrones “Red Wedding” episode  and just last week, The Breaking Bad Finale was the most tweeted topic. Twitter offers a place for us to converse about things that interests us as well as an opportunity to share our own opinions to the world. Moreover, the collaborations with multiple television networks will allow people to discuss topics live by using specific program based hash tags. Many of the current commercials we have been watching have already implemented the hash tag feature. Ultimately, these partnerships will benefit both Twitter and television networks as they strengthen the accessibility of television content to an another level.

Work Cited:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/twitter-exploring-tv-related-advertising-ahead-of-ipo-1.1928356

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/twitter-ipo-details-raise-questions-over-financials-bots-1.1912936

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/twitter-ipo-details-raise-questions-over-financials-bots-1.1912936

Recently, information has been released concluding that Samsung Electronic’s operating profit hit record high in the July to September quarter. The company stated that their operating income rose over 25% toward 9.4 billion US, which was better than their expected 9.3 billion US.

There are several factors contributing towards Samsung reaching a record-high profit but I am convinced that this increase was most likely the result of Samsung focusing on more of a diverse product line especially the low- and mid-end phones. With this goal, they were able to expand further into international markets offering phones that are very affordable in developing countries. I’m positive most of us are aware that Samsung specializes in producing unique products for different types of markets. They offer customers a variety of products and creates new device categories that their competitors have not yet established. This point of difference gives them a tremendous advantage over their competitors such as Apple or HTC where they mainly focus on releasing similar products but with improved specifications. As evidence of Samsung’s diverse market, they recently released Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, S3 mini, Note 3 and Mega. The Samsung Galaxy S4 and S3 mini targets customers who wants a cheaper smaller version of it predecessor while the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Mega targets customers interested in a combined “tablet phone”. Ultimately, finishing the third quarter with a record-high profit is only the beginning of a positive future for Samsung. It will be interesting to see how their competitors will respond in the coming years.

A video introducing the “Samsung Family”

Works Cited:

http://mobilesyrup.com/2013/09/23/samsung-bringing-galaxy-note-3-galaxy-gear-galaxy-s3-mini-and-galaxy-s4-mini-to-canada-on-october-4th/

http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/samsung-reports-record-high-profit-5609486

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/technology/htc-suffers-first-quarterly-loss-as-samsung-soars.html?_r=0

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/samsung-profits-up-a-record-25-in-3rd-quarter-1.1912361

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker company have been receiving numerous customer complaints in the past decade about a sudden acceleration problem in their vehicles. According to several sources, the company was well aware of this problem but they continued to remain quiet and denied any assumptions associated with this problem..

Why would they hide such a critical issue from the public and their valued customers? The only logical explanation would be to protect their prestigious reputation and prevent their shareholders from declining. However, this problem is imperative towards maintaining their relationship with their valued customers. They created an unnecessary threat towards their customer’s safety that would’ve answered many unexpected accidents and malfunctions that people have experienced with their vehicles. This substantial ethical problem will permanently  destroy the company’s reputation as well as a tremendous decrease in future sales. Toyota thought they could ignore this problem by covering it up without seriously considering possible long term consequences that the company would suffer from. Additionally, using their short term solution basically increased the severity of the problem. From the customer’s perspective, they attempted to hide vital information instead of admitting it was their fault when this issue was first discovered.

A recent article about the Toyota sudden acceleration case:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/07/21/first-toyota-acceleration-case/2573161/

Work Cited:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/29/business/la-fi-toyota-suit-20101029

http://www.carscoops.com/2012/03/toyota-refutes-cnn-report-that-it-knew.html