This is a response to a external blog post by Cornor Dougherty’ “YouTube Weighing New Subscription Service”

One of the worlds’ biggest video site is adding another service to collect money, which is the  “subscription service”. Youtube shows advertisements before the video plays, which frustrates many users. This, could be gone by paying for the ad-free subscription.

My views to the topic:
The advertisements are annoying when it comes up before, or during the videos we are watching. Now, will this really work? I am quite sure this system will increase Youtube’s revenue. Youtube has billion users accessing to their site and watching videos. This paying system does not have to attract all consumers, it will work if there are few percentage of people willing to pay. If 1 % of the Youtube users are willing to pay $1 per month (This is the price Youtube is aiming to price), the total income would be $10 million. Since Youtube has so many users, the amount of money achieved would be enormous, despite the amount of people who wants to stop seeing the pre-played advertisements.

My views to the blog:
This blog post was interesting as it had Youtube’s prospective in why they wanted to start a new service, and how Youtube has the potential to earn more subscriptions. It also mentions about recommended strategies Youtube should do in order to gain more users, and win against other similar online video sites.

The First Nation’s chief has gained $800,000 for selling 236 hectares of land. This is not what the citizens hoped for.
Many people were against with creating the pipelines in their area, afraid that the oils may leak and harm the environment. For example, the land near the Nak’al Koh River was broken from logging, road building, farming.

Chief of Kwilwetlem, Ron Giesbrecht

The chief is supposed to be a leader, but the fact that he sold parts of a land is a betrayal for the other people against the creating of pipelines, mines, etc. I feel this is contradicting with this article as all of the First Nation people are against of modernizing their land, but instead, desires to keep the land the way it is (in the article with the link).

Why did the chief sell the land? It is almost like as if he is pro modernization. Different three nation had also sold their land for money, which was mentioned in this article. Can the people of First nation really protect their land and resources?

LINK

On September, Microsoft bought Minecraft, one of the world’s famous games with $2.5 billion. This means that Microsoft gets the rights to the game and Mojang, the development studio.

Microsoft already has $85 billion in hand, so $2.5 billion may not seem as much. But Microsoft was suffering from the decreasing shares in their own smartphones, so buying Minecraft was one of the method to gain profit.

I think the action Microsoft took was smart; Microsoft wanted to increase their profit, and Mojang was having trouble managing their company and keeping up with the demanding fans. Minecraft, although it is known as a “game”, is not really a game where people compete each other to win. There are no goals either, making it more of a social site. Although some fans are wailing about how Minecraft itself would not be fun anymore because Microsoft is intervening, both companies/producers/CEOs got what they want. They both agreed in buying and selling, which makes it an advantage for both sides.

LINK

I bet many people have used eBay and PayPal. First of all, eBay and PayPal were not together until 2002. On October 3rd 2002 (which is amazingly today), eBay bought PayPal and owned them.
Now, since PayPal is still it’s fast growing segment, eBay has decided to spin off, meaning, “The creation of an independent company through the sale or distribution of new shares of an existing business or division of a parent company. “ from next year.

I think what John Donahoe (president and CEO of eBay) did was great. eBay and PayPal are still popular and it shows no sign of slowing down. Thus, splitting these two up enables to expand their market and create more profit if it goes well. As mentioned before, people still rely on PayPal, especially people without credit cards find it easy to be able to pay online, therefore I doubt John Donahoe will regret about his decisions he made.
In fact, according to the company, eBay’s sales reduced by the growth of PayPal. Separating these two may create more opportunities for both sides and may establish a strong market for the online marketplace.

Companies rely on customers who buy/use their goods or services. Trademarks, or logos may not be so important for some people, but they are actually important to companies. These small pictures, words and fonts have meanings and messages in them to appeal their company to the consumers.

What are the messages behind certain company’s logos? Well, for example, take a look at Amazon’s logo.

Amazon’s logo

The <font color=”#FFA500″>orange arrow</font> pointing from a to z shows how Amazon have many varieties of products, and can send them anywhere to you, the consumers.

Therefore, it is not surprising if one of the logos look similar, and leads into a battle to win for its rights. The article I looked at was an issue between Disney, famous for Mickey Mouse and Deadmau5, a Canadian DJ and performer.

Logo of Deadmau5 and Disney

Who used these ears first? Well, it’s obviously Disney. But Deadmau5 has been using his logo for a decade, which makes it funny for Disney to sue him.

This is one of a hard situation. As mentioned before, logos are important to companies. If they’re similar, that’s going to be a problem. But for this case, I think it’s different. It’s actually impossible to confuse which logo is for which. First of all, the ears seem different, and Mickey doesn’t have a creepy white eye and mouth for his silhouette.

Copyrights are difficult because you don’t know when it’s actually “copying” and when it’s “original”. There are billions of different companies around the world, and I guess it’s not surprising unless the logo is too similar.

I find this case too hard for Disney to win. Illustration of mouses tend to have big ears, and the fact that Deadmau5 has been using the logo for 10 years may be a little too difficult for the lawyers to agree with Disney. This battle is ongoing, and we (at least I) can’t miss it.

LINKS