The Commerce Blogger

Pebble, one of the first manufacturers of the smartwatch recently announced their latest invention, a circular smartwatch called Pebble Time Round.

With the release of the Apple Watch earlier this year, coupled by the many Android watches surfacing, the competition in the smartwatch industry is definitely heating up.

Pebble’s latest smartwatch aims to capture new and existing market share with the introduction of Pebble Time Round. With similar existing Pebble features plus the addition of an arguably beautiful-looking watch, Pebble aims to position themselves as a fashionable wearable.

And it is proving to be rather successful in positioning themselves as a fashion product. Early critics have praised Pebble’s new take on the design and many are eager to try on the Time Round.

What I think Pebble should focus on now is to try and push their product out to the market as soon as they can and get their brand recognition out before other competitors follow suit. There are also rumours of an Apple Watch 2 launching early next year and Pebble should take into account of such news.

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Twitch, the live streaming video platform that primarily focuses on video games was acquired by Amazon in August last year for US$970 million.

Watching video game footage has become an increasingly popular activity among many gamers and non-gamers alike and it is evidenced through the success of Pew Die Pie, a 25 year old video game commentator who has the most subscribed Youtube channel.

Therefore, it makes sense that many would consume the content on Twitch, given the rising trend of watching live video game footage. What I find interesting is how Twitch partners (broadcasters) earn money from this and how marketers/companies work together with them to do so. Aside from getting viewers to subscribe to a person’s Twitch channel, one could also obtain revenue through advertising which come in the form of:

• Commercials – which would be played in between play times. Twitch partners would generally play 3-4 ad commercials each hour.
• Sponsored content – most Twitch partners have a webcam to show themselves and they would generally wear/use sponsored content that audiences can observe.
• In-game advertising – this form of advertising, can and should be improved in my opinion. What this form of advertising means is basically, placing specifically targeted ads in the actual game that the broadcaster is playing. This could mean the ‘character’ in the game using sponsored content (eg. an in-game character wearing a company’s shirt).

Overall, I feel that to appeal to the right audience (gamers in this instance), marketers must be able to target them effectively by using the right methods. Only then would they be able to get more eyeballs to focus on their brand/product to increase brand awareness, which possibly leads to purchases in the future.

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New Snapchat data that was gathered by multiple sources reveal several interesting facts for marketers looking to increase their fan base and gain more profits. Point #4 and #6 particularly, show just how important Snapchat is to those consuming social media content daily.

Point #4 states that according to a Piper Jaffray survey, Snapchat is more popular among American teens than Facebook, while point #6 states that Snapchat gets 4 billion video views a day, which is the same number as Facebook.

According to these reports, the numbers are staggering. Snapchat is proving to be a powerhouse social media platform that competitors should not be taking lightly.

Snapchat is showing no signs of stopping and there’s now much less reason to write them off as “a silly toy only children will use”.

The facts show that a large number of Snapchat’s users are teens and going forward, Snapchat has to decide whether they should continue focusing on this target demographic or to rethink their strategies and appeal more broadly to a larger audience, just as Facebook, Twitter and every other social media platform has done before it.

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Facebook recently rolled out a new feature on their social media platform which allows users to respond to status updates using emojis.

Basically, it is an extension of Facebook’s ubiquitous ‘Like’ button, where different reactions can be added to a post. The buttons are as follows: like, love, haha, yay, wow, sad and angry.

I think that having Reactions on Facebook provides marketers with the opportunity to understand what their audience truly wants. It provides marketers with the ability to see how people respond to their content on Facebook and whether these reactions will have an impact as strong as Likes have shown in the past.

Marketers will be able to take advantage in these three ways:

1. Understand the causes and factors of the emotions of customers
2. Engage with customers in more accurately and empathically
3. Improve the customer experience by making the right business changes

Overall, Facebook Reactions presents a great opportunity for marketers and businesses to understand and gain more insight into the customers’ thought processes and emotions. Using this new data, they are able to tweak their existing products and improve their customer service to better suit the wants and needs of customers.

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I found the 13th class of Comm 101 interesting, especially the rise of Dell in the early 90s. Dell was the number 1 computer manufacturer and controlled more market share as compared to their competitors. The reputation and success of Dell seemed to be increasing and no other company seemed to be able to compete with Dell. Yet, Apple, who  faced rocky sales and low market share at that time gradually rose and ousted Dell as the number 1 brand in consumer electronics. How that became possible in the short span of 10 years or so is just intriguing.

One of the main reasons why Apple became successful in terms of profit and reputation is  through the excellent use of the Direct Business Model (DBM). Although not the first to sell directly to their customers, Apple has implemented the use of the DBM efficiently, hence leading to more profit due to the double margin effect.

Apple is also known for their immensely strong customer relationship. Having friendly and helpful Apple staff, along with the inclusion of AppleCare with the purchase of any Apple product, Apple has indeed given customers the ability to engage with the company directly, leading to a higher degree of trust and increased loyalty.

There is more to be said of Apple’s rise to fame, but unfortunately I have run out of words. However, if you are keen to know more, do read about Apple’s history and also, Apple is the new Dell to gain an insight of Apple’s achievement.

An interesting read of my classmate’s (Asfvin Pugunisparam) blog post intrigued me to research more about the brain drain drain problem facing my country, Malaysia. Currently, it seems that Malaysia is experiencing a major problem with brain drain and this condition is not expected to get better any time soon.

There are many factors that could have resulted to this, mainly, having a better standard of living. As the statistics show, 76% of Malaysians who sought their future overseas was a result of them being able to have better career prospects. Better career prospects include having higher salaries, job advancements and even higher job satisfaction.

This is unsurprising nowadays as people seek to work for the companies which are able to provide them with good salaries as well as a satisfying job. When looking at the top 100 companies to work for rated by CNN, the companies sought after by employees possess a flexible organizational structure with a cohesive and dynamic workplace. Look at Zappos or Google for example, which incorporates work and play together during work hours. Not only is work done more productively, employee satisfaction is boosted along with their loyalty.

In the future, companies will want to work towards having that balance between work and fun as opposed to a traditional structure, which focuses only on the success of the company. People of today are more suited to work in the new environment as priorities and perspectives change. In order to tackle the brain drain issue in MaIaysia, this is definitely one of the factors that have to be looked at and implemented with immediate urgency.

Read more about the severe brain drain problem in Malaysia here.

On the topic of social enterprise, I recently began looking at the recent social entrepreneurs of today. Looking at Forbes list of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, of the top 30, one of their stories caught my attention. In 1984, a bright and young optometry student, Jordan Kassalow thought of the idea to supply cheap and affordable eyeglass to those who could not afford them.He then founded VisionSpring in 2001 and now, 50, has spent most of his time building his company in the hopes of making the eyeglass business a self-sustaining operation. Kassalow’s vision, synonymous with the mission statement of VisionSpring, is “to ensure affordable eyeglass is available to every individual to live a productive life.”

I think that Kassalow’s idea and notion on the supply of cheap eyeglass is just marvellous. His contributions to society has already resulted in many individuals being more productive in life. As a pair of spectacles only costs between $4-7, almost anyone can afford a pair of them.

Looking at the way social entrepreneurs change society sometimes just leaves me in awe. I really admire the contributions they have done and their passion towards creating a better future for the coming generations. What I personally think is that charities and donations should be given to the social entrepreneurs as they act as the catalysts to provide the needy with the ability to self-sustain and live independently. Read more about Jordan Kassalow’s story here.

In recent years, HTC has seen a spectacular uprising in rankings, generating high revenues due to the sales of their smartphones. Ever since HTC created their first android device, sales of their smartphones has continued to skyrocket beyond expectations.

However, in a recent article I read about HTC on the famous tech blog Engadget, HTC’s sales seem to be going in a downward spiral. The article talks about the HTC’s revenues dropping at alarming rates. This might have seemed like a joke about a year ago, where HTC was doing so well and revenues were rising extremely high (read here). It seems so unreal that the success of a huge smartphone company can fluctuate so quickly in the matter of a year.

HTC’s downfall could have resulted from Samsung’s uprising with its new flagship model, the Galaxy S3 and also Apple’s newly launched iPhone 5. In order to keep up with this two tech giants, HTC has to alter its strategies and rethink its ways.

Innovation is seemingly becoming more important and is one of HTC’s weak points. To win back sales, HTC must first be able to win back customers’ loyalty towards the brand. Having good hardware is no longer a point of difference, but a point of parity for any top smartphone company. The biggest point of difference would be to excel in the innovation department as it is becoming increasingly important in the tech world. By implementing these effective strategies, they can reverse their decline and continue to imprint themselves into the minds of the consumers.

I am truly amazed by the entrepreneurs of today. Recently, I had the chance to hear two successful entrepreneurs tell their stories of success. The first was Janice Cheam, the CEO of Energy Aware. The second was Wade Larson, the director and co-founder of UrtheCast. I will be talking about UrtheCast as I find their business idea extremely fascinating.

About UrtheCast : Their goal is to provide high definition live streaming of the Earth. This is quite special because no one has ever attempted to do such a thing due to the uncertainty of the risks and costs. However, I feel that UrtheCast has made the right decision to continue with their operation. In the long run, UrtheCast will be a profitable business that will continue to grow and expand beyond the expectations of many. The possibilities of currently having the only high definition live streaming of Earth, is endless.

Once the cameras are installed in 2013, live video of Earth will be available. By then, most people will realize how useful and unique UrtheCast is. Imagine knowing what is happening on the other side of the world in real time, knowing what is happening in a certain country, all live on the internet. By incorporating UrtheCast into social media, education, news and even gaming, UrtheCast will be able to gain not only huge profits but also recognition.

Personally I think the company will remain as consumers’ number one choice in live streaming of the Earth. They have the advantage over future new competitors due to their brand positioning, by being the first in this category. The idea of being able to view live streaming of the Earth is just so exciting and exhilarating.The potential of UrtheCast is limitless. Honestly, I just can’t wait for the completion of this project.

Read more about UrtheCast’s potential here.