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Truthiness: Hulu Loses Stewart and Colbert
Great piece by Erick Schoenfeld in Seeking Alpha today, delineating the problems with Hulu’s business model and why other content owners, besides Viacom, might pull their content. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are established hit shows for Viacom — they’re big enough that Viacom shouldn’t have to share ad revenues with Hulu. Of course, this might be different if they were new shows, trying to find and build an audience. The Viacom move exposes a key problem of any business model that tries to build a brand based on other people’s content.
I’m not sure I agree with Schonfeld’s argument this is bad for consumers, as the shows will still be available for free on Comedy Central’s own site. Consumers want all of their shows in 1-2 places? This is television — viewers have been using the clicker and surfing for years. Still, it will be interesting to see if this becomes a trend by major content producers who are not part of the Hulu joint venture (NBCU, Fox and ABC) to centralize their brand’s online audience.
The Fem-On-Line Mystique
A few recent news stories reminded me of this famous New Yorker cartoon:
The Internet, the greatest single invention since man’s discovery of fire, continues to tear down our preconceived notions of how individuals express themselves authentically. We used to think people created profiles as avatars, idealized portraits of how they wanted to be perceived. However, last week’s Los Angeles Times reported on a study from the University of Texas at Austin and Johannes Gutenberg-University in Germany that says
Further Notes on The Long Tail
Peter Kafka in today’s Wall Street Journal notes that despite recently surpassing the sale of 10 billion songs, the digital store itself is not an economic force. He quotes Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer:
“… regarding the App Store and the iTunes stores, we are running those a bit over break even and that hasn’t changed. We are very excited to be providing our developers with a fabulous opportunity and we think that is helping us a lot with the iPhone and the iPod touch platform.”
Rebel Yelp, Part D’oh: Indigestion
Yelp is being sued for extortion, allegedly asking for $300 per month over a period of 1 year in order to suppress a negative review received by a Long Beach animal hospital. The New York Times‘ Nick Bilton also wrote an article just last month about how Yelp enables negative reviews and how one particularly cruel review turned ugly.
Nick Bilton in the New York Times: “Yelp Is Sued After Dispute Over a Review”
Nick Bilton in the New York Times: “Yelp’s Divide Between Businesses and Reviewers”
I use Yelp (along with a few other sites) to guide my food adventures and have blogged about them before, seeking greater engagement beyond the mere writing of reviews. I know most reviewers are honest, but Yelp’s entire brand identity is tied to authenticity:
Anderson’s Long Tail Don’t Wag The Dog
“If the twentieth-century entertainment industry was about hits, the twenty-first will be equally about niches.”[1]
In 2004, Chris Anderson wrote his much-publicized theory on “The Long Tail” in Wired (with continuing coverage in his The Long Tail Blog), followed by a more expansive treatment in his best-selling book in 2006. In these works, he argues “our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on hits at the head of the demand curve and is moving toward a huge number of niches in the tail.”[2] The internet, with its seemingly unlimited selection of content and unrestricted distribution (actual physical retail space), is liberating the world from a blockbuster economy and the “tyranny of lowest common denominator fare.” We’re free to indulge our niche passions and form our own communities with people who share our interests and not just those in close proximity — the “watercooler” is now virtual. And, Anderson asserts, the most successful internet businesses are capitalizing on the Long Tail.
Burning Man
True story: Last week, a friend of mine got badly burned when he accidentally dropped his beverage at his local Starbucks. When he asked the barista for assistance, she said they’d send a mop over. Good idea… quit whining about your second degree burns and clean up that mess. Blood pressure rising. “Why did the tea need to be devil’s cauldron hot?” Indifferent barista: “Yeah, we’ve heard that before, but that’s the way we make ‘em.” His blood pressure was now nearly matching the tea temperature. Perhaps she didn’t understand. ”Sorry — I think I’ve been seriously hurt. Could I have some ice?” The cup of ice was slammed on the counter, just as soon as she finished with the half caf double
Rebel Yelp
Fascinating news from Yelp yesterday, with CEO Jeremy Stoppelman announcing there would be no IPO for several years, 2 months after they reportedly turned down a $500M acquisition by Google. It takes a lot of nerve to turn down those sheckles in today’s market, particularly when new competitors like Foursquare are appearing on the scene. Having Elevation Partners invest $25M into Yelp helps (with plans to increase total investment to $100M). Yelp has been busy: opening new offices domestically (Scottsdale), expanding into international markets (UK and Canada) and continually adding new features (location based “check-ins” a la Foursquare). And, last month was their most successful yet, with 29M unique visitors.
Last week, APOC was visited by Christina Yoon, Yelp’s West LA Community Manager.
LA Times: Mattel taps into social media craze with Puppy Tweets
LA Times: Mattel taps into social media craze with Puppy Tweets
It’s hard to believe, but this is NOT a post from The Onion. I’m not one to kibble, but I foresee this litter of Puppy Tweets buried deeper in landfill than last year’s Zhu Zhu. Mattel announced they are producing a plastic puppy toy that will send out random tweets via sound and motion sensors. Retailing for $29.99, “it is a new frontier for us,” Mattel Brands President Neil Friedman said. “We think it could be the start of a new wave of products for people to interact with their pets.”
I used to be very cynical about the value of Twitter, but I had my “ah ha” moment with it during the NFL playoffs this year. It was fun seeing what the so-called sports experts (journalists and athletes) had to say in real time while games were in progress and not limiting myself to what the on-air commentators had to say. Same for President Obama’s
BOROWITZ REPORT: Introducing the Hot New Social Network, PhoneBook
Apparently, it allows users to call friends and speak to them.
BORROWITZ REPORT: Introducing the Hot New Social Network, PhoneBook
Hey foursquare — I don’t need no stinking badges!
I’ve been participating on foursquare for almost a month now, competing zealously against 3 friends for badges and Mayoral rights to favorite places. While I have received a few badges (foursquare’s rewards), I’ve come to realize I don’t go to my favorite places nearly enough to receive the exalted Mayor status. Being Mayor of one of my favorite eateries would be cool, almost as cool as having an ice cream sundae or deli sandwich named after you (I do have a cocktail named after me, but we’ll save that for another time). I’m an espresso snob with a fancy Pasquini machine at home so I go to Intelligentsia once a week to pick up my Black Cat beans. I spend the rest of the week acting as my own barista (and for anyone else who happens to stop by — believe me — a lot of friends “just happen to be in the neighborhood”). Every week I check in at Intelligentsia and every week I get the same notice — my friend Rob is the Mayor. Rob lives in the ‘hood and has an office across the street. When I try to raise the competitive ante and shout out to Rob that I’m coming after him, he taunts me, replying “I laugh at you from my Mayoral Throne.” Fun stuff.
