The past week has been an interesting one. If I ever win the lottery I have one event that I would like to do. Create an event in which 3 speakers of my choice come and speak to me and a select of individuals. Preferably the event should be held in US to ensure that the speakers make it. The 3 speakers are individuals whom I respect but also would love to have an audience with. So who is the three: Jeff Bezos, Marc Andreessen and Mary Meeker.
Mary Meeker provides some of the best presentations that are publicly available for anyone related to the business of the Internet. There is one other analyst whom I respect, Imran Khan but ever since he joined Credit Suisse it seems he has gone very quiet. (Can someone please make something similar to “Nothing But Net” as that PDF provided information which was relevant for the entire year…). The changes of this event taking place are small but it is a dream…
Anyway, this week saw the following stories raising my attention levels:
1. Mary Meeker had a spot to talk at D10 and presented her Internet Trends 2012. As usual it is well worth a download and contains excellent data. Key takeaway: 3 hottest markets are Indonesia, Phillipines and Nigeria and mobile is here to stay. I also noticed that Scribd was used as the medium to host this presentation and not Slideshare…
2. Rocket Internet made it into my RSS feeds. Inc does a great article on Oliver Samwer and provides a very interesting inside story on how Airbnb got cloned and are now working with international clone as their international partner. Oliver Samwer has a personal valuation of $1 Billion and must be one the most hated individuals in consumer internet products. Lesson is that these brothers are most probably not well known but they need to be respected as their operation is far from being a small one. Wamda then asks whether Rocket Internet entering the Middle East is a bad thing? My personal take is that they are forcing entrepreneurs and competitors to ramp up or be left in their dust….
3. I find developing Internet markets fascinating. India, Russia, Brazil and China are all in different stages of their Internet penetration lifecycle. India is a market that I look at for purely ecommerce reasons. A lot has happened in a very short time but has it happened too fast? Flipkart is showing signs of stagnation and losses and has investors concerned. Oh and Amazon also has an an interest there through Junglee…
4. In Chile a service comparison startup called ComparaOnline received venture capital investment from Kaszek Investments. The Next Web has all the details but service comparisons might be another vertical in the comparison ecosystem steadily getting more attention.
5. Moneysupermarket has acquired MoneySavingExpert.com for approximately $132 million. Paidcontent has some very interesting information about the acquisition. It seems that in the UK and US, the financial comparison sector is super competitive. Also acquisitions normally lead to staff leaving, so Moneysupermarket and Martin Lewis has a lot to do to keep everyone involved happy.
6. Who said that I only will be talking just about ecommerce? Two normal retail stories got me thinking. In Brazil, Hellmann’s prints customized recipes on grocery shoppers’ receipts which is a super idea. Receipts are space which can be used more efficiently.. Secondly, the effects of a Walmart opening in a suburb or town on property pricing? The answer will surprise you..
7. Chinese ecommerce is at the moment a battle between many players but in the long term it leads to increased SEM costs and a drop in shipping costs. If you are interested in China and its ecommerce ecosystem, then this PitneyBownes articles is in need of your time and attention.
8. Google put the entire ecommerce world on notice yesterday. Google Product search is becoming a profit making product for Google and the ramifications of yesterday’s announcements are massive. Danny Sullivan as usual does a great job in analysing it. I wonder whether this change for Google Product Search to Google Shopping will lead to FTC inquiries? I am leading to believing so and Seeking Alpha has mentioned something similar.
9. Buzzwords in eCommerce has most eCommerce staff confused. I for one have heard a few and one of my favorite eCommerce writers tries to clarify a few. Sally McKenzie tries to explain Omni-Channel Retail: A Term So Confusing, Even Those Doing it Best Don’t Know What it Means. (Send this link to your manager, GM and team as this is a great explanation on what Multi-Channel, Omni-Channel and Cross channel is.)
10. Customer acquisition costs are something that we all face in ecommerce. However the daily deals vertical has taken the concept to another level. The etail blog has a very interesting article on the battle between LivingSocial and Groupon in terms of customer acquisition.
Onwards..