Why high engagement and high value come about when News meet Social Networking and Education? | The Whiz Times | Nelson Wee | Singapore

Place "News" and "Social Networking" side by side and couple that with "Education" for kids, and you would get a online service which could garner high engagement and value in your #dailyhabits amongst its key user segments - parents, kids, educators. Here is one such service - The Whiz Times - a one of its kind News, Enrichment and Entertainment platform for the entire family.

My friend and ex-colleague, Shalabh Pandey, Chief Whiz and founder of "The Whiz Times" tells me this about his platform service ... 

• The Whiz Times brings the real world closer to Kids (Tweens) via parents in a Safe, Simple and Fun environment. 
• Our content engine can 'filter' stories based on various age groups, users can get reward points for using the platform, get access to hundreds of stories, loads of custom produced videos and much more. 
• The idea is to provide a family friendly environment - that is 100% safe, privacy protected, full of custom produced content and tonnes of interactivity including videos, quizzes, games.

Why the engagement? The multimedia contents for worldwide and local news in The Whiz Times have been specially composed and published for kids and at times even published by kids themselves! See the video below.



Why the value? There is a growing trend and market attention on EdTech. Already we are seeing also trending increasing digital publishing and consumption of books and education contents today. And we are seeing in the last 2 years in 2012 and now into 2013 that niche vertical communities are positing themselves in the ecosystems and thriving in the markets around us. Social networks for kids with contents could offer huge and untapped ancillary revenue channels and opportunities as well!

Not to mention, that anecdotally (in online surveys done in Singapore and I am pretty sure is a worldwide phenomenon as parents always want the best for their kids), parents for kids age 7 to 12 years do tend to spend more on their kids (for example education) than on themselves. Well, I as a parent, would attest to this!

In closing, with niche social networks like The Whiz Times, with news content and which have educational value - as a platform for kids and families to participate and learn together on what's happening in the real world in a SIMPLE, SAFE, FUN manner - could help inculcate interest, instil passion in learning and creating contents in kids. This would bode well for the kids' future as digital literacy could well be the new financial literacy of the future.

What are your thoughts on such social networks and how they could play in today's new learning paradigms?


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee, Singapore
See my presentations in Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee
Engage with me in Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nelsonwee

Who is spending more on Facebook Social Games?

I wrote about the growing opportunities in mobile social games, especially in Asia recently in my post "3 things you may not know about mobile social games".  Now it appears that social games in PC and in mobile from the juggernaut of Social Networks, Facebook, will be gathering its much anticipated momentum with its recent announcement.


In recent days this week, news of Facebook's collaboration with Bango (Bango integrates to operators' billing systems) has broken out. It's probably about time - given:

1. more than 800m Facebook members
2. more than 425m who are accessing Facebook mobile
3. about 30% Facebook members play the social games in Facebook (below pic from Smurfs' Village Facebook page)
4. huge opportunities awaiting further explosive growth from the emerging markets, e.g. in South East Asia where Social Networks like Facebook are accessed largely via mobile devices.

When one reads more into the consumption habits of Facebook social gamers, would you ever guess?

"while younger people are the ones spending more time on games, they are not the group with the highest propensity to purchase virtual goods. Just 10 per cent of 18-25 year olds bought virtual goods, compared to 70 per cent of those aged 45+"

The above was supported by an article in the 29th February 2012 edition of Singapore's Straits Times Digital Life section "Paying for 'free' Facebook games" where the writer, Oo Gin Lee, was scratching his head why his 48 year old sister is playing the Smurf's Village game, got hooked and started buying the smurfberries! She even invited him to join her game so that he could help water her crops!

What has your experience been like with the people around you who are playing social games?


Look forward to connect with you, 
See My Profile: Nelson Wee
Engage with me at twitter: @nelsonwee
 

1-2-3 to the eBook market

In my previous post, I wrote about how content consumption is going increasingly mobile as mobile devices are personal and always near you.  In this day and age of the Mobile Internet when time is now compressed more than ever, consumers are adapting their lifestyles in various activities like reading.  With the introduction of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 in the US and rest of the world in 2009, eBooks and eMagazines are now changing the ways consumers are interacting with the book media.

Here is a quick 1-2-3 to the eBook market:

(1) eBooks Global Market adoption: US leads, followed by the UK, emergent in Rest of the World

• Books business is BIG BUSINESS - around the world, people spent US$108 billion on books in 2009.
• In the US, eBooks have grown from 0.6 percent in 2008 of the total books trade  market, to 3% in 2009 and more recently to 7% in 2010.  Expect to see eBooks to have a market share of 22.5% of consumer books in 2015!
• The UK while lagging behind the US with 1.5% market share of consumer books in 2010 is expected to see this share rise to 14.2% in 2015

(2) eBooks can be consumed across multiple screens and ways

• eReaders (Amazon Kindle introduced in 2007) as the dedicated  eReading device which ensures a real book reading experience.
• Tablets (iPad in introduced in 2010) as the multifunction alternative reading devices, while on the move, e.g. with eMagazines.
• Smartphones for short mobile sequels read during daily commute.
• PCs, laptops which are great for reading special interest group eBooks, reference, education books.

(3) eBooks and eMagazines provide opportunities as ancillary channels

• Publishers can look forward to reinvent themselves in the book publishing value chain as content providers.
• With eBooks, publishers now have in their hands ancillary channels to market with potentially lower costs and higher margins.
• Publishers could earn ancillary revenues by going beyond the text in the books and repurposing the content to audio, video and even games.

Just like music, tv and video, the books industry has been experiencing disruptive changes in differing degrees around the world - led by the US and impacting the rest of the world through the proliferation of the mobile internet and multimedia consumption devices.

If you are a publisher, are you looking into eBooks?  If not, why?

If you are a consumer, how would you see eBooks changing your reading behaviors, now and in the future? 

Look forward to your views.


warm regards, later~
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

How content consumption is going mobile

How people have been used to consuming content before and how they are doing so today have changed dramatically over the last 20 years.  Content consumption has become more portable as mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc) become more personal and always near at hand.

Mobile is Personal
It probably all started when we could start personalize the ring tone of your Nokia mobile phone in the 90s.  With that one feature sprang forth a large following and business for downloadable ring tones.  Thereafter with the advent of iTunes, there was no stopping music going portable.

It was also in the late nineties that the Snake game in Nokia mobile phones enraptured a community of Nokia loyalists into mobile gaming.  The mobile games business grew from strength to strength since then and ever more so today with the proliferation of smartphones and games with richer game-play.

The mobile has become ever more so personal with your favourite music and games mobile and portable, by your side.

Mobile is always near
Newspapers have not been spared.  The time has come to a pass when Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has published the digital copy of the Straits Times as an iPad, iPhone app.  With time looked upon as a premium by the current Gen-X professionals and Gen-Ys not known to read physical print, SPH is looking to engage these lost readers through the other more in-their-face screens, i.e. tablets (largely iPads today) and smartphones.

Besides newspapers, more screen time on tablets and smartphones with digital versions of magazines and books have also encroached upon our daily lives.  Bookstores are disappearing one by one. In Singapore, I bade a sad farewell to the landmark Borders bookstore at Wheelock Place recently.  With the mobile internet always in your hand whether from your tablet or smartphone, you now have easy access to your favourite magazine or book, whereever you are.  Never stop reading.  Never stop learning.  No more downtime. No need to think about which book or magazine to bring along.  It is also said that consumers now buy eBooks or eMagazines without thinking, more spontaneously so, as they require physical storage and are with you all the time!

For devoted readers of novels, people who sometimes voraciously consume several books in a single week, eBooks are a natural fit.  With this new transitionary digital age, eBooks are now availed on the first day the physical book is published and can be about the same price as well (at times, more affordable too!)  It comes with no surprise that eBook best-seller lists are now packed with the genre novels that have traditionally dominated paperback best-seller lists.

I have not yet touched on video but with YouTube being the world's second largest search engine and third most visited site, I reckon you get the drift on where's video going. [Added 7-OCT 2011]: According to a Nielsen India study, Indian Smartphone Users are now seen to be moving towards Data, Games and Content, and Away From SMS.
With content consumption habits changing with content consumption going more mobile, mobile apps with content could provide us with a number of ancillary channels and ancillary revenue opportunities. Although the type of content, (shorter) length of attention of your audience on your content from the mobile devices would need to be pondered upon, it has also been observed that consumers who read eBooks (not replacing books) are consuming more books - Amazon Kindle users buying 3.3 times more books after owning a Kindle.

What are your thoughts and observations?


Look forward to hear from you,
Nelson Wee
engage with me at @nelsonwee

Reference links:
1. Is “stickiness” a thing of the past?
2. The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age
3. Indian Smartphone Users moving towards Data, Games and Content, and Away From SMS
4. The ABCs of E-Reading (new devices are changing habits)

Doorway to the Mobile Internet opens in Southeast Asia, a high growth market in the making

I was writing in my previous post about the "5 Key App Insights from AppsXchange Asia 2010 Event in Singapore" where I was highlighting the evolution of the Asia mobile apps ecosystem.  As I look back over the 10 years, I can't help but feeling amazed on the changes in the consumption habits of the Southeast Asia (SEA - comprise markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore etc) consumers for the Internet, for apps and contents, for checking out and into nearby events - all these, happening on their mobile handsets.  With market competitive dynamics at play, consumers here are increasingly able to get hold of mobile handsets with mobile internet access with supporting data plans.  QWERTY (full keyboard) mobile handsets incidentally are hot not only with working professionals but also with the youths, and these are getting lower in price in the markets here.

Profile the SEA's consumers being largely prepaid customers without data plans, cost-conscious and using their mobile handsets to make a call or sms and you would be very surprised to learn (source, dated 30-OCT-2010: http://www.checkfacebook.com/) that Indonesia with 29.8M Facebook users is the #2 largest Facebook community globally, with the Philippines with 17.9M Facebook users, also in the top 10 at #6! 

Consumers in SEA today are getting on their mobile handsets:
1. Faster Mobile Internet speeds to browse the Internet with the deployment of 3G
The sprouting of more and more Internet Cafes and WiFi hotspots, particularly in the tier 1 cities, are catering to the voracious Internet access to the youths, is also a key enabler to mobile internet access and content downloads.

2. Transitioning from sms, to email and social networking interactions
Whilst sms will not yet go away in the forseeable future, mobile email has grown increasingly popular as PC penetration is low in the developing markets.  SEA consumers are also using the mobile internet to reach out in social networks - Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter (btw, Indonesia is in the top 10 of Twitter users globally too!) are the 3 most popular social networks in SEA (source: http://www.alexa.com/).

3. Colorful and interactive apps and contents
From the days of yore when black and white tones, graphics and games were the in-thing, these days we see that downloads of customization contents like themes, wallpapers, ring tones (also subscribing to ring-back tones) and games are the drawing power for digital content, app stores in SEA.

There are undoubtedly challenges to account for, such as a number of SEA's dominant markets, e.g. Indonesia, Indochina, Thailand, Philippines, are dominated by prepaid customers who shop around for bargains.  However, if you like me, are reading "The Developing World" by Fredrik Haren, you will discover that consumers from developing markets, like in SEA countries, engage more with the Internet and hence social networks, leveraging this global platform to the fullest, voicing their views in blog posts, personal updates, doing research and checking in on the latest events in-country and globally.

Watch out for the rising wave of the Mobile Internet sweeping through Southeast Asia.  What have your Internet experiences been in the Southeast Asia markets?  I will be writing more posts in the future regarding related topics for the SEA countries.

Later,
Nelson Wee
connect with me in Twitter @NelsonWee

More Related Reading References:
1. ANALYSIS - Southeast Asia telcos shine, tap mobile data for growth
2. Mobile Phones in South-East Asia - Talk is Cheap
3. Data Services to Drive Growth As Southeast Asia's Mobile Market Nears Saturation
4. Twitter Facts and Figures, 13 MAY 2010
5. Indonesia is The top Twitter users penetration in the world
6. [Updated 19-OCT] Facebook releases Messenger for BlackBerry

4 Trends in New Digital Media Development

Quick, very quick these days.

As the months go by, 4 trends are emerging in the new digital social space in terms of what, how and where media is being presented to consumers and how interactions are taking place.

1) New Behavior: From Individual Consumption to Social Sharing
Reading and keeping up to date with news around you is mandated - like a daily coffee fix, especially in today's world where information flows go by in a flurry.  News from print and radio are old.  And so there are digital versions of newspapers and radio made into apps.  To keep up with the changing digital generations, these apps have evolved from standalone features to contain social sharing capabilities.

2) New Evolving Business Models: From Per Download to Metering or Freemium or Social Currencies
One off pay per download digital contents start to lose their luster from a business point of view.  We start to see experimentations in metering, getting freemiums into play or developing social games where social currencies are the in-thing for today's world.

3) New Touchpoint/Access: From Few to Multiple Appliance Readers
The age-old radio, TV and Movie Theaters are set to be replaced or a revamp, as we see new multimedia and internet capabilities come to mobile phones, e-book readers, netbooks etc.

4) New Reach: From Global to Hyperlocal and vice versa
The search for location specific information is hot.  Because the immediacy to satisfy your contextual needs is deemed relevant.

I will be making associated observations and looking to provide examples of how the above trends are impacting our behaviors in this day and age of new media consumption.  Do feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

Photo credit: ryersondmz / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA