What does today's Cloud mean for tomorrow's Digital Life?

Today, the ubiquity of "cloud" and its computing, platform and infrastructure opportunities are offering new ways of offering value to consumers from both a business to consumer (B2C) or a business to business (B2B) perspective. Consuming content via the cloud is not new - we have in the last couple of decades been accessing data and applications via private networks (via VPNs, EDI etc) and later public networks (via the Internet).  However, it is the increasing (need for) digitisation of contents and pervasive mobility offered via low-cost PCs, tablets and smartphones or mobile devices, which is leveling the playing field in terms of availing the media creation and consumption globally - bringing forth the new order of Digital Life.  A recent article which I came across "Digital cloud devours our books, CDs, DVDs, photos" evidenced the changing content consumption behavior with the digital cloud.

So, how will today's cloud impact on tomorrow's digital life?  I have put down the following 3 areas for further discussion.



(1) Big Data becomes Action Data

• 1 of the 2012 trends I highlighted in my earlier post was Data Science.
• Operators, over-the-top (OTT) players and other ecosystem players start collaborating in various forms and work to reach their (global, local) glocal customers.
• From cloud, voice and big data, petabytes of customers' consumption data will be turned into shared insights and soon, customers could get told of what they would want next - cool huh?
  

(2) Building Symbiotic Ecosystems

• Through partnerships and collaborations, content partners become excited with their soon global, regional, local (i.e. glocal) play and cross-platform reach.
• The value chain of media-commerce-data start getting stitched together in the digital life  ecosystem.
• Ecosystem players develop a symbiotic cross-platform play in mobile (from feature phones to smartphones to tablets), broadband (PC, Ultrabooks), TV (with triple play!) as well as retail and other associative online (eShop, social media, online portal) touch-points.

And the beauty of it? The ecosystem could be scaled in the cloud - be it public or private.



(3) Connecting People to a new World of Entertainment

• The downtime of consumers will never be the same again.
• Consumers can read an ebook (local or international bestseller), or go hunting for treasures online, offline or a hybrid of both, with a mobile social game.
• Jurassic Park can suddenly come alive from your mobile device.

And the most beautiful part?
The Digital Life ecosystem will be developing transmedia offers with ancillary product and revenue opportunities in packaging mobile games, trading cards, ebooks, print books (via screenplays), movies, VOD, DVDs, online communities, celebrity endorsements, TV shows ... you get the drift. 

Here are some examples:

1. "Adventures of Tin Tin" (from graphic novel to screenplay movie, novel)
2. Animal Kaiser trading card game - see pic above. 
3. mobile social games from Gree.

And yeah, marketing and selling becomes loads more fun than before!  Have a look at how a  popular Gree mobile social game Doliland (which is making a tune of US$50million/mth in Japan!) is being promoted via TVCs with a local Japanese band.




What are your thoughts on what the new Digital Life will herald?


talk soon,
Nelson Wee
engage with me via @nelsonwee

Why do Kids' Social Networks offer huge and untapped ancillary revenue opportunities?

I read recently an article about a kid's social network, "kidsocial", where kids the ages of 6 to 13 could connect to their real world friends to play games, listen to the latest music, share photos and more. Strangers (adults) could not see the kid's pages unless authorised by the kid's parents.



This is a HUGE MARKET (& captive - think parents) where Facebook is not playing in, at the moment at least.  In Singapore alone, that's about 260,000 children between the ages of 7 years to 12 years we are talking about.


Think about the community, the associated ancillary products:

• ebooks,
• music,
• videos on mobile,
• video on demand,
• TV programs,
• education enrichment services,
• kid's customized tablets, e-readers etc,

which would be paid for by the parents of these kids.

Just like how kids nowdays pull their parents to cater to their incessant demands to buy stuff - mainly influenced by the TV,  and surfing through YouTube on the iPad, imagine what these kids social networks could build up as business lines. Holy mackeral!

But social networks like Kids Social is not new.  In Singapore, there is a company known as LittleLives who is piloting student communities in Singapore (Primary School students, i.e. 7 to 12 years old) and in selected counties in the United States as well!  More on LittleLives here.

From my previous posts, I wrote about and shared on:

1. EdTech being one of the hot trends to watch for in 2012
2. EdTech market opportunities in education enrichment
3. EdTech Market opportunities slideshare

So, what are your thoughts on the ancillary products and revenue streams from kids' social networks?

Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
Twitter: @nelsonwee

How are eShopping trends shaping the market?

These days, we see high growth with the usage of the mobile internet in SouthEast Asia. Besides your wallet and your keys, your mobile is probably the third personal item always by your side.  In fact in a global survey conducted by OnDevice Research, it described how Asian consumers, more often than other consumers, would first go to their phones to research or purchase goods and services.  To save time and get things done more efficiently in today's world, your mobile has become an ancillary channel for eShop browsing to help source, service and support your purchase decisions.

In fact, from a PayPal research done Jan-Feb 2011, there were several interesting findings:

1. Singapore online commerce market reached S$1.1 billion in 2010, and will grow to S$4.4 billion in 2015.
2. 1.2 million Singaporean online shoppers (above the age of 18 years old) had an average spend per head of S$1,492 over the past year.
3. 84% of Singaporeans used their mobile device to either research or purchase goods.
4. Mobile eShopping is in its infancy stage comprising 4% of online shopping market.
5. Over 364 thousand Singaporean online shoppers spent S$43 million ($$119/user) on their mobile devices last year, approximately 4% of the online shopping market
6. 40% (~S$420 million) of online purchases were domestic.

Stores in Singapore could well look into putting together a multi-channel approach to in their sales and marketing.  From a merchandising perspective, the I Love Deals in-app survey infographic below show that the 3 top products consumers expressed interest in online deals were clothing, shoes and consumer electronics.

With online and mobile eShopping primed to take off in Asia and Singapore,

• How will sales and marketing change with eCoupons, vouchers?  What are the ancillary revenue opportunities?
• How will apps, the Web, TV impact marketing, promotions and distribution channels for eShopping?  How will these ancillary channels evolve?
• With daily deals fatigue, what are the new models in eShopping?  Is gamification trending as an engagement tactic?  Is yield management a new model to look into?

I look forward to engage into further discussions on the above.

til later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

References:
1. The Stats and Facts of Online Shopping in Singapore
2. Mobile commerce on growth path in Asia Pacific
3. PayPal Study Shows Singaporeans Find Value in Shopping on Local Websites

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)