As I learn ...

April 21, 2011

Wal-Mart and Tesco are going digital

This week has seen two intriguing acquisitions take place: US retail giant Wal-Mart and its UK counterpart Tesco both acquiring promising digital businesses. Last Monday, Wal-Mart bought social media firm Kosmix based in Silicon Valley and yesterday Tesco announced its purchase of a 80% stake in Blinkbox a UK-based online video streaming business. It looks like we…
April 20, 2011

Facebook is going to do it: real-time targeted ads

Yesterday I learned about Facebook looking into rolling out targeted ads, aiming to utilise the vast amounts of real-time user information it has access to. I have to say, it is quite a scary prospect to think of Facebook monetising user data (think “Likes” and specific detailed demographic data): Real-time ads could be massive –…
April 13, 2011

Simply Tap: how the Mobile Money Network aims to make mobile shopping easier

Mobile Money Network sounds like a great name to me. I had started envisioning a new rap group and crazy videos but then found out that it has everything to do with payment transactions conducted through mobile phones. The Mobile Money Network (MMN) is a new UK retail alliance, created by Monetise, Best Buy Europe…
April 8, 2011

Will streaming TV take over from cable?

Earlier this week, Toronto-based Convergence Consulting Group released a report on the (future) split between watching TV on cable and online in the US. Streaming businesses like Netflix and Hulu have already seen an impressive rise in their revenues due to the increasing popularity of streaming TV, and this report now indicates that online viewing…
April 6, 2011

From music discovery to music sharing

Tools like Shazam and Soundhound are great for discovering music. Call me geeky, but I do enjoy sitting in a coffeeshop finding out through using my phone what song is playing in the background. Now that music search and discovery seem to have been nailed, the likes of Shazam and Soundhound have started exploring new…

Wal-Mart and Tesco are going digital

Facebook is going to do it: real-time targeted ads

Simply Tap: how the Mobile Money Network aims to make mobile shopping easier

Will streaming TV take over from cable?

From music discovery to music sharing