Study: Most Facebook apps are silly, pointless

HAHAHAH.........

The title of the article from CNet is "Study reveals shocking truth: Most Facebook apps are silly, pointless".

"Shocking truth"???? It may be a shock to CNet, but I bet it is not shock to the millions of FaceBook users who wastes their time on FaceBook. Here's my post on why Social Networking = Social, NOT Working back in Feb of this year.

So according to the chart below by Flowing Data, roughly 14,000 of the 23,160 FaceBook apps fall under "Just for Fun", "Gaming", or "Sports" Category. We have yet to count in "Dating", "Chat", "Messaging", "Photos", "Fashion" and "Filesharing" which each have between 200 to 1800 apps.


Again, this is not me bashing Social Networks - I use them. I am just saying that people waste their companies' time on them.

Now from a brand advertisers perspective, this is a goldmine of niche marketing, or dare I say, "long-tail" marketing.

One thing to remember though, this is NOT a Google killer, and will never be. People go to social networks to be "social". They go to Google when they are looking for something. Advertise on the former and you are trying to get their attention when they are doing something else. With the latter, you are advertising when they want your product (or your competitor's product). The second one gets the better ROI every day. As I say, this is the difference between Online Marketing and Ecommerce, between Marketing and Sales, between Yahoo's business model and Amazon's business model.

Microhoo! Courtship Continues a la Meatloaf

So there is a flurry of activity over the last week between these two lovebirds.

5 April 2008 - Wired has "Microsoft Threatens to Go Hostile on Yahoo". According to Microsoft, since Yahoo! did not respond to its offer back in Feb, the jilted lover wants to enter formal talks with his love. If not, then he will go to talk to her mommy and daddy directly:

"If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo! board. The substantial premium reflected in our initial proposal anticipated a friendly transaction with you. If we are forced to take an offer directly to your shareholders, that action will have an undesirable impact on the value of your company from our perspective which will be reflected in the terms of our proposal."

The press release from the Microsoft here.

Also: "During these two months of inactivity, the Internet has continued to march on, while the public equity markets and overall economic conditions have weakened considerably, both in general and for other Internet-focused companies in particular. At the same time, public indicators suggest that Yahoo!’s search and page view shares have declined."

Translation: When you come out into the light, your age shows. We know what you look like and take the one-carat diamond that we offered. 'cos you should only be getting 3/4 carat.

========
7 April 2008 - The lovely Yahoo! maiden (choke. choke. aheh..ugh..) responds with a "Dear Steve" letter. Jerry is still flirting. Y! did not do a "Dear Mr. BALLmer" (mocking, superior tone signifying "oh pleeeaase, go away already!") or a "Dear Stephen" (formal, genteel way of asking for "mo' money mo' money MOFO!". A "Dear Steve" is like "I know I am up there in age and past my prime, but you gotta give me some respect ... and some mo' money mo' money MOFO!" See the letter here.

Jerry signs of the letter with: "we will not allow you or anyone else to acquire the company for anything less than its full value."

Translation: "Mo' money. You may be rich, but you are still a geek. Geeks need to pay a premium for pretty ladies. After all, at my age, I need Botox and some skillful scalpels to keep me pretty. And that don't come cheap here in the Valley, honeychild. This ain't Seattle."

===========

Anyway, I am listening to Meatloaf on my iPhone right now and it seems appropriate to this situation.

As Meatloaf (i.e. Microsoft) sang: "I want you. I need you. But I ain't never gonna love you.... Two out of three ain't bad."

Come on Yahoo!... Can't you see Paradise By The Dashboard Lights?

marriott.com 2007 online revenues at USD 5.2 billion

This was reported in the Digital Life section of the Singapore Straits times (registration required).

"Marriott.com rings up the tills"

- In 2008, Marriott.com achieved sales of USD 5.2billion which represents a 28% increase over 2006.

JN: Alright so we did not do USD 5.2 billion. We kinda did 1% of that. But hey we got 50% increase over 2006. B-okay?

- George Corbin, VP of eCommerce: "Five years ago, online sales contributed to 5-8 percent of our revenue. Last year, it was 20%."

JN: I would have to assume that these are direct sales excluding any OTA sales. The industry is expected to average 28% in TOTAL online sales in 2007.

- Marriott.com's booking is at "2,000 per hour, and more bookings are done online than through the phone".

JN: D@mn Yo! I would be lucky to have that many reservations PER DAY! OK. so they got 3,000 properties versus M & C's 90. So let's see, by their standards, we should be gettin' :
2000 res per hour X (90 hotels / 3000 hotels) X 24 hour per day = 1,440 reservations per day.

JN: We have a got a long way to go. Oh yes, would be nice to have a better brand like Marriott too.

- GC again: "We are the eighth largest Internet Consumer retail site and we actually sell more than HP and Dell on their Websites"

JN: I wonder where IHG is then. I would assume they do more...

- Over 70% of customers are actually registered members of its rewards programme.

JN: That's one for you CRM peeps. Read it and weep - 'cos I am.

- The confirmation/welcome email "also has information about local attractions, travel alerts and a virtual concierge service which lets customers personalise their stay."

JN: Huh...huh... WAAAAHHHH.... WAAAHHHHH... I want.... I want.... WAAAAAHHHHH...

JN: Sorry about that. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. I have been lusting after those functionalities too. Ok so that's two. But we have been too lazy to do it (sloth). In any case, we don't need it anyway (pride). Maybe Greed will eventually help us get there. hehehehe...

- GC: "The customer is interacting with an interface that is 35cm by 35cm and that drives over USD 5 billion a year. That space has very big impact."

JN: Could not agree more. Move over Walmart. Online is measuring "shelfspace" by millions of $ per cm, not hundreds of dollars per foot.

Travel Agent Commissions (a la Black Eyed Peas rap)

Survey says that "Hotel commission most important income source for agents". See hotelmarketing.com article here. Also Expedia got a revenue boost from hotels as well.

I am reading the article and listening to Black Eyed Peas, so as a hotelier, the question to travel agents comes to my mind:

If we are so important to travel agents, then "Where's the love, y'all?"

(You know this tune. Start singing the following out loud to my edited lyrics below. Come on... You know you wanna.)

What's wrong with the world mama?
PeopleAgents living like aint got no mamas karmas
I think the whole worlds world wide web's addicted to the drama
Only attracted to the things that bring you trauma cost them nada
Overseas Hoteliers yeah we tryin to stop terrorism push hedonism
But we still got terrorists extortionists here livin
In the USA the big CIA 'pedia the Bloodz Orbitz and the Crips C-Trips and the KKK Travel'ci-tay
But if you only have love for your own race OTA
Then you only leave space to discriminate reduce rate
And to discriminate reducing rate only generates hate leads to disintermediate
And if you hatin compete you're bound to get irate lower rate
Yeah madness is margins are what you demonstrate obliterate
And that's exactly how anger failure works and operates propagates
You We gotta have love the spread just to set it straight operate
Take control of your mind sales and meditate mediate
Let your soul gravitate to the love spread y'all

People killing people dying Agents selling, hotels dying
Children Rev Man'ger hurtin you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach promise that you'll not breach?
Would you turn the other cheek? Would you not just slap our cheek?
Father Father Father AHLA... AHLA... AHLA...** help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people agents got me, got me questioning
Where is the love spread...?
Where is the love spread...?
Where is the love spread...?

**(AHLA = American Hotel & Lodging Assoc)

Now all I need a karaoke machine and a video cam, and this will be on YouTube.

TravelMole Web Awards Asia 2008

TravelMole is debuting its TravelMole Web Awards for Asia this year at the EyeForTravel Travel Distribution Summit Asia next week. They will host a lunch in which they will announce the winners. Here is the shortlist and I am lucky enough to be one of the judges.

The categories are as follows:

Best Airline site
Best Online Travel agency site
Best Accommodation site
Best Use of Video site
Best Hotel/Resort site
Best Tourist Board site
Best Car Rental site
Best Responsible Tourism site
Best WEB 2.0 Mash up site
Best Tour Operator site
Best Deployment Of Mobile Technology site

I am not going to tell you who I voted for so you have to either go to the event or come back here to see who are the Oscar Mayer Weeners ...



.... and who are just plain hot dogs made from pig snout, chicken feet, and possibly puppies!!!

PPC Rap

My colleague forwarded this to me today. It has been circulating around since early December of 2007.

You have to listen closely and listen a couple of times to get it all, but it's worth it. Have fun.