News to follow - Week ending June 26th 2011

Here are the interesting links to follow from the past week. Don't miss the links related to SMS based marketing....:)

1. Email marketing leader takes note of SMS channel - With the new text-to-join feature and other text / SMS based features the market leader in email marketing seems to view SMS based communication as a viable model for digital marketers. While the intrusiveness of SMS is well known, it's ubiquity and ease of use makes SMS a killer medium for consumers and marketers. The company's press release also speaks of an opportunity in the loyalty program space which could go viral. Multi-Channel marketing with social, email and SMS could pose a big threat to traditional modes of marketing given the total time people spend on these media.

2. Foursquare gets USD 50 million funding - This funding comes at a valuation of USD 550 million (pre-funding). What makes this interesting is the valuation, because, foursquare got valued at USD 95 million in June 2010 and received a USD 20 million funding. Indeed foursquare has been able to launch it's services and reach 10 million user accounts. In the post linkedin-IPO era, these astronomical valuations and their sudden growth despite lack of a revenue model indicates a bubble. Valuations seems to be linked to the people who run the organizations rather than the economics or business model of the company. The number of "deals" based services in the planet will soon make the sector un-viable and soon lead to advertiser fatigue. A new model in marketing will also disrupt these existing companies. Till then enjoy the lunch foursquare.

3. Airtel's health mobile packs - This is definitely a novel way to bridge the digital divide. If health information is available at the keyboard for many of us, why not offer it via SMS for the millions who only own the mobile "computer". How to market these services and bring about awareness....? Is there a need for an SMS app store...?

4. Skype wanted to save a few bucks while selling out for 8.5 Billion ? - In a slew of articles and blog posts by former employees and denials by the investor group a public battle is being waged about how greedy can companies get. Before the big Microsoft buy out could be completed, the new CEO of Skype fired a few executive rank employees (articles say these exits were not from the technical staff, but from the business side of the organization - ouch). This meant that a new CEO denied these leaders a share of the big valuation pie and as expected the leaders including Chief marketing officer went to press with a great story on greed. The company denied any greed and spoke about incompetence as the reason to fire these employees. The mystery will remain so forever, but many lessons to be learnt if you are joining an organization for the equity.

Interesting read

A survey by Gartner of CIOs in Asia indicates that cloud computing will remain a top priority in the coming years for them. At the other extreme is the news from companies heading out of "public cloud" like Amazon cloud. Cloud computing means so many things to each of us, that in some form or the other it will remain in the news for some more time. On the surface, it seems like, organizations like target now see value to going back into their own "cloud data centers". is the real value of cloud only virtualization and elastic scale? Will public cloud like Amazon EC2 view themselves as the first choice only for bargain hunting startups.

News to follow - Week ending June 19th 2011

Here are some interesting links from the world of technology business for the week ending June 19th 2011.

1. Bangalore based flipkart.com gets USD 20 million in series C funding - This brings the company's total funding to USD 31 million. While the growth of this company is stellar, the exit route for the founders and VCs is not clear (at least to me). The play for such companies is in customer satisfaction driven by supply chain more than just technology and front store. So one does not own the customers forever. Remember indiaplaza.in, fabmart.com, firstandsecond.com. India's .com companies all of which dabbled with eCommerce and achieved limited success. Success this is dependent on the sector's growth which is predicted to be high. Watch this space for more over the next 2 years

2. Is Facebook beginning to reach it's plateau? - The total number of new US users who joined Facebook last month is 11.8 million. Currently 150 million users of facebook are from USA. So half of America uses Facebook. All these numbers indicate that nett new number of users will continue to drop in the months to come. Has Facebook reached the beginning of it's plateau? While this may be a part of a natural cycle, maybe this is not the right news to have in a year where Facebook hopes to go IPO. Macro economic indicators in the US and competing vertical social networks will not increase their pressure on Facebook. "Whats new at Facebook?" could soon become the question that Facebook would have to answer.

3. The new age news paper is here - This ipad / iphone / android application is great. It is a news mashup (to keep it simple). But these application makes it easy to navigate between news articles of your interest rather than news source websites. I think soon google news will be of less value. One feature that I would add to these apps would be to search for a term and get all news articles linked to it. Flipboard is another app in the same space with a usability to kill for. This space could lead the innovation and content search space. I would not be surprised if google soon thinks of an app or an acquisition in this space

4. RIM misses revenue targets - By itself this is not a news that is surprising. But it does help understand the trouble companies like Nokia and RIM find themselves in. Nokia won a lawsuit against apple and received billions of dollars in settlement payout, but it's stock price remained weak. RIM announced layoffs starting off from the next quarter. Is the future centered around touch-pad and touch-phone? Even the silver lining for RIM seems to be the better than expected sales of playbook. The one thing that seems certain, is that if Apple and Android do not out-innovate themselves, then by 2021, Apple and Android would be announcing layoffs. :)

Interesting link

Creative Resumes - Bored of maintaining a standard text resume. Look at these awesome social resumes that will make your future and current employer read it with care. Don't miss this link

News to follow - Week ending June 10th 2011

Here is the list of interesting news from the world of technology business. Based on some very encouraging feedback, I have also added my take on the news.

1. Just dial raises 10 M VC funding - In continuation with the news that companies like Groupon are raising capital or going IPO, India's own local business listing is seeking more funding. Till date, their service in the US does not seem to have created any waves. So this money could help them gain consumer confidence in the US market. In any case, their India business is very popular and the VCs' should have no problem buying more stake.

2. RSA SecureID tokens compromised - In an open letter to all customers, RSA has admitted that their securid product was compromised. The attack on the defense contractor 'Lockheed Martin' earlier this quarter, exposed this vulnerability. The ubiquitous RSA tokens are no longer the basis on which one can build secure networks or provide secure access. As the world embraces Internet and related technologies for efficiency and speed, the need for cyber law and cyber-patrol has also become a necessity. My Take: Just lock and key can never prevent theft, one needs laws and law enforcement agencies to prevent crime. RSA tokens is only 'lock and key', the need for cyber police and global laws around cyber crime will soon be imperative.

3. Busy week at Groupon. Here are 2 interesting links related to Groupon. The value of group discounting is still unclear, while on the other hand Groupon seems to be making tall claims and going strong into it's IPO.

a. Ginger hotels ties up with Groupon in India - A positive step towards a global presence. Groupon is on an expansion spree in many parts of the world including Indo-china.

b. Techcrunch article shares a guest blog post about how a cafe in the US believes, "using Groupon was a bad decision". - She is not alone. Quite a few SMB owners are crying foul about how the whole Groupon system is complex and leaves a bad taste after the campaign.

Over all, whose side is Groupon playing? While the buzz about them refuses to die down, and fake-Groupons' seem to grow by the day, the whole group discounting phenomenon could come crashing down unless paying customers' are taken care of.

4. Google to discontinue support for older browsers - This piece of news itself did not surprise me. But when you look at various reports on browsers market share, IE7 and IE6 are still in-use in developing economies like India, one cannot help but wonder whether the whole browser ecosystem is in for a new update policy. What version of chrome are u on? I am on 12.0.... I never once updated it. Even firefox recently forced an update on many users. I think the chrome approach of update will soon be the norm.

5. Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to back mAgri Program - This program which will launch mainly in Africa and aims to provide a platform to support the farmer with information relevant to farming and crop pricing. It also will bring down the entry barrier for operators to add more services in this space. This space has been mostly ignored by the Internet economy and yet most companies can only gain if they wish to grow by bridging the digital divide.

Interesting note:

Amazon unveils the pre-order for Steve Jobs's official biography - This one may become the most read biography of all times. Steve Jobs can hold an audience's attention and make them hang on to every word he utters. Can the book do the same? We will wait and see.

News to follow - Week ending June 2nd 2011

Here is a list of important news related to the tech industry.

1. Komli media buys Activ. The digital marketing space could be heading into a consolidation phase.

2. Groupon files for IPO...to raise $750 m

3. Real innovation for mass market money transfer. The post man will now have a desk job

4. Apple to launch iCloud. The crowded cloud computing space now has another contender. Can Apple's iCloud steal the thunder

5. Google launches +1. +1 to help your recommend a web article. +1 will help relevance for your search results. Can it beat Facebook like?

Interesting read

6. Why companies that build network devices still rule. Independent reports by Cisco and juniper are bullish about internet traffic

1. Report by Cisco - News Article at CNet. Original report by Cisco

2. Report by Juniper - Original report by Juniper research