Category: Google

Groupon… four months post Google offer! Doesn’t look pretty.

Posted By: SKPosted On:
  • What goes on in the minds of  Groupon management these days? Remember they turned down $6B dollar offer from Google in December, 2010. I thought it was a dumb decision by Groupon to turn down that offer  from a giant internet company. They could’ve done much better with the muscle power of Google and built a strong barriers to entry for competition. It seems competition is mounting pressure everyday and the eventual successful IPO might be in jeopardy.
    • Today every company that has a website with reasonable traffic seems to have a desire to tap in to this “Local Deals” market and consumers are tired of it.
    • Local businesses are already feeling the negative effect of advertising with Groupon.
    • Google plays a bigger part in it. Google shows recent Groupon deals in its local search page.
      • Imagine the reaction of your regular customer when they learn the discounted price somebody paid for the expensive dinner they just had.
      • Think about another issue, when a coupon expires Groupon shows your competitors deals  “similar” offer. How would you feel about that?
    • What was Groupon’s strength again? Network effect? ( they had most number of local businesses posting deals with them?). How difficult it is for competition to reach out to these local businesses?
      • At&T has announced that it is going to launch Groupon Competitor. It makes sense, it already has a relationship with local businesses through its Yellow Page Service.
      • Expect announcement shortly from other Yellow Page companies. There are no barriers to entry in to this market for the entrenched players. So why wait?

Facebook, RenRen, Wii 2 and Blackberry

Posted By: SKPosted On:

  • RenRen – Facebook of china to raise $690m in IPO tomorrow (May 3rd-Tuesday). It appears if you live in a China and little bit internet savvy, you’ll be better off copying successful ideas from the west (Silicon Valley) to create local knock-off version. China provides number of glaring examples of companies that copied successful ideas. Wang Xing (The Cloner – Forbes l) has a “PhD” in ripping off ideas and cloning them for the Chinese market.
    • Nevertheless there seems to be a huge appetite for Chinese internet companies in the wall street. RenRen has already raised its IPO pricing from $12 to $14.
    • RenRen was also helped by the fact that Facebook is blocked in China till now. However, Facebook is in talks with Chinese government to allow it operate under the Chinese law. We all remember the principled stand took by Google and how it backed out of Chinese market altogether when faced with censorship of its search results. 
  • While we are at Social Networks topic….Facebook’s negotiations with Chinese government (Facebook’s Dubious New Friends– WSJ) will surely raise few eyebrows, protest from free speech advocates and possibly stir up cries  in the US congress. As the WSJ article points out, recent uprising in Arab world was possible in part by the influence of Social Networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Had Facebook decided to go under the censorship of governments in question, the revolutions we witnessed wouldn’t have happened. Facebook users believe the information they post in Facebook is shared only with their approved contacts. How would they feel if the information is shared with police states and repressive regimes without their consent, all for expanding the market share? I think, Facebook is entering a dubious territory with this decision. We have to wait and see how its users, free speech advocates and US government react to this recent development.
  • Lawrence Bonk claims Nintendo Wii is underpowered because Nintendo insists on profitability of their consoles from the get go.

“Because Nintendo demands their consoles be profitable from the get go. That is why you’ll have to wait until 2040 to trade insults with a holographic Mario. If the underlying tech isn’t available at a mass market price, Nintendo isn’t going to go for it. Microsoft and Sony, on the other hand, operate at a loss until the parts become cheaper. This usually takes a few years — in fact, the PlayStation 3 just became profitable last year”.

  • New Blackberry models 9900, 9930 were announced by RIM. They run Blackberry OS 7 (QNX), support NFC and host of new features. As expected, the announcement hardly registered under tech radar for many users. Blackberry needs a blockbuster device to get out of this slump in its PR relationship. With the new phones and tablets the company is trying to address more general consumer base than its traditional business users. If the developments are any indication, it doesn’t bode well for its future.