Source: http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/why-is-pinterest-so-addictive/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
A blog on the convergence of info-communications industries: communications, computing, electronics, entertainment, publications and education. Strategic, technological and financial analysis. English and French blog. Cette chronique traite de l’évolution des industries de l’information et des communications et couvre des aspects stratégiques, technologiques et financiers, comme l’économie du savoir et de l’innovation. L’auteur est Associé principal de Infocom Intelligence.
Showing posts with label social networks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networks. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Infographic on why Pinterest is so successful
Here is an infographic on why Pinterest is so successful and addictive.
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/why-is-pinterest-so-addictive/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/03/20/why-is-pinterest-so-addictive/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Monday, March 19, 2012
Path an emerging competitor to Facebook has a valuation around $200M-$250M
Path is the simple and private way to share life with close friends & family. Founded by Dave Morin, previously Co-Inventor of Platform and Connect at Facebook with Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster, and Dustin Mierau co-creator of Macster.
Britney Spears has just created a Path account, which is sort of counterintuitive as the mobile social network only limits you to 150 friends. Briteny has more than 14 million followers on Twitter. Rumor also has it that Path is raising a Series B round of funding, wanting to bring in between $25 million to $30 million at a $250 million valuation. Existing investors and Khosla and Greylock have expressed interest amidst an environment that is producing many high-profile Series B raises.
The company has previously raised a total of $11.2 million in angel and Series A venture capital funding from Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, SV Angel, Crunchfund and others. It recently experienced unprecedented scale, due to a successful pivot according to Techcrunch. Thus, Path has grows daily users 30x since relaunch. Google wanted to buy the firm for $100M.
Path relaunched in November, changing course from photo-sharing to everything sharing, in a beautifully wrapped package with emphasis on simplicity. Many have likened the product to a better designed Facebook for your phone, which is fair and probably a compliment. But everything isn’t coming up roses, and the product still has kinks it needs to iron out.
Users are sharing more things on the new Path in a day then they had on the old Path in a year — at a rate of 12 moments per second. The company is seeing 30x the number of daily active users, going from 10K to 300K in two and a half weeks. Rumor has it that it’s seeing 100k downloads a day.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomnAnalysis
Britney Spears has just created a Path account, which is sort of counterintuitive as the mobile social network only limits you to 150 friends. Briteny has more than 14 million followers on Twitter. Rumor also has it that Path is raising a Series B round of funding, wanting to bring in between $25 million to $30 million at a $250 million valuation. Existing investors and Khosla and Greylock have expressed interest amidst an environment that is producing many high-profile Series B raises.
The company has previously raised a total of $11.2 million in angel and Series A venture capital funding from Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Founders Fund, SV Angel, Crunchfund and others. It recently experienced unprecedented scale, due to a successful pivot according to Techcrunch. Thus, Path has grows daily users 30x since relaunch. Google wanted to buy the firm for $100M.
Path relaunched in November, changing course from photo-sharing to everything sharing, in a beautifully wrapped package with emphasis on simplicity. Many have likened the product to a better designed Facebook for your phone, which is fair and probably a compliment. But everything isn’t coming up roses, and the product still has kinks it needs to iron out.
Users are sharing more things on the new Path in a day then they had on the old Path in a year — at a rate of 12 moments per second. The company is seeing 30x the number of daily active users, going from 10K to 300K in two and a half weeks. Rumor has it that it’s seeing 100k downloads a day.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomnAnalysis
Monday, February 20, 2012
A quick overview of Pinterest
Here is an infographic overview on Pinterest, a fast growing social network.
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/14/pinterest-daily-users-are-up-125-percent/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/02/14/pinterest-daily-users-are-up-125-percent/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Thursday, January 26, 2012
3 emerging social learning trends
According to a recent survey by TrainingMag.com, US total expenditures in training appear to be increasing. The amount spent on training jumped about 13% from 2010, including increases in overall training budgets and payroll, and spending on outside products and services.
3 social learning trends are emerging:
1. Social Learning
For Tony Bingham, CEO of the American Society for Training and Development: “Social learning is learning with and from others, often — but not always — with social media tools,” Bingham explains. “Social learning is a powerful approach to sharing and discovering a whole array of options, leading to more informed decision-making and a more intimate, expansive and dynamic understanding of the culture and context in which we work.”
There are many benefits to incorporating social learning into an organization: “Incorporating social learning creates networks of knowledgeable people to work across time and space to make informed decisions and solve complex problems,” Bingham says. “Learning happens more quickly and broadly. Innovation happens faster. And tacit knowledge can be retained and reused.”
2. Social Networking Techniques
Many trainers are using social networking platforms to create activities and exercises for their programs. Jane Bozarth,author of Social Media for Trainers explains how using social networks can enhance training: “Social media tools help to amplify the social and informal learning already going on in organizations all the time, every day, and make the learning available on a much larger scale. They provide ways to connect talent pools and expertise in an organization or within a practice area, and can offer just-in-time solutions to problems and performance issues.”
“Participants are happy to engage with one another using social media tools for training purposes. They find it convenient, useful for learning at the moment of need, and [that it helps them] develop a greater sense of control over their learning.”
“Social media tools are just tools and can be effectively employed to support the gamut of training activities, from introductions to role plays to discussions of video clips, and anything in between.” But she does offer one recommendation: “I hope we see learning and development practitioners moving toward partnering with learners and away from feeling their role is to direct them.”
3. Gamification
A frequent training request is make subjects fun — and what better way to learn a new topic than by playing a game? Karl M. Kapp, professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University and author of The Gamification of Training: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Learning and Instruction, shares the concept of using games for learning. “Studies indicate that games, when designed properly, motivate learners, improve learner retention and encourage students who aren’t typically ‘academic’ to partake in the learning process,” he says. “There is no reason learning has to always be hard or difficult.”
“When done correctly, gamification provides an experience that is inherently engaging and, most importantly, promotes learning. The elements of games that make for effective gamification are those of storytelling, which provides a context, challenge, immediate feedback, sense of curiosity, problem-solving, a sense of accomplishment, autonomy and mastery.”
Adding social networks and games to training programs has the potential to shake up the learning experience. It can create constant learning opportunities, real-time knowledge sharing and improved participant engagement.
Source : Mashable
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
3 social learning trends are emerging:
1. Social Learning
For Tony Bingham, CEO of the American Society for Training and Development: “Social learning is learning with and from others, often — but not always — with social media tools,” Bingham explains. “Social learning is a powerful approach to sharing and discovering a whole array of options, leading to more informed decision-making and a more intimate, expansive and dynamic understanding of the culture and context in which we work.”
There are many benefits to incorporating social learning into an organization: “Incorporating social learning creates networks of knowledgeable people to work across time and space to make informed decisions and solve complex problems,” Bingham says. “Learning happens more quickly and broadly. Innovation happens faster. And tacit knowledge can be retained and reused.”
2. Social Networking Techniques
Many trainers are using social networking platforms to create activities and exercises for their programs. Jane Bozarth,author of Social Media for Trainers explains how using social networks can enhance training: “Social media tools help to amplify the social and informal learning already going on in organizations all the time, every day, and make the learning available on a much larger scale. They provide ways to connect talent pools and expertise in an organization or within a practice area, and can offer just-in-time solutions to problems and performance issues.”
“Participants are happy to engage with one another using social media tools for training purposes. They find it convenient, useful for learning at the moment of need, and [that it helps them] develop a greater sense of control over their learning.”
“Social media tools are just tools and can be effectively employed to support the gamut of training activities, from introductions to role plays to discussions of video clips, and anything in between.” But she does offer one recommendation: “I hope we see learning and development practitioners moving toward partnering with learners and away from feeling their role is to direct them.”
3. Gamification
A frequent training request is make subjects fun — and what better way to learn a new topic than by playing a game? Karl M. Kapp, professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University and author of The Gamification of Training: Game-based Methods and Strategies for Learning and Instruction, shares the concept of using games for learning. “Studies indicate that games, when designed properly, motivate learners, improve learner retention and encourage students who aren’t typically ‘academic’ to partake in the learning process,” he says. “There is no reason learning has to always be hard or difficult.”
“When done correctly, gamification provides an experience that is inherently engaging and, most importantly, promotes learning. The elements of games that make for effective gamification are those of storytelling, which provides a context, challenge, immediate feedback, sense of curiosity, problem-solving, a sense of accomplishment, autonomy and mastery.”
Adding social networks and games to training programs has the potential to shake up the learning experience. It can create constant learning opportunities, real-time knowledge sharing and improved participant engagement.
Source : Mashable
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
The top 7 social networks
Here ia a list of the top 7 social networks.
New comers: Pinterest
The one surprising: Myspace still has a big number of users.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com<
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
New comers: Pinterest
The one surprising: Myspace still has a big number of users.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com<
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Hootsuite's CEO gives his opinion on tech start-ups
There is an interesting Financial Post article about the opinion of Hootsuite's CEO on tech start-ups. Hootsuite is a promising new Canadian tech start-up, that raised recently $3M.
The firm allows businesses to manage and publish to a range of social media accounts including Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn, without having to log on to separate accounts. Business users can also monitor the success of their social media campaigns using Hootsuite’s analytics service.
For Ryan Holmes: "One thing that has helped is the concept of the lean startup, where you take smaller teams, and work on products that need less dollar capital. Some of the challenges to startups historically were access to capital and intellectual property. However, there has been an evolution thanks to open source technology. Open source has driven down the cost of doing a startup. You can get access to the same open source technology that Facebook and Google use, and you’re able to play with that. Another trend is that the cost of hardware has gone down Consequently, the cost of creating a startup is perhaps a 10th of what it used to be."
Source: http://innovators.financialpost.com/2011/11/28/ryan-holmes-on-why-social-media-is-essential/
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
The firm allows businesses to manage and publish to a range of social media accounts including Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn, without having to log on to separate accounts. Business users can also monitor the success of their social media campaigns using Hootsuite’s analytics service.
For Ryan Holmes: "One thing that has helped is the concept of the lean startup, where you take smaller teams, and work on products that need less dollar capital. Some of the challenges to startups historically were access to capital and intellectual property. However, there has been an evolution thanks to open source technology. Open source has driven down the cost of doing a startup. You can get access to the same open source technology that Facebook and Google use, and you’re able to play with that. Another trend is that the cost of hardware has gone down Consequently, the cost of creating a startup is perhaps a 10th of what it used to be."
Source: http://innovators.financialpost.com/2011/11/28/ryan-holmes-on-why-social-media-is-essential/
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Google + en vie et en croissance!
Plusieurs blogues technologiques ont prédit la mort du réseau social Google +. Or, celui-ci a maintenant plus de 150 millions d'abonnés et connait une forte croissance. C'est le troisième réseau social le plus important après Facebook et le chinois Waebo.
Google+ serait avant tout un succès international, puisque seulement 10% de ses utilisateurs seraient américains. Les efforts de Google pour gagner de nouveaux abonnés semblent donc payer. Le réseau social est désormais compatible sur l'ensemble des plateformes mobiles et dispose même d'une application dédiée sur l'App Store et l'Android Market. Il est aussi totalement intégré dans la majorité des services Google les plus populaires (Gmail, YouTube, Picasa, etc.).
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Google+ serait avant tout un succès international, puisque seulement 10% de ses utilisateurs seraient américains. Les efforts de Google pour gagner de nouveaux abonnés semblent donc payer. Le réseau social est désormais compatible sur l'ensemble des plateformes mobiles et dispose même d'une application dédiée sur l'App Store et l'Android Market. Il est aussi totalement intégré dans la majorité des services Google les plus populaires (Gmail, YouTube, Picasa, etc.).
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Yipit a promising daily deal search engine
To read a little analysis of the start-up Yipit, which is a promising daily deal search engine (it is call also daily deal aggregator) you can check the article on the NY times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/nyregion/on-the-move-in-new-yorks-thriving-tech-sector.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
I already mentioned in a Seeking Alpha article, that personnalisation of search engines combined with new technologies represent the future growth of the daily deal sector.
"Search engines for daily deals can act as brokers and find infomediation opportunities (see my previous article). Thus, by exchanging information on its profile and personal preferences on consuming habits, consumers could find better daily deals tailored to their real needs. Daily mobile alerts-- which can be personalized to customers-- would bring value added to both consumers who can make targeted very interesting deals, and retailers who can reach more "offers-friendly" customers. Geolocalisation combined with SoLoMo, (the intersection between Social networks, Local commerce and Mobile) can be very lucrative in the future for Groupon."
Yipit is starting to do that.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/307899-groupon-vs-amazon-similarities-and-differences-in-creating-value
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/nyregion/on-the-move-in-new-yorks-thriving-tech-sector.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
I already mentioned in a Seeking Alpha article, that personnalisation of search engines combined with new technologies represent the future growth of the daily deal sector.
"Search engines for daily deals can act as brokers and find infomediation opportunities (see my previous article). Thus, by exchanging information on its profile and personal preferences on consuming habits, consumers could find better daily deals tailored to their real needs. Daily mobile alerts-- which can be personalized to customers-- would bring value added to both consumers who can make targeted very interesting deals, and retailers who can reach more "offers-friendly" customers. Geolocalisation combined with SoLoMo, (the intersection between Social networks, Local commerce and Mobile) can be very lucrative in the future for Groupon."
Yipit is starting to do that.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/307899-groupon-vs-amazon-similarities-and-differences-in-creating-value
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Innovation of the month: Wavo.me save music and videos from social networks
Our innovation of the month is the new web apps Wavo.me.
With Wavo.me you can connect to your Facebook or Twitter account and save music or videos from friends. You can complete one to four steps:
1- Make a new Playlist
2- Drag and Drop an item into your Playlists
3-Share a Video or Song
4-Invite Some of Your Friends
It is useful if you want to save interesting videos or music recommendation from friends and listen or view it later in a playlist on your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
This start-up is from Montréal.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
With Wavo.me you can connect to your Facebook or Twitter account and save music or videos from friends. You can complete one to four steps:
1- Make a new Playlist
2- Drag and Drop an item into your Playlists
3-Share a Video or Song
4-Invite Some of Your Friends
It is useful if you want to save interesting videos or music recommendation from friends and listen or view it later in a playlist on your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
This start-up is from Montréal.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Sunday, June 05, 2011
For Marc Andreessen "Mr. Internet" : we are not in a second tech bubble
For Marc Andreessen "Mr. Internet" : we are not in a second tech bubble. Marc is the founder of Netscape who created Internet with images. He is now a Venture capitalist involved in Groupon, Twitter, Facebook, Zynga. He is making a tons of millions in profits from its internet investments. He suggests that right now, major tech stocks are undervalued on the stock markets: for instance Cisco Systems, Apple, Microsoft. He said that Apple's Price-Earnings (PE) ratio is just 10 if you delete cash. He suggests that fast growing valuations of private and public stocks are not general, but in fact isolated, mainly in social networks (Faceboook, Zynga, Linkedin).
For Marc, new tech companies are trying to become profitable companies and not just new promising new IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) like firms in 1999-2000. They tend to have stronger business models than in the last decade.
For the whole interview on the Wall Street Journal see
http://online.wsj.com/video/groupon-investor-marc-andreessen-no-tech-bubble/275ED9C5-2BCA-4BFD-9FBA-97BCEF0D48F7.html
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
For Marc, new tech companies are trying to become profitable companies and not just new promising new IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) like firms in 1999-2000. They tend to have stronger business models than in the last decade.
For the whole interview on the Wall Street Journal see
http://online.wsj.com/video/groupon-investor-marc-andreessen-no-tech-bubble/275ED9C5-2BCA-4BFD-9FBA-97BCEF0D48F7.html
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Monday, May 30, 2011
We are entering a period where some mobile apps are more popular than their initial desktop version
Google has announced that Google Maps for mobile has 200 M users worldwide and growing quickly. While it represents now 40% of Google Maps users, Google predicts that in the next month there will be more mobile users of Google Maps than desktop users. According to Google's VP Marissa Mayer: "Desktop apps will be important but maps on the phone that knows … where you are and where you’re going is a killer app”.
The growth of SoLoMO is coming fast: Social, localisation and mobile.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
The growth of SoLoMO is coming fast: Social, localisation and mobile.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis
Sunday, March 27, 2011
US group-buying industry (ie. Groupon) should reach around $3 billion in 2011
According to Local Offer Network the US group-buying industry (ie. Groupon and LivingSocial) should reach around $2.7 billion in 2011 from $1.1 billion in 2010. The number of deals being offered were about 63,000 deals in the U.S. through group buying sites. Just in the first quarter of 2011, there will be an estimated 40,000. Groupon accounts for less than half of those published deals.
The main categories of products and services are Food and Drink (27%), Beauty, Spa & Massage (19%), Fitness & nutrition (7%), Sports & Recreation (7%), and Home Products & Services (5%). The biggest cities for daily deals are Chicago (where Groupon is based), New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and LA.
The report by Local Offer Network can be found below.
Group Deals Industry Report
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
The main categories of products and services are Food and Drink (27%), Beauty, Spa & Massage (19%), Fitness & nutrition (7%), Sports & Recreation (7%), and Home Products & Services (5%). The biggest cities for daily deals are Chicago (where Groupon is based), New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and LA.
The report by Local Offer Network can be found below.
Group Deals Industry Report
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Want to invest in Facebook, Twitter or Zynga? The secondary market exist.
The secondary market is facing a huge Internet private market stock bubble. Facebook is valued at $64 billion on Sharespost,com , Zynga at $6 billion, Twitter at $4 billion, LinkedIn at $2.5 billion, eHarmony at $667M, Goupon $5 billion, Huffington Post at $112M. Most of those firms will become public firms trading on official stock markets in 1-3 years, or sooner. The social network sector is very hot right now, maybe too hot for value investors.
To view these opportunities, securities laws require that you must first be qualified by their affiliated broker-dealer as an accredited investor. Once qualified, you will be able to access information about auctions, private placement memorandums and other offering materials. SharesPost then connects you directly with the managers of these offerings, and, whenever possible, the companies’ executives, so you can ask questions and come to an investment decision.
It necessitates a $1M value in net worth and over $200,000 in revenues per year.
In order to trade, one must register at www.sharespost.com
To view these opportunities, securities laws require that you must first be qualified by their affiliated broker-dealer as an accredited investor. Once qualified, you will be able to access information about auctions, private placement memorandums and other offering materials. SharesPost then connects you directly with the managers of these offerings, and, whenever possible, the companies’ executives, so you can ask questions and come to an investment decision.
It necessitates a $1M value in net worth and over $200,000 in revenues per year.
However, it is normally recommanded, to not invest more than 5% in private equity for a portfolio minimum well over $1,000,000.
Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
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