Can web 2.0 companies build competitive advantage?

Can they create it and sustain it? How?

That's what I am trying to find out in my management report (final year Executive MBA "thesis" at London Business School).

I would like to interview marketing or management executives from the likes of Bebo, Myspace, Facebook, Kaboodle, Linkedin, Match.com, Friendster or start-ups in the field (relying on attracting and maintaining a critical mass of members to succeed).

I am keen to get a better understanding of the industry; the strategies used by major players and identify the golden rules for success. Interviews will be highly confidential and all data will be presented in aggregated format.

Benefits for executives are:

• Instant feedback/ideas from social media / online PR expert (and MBA student).
• Receive a copy of strategic overview when report is compiled.
• Open up a contact with London Business School (useful for future recruitment, interns and so on...)
• Doing a good deed

I can provide further details and my research tutor's contacts and references. Any help is much appreciated.

Thank you!

Counting the real Second Life population

As of today, Second Life counts 2,341,910 residents, as defined as "uniquely named avatars with the right to log in to Second Life, trade currency and visit the community pages". Critics make the distinction between registered users and active users, using a 10% conversion rate (confirmed by Linden Labs). This puts the number of Second-Lifers in the 200,000 to 230,000 range only. See CNet article.

GigaOm commented on the topic a while ago. Read the comments.

Tags: second life

French protest against 2007

Hundreds of protesters in Nantes (France) marched in the New Year waving banners reading: "No to 2007" and "Now is better!". Give it a few more days guys, the government will cave in and roll back the year.

Via BBC.

PS: Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you for keeping up with my erratic posting schedule.

'Paris Syndrome' strikes Japanese

Dozen or so Japanese tourists a year have to be repatriated from the French capital, after falling prey to what's become known as "Paris syndrome"...

Tags: paris, japan

Pay per post is a no go

My friend Farhan forwarded me a link to Rockstartup (web 2.0. reality TV…). They are following up “the Internet's next monster company” payperpost.com “from its initial concept to international fame.”

I do not like the concept of pay-per-post at all.

If you are a business, you cannot win. A blogger can trash your product and get paid for it. A blogger can rave about your product but who will believe what he/she says? They are being paid after all. There is an irreconcilable conflict between providing independent opinions about a product and being paid to talk about a product. You just cannot be independent if you are paid by the company those products you are reviewing. As a customer, who are you going to trust? If there is no trust, what is the point to get bloggers talking about your product? The whole think sounds desperate. Are your products so bad or insignificant that you need to pay people to talk about them? If you want to be seen on blogs, join a blog advertising network or Adsense.

The only upside is that you get nice text links in context to your site, thus boost your search engines ranking. Other than that: avoid.

Tags: pay-per-post, rockstartup

Skype to launch Web TV service

Quality TV programmes for free to consumers who have a broadband Internet connection. Next year. Reuters.

Time Magazine person of the year: You

Article.

Sony PSP: All I want for Xmas is a real blog

Sony America has admitted that a blog from "real life PSP fans" was in fact part of a marketing campaign. Sony: "Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP."

Via GamesIndustry.biz

Children swap music via phones

A survey of almost 1,500 eight to 13-year-olds found almost a third shared music via their mobiles. via BBC
Will the music industry push for a tax on mobile phones or children?

YouTube? You Leave!

StarHub employees fired and disciplined for " misconduct in our office premise" after posting funny video clips on YouTube. Via ChannelNewsAsia.

Tags: youtube

BBC: My science fiction life

The BBC is running a special feature on Science Fiction on its website. You can submit your favourite book, comic, film, TV series... The highlight is a science fiction Flash timeline from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to "Children of Men". You are invited to contribute and send your recollections/comments on science fiction classics. I cannot get the Flash version to work in Firefox or Explorer so here is a link to the static timeline, organised by decades.

Tags: bbc, scifi

France 24, a French CNN?

Just launched: http://www.france24.com/live/ exclusively online now (in English, French and Arabic).

NY Times: The Future of Online Advertising Is in the UK

I am in the Big Apple today for a workshop on Marcomms/Netcoms integration. Just read this in the NY Times: "Online advertising is racing ahead in Britain, growing at a roughly 40 percent annual rate, and is expected to account for as much as 14 percent of overall ad spending this year, according to media buying agencies. That is the highest level in the world, and more than double the percentage in the United States". See NY Times article which has more interesting data comparisons.

Tags: advertising

Need help with UK regional accents?

Listen in to the diverse voices of the British Isles: 1,200 people talking about language – slang, dialect, taboo words, accents and all sorts of subjects. Only on the BBC.

Tags: bbc

Virtual communities as important as real-world counterparts

The Center for the Digital Future surveyed 2,000 US based individuals about their attitudes to the web. Some results from survey respondents:

• Web consistently outrank TV as major source of entertainment and information
• Respondents spent an average of 8.9 hours a week online (1 hour more than in 2005)
• 43% feel"as strongly" about their web community as they do about real-world friends
• Each respondent made an average of 4.65 virtual friend this year
• 40% were using the web to stay in contact with people
• 37.7% believed the web allowed them to communicate more with friends and family
• 12.5% maintain their own website
• 7.4% kept a blog
• 23.6% posted pictures online

Report abstract (in PDF)

Human brain responds to strong brands differently

Strong and recognized brands create activity in parts of human brain linked to self-identity and reward, according to a study by a team of German scientists. Article.

Tags: marketing, brands, brain

Guy Kawasaki's Venture Capital Aptitude Test

Should MBA grads get into Venture Capital? Guy Kawasaki has a wonderful answer:

"Venture capital is something to do at the end of your career, not the beginning. It should be your last job, not your first one."

Find out why on his blog post and take his Venture Capital Aptitude Test.

Tags: VC, venture capital, kawasaki, mba

ING Direct: the art of breaking bad news

The Bank of England raised the base rate from 4.75% to 5%. ING Direct decided not to follow this increase for their saving rate. As an ING Direct customer, I was of course disappointed... until I received this email:

"At ING Direct we want to offer all our customers a consistently good rate. On this occasion this means we have made the decision to maintain our ING Direct Savings Account interest rate at 4.75% AER*.

While some people may be willing to follow headline-grabbing rates, we know from talking to our customers that the majority prefer their savings to be earning consistently and want to relax knowing they don't have to constantly check Best Buy tables. "

I feel more relaxed now as I know I will be earning less but consistently so. Thank you ING.

Pontiac Motoratilife in Second Life

A cryptic title to link to the Pontiac Motoratilife blog covering the company's activities in Second Life. Jimmy Kimmel, car races and mashup DJs. Nice program.

Tags: second life, pontiac, motoratilife

Every Bond Movie Trailers

Watch trailers from every Bond movies. Courtesy of Kevin Kelly.