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“Short Posts about Marketing & The Future of Engaging Global Cultures Online”

Category Archives: Internet TV

April 26, 2011 Internet TV in China Gets Serious

China Internet TV

China is Ready for Internet TV to Takeoff

Some of China is already enjoying online video via a television set as consumers have purchased foreign technology like Google TV and Apple TV to power their internet TV experience. But the market in China is destined for an internet TV boom! Internet TV via the computer became popular in the blink of an eye in China and has seen great success.

Watching television shows on the internet via the computer has been a plentiful market in China as David Barboza of the NY Times proposed that 300 million people are using computers on a monthly basis to watch their favorite television programs including Gossip Girl, Japanese and Korean shows.

China’s Online TV Market

China is a different market when it pertains to internet TV because most of their television programming is run/monitored by the government. The internet has grown to become a reliable source for Chinese techys to get their hands on content not shown on their TV networks and the on-demand capability that comes with it is just another perk as they hunt down content outside of the China realm.

Businesse picked up on the rise in online video and shifted some TV ad spend over to the computer. The online ad spending rose from $83 million in 2008 to an estimated $346 million through 2010 and into 2011. Chinese consumers have been experiencing more ads within their videos online and now the market is bound to shift some of that online video activity from computers to television sets as internet TV’s become more abundant.

There are a variety of online video sites like the Baidu run Qiyi, and others like, Todou.com and Youku.com that have reaped the benefits of the online video surge and are plotting ways in which they can take advantage of the internet television craze that is soon to come.

Sony Inks a New Deal with Chinese Media Company Wasu Digital

A big hold up in the growth of internet TV in China in comparison to the United States can be credited to the government’s control of television. Unlike the United States where corporations run the streams on our television the Chinese government wasn’t ready to allow companies access to provide society with a full internet TV experience. Recently, the government has opened up and formulated a plan to introduce internet TV to the mainstream. Sony and Wasu Digital have agreed on a deal in which Sony will sell internet ready TV’s that will connect the governments streams with the online world. Wasu Digital provides most of the content seen by Chinese viewers on network television and 3G mobile video sources. This makes it inevitable that internet TV will be more available and more widely utilized in the region in the second half of 2011.

Check out the chart below from DisplaySearch as it highlights Connected TV shipments across the globe. This chart came before Sony Inked the deal and I imagine we’ll see China grow at a more rapid rate through 2014 than what is depicted below.

Connected TV across the globe

January 31, 2011 Social Influence for TV Ratings – IntoNow is Moving it Ahead

IntoNow for Business and Life

IntoNow just released a new iPhone application that allows you to identify more than 2.6 million TV broadcast airings through means of voice recognition. Launch the app and hold the phone within a certain range of the television so that it can hear the sound and the app can recognize the exact show, episode, commerical, etc. that is on your television. But I can understand this by just watching the TV, so why does it matter. Retrieving on-demand information about the product in a commercial or the contents within an episode can be useful for identifying TV programs beyond what the provider can give you.

The voice/sound recognition is not the primary sell for the application. It integrates many other features that make it a one stop shop for watching, learning, sharing and retrieving. In-app links to Netflix, IMDb and iTunes make it easy to purchase shows or one-click add them to an instant queue. Also, as a user you can “check-in” to a particular show and send comments and updates to your Facebook and/or Twitter profiles. Another in-app feature is the ability to see your friends comments and suggestions. Basically, IntoNow is a everything-in-one TV app.

IntoNow for Business

TV check-in’s and internet/TV advertising has yet to really surface on a mainstream level. Google TV, Yahoo TV, Apple TV and other connected television services have yet to create a large buzz with television viewers and therefore their advertising efforts have been ineffective or unsuccessful in relation to other advertising channels. IntoNow is trying to push into the huge market of entertainment television and bringing it all together for a user in an easy manner is what they are doing.

IntoNow is just more evidence that brands recognize Integrated Online/TV advertising is the future of television. Users are going to be able to do more with the ads and programs they watch. No matter your business, you should keep an eye on the development of the various platforms and determine how your product will be relevant when the surge of internet connected TV’s hits mainstream adoption. Familiarize your ad designers and creative department with the various formats and possibilities that make connected TV more consumer friendly and create rough drafts of mock ads or applications that fit the bill. This way, you will be more than ready when connected television takes off, cause it is bound to happen.

IntoNow for Culture & Life

The application is just another tool that is making our world more connected and smaller in terms of distance. Right now, I believe it only reads English television for now but I’m sure the future developments will expand globally if it proves to be successful. Imagine watching television and watching in real time where the show is being watched across the globe. Wouldn’t it be interesting if you were watching Gossip Girl and saw that most of the other users watching the program outside of the United States were in Norway. Who would’ve ever known or thought?

Social Influence Increases for TV

Just knowing what your friends are watching with the “check-in” feature is a shift in cultural influence. People inherently are curious about the activities in their peers lives. So if Nicole is watching That 70’s Show and notices that her best friend Lilly is watching Skins on MTV and tweeting like crazy about it, Nicole may be indirectly convinced to change the channel. Meaning social influence will have an even greater impact on viewership.

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November 19, 2010 Make Friends with PayPal – High on Business Wish List

paypal for business

As you probably already know, the way in which consumers make purchases is changing at a rapid pace.  Instead of a consumer visiting a store and physically buying goods or calling and making an order they now have a new grab bag of “touch a button” options available on devices such as a computer, mobile phone and television.  Being a business owner you have to stay on top of the ways in which consumers do their shopping.  If you don’t – a competitor has the chance to swoop up some sales because they do.  So it’s time to embrace the complicated changes and keep your business relevant with the changes technology brings

paypal for businessFor your business – Talk to PayPal

PayPal took the online payment world by storm by offering all businesses an easy solution to accepting online payments – the Paypal engine become the staple of ebay and took off from there.  Today, PayPal continues to hold power over many online computer purchases and stays on top of that mountain because of their brand identity and proven security – that gives them scale and with scale of consumers – you can bet a payment driven business will be successful.

But what about the TV and the mobile phone?  Startups across the nation are popping up and trying to get a head start in the mobile payments and t-commerce payments arena.  But PayPal doesn’t plan on letting this happen.  Using their experience in the online marketplace, they are beginning to roll out new programs and services that support easy mobile payments and television transactions.  They want to turn digital devices into the new wallets.  Why not?  It would be more convenient and in many ways, more secure.

PayPal has products that are launched and ready to go for mobile – offered through their Express Checkout line – Mobile Express Checkout.  And just recently announced that they are putting some final touches on an express payment solutions for television. Although, it may take time for these products and payment procedures to mature, you can bet that the future consumer will be aware and more than ready to use them.

Your business must be ready to give them your products and services via any payment channel.  A relationship with PayPal will give you the freedom to explore all the options that come to market and have them secured within one payment system.  Another perk of adapting to PayPal’s new tools is the possibility that you impress your customers – by showing them that you are on top of the technological revolution.  It may start positive word of mouth if one of your consumers tells their friends – I just went to the store and paid with my phone.  You could garner new business just for the experience.

Of course, don’t make any quick decisions.  Weigh in on the positives and negatives of a PayPal system – but start thinking about how you plan to adapt to the changing world of commerce.  You can visit PayPal and contact them for more information on how to get your business suited up to accept payments via their systems.

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November 19, 2010 T-Commerce – An Introduction

t commerce

What Is T-Commerce?
T-Commerce is the process of making a purchase via  television.  Yet to even surpass it’s baby stages, T-Commerce will only grow as internet and TV continue to close the gap on one another.  There is already a huge push for mobile commerce (m-commerce) and this is all thanks to technology making our lives more convenient.

New products like Google TV, Yahoo TV, Apple TV and a handful of  converter boxes bring together the internet and TV and make the television experience more interactive.  In the old model:

  1. A consumer watches TV and sees a product they want to buy
  2. The consumer either goes on their computer or visits a store to make the purchase
  3. To make that purchase the customer has to get out their credit card or cash
  4. The consumer either has the product shipped to them or they take it home from the store

The T-Commerce Model can eliminate a step in the process

  1. The consumer watches TV and sees a product they want to buy
  2. They press a button to buy the product
  3. The product is shipped/delivered to their home or they can go pick it up

T-Commerce will allow some consumer to purchase products without even using their credit card if television providers cooperate much like phone carriers do when it comes to billing.  There are various payments options available as you can see above.

 

 

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November 19, 2010 Yahoo Connected TV – Branding Through TV

“The internet experience on your TV”

What is Yahoo! Connected TV – Description

Yahoo introduced connected TV as their first step into the internet TV realm.  Similar to other internet for TV services such as Google TV, Roku, and Apple TV, Yahoo turns your television into a one stop shop for interactive media by integrating online applications and features with the shows and programs you love to watch.

It is an additional platform that comes equipped with some new TV’s and is free to use as long as you have an in-home internet connection.  Some participating TV brands include Sony, VIZIO, LG, Samsung and Toshiba.  As stated before, applications are a prime feature of the service.  For now the top applications/widgets on the Yahoo! platform are Twitter (allowing you to tweet and receive real time Twitter updates) Pandora (stream personal music from the tv) Flickr (clear photo access and sharing on your tv)  and more.  Yahoo has opened it’s doors to designers so they can design and deploy widgets within the Yahoo! TV platform.  The span of consumer exposure is global and they are allowed to purchase widgets with the touch of the remote – and of course designers share the revenue with Yahoo!

Yahoo is trying to become a major player in this field for the same reason everyone else is – advertising dollars.  The market is growing and is set to continue growing as the technology becomes more familiar with consumers.

Yahoo! TV for BusinessYahoo TV for Business

Yahoo TV is valuable for businesses because it gives them another option when it comes to personal advertising.  Some companies are already reaching their audience with TV advertising but the ads are stagnant and feature off TV call to actions – meaning the consumer has to learn more about the product/company on another device or from personal interaction.  With Yahoo! TV you can now advertise to consumers and have the call to action be right on their TV.  “Click Ok to …..”  This gives your ad more power and also better quality measurements – if a user clicks your ad must have done something right.

The second leg to all of this is the widget and interactive branding a business can do.  When a consumer uses the platform they can do all kinds of activities on their TV such as play games, surf the net, browse photos, etc.  Your business can infiltrate this process by creating interactive branding within them.  Build a game that may engage your audience and have it up for sale on Yahoo TV – your brand can sponsor the game – create an application that makes it easier for TV watchers to personalize their search – have the app sponsored by your brand.  The limitations are endless – with internet and TV only getting more popular – you can expect the platform to progress and give businesses more targeted options when it comes to branding and advertising.

 
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