Im going to throw it out there, I Like Netflix. There I said it. True it had what could be called either a "Rocky" or "Catastrophic" year in 2011 with drops from its highs of 304 in July to 62 in November but it is my belief that these drops have resulted mostly from a mass panic from investors rather than any economic reason for such a sharp drop.
Now this isn't to say that i agree with all the decisions made by Netflix's management in 2011 and indeed the short-lived decision to spin-off its disc service was the wrong decision made at exactly the wrong time. Why would you want to further splinter your customer base by creating a new service at a time when you are trying desperately to hold onto customers after a high profile price rise. The quick U-turn on this looked bad but could have saved the companies core customer base.
So why the good feelings about a company who has made such blunders in the last year and who according to its stock price is almost on deaths door when compared to such a short time ago. Well my good feelings stem from the core of the companies business model, its streaming business. Internet Entertainment has come along way in the last few years, the boom of websites like youtube and the rise of network online players has led a migration of entertainment usage from the TV to computers,tablets and smartphones. Online streaming legal or otherwise has become a huge part of not just the way in which we take in video but also music through services like Spotify, Grooveshark and Love.FM . More and more people are moving from the traditional cable or satelite box and accompanying bills in favor of a more streamlined online existence. And why wouldnt you want to break away from those set top boxes, filled with channels you never watch yet have to pay for regardless, why would you want to be tethered to your TV set when you could choose online material and watch it almost anywhere.
As i have said in my previous post on which trends we can expect to see in 2012 online media will grow ever further and faster, boosted by improving infrastructure and larger content libraries. Netflix will continue to ride the cusp of this wave and if it can keep some momentum i predict it will be back up to its mide 2011 dominance (and stock price) within the next 2 years.
To Watch For: Further intergration with Facebook possibly allowing people to view content via the social media website could lead to a huge boost to customer base in Europe in a similar way to Spotify boosting its US visibility and customer base in the US through similar integration with the social media giant.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Facebooks in for the long haul...
So they much anticipated IPO of Facebook is just around the corner. The hype bus has been pulled out and is in full swing with stories regarding every single possible clause and figure coming out, however one thing is still amazing me.
People (possibly a vocal minority) still seem to believe that Facebook is some "Flash in the Pan" type event which will soon be being swept back under the rug. Do these people not realise that its 2012 and they have been saying the same thing for the better part of a decade. During which time Facebook has grown to extraordinary proportions and turned itself into one of the most important websites on the internet.
Facebook will not be leaving us anytime soon, or more to the point, WE wont be leaving Facebook anytime soon. We all have years and years of our lives invested into carefully building our friends lists, building farms and growing stacks of virtual poker chips. Think of all the hundreds of photos and memories, messages and even pokes which we have accumulated over the years that we have been enjoying the service. Do you honestly expect that the hundreds of millions of users that are currently using facebook will leave all that behind. Google+ made that mistake. Google left its entrance into the market too late and instead allowed Facebook free reign over the social networking scene for over half a decade before finally entering its services.
This IPO is only the begining of a long road for this company, with a potential user base currently above 6 Billion and rising there is plenty of opportunity for expansion. Of course one thing this has shown is that the old adage is indeed correct. "Haters gonna Hate".
People (possibly a vocal minority) still seem to believe that Facebook is some "Flash in the Pan" type event which will soon be being swept back under the rug. Do these people not realise that its 2012 and they have been saying the same thing for the better part of a decade. During which time Facebook has grown to extraordinary proportions and turned itself into one of the most important websites on the internet.
Facebook will not be leaving us anytime soon, or more to the point, WE wont be leaving Facebook anytime soon. We all have years and years of our lives invested into carefully building our friends lists, building farms and growing stacks of virtual poker chips. Think of all the hundreds of photos and memories, messages and even pokes which we have accumulated over the years that we have been enjoying the service. Do you honestly expect that the hundreds of millions of users that are currently using facebook will leave all that behind. Google+ made that mistake. Google left its entrance into the market too late and instead allowed Facebook free reign over the social networking scene for over half a decade before finally entering its services.
This IPO is only the begining of a long road for this company, with a potential user base currently above 6 Billion and rising there is plenty of opportunity for expansion. Of course one thing this has shown is that the old adage is indeed correct. "Haters gonna Hate".
Friday, 27 January 2012
Angry Birds coming to Facebook
Well there you have it, Angry Birds is set to take over the worlds largest social network. Its hardly surprising that a game as huge among casual games as angry birds is moving onto the social network site, what is more interesting is what this might mean for the future of facebook.
For a while now facebook has been the playground for low end, cheap gaming experiences. Companies such as zynga have seemingly perfected the "Freemium" game genre. However it is becoming clearer and clearer that larger games companies are begining to see Facebook and other social websites as more of a platform for their games. Companies like EA who have been releasing games to mirror its flagship sports titles and releases of games relating to Civilisation and Assassins Creed from several other large developers have shown a gradual move to embrace the platform.
The big difference between those games and the arrival of Angry Birds will not be apparently visible to a casual gamer. The big difference to a real gamer comes from what they determine to be a "Video Game". Many (myself included) do not see Mafia Wars as a "game" in the same way that Angry Birds is one. To put it simply, Angry Birds requires some level of skill to succeed. Mafia Wars merely requires time and the ability to read. The arrival of Angry Birds therefore will signal to my knowledge the first "Real" Video game to appear on the social networking website. I certainly hope that many more follow.
I expect that the take up will be similar to that which took place on smartphones where once companies realised that developing for the platforms could be highly profitable the money began to be put aside for development of games specifically for that platform. We are now seeing some truly amazing games coming onto a platform which years ago was mired in a flood of terrible gimicky games. I can only imagine that the same will happen with Facebook, and if the site continues to grow as it seems it will then this inevitability will only happen sooner.
For a while now facebook has been the playground for low end, cheap gaming experiences. Companies such as zynga have seemingly perfected the "Freemium" game genre. However it is becoming clearer and clearer that larger games companies are begining to see Facebook and other social websites as more of a platform for their games. Companies like EA who have been releasing games to mirror its flagship sports titles and releases of games relating to Civilisation and Assassins Creed from several other large developers have shown a gradual move to embrace the platform.
The big difference between those games and the arrival of Angry Birds will not be apparently visible to a casual gamer. The big difference to a real gamer comes from what they determine to be a "Video Game". Many (myself included) do not see Mafia Wars as a "game" in the same way that Angry Birds is one. To put it simply, Angry Birds requires some level of skill to succeed. Mafia Wars merely requires time and the ability to read. The arrival of Angry Birds therefore will signal to my knowledge the first "Real" Video game to appear on the social networking website. I certainly hope that many more follow.
I expect that the take up will be similar to that which took place on smartphones where once companies realised that developing for the platforms could be highly profitable the money began to be put aside for development of games specifically for that platform. We are now seeing some truly amazing games coming onto a platform which years ago was mired in a flood of terrible gimicky games. I can only imagine that the same will happen with Facebook, and if the site continues to grow as it seems it will then this inevitability will only happen sooner.
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Megaupload and what it means..
Well its probably about time i got round to writing a post on possibly the most important legislative event for techies this year. The shut down of Megaupload.com and its subsidiaries has been the cumlination for months of campaigning on both sides of the fence. It has sent ripples right through the internet ether and is continuing to keep SOPA and PIPA in the news.
Now i will state here that i believe in the rights of copyright holders to protect their work and i think that those who create such amazing content everyday of their lives and who work the arses off in the name of their art certainly deserve to reap the rewards of producing that material. In that sense even i am on the side of SOPA/PIPA. However while the basis of those acts are sturdy and true the way in which they are looking to be enacted and the scope of damage to free speech which could be inflicted from the forms of these acts is something that i cannot and will not support. Its very much like trying to stamp out a plague by killing the infected hosts rather than by giving them the necessary anti-biotics.
We need better communication between these websites and the major labels in the entertainment industry. Why were these links not taken off these webstites?? probably i suspect because nobody had asked them to be removed. Megaupload is not going to be able to check every upload to see if it the latest Britney Spears track but it should be very easy for someone within her record label to seach for her song on google and to ask sites like megaupload and google to remove infringing links. The scale of information transfer over the internet these days makes it impossible for a site like megaupload to check all of its traffic for infringements but it is much more manageable for one label to check for its individual products.
This is ofcourse an ongoing and evolving situation, and deffinately one which will not see any true end. Views on things like internet freedom come and goes depending mostly on current situations. I for instance can see a big change towards government run internet protection in maybe a decades time when state sponsored cyber-warfare is more commonplace. More recently there have been many calls for the government to crack down on groups such as anonymous, surely such a crackdown would recquire the sacrifice of certain online liberties similar to those we all gave up in the aftermath of 9/11. Although there are still those who complain the vast majority (mainly those who like myself have grown up with and am used to) accept the neccessary screening and security procedures at airports. If the Us had tried to bring in the patriot act in 2000 there would have been global outcry similar to that against SOPA/PIPA today.
The question for me then is not WHEN will these acts (or similar legistalature) go through but rather WHY will we allow it?
Now i will state here that i believe in the rights of copyright holders to protect their work and i think that those who create such amazing content everyday of their lives and who work the arses off in the name of their art certainly deserve to reap the rewards of producing that material. In that sense even i am on the side of SOPA/PIPA. However while the basis of those acts are sturdy and true the way in which they are looking to be enacted and the scope of damage to free speech which could be inflicted from the forms of these acts is something that i cannot and will not support. Its very much like trying to stamp out a plague by killing the infected hosts rather than by giving them the necessary anti-biotics.
We need better communication between these websites and the major labels in the entertainment industry. Why were these links not taken off these webstites?? probably i suspect because nobody had asked them to be removed. Megaupload is not going to be able to check every upload to see if it the latest Britney Spears track but it should be very easy for someone within her record label to seach for her song on google and to ask sites like megaupload and google to remove infringing links. The scale of information transfer over the internet these days makes it impossible for a site like megaupload to check all of its traffic for infringements but it is much more manageable for one label to check for its individual products.
This is ofcourse an ongoing and evolving situation, and deffinately one which will not see any true end. Views on things like internet freedom come and goes depending mostly on current situations. I for instance can see a big change towards government run internet protection in maybe a decades time when state sponsored cyber-warfare is more commonplace. More recently there have been many calls for the government to crack down on groups such as anonymous, surely such a crackdown would recquire the sacrifice of certain online liberties similar to those we all gave up in the aftermath of 9/11. Although there are still those who complain the vast majority (mainly those who like myself have grown up with and am used to) accept the neccessary screening and security procedures at airports. If the Us had tried to bring in the patriot act in 2000 there would have been global outcry similar to that against SOPA/PIPA today.
The question for me then is not WHEN will these acts (or similar legistalature) go through but rather WHY will we allow it?
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Why I hate Windows 8
Now ever since i first saw screenshots of Microsofts next iteration of its flagship OS i have been cringing. The big flaw is also its biggest selling point, Microsoft has essentially decided to turn your desktop PC or Laptop into a giant Tablet PC. I just dont understand why this would be appealing to a PC user.
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