[This post was originally published by HBR blogs on 8th October 2012] When the band, the xx, wanted to promote their latest album they chose a unique marketing strategy. Consistent with many artists today they released their album as an online stream before the general digital and physical release a week or so later. But how …
Online education experiments at the margin
[This post was originally published at Forbes.com on 1st October 2012] Psst, you want to know what academics talk about these days? Not research. Not annoying students. Not even exceptional students. No, they talk about online education. And for economists like myself, they talk about it a lot. The reason is that we economist academics …
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A shared pricing experiment for my book
My new book, Information Wants to be Shared, is now officially out. I'll follow up a little later with more details regarding what it is about but if you have been a regular reader of this blog, some of the themes will be familiar. Back in December I realised that there was a common thread …
Streamlining the interview process with online videos
As regular readers know, I taught a strategy class to the Next 36 would-be entrepreneurs. During that process they would present their own ventures as cases. One of those ventures was Kira. Their idea was to provide a platform whereby employers would set out a series of questions and job candidates would be required to …
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The Facebook Billion
One in seven people on the Earth use Facebook. Given that 1.5 billion are under the age of 12, that means one in five and a half eligible people use Facebook. Once we factor in countries that don't have or allow Facebook it gets higher. With its market cap running at $46.8 billion that means …
Facebook examines advertising effectiveness
Facebook has posted an interesting talk by its ad executive, Brad Smallwood, reporting on research they have conducted into the effectiveness of advertising. http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/fbmarketingtalks?layout=4&clip=pla_5b7f92a4-0d8e-4468-a66a-7570e38f92e9&color=0xe7e7e7&autoPlay=false&mute=false&iconColorOver=0x888888&iconColor=0x777777&allowchat=true&height=295&width=480 The first part of the video is most relevant and it lasts about 10 minutes. The summary of the findings is as follows: Impressions create value. 99 percent of sales generated …
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Does Google get a good ROI in KC?
What in the world is Google doing with its high speed network in Kansas City? Does Goggle expect the revenue to exceed the costs of building the network? Dave Burstein has some numbers to illuminate the question. Dave Burstein is a communications junky for the major communications junky. He covers many topics in communications markets, …
Scott Adams wants to sell an idea
... but he isn't about to let on what it is yet. Here is what we know. First, it's sort of original. I have a specific business idea in mind. It has the potential to change the world in a fundamental way and yet it is little more than a combination of existing ideas that are …
WordPress's evolution as a web publishing platform
WordPress powers this blog. That isn't surprising as WordPress began with the goal of providing a powerful and, indeed, free blogging platform. To be sure, it earns money from premium services but, compared with its predecessors, WordPress is an open platform that gave users and developers the power to slash, hack and design. But now …
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Digging deeper into Apple's maps problem
Since my post last week, Apple's iOS6 maps problem has become this year's '-gate' issue. Despite an incredibly strong iPhone 5 launch and a successful iOS6 launch, the share price has gone down and for the first time in recent memory, consumer satisfaction on an Apple product has dropped. The issue, of course, is how …
Digitopoly 