A WELCOME CHANGE FROM AIRPLANES

The weather forecast was positive: It was going to be a beautiful Friday morning. Being the responsible Jolly Jetsetter that I am, I decided to take a 4:00am drive to Pampanga, so I could make it back for my 10:00am meetings. It was dark and the streets were mostly empty, so a brisk 200kph average had us at the balloon field early enough to enjoy a warm cup of crappy coffee. I have to say that I was quite disappointed with the organization of the Balloon Festival. I try to attend this event yearly because of the skydiving jumps and my interest in the gyrocopters business that is being launched in the Philippines. It is a yearly event with amazing potential that has been reduced to the cheesy afternoon carnivals you find in Cavite or Laguna. The mix of a poor choice of events and vendors, loud dance music from 5:00am onwards, poor logistics, and crappy marketing force me to give the balloon festival a fat thumbs down.

Fortunately I did not have to stick around for too long, by around 5:30am we were being whisked into the staging area for the balloon pilots who were preparing for the game of hare and hound. In this game they send a lead balloon (Hare) ahead by about two minutes, after which the remaining 16 balloons (Hounds) start the chase. The Hare’s objective is to land and drop a marker, the hounds that place their marker closest to the hare’s marker get the highest points. Sounds easy enough no? Well do not forget that you cannot steer a balloon. It floats according to the wind, which is in constant flux. To change directions, you need to catch a stream of wind by either raising or lowering the altitude of the balloon. Note that these streams of wind go in varying directions, travel in varying speeds, and are of different temperatures (which requires more or less hot air in your balloon). So chasing a hare can be quite a challenge, requiring a keen sense of direction and an ever-calculating mind.

Before I get ahead of myself, let me just relate how I got into the balloons in the first place. UPS is one of the largest sponsors for the event and decided to assist me in securing a place on one of the balloons. I guess all those packages I send out have finally paid off! They bring me into the briefing area, where the lead organizer and pilot proceed to shout: “There are a pair from UPS, anybody want to take them? (Silence) Anyone? (Silence) UPS is one of the largest sponsors and would like you to take them, anyone? (Silence).” This went on for quite some time. My companion and I were being whored out to the different pilots and out of a group of 17 balloons; only the Gulf Air team was kind enough to take us both onboard. Not that I can blame them, the additional weight does add a different component to steering the balloon.

After a short set up period, we were off. Once you are in the balloon, you do not really do much except enjoy the view. Give or take a few planned dips, the ride was smooth and gorgeous. Even our landing, which involved quite a bit of dragging and bouncing (your tossed all around the basket), was relaxed and almost elegant. I can understand why this was such a popular sport for the upper society of Europe. We ended up fairly close to the hare, but did not receive any points, as we were unable to find our marker when we came back for it (you don’t actually land to place it, its dropped). I would say that with a ready bottle of champagne and a tin of beluga caviar, I may just consider ballooning as a new sport! It’s fairly reasonable considering that a fully set up balloon costs roughly $30k (lasts many years) and the gas used to fuel the burners is propane.

I was a bit late for my meeting, but I’d have to say, it turned out to be a spectacular Friday morning! Now to figure out where to get a balloon and how to learn to fly it…

THE LASTING IMPRESSION OF MOBILE ADVERTISEMENTS

The Xperia X1 will be the first mobile phone developed between Microsoft and Sony Ericsson, to be launched 2nd quarter of 2008. With Googles mobile phone operating system well in the works and a hugely successful IPhone, it is clear that the technology behind Mobile Phones will be making a drastic shift in 2008 and the coming years. Companies are developing phones that integrate your consumer lifestyle with strong business applications. From the stocks you track to the weekly episodes of Grey's Anatomy you watch, these phones are rivaling computers in terms of importance for your day to day life.

From a Mobile Advertising perspective, technology and user acceptance is slowly developing into that dream of a lifestyle integrated and connected consumer. However, as pointed out by some detractors at the Barcelona conference; you can advertise through Mobile Phones, but how do you develop the "endearing" and "loyalty inducing" advertisements that are prevalent across print and television media? It is one thing to target users through short 3G clips, MMS blasts and Mobile clips. You can even spread the same message across several mediums through a diversified campaign (Blogs + 3G + RBT + MMS/SMS). These are all interesting and certainly well targeted advertisements-- but do they develop the connection that a rich, colorful, and audio superior, television advertisement does? Can they?

I still remember the Wendy's "Where's the beef?" campaign or Joe Isuzu's ridiculous claims, I remember the Delmonte nuns and their tomato sauce as clearly as I remember sexy, 90's Britney dancing for Pepsi. How will mobile advertisers develop this sort of an impact? With small screens, multiple running applications, and the fact that a mobile phone is DESIGNED for multitasking (consumer focus is fragmented), this will be no small feat. I'm looking forward to watching the industry progress.

QUICK TECHNOLOGY NEWS 02/10/08

Bluetooth and WiFi Connect: A collaboration between Bluetooth and WiFi functions is going to be announced mid this week. The idea is to use a single chip that combines Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities (currently your lap top runs two separate chips). This combined chip will use the low-power Bluetooth radio to pair and send small sized files. For larger transfers the combined chip will switch to WiFi radios, resulting in much faster file transfers. If they can develop a seamless connection between both functions (which they will), this chip shift will speed up the lives of many executives and students the world over. We may even get to an age of wireless computer syncing with the same convenience as syncing your mobile phone.

Social Networking Sites join forces: I found a fairly interesting bit of information surfing through the web yesterday, which brings to light the direction companies like Facebook and LinkedIn are taking. It was announced that Yahoo is planning to develop an email service that shares data with Social Networking Sites; Delver is working to develop a search engine that tracks and summarizes social network data; Facebook is introducing new services that take advantage of users' online contacts.

By sharing and linking user information with one another, they are developing an interactive and soon to be search able set of personal information on YOU. I am not sure I like the idea of being a page on wikepedia, which lists (by priority of course) all the personal information I have combined across my Facebook, Email, Blog and Friendster sites. Using the Beacon service launched by Facebook as an example, it will only be a matter of time till online purchases, Ebay bids and so forth are also linked in. Do I really want my personal data easily accessible? Advertising companies and Social Networking Sites certainly think so.

Yahoo wants more: Yahoo finds that the offer by Microsoft undervalues the company significantly and is currently wagering that a $9 per share, or roughly $12 billion added to the original offer price, will sway the board to accept. Microsoft is currently trailing in fourth place for this industry, with Yahoo second (not a close one) to Google. Considering that online advertising pretty much pays for...well... everything online, I would wager that Microsoft is going to fight for this one.

THE JOLLY VIEW ON THE MICROSOFT/YAHOO MERGER AND $44,600,000,000

Every blogger these days seems to be sharing their two cents on the Microsoft/Yahoo merger. $44,600,000,000 is no small number, I know plenty of countries that do not make that in their yearly GDP. So what is the big deal with this merger other than plenty of zeros and a battle between two, huge tech giants (Microsoft and Google).

Some basic information that we will need:
Market Value: (M: 296 Billion, G: 147 Billion). Google is 49% of Microsoft

2006 Revenue: (M:44.28 Billion, G: 10.6 Billion) Google is 24% of Microsoft

Online Advertising Revenue: (M: 2.29 Billion, G: 7.3 Billion) Google is 68% larger than Microsoft.

*A combined Microsoft and Yahoo would have 27% of Worldwide Search Share, Google would have 66%

*Zenith optimedia expects global online ad-spend to grow with 28.2%, that would be roughly $184.39 Billion spent on online ad spending (Global Ad-spend est. at 653.9 Billion). *Google has been outgrowing Microsoft every quarter since its 2004 IPO


Google is a behemoth, its actually quite amusing to read their online blog which challenges the antitrust issues with such a merger. Microsoft may have a long history of such antitrust issues but Google's ever growing influence on the industry is starting to show similar signs.

This merger is an effective and attempt by Microsoft to battle on Google's turf, especially with online ad-spend growing exponentially. Lets not forget that this fight for online advertising market share has a distinct impact on the mobile advertising industry. These are both, extremely large pools of $ that both Microsoft and Google are maneuvering to command.

Our world is becoming increasingly ingrained and I would say, reliant on our computers and cell phones. With these industries well within a strong growth curve, you can understand the speed and commitment being made by Microsoft and Google to one up each other. The future direction of the advertising world rests on these industries. The shift from impersonal to personal advertisements, from mass hits to direct, from unknown to known demographics, this will all be realized to a large extent through the efforts of Microsoft and Google to develop an effective advertising platform. Our lives as consumers will be entering an golden era of personalization.

Of course there are some major issues at stake for Microsoft. For one, Yahoo has not been doing particularly well as a business these days. As stated by Jon Fisher (one of the investment analysts): "With Microsoft paying a full price for a broken business where there's not accelerating organic growth, I can't make that work at all." With an estimated $50 billion value, this is not going to be an easy pill to swallow and it may be the stumble that Google needs to take the lead.

The synergies between Yahoo and Microsoft are good, but I wonder if they are $50 billion good? Fundamentally, both Yahoo and Microsoft suffer from a business model that is in my opinion, inferior to Google's: The Centralized Operations Model v.s. Google's Distributed Network Model. Lets not forget that the web is built primarily off a distributed network model-- which is a large part of what has made Google so dynamic and efficient!

These are some concerns that I am sure the brains of Microsoft are spending dateless nights figuring out. From an outsiders perspective, who's knowledge of the online industry is substantially meager, this merger is one that is on the right track. Google should be worried.

LIVE VIDEO STREAMING

I made a quick visit to the Yahoo Live site, which has been overshadowed in recent news by the Yahoo acquisition attempt by Microsoft. Its cute, I suppose, certainly with plenty of moneymaking opportunities. Some key issues do need to be addressed:

The site experience is lousy. Similar to Ustream, Stickam, etc. Video streams take a while to load, they are choppy and constantly crashing. Yes, this is all to improve as internet bandwidth and streaming technologies advance, but its still irritating.

The camera angles are almost ALL the same. You are looking at "heads". Granted, these amazing heads talk, dance, sing, even strip (though the sites have a genuine PG rating), but viewers are still basically watching, experiencing and interacting with some persons floating mug! This promptly led me to click on users based on their appearance... (hey, at least I don't lie about it!)

This, in my opinion, will be the key to all of this-- are people really interested in the inner lives of other people? Social Networking have shown that we do have an inner desire to interact and "network" with each other, but these sites still filter a lot of what we see and read. Streaming video takes all of the illusions we may have about the person, you see, hear and experience the individual for who he/she is. Interesting.

As the technology improves, there is no doubt that we will start seeing live streaming as a complimentary addition to websites, social networking sites, etc. Applying this technology to a more useful purpose: Imagine college interviews being done online, or sending in your video resume to a business position you look to fill. The opportunities are quite limitless as the people in our world becoming increasingly more connected.

There will always be those people that enjoy sharing themselves with others. For The Jolly Jetsetter, he will remain behind his Facebook and Second Life walls- at least for the time being.


Sites to visit
http://live.yahoo.com
www.justin.tv
www.stickam.com
www.ustream.tv