Community Guy – Jake McKee

Pricing IS an issue

In the “Bowl me over with a feather” category, it looks like Sony’s PSP movie format discs (UMD) might be going away.

Disappointing sales have slowed the flow of movies on the proprietary Universal Media Disc to a mere trickle. At least two major studios have completely stopped releasing movies on UMD, while others are either toying with the idea or drastically cutting back.

And retailers also are cutting the amount of shelf space they’ve been devoting to UMD movies, amid talk that Wal-Mart is about to dump the category entirely. [...]

Any why, pray tell are the movies not selling? The article sites a several reasons.

Observers speculate the studios released too many movies, too fast. Within five months of the PSP’s March 2005 launch, 239 movie and TV titles already were either in the market or in the pipeline — a significantly higher tally than games, according to the DVD Release Report.

First off, let me stand up and say that I am watching movies daily on my train trip to and from work. I usually watch about 2-4 movies a week (35 min train trip, so it takes several trips to make it through a movie). Most of those movies are being ripped (from my personal collection I legally purchased).

And as far as 239 movies… well, I’ve been seeing basically the same core 15 on the shelves of most stores for nearly a year now. I certainly haven’t seen a selection of anywhere north of 50, much less 239. And have you noticed that most of those movies suck? We’re not getting Cinderella Man, we’re getting Are We There Yet?

Perhaps I did burn myself out on in-theater failure movies by buy too many of them at more than double the cost of the DVD I can play anywhere. Oh wait, that’s not it at all.

Sony, the movie studios, and the retailers may believe that the real issue here is something other than price, but for me the issue was price above all else. I was (and am) willing to spend money on UMD discs because they’re much easier to deal with than ripping DVDs, and the quality is much better. But at $30 USD there wasn’t a chance in hell I was buying a single one. I probably own about 8 , and several of the UMDs replicate movies in my 200+ DVD collection. Some of those were bought on eBay for $8, some in stores for no more than $14.99. Anything higher was just price rape pure and simple and I wasn’t and won’t support that.

But while sales were initially strong — two Sony Pictures titles even crossed the 100,000-unit threshold after just two months — the novelty quickly wore off, observers say. The arrival last fall of Apple’s video iPod only hastened the PSP’s decline as a movie-watching platform.

So let me get this straight… the video iPod came out, proving the validity of portable small video and somehow the PSP video concept still failed? When the iPod revolutionized the MP3 player world, all boats rose with the tide – MP3 player sales overall increased. Shouldn’t the same have happened to the portable video category? I honestly wonder sometimes if Sony doesn’t enjoy failure. Perhaps they have some sort of larger corporate strategy that benefits more from failures like this.

But since I was a loyal Sony user (until recently), I’m willing to help them out of this crunch. Sony, I’m positive you’re not listening to me, since I’m one of those pesky consumers, but here’s what you should know for your After Action Review on video:

• Price – no question in my mind that a movie without special featuresyou can only watch on a portable device costing twice as much as a normal DVD is a bad deal cost-wise. Since I’m not a Rockefeller, I tend to try not to piss away my money on foolish purchases. UMDs (at $30 was a foolish purchase)
• Focus - Portable devices need short content. I spend 35 mins on the train each day, not two hours. I want TV shows, not movies. The iTunes music store didn’t start with movies, they started with TV. They’re selling a ton.
• Format - Sony loves their formats. They spend years and years developing them, and then they love them and support them no matter what – kinda like a mom who still loves her drug addicted jailbird. The UMD format was OK, but maybe it wasn’t the right thing. If ripping is so common, why was Sony not a) paying attention to this trend, and b) responding with a new digital format and content store to purchase? Having a stockpile of cool proprietary formats isn’t as cool as making money. Trust me on this one, you’ll be happy you did.

Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment shows why they’re struggling:

[...] Feingold believes the PSP’s biggest drawback as a movie-watching device was the inability to connect the gadget to TV sets for big-screen viewing, “which would have made it more compelling,” as well as the inclusion of memory stick capability.

First of all… duh! The first time I stood in front of the shelf looking at $30 PSP movies I asked myself the obvious question: “Where else can I play this?” The president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment didn’t think the same thing himself? Or anyone under him? No wonder Sony can’t seem to hit the target.

“I think a lot of people are ripping content and sticking it onto the device rather than purchasing,” he said.

He thinks? This seems like something they might want to research… if they didn’t have a format that they’d rather gnash their teeth on that is. This is a laughable thing to say because it shows clearly that they’re not doing the basic homework of either a) researching or b) interacting with their consumers. If it were me, I’d personally want to know what consumers were actually up to. Call me crazy.

MySpace numbers

Continuing this unintended theme of social communities for the week, I saw some stunning numbers on MicroPersuasion today regarding MySpace.

• It is the largest online social networking portal on the web
• It has 61 + million registered users with 21+ million unique visitors (media metrix)
• It’s the second largest destination on the web, by page views
•  It splits 50.2% male, 49.8% female
• They reach more men online than ESPN.com. They reach more females online than iVillage.
• The primary age demo is 16-34
• They have 1.4 million registered bands, 350,000 band blogs
• The site attracts 220,000 new registrants daily
• There are 50,000 groups including fashion, health, wellness & fitness, sports and recreation, music, film, TV, etc.
• And last but not least it costs $35,000 to launch a profile for marketing purposes.

Pretty incredible numbers. That last one is fascinating to me, since it begins to answer the question “What else is there besides banner ads for online advertising?”

On this topic, Jason Calacanis posted an interesting look at whether MySpace is a fad. The short version is yes, MySpace is a fad. But like Jason says: “fads are what we call revolutions before we know what they are”. Talk about your money lines!

And in case you haven’t seen it, check out Danah’s article: Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace a fad?

Bad time to start a company?

Caterina from Flickr says it’s a bad time to start a new company.

1. Everybody else is starting a company. It’s crazy. Every single person who leaves a tech company isn’t going to Microsoft or Google or Apple or whatever, they’re going to a startup. Trying to operate in this environment is crazy. I’m getting late-onset ADD from trying to keep track of them all, and it’s impossible to get attention for your product amidst all the buzz (er, noise).
2. Your competition just got funded too. You’ve got $5 million in the bank, and they do too. Their VCs want them to succeed every bit as much as your VCs want you to succeed. This gets you into a horse race, which no one wants: it’s exhausting and expensive.
3. Talent is scarce again. Hell, I want to find someone to write a little bit of PHP for Wench.com and I can’t find anyone (Hey if you are a PHP webapp builder and have some spare cycles, email me at caterina-at-gmail). Everyone’s gainfully employed, and fielding several offers.
4. You can’t operate in obscurity anymore. We started our company in 2002 when nothing was getting funded anywhere and everyone was still licking their wounds from the big bubble bang. Nobody cared about us except us. We were in Vancouver fer crissakes. But we were able to focus on finding and connecting with the people who mattered most: the customers, the users, the community. You get more done when no one’s looking over your shoulder.
5. Web 2.0 isn’t all that. Hello?. I don’t think there’s a rising tide lifting all boats here. I don’t think Web 2.0 is the magic bullet some people seem to think it is either. It ain’t the features, it’s that AND the business. Tagging was a great feature, no doubt. But Flickr was at break even — about to tip into the black — when we were acquired.
6. There’s too much going on. Every night there’s a Mashup get together, or a TechCrunch party, or it’s Tag Tuesday, or SuperHappyDevHouse or SXSW or this conference or that conference. And this stuff is fun. It’s a real community. But all of these things are great by themselves, but terrible in combination. I see some entrepreneurs in photos from *every single event*. Who’s talking to the users, writing the code, tweaking and retweaking the UI? It ain’t the Chief Party Officer.

I have to respectfully disagree with much of these points. So what if everyone else is starting a company? Does that mean you shouldn’t? So what if talent is hard to find? Does that mean that you can’t pick up a PHP book or come up with an innovative plan to steal the talent?

This is a great time to start a company, but a bad time to start a stupid company based on a stupid idea with stupid levels of funding and stupid business plans. Choosing to not start a new company because it might get funded, because there’s a talent shortage, or because you can’t talk to users in private, or because it might be hard work is idiotic and lazy. I have huge respect for Caterina and all that she and the Flickr team have done. But this article comes off as a grumpy old man talking about the whippersnappers having easier than in his day.

The Web is alive with ideas and enthusiasm for the first time in several years. Two guys in a garage are able to create, launch, and then fund amazing projects better than even the first dot com bubble. Talent is hard to find because ideas abound. Funding has returned because we’re actually thinking of ideas worth funding again.

Just because the “cool kids” are mocking those not on the scene from the beginning, don’t think we’re not in a good place for good things to happen. Nirvana’s Nevermind album was cool even after it entered the mainstream, and starting a company now is still a viable option even if you’re not one of the first movers.

Seriously? Bullying?

Since it seems to be "Social Community Week" here on CommunityGuy.com, I figured I’d post a note about MyYearbook.com. The site is yet another social community site for students, but what really stuck out to me is the items in their home page sales pitch:

• Bully, Flirt and secretly admire
• Share homework
• Vote for Best Butt

As my colleague said this morning, this is begging for trouble…



UPDATE: The good folks over at the amazing research group, Iconoculture dug up some interesting bit of background on the site.

• Teen social network myYearbook.com is becoming a popular Web hangout – just as it was designed to be by the teens who own and run it.
• myYearbook isn’t just a social space for chats and spats and what’s hot and what’s not. The site makes it easy for enterprising teens to organize their friend, family, work and school lives. And even plan for life after college.
• The two teen sibs who started myYearbook in April 2006 – David and Catherine Cook, age 17 and 16, respectively – are considering lucrative offers for their site.

Solutions for Email Overlooad

If you’re like me, you get a metric ton of email in your inbox every day. Most of said mails are poorly crafted, to say the least. To make sure you aren’t crafting bad emails, check out this article from the Harvard Business School folks. It’s worth the long read. Love it, live it.

Facebook for sale?

Interesting news about Facebook….

Yes, MySpace can do good things

These days, it’s fun to rail on MySpace for all its problems. Journalists love a juicy story after all. So today’s juicy story is that teens in multiple cities around the country have walked out of class to protest the new immigration policy proposals.

It started with a posting on MySpace.com. E-mail and text messages spread it like wildfire. And with the help of old-fashioned paper fliers, a mass student protest materialized in an instant.

Gustavo Jiminez, 16, conceived the rally Sunday morning while browsing the popular Web site. He saw a California girl’s posting about legislation to make it a felony to enter the country illegally or to help illegal immigrants.

"They’re making my family – making immigrants – look like criminals," the Duncanville High School junior said. "They’re putting us down as a statistic, as a number. We’re not a number; we’re here to help."

In what some Internet users are calling a "Net-roots" effort, a 24-hour blitz of activity by youthful organizers inspired as many as 4,000 Dallas-area students to walk out of school Monday and assemble at Kiest Park and City Hall, protesting the legislation that would crack down on illegal immigration.

[...]

"I thought 100, maybe 200 people would show up," 16-year-old Miguel said.

Instead, 4,000 students showed up, Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said, though police estimated the crowds at City Hall and Kiest Park at 1,600 people.

See naysayers… MySpace can do good things.



(Yes, I understand that parents might not consider their high school student walking out of class a "good thing".  And yes, I understand that an argument can be made that the political understanding of high school students is fundamentally flawed due to their age and general lack of experience. But it’s hard to argue with teens getting engaged in politics and the world around them)

The World is Not Flat

My buddy Lee over at CommonCraft.com is on a year long trip around the world with his lovely wife. And being the community minded fool he is, he’s undertaking an interesting project along the way… The World is Not Flat.

Here’s some background on the project:

When we started telling people about our plans for the trip, we found that people love to share their travel experiences. We would write what we could on a napkin or envelope and eventually lose those valuable tidbits.

So, we figured there must be a way to collect and organize similar travel experiences using a web site. We started looking for ways to have a travel blog that also enabled our friends to share their experiences with us on the Web. This was the original inspiration for TwinF.

Be sure to check out the announcement – Lee has some more info about this very cool project.

MySpace and World Reality

When reading this Wired article, I came across a very interesting comment, presumably from a teenager.

Until reading this article, I’d never really thought about the effect of the new reality we live in that has parents scared to let their kids outside, to play in the streets, to ride their bikes, to walk to their friend’s houses. MySpace and the other social community allow kids to do what kids want to do – "hang out" – in a safe environment, free from parental control.

Sprint Ambassador Program

Kudos to Sprint for starting the Sprint Ambassadors Program!

What is the Ambassador Program?

The Sprint Ambassador Program is an exclusive opportunity to try Sprint’s latest products and services made possible by the Sprint Power Vision^SM Network.

Who qualifies for the Ambassador Program?

Individuals in select cities across the US who have access to the Sprint Power Vision^SM Network. The network is being rolled out in phases and will not be available at launch in every US market. Participation is also subject to availability of phones.

What’s the catch?

No catches. No gimmicks. If you’re selected for the program, you get a free Power Vision phone and 6 months of free Sprint PCS service with no strings attached. At the end of 6 months, you may continue the service but the service will no longer be free. We do appreciate and look forward to receiving your feedback on our latest products and services.

This is a great approach – much better and much more effective than the stealthy, hidden approach that Nvidia recently tried to sneak in. Opening up a process like this shows off how much interest your company has in working with and forming a real relationship with your consumers. When Sprint launched this program, they immediately had a perception boost on their competitors simply because they’re sending a message that they like their consumers and want to work together on something fun.



But like any project, the devil is in the details. As this blogger shows, it’s crucial to put some thinking behind the development of these projects. Here’s a few tips:

• Fully vet the invitees – make sure that you read up on the invitees, do a google search or read through their blog. Make sure that they’re in the right geographic area. Check the out before firing off an email. Working together with a select group is successful only when it’s the right group.
• Take the time to write a (mostly) personal email. Form letters may save you some time, but they’re obvious and insulting to the receipient. If the size of the distribution list requires a form letter, then don’t try to hide the form letter requirement. You can say something like "I’m sorry for the form letter, but with a group this large, I would have taken me a year to write personal emails"… or whatever.
  
• Sign the mail with YOUR name. That’s right, you’re inviting someone to something cool, make sure they know it’s not just another spam mail. A good way to do that is to actually sign your name or the name of a real group. "The Team" isn’t honest.
• In your support information on the web, make sure you provide clear details on how people can sign up, or what the terms of invitation are. Programs like this inherently have an sense of exclusion for those not selected. Being clear about how you invite people into the program helps eliminate ill-will, which can undermine even the greatest of programs
• Highlight the membership – building off the last point, make sure that the audience at large is at least somewhat aware of who the elite group is and what they’re doing. Again, this will help ensure there’s no resentment.
  
• When the application/invitation process is over, make sure it’s clear. On the Sprint Ambassador site, I had to email in to find out how to sign up since there was zero information about this.

As you can see, what may appear on the surface to be a simple process ("Let’s just email out some invitations and drop some product in the hands of whoever replies") can get quite tricky quite fast. Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that this type of approach is absolutely the best kind of marketing. It just needs to be approached in the right way to ensure that it doesn’t backfire.