Why it is called "cloud"

Taken from BusinessInsider 's article
Why ‘cloud computing’ is called ‘cloud computing’
by MATT WEINBERGER

Rewind to the early nineties: Computer scientists and engineers needed some way in their diagrams and slideshows to refer to “the network,” that big grouping of computers and storage devices out there somewhere. In other words, they needed some way to refer to something that was, essentially, somebody else’s problem.

They settled on a cloud.

You can see one of the earliest uses of that idea in this diagram from US Patent 5,485,455, “Network having secure fast packet switching and guaranteed quality of service,” filed in the January of 1994.

If you squint, that “Network” bubble is cloud-like. The patent’s authors just meant to illustrate that what was in the network wasn’t important for their purposes.

By the time US Patent 5,790,548, “Universal access multimedia data network,” was filed for in the April of 1996, the cloud looked a lot more like a cloud:

It’s just meant to be a vague description of things happening elsewhere.

This usage led to the growing popularity of the term “cloud computing” to refer to servers, networks, and data centers that were located or managed elsewhere and thusly someone else’s problem. A Compaq document from 1996 was probably the first time the term was used in any kind of official capacity, reports the Technology Review. But the term really caught on when Amazon Web Services launched its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2006.

Amazon EC2 basically sells virtual servers to other companies — the very definition of “somebody else’s problem.” Other companies caught on and started offering software (like Salesforce), storage (like Box), or a mix of the two (like Microsoft Office 365) from their own data centers to companies who don’t really care where it comes from. To them, the cloud providers are their own squiggly lines on a diagram.

What is Programmatic Advertising

Taken from digiday.com 's article
WTF is programmatic advertising?

Klasmaya additional figure

Source: BI Intelligence estimates, Magna Global, IDC

Programmatic ad buying has changed the face of online advertising, but there’s still confusion around what it actually is. Here’s a primer, in plain English:

What is programmatic ad buying?

“Programmatic” ad buying typically refers to the use of software to purchase digital advertising, as opposed to the traditional process that involves RFPs, human negotiations and manual insertion orders. It’s using machines to buy ads, basically.

Why does programmatic advertising matter?

Efficiency. Before programmatic ad buying, digital ads were bought and sold by human ad buyers and salespeople, which are expensive and unreliable. Programmatic advertising technology promises to make the ad buying system more efficient, and therefore cheaper, by removing humans from the process wherever possible. Humans get sick, need to sleep and come to work hungover. Machines do not.

So robots are replacing people? Great.

Yes and no. Technology is being used to replace some of the more menial tasks that humans have historically had to deal with, like sending insertion orders to publishers and dealing with ad tags, but they’re still required to optimize campaigns and to plan strategies. Programmatic technology will probably mean there are fewer ad buyers in the world, but it could also allow both marketers and sellers to spend more of their time planning sophisticated, customized campaigns instead of getting bogged down in bureaucracy.

Is programmatic buying is the same as real-time bidding, then?

No, it’s not. Real-time bidding is a type of programmatic ad buying, but it isn’t the only one. RTB refers to the purchase of ads through real-time auctions, but programmatic software also allows advertisers to buy guaranteed ad impressions in advance from specific publisher sites. This method of buying is often referred to as “programmatic direct.”

Is programmatic “the future of ad buying”?

Probably, yes. It’s impossible to tell what portion of advertising is now traded programatically, but it’s definitely on the rise. Some agencies now say they’re eager to buy as much media as possible through programmatic channels, and some major brands have even built out in-house teams to handle their programmatic ad buying as they spend more of their marketing budgets that way. At the moment, it’s mainly online ads that are traded programatically, but increasingly media companies and agencies are exploring ways to sell “traditional” media this way, including TV spots and out-of-home ads.

Telecom's e-commerce in Indonesia

Taken from The Jakarta Post's article

Telcom firms build up e-commerce outlets

Driven by a huge market potential and hundreds of millions of Internet users in the country, domestic telecommunications operators are getting more serious about developing their e-commerce businesses.

Three major telecommunication operators PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), PT XL Axiata and PT Indosat have allocated some amount of investment this year to revamp their e-commerce businesses.

XL

Through its financial report, XL disclosed that on Jan. 27, it poured US$12.1 million into Elevenia (www. elevenia.co.id), its e-commerce outlet. That investment was equal to the amount invested in the marketplace by its partner SK Planet, a subsidiary of South Korean SK Telecom.

"The additional investment was part of Elevenia's blueprint that has been agreed upon by both XL and SK Planet," said Elevenia chief financial officer Lila Nirmandari.

Both business partners open the possibility of adding more fresh capital to the marketplace in the coming months, depending on the market dynamic, she told The Jakarta Post.

Lila said most of the $24.2 million investment would be used to support sales and promotion activities to make Elevenia known better outside Greater Jakarta.

Officially launched in March last year, Elevenia was first established in mid-2013 with initial investments of $18.3 million from XL and another $18.3 million from SK Planet, giving each of them a 50 percent of stake.

As of February, Elevenia had around 20,000 merchants and 2 million products comprising eight categories: fashion, beauty & health, babies & kids, home or garden, gadget, electronics, sports or hobby and service or food.

Elevenia aimed to increase its revenue by four to five times this year compared to its revenue of Rp 3.5 billion ($267,500) last year, leveraging on XL's surging data subscribers.

Last year alone, around 51 percent of XL's 59.6 million subscribers (including postpaid users) were data users.

Indosat

Separately, Indosat also aims to boost. its e-commerce outlet Cipika (www.cipika.co.id), which is run by the company's digital commerce division.

Taking a bolder stance to differentiate it self from other marketplaces, Cipika plans to change its product focus from local food and snacks to gadgets this year.

"Focusing on gadget and electronics [this year], we want to leverage on Indosat's core products and core networks," said Indosat's head of digital commerce division, Carlos Karo Karo. As of September last year, Indosat had 54.2 million subscribers, of whom around 50 percent were data users.

Cipika would sell phones bundled with Indosat's mobile packages as well as phones bundled with competitors mobile packages, Carlos said.

In the span of November 2014 te January this year, gadgets contributed to around 30 percent of transactions in Cipika, while food and snacks remained a major contributor, he added.

In 2014, food and snacks contributed to around 80 percent of transactions in Cipika, while the remaining 20 percent was from another three product categories: gadgets, travel and lifestyle.

"This year, we hope 80 percent of the transactions will be from gadgets," Carlos told the Post.

Carlos refused to disclose how much Indosat would invest for Cipika this year to support its marketplace , business transformation, but said that an investment fund dedicated to the development of the marketplace was already in place.

Indosat usually spends between Rp 7 and 8 trillion in its annual capital expenditure, part of which is allotted for its digital service.

Carlos said Indosat would continue investing in its digital service in the future as it had still an ample room to grow.

Only around 1.7 percent of transactions in Indonesia's market were currently done online and it was forecast to increase to 7 percent by 2019, he said.

"Cipika aims to cater between 17 and 20 percent of those online transactions in 2019," he went on.

Telkom

Meanwhile Blanja (www.blanja.com), a marketplace jointly run by state-owned telecommunications firm Telkom and US-based marketplace giant eBay, does not target specific growth rate this year but foresees a huge potential.

Telkom, which netted around 138 million subscribers as of September last year, and eBay initially established PT Metra Plasa with a total investment of $14.2 million in April 2012 to make a joint e-commerce marketplace. It later developed into today's Blanja.

Officially launched in December last year, Blanja currently has around 80,000 page visits per day and almost 500,000 registered customers, said Blanja CEO Aulia Marinto.

"Let's not forget that the e-commerce industry is still quite new and there is ample room to grow as Internet penetration gets better and the economy keeps growing," he added.

UBS has projected that Indonesia's Internet penetration will hit 55 percent in 2017, meaning that there will be around 130 million people having access to the Internet.

However, while the potential is huge, challenges for e-commerce remain at logistic, payment gateways and regulation certainty, according to the three telecommunications operators.

Blanja's Aulia said e-commerce very much depended on external factors that could become enablers, such as logistics services and payment methods.

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said recently that the government planned to issue an "e-commerce roadmap" in the next three to six months to provide clear guidelines on logistics services, payment gateways and taxes for the e-commerce industry.

Netflix Downplays Nielsen Plans

Taken from hollywoodreporter.com 's article

Netflix Chief Downplays Nielsen Plans to Measure Streaming Service Viewership
by John Hecht (11/24/2014)

What does Netflix CEO Reed Hastings think about reported plans by Nielsen to measure viewership for original series and acquired programming?

"It's not very relevant," he said. "There's so much viewing that happens on a mobile phone or an iPad that Nielsen won't capture."

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Nielsen will use content's audio on televisions to identify shows, but the measurement will not include mobile devices. Nevertheless, the ratings data could have a big effect on negotiations for streaming rights for Netflix and rival Amazon.

Hastings was in Mexico City on Monday to talk about Netflix's growing presence in Latin America — after three years in the region, the streaming service giant has captured more than 5 million users, bringing the global total to some 53 million.

Netflix recently launched in six key European markets, but none with the growth potential of Latin America.

"Latin America is one of the fastest growth areas in the world in terms of broadband households and Internet connectivity," Hastings said.

Earlier this month, Netflix announced that it's making its first foray into Australia and New Zealand, and some believe Japan may come next as the first move in a pan-Asia rollout. Hastings said there are no specific plans yet for Asia.

As Netflix continues to grow abroad, the company is working harder than ever to secure global licensing in its content deals, mainly because U.S. viewers have access to a much broader catalog than users in, say, Mexico.

Said Hastings: "We are trying to get to a place where it's fully global and you can get anything, anywhere."

Netflix's game-changing distribution strategies have irked some in the business. Plans to release the sequel to Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon day-and-date online and in Imax theaters has several exhibitors vowing to boycott the film.

Hastings said it's all about "breaking the stranglehold that movie theaters have" on releases.

As for free-to-air TV, Hastings believes its days are numbered.

"It's kind of like the horse, you know, the horse was good until we had the car," he said. "The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030."

Singtel Videostreaming

Taken from The Sidney Morning Herald 's article

Singtel joins Asian Videostreaming Joint Venture

SingTel, the owner of Optus, has joined a joint-venture with global media giants Warner Brothers Entertainment and Sony Pictures' AXN network to launch HOOQ - a new over-the-top video service for Asia.

In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, SingTel said  HOOQ Digital Holdings, would work with Warner Brothers and AXN to buy, sell, market and produce films and TV products through an over-the-top (OTT) service across a range of markets. OTT video services send television programs and movies through customers via the internet.

SingTel's move comes as Australia's market for similar offerings heats up. Foxtel and Seven West Media's Presto TV service and Stan, Fairfax Media's joint-venture with Nine Entertainment, have both launched this month. US giant Netflix is set to start its Australian service in March.

SingTel's new service could compete directly with these offerings but its opening statement only specified Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Thailand as the initial markets, to be targeted from the first quarter of 2015.

When asked if SingTel planned to bring HOOQ to Australia, a spokeswoman said the initial focus would be on emerging markets.

"Singapore and Australia are developed markets with existing content ecosystems," she said.

Optus chief executive Allen Lew told Fairfax Media this week his vision was for the telco to become Australia's "fastest-growing mobile-led multimedia company in Australia" - a statement entirely in line with HOOQ's stated goals.

Singtel would "provide market access with its customer base of over half a billion mobile customers." while the studios would deliver " access to their premium content and know-how."

"HOOQ will deliver both Hollywood blockbusters and television series, as well as popular local movies and programmes to customers anytime, anywhere," they said in a statement.

HOOQ will have over 10,000 movies and TV series at launch, from Spiderman to Harry Potter and Gossip Girl.

SingTel Group Digital Life chief executive Jonathan Auerbach said the venture provided "a more than $SGD1 billion ($950 million) opportunity in our markets."

"We have unique assets that give us a right to play in this space, and with our partnership ... we will achieve our vision to be the largest OTT video service in the region," he added.

As part of the deal, HOOQ's share capital will rise from $US2 to $US27,600,020. Warner Brothers and AXN will each own 17.5 pert cent of the company with the rest belonging to SingTel.

"The investment ... will be funded by internal resources and entry into the joint venture is not expected to have any material impact on the earnings per share or net tangible asset per share of the SingTel Group for the financial year ending 31 March 2015," the telecoms provider said.

XL & Vserv untuk Ekosistem Hiburan Mobile

Di sadur dari artikel dailysocial.net berjudul:
XL Bermitra dengan Vserv untuk Tingkatkan Ekosistem Hiburan Mobile

XL Axiata (XL) mengumumkan telah menjalin kemitraan dengan penyedia platform data pintar mobile marketing untuk pasar negara berkembang Vserv. XL akan menggunakan platform Vserv Smart Data untuk meningkatkan ekosistem hiburan mobile yang dimilikinya.

Untuk membantu mendorong ROI yang lebih tinggi pada perusahaan hiburan mobile, Vserv akan mengintegrasikan platformnya dengan menargetkan penonton yang relevan dan iklan yang tepat pada waktu yang tepat, berdasarkan pribadi pengguna.

Head of Mobile Advertising XL Axiata Herwinto Chandra Sutantyo mengatakan, “Kami tertarik dengan apa yang mampu dicapai oleh platform Vserv Smart Data, dengan menciptakan nilai dari petabyte data yang kita hasilkan setiap detik. Saat ini, kemitraan akan menjamin kepatuhan pengiklan kami, khususnya dari sektor hiburan mobile dengan menargetkan pelanggan mobile kami dengan iklan-iklan yang menarik dan relevan mengikuti etika periklanan dan peraturan di Indonesia. Dengan kolaborasi ini, kami dapat mengubah ekosistem hiburan mobile di Indonesia.”

VP Global Telco Alliances Vserv Rohit Verma mengungkapkan, “Kemitraan dengan XL ini datang sebagai kepercayaan pasar dari platform kami. Kami sangat antusias bermitra dengan XL dengan memanfaatkan nilai dari platform bersama pemahaman yang mendalam dari basis pelanggan XL, kami yakin mampu meningkatkan efisiensi ekosistem hiburan mobile di Indonesia.”

Pasar hiburan mobile di Indonesia saat ini diperkirakan sebesar $ 765 juta (dalam pendapatan) dan tumbuh sebesar 4,7 persen menurut riset pasar IE. Selain itu saat ini pengguna internet di Indonesia sendiri juga sudah mencapai puluhan juta dan ditargetkan untuk terus meningkat. Artinya sektor ini memiliki potensi yang tinggi bagi perusahaan telekomunikasi juga perusahaan hiburan mobile dan tentu akan memberikan kesempatan besar bagi pengiklan untuk mengadopsi mobile advertising.

South East Asia B2C E-Commerce Market 2014

Taken from Ystats.com from part of the report
South East Asia B2C E-Commerce Market 2014

South East Asian nations lead in markers of E-Commerce potential

South East Asia is home to the world’s second fastest growing B2C E-Commerce market, Indonesia, and the country with the highest Internet growth rate in recent years, the Philippines. Another market, Singapore, boasts one of the most developed infrastructures for online retail. Malaysia ranks among the top thirty emerging B2C E-Commerce markets, while Thailand and Vietnam show high growth potential for mobile commerce, with expanding smartphone penetration and increasing mobile shopper penetration.

With B2C E-Commerce in South East Asia only starting to evolve, cross-border sales are relatively high, with Amazon.com being one of the leading online merchants despite not having local presence in the region. Nevertheless, there are local gems as well: The top 5 South East Asian E-Commerce companies, each generating tens of millions EUR revenue are iBuy, a public company operating several flash sales websites, Groupon’s local operations in the group buying business, online luxury fashion club Reebonz, online mass merchant and marketplace operator Lazada and online fashion retailer Zalora.

The highest B2C E-Commerce growth rate in South East Asia is in Indonesia. The fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia has a relatively low penetration of Internet users, below 30% in 2013. However, by 2016 the number of Internet users is projected to top 100 million, with online shopper penetration also increasing. Shopping via mobile browsers and retail apps is also on the rise, with some merchants reporting as much as one third of total online sales coming from mobile users. The competition landscape in Indonesia is very diverse, featuring models such as C2C forums and classifieds, C2C online marketplaces, B2C E-Commerce merchants and social network sellers. Across these models, the C2C online portal OLX (formerly Tokobagus) is one of the leaders by online shopper penetration, followed by online classifieds website Berniaga, online forum and marketplace Kaskus and B2C online merchants Lazada and Zalora.

Though online retail in Malaysia still accounts for less than 1% of total retail sales, its growth potential is high, as Internet penetration, payment and logistics infrastructure are relatively advanced. Online shopping is encouraged by new E-Commerce regulations adopted in 2013 and growing smartphone penetration is boosted by governmental initiatives. Websites such as group buying merchant Groupon, online classifieds Mudah.my, online marketplaces Qoo10, Youbeli and Lelong are among the popular choices for Internet shopping. Global groceries retailer Tesco also has established a strong online presence in the country, where groceries is one of the popular categories to be purchased online.

In the Philippines, B2C E-Commerce is gradually evolving, boosted by improving ICT and payments infrastructure. A recent legislative proposal addressed several of the issues in the online retailing industry, and is expected to have a positive effect on the market. The leaders of B2C E-Commerce market in the Philippines are local online merchants Lazada and Zalora and the global online merchant Amazon.com. Daily deals websites, such as Ensogo, MetroDeal, CashCashPinoy, and Deals.eBay are likewise among the most popular in the Philippines.

Despite its relatively small population, Singapore ranks high in E-Commerce indexes due to developed infrastructure. The highest Internet penetration in the region, the world’s highest ranking in ease of conducting business, and one of top 3 best logistics infrastructures in the world plus a high performing payments system make Singapore an attractive market for online retailers, many of whom establish regional headquarters there, like Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace. Over half of Internet users in Singapore shop online and almost 50% do so over mobile phones. Amazon.com delivers to Singapore for free and is the most visited retail website, while B2C E-Commerce site Qoo10, a joint venture of Giosis Group and eBay, ranks next to it. 

In Thailand only a small double-digit share of Internet users makes purchases over the Internet in online shops, but a significant share do so through social networks and on mobile. More than half of social network users have participated in social commerce at least once, and over 20% use social networks with online shopping as the primary purpose. Shopping via mobile messaging apps is very popular and one such popular app, Line, has over 5 million accounts in Thailand participating in mobile flash sales. Online marketplaces and classifieds such as Olx.co.th, Weloveshopping.com and Tarad.com are popular online shopping destinations, while also online merchants, such as Lazada and Zalora show strong growth.

Vietnam has the fastest growing middle and affluent class in the South East Asia region and one of the most engaged online audiences. Furthermore, a larger share of Internet users in Vietnam visits retail websites than in any other South East Asian country, with the most purchased online shopping categories being clothing and electronics. The most popular model in E-Commerce in Vietnam is the online marketplace, including B2C and C2C players such as Vatgia.com, Enbac.vn, 5giay.vn.

The World’s Leading E-Commerce Companies 2014

Taken from Ystats.com part of the report
The World’s Leading E-Commerce Companies 2014

Who Really Leads in Global E-Commerce Sales?

During the prolonged anticipation and recent aftermath of the biggest tech world IPO, Alibaba Group

Holding was a star of the global business and E-Commerce news, and was often referred to as the largest E-Commerce company worldwide. A new exclusive publication by yStats.com which ranks the world’s largest E-Commerce companies based solely on the official revenues data reveals what company actually deserves this title.

The global top ten includes B2C E-Commerce companies and E-Commerce marketplaces. By far the

largest company worldwide in terms of E-Commerce revenues generated in 2013 was Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon’s USD 74 billion sales of products and services is greater than the combined revenues of the other nine ranked companies. In second place with USD 11 billion sales is Chinese B2C E-Commerce merchant JD.com Inc., which went public this year ahead of Alibaba. American retailer Wal-Mart and online pure play company eBay rank next. German multichannel merchant Otto Group makes the last place in the top 5 with USD 8 billion sales. Alibaba is number six with USD 4 billion of E-Commerce revenues excluding wholesale. Ranking below are the E-Commerce subsidiary of the French Groupe Casino Cnova, UK groceries retailer Tesco, Japanese E-Commerce giant Rakuten and another US-based merchant Best Buy. When considering companies that have their business primarily in the marketplace segment, of this top 10, eBay Inc. is number one by E-Commerce marketplace revenues, which total more than that of Alibaba and Rakuten combined.

As for Alibaba, by revenues generated from retail marketplaces, which reached over USD 4 billion in 2013, it is number six in the top ten. However, in terms of growth, Alibaba outpaces all its competitors in the top 10, more than doubling the revenues from retail marketplaces last year. JD.com Inc. ranks next with close to +70%. Among the E-Commerce marketplace companies in the top ten, Alibaba had by far the largest gross merchandise value.

Finally, the ranking revealed the top five companies in terms of purely B2C E-Commerce revenues. By this criterion, the ranking is topped by Amazon with over USD 60 billion B2C E-Commerce sales of goods, followed by JD.com with over 10 billion and then by Wal-Mart, the Otto Group and Tesco. 

Jan, 16 2015 : News Recap

bisnis.com :

Indosat Sediakan Solusi M2M Bagi Kota Surakarta

PT Indosat bersama anak usahanya PT StarOne Mitra Telekomunikasi berkolaborasi mengembangkan pemasaran produk dan solusi end to end Machine to Machine (M2M) di Kota Surakarta. Kerja sama ini terutama dilakukan untuk mewujudkan smart city di kota tersebut. Smart City merupakan tren global sebagai tuntutan masyarakat masa depan berbasis teknologi informasi dan komunikasi yang kini juga mulai digelar di kota-kota di tanah air.

Beberapa solusi M2M Indosat di antaranya solusi e-government, e-Tax, e-transportation, smart tourism, workforce management, dan smart street lightning. Pemkot Surakarta sendiri dikabarkan siap mengimplementasikan solusi e-tax. Tujuannya adalah agar pendapatan retribusi pajak daerah dari pelaku usaha yang wajib dapat lebih transparan dan tepat termonitor setiap waktu sehingga pada akhirnya meningkatkan pelayanan kepada masyarakat oleh Pemkot Surakarta.

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Kompas Cyber Media :

Cita Citata Juga Kejutkan Layanan Musik Digital

Telkomsel menyediakan berbagai layanan musik digital, salah satunya adalah aplikasi LangitMusik yang memungkinkan pengguna untuk mendengarkan lagu secara streaming.

Minat pada lagu Indonesia cukup besar di layanan LangitMusik. Perbandingannya 60:40 dengan angka lebih besar untuk konten lokal. Aplikasi LangitMusik saat ini sudah memiliki katalog lebih dari 2 juta lagu. Lagu-lagu itu, tentunya, disediakan secara legal melalui kerjasama Telkomsel dengan Melon, penyedia layanan musik digital di bawah Telkom.

Sejak diluncurkan pada Mei 2013, aplikasi LangitMusik sudah memiliki sekitar 100.000 pengguna, meski masih lebih banyak pengguna gratis daripada pelanggan berbayar. Namun pertumbuhan pelanggan berbayar mengalami peningkatan yang cukup drastis (230%) pada 2014 dibanding 2013. 

Layanan LangitMusik sedikit banyak akan bersaing dengan layanan serupa dari pihak asing seperti Spotify, Rdio atau Guvera. 

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Indonesia Finance Today (IFT):

Pasar Seret, Pemain Pay TV Berebut Pelanggan di Luar Jakarta

Pemain industri pay TV mengindikasikan pertumbuhan di tahun ini tidak akan terlalu bagus. Tayangan FTA masih jadi penghalang pertumbuhan. Beberapa pemain pay TV mulai melirik pasar baru di luar Jakarta untuk menambah pelanggan.

Viva+, anak perusahaan PT Visi Media Asia Tbk (VIVA) memperkirakan persaingan antarpemain baru untuk mendapatkan pelanggan baru berlangsung dengan ketat, penetrasi TV berbayar mengalami stagnansi sehingga pertumbuhan pelanggan tidak akan terlalu besar di tahun ini. Selain itu, pelanggan TV berbayar masih terfokus di kota-kota besar. Pertumbuhan jumlah pelanggan tahun ini tidak lebih dari 5%. Hingga akhir 2014, jumlah pelanggan Viva+ diperkirakan berada di kisaran 300 ribu-400 ribu pelanggan.

Dari catatan IFT, dalam dua tahun terakhir bisnis TV berlangganan di Indonesia berkembang sangat pesat. Perkembangan ini ditandai dengan hadirnya beberapa pemain baru, seperti Big TV dari Lippo Group, K-Vision dari Kelompok Kompas Gramedia dan CT Corp yang telah mengakuisisi TelkomVision dari PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia.

K-Vision, masih optimistis, dengan mengandalkan pasar di luar Jakarta agar jumlah pelanggan tetap dapat tumbuh dan masih bisa tumbuh 30% dengan pasar di luar Jakarta, seperti Sumatera dan Indonesia bagian timur. Saat ini K-Vision sudah memiliki lebih dari 300 ribu pelanggan di seluruh Indonesia. Potensi pasar masih tinggi, dari 63 juta rumah tangga yang mengakses televisi, 10 juta menggunakan parabola yang dapat menayangkan siaran satelit. Namun hanya 2,9 juta yang berlangganan layanan TV berbayar. Untuk konten, K-Vision masih fokus pada penambahan konten lokal (misalnya MD Entertainment).

Aora TV, dari PT Karyamegah Adijaya, memperkirakan stagnan bahkan negatif. Akibat kesulitan meningkatkan jumlah pelanggan  dan ARPU. Hingga akhir tahun lalu, jumlah pengguna layanannya tidak mengalami pertumbuhan signifikan yakni 100 ribu pelanggan. ARPU  berkisar Rp 80 ribu-Rp 90 ribu per bulan. Diperkirakan Aora TV alami pertumbuhan negatif di tahun ini atau mungkin bisa saja (tutup) layanannya.

TV Digital

Kemenkominfo sebelumnya menyatakan ada dua industri yang ingin terlibat dalam program digitalisasi televisi Indonesia. Salah satunya adalah lembaga penyiaran swasta (LPS) yang sudah ada,

Hampir semua grup besar LPS sudah menunjukan kesiapan melalui kesiapan infrastruktur penunjang seperti multiplekser. Sekitar 60% sudah siap.

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Asia B2C E-Commerce 2014

This posting is updated from previous one

Asia B2C E-Commerce

The update one as usual taken from Ystats.com part of the report

Asia-Pacific B2C E-Commerce Market 2014

Asia-Pacific region predicted to become the world’s largest B2C E-Commerce market

Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region on the global B2C E-Commerce market. Between 2013 and 2018 it is forecasted to grow by over 20% annually and surpass North America to become the number one region worldwide in terms of B2C E-Commerce sales. The large population base coupled with increasing Internet connectivity and disposable incomes set the stage for this rapid growth.

The booming Asia – Pacific market is a field of activity for both regional and global players. The three largest companies based in the region are China-based Alibaba and JD.com and Japan’s Rakuten. While Alibaba and JD.com shine on the global stage through IPO offerings, Rakuten pursues customers around the globe by launching marketplaces beyond the home region. Among the global brands with the large shares in the region are Amazon, eBay and Yahoo.

China is the largest online shopping market in the Asia-Pacific region and second largest worldwide. The number of online shoppers, at over 300 million in 2013 continues to grow as Internet penetration

continues. The hottest trends on the booming E-Commerce market in China are the development of

mobile and social channels for online shopping, growing popularity of group-buying websites and the rise in purchases of luxury goods online.

The number two market in Asia-Pacific and number three worldwide in terms of online retail sales is

Japan. Though the market is one of the most advanced, further growth of close to 10% is still expected, primarily from development of new channels, such as M-Commerce, whose share on total retail has reached double-digit figures.

South Korea is also among the B2C E-Commerce leaders. Online shoppers in this country are among the most experienced with online shopping, paying with credit cards online and having the goods delivered to the doorstep through courier services. Moreover, they are the trend-setters in mobile shopping, as the practice of shopping through messaging apps and scanning codes with smartphones at virtual stores were developed there and are spreading throughout the region and the world.

Another regional front-runner is Australia. Despite a smaller population compared to some of the huge nations in Asia-Pacific, Australia has one of the highest B2C E-Commerce sales rates, reaching a high one digit percentage of total retail sales. Internet penetration is one of the highest in the region and over three quarters of Internet users make purchases online.

A rising star on the regional B2C E-Commerce scene is Indonesia. While the sales are still below 1% of the total retail market and two thirds of the population does not yet have Internet access, the prospects for growth are bright. The growth rate in 2013 was already one of the highest worldwide, and improving infrastructure, growing Internet and mobile penetration on the large population are expected to contribute to further sale’s surge.

B2C E-Commerce is growing fast in India also, with rates of above 50% and further strong growth

projected for the next five years. Mobile commerce especially has great potential for development, as

over 90% of Internet users access the web through mobile connections. More foreign players may invest into the market’s growth if the country’s government decides to ease the FDI restriction in the B2C E-Commerce sector.

Another B2C E-Commerce hopeful is Thailand. The country already shows top rates in mobile shopping: users actively adopt shopping options integrated in popular messaging apps, and actively buy and exchange goods through social networks. Meanwhile, its neighbor from the Southeast Asia, Malaysia, boasts one of the most developed infrastructures for online shopping and strong growth perspectives.

DCB payment

Taken from mobilepaymentstoday.com article

Direct Carrier Billing opportunity

Direct carrier billing, also known as direct operator billing, is a mobile-payment method that flies well under the radar these days. It does not grab headlines like Apple Pay or Starbucks despite millions of consumers using it to purchase digital content, parking meter time and event tickets.

But mobile network operators increasingly are seeking to add direct carrier billing to their arsenal as consumers continue to purchase content from app stores at a high rate.

Direct carrier billing will provide telecoms worldwide with more than $12 billion in revenue in 2022, according to one prediction from research firm Analysys Mason. Juniper Research believes in Europe alone the value of digital content billed via direct carrier billing will reach more than 5.2 billion euros (US$7.1 billion) in 2017.

Most important thing right now

The most important is Indonesian

Asia the largest e-commerce market in 2015

Taken from tech.firstpost.com

Asia to become world’s largest e-commerce market in 2015

Asia is set to surpass North America to become the world’s largest e-commerce market this year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

According to a report in Beijing by the EIU Tuesday, an advisory company under the Economist magazine group, it is estimated that retail sales in Asia will grow by an average 4.6 percent on a volume basis to $7.6 trillion, compared with 2.5 percent in North America and 0.8 percent in Europe in 2015.

The Asian consumer market was largely driven by the rising independence and economic power of Asia’s women, and female consumers in Asia are showing an unprecedented enthusiasm for online shopping. 

The report comes in the backdrop of huge demand for e-commerce generated in China by platforms like Alibaba which is picking up at a rapid pace in India.

The two countries together account for about three billion people.

The EIU report is based on a survey of 5,500 women across major cities on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao, as well as countries including India, Japan, Singapore and the Republic of Korea.

Among the survey respondents, 43 percent were in managerial, executive or professional services jobs.

Nearly half of the women agreed or strongly agreed that they preferred online to in-store shopping.

The proportion on the Chinese mainland was as much as 69 percent. Sixty-three percent of those polled browsed the Internet at least once a day for products and services, with nearly 30 percent doing so twice or more per day.

When choosing an online retailer, price and quality were the main factors considered, followed by genuine products and convenience.

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As Internet use matures globally, annual growth in eCommerce between businesses and consumers will slow, settling at about 10% by 2018, according to eMarketer, which says such B2C sales will reach $1.47 trillion in 2014, up 20 percent from last year.

By 2018, the company projects, the total will reach $2.36 trillion, a 61 percent boost over the 2014 year-end projection and $200 billion in annual new dollars spent. eMarketer defines B2C eCommerce as sales that include all products and services ordered or booked via the Internet on any device, including leisure and unmanaged business travel.

Regionally, the combined spending of the U.S. and Canada will remain on top in B2C eCommerce sales this year, representing about one-third of the dollars spent on digital purchases worldwide, the company said in its forecast report. It previous had predicted that Asia-Pacific would surpass North America in market share, but it changed that view because of unanticipated slower growth in China’s B2C eCommerce spending caused by market maturation.

“With China accounting for a significant portion of eCommerce sales in Asia-Pacific, this affected our estimates materially,” the research company said. Instead, eMarketer expects the region to take the global lead in B2C eCommerce sales next year, when it will achieve a 33.4 percent share to North America’s 31.7 percent and Western Europe’s 24.6 percent.

“These three regions combined will continue to take around 90% of the global eCommerce market throughout our forecast period,” eMarketer said.

A growing base of digital buyers will help boost eCommerce sales in Asia-Pacific, as more new buyers come online. However, by 2018, nearly 70% of Internet users in both Western Europe and North America will purchase items on digital devices compared with just more than 50 percent in Asia-Pacific, eMarketer said.

“Buyer penetration in Asia-Pacific translates to the largest number of consumers, but the region is far more fragmented than North America and Western Europe,” the company noted. “In the latter two regions, eCommerce continues to grow at double-digit rates and will do so for several more years.”

In such large markets, this illustrates that individual buyers are making purchases more frequently and with higher order values, and consumer behaviors are relatively consistent across countries in both regions, the company said.

However, across Asia-Pacific countries, consumer behaviors are more disparate. China alone will make up more than half the region’s eCommerce sales this year, jumping to 70 percent by 2018, eMarketer said, which noted Australia and Japan rival markets like the U.S., UK and Western Europe in buyer penetration and average order values.

“On the other hand, in less-mature markets like India and Indonesia, there are large absolute numbers of digital buyers, but many are new to the market,” the company said. “Instead of buying high-ticket items, new digital buyers tend to wet their feet with less costly purchases due to product availability or simply to income constraints.”

A report published last month during the Global E-commerce Summit in Barcelona found Europe B2C eCommerce last year grew by 16.3 percent year over year to €363.1 billion (US$486.1 billion). The report predicted 17.2 percent growth this year, to €425.5 billion, eventually growing to €625 billion by 2016. The European e-commerce figures were compiled with various national eCommerce associations and in cooperation with GfK.

The growth is going to accelerate due to higher spending in mature countries and increase of the number of transactions in emerging markets, the report found.

e-Commerce on Social Media (SocialCommerce)

Taken from The Internet Retailer

2015 Social Media 500

Meet the 500 Masters of Social Marketing
& Commerce in 2015

As consumers continue to spend more of their online time on social networks (according to comScore Inc., the networks claim 20% of daily attention spans), and as those networks roll out advertising formats with unparalleled targeting capabilities, e-retailers are massively stepping up their social media marketing, and Internet Retailer’s latest research shows that these moves are paying off. Indeed, the 500 leading social media marketers in the U.S. and Canada are fine-tuning their social media marketing and commerce initiatives to maximize their impact on their bottom lines. They collectively grew their social commerce sales in 2014 by 26.0% to $3.30 billion, up from $2.62 billion—well ahead of the growth rate of e-commerce overall in the U.S. (16.9% in 2013 according to the Department of Commerce)—according to the data in the just-released 2015 Social Media 500. As a whole, the data show these 500 e-retailers:

• Boosted their Facebook Likes in 2014 by 33% to 915.7 million

• Grew their Twitter following by 26% to 88.6 million followers

• Increased their number of Pinterest followers by 16% to 34.7 million; and

• Drove 78% more video views on YouTube for a total of 3.89 billion.

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Taken from pymnts.com

SOCIAL COMMERCE RETAIL SALES UP 26%

While retailers fight the crowded social media space to get their voice heard by consumers, a new report says social media is playing a larger role in retailers e-commerce strategies.

Data from Internet Retailer’s 2015 Social Media 500 shows that total social commerce sales reached $3.30 billion in 2014, which was up 26% from 2013’s $2.62 billion. Retailers also saw an average growth of 5.4 percent in 2014 in terms of total site traffic from social networks. The data also shows that those visitors are more likely to purchase once they click on a retailer’s site from a social network.

But driving that traffic isn’t cheap.

“Merchants are having to spend more on ads to have their content seen by consumers. That’s because Facebook shows fewer of a brand or retailer’s posts to its fans now than it did a few years ago, a strategy that effectively forces marketers to spend more on advertising to reach Facebook users,” wrote Stefany Zaroban for Internet Retailer.

Organic reach is getting harder for retailers, so they are having to turn to social media to help market their brand. A report from social analytics vendor Socialbakers said, on average, only 25 percent of companies are able to reach its customer base through organic posts. And in Internet Retailer’s research, of the 43 e-retailers that reported its social ad budgets, their total budgets were up 144 percent in 2014 to $17.9 million a month.

Data from the report also indicated that retailers have placed a large focus in increasing their social media audience. In 2014, those surveyed said their collective number of Facebook “likes” grew 33 percent in 2014; Twitter grew by 26 percent; Pinterest followers grew by 16 percent; and YouTube views grew by 78 percent.

Personalized Digital Channel Marketing

Taken from emarketer.com

Offline Personalization Matters Just as Much
Marketers who personalize offline most likely to see lift in conversions
January 14, 2015

There’s been plenty of talk about personalizing online communications, such as email, but recent research suggests it’s equally important to tailor offline customer experiences as well.

According to September 2014 research by Econsultancy in association with RedEye, 95% client-side marketers worldwide who had implemented personalization via offline channels had seen an uplift in conversion rates. This was more than any digital channel studied, and led email—the most popular personalization channel—by 5 percentage points. Among digital channels, websites and search engine marketing (SEM) were most likely to have seen lifts in conversion due to personalization, with the latter tops across all channels for driving “major” uplift.

However, those polled weren’t exactly focusing on the most successful channels. Just 23% of client-side marketers worldwide personalized offline channels, compared with 88% who used email personalization and 44% who did so for websites. Agency professionals were even less likely to tailor offline efforts, at just 17%. One-fifth of respondents personalized SEM—the second-lowest response for both marketers and agencies.

Econsultancy’s findings are another reminder of the need for retailers to provide an omnichannel experience. While digital and mobile are no doubt part of the purchase path, most final buying decisions still happen in-store. Retailers who can tie all of the data collected on a customer stand a better chance at closing the deal.

But many face a long road ahead in doing this. In a study by Retail Systems Research for SPS Commerce, released in September 2014, just 5% of US companies believed they had made advanced progress in executing an omnichannel strategy, compared with 37% who said they were lagging.

Pajak untuk bisnis OTT, mungkinkah jadi dilemma ?

Diacu dari Bisnis Indonesia
OTT Asing Sulit Dikenai Pajak

Otoritas perpajakan Indonesia dan tekanan negara besar dinilai menjadi penghalang niat BRTI untuk mengenakan pajak terhadap pelaku OTT asing.

Pengenaan pajak atas penghasilan iklan pelaku OTT merupakan salah satu solusi untuk memberi keadilan ekonomi bagi Indonesia. Selain itu, Amerika Serikat, berkepentingan agar pemain OTT yang mayoritas bercokol di negeri itu tidak dibebani pajak oleh negara lain.

OTT dan operator jaringan telah menjadi permasalahan di AS. Pada tahun lalu, Federal Communications Commission (BRTI-nya AS) sempat mewacanakan agar penyedia jasa Internet bisa memungut tarif kepada pelaku OTT. Kebijakan ini, jika diluluskan, membuat akses Internet terhadap server OTT menjadi berbeda sesuai dengan tarif yang dibayar. Namun, rencana tersebut ditolak oleh presiden yang bersikukuh negaranya tetap menerapkan asas net neutrality sehingga kecepatan akses terhadap konten apapun sama sesuai bandwidth.

ITU juga seiya-sekata dengan negara-negara besar, hanya China dan Korea Selatan yang berhasil mengendalikan OTT. Pemerintah China melarang penyedia konten asing masuk ke jaringannya. Sementara Korea Selatan menarik pungutan kepada OTT dengan dalih perbedaan aksara Korea dengan internasional.

(Samdysara Saragih)

Investasi Telkom di ICT & MEDIA

Diambil dari situs BeritaSatu.com

Gagal Akuisisi 2degrees, Telkom Ekspansi ke Asia dan Timur Tengah

Investasi Bisnis Contact Center

Telkom sudah masuk pasar Australia dan Selandia Baru dengan mengakuisisi 75 persen saham Contact Centres Australia Pty Ltd (CCA), perusahaan yang bergerak di solusi business process outsourcing (BPO) yang berbasis di Sydney, Australia.

Telkom mengakuisisi CCA melalui anak usahanya, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International Australia Pty Ltd, dengan nilai transaksi Aus$ 11 juta. Aksi akuisisi tersebut rampung pada 25 September 2014.

Sebagai informasi, CCA adalah salah satu perusahaan contact center terbesar di Australia yang memiliki dua anak usaha, yakni Financial Information Services Pty Ltd, yang berkantor pusat di New South Wales, Australia serta Contact Center New Zealand Ltd di Wellington, Selandia Baru.

Investasi Bisnis e-Commerce

eBay Inc, perusahaan jual beli online asal Amerika Serikat (AS), berencana menambah kepemilikan saham pada PT Metra Plasa menjadi 49 persen dari sebelumnya 40 persen.

Saat ini, sebanyak 60 persen saham Metra Plasa dikuasai oleh PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom/TLKM). Dengan begitu, kepemilikan Telkom pada Metra Plasa bakal berkurang menjadi 51 persen

Semula, Telkom melalui anak usahanya, PT Multimedia Nusantara, sepakat membentuk perusahan baru bersama eBay dengan kepemilikan masing-masing sebesar 60 persen dan 40 persen. Pembentukan Metra Plasa tersebut sejak April 2012.

“eBay bisa menambah menjadi 49 persen. Mereka juga punya opsi untuk menjadi mayoritas. Ada tahapan menuju ke sana, mereka inginnya cepat. Tapi saya belum bisa disclose,” kata Indra, belum lama ini.

Metra Plasa pada awalnya mengelola situs belanja online Plasa.com. Dengan menggandeng eBay, Telkom akhirnya mengembangkan situs belanja bernama blanja.com.

Menurut Indra, sejak 2012, eBay telah mengucurkan dana sekitar US$ 9,2 juta pada Metra Plasa. Telkom pertama kali berinvestasi pada plasa.com pada 2009 sekitar US$ 5 juta. Dengan demikian, total investasi Telkom dan eBay dalam mengembangkan situs belanja online sekitar US$ 14,2 juta. Per September 2014, aset sebelum eliminasi Metra Plasa sekitar Rp 68 miliar.

Ke depan, kata Indra, eBay berpeluang menambahkan investasinya ke Metra Plasa. Strategi menggandeng eBay membuat Telkom belajar terkait platform serta cross border trading. Nantinya, sistem eBay memungkinkan barang yang terdaftar pada blanja.com dijual ke luar negeri. Saat ini, situs blanja.com memiliki total 1 juta produk terdaftar, 600 penjual, serta 50.000 pengunjung per hari.

The most important emerging trends in digital media and emerging technology for 2015

Taken from Harvard Business Review's article
The Tech Trends You Can’t Ignore in 2015
Amy Webb
JANUARY 5, 2015

The trend was analyzed from consumer behavior, microeconomic trends, government policies, market forces, and emerging research within the context evolving tech and digital media ecosystem.

Then the analysis framework combines with The Five Questions:
1. Where/how are people wasting their time?
2. Where/how are people having difficulty with technology?
3. Where/how are people looking for information?
4. Where/how are people stuck?
5. How do people want to be perceived?

Here are the six of 2015 trends that offer great opportunity – along with some unusual new challenges – for managers in all industries:

1. Deep learning: Artificially intelligent computers are now capable of deep learning using neural networks, which you can think of as brain-inspired systems capable of translating pixels into English. Toward the end of 2014, Google researchers unveiled a new project that uses neural networks and deep learning to identify multiple elements of a scene without human assistance. Its software “learned” how to think by processing vast quantities of data. For example, deep learning will eventually allow robots to recognize objects they haven’t seen before and navigate to new locations on their own. Deep learning intersects with numerous fields, and it will soon aid in manufacturing, medicine, retail, utilities, and beyond.

2. Smart virtual personal assistants: SVPAs started entering the market in 2013. At the time, they used semantic and natural language processing; data mined from our calendars, email, and contact lists; and the last few minutes of our behavior to anticipate the next 10 seconds of our thinking. Most of those original apps have now been acquired. Emu was acquired by Google, Donna was acquired by Yahoo, Cue was acquired by Apple…and the list goes on. When it was still active, Emu was a clever stand-in for a personal secretary. It would monitor the conversation and automatically make suggestions as two people texted. For example, if you asked your friend to see a movie, Emu would immediately geolocate both of you, suggest a nearby theater and show films and times, then check your calendars for your availability. It would even display a preview for you to watch. Once it determined the best time for you to meet, it would help you purchase tickets and enter all the data into your calendar. And it did all of this inside a single mobile application. In 2015, consumers will begin to see SVPA technology baked into their mobile phones. For example, Google is quietly starting to release a new SVPA function for Android users: it automatically detects when you’ve parked your car, marks your parking spot for you on a Google map, and helps get you back to it once you’re ready to start driving again. All without you explicitly asking it to do so. Marketers, credit card companies, banks, local government agencies, political campaigns, and many others can harness SVPAs to both deliver critical information and to better read and understand constituents.

3. “It’s like Uber for ____”: In spite of harsh criticism about its business practices, 2014 was a banner year for Uber. With a $40 billion paper valuation, the simple app connecting drivers to passengers is now worth more than Halliburton Corporation, Aetna, General Mills, Delta Airlines, Kraft Foods, and Charles Schwab. Uber’s fast growth is due to lightning-fast consumer adoption, and that’s because Uber does two things very well. First, it monetizes downtime. For professional drivers, Uber is a fast, easy way to find riders. It’s also been a boon for people who’ve lost their jobs, offering them a way to make money when other jobs are hard to find. Second, Uber provides a seamless payment interface. Riders don’t need to carry cash or even a credit card, as the entire transaction is handled via a simple mobile interface. Uber’s success has inspired hundreds of other entrepreneurs who want to emulate the best features of the company. In 2015, expect to see lots of new, Uber-ish delivery and intermediary businesses, including fast grocery delivery, helicopter rides, portable ATMs, alcohol delivery, in-home massage service, dry cleaning and laundry, iPhone repair, personal shopping, medical marijuana, dog walkers, and on-site car mechanics. Meantime, consumers will respond to one-click transactions that process payments in the background – meaning there’s a great opportunity for established retailers, transportation companies, banks, and others to leverage what’s becoming standard consumer behavior.

4. Oversight for algorithms: In its essence, an algorithm is simply a set of rules or processes that must be followed in order to solve a problem. In the coming year, we will also begin questioning the ethics of how algorithms can be used, and we’ll scrutinize the tendency of some algorithms to go awry. Programmers are adding in subjective judgments to algorithms and allowing them to deliver answers. As a result, those in the big data space are increasingly misclassifying objects, data, and even people. There are numerous stories of algorithms wrongly identifying terrorism suspects at airports. High-frequency trading algorithms once nearly destroyed the stock market. A glitch in Amazon’s algorithm caused the price of The Making of a Fly: The Genetics of Animal Design to spike to $26,698,655.93. During the next several months, managers should discuss how to include accountability systems for algorithms.

5. Data privacy: Ongoing breaches have continued to dismantle the public trust. According to a Pew Internet and Society poll, 91% of Americans surveyed either agreed or strongly agree that consumers have lost control of their personal information and data. Whether it’s fear of a third party monitoring our mobile phone activity or concern about the safety of online transactions, people are increasingly concerned about their privacy, and they’re pointing the finger at business, not maleficent hackers. In 2015, businesses must not only work to meaningfully encrypt their data, but they must make a public showing of the measures they’re taking to safeguard our personal information. One new area of particular note in 2015: digital consent. Lawyers could soon use our personal data against us in court. Fitbit data, processed through a third-party analytics tool, was used in a courtroom late in 2014, around the same time that the FTC began investigating Fitbit’s practice of selling users’ 3 data to advertisers. We will see growing demands for digital consent agreements and increased transparency.

6. Block chain technology: The block chain is the transaction database that’s shared by everyone participating in bitcoin’s digital system. It’s how the crypto-currency promises complete anonymity while using a crowd-regulated public ledger system. Think of the block chain as a sort of distributed consensus system, where no one person controls all the data. Even if Bitcoin itself never really gains traction, block chain technology has enormous promise.  For instance, some people argue that a block chain system would have prevented the massive credit card breach at Target. A new company, Blockstream, plans to turn the block chain into a universal platform that can be used for anything requiring signatures or authentication. It would let people participate in “trustless” transactions, where buyers and sellers work with an intermediary like an escrow manager, a trustee, or other middlemen.

In some way, each of these tech trends will affect your business in the coming year. The best way to prepare for coming disruption is to learn as much as you can, discuss implications with others in your company, and then commit to launching small experiments internally to help you see the trends in motion.

IoT Security & Privacy Concern

Taken from CIO-Today's article:

Internet of Things Growing Despite Security Concerns
December 30, 2014

Chances are you'll hear a lot more about the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2015 -- and it might not all be good. Although IoT is clearly gaining momentum, consumers are concerned about privacy and security.

Nearly 65%  of American consumers are moderately or extremely interested in adopting smart home solutions, according to new research from the Internet of Things Consortium (IoTC). And 71% buy it based on word-of-mouth referrals from people they trust or in-store employee recommendations.

Security Threats Emerge

That said, two-thirds of respondents are concerned about privacy. In fact, across age, gender and income, 66% of survey respondents express concern about privacy. Researchers say this finding highlights the need for industry participants to mitigate privacy and security concerns to drive the industry forward.

Good News for Advertisers

Despite these concerns, respondents are still pressing into IoT. 37% of survey respondents want to be able to enhance their home entertainment experiences by transferring shows and content from one device to another. The same percentage of respondents also wants to control their home appliances using a voice assistant.

In welcoming news for marketers, U.S. consumers said they would be open to viewing advertisements on connected home devices. Over a third said they would be willing to accept commercial advertising if it helped subsidize the cost of connected home products or services.

CES Trends: Privacy, Security and the Internet of Things

January 5, 2015

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 event is seeing the debut of serious hardware and software for business plus a focus on tools for maintaining data privacy and security, and management tools for the emerging Internet of Things. 

Samsung Electronics and Daimler AG/Mercedes-Benz discussed the many possibilities being created by the fast-evolving Internet of Things, while Mercedes-Benz is expected to talk about autonomous driving, meaning self-driving cars.

IoT 'Everywhere'

The Internet of Things, which encompasses networked devices ranging from smart thermostats to cellphone-controlled door locks and ultra-small micro-electromechanical systems, is expected to generate $300 billion in product and service revenues by 2020. The number of IoT devices likely to be deployed by then will reach around 26 billion units.

Nielsen's Advertising Strategies

Taken from SharedThis blog:
Shared Conversations Series with Randall Beard
By Matt Wolfrom on September 03, 2014

Randall delves into innovative ad strategies to succeed in today’s fragmented media industry, the transformational nature of marketing organizations and the value of leveraging quality data to increase your advertising effectiveness.

Developing ad strategies in the current multi-screen landscape.

Today, creating an effective advertising strategy is complicated due to an incredibly fragmented industry, especially with the rise of new forms of media like social, mobile, tablet, etc.

The challenges that advertisers are facing in an integrated multi-screen world:
1. It is important to measure not only how well your advertising reaches your intended audience, but also how much it resonates, changes brand preference and reaction. In other words, does it impact behavioral sales? We call this the three Rs: reach, resonance and reaction.
2. Clients want common metrics in measurement across platforms. Although every platform is unique, in order to have comparability to allocate spending appropriately across platforms, you have to have common measurement metrics. Simplify success metrics with three basic questions:
- How well are you reaching your intended audience?
- How well does your advertising resonate with that audience?
- How well does it drive a reaction?

“Better, not bigger, data.”

For years many digital measurements like page views and click through rates existed, but at the end of the day advertisers and agencies were left with one major question: who did my digital advertising reach?

The ability to measure audience delivery in digital with traditional panels was virtually impossible, so we  partner with Facebook, who has the largest panel in the world.

To make the data even better, we take it and compare it to our cross platform gold standard panel. Then we put it through a calibration engine to make sure it is really accurate.

Reach consumers and understand  behavior in today’s crowded marketplace

The reason digital audience measurement is so important is because advertisers, agencies and media companies want accountability. When an advertiser buys 30M impressions against women 20-29, they want some measurement and a guarantee to know whether or not the media company or publisher actually delivered.

Another approach is through real-time optimization — moving money from lower performing to higher performing sites. In terms of reaching consumers and understanding consumer behavior, that circles back around to the reach, resonance, and reaction model, and using reaction to be smarter about who you want to reach. Being able to optimize real-time allows users to maximize performance of a campaign while it’s still going on, and before ad dollars are wasted.

One of the things that we have developed is the ability to do single source — bringing together a measurement of what people watch, including the ads that they are exposed to, and what they buy at the household level. We have a panel of consumers where we know what they’ve been exposed to and what those people have purchased in store, based on other datasets. We then match those two at a household level, stripping out any personally identifiable information. This data is anonymized and privacy-protected.

Impending advertising singularity  

Singularity is when computers and artificial intelligence become smart enough to self-learn and smarter than humans. There is so much going on in the world of advertising and media and it is creating greater automation and optimization opportunities for advertising effectiveness.

Increasingly you’re able to measure individual level exposure to ads and then match that to consumption of purchase behavior. By looking at what people are exposed to and they’re buying, brands can measure the individual impact of every digital touch point. An advertiser that’s bidding for 10K search keywords could measure the individual impact of each of those 10K search keywords for online and offline sales.

These advertisers can also measure the impact of all combinations of touch points. Many platforms have machine learning capabilities where they continuously learn about what methods are more effective. They have the ability to plug into demand-side platforms and drive real-time bidding. This is individual-level measurement of advertising exposure that is connected to purchase behavior and all updated in real-time.

Excellent partnership and foster with digital partners

To stay on top of industry trends there are two ways approach, organizational and cultural.

From an organizational approach, we need capability to address cutting edge issues. Create an advertising effectiveness innovation lab in partnership with University.  

Fostering a culture that is open to experimentation and external partnerships to solve big important  problems is really important.

Marketing Trends

There are three areas that are really important:
1) Data. Marketing in general is much more data and evidenced base, and it is becoming much more of a science. To be clear, creative, big advertising and marketing ideas will always be the foundation for great marketing. However, the rise of data and evidence-based marketing is a big trend, and getting the finance function to begin seeing marketing as an investment, as opposed to a cost line in the income statement, is essential.
2) Real-time. There’s a growing need for people that have the ability to be adaptive and operate in the moment.
3) Technology. new capabilities are enabling expanded opportunities in marketing that were not possible before.

The main challenge is how to advertise in a truly cross-platform in an integrated way. We’ve been very focused on bringing new tools to advertisers and agencies that allow them to plan across platforms so they can maximize reach across TV and digital.