Facebook over-priced?

Microsoft is believed to be considering the purchase of a 5 % stake in social networking site Facebook in a deal that could value the company at up to $10 billion. My guess is there is no way it could be worth that at all considering their single revenue stream... Perhaps I am wrong but I highly doubt it.

Read more here: http://www.enn.ie/article/132622.html

Smart way around Spam?

A company called Seriosity has attempted to create a mechanism of highlighting/prioritising the emails you receive. These guys believe they’ve found the right way to get people’s attention - virtual currency!

You attach a payment to an email, called a Serio, which is transferred to the recipient. The recipient can determine the importance of an email based on the size of the payment. When the reader logs in they will sort through to the higher paying emails - well that's the idea anyway.

The big question will be what one can use the accumulated serios for (aside from buying your way to the top of your recipients email in boxes).

Governments comments on SA telecoms

Here is a nice little article from Business Day: PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki once again made cheaper telecommunications a priority for the nation, but failed to say exactly how that would be achieved.

The State of the Nation address last week wasn't really exciting at all.. we all know the promises made hold as much water as a piece of granite. Mbeki always promises to sort out our Telecommunications sector and continued exploitation of the South African people but unfortunately Government only moves fast if something benefits themselves.

Unfortunately Government is looking all over the place instead of at the big problem - Telkom. They have the stranglehold on international bandwidth, as well as our national fixed-line network - despite the fact that this was all built with taxpayers' money. Gov also unfortunately looks years ahead instead of right now - what happens in the meanwhile? We all get milked while Gov scores billions from Telkom and Telkom's shareholders inflate their bank accounts at the expense of a country's people. Same old, year after yea, and there we were all stupidly thinking our Gov is supposed to look after us and have the country's best interests at heart.

India.com to the rescue

India's Reliance Telecommunications plans to build a submarine cable around the east of Africa that could help slash internet costs and rival the continent's own much-delayed plans for a cable.

India's involvement in the telecoms industry in SA is far less obvious than this only though. Neotel, the second operator in SA is managed by an Indian company too, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

Let's hope this will help us, as it seems we are unable to help ourselves in this regard. Read the full story here.

Who is responsible for growing online adspend in SA?

Not too many companies in SA see the true value with marketing online and/or having an online presence. It warrants a mention as I am convinced that first time companies buying online will test it once (cautiously) and if the results do not look good then a repeat buy will be unlikely. As it is, few companies in SA trust/believe it to be a viable way to make sales/build a brand/generate leads. This stems from the general perceptions due to a lack of inhouse understanding and know-how.

The onus I believe is thus on the publisher (or media planner) to ensure that they think through each clients needs and focus not only on the inventory and media placements but also on the users experience, from the creative, the landing page and the whole client site functionality. It is all too tempting to just triumphantly take a new clients money and splash banners all over the place. It would be like having a TV ad campaign driving people to a store for a promo, and when people arrive they open the front door and see a shop with no cash registers or people to help them. Why waste money driving traffic if the site is not geared up to monetize the visitors?

Responsible ad sales like this will no doubt help with perceptions about the online medium and thus generate more development into user friendly sites. This too will help the user interact and trust the online medium more so than they do now. It is an iterative process and it all starts with the online agency or media planners ensuring they help in making the first campaign meet its objectives.