Today is the day that the US Commerce Department's contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) expires; therefore, it is also the day that much of the world, primarily the European Union, demands that President Barack Obama be replaced by a diverse world committee to oversee the Internet; the issue is likely to become a major sticking point between America and Europe, but most Internet users will be blissfully unaware that anything needs to be fixed in the first place; the Europeans' plan for a "G12 for Internet governance" would not seem to affect content at first, because the US only oversees the technical machines that keep the Internet going, without any attention to content; it's unbelievable that a new system bringing in other governments could similarly avoid that temptation.
Several European scientists, who believe that genetic modification should be labelled Frankenfood and that cellphones cause brain damage, said that nanoparticles "might" pose a health danger; Susanne Stark, a chemist employed by the Consumer Information Association, said that clothing which contains little teensy particles should be labelled as potentially dangerous,and so should cosmetics and food products; a doctor who specialises in en-vironmental hygiene, claimed that nanoparticles in food could enter the body through the mouth.
Engineers in Germany, which recently began dismantling many of its nuclear power plants, now are rethinking the safety of planned geothermal replacements; some believe that a geothermal project set off an earthquake, and scientists in the US and Switzerland are equally concerned.
Adobe Systems bought the web analytics and website building firm Omniture for $1.8 billion; the deal was made faster than you can say "Flash website".
China began building its fourth space launch base, the Wenchang Space Satellite Launch Centre on Hainan island;it is a major departure for the Chinese,who until now have kept their space launch sites well hidden even from their own people; the Hainan launch pad will fire the new Long March 5 rocket,due for flight in 2014 and likely to become the country's workhorse rocket for the country's manned space flights.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced the government plans to break up Telstra , the biggest telecoms group in Australia, with strict regulation; partly government owned Telstra has two choices - split its retail and network arms voluntarily or invol-untarily; the company will be barred from acquiring further wireless spectrum until it restructures.
The luggable iron Post Database Quote of the Week Trophy goes to US media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who predicts newspapers will be printed on "flexible devices instead of crushed trees.It won't be soon; it could take 20 years.But there will be no paper, no printing plants, no unions. It will be a great future." Speaking of quotations:"I don't think the world will be a better or safer place without me"; those are the last words of executed prisoner Jeffery Doughtie, as recorded on a web page of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice at www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/executedoffenders.htm.
If you want your book sold and advertised at Amazon.com , you (or your publisher of course) will provide the volume in PDF format, no exceptions;Amazon says it's more eco-friendly, and also just by coincidence it makes it much easier to index every word of your book and let browsers look inside it - even though Amazon has opposed Google 's plan to do the same; as part of its justification for the onerous formatting instructions, Amazon.com notes that books that are searchable for free outsell unsearchable books.
The US Justice Department notified a New York federal judge that it expects to oppose the plan by Google to scan,copy and perhaps get copyright to millions of out of print books; a 28-page decision said the Obama administration had "significant legal concerns with the breadth of a proposed settlement"under which Google would set up a $150 million fund in case of copyright breaches; even the government was bright enough to realise that a properly structured deal "[could] breathe life into millions of works that are now effectively off limits to the public"no matter what Amazon.com says. Google announced it will re-issue 2 million out-of-print books in its library as paperbacks; the firm's Espresso Book Machine can turn out a paperbackbound,300-page book in less than five minutes from scanned PDF copies; it is by far the biggest boost since the Jurassic Age for On Demand Books , makers of the Espresso Machines.
Google released Chrome 3.0, another minor update to their fast but unfeatured browser, with customisable themes but still virtually no add-ons or support for webapps; this raised the question of how Google could possibly justify calling the tweaks a full-version upgrade.
Avaya of America won the auction to buy bankrupt networking vendor Nortel of Canada for $900 million; Avaya promised to fire no more than 25 percent of Nortel workers.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Yahoo launches media blitz
Yahoo Inc believes a lot of its good work has been overlooked by investors and the media so it's spending more than $100 million to get the word out to consumers directly.
The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's website 15 years ago. Yahoo provided a peek at the 15-month blitz last week in New York.
The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is already approaching 600 million.
Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged and many people turned to Internet search leader Google Inc. and relative newcomers like Facebook and Twitter - none of which have spend much money on self-promotion.
Yahoo's financial struggles were magnified last year when Yang and the rest of the Sunnyvale-based company's board spurned a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.
The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's website 15 years ago. Yahoo provided a peek at the 15-month blitz last week in New York.
The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is already approaching 600 million.
Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged and many people turned to Internet search leader Google Inc. and relative newcomers like Facebook and Twitter - none of which have spend much money on self-promotion.
Yahoo's financial struggles were magnified last year when Yang and the rest of the Sunnyvale-based company's board spurned a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.
Twitter valued at a billion dollars
Twitter Inc.'s founders now have a billion-dollar baby,and they seem determined to raise it without a corporate parent.
That was the message underlying Friday's news that Twitter has lined up $100 million to finance its operations while founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone plot ways to make money off one of the Internet's most popular communications tools.
The investment values the 3-yearold company at $1 billion, even though it has yet to generate any meaningful revenue, let alone profits.
Twitter itself didn't provide specifics about the size of the investment, saying only it involved a significant sum. Two people with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed the amounts to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the parties had agreed not to announce the specifics.
Williams and Stone declined an interview request.
The latest stakes were sold to three of Twitter's existing investors - Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Spark Capital - and two new shareholders, Insight Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price.
San Francisco-based Twitter had previously raised $55 million, with the latest infusion of $35 million coming just seven months ago.
With so much money in the bank,Twitter now has the means to buy more computers and keep improving the reliability of its outage-prone service. It can expand its work force of 60 employees without feeling the pressure to sell to a larger company.
"This is a smart move by Twitter because it buys them more time to capitalise on their momentum and come up with a business plan," said Ken Marlin, a technology investment banker in New York with Marlin & Associates.
The funding is meant to preserve Twitter's independence until its making enough money to cover its own expenses, according to one of the people familiar with the negotiations.
Twitter already turned down a $500 million buyout offer from Facebook Inc. last year and both Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. were rumoured to be inquiring about a possible acquisition earlier this year.
Williams didn't refer directly to any suitors in Friday's blog posting, but he indicated Twitter wants to see how far it can go on its own.
"It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value," Williams wrote."Twitter's journey has just begun and we are committed to building the best product,technology, and company possible."
For now Williams and Stone have been focusing on building Twitter's audience.
Twitter has more than 54 million worldwide users who share their thoughts, activities, Web links and other information in messages no longer than 140 characters. Just a year ago, only 4 million people were "tweeting"- the term commonly used to describe the chatter on Twitter. By 2013, Twitter hopes to have 1 billion users, making its service "the pulse of the planet,"according to internal company documents leaked on the Internet this summer.
Those documents also included projections of $140 million in revenue next year.
Where could that come from?Twitter has mulled the possibility of selling ads on the site, although Williams and Stone have indicated that isn't at the top of their agenda. Twitter has hinted it could capitalise on corporate use of the service, perhaps by introducing fees on some accounts primarily used for commercial purposes. The service also could be mined for insights about people's opinions and preferences that would be valuable to marketers.Or Google and other search engines might be willing to pay for better and quicker access to Twitter's postings.
If Twitter is unable to make enough money to pay its bills, Marlin thinks the company would still fetch a substantial price, although probably not $1 billion. Valuing privately held companies like Twitter can be difficult anyway, since the prices are established by a smaller pool of investors than in the publicly traded stock exchanges.
Facebook, another Internet sensation with 300 million users and projected revenue of $500 million this year, has seen its valuation fluctuate wildly. A 2007 investment by Microsoft valued Facebook at $15 billion, but internal company documents showed a valuation of about $4 billion.
That was the message underlying Friday's news that Twitter has lined up $100 million to finance its operations while founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone plot ways to make money off one of the Internet's most popular communications tools.
The investment values the 3-yearold company at $1 billion, even though it has yet to generate any meaningful revenue, let alone profits.
Twitter itself didn't provide specifics about the size of the investment, saying only it involved a significant sum. Two people with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed the amounts to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the parties had agreed not to announce the specifics.
Williams and Stone declined an interview request.
The latest stakes were sold to three of Twitter's existing investors - Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Spark Capital - and two new shareholders, Insight Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price.
San Francisco-based Twitter had previously raised $55 million, with the latest infusion of $35 million coming just seven months ago.
With so much money in the bank,Twitter now has the means to buy more computers and keep improving the reliability of its outage-prone service. It can expand its work force of 60 employees without feeling the pressure to sell to a larger company.
"This is a smart move by Twitter because it buys them more time to capitalise on their momentum and come up with a business plan," said Ken Marlin, a technology investment banker in New York with Marlin & Associates.
The funding is meant to preserve Twitter's independence until its making enough money to cover its own expenses, according to one of the people familiar with the negotiations.
Twitter already turned down a $500 million buyout offer from Facebook Inc. last year and both Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. were rumoured to be inquiring about a possible acquisition earlier this year.
Williams didn't refer directly to any suitors in Friday's blog posting, but he indicated Twitter wants to see how far it can go on its own.
"It was important to us that we find investment partners who share our vision for building a company of enduring value," Williams wrote."Twitter's journey has just begun and we are committed to building the best product,technology, and company possible."
For now Williams and Stone have been focusing on building Twitter's audience.
Twitter has more than 54 million worldwide users who share their thoughts, activities, Web links and other information in messages no longer than 140 characters. Just a year ago, only 4 million people were "tweeting"- the term commonly used to describe the chatter on Twitter. By 2013, Twitter hopes to have 1 billion users, making its service "the pulse of the planet,"according to internal company documents leaked on the Internet this summer.
Those documents also included projections of $140 million in revenue next year.
Where could that come from?Twitter has mulled the possibility of selling ads on the site, although Williams and Stone have indicated that isn't at the top of their agenda. Twitter has hinted it could capitalise on corporate use of the service, perhaps by introducing fees on some accounts primarily used for commercial purposes. The service also could be mined for insights about people's opinions and preferences that would be valuable to marketers.Or Google and other search engines might be willing to pay for better and quicker access to Twitter's postings.
If Twitter is unable to make enough money to pay its bills, Marlin thinks the company would still fetch a substantial price, although probably not $1 billion. Valuing privately held companies like Twitter can be difficult anyway, since the prices are established by a smaller pool of investors than in the publicly traded stock exchanges.
Facebook, another Internet sensation with 300 million users and projected revenue of $500 million this year, has seen its valuation fluctuate wildly. A 2007 investment by Microsoft valued Facebook at $15 billion, but internal company documents showed a valuation of about $4 billion.
More users getting the instant message
Thailand is the world's seventh-ranked user of Windows Live Messenger, which points to high revenue potential for the mobile version once 3G is fully rolled out.
The ranking relates to the number of instant messages sent per month, per user, with Thais sending an average of 839 messages each month through Windows Live Messenger, said Craig LawSmith, Southeast Asia Marketing Director,Online Service Group at Microsoft.
The six countries ahead of Thailand are Mexico, where users send an average of 978 messages per month, followed by Brazil with 963 messages, Taiwan (927),Spain (903), Netherlands (867) and Italy (846).
Microsoft was quick to localise Windows Live Messenger in Thailand,offering geographically relevant content on top of continuing worldwide innovations such as the nudge - introduced with MSN Messenger 7.0 in 2005- enabling users to get the attention of, and interact with, their favourite chat partners.
Law-Smith noted that Windows Live Messenger already has 5.3 million subscribers, and this figure is growing at a rate of 25 percent year-on-year.
"As of May, on average, each Windows Live user spends 533 minutes per month using the programme. This shows a high user engagement.
"High-engagement users with mass volume will help us monetise by offering a better return on investment foradvertisers.
Furthermore, once 3G is up and running in Thailand, an increase in people using Windows Live Messenger on there mobiles is expected, bringing yet more revenue from advertising and network operators.
Competition among operators and handset manufacturers should lower prices for consumers, which in turn will help make Messenger more affordable and thus accessible.
"In Jakarta, more and more people are using Messenger on their mobiles as a cheaper alternative to the normal short message service [SMS]," said LawSmith.
He continued that the growth of social networking sites - which help people to connect and share photos, videos,music, documents, links and so on has increased the amount of channels and accounts requiring login, so integration between instant messaging and social networking is attractive.
Already Windows Live Messenger has more than 20 web partners, including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, and others. Data shows that Facebook notifications account for 3 percent of all Hotmail messages.
"To survive in this business, we have to add value for users and integrate with other web partners to simplify connections for customers," said Law-Smith.
"This goes beyond instant messaging or emailing or social networking; it's about making everything as simple as possible for consumers.
"Even in the economic crisis, the users also use IM more to connect with their friends and family or for finding jobs, so it show how IM plays an important role for communication tools."
The ranking relates to the number of instant messages sent per month, per user, with Thais sending an average of 839 messages each month through Windows Live Messenger, said Craig LawSmith, Southeast Asia Marketing Director,Online Service Group at Microsoft.
The six countries ahead of Thailand are Mexico, where users send an average of 978 messages per month, followed by Brazil with 963 messages, Taiwan (927),Spain (903), Netherlands (867) and Italy (846).
Microsoft was quick to localise Windows Live Messenger in Thailand,offering geographically relevant content on top of continuing worldwide innovations such as the nudge - introduced with MSN Messenger 7.0 in 2005- enabling users to get the attention of, and interact with, their favourite chat partners.
Law-Smith noted that Windows Live Messenger already has 5.3 million subscribers, and this figure is growing at a rate of 25 percent year-on-year.
"As of May, on average, each Windows Live user spends 533 minutes per month using the programme. This shows a high user engagement.
"High-engagement users with mass volume will help us monetise by offering a better return on investment foradvertisers.
Furthermore, once 3G is up and running in Thailand, an increase in people using Windows Live Messenger on there mobiles is expected, bringing yet more revenue from advertising and network operators.
Competition among operators and handset manufacturers should lower prices for consumers, which in turn will help make Messenger more affordable and thus accessible.
"In Jakarta, more and more people are using Messenger on their mobiles as a cheaper alternative to the normal short message service [SMS]," said LawSmith.
He continued that the growth of social networking sites - which help people to connect and share photos, videos,music, documents, links and so on has increased the amount of channels and accounts requiring login, so integration between instant messaging and social networking is attractive.
Already Windows Live Messenger has more than 20 web partners, including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, and others. Data shows that Facebook notifications account for 3 percent of all Hotmail messages.
"To survive in this business, we have to add value for users and integrate with other web partners to simplify connections for customers," said Law-Smith.
"This goes beyond instant messaging or emailing or social networking; it's about making everything as simple as possible for consumers.
"Even in the economic crisis, the users also use IM more to connect with their friends and family or for finding jobs, so it show how IM plays an important role for communication tools."
Have your say on web page content
Google unveiled a new tool recently which allows comments to be posted alongside web pages.
"Google Sidewiki" appears as a narrow pop-up browser panel on the left hand side of a website and displays messages from users about the content of the page.
The messages are visible to other users of Sidewiki who visit the site and they can post their own comments, but they cannot edit the comments of others.
A website about museums in New York city, for example, would have a Sidewiki panel featuring relevant notes and comments from other visitors.
Google, in a blog post, said Sidewiki was a way for web users to contribute "insights" and "helpful information"next to any web page.
The Internet search and advertising giant said it had developed an algorithm to ensure that the "most useful, highquality entries" are displayed at the top of a Sidewiki panel.
Sidewiki is a feature of Google Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers and Google said it will be available soon for Google Chrome, its own browser.
Google Sidewiki is similar to other services launched in the past, with mixed reviews from technology bloggers.
Ars Technica said Sidewiki was "intriguing" but "it's unclear if the service will really deliver a lot of value" and it could end up being "little more than a glorified comment system."
Paidcontent.org said Sidewiki "may anger some online publishers who have commenting systems of their own they'd prefer visitors continue to use".
"Google Sidewiki" appears as a narrow pop-up browser panel on the left hand side of a website and displays messages from users about the content of the page.
The messages are visible to other users of Sidewiki who visit the site and they can post their own comments, but they cannot edit the comments of others.
A website about museums in New York city, for example, would have a Sidewiki panel featuring relevant notes and comments from other visitors.
Google, in a blog post, said Sidewiki was a way for web users to contribute "insights" and "helpful information"next to any web page.
The Internet search and advertising giant said it had developed an algorithm to ensure that the "most useful, highquality entries" are displayed at the top of a Sidewiki panel.
Sidewiki is a feature of Google Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers and Google said it will be available soon for Google Chrome, its own browser.
Google Sidewiki is similar to other services launched in the past, with mixed reviews from technology bloggers.
Ars Technica said Sidewiki was "intriguing" but "it's unclear if the service will really deliver a lot of value" and it could end up being "little more than a glorified comment system."
Paidcontent.org said Sidewiki "may anger some online publishers who have commenting systems of their own they'd prefer visitors continue to use".
"Should Obama be killed" poll yanked
The US Secret Service is trying to identify the people who launched on online poll at Facebook asking whether US President Barack Obama should be assassinated.
Facebook on Mondey shot down the user - generated poll, which was titled "Should Obama be killed?" and offered answer choices of yes, no, maybe, and "if he cuts my heathcare".
"Once we found out about it, we worked with Facebook to have it removed," said Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley.
"We are certainly investigating; just like we would with any threat case."
More than 750 Facebook users had reportedly cast votes by the time the poll, was yanked from the wildly site.
"This is sick and sad," a fAcebook user with the screen name Cocoa Fly sid in a posting on the website.
"All of this anti-Obama rage is pure racism."
Facebook on Mondey shot down the user - generated poll, which was titled "Should Obama be killed?" and offered answer choices of yes, no, maybe, and "if he cuts my heathcare".
"Once we found out about it, we worked with Facebook to have it removed," said Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley.
"We are certainly investigating; just like we would with any threat case."
More than 750 Facebook users had reportedly cast votes by the time the poll, was yanked from the wildly site.
"This is sick and sad," a fAcebook user with the screen name Cocoa Fly sid in a posting on the website.
"All of this anti-Obama rage is pure racism."
Major firms in online advertising battle
Social networking leads switch from conventional advertising
Major technology firms are jumping into the social networking arena and are joining an online battle to take a marketing lead in the coming year, hoping to boost brand awareness and perception, thereby driving business growth in Thailand.
Overall spending by major IT companies for online marketing is very small - about Bt1.5 billion - when compared with their total marketing expenditure of about Bt90 billion per year. However, it seems they will channel much more money into online advertising because Microsoft (Thailand), Intel (Thailand) and HTC (Thailand) are all moving to compete in this area.
Microsoft (Thailand)'s marketing director Lisa Lim said Microsoft's spending on online advertising would rise from 30 per cent to between 40 and 45 per cent of its total marketing budget.
It will focus on four main online channels: its main website, Microsoft.com/Thailand; a microsite developed for the purpose of marketing a specific product, Windows7Thailand.com; social-network sites, especially Facebook and Twitter; and viral video, scheduled for launching next month.
At Microsoft's main website, there are currently 300,000 unique visitors and 1 million page-views per month. Its microsite, which was launched just a month ago, is getting 11,000 unique visitors and 120,000 page-views per month. On the social-network sites, it has 700 fans at Facebook.com community and 500 followers in Twitter.com.
Lim said Microsoft expects both Facebook.com and Twitter.com to be more active in achieving two objectives: getting feedback from customers and delivering information about the company's marketing activities, products and services.
"We started it with our new product - Windows 7 - that is scheduled to be officially launched on October 26," Lim said. "This year is an outstanding year for us to focus more on online marketing than ever before, because this is the year in which we will launch the entire Windows-product family, including Windows 7, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010."
She said the basis for returns on investment from online advertising included how many people it could reach and what kind of impact it made.
Microsoft's main purposes in using online advertising were to reach the right target customers, to get a quick response, to provide the right product information and promotion to the right potential customers and to keep them in touch with the company directly.
HTC (Thailand)'s country manager Nattawat Woranopkul said his company had been spending more on online advertising, especially on social-network sites Facebook (Facebook.com/htcthailand) and Twitter (Twitter.com/htcthailand).
The company plans to double its spending on online marketing this year from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of its above-the-line marketing budget.
The company's strategy is to "blend" online and offline marketing. The objective of its online-marketing tactic is to build brand awareness, maintain customer loyalty and create more sales.
"We aim to build a huge online community and use online marketing as a fundamental marketing tool to lead these people to offline activities. We aim to blend all of them into a seamless and efficient marketing exercise," Nattawat said.
Moreover, HTC will also use its main website - HTCThailand.com - as a major online-marketing channel, and will create microsites for specific purposes, such as www.whoisyourhero.net, which was created for marketing HTC Hero.
Intel Microelectronics (Thailand)'s marketing programme manager Dudchaneeporn Pruckwattananon said that her company had jumped into online marketing last year through several channels, including Intel's main website (Intel.com/th), microsites at its partners such as Sanook (www.gamesanook.com/intel), and online banner ads and rich media ads such as rich banner and page takeover ads.
It moved into social-network sites in July, beginning at Facebook with Facebook.com/intel and this month at Twitter, with Twitter.com/intelthailand.
She said about 80 per cent of Intel's total marketing budget this year would be spent on online marketing.
"Our pages at Facebook.com and Twitter.com are to update our customers about the movements of Intel in Thailand. Some information comes from our main website and microsites," Dudchaneeporn said.
Major technology firms are jumping into the social networking arena and are joining an online battle to take a marketing lead in the coming year, hoping to boost brand awareness and perception, thereby driving business growth in Thailand.
Overall spending by major IT companies for online marketing is very small - about Bt1.5 billion - when compared with their total marketing expenditure of about Bt90 billion per year. However, it seems they will channel much more money into online advertising because Microsoft (Thailand), Intel (Thailand) and HTC (Thailand) are all moving to compete in this area.
Microsoft (Thailand)'s marketing director Lisa Lim said Microsoft's spending on online advertising would rise from 30 per cent to between 40 and 45 per cent of its total marketing budget.
It will focus on four main online channels: its main website, Microsoft.com/Thailand; a microsite developed for the purpose of marketing a specific product, Windows7Thailand.com; social-network sites, especially Facebook and Twitter; and viral video, scheduled for launching next month.
At Microsoft's main website, there are currently 300,000 unique visitors and 1 million page-views per month. Its microsite, which was launched just a month ago, is getting 11,000 unique visitors and 120,000 page-views per month. On the social-network sites, it has 700 fans at Facebook.com community and 500 followers in Twitter.com.
Lim said Microsoft expects both Facebook.com and Twitter.com to be more active in achieving two objectives: getting feedback from customers and delivering information about the company's marketing activities, products and services.
"We started it with our new product - Windows 7 - that is scheduled to be officially launched on October 26," Lim said. "This year is an outstanding year for us to focus more on online marketing than ever before, because this is the year in which we will launch the entire Windows-product family, including Windows 7, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010."
She said the basis for returns on investment from online advertising included how many people it could reach and what kind of impact it made.
Microsoft's main purposes in using online advertising were to reach the right target customers, to get a quick response, to provide the right product information and promotion to the right potential customers and to keep them in touch with the company directly.
HTC (Thailand)'s country manager Nattawat Woranopkul said his company had been spending more on online advertising, especially on social-network sites Facebook (Facebook.com/htcthailand) and Twitter (Twitter.com/htcthailand).
The company plans to double its spending on online marketing this year from 20 per cent to 40 per cent of its above-the-line marketing budget.
The company's strategy is to "blend" online and offline marketing. The objective of its online-marketing tactic is to build brand awareness, maintain customer loyalty and create more sales.
"We aim to build a huge online community and use online marketing as a fundamental marketing tool to lead these people to offline activities. We aim to blend all of them into a seamless and efficient marketing exercise," Nattawat said.
Moreover, HTC will also use its main website - HTCThailand.com - as a major online-marketing channel, and will create microsites for specific purposes, such as www.whoisyourhero.net, which was created for marketing HTC Hero.
Intel Microelectronics (Thailand)'s marketing programme manager Dudchaneeporn Pruckwattananon said that her company had jumped into online marketing last year through several channels, including Intel's main website (Intel.com/th), microsites at its partners such as Sanook (www.gamesanook.com/intel), and online banner ads and rich media ads such as rich banner and page takeover ads.
It moved into social-network sites in July, beginning at Facebook with Facebook.com/intel and this month at Twitter, with Twitter.com/intelthailand.
She said about 80 per cent of Intel's total marketing budget this year would be spent on online marketing.
"Our pages at Facebook.com and Twitter.com are to update our customers about the movements of Intel in Thailand. Some information comes from our main website and microsites," Dudchaneeporn said.
MARKETING TRANSFORMED BY SOCIAL NETWORKING
Social-network marketing, using both Facebook and Twitter, has become the talk of the town among marketers in all industries.
The rapid rise in the number of users at both sites in Thailand has demanded the attention of Thai marketers, many of whom are currently calculating what share of their annual budget they should divert to the new online medium.
An adviser to the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Ian Fenwick, has given some pointers to online-marketing success.
He said marketing was moving towards a new digital era, for which new marketing models would be designed and developed to deliver messages digitally through a variety of end-devices and platforms including Internet web 2.0, mobile phones, Internet television, personal Internet devices, social-networking platforms, and electronic devices yet to be developed.
Referring to the "Four Ps" of traditional marketing strategy - product, price, place and promotion, he said digital marketing came with its own Four Ps: permission, participation, profile and personalisation.
"Marketers need to understand the fundamental elements of the new era of marketing first. Then they have to understand how to use their marketing budget to gain the most benefit," Fenwick said.
This year, Internet penetration around the world amounts to 1.6 billion users. Of these, 42 per cent are in Asia. These people are also spending more of their time on the Internet, from only 15 per cent of their daily life in 2003 to 30 per cent in 2008. Their main activities on the Internet are participating in social networks and reading blogs.
The best-known social-network site is Facebook. It now has 330 million users - up from 250 million in July. The trends are similar in Thailand, where there are 16 million Internet users and more than 1 million of them are Facebook users.
Twitter, the most popular microblog site, had more than 7 million users in February, up from fewer than 5 million one year earlier.
Marketing expert Thunyawat Chaitrakulchai, who is managing editor of MKT magazine, said social-network marketing, especially that using Facebook and Twitter, was the next big thing. Marketers should not ignore it, but should pay more attention to learning about it and understanding it in order to use it as a marketing weapon to reach the right target customers at a lower cost in terms of time and money.
He said it was better to use both Facebook and Twitter in parallel, with "balanced portions" devoted to each. The size of the portions directed at each channel depended on the requirements of different businesses.
"There is no one success model for all. This is a time for marketers to pay attention. They have to realise that they cannot ignore this. Both large corporations and small- and medium-sized enterprises should jump in," Thunyawat said.
A similar message came from Worawisut Pinyoyang, marketing expert and owner of Newmedia.com and MKTtwit.com. He said Facebook and Twitter had a big impact on product and brand awareness.
The beauty of social networking for marketing is that it provides a huge number of target customers with the correct demographic profile, he said. Personalisation enables marketers to get very quick feedback and their marketing message can reach a mass market in a short time by "going viral".
The rapid rise in the number of users at both sites in Thailand has demanded the attention of Thai marketers, many of whom are currently calculating what share of their annual budget they should divert to the new online medium.
An adviser to the Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Ian Fenwick, has given some pointers to online-marketing success.
He said marketing was moving towards a new digital era, for which new marketing models would be designed and developed to deliver messages digitally through a variety of end-devices and platforms including Internet web 2.0, mobile phones, Internet television, personal Internet devices, social-networking platforms, and electronic devices yet to be developed.
Referring to the "Four Ps" of traditional marketing strategy - product, price, place and promotion, he said digital marketing came with its own Four Ps: permission, participation, profile and personalisation.
"Marketers need to understand the fundamental elements of the new era of marketing first. Then they have to understand how to use their marketing budget to gain the most benefit," Fenwick said.
This year, Internet penetration around the world amounts to 1.6 billion users. Of these, 42 per cent are in Asia. These people are also spending more of their time on the Internet, from only 15 per cent of their daily life in 2003 to 30 per cent in 2008. Their main activities on the Internet are participating in social networks and reading blogs.
The best-known social-network site is Facebook. It now has 330 million users - up from 250 million in July. The trends are similar in Thailand, where there are 16 million Internet users and more than 1 million of them are Facebook users.
Twitter, the most popular microblog site, had more than 7 million users in February, up from fewer than 5 million one year earlier.
Marketing expert Thunyawat Chaitrakulchai, who is managing editor of MKT magazine, said social-network marketing, especially that using Facebook and Twitter, was the next big thing. Marketers should not ignore it, but should pay more attention to learning about it and understanding it in order to use it as a marketing weapon to reach the right target customers at a lower cost in terms of time and money.
He said it was better to use both Facebook and Twitter in parallel, with "balanced portions" devoted to each. The size of the portions directed at each channel depended on the requirements of different businesses.
"There is no one success model for all. This is a time for marketers to pay attention. They have to realise that they cannot ignore this. Both large corporations and small- and medium-sized enterprises should jump in," Thunyawat said.
A similar message came from Worawisut Pinyoyang, marketing expert and owner of Newmedia.com and MKTtwit.com. He said Facebook and Twitter had a big impact on product and brand awareness.
The beauty of social networking for marketing is that it provides a huge number of target customers with the correct demographic profile, he said. Personalisation enables marketers to get very quick feedback and their marketing message can reach a mass market in a short time by "going viral".
Officials probe Twitter "leaks" before polling sites closed
German officials were investigating yesterday how broadly accurate results of the country's election appeared on microblogging website Twitter before polling stations closed.
Dozens of short messages appeared on the site before voting ended at 6pm local time on Sunday, many of which had data very close to the scores revealed by the official exit polls.
It is illegal to make public exit poll data before voting has finished because people who have yet to cast their ballot could be influenced.
Those breaking this law face fines of up to 50,000(2.46 million baht). In extreme cases, premature exit poll results could lead to legal challenges against the election result.
Although several "tweets"- the name given to the messages of less than 140 characters posted on Twitter - had figures that corresponded closely to the final results, others were way off the mark, however.
A spokesman for the federal election commission said a special team had been formed to ascertain whether actual figures obtained from pollsters were leaked.
But experts were divided as to how much influence a premature publication of exit poll data could have.
"We need to act energetically against people that publish actual results," said constitutional lawyer Joerg Ipsen, from the University of Osnabrueck.
"Otherwise the freedom and the secrecy of the election is in danger."
Margreth Luenenborg, a media expert at the Free University in Berlin, had a different view.
"I think this door can no longer be closed," she said.
"I reckon that voters are mature enough to handle pre-published results,"she added.
German politicians were enraged in late August when exit polls for state elections were leaked early on Twitter before voting ended.
At the time, the deputy parliamentary head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, Wolfgang Bosbach,said the leaking of the results "damaged democracy".
But not all Twitter users, alias Tweeters,were taking it all so seriously on Sunday.
Early on election-day morning, people began publishing farcical results in jest,with many giving the Internet-friendly Pirate party an impossible double-digit score. Another Tweeter wrote:"Forecast for my work ethic next week: Monday 55%, Tuesday 23.5%, Wednesday 10%,Thursday 7%, Friday 4.5%."
For the record, official results showed Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats clinch 33.8% and her partners the Free Democrats on 14.6%, handing her preferred centre-right coalition a clear mandate.
Her rival centre-left Social Democrats registered what their candidate FrankWalter Steinmeier decried as a "bitter defeat" with 23%. The far-left Linke scored 11.9% and the Greens 10.7%.
And the Pirate party? They clinched 2% of the vote with 845,000 votes much to the pleasure, presumably, of German Tweeters.
Dozens of short messages appeared on the site before voting ended at 6pm local time on Sunday, many of which had data very close to the scores revealed by the official exit polls.
It is illegal to make public exit poll data before voting has finished because people who have yet to cast their ballot could be influenced.
Those breaking this law face fines of up to 50,000(2.46 million baht). In extreme cases, premature exit poll results could lead to legal challenges against the election result.
Although several "tweets"- the name given to the messages of less than 140 characters posted on Twitter - had figures that corresponded closely to the final results, others were way off the mark, however.
A spokesman for the federal election commission said a special team had been formed to ascertain whether actual figures obtained from pollsters were leaked.
But experts were divided as to how much influence a premature publication of exit poll data could have.
"We need to act energetically against people that publish actual results," said constitutional lawyer Joerg Ipsen, from the University of Osnabrueck.
"Otherwise the freedom and the secrecy of the election is in danger."
Margreth Luenenborg, a media expert at the Free University in Berlin, had a different view.
"I think this door can no longer be closed," she said.
"I reckon that voters are mature enough to handle pre-published results,"she added.
German politicians were enraged in late August when exit polls for state elections were leaked early on Twitter before voting ended.
At the time, the deputy parliamentary head of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, Wolfgang Bosbach,said the leaking of the results "damaged democracy".
But not all Twitter users, alias Tweeters,were taking it all so seriously on Sunday.
Early on election-day morning, people began publishing farcical results in jest,with many giving the Internet-friendly Pirate party an impossible double-digit score. Another Tweeter wrote:"Forecast for my work ethic next week: Monday 55%, Tuesday 23.5%, Wednesday 10%,Thursday 7%, Friday 4.5%."
For the record, official results showed Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats clinch 33.8% and her partners the Free Democrats on 14.6%, handing her preferred centre-right coalition a clear mandate.
Her rival centre-left Social Democrats registered what their candidate FrankWalter Steinmeier decried as a "bitter defeat" with 23%. The far-left Linke scored 11.9% and the Greens 10.7%.
And the Pirate party? They clinched 2% of the vote with 845,000 votes much to the pleasure, presumably, of German Tweeters.
STRENGTH IN SCRUTINY
Website underscores government's determination to ensure that stimulus funds aren't wasted, writes Wichit Chantanusornsiri
It's a 1.43-trillion-baht question can the government effectively implement its grandiose investment programme, on deadline, with minimal waste and corruption?The answer will have profound implications for the economy, not only in the speed of recovery from the global recession, but also in how the country can compete over the medium term.
One promising sign, however, is the commitment made to allow public scrutiny of the "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" programme. The Finance Ministry has set up a website,www.tkk2555.com, that promises to allow anyone access to details on the progress made in implementing each of the thousands of projects under the programme.
The website name stems from Thai Khem Kaeng , as the programme is more commonly known, combined with the Buddhist year 2555, representing the year 2012 or when the investments are to be completed.
Supachai Jongsiri, the ministry's deputy permanent secretary overseeing the website, said the objective was to give the entire public, urban and rural residents alike, clear access to details of each project involved in the programme.
Web programmers have been directed to make the site user-friendly and accessible to laymen.
"The aim is to allow the public to participate directly, to examine for themselves how public money is being spent,"Mr Supachai said.
It is a novel concept for the civil service.Historically, government projects have been mostly hidden from view with little opportunity given for ordinary citizens to access details about spending, procurement and investment details.
A map of Thailand on the website categorises each of the projects by geographic area. Clicking on any individual project will bring up details on the responsible agency and project objective.If a project has already had funds committed, additional details are given about progress made to date.
Each project is colour-coded, with purple representing projects on track and red for projects that have fallen behind schedule.
Mr Supachai said the progress reports on the web would serve as a tool to measure the efficiency of each state agency in implementing projects under the Thai Khem Kaeng programme.Agencies behind schedule must stipulate the reasons for delays, as well as the individuals responsible for the project.
"The public can contact any agency for themselves if they wish. We believe this will help put pressure on the different state departments to meet their mandates, helping raise efficiency for the entire programme," Mr Supachai said.
Authorities say Thai Khem Kaeng will feature public transparency at a scale never before seen in Thailand. The funding details and budgets approved by the cabinet for the projects will be open to scrutiny, as well as the winning contractor bids and procurement details.
Projects proposed by each ministry are first vetted by the Budget Department,and then by the cabinet for final approval.Project details are input into the Government Fiscal Management System (GFMIS), a database that was set up in 2004 as part of the civil service's "egovernment" initiative.
The Budget Bureau will also input details on each project in its own ebudgeting system, including disbursement schedules based on the priority assigned to each project. This data is reconciled with the GFMIS system, with cross-links made between the agencies responsible for making payments for each project, planning centres overseeing the progress made to date to facilitate quick identification of where bottlenecks and delays exist.
"All of the information is electronic.Even questions submitted through the website by the public will be forwarded and answered online by the responsible agencies. Each project must have its data keyed into the system using a webbased form," Mr Supachai said.
He said he wanted the site to have a web board allowing the public to post comments about the projects, adding another level of checks and balances.
The ministry is even investing in additional servers and bandwidth to help cope with public demand for the site.
The site will split small microprojects from larger projects involving funds of more than 50 or 100 million baht. Larger projects will have additional data available in an e-book, including information about the project design, photographs tracking progress made at each stage and Google Earth maps showing the location of each project.
So far, the cabinet has approved 2,352 projects, involving 199 billion baht. Most are small community programmes selected for their readiness and ability for rapid completion, to maximise the shortterm benefits for the economy.
It's a 1.43-trillion-baht question can the government effectively implement its grandiose investment programme, on deadline, with minimal waste and corruption?The answer will have profound implications for the economy, not only in the speed of recovery from the global recession, but also in how the country can compete over the medium term.
One promising sign, however, is the commitment made to allow public scrutiny of the "Thailand: Investing from Strength to Strength" programme. The Finance Ministry has set up a website,www.tkk2555.com, that promises to allow anyone access to details on the progress made in implementing each of the thousands of projects under the programme.
The website name stems from Thai Khem Kaeng , as the programme is more commonly known, combined with the Buddhist year 2555, representing the year 2012 or when the investments are to be completed.
Supachai Jongsiri, the ministry's deputy permanent secretary overseeing the website, said the objective was to give the entire public, urban and rural residents alike, clear access to details of each project involved in the programme.
Web programmers have been directed to make the site user-friendly and accessible to laymen.
"The aim is to allow the public to participate directly, to examine for themselves how public money is being spent,"Mr Supachai said.
It is a novel concept for the civil service.Historically, government projects have been mostly hidden from view with little opportunity given for ordinary citizens to access details about spending, procurement and investment details.
A map of Thailand on the website categorises each of the projects by geographic area. Clicking on any individual project will bring up details on the responsible agency and project objective.If a project has already had funds committed, additional details are given about progress made to date.
Each project is colour-coded, with purple representing projects on track and red for projects that have fallen behind schedule.
Mr Supachai said the progress reports on the web would serve as a tool to measure the efficiency of each state agency in implementing projects under the Thai Khem Kaeng programme.Agencies behind schedule must stipulate the reasons for delays, as well as the individuals responsible for the project.
"The public can contact any agency for themselves if they wish. We believe this will help put pressure on the different state departments to meet their mandates, helping raise efficiency for the entire programme," Mr Supachai said.
Authorities say Thai Khem Kaeng will feature public transparency at a scale never before seen in Thailand. The funding details and budgets approved by the cabinet for the projects will be open to scrutiny, as well as the winning contractor bids and procurement details.
Projects proposed by each ministry are first vetted by the Budget Department,and then by the cabinet for final approval.Project details are input into the Government Fiscal Management System (GFMIS), a database that was set up in 2004 as part of the civil service's "egovernment" initiative.
The Budget Bureau will also input details on each project in its own ebudgeting system, including disbursement schedules based on the priority assigned to each project. This data is reconciled with the GFMIS system, with cross-links made between the agencies responsible for making payments for each project, planning centres overseeing the progress made to date to facilitate quick identification of where bottlenecks and delays exist.
"All of the information is electronic.Even questions submitted through the website by the public will be forwarded and answered online by the responsible agencies. Each project must have its data keyed into the system using a webbased form," Mr Supachai said.
He said he wanted the site to have a web board allowing the public to post comments about the projects, adding another level of checks and balances.
The ministry is even investing in additional servers and bandwidth to help cope with public demand for the site.
The site will split small microprojects from larger projects involving funds of more than 50 or 100 million baht. Larger projects will have additional data available in an e-book, including information about the project design, photographs tracking progress made at each stage and Google Earth maps showing the location of each project.
So far, the cabinet has approved 2,352 projects, involving 199 billion baht. Most are small community programmes selected for their readiness and ability for rapid completion, to maximise the shortterm benefits for the economy.
Merkel flash mob protest becomes cyber hit
A YouTube video featuring a "flash mob" heckling German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an election rally has been watched by more than a quarter of a million people.
The protest, held by dozens of people last week in the northern city of Hamburg,had participants shouting "Yeaahh" at every sentence spoken by the conservative leader, who leads in opinion polls ahead of Sunday's vote.
The video, which has already been viewed by 282,000 people, also showed protesters waving placards with the words:"All together: Yeaahh".
The chancellor appeared unfazed by the interruptions and carried on with her stump speech.
The activists apparently turned up at the rally after someone posted a picture of Mrs Merkel on the online picturesharing website Flickr along with an invitation to "flash mob" her in Hamburg.
The notice was picked up by other websites and Twitter, the micro-blogging service.
"This is our political message and the political meaning of this flash mob - we won't swallow election campaign messages anymore and we'll throw Merkel's rubbish back at her with an ironic 'Yeaahh'," wrote Rene Walter on the nerdcore.de blog.
Mrs Merkel is set to stage her final campaign rally tomorrow in the capital Berlin.
The protest, held by dozens of people last week in the northern city of Hamburg,had participants shouting "Yeaahh" at every sentence spoken by the conservative leader, who leads in opinion polls ahead of Sunday's vote.
The video, which has already been viewed by 282,000 people, also showed protesters waving placards with the words:"All together: Yeaahh".
The chancellor appeared unfazed by the interruptions and carried on with her stump speech.
The activists apparently turned up at the rally after someone posted a picture of Mrs Merkel on the online picturesharing website Flickr along with an invitation to "flash mob" her in Hamburg.
The notice was picked up by other websites and Twitter, the micro-blogging service.
"This is our political message and the political meaning of this flash mob - we won't swallow election campaign messages anymore and we'll throw Merkel's rubbish back at her with an ironic 'Yeaahh'," wrote Rene Walter on the nerdcore.de blog.
Mrs Merkel is set to stage her final campaign rally tomorrow in the capital Berlin.
VN ruling party website fined for China item
Vietnam's Information Ministry has fined the ruling Communist Party's news website for posting an article that drew fire for appearing to support China's position on disputed islands in the South China Sea.
An official in the Information Centre of the Ministry of Information and Communications said the Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper (www.dangcongsan.vn) had been fined 30 million dong (56,400 baht).
The offending article, posted on Sept 4, was a translation of a news report from China about Chinese naval exercises around the Spratly and Paracel Islands,the source of long-running, multilateral disputes over sovereignty. It sparked an outcry online in Vietnam, with readers complaining that the Communist Party's website appeared to accept the exercises as normal and had failed to defend Vietnam's claims to sovereignty over the Spratlys and Paracels.
An official in the Information Centre of the Ministry of Information and Communications said the Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper (www.dangcongsan.vn) had been fined 30 million dong (56,400 baht).
The offending article, posted on Sept 4, was a translation of a news report from China about Chinese naval exercises around the Spratly and Paracel Islands,the source of long-running, multilateral disputes over sovereignty. It sparked an outcry online in Vietnam, with readers complaining that the Communist Party's website appeared to accept the exercises as normal and had failed to defend Vietnam's claims to sovereignty over the Spratlys and Paracels.
Military goes on web alert
The Defence Ministry has placed all military units on alert to curb acts of lese majeste in cyberspace and on community radio stations.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has told the armed forces to carry out extensive monitoring of internet and radio content, ministry spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng said yesterday.
Many unauthorised websites and community radio stations had been found to propagate negative opinions which could be seen as a threat to national security and the monarchy, Col Thanathip said.
He said a Justice Ministry survey had found more than 10,000 sites contained content that offended the monarchy but only about 2,000 of them could be successfully traced and banned.
The armed forces were asked to report acts of lese majeste to the Public Relations Department and the Information and Communication Technology Ministry.
Army chief-of-staff and Internal Security Operations Command secretarygeneral Prayuth Chan-ocha sought the cooperation of all army divisions in dealing with lese majeste problems on the internet, an army source said.
Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has told the armed forces to carry out extensive monitoring of internet and radio content, ministry spokesman Thanathip Sawangsaeng said yesterday.
Many unauthorised websites and community radio stations had been found to propagate negative opinions which could be seen as a threat to national security and the monarchy, Col Thanathip said.
He said a Justice Ministry survey had found more than 10,000 sites contained content that offended the monarchy but only about 2,000 of them could be successfully traced and banned.
The armed forces were asked to report acts of lese majeste to the Public Relations Department and the Information and Communication Technology Ministry.
Army chief-of-staff and Internal Security Operations Command secretarygeneral Prayuth Chan-ocha sought the cooperation of all army divisions in dealing with lese majeste problems on the internet, an army source said.
Club to protect online news content
Major news groups yesterday jointly committed themselves to enriching the value of their online content while countering the threat from copy-and-paste websites and "netizens" used to getting everything for free.
While the formation of the Online News Producers Club was aimed primarily at protecting the proprietary material of news websites, it may underline the readiness of the print-media industry, which also operates most of the top news websites, to find a firmer commercial foothold in cyberspace.
A joint declaration forming the club was signed by 13 major online news-content providers: ASTV Manager, Thai Rath Online, Daily News Online, Matichon, Post Publishing, the Nation Multimedia Group, Siam Sport, INN Online, Thansettakij Online, Dara Daily Online, Nawnha Online, Siam Rath Online and Thai Post Online.
This is the first formal collaboration of journalists to deal with the current situation where many commercial websites borrow copyrighted material to post on their websites without permission.
The club will be patient and diplomatic at first in trying to convince the commercial websites with pirated news to halt their activities, said Nation Broadcasting president Adisak Limprungpatanakij.
The club wants them to add RSS feeds to their websites, so visitors interested in articles can receive the news from their sources directly, he said.
NO TO PIRACY
"We don't want to limit the news accessibility of people, but we want the owners of commercial websites to be aware of the fact that we have to invest in news production, so they should respect the copyrighted content and not pirate it," Adisak said.
"We always welcome them to make a link back to the original source of news. That would be a better way out for both the websites and the news producers."
The club will select its president and form committees to map out a strategy and measures to promote the proper use of online news among Internet communities and websites.
With news groups still struggling to find a workable online business model, the situation has been hampered by the proliferation of pirated content on commercial websites, a big stumbling block to any plan to charge readers for online news.
All news websites in Thailand are now free, but media-industry observers believe local operators will sooner or later follow the trend of their Western counterparts, who are moving faster towards charging for online news.
While online ad revenue has been increasing, the rise is not fast enough for the print industry to make a drastic switch to a virtual business. Trying to charge readers also carries a risk of sabotaging present online ad revenue, which depends largely on the number of visitors to each website.
While the formation of the Online News Producers Club was aimed primarily at protecting the proprietary material of news websites, it may underline the readiness of the print-media industry, which also operates most of the top news websites, to find a firmer commercial foothold in cyberspace.
A joint declaration forming the club was signed by 13 major online news-content providers: ASTV Manager, Thai Rath Online, Daily News Online, Matichon, Post Publishing, the Nation Multimedia Group, Siam Sport, INN Online, Thansettakij Online, Dara Daily Online, Nawnha Online, Siam Rath Online and Thai Post Online.
This is the first formal collaboration of journalists to deal with the current situation where many commercial websites borrow copyrighted material to post on their websites without permission.
The club will be patient and diplomatic at first in trying to convince the commercial websites with pirated news to halt their activities, said Nation Broadcasting president Adisak Limprungpatanakij.
The club wants them to add RSS feeds to their websites, so visitors interested in articles can receive the news from their sources directly, he said.
NO TO PIRACY
"We don't want to limit the news accessibility of people, but we want the owners of commercial websites to be aware of the fact that we have to invest in news production, so they should respect the copyrighted content and not pirate it," Adisak said.
"We always welcome them to make a link back to the original source of news. That would be a better way out for both the websites and the news producers."
The club will select its president and form committees to map out a strategy and measures to promote the proper use of online news among Internet communities and websites.
With news groups still struggling to find a workable online business model, the situation has been hampered by the proliferation of pirated content on commercial websites, a big stumbling block to any plan to charge readers for online news.
All news websites in Thailand are now free, but media-industry observers believe local operators will sooner or later follow the trend of their Western counterparts, who are moving faster towards charging for online news.
While online ad revenue has been increasing, the rise is not fast enough for the print industry to make a drastic switch to a virtual business. Trying to charge readers also carries a risk of sabotaging present online ad revenue, which depends largely on the number of visitors to each website.
US PEER-TO-PEER LOAN WEBSITES PROVING A POPULAR ALTERNATIVE
With banks tight tening their lending standards an dcredit-card companies raising interest rates, US borrowers are increasingly turning to an unusual source of money: other people.
Despite a recent regulatory hurdle, websites that facilitate peer-to-peer lending, in which people-often strangers-lend money to each other with no involvement from a bank, are growing in popularity. Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Analysts expect the industry to grow as customers who face rising credit-card rates search for new ways to refinance their debt. Many investors, meanwhile, have lost confidence in the rocky stock market and have sought other places to park their cash. Membership in peer-to-peer lending groups is climbing fast, and so is the money involved. About US$282 million (Bt9.46 billion) in peer-to-peer loans were made in 2006, according to Celent, a Boston-based research firm. By 2010, the firm expects such loans to grow to $5.8 billion.
The industry has gained so many followers that the Securities and Exchange Commission last year ruled that companies engaging in peer-to-peer lending must register with the agency because the loans are considered secutities. After temporariy suspending their operations for several months, Prosper and Lending Club completed theirregistrations. Loanio and IOU Central have filed their papers, an SEC spokesman said. Others are expected to follow.
"With this credit crunch, the timing couldn't have been better for this industry to really gain a foothold and grow," said Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com and co-author of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Person-to-Person Lending". "It offers a viable option for folks who are getting turned down for credit elsewhere. There's a lot of people fed up with banks. From the investment side, that is intriguing. When you can get returns of 9 to 10 per cent in this market...that's pretty amazing."
Since registering with the SEC in October, Lending Club has gained 300,000 members. In January, it oversaw $1.8 million in loans. Last month, $3.4 million in loans were made.
Between the time it launched in 2006 and registered with the SEC in July, Prosper has grown to 850,000 members and facilitated $180 million in loans.
Officials at the lending sites said much of their increased traffic had come from borrowers whose interest rates on their credit cards have spiked.
Card issuers have been raising rates in anticipation of a new law, set to take effect in February, that could hinder rate increases. During the housing boom, many consumers were able to get out of their card debt through home-equity lines of credit. But home values have plummeted in many areas, leaving borrowers without a source of money they once fell back on. About 50 per cent of Prosper's loans goes to borrowers trying to consolidate credit card debt, said Chris Larsen, Prosper's chief executive Prosper's loans can come with interest rates as low as 4 per cent. "With their credit card debt, it could take 20 years to pay it off," Larsen said.
Other peer-to-peer lending sites operate differently. Prosper allows lenders to bid on the interest rates for borrowers, which results in lowrate loans. Virgin Money codifies loans between friends and families. Other companies specialise in particular types of loans. TuitionU, for example, help students get loans to pay for school.
The sites typically vet borrowers by pulling their credit reports and requiring minimum credit scores. But the loans do not come without some risk. Lending Club's borrowers have a default rate of about 3 per cent. Prosper's default rate is about 5 per cent. If a borrower misses payments, the sites report them to credit bureaus. Officials at the sites point out that credit card default rates are in the double digits.
Still, Mark Schwanhausser, a research analyst at California-based Javelin Strategy and Research who has studied peer-to-peer lending sites, said investors should be vigilant for signs that borrowers are struggling to repay their loans. "It's not a 'buy it and tuck it away' kind of thing," he said. "I think you want to pay attention."
Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Despite a recent regulatory hurdle, websites that facilitate peer-to-peer lending, in which people-often strangers-lend money to each other with no involvement from a bank, are growing in popularity. Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Analysts expect the industry to grow as customers who face rising credit-card rates search for new ways to refinance their debt. Many investors, meanwhile, have lost confidence in the rocky stock market and have sought other places to park their cash. Membership in peer-to-peer lending groups is climbing fast, and so is the money involved. About US$282 million (Bt9.46 billion) in peer-to-peer loans were made in 2006, according to Celent, a Boston-based research firm. By 2010, the firm expects such loans to grow to $5.8 billion.
The industry has gained so many followers that the Securities and Exchange Commission last year ruled that companies engaging in peer-to-peer lending must register with the agency because the loans are considered secutities. After temporariy suspending their operations for several months, Prosper and Lending Club completed theirregistrations. Loanio and IOU Central have filed their papers, an SEC spokesman said. Others are expected to follow.
"With this credit crunch, the timing couldn't have been better for this industry to really gain a foothold and grow," said Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com and co-author of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Person-to-Person Lending". "It offers a viable option for folks who are getting turned down for credit elsewhere. There's a lot of people fed up with banks. From the investment side, that is intriguing. When you can get returns of 9 to 10 per cent in this market...that's pretty amazing."
Since registering with the SEC in October, Lending Club has gained 300,000 members. In January, it oversaw $1.8 million in loans. Last month, $3.4 million in loans were made.
Between the time it launched in 2006 and registered with the SEC in July, Prosper has grown to 850,000 members and facilitated $180 million in loans.
Officials at the lending sites said much of their increased traffic had come from borrowers whose interest rates on their credit cards have spiked.
Card issuers have been raising rates in anticipation of a new law, set to take effect in February, that could hinder rate increases. During the housing boom, many consumers were able to get out of their card debt through home-equity lines of credit. But home values have plummeted in many areas, leaving borrowers without a source of money they once fell back on. About 50 per cent of Prosper's loans goes to borrowers trying to consolidate credit card debt, said Chris Larsen, Prosper's chief executive Prosper's loans can come with interest rates as low as 4 per cent. "With their credit card debt, it could take 20 years to pay it off," Larsen said.
Other peer-to-peer lending sites operate differently. Prosper allows lenders to bid on the interest rates for borrowers, which results in lowrate loans. Virgin Money codifies loans between friends and families. Other companies specialise in particular types of loans. TuitionU, for example, help students get loans to pay for school.
The sites typically vet borrowers by pulling their credit reports and requiring minimum credit scores. But the loans do not come without some risk. Lending Club's borrowers have a default rate of about 3 per cent. Prosper's default rate is about 5 per cent. If a borrower misses payments, the sites report them to credit bureaus. Officials at the sites point out that credit card default rates are in the double digits.
Still, Mark Schwanhausser, a research analyst at California-based Javelin Strategy and Research who has studied peer-to-peer lending sites, said investors should be vigilant for signs that borrowers are struggling to repay their loans. "It's not a 'buy it and tuck it away' kind of thing," he said. "I think you want to pay attention."
Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Yahoo! to spend $100m in bid for more brand buzz
Yahoo! believes a lot of its good work has been overlooked by investors and the media so it's spending more than US$100 million (Bt3.3 billion) to get the word out to consumers directly.
The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Standford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's website 15 years ago. Yahoo! provided a peek at the 15-month blitz on Tuesday in New York.
The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo! hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is alrady approaching 600 million.
Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged and many people turned to Internet search leader Goodgle and relative newcomers like Facebook and Twtiter - none of which have spent much money on self-promotion.
Yahoo's financial struggles were magnified last year when Yang and the rest of the Sunnyvale-based company's board spurned a $47.5-billion takeover offer from Microsoft.
The rebuff alienated many Yahoo! shareholders, and the missed Microsoft opportunity has remained a recurring theme in the business press because the company's market value now is about 50 per cent below Microsoft's last takeover offer in May 2008, before the rivals ultimately agreed on a search partnership nearly two months ago.
Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz, hired eight months ago to steer a turnaround, believes the company has been getting a bum rap - something she hopes to reverse with the new advertising push.
"When you get outside of New York City and Silicon Valley, everybody loves Yahoo!," Bartz said on Tuesday during a press conference that was webcast. "Why are you [the media] so cynical about us? Be cynical about frigging Google. If you don't love us, leave us alone."
Wall Street's affinity for Google is driven by money.
Google's revenue has been rising in recent years, even during the US recession, largely because it dominates the Internet search market and can thus sell more text-based ads that appear on the side of search results. Yahoo's share of the search market has shrunk in the past few years and, more recently, the recession has made it more difficult to sell the visual ads that have long been its specialty.
The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Standford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's website 15 years ago. Yahoo! provided a peek at the 15-month blitz on Tuesday in New York.
The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo! hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is alrady approaching 600 million.
Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged and many people turned to Internet search leader Goodgle and relative newcomers like Facebook and Twtiter - none of which have spent much money on self-promotion.
Yahoo's financial struggles were magnified last year when Yang and the rest of the Sunnyvale-based company's board spurned a $47.5-billion takeover offer from Microsoft.
The rebuff alienated many Yahoo! shareholders, and the missed Microsoft opportunity has remained a recurring theme in the business press because the company's market value now is about 50 per cent below Microsoft's last takeover offer in May 2008, before the rivals ultimately agreed on a search partnership nearly two months ago.
Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz, hired eight months ago to steer a turnaround, believes the company has been getting a bum rap - something she hopes to reverse with the new advertising push.
"When you get outside of New York City and Silicon Valley, everybody loves Yahoo!," Bartz said on Tuesday during a press conference that was webcast. "Why are you [the media] so cynical about us? Be cynical about frigging Google. If you don't love us, leave us alone."
Wall Street's affinity for Google is driven by money.
Google's revenue has been rising in recent years, even during the US recession, largely because it dominates the Internet search market and can thus sell more text-based ads that appear on the side of search results. Yahoo's share of the search market has shrunk in the past few years and, more recently, the recession has made it more difficult to sell the visual ads that have long been its specialty.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Rights group urges govt to stop harassing news website
A global rights group has urged Malaysia to stop harassing a news website after it put up a video of Muslim protesters stepping on a cow's head during a protest against a planned Hindu temple.
The Aug 28 protest raised ethnic tensions in Muslim-majority Malaysia,where about 8% of the country's 28 million people are ethnic Indians. Most of the ethnic Indians are Hindus for whom cows are sacred animals.
Independent news website Malaysiakini was told to remove two videos,including one of the protest in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state. The site has refused to remove them.
The clips are only accessible to Malaysiakini subscribers with one of them showing protesters stepping and spitting on a severed cow head in front of the Selangor government's headquarters,demanding that a Hindu temple not be built in their neighbourhood. The other video was of a subsequent news conference by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, a Muslim, who appeared to defend the protesters.
In a statement received late on Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said the government should not tell Malaysiakini to remove the videos.
"The government wants to make the problem disappear by taking the videos off the internet," Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch,said in the statement.
In a Sept 3 letter to Malaysiakini, the government's Comunication and Multimedia Commission warned that the videos were against the law because they "contained offensive contents with intent to annoy any person, especially the Indians".
The offence is punishable by up to a year in prison or up to 50,000 ringgit (484,164 baht). Commission officials have also questioned Malaysiakini's editors and staff and asked for the tapes. Malaysiakini has refused to remove the videos,saying they merely record news events.
"The government's investigation of Malaysiakini is nothing short of media harassment and it needs to stop ...Malaysians are entitled to know all sides of a story. It is not up to the government to approve what news is fit to air, print,or post," Ms Pearson said.
Twelve of the protesters have been charged with illegal assembly, and six of them also with sedition, defined as promoting ill will and hostility between different races. It is punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine. Illegal assembly is punishable by one year in jail and a fine.
All mainstream media in Malaysia are linked to the government, which is dominated by Muslim Malays. They account for 60% of the population. Ethnic Chinese and Indians are the biggest minorities.
Malaysiakini and blogs are not subject to censorship but some have faced court action for articles and comments deemed to be offensive.
The Aug 28 protest raised ethnic tensions in Muslim-majority Malaysia,where about 8% of the country's 28 million people are ethnic Indians. Most of the ethnic Indians are Hindus for whom cows are sacred animals.
Independent news website Malaysiakini was told to remove two videos,including one of the protest in Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor state. The site has refused to remove them.
The clips are only accessible to Malaysiakini subscribers with one of them showing protesters stepping and spitting on a severed cow head in front of the Selangor government's headquarters,demanding that a Hindu temple not be built in their neighbourhood. The other video was of a subsequent news conference by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, a Muslim, who appeared to defend the protesters.
In a statement received late on Tuesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said the government should not tell Malaysiakini to remove the videos.
"The government wants to make the problem disappear by taking the videos off the internet," Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch,said in the statement.
In a Sept 3 letter to Malaysiakini, the government's Comunication and Multimedia Commission warned that the videos were against the law because they "contained offensive contents with intent to annoy any person, especially the Indians".
The offence is punishable by up to a year in prison or up to 50,000 ringgit (484,164 baht). Commission officials have also questioned Malaysiakini's editors and staff and asked for the tapes. Malaysiakini has refused to remove the videos,saying they merely record news events.
"The government's investigation of Malaysiakini is nothing short of media harassment and it needs to stop ...Malaysians are entitled to know all sides of a story. It is not up to the government to approve what news is fit to air, print,or post," Ms Pearson said.
Twelve of the protesters have been charged with illegal assembly, and six of them also with sedition, defined as promoting ill will and hostility between different races. It is punishable by up to three years in jail and a fine. Illegal assembly is punishable by one year in jail and a fine.
All mainstream media in Malaysia are linked to the government, which is dominated by Muslim Malays. They account for 60% of the population. Ethnic Chinese and Indians are the biggest minorities.
Malaysiakini and blogs are not subject to censorship but some have faced court action for articles and comments deemed to be offensive.
US PEER-TO-PEER LOAN WEBSITES PROVING A POPULAR ALTERNATIVE
With banks tight tening their lending standards an dcredit-card companies raising interest rates, US borrowers are increasingly turning to an unusual source of money: other people.
Despite a recent regulatory hurdle, websites that facilitate peer-to-peer lending, in which people-often strangers-lend money to each other with no involvement from a bank, are growing in popularity. Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Analysts expect the industry to grow as customers who face rising credit-card rates search for new ways to refinance their debt. Many investors, meanwhile, have lost confidence in the rocky stock market and have sought other places to park their cash. Membership in peer-to-peer lending groups is climbing fast, and so is the money involved. About US$282 million (Bt9.46 billion) in peer-to-peer loans were made in 2006, according to Celent, a Boston-based research firm. By 2010, the firm expects such loans to grow to $5.8 billion.
The industry has gained so many followers that the Securities and Exchange Commission last year ruled that companies engaging in peer-to-peer lending must register with the agency because the loans are considered secutities. After temporariy suspending their operations for several months, Prosper and Lending Club completed theirregistrations. Loanio and IOU Central have filed their papers, an SEC spokesman said. Others are expected to follow.
"With this credit crunch, the timing couldn't have been better for this industry to really gain a foothold and grow," said Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com and co-author of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Person-to-Person Lending". "It offers a viable option for folks who are getting turned down for credit elsewhere. There's a lot of people fed up with banks. From the investment side, that is intriguing. When you can get returns of 9 to 10 per cent in this market...that's pretty amazing."
Since registering with the SEC in October, Lending Club has gained 300,000 members. In January, it oversaw $1.8 million in loans. Last month, $3.4 million in loans were made.
Between the time it launched in 2006 and registered with the SEC in July, Prosper has grown to 850,000 members and facilitated $180 million in loans.
Officials at the lending sites said much of their increased traffic had come from borrowers whose interest rates on their credit cards have spiked.
Card issuers have been raising rates in anticipation of a new law, set to take effect in February, that could hinder rate increases. During the housing boom, many consumers were able to get out of their card debt through home-equity lines of credit. But home values have plummeted in many areas, leaving borrowers without a source of money they once fell back on. About 50 per cent of Prosper's loans goes to borrowers trying to consolidate credit card debt, said Chris Larsen, Prosper's chief executive Prosper's loans can come with interest rates as low as 4 per cent. "With their credit card debt, it could take 20 years to pay it off," Larsen said.
Other peer-to-peer lending sites operate differently. Prosper allows lenders to bid on the interest rates for borrowers, which results in lowrate loans. Virgin Money codifies loans between friends and families. Other companies specialise in particular types of loans. TuitionU, for example, help students get loans to pay for school.
The sites typically vet borrowers by pulling their credit reports and requiring minimum credit scores. But the loans do not come without some risk. Lending Club's borrowers have a default rate of about 3 per cent. Prosper's default rate is about 5 per cent. If a borrower misses payments, the sites report them to credit bureaus. Officials at the sites point out that credit card default rates are in the double digits.
Still, Mark Schwanhausser, a research analyst at California-based Javelin Strategy and Research who has studied peer-to-peer lending sites, said investors should be vigilant for signs that borrowers are struggling to repay their loans. "It's not a 'buy it and tuck it away' kind of thing," he said. "I think you want to pay attention."
Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Despite a recent regulatory hurdle, websites that facilitate peer-to-peer lending, in which people-often strangers-lend money to each other with no involvement from a bank, are growing in popularity. Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Analysts expect the industry to grow as customers who face rising credit-card rates search for new ways to refinance their debt. Many investors, meanwhile, have lost confidence in the rocky stock market and have sought other places to park their cash. Membership in peer-to-peer lending groups is climbing fast, and so is the money involved. About US$282 million (Bt9.46 billion) in peer-to-peer loans were made in 2006, according to Celent, a Boston-based research firm. By 2010, the firm expects such loans to grow to $5.8 billion.
The industry has gained so many followers that the Securities and Exchange Commission last year ruled that companies engaging in peer-to-peer lending must register with the agency because the loans are considered secutities. After temporariy suspending their operations for several months, Prosper and Lending Club completed theirregistrations. Loanio and IOU Central have filed their papers, an SEC spokesman said. Others are expected to follow.
"With this credit crunch, the timing couldn't have been better for this industry to really gain a foothold and grow," said Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com and co-author of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to Person-to-Person Lending". "It offers a viable option for folks who are getting turned down for credit elsewhere. There's a lot of people fed up with banks. From the investment side, that is intriguing. When you can get returns of 9 to 10 per cent in this market...that's pretty amazing."
Since registering with the SEC in October, Lending Club has gained 300,000 members. In January, it oversaw $1.8 million in loans. Last month, $3.4 million in loans were made.
Between the time it launched in 2006 and registered with the SEC in July, Prosper has grown to 850,000 members and facilitated $180 million in loans.
Officials at the lending sites said much of their increased traffic had come from borrowers whose interest rates on their credit cards have spiked.
Card issuers have been raising rates in anticipation of a new law, set to take effect in February, that could hinder rate increases. During the housing boom, many consumers were able to get out of their card debt through home-equity lines of credit. But home values have plummeted in many areas, leaving borrowers without a source of money they once fell back on. About 50 per cent of Prosper's loans goes to borrowers trying to consolidate credit card debt, said Chris Larsen, Prosper's chief executive Prosper's loans can come with interest rates as low as 4 per cent. "With their credit card debt, it could take 20 years to pay it off," Larsen said.
Other peer-to-peer lending sites operate differently. Prosper allows lenders to bid on the interest rates for borrowers, which results in lowrate loans. Virgin Money codifies loans between friends and families. Other companies specialise in particular types of loans. TuitionU, for example, help students get loans to pay for school.
The sites typically vet borrowers by pulling their credit reports and requiring minimum credit scores. But the loans do not come without some risk. Lending Club's borrowers have a default rate of about 3 per cent. Prosper's default rate is about 5 per cent. If a borrower misses payments, the sites report them to credit bureaus. Officials at the sites point out that credit card default rates are in the double digits.
Still, Mark Schwanhausser, a research analyst at California-based Javelin Strategy and Research who has studied peer-to-peer lending sites, said investors should be vigilant for signs that borrowers are struggling to repay their loans. "It's not a 'buy it and tuck it away' kind of thing," he said. "I think you want to pay attention."
Borrowers usually get loans with lower rates than they would from banks or credit cards, while investors often get higher returns than they would from traditional bank products such as certificates of deposit.
Yahoo! to spend $100m in bid for more brand buzz
Yahoo! believes a lot of its good work has been overlooked by investors and the media so it's spending more than US$100 million (Bt3.3 billion) to get the word out to consumers directly.
The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Standford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's website 15 years ago. Yahoo! provided a peek at the 15-month blitz on Tuesday in New York.
The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo! hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is alrady approaching 600 million.
Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged and many people turned to Internet search leader Goodgle and relative newcomers like Facebook and Twtiter - none of which have spent much money on self-promotion.
Yahoo's financial struggles were magnified last year when Yang and the rest of the Sunnyvale-based company's board spurned a $47.5-billion takeover offer from Microsoft.
The rebuff alienated many Yahoo! shareholders, and the missed Microsoft opportunity has remained a recurring theme in the business press because the company's market value now is about 50 per cent below Microsoft's last takeover offer in May 2008, before the rivals ultimately agreed on a search partnership nearly two months ago.
Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz, hired eight months ago to steer a turnaround, believes the company has been getting a bum rap - something she hopes to reverse with the new advertising push.
"When you get outside of New York City and Silicon Valley, everybody loves Yahoo!," Bartz said on Tuesday during a press conference that was webcast. "Why are you [the media] so cynical about us? Be cynical about frigging Google. If you don't love us, leave us alone."
Wall Street's affinity for Google is driven by money.
Google's revenue has been rising in recent years, even during the US recession, largely because it dominates the Internet search market and can thus sell more text-based ads that appear on the side of search results. Yahoo's share of the search market has shrunk in the past few years and, more recently, the recession has made it more difficult to sell the visual ads that have long been its specialty.
The money is going toward the Internet company's most expensive marketing campaign since Standford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started Yahoo's website 15 years ago. Yahoo! provided a peek at the 15-month blitz on Tuesday in New York.
The ads will run on television, online and other media in the United States and nine other countries where Yahoo! hopes to expand on a worldwide audience that is alrady approaching 600 million.
Despite its extensive reach, Yahoo's brand has been bruised in recent years as its profits sagged and many people turned to Internet search leader Goodgle and relative newcomers like Facebook and Twtiter - none of which have spent much money on self-promotion.
Yahoo's financial struggles were magnified last year when Yang and the rest of the Sunnyvale-based company's board spurned a $47.5-billion takeover offer from Microsoft.
The rebuff alienated many Yahoo! shareholders, and the missed Microsoft opportunity has remained a recurring theme in the business press because the company's market value now is about 50 per cent below Microsoft's last takeover offer in May 2008, before the rivals ultimately agreed on a search partnership nearly two months ago.
Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz, hired eight months ago to steer a turnaround, believes the company has been getting a bum rap - something she hopes to reverse with the new advertising push.
"When you get outside of New York City and Silicon Valley, everybody loves Yahoo!," Bartz said on Tuesday during a press conference that was webcast. "Why are you [the media] so cynical about us? Be cynical about frigging Google. If you don't love us, leave us alone."
Wall Street's affinity for Google is driven by money.
Google's revenue has been rising in recent years, even during the US recession, largely because it dominates the Internet search market and can thus sell more text-based ads that appear on the side of search results. Yahoo's share of the search market has shrunk in the past few years and, more recently, the recession has made it more difficult to sell the visual ads that have long been its specialty.
A piece of the action
And the crowd went wild as Steve "President for Life" Jobs of Apple Computer came out on the stage to emcee the now-annual September music sales pitch, with loads of new stuff; in the biggest news, the iPod Nano got a video camera and FM radio, and Steve showed off the new iTunes Ver 9 management software; he also showed off the iPhone OS 3.1, available for download, which actually recommends apps you might like, has better synching for music and video, and lets you save video from email attachments into your playlist, aka Camera Roll.
Apple cut the prices of its old iPod models just hours ahead of announcing new iPod models; the price of the 32-gigabyte iPod Touch was cut $120 to $279, or 9,500 baht in real money; a 120-gig iPod Classic now costs $229, a $20 cut by the generous folks who run Apple. Palm introduced a smaller,cheaper smartphone than the successful Pre; the Pixi, as it's called, is aimed at younger users; it's slimmer, has a smaller screen, but features a Qwerty keyboard,8GB of memory and a two-megapixel camera.
US President Barack Obama, in a controversial school-time speech to most US children, advised them to be careful about what they put on Facebook and other social networks;"Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," he warned.
First Solar of America signed a contract with the Chinese government to build the world's largest solar power plant in Inner Mongolia; assuming it is built, the Ordos City plant will push out 2,000 megawatts of electricity,around four times the size of the projects being built by the US Army in the Mojave Desert and by First Solar in California;the China project isn't near anything much; Ordos City is a coal-producing,eight-year-old, planned low-carbon development with about 1.5 million residents, roughly 800km west of Beijing.
Networking firm Huawei of China,which has suffered a scandal or two in its Thailand work, was stung to the quick by mean stories in the Australian media that it might be tied to the Chinese espionage services; Guo Fulin, managing director of Huawei in Australia, was hurt by the insensitive stories that his company was under investigation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation; Huawei is a public-owned company, he said, and it is unthinkable that any government agency would be using Huawei to conduct spying.
The government of Cuba took a huge security gamble, and authorised post offices to provide Internet access to the public - just in case the Cuban government ever authorises the public to use the Internet at some point in the future; the only public access currently allowed is to an inside-Cuba intranet for email, provided by post offices at a cost of the equivalent of 55 baht an hour, in a country where the average wage is 680 baht a month.
Japan fired an unmanned cargo craft into orbit; the 16.5-tonne unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) is on a mission to re-supply the space station;it will stay up there to continue ferrying stuff to the US shuttle fleet next year.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologised for the way that people treated World War Two code-breaker and extraordinary computer geek Alan Turing for being gay; Turing was prosecuted for homosexual conduct in 1952,and a mere two years later, he committed suicide;"I am pleased to have the chance how deeply sorry I and we all are," said Mr Brown.
Google , which plans to give away grazillions of books in order to get the (commercial) goods on its customers,offered to let all its opponents have a piece of the action;Amazon.com , which wants to sell grazillions of books to make tonnes of money directly, scoffed.Rupert Murdoch, the American media mogul, began collecting money at the tollgate to his news sites, in an interesting experiment to see if people will actually pay for news on the Net.
IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corp and Google all responded to a plaintive "Help" from the Newspaper Association of America on how to get money from customers who don't want to pay for news; Randy Bennett, who is the senior president for vice in newspapers, said he's looking over 11 different proposals on how to squeeze money out of you;Google, to no one's surprise, offered to put all newspapers behind one vast,semi-expensive firewall, because that would be so convenient for everyone to just pay one company one time, and then Google would spread the money around; sure, that ought to work.
South African technology firm Unlimited IT dispatched Winston, a pigeon,from its office in Pietermaritzburg, with some data for its main hub in Durban strapped to the bird's leg; it took Winston one hour and eight minutes to fly the data card; meanwhile, Unlimited IT tried to send the same data via the speedchallenged Internet connections provided by leading Internet Telkom , and that download was four percent finished by the time Winston arrived; so it's not only countries that start with "T" that have Internet problems.
T-Mobile of Germany and Orange of France merged their yuppiephone operations in Britain, creating a new $13.5 billion company with 28.4 mobile phone customers; the Deutsche Telekom-France Telecom venture will be the biggest provider in the UK, with a 37 percent market share, larger than O2 of Telefonica.
Apple cut the prices of its old iPod models just hours ahead of announcing new iPod models; the price of the 32-gigabyte iPod Touch was cut $120 to $279, or 9,500 baht in real money; a 120-gig iPod Classic now costs $229, a $20 cut by the generous folks who run Apple. Palm introduced a smaller,cheaper smartphone than the successful Pre; the Pixi, as it's called, is aimed at younger users; it's slimmer, has a smaller screen, but features a Qwerty keyboard,8GB of memory and a two-megapixel camera.
US President Barack Obama, in a controversial school-time speech to most US children, advised them to be careful about what they put on Facebook and other social networks;"Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," he warned.
First Solar of America signed a contract with the Chinese government to build the world's largest solar power plant in Inner Mongolia; assuming it is built, the Ordos City plant will push out 2,000 megawatts of electricity,around four times the size of the projects being built by the US Army in the Mojave Desert and by First Solar in California;the China project isn't near anything much; Ordos City is a coal-producing,eight-year-old, planned low-carbon development with about 1.5 million residents, roughly 800km west of Beijing.
Networking firm Huawei of China,which has suffered a scandal or two in its Thailand work, was stung to the quick by mean stories in the Australian media that it might be tied to the Chinese espionage services; Guo Fulin, managing director of Huawei in Australia, was hurt by the insensitive stories that his company was under investigation by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation; Huawei is a public-owned company, he said, and it is unthinkable that any government agency would be using Huawei to conduct spying.
The government of Cuba took a huge security gamble, and authorised post offices to provide Internet access to the public - just in case the Cuban government ever authorises the public to use the Internet at some point in the future; the only public access currently allowed is to an inside-Cuba intranet for email, provided by post offices at a cost of the equivalent of 55 baht an hour, in a country where the average wage is 680 baht a month.
Japan fired an unmanned cargo craft into orbit; the 16.5-tonne unmanned H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV) is on a mission to re-supply the space station;it will stay up there to continue ferrying stuff to the US shuttle fleet next year.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologised for the way that people treated World War Two code-breaker and extraordinary computer geek Alan Turing for being gay; Turing was prosecuted for homosexual conduct in 1952,and a mere two years later, he committed suicide;"I am pleased to have the chance how deeply sorry I and we all are," said Mr Brown.
Google , which plans to give away grazillions of books in order to get the (commercial) goods on its customers,offered to let all its opponents have a piece of the action;Amazon.com , which wants to sell grazillions of books to make tonnes of money directly, scoffed.Rupert Murdoch, the American media mogul, began collecting money at the tollgate to his news sites, in an interesting experiment to see if people will actually pay for news on the Net.
IBM, Microsoft, Oracle Corp and Google all responded to a plaintive "Help" from the Newspaper Association of America on how to get money from customers who don't want to pay for news; Randy Bennett, who is the senior president for vice in newspapers, said he's looking over 11 different proposals on how to squeeze money out of you;Google, to no one's surprise, offered to put all newspapers behind one vast,semi-expensive firewall, because that would be so convenient for everyone to just pay one company one time, and then Google would spread the money around; sure, that ought to work.
South African technology firm Unlimited IT dispatched Winston, a pigeon,from its office in Pietermaritzburg, with some data for its main hub in Durban strapped to the bird's leg; it took Winston one hour and eight minutes to fly the data card; meanwhile, Unlimited IT tried to send the same data via the speedchallenged Internet connections provided by leading Internet Telkom , and that download was four percent finished by the time Winston arrived; so it's not only countries that start with "T" that have Internet problems.
T-Mobile of Germany and Orange of France merged their yuppiephone operations in Britain, creating a new $13.5 billion company with 28.4 mobile phone customers; the Deutsche Telekom-France Telecom venture will be the biggest provider in the UK, with a 37 percent market share, larger than O2 of Telefonica.
The IT gap widens again
It is not so much that Thailand ranked 47th in the world in the most recent Global Information Technology report compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). And it is not just that the rankings put Thailand 19 places behind Malaysia and not that far ahead of Vietnam. The part that should hurt was the WEF commentary, straight from the shoulder,that Thailand continues to lose ground in IT competition with the rest of the world. And the analysis put the full blame on the government.
The Global Information Technology Report is a direct measure of each country's competitiveness. It is a "critical enabler of growth", in the words of Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the WEF, and "is increasingly moving to the core of national competitiveness strategies around the world". But this is exactly the problem. Thai authorities have neither grasped nor encouraged IT development. And in the 21st century,through both perception and results, countries which fail to grasp the opportunity of information technology are letting their citizens down, if not directly dooming them to lack of development.
Last year, Thailand ranked 40th in the world in the global report."Pursuing its downward slide in the ranking, Thailand plunges a further seven positions,"the report's editors wrote."Behind this negative trend is the continuous worsening of the country's performance in all the government-related indicators." That leaves little wriggle room for a government that has had nothing to brag about in the IT field anyhow. And there is plenty of blame to go around. The last two Puea Thai and People's Power administrations lacked in IT motivation and leadership as well.
The current Democrat-led government, however,has proved the WEF's words to be true. When he was forming his coalition government early this year, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made the ill-advised, ultimately harmful decision to turn the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology into one of the lowest political-payoff posts. The appointed minister, Ranongruk Suwunchwee, already had a double fault. She has no experience in the field of IT or in managing technology experts. Worse in some eyes, her husband Pairoj was banned from politics for five years in the Thai Rak Thai court decision, and she is widely seen as his surrogate and proxy.
Mrs Ranongruk has managed to survive seven months as minister without making a public decision on IT.Staff of the state-owned telecommunications agencies TOT and CAT Telecom have publicly demonstrated against her lack of action. All levels of the IT industry have lost faith in the ICT Ministry to push information technology for the public good, whether in the schools,the markets, in business or even in government.
Mrs Ranongruk has retreated behind her office door.Instead of pushing for IT development, she has enthusiastically taken on the role of official Thailand censor.She has banned more than 17,000 websites for real and imagined violations of her personal view of politics and national security. Recently, she has tried, often successfully, to block access to websites that are nothing but political argument, in gross violation of freedom of speech and the press.
The WEF has got it exactly right. The government,through numerous sins of commission and omission,has harmed the development of IT and thus the country.Thailand needs an ICT minister able to send the message that IT is necessary for healthy economic growth. If the government fails to get behind such a push, Thailand will continue to drop in the competitive rankings.
The Global Information Technology Report is a direct measure of each country's competitiveness. It is a "critical enabler of growth", in the words of Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the WEF, and "is increasingly moving to the core of national competitiveness strategies around the world". But this is exactly the problem. Thai authorities have neither grasped nor encouraged IT development. And in the 21st century,through both perception and results, countries which fail to grasp the opportunity of information technology are letting their citizens down, if not directly dooming them to lack of development.
Last year, Thailand ranked 40th in the world in the global report."Pursuing its downward slide in the ranking, Thailand plunges a further seven positions,"the report's editors wrote."Behind this negative trend is the continuous worsening of the country's performance in all the government-related indicators." That leaves little wriggle room for a government that has had nothing to brag about in the IT field anyhow. And there is plenty of blame to go around. The last two Puea Thai and People's Power administrations lacked in IT motivation and leadership as well.
The current Democrat-led government, however,has proved the WEF's words to be true. When he was forming his coalition government early this year, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva made the ill-advised, ultimately harmful decision to turn the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology into one of the lowest political-payoff posts. The appointed minister, Ranongruk Suwunchwee, already had a double fault. She has no experience in the field of IT or in managing technology experts. Worse in some eyes, her husband Pairoj was banned from politics for five years in the Thai Rak Thai court decision, and she is widely seen as his surrogate and proxy.
Mrs Ranongruk has managed to survive seven months as minister without making a public decision on IT.Staff of the state-owned telecommunications agencies TOT and CAT Telecom have publicly demonstrated against her lack of action. All levels of the IT industry have lost faith in the ICT Ministry to push information technology for the public good, whether in the schools,the markets, in business or even in government.
Mrs Ranongruk has retreated behind her office door.Instead of pushing for IT development, she has enthusiastically taken on the role of official Thailand censor.She has banned more than 17,000 websites for real and imagined violations of her personal view of politics and national security. Recently, she has tried, often successfully, to block access to websites that are nothing but political argument, in gross violation of freedom of speech and the press.
The WEF has got it exactly right. The government,through numerous sins of commission and omission,has harmed the development of IT and thus the country.Thailand needs an ICT minister able to send the message that IT is necessary for healthy economic growth. If the government fails to get behind such a push, Thailand will continue to drop in the competitive rankings.
Thailand urged to get tough on pirates
The Business Software Alliance (BSA)has identified Thailand as one of nine priority countries in the fight against piracy, and is encouraging the Government to meet international standards in copyright law.
BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman told Database that on this year's Asian trip he only visited China and Thailand to show how important it is to the market that the issue of software piracy is tackled.
The BSA, which covers more than 80 countries, identified China, Brazil, Russia,India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Turkey and Thailand as having the highest rates of piracy.
Furthermore, Thailand is a priority also because both its home PC market and business IT usage are experiencing rapid growth.
Even through the Government has made progress in the bid to reduce software piracy over the past few years, its rate of 76 percent of software sold in 2008 being pirated is still higher than the Asia Pacific average of 61 percent.
Moreover, the drop in the value of the dollar is further adding to the losses caused by software piracy, with the 2008 figure rising to $609 million (20.5 billion baht), compared to $468 million (15.8 billion baht) in 2007.
Jeffrey Hardee, BSA vice president and regional director Asia Pacific added that Thailand does have an intellectual property policy but the Government needs to do more to persuade business users to respect the law and to educate them in better software management,to not only protect the local software industry but also promote growth and productivity.
He added that Thailand's Copyright Act should match the international benchmark in keeping with WIPO Treaties to promote online business and digital rights management to protect software available in legitimate form,including new environment distribution platforms such as Cloud Computing.
Moreover, the law should also apply to Internet Service Providers who fail to take action against illegal websites after being notified of them.
Hardee said:"It's important to note Thailand's neighbours, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, have already implemented - or are nearing readiness for - solutions to piracy."
Holleyman continued that the plan is for the Asean nations to harmonise their Intellectual Property (IP) laws by 2015, to ensure a free flow of trade in the region and fully implement WIPO Treaties.
The region should learn from the European Union, the world's largest common market, in how it protects software, digital content and e-commerce, as well as battles cyber crime.
The IP issue is growing in importance as social and economic infrastructures including health care and environmental issues are increasingly reliant on software,both nationally and globally.
"The questions that any government should ask is how well we are going to use IT and software to reduce those problems," said Holleyman.
Moreover, the recent announcement of the Creative Thailand initiative shows the value of Intellectual Property rights,as copyrighted products help to build innovation, boost the economy and increase the country's competitiveness internationally.
If Thailand can show it is successfully tackling software piracy, the benefits will be felt not only locally but also in terms of its global reputation.
This will make boost recognition for Thailand as an attractive investment destination more than mere advertising, as foreign investors will see strong Intellectual Property protection laws as an asset.
Holleyman concluded:"Although piracy is hard to deal with, it is possible Thailand can significantly reduce piracy rates in a short period and ensure that businesses use legitimate software.
"Some countries have already done this successfully. For example, Russia has reduced its piracy rate by 10 percent in two years, while Italy has reduced by more than 10 percent within one year.
"Even in a recession, I am optimistic that piracy will continue to decrease if the Government and businesses stay focused on the value of clean software."
BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman told Database that on this year's Asian trip he only visited China and Thailand to show how important it is to the market that the issue of software piracy is tackled.
The BSA, which covers more than 80 countries, identified China, Brazil, Russia,India, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Turkey and Thailand as having the highest rates of piracy.
Furthermore, Thailand is a priority also because both its home PC market and business IT usage are experiencing rapid growth.
Even through the Government has made progress in the bid to reduce software piracy over the past few years, its rate of 76 percent of software sold in 2008 being pirated is still higher than the Asia Pacific average of 61 percent.
Moreover, the drop in the value of the dollar is further adding to the losses caused by software piracy, with the 2008 figure rising to $609 million (20.5 billion baht), compared to $468 million (15.8 billion baht) in 2007.
Jeffrey Hardee, BSA vice president and regional director Asia Pacific added that Thailand does have an intellectual property policy but the Government needs to do more to persuade business users to respect the law and to educate them in better software management,to not only protect the local software industry but also promote growth and productivity.
He added that Thailand's Copyright Act should match the international benchmark in keeping with WIPO Treaties to promote online business and digital rights management to protect software available in legitimate form,including new environment distribution platforms such as Cloud Computing.
Moreover, the law should also apply to Internet Service Providers who fail to take action against illegal websites after being notified of them.
Hardee said:"It's important to note Thailand's neighbours, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, have already implemented - or are nearing readiness for - solutions to piracy."
Holleyman continued that the plan is for the Asean nations to harmonise their Intellectual Property (IP) laws by 2015, to ensure a free flow of trade in the region and fully implement WIPO Treaties.
The region should learn from the European Union, the world's largest common market, in how it protects software, digital content and e-commerce, as well as battles cyber crime.
The IP issue is growing in importance as social and economic infrastructures including health care and environmental issues are increasingly reliant on software,both nationally and globally.
"The questions that any government should ask is how well we are going to use IT and software to reduce those problems," said Holleyman.
Moreover, the recent announcement of the Creative Thailand initiative shows the value of Intellectual Property rights,as copyrighted products help to build innovation, boost the economy and increase the country's competitiveness internationally.
If Thailand can show it is successfully tackling software piracy, the benefits will be felt not only locally but also in terms of its global reputation.
This will make boost recognition for Thailand as an attractive investment destination more than mere advertising, as foreign investors will see strong Intellectual Property protection laws as an asset.
Holleyman concluded:"Although piracy is hard to deal with, it is possible Thailand can significantly reduce piracy rates in a short period and ensure that businesses use legitimate software.
"Some countries have already done this successfully. For example, Russia has reduced its piracy rate by 10 percent in two years, while Italy has reduced by more than 10 percent within one year.
"Even in a recession, I am optimistic that piracy will continue to decrease if the Government and businesses stay focused on the value of clean software."
Companies utilise social sciences to fill tech jobs
The sprawling use of consumer technology is spurring the demand for new skills in the workplace, resulting in companies utilising social sciences to fill next-generation technology jobs, according to Gartner, Inc.
Gartner, Inc vice president and distinguished analyst, Kathy Harris said during the next five years, consumer adoption of technology will accelerate as individuals and groups become more comfortable and adept at using it to manage their family, social, and business relationships. Meanwhile, organisations will struggle to keep pace as they integrate rapidly changing behaviours and technology into an already established business culture and infrastructure.
To succeed in "consumerising" corporate technology, organisations will need new talent and skills that blend a deep understanding of the business, artistic talents in visual and social schemes that induce the desired behaviours and reactions from consumers' including expansive knowledge of how to invoke and leverage the power of Web technology and models.
"Many emerging jobs and roles will not simply specialise in one skill area,but will blend business, artistic and technical skills. Many of the needed technical capabilities originate in the social sciences and are aimed at usability and adoption of technology-related business services," Harris said.
These capabilities embody the notion of "action at the interface" between the enterprise and its markets or between business management and technology management.
Therefore, organisations are likely to shift the responsibility for leveraging technology outside centralised IT organisations and into the business units responsible for growth and innovation of revenue, products, and services.
The company sees four new roles in technology related jobs. The first is Web user experience roles to effectively consume the applications and information delivered on the Web.
These roles range from user interface designers enabling users to work standalone or to self-serve without assistance,virtual-assistant designers who create Web beings that replicate the actions of a human being in providing agent services on the Web and interaction directors who produce Web conversations among multiple people or between people and Web beings in a structured Web environment.
The second, behavioural analysis roles are aimed at understanding and exploiting human behaviour on the Web and how it may mirror and differ from behaviours in the physical world.
Some key roles that will interpret and leverage human behaviour are Web psychologists who are becoming increasingly important to product development and marketing, community designers who are responsible for architecting organisation-owned communities, and Web and social network miners and analysts who focus on discovering, understanding and exploiting the social and behavioural dynamics of Web communities.
The third is information specialists who trace the origin, history and evolution of Web content. Their objectives range from providing the history of content or information to spotting fraudulent or modified images, audio files and texts.Information anthropologists may therefore contribute to legal analysis or to processes where intellectual property or information quality and integrity are at risk.
The fourth, digital lifestyle experts will aid individuals and groups (for example, executive management, technology or marketing teams) to become more digitally aware, connected, effective, and sophisticated. A digital lifestyle expert may also assist or stand in for their clients in their Web endeavours - defining target digital profiles, building out a digital image or personal brand - as well as helping wired users achieve the digital status they aspire to. As such, key roles will include digital personal consultants and personal brand advisers.
"The future is solidly connected to the Web and new work streams clearly need to arise to support this," said Harris.
Gartner, Inc vice president and distinguished analyst, Kathy Harris said during the next five years, consumer adoption of technology will accelerate as individuals and groups become more comfortable and adept at using it to manage their family, social, and business relationships. Meanwhile, organisations will struggle to keep pace as they integrate rapidly changing behaviours and technology into an already established business culture and infrastructure.
To succeed in "consumerising" corporate technology, organisations will need new talent and skills that blend a deep understanding of the business, artistic talents in visual and social schemes that induce the desired behaviours and reactions from consumers' including expansive knowledge of how to invoke and leverage the power of Web technology and models.
"Many emerging jobs and roles will not simply specialise in one skill area,but will blend business, artistic and technical skills. Many of the needed technical capabilities originate in the social sciences and are aimed at usability and adoption of technology-related business services," Harris said.
These capabilities embody the notion of "action at the interface" between the enterprise and its markets or between business management and technology management.
Therefore, organisations are likely to shift the responsibility for leveraging technology outside centralised IT organisations and into the business units responsible for growth and innovation of revenue, products, and services.
The company sees four new roles in technology related jobs. The first is Web user experience roles to effectively consume the applications and information delivered on the Web.
These roles range from user interface designers enabling users to work standalone or to self-serve without assistance,virtual-assistant designers who create Web beings that replicate the actions of a human being in providing agent services on the Web and interaction directors who produce Web conversations among multiple people or between people and Web beings in a structured Web environment.
The second, behavioural analysis roles are aimed at understanding and exploiting human behaviour on the Web and how it may mirror and differ from behaviours in the physical world.
Some key roles that will interpret and leverage human behaviour are Web psychologists who are becoming increasingly important to product development and marketing, community designers who are responsible for architecting organisation-owned communities, and Web and social network miners and analysts who focus on discovering, understanding and exploiting the social and behavioural dynamics of Web communities.
The third is information specialists who trace the origin, history and evolution of Web content. Their objectives range from providing the history of content or information to spotting fraudulent or modified images, audio files and texts.Information anthropologists may therefore contribute to legal analysis or to processes where intellectual property or information quality and integrity are at risk.
The fourth, digital lifestyle experts will aid individuals and groups (for example, executive management, technology or marketing teams) to become more digitally aware, connected, effective, and sophisticated. A digital lifestyle expert may also assist or stand in for their clients in their Web endeavours - defining target digital profiles, building out a digital image or personal brand - as well as helping wired users achieve the digital status they aspire to. As such, key roles will include digital personal consultants and personal brand advisers.
"The future is solidly connected to the Web and new work streams clearly need to arise to support this," said Harris.
Joint venture to boost Thai SMEs online
The Commerce Ministry has teamed up with Google and Sripatum University to boost electronic transactions by SMEs for tapping new customers and increasing sales in the domestic and global markets.
As a part of the business stimulus package, the program is offered to SMEs with free of charge website development and online marketing training.
Google offers 2,500 baht worth of free credits to start an online marketing campaign with Google AdWords, the brief four line text ads which show up as "Sponsored Links" at the top or right side of the results page when users conduct a Google search.
Sripatum University will develop website and translation of the first page in English at no cost for those who don't have a website. The offer applies to the first 400 SMEs.
According to Pornthip Kongchun,Thailand Marketing Manager of Google Asia Pacific, the Internet is a great opportunity for SMEs to expand their market, locally and across the world.
Citing Internet World Stats, Pornthip said the world's Internet population today is at 1.6 billion mark with more than 200 million new people coming online each year. There are over 60 billion searches conducted on the Internet worldwide per month and over a billion people around the world search on Google for information everyday. In Thailand, there are some 14 million Internet users.
Google AdWords platform reaches out to over 73 percent of the world's Internet population and over a billion online users everyday.
Prapon Milintajinda, secretary to the commerce minister, said Thailand's export value has declined month by month,while e-commerce can help increase some 20 percent of sales revenue to SMEs. The collaboration of the three parties will be an effective channel for Thai SMEs to reach customers worldwide.
As the government body, the ministry will do matching between the SMEs with customers. The program will encourage local SMEs to find new customers and market their products and services to overseas clients.
The program is valid from now to October 31,2009 and SMEs can sign up for joining the program at www.google.co.th/sme2009. Rachaneeporn Phudyaporn Phukkaman, Sripatum president noted that the success of the program can be recognised by the transaction deals of those SMEs website.
As a part of the business stimulus package, the program is offered to SMEs with free of charge website development and online marketing training.
Google offers 2,500 baht worth of free credits to start an online marketing campaign with Google AdWords, the brief four line text ads which show up as "Sponsored Links" at the top or right side of the results page when users conduct a Google search.
Sripatum University will develop website and translation of the first page in English at no cost for those who don't have a website. The offer applies to the first 400 SMEs.
According to Pornthip Kongchun,Thailand Marketing Manager of Google Asia Pacific, the Internet is a great opportunity for SMEs to expand their market, locally and across the world.
Citing Internet World Stats, Pornthip said the world's Internet population today is at 1.6 billion mark with more than 200 million new people coming online each year. There are over 60 billion searches conducted on the Internet worldwide per month and over a billion people around the world search on Google for information everyday. In Thailand, there are some 14 million Internet users.
Google AdWords platform reaches out to over 73 percent of the world's Internet population and over a billion online users everyday.
Prapon Milintajinda, secretary to the commerce minister, said Thailand's export value has declined month by month,while e-commerce can help increase some 20 percent of sales revenue to SMEs. The collaboration of the three parties will be an effective channel for Thai SMEs to reach customers worldwide.
As the government body, the ministry will do matching between the SMEs with customers. The program will encourage local SMEs to find new customers and market their products and services to overseas clients.
The program is valid from now to October 31,2009 and SMEs can sign up for joining the program at www.google.co.th/sme2009. Rachaneeporn Phudyaporn Phukkaman, Sripatum president noted that the success of the program can be recognised by the transaction deals of those SMEs website.
New rules to protect Internet neutrality
The head of the Federal Communications Commission plans to propose new rules that would prohibit Internet service providers from interfering with the free flow of information and certain applications over their networks, an official at the agency said Saturday.
The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski,will announce the proposed rules in a speech Monday at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, the official said on condition of anonymity because news of the announcement had not been formally released.
The proposals would uphold a pledge Barack Obama made during the presidential campaign to support Internet neutrality - the equal treatment of Internet traffic. That would bar Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. or AT&T Inc., from slowing or blocking certain services or content flowing through their vast networks.
Without strict rules ensuring Net neutrality, consumer watchdogs fear the communications companies could interfere with the transmission of content,such as TV shows delivered over the Internet, that compete with services the ISPs offer, like cable television.
Internet providers have opposed regulations that would inhibit the way they control their networks, arguing they need to be able to make sure applications that consume a lot of bandwidth don't slow Internet access to other users.
"This is about whether I can turn off my cable TV and watch TV over the Internet," said Dave Burstein, editor of the DSL Prime broadband industry newsletter."Comcast cares about this because they don't want people to turn off their cable TV."
The FCC adopted four principles on Internet policy in 2005. Two years later,it said it would study the business practices of high-speed Internet providers and consider whether a principle of nondiscrimination in traffic should be added.
Burstein thinks the FCC probably will adopt a fifth principle on nondiscrimination as part of the expected new rules.
The FCC's existing net neutrality principles have focused on high-speed Internet access delivered over wireline systems. But Google Inc. and other big technology companies, as well as consumer advocacy groups, have called for rules that would require wireless networks to be similarly open to all devices and applications.
UBS analyst John Hodulik said extending the principles to the wireless arena is going to be "a bit difficult because the regulation of wireless is very different than the regulation of the wireline networks, where the FCC has played a much stronger role."
"In wireless, these companies typically have paid billions of dollars to buy licenses ... and now operate in a very independent market with absolutely no government subsidies or government involvement," he said."So it would be a new era of regulation for what is a very competitive market."
But the rules' effectiveness "really depends on the details," Hodulik added."These could be just relatively vague rules that prevent obvious forms of discrimination, like blocking a website or mowing down the packets from a competitor's service."
The FCC official declined to elaborate on the new rules, but said the agency wants to create a baseline standard for all platforms that deliver the Internet.
"We are concerned about the unintended consequences that Net neutrality regulation would have on investments from the very industry that's helping to drive the US economy," Chris Guttman-McCabe, a vice president at CTIA, a wireless trade group, told the The Washington Post .The FCC began wading into the issue even before Genachowski became FCC chairman. Last year the FCC rebuked Comcast for blocking or delaying some forms of Internet file-sharing. Comcast agreed to stop the practice.
The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski,will announce the proposed rules in a speech Monday at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, the official said on condition of anonymity because news of the announcement had not been formally released.
The proposals would uphold a pledge Barack Obama made during the presidential campaign to support Internet neutrality - the equal treatment of Internet traffic. That would bar Internet service providers such as Verizon Communications Inc., Comcast Corp. or AT&T Inc., from slowing or blocking certain services or content flowing through their vast networks.
Without strict rules ensuring Net neutrality, consumer watchdogs fear the communications companies could interfere with the transmission of content,such as TV shows delivered over the Internet, that compete with services the ISPs offer, like cable television.
Internet providers have opposed regulations that would inhibit the way they control their networks, arguing they need to be able to make sure applications that consume a lot of bandwidth don't slow Internet access to other users.
"This is about whether I can turn off my cable TV and watch TV over the Internet," said Dave Burstein, editor of the DSL Prime broadband industry newsletter."Comcast cares about this because they don't want people to turn off their cable TV."
The FCC adopted four principles on Internet policy in 2005. Two years later,it said it would study the business practices of high-speed Internet providers and consider whether a principle of nondiscrimination in traffic should be added.
Burstein thinks the FCC probably will adopt a fifth principle on nondiscrimination as part of the expected new rules.
The FCC's existing net neutrality principles have focused on high-speed Internet access delivered over wireline systems. But Google Inc. and other big technology companies, as well as consumer advocacy groups, have called for rules that would require wireless networks to be similarly open to all devices and applications.
UBS analyst John Hodulik said extending the principles to the wireless arena is going to be "a bit difficult because the regulation of wireless is very different than the regulation of the wireline networks, where the FCC has played a much stronger role."
"In wireless, these companies typically have paid billions of dollars to buy licenses ... and now operate in a very independent market with absolutely no government subsidies or government involvement," he said."So it would be a new era of regulation for what is a very competitive market."
But the rules' effectiveness "really depends on the details," Hodulik added."These could be just relatively vague rules that prevent obvious forms of discrimination, like blocking a website or mowing down the packets from a competitor's service."
The FCC official declined to elaborate on the new rules, but said the agency wants to create a baseline standard for all platforms that deliver the Internet.
"We are concerned about the unintended consequences that Net neutrality regulation would have on investments from the very industry that's helping to drive the US economy," Chris Guttman-McCabe, a vice president at CTIA, a wireless trade group, told the The Washington Post .The FCC began wading into the issue even before Genachowski became FCC chairman. Last year the FCC rebuked Comcast for blocking or delaying some forms of Internet file-sharing. Comcast agreed to stop the practice.
A picture speaks a thousand text-only search results?
Microsoft unveiled a twist on the Internet search experience last week with a new feature which allows web surfers to search using image galleries instead of text links.
Microsoft, which teamed up with Yahoo! in July in a bid to challenge Google,rolled out a beta version of the feature at the TechCrunch50 technology con-ference in San Francisco.
Microsoft senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi described "Visual Search", which is being built into the company's search engine Bing, as a "more graphical way to search and discover information".
"Visual Search" allows users to conduct certain searches faster than the traditional image search offered by rival Google and other search engines.
Microsoft said a study found that consumers can process results with images 20 percent faster than text-only results.
"It's like searching through a large online catalogue," Microsoft said.
The feature currently offers galleries in nearly 50 categories from consumer products to holidays to movies to music.
A search at bing.com/visualsearch for "digital cameras," for example, returns a gallery of thumbnails of digital cameras which can then be filtered by manufacturer or price.
A search for books displays an image gallery which can be refined with filters such as author or category.
Google is the overwhelming leader in a web search and advertising market which the research firm Forrester estimates will grow by 15 percent a year to more than 30 billion dollars in 2014 in the United States alone.
But with their tie-up announced in July, Microsoft and Yahoo! are hoping to steal market share - and advertising dollars - from Google.
Microsoft, which teamed up with Yahoo! in July in a bid to challenge Google,rolled out a beta version of the feature at the TechCrunch50 technology con-ference in San Francisco.
Microsoft senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi described "Visual Search", which is being built into the company's search engine Bing, as a "more graphical way to search and discover information".
"Visual Search" allows users to conduct certain searches faster than the traditional image search offered by rival Google and other search engines.
Microsoft said a study found that consumers can process results with images 20 percent faster than text-only results.
"It's like searching through a large online catalogue," Microsoft said.
The feature currently offers galleries in nearly 50 categories from consumer products to holidays to movies to music.
A search at bing.com/visualsearch for "digital cameras," for example, returns a gallery of thumbnails of digital cameras which can then be filtered by manufacturer or price.
A search for books displays an image gallery which can be refined with filters such as author or category.
Google is the overwhelming leader in a web search and advertising market which the research firm Forrester estimates will grow by 15 percent a year to more than 30 billion dollars in 2014 in the United States alone.
But with their tie-up announced in July, Microsoft and Yahoo! are hoping to steal market share - and advertising dollars - from Google.
Web users to help digitise faded books
Google has acquired a Carnegie Mellon University spin-off that seeks to cut down on spam and fraud at websites while digitising books.
ReCAPTCHA offers simple word puzzles that users must solve when registering at a website or completing an online purchase.
Computers can't decipher the twisted letters and numbers, ensuring that real people and not automated programs are at the keyboard.
Unlike other word puzzles, however,ReCAPTCHA's text comes from actual books, letting the system create a digitised version in the process.
Google Inc is already behind a major project to digitise books and put them online, mostly by scanning pages and using optical character recognition, or OCR, to make the texts searchable.
OCR doesn't always work on text that is older, faded or distorted. In such cases,often the only way to digitise the works is to manually type them in.
ReCAPTCHA provides an alternative.Snippets that the computer doesn't recognize are split up into single words that can be used as human tests at sites all over the Internet.
The ReCAPTCHA system reassembles the text of the book from those responses.
Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Luis von Ahn, who developed the tool and launched the ReCAPTCHA company in 2008 said:"From the start,people assumed the project was connected to Google, so it only makes sense that ReCAPTCHA Inc ultimately would find a home within Google."
ReCAPTCHA offers simple word puzzles that users must solve when registering at a website or completing an online purchase.
Computers can't decipher the twisted letters and numbers, ensuring that real people and not automated programs are at the keyboard.
Unlike other word puzzles, however,ReCAPTCHA's text comes from actual books, letting the system create a digitised version in the process.
Google Inc is already behind a major project to digitise books and put them online, mostly by scanning pages and using optical character recognition, or OCR, to make the texts searchable.
OCR doesn't always work on text that is older, faded or distorted. In such cases,often the only way to digitise the works is to manually type them in.
ReCAPTCHA provides an alternative.Snippets that the computer doesn't recognize are split up into single words that can be used as human tests at sites all over the Internet.
The ReCAPTCHA system reassembles the text of the book from those responses.
Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Luis von Ahn, who developed the tool and launched the ReCAPTCHA company in 2008 said:"From the start,people assumed the project was connected to Google, so it only makes sense that ReCAPTCHA Inc ultimately would find a home within Google."
Technology helps shift fashion sales power base
The Internet and advances in technology are transforming fashion,making it easier for designers to create collections and less expensive for them to show and sell their work, experts say.
Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a runway show at New York Fashion Week, some designers presented collections for spring and summer 2010 online, while others are expanding the reach of their brand by making it easier for shoppers to buy their clothes online.
Designer Norma Kamali and Polo Ralph Lauren Corp's Rugby brand both have applications for Apple Inc's iPhone that allows shoppers to buy clothes from their phone.
"This is the technology that's changing our lives," said Kamali, who displayed her spring and summer 2010 collection as well as exclusive lines for eBay Inc and walmart.com at the Apple store in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood.
Kamali's iPhone application has a "Try Before You Buy" option, which allows clothes to be sent overnight to a customer,who provides her credit card information,so she can try them on at home before committing to buy.
Menswear designer Miguel Antoinne and womenswear designer Marc Bouwer both put on virtual fashion shows, while models at Vivienne Tam's show carried gold "digital clutches"- a HewlettPackard Co netbook adorned with a Tam design.
Mazdack Rassi, co-founder and creative director of Milk Studios, a hip downtown space that showed about 70 collections during New York Fashion Week,said he hopes to broaden the reach of Fashion Week and was considering projecting shows on the side of a building so people at a nearby park could watch.
"It goes back to opening it up to the consumer," Rassi said during a panel discussion on the future of fashion.
"That can only be done through technology."
Democratic fashion
With cable television and the Internet,designers know that their shows can be seen by many more people than just the buyers, editors and media who attend,and in some cases, they are designing accordingly.
"Back in the day, shows were squarely aimed at editors and buyers," said Lazaro Hernandez, half of the duo behind the label Proenza Schouler.
"Now, when you do a show, you think about the fact that everyone's going to see it on the Internet the next day. It's become much more democratic."
That democracy goes both ways, according to Humberto Leon, co-founder of retailer Opening Ceremony.
"The Internet has really challenged buyers because now information is everywhere ... it's really challenged buyers to buy well," Leon said, noting that e-mail has given Opening Ceremony better access to new designers.
Designers, including those behind Proenza Schouler, are finding that technology can also help the actual design work by allowing artists to explore new ideas and processes.
But Simon Collins, the dean of fashion at Parsons The New School for Design,said even though technology is helpful,there is still no substitute for talent and hard work.
"Absolutely, there'll be people out there that have incredibly successful businesses that don't know the first thing about [draping and construction], just think it up, put it on the computer, fire it off to the factory and it works," Collins said."But they're the exception, not the rule."
Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on a runway show at New York Fashion Week, some designers presented collections for spring and summer 2010 online, while others are expanding the reach of their brand by making it easier for shoppers to buy their clothes online.
Designer Norma Kamali and Polo Ralph Lauren Corp's Rugby brand both have applications for Apple Inc's iPhone that allows shoppers to buy clothes from their phone.
"This is the technology that's changing our lives," said Kamali, who displayed her spring and summer 2010 collection as well as exclusive lines for eBay Inc and walmart.com at the Apple store in Manhattan's Soho neighborhood.
Kamali's iPhone application has a "Try Before You Buy" option, which allows clothes to be sent overnight to a customer,who provides her credit card information,so she can try them on at home before committing to buy.
Menswear designer Miguel Antoinne and womenswear designer Marc Bouwer both put on virtual fashion shows, while models at Vivienne Tam's show carried gold "digital clutches"- a HewlettPackard Co netbook adorned with a Tam design.
Mazdack Rassi, co-founder and creative director of Milk Studios, a hip downtown space that showed about 70 collections during New York Fashion Week,said he hopes to broaden the reach of Fashion Week and was considering projecting shows on the side of a building so people at a nearby park could watch.
"It goes back to opening it up to the consumer," Rassi said during a panel discussion on the future of fashion.
"That can only be done through technology."
Democratic fashion
With cable television and the Internet,designers know that their shows can be seen by many more people than just the buyers, editors and media who attend,and in some cases, they are designing accordingly.
"Back in the day, shows were squarely aimed at editors and buyers," said Lazaro Hernandez, half of the duo behind the label Proenza Schouler.
"Now, when you do a show, you think about the fact that everyone's going to see it on the Internet the next day. It's become much more democratic."
That democracy goes both ways, according to Humberto Leon, co-founder of retailer Opening Ceremony.
"The Internet has really challenged buyers because now information is everywhere ... it's really challenged buyers to buy well," Leon said, noting that e-mail has given Opening Ceremony better access to new designers.
Designers, including those behind Proenza Schouler, are finding that technology can also help the actual design work by allowing artists to explore new ideas and processes.
But Simon Collins, the dean of fashion at Parsons The New School for Design,said even though technology is helpful,there is still no substitute for talent and hard work.
"Absolutely, there'll be people out there that have incredibly successful businesses that don't know the first thing about [draping and construction], just think it up, put it on the computer, fire it off to the factory and it works," Collins said."But they're the exception, not the rule."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
iMusic turns to digital albums
Set to tap the growing popularity of digital content, iMusic yesterday introduced itself as a provider of digital music.
"We expect to launch our first two albums this year and seven next year," CEO Pawadol Kliewakradet said.
The company expects to achieve sales of Bt60 million next year and more than Bt100 million in five years, when it plans to list on the stock exchange.
The company yesterday unveiled its stable of singers - mannaruemas Yukol, Alex Rendell, Keerati "Gypsy" Mahaprukpong and Haward Wang.
"We have created an online real-time monitoring system to show all returns to our artists, music composers and producers in real time," Pawadol said.
"We have also launched an all-in-one CD called 'Four Smart Convergence' featuring various audio files and data, including MP3, Fullsong, Truetone, MV, and wallpaper, in one disc.
"The files can be played on DVD and CD players, car audios, computers and mobile telephones," he said.
The disc will be available at a price of Bt99.
The music industry in Asia is worth about Bt36 billion, of which Bt10 billion is in Thailand, he said.
The music industry is growing by 10-15 per cent per year, he added.
"We expect to launch our first two albums this year and seven next year," CEO Pawadol Kliewakradet said.
The company expects to achieve sales of Bt60 million next year and more than Bt100 million in five years, when it plans to list on the stock exchange.
The company yesterday unveiled its stable of singers - mannaruemas Yukol, Alex Rendell, Keerati "Gypsy" Mahaprukpong and Haward Wang.
"We have created an online real-time monitoring system to show all returns to our artists, music composers and producers in real time," Pawadol said.
"We have also launched an all-in-one CD called 'Four Smart Convergence' featuring various audio files and data, including MP3, Fullsong, Truetone, MV, and wallpaper, in one disc.
"The files can be played on DVD and CD players, car audios, computers and mobile telephones," he said.
The disc will be available at a price of Bt99.
The music industry in Asia is worth about Bt36 billion, of which Bt10 billion is in Thailand, he said.
The music industry is growing by 10-15 per cent per year, he added.
AMARIN'S MAGAZINES SEEK WEBSITE BOOST
Amarin Printing and Publishing will focus more on connecting its magazines with their readers next year, to increase advertising revenue and reader numbers.
The plan is the company's main business strategy to boost sustainable growth amid the changing of lifestyles towards the huge popularity of social networking. Rarin Utakapan Panjarungrot, managing director of the Publishing Business Division, last week said one way to create greater connectivity was to improve the magazines' websites to give them more content than in the past and provide interactive online columns, such as questions and answers on beauty topics.
Some content unable to be published in the magazines will be posted on the websites. This, as well as interactive articles, will differentiate the websites' content from that of the magazines. It is hoped this will attract more readers and website visitors.
This model is quite new for the Thai magazine market but recognised abroad, Rarin siad.
Amarin began to create online social networks with two magazines-Baan Lae Suan and Room-last year. The next is Praew, Amarin's flagship magazine for women, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
"After we fixed more attention on online media, Baan Lae Suan's website visitors, for example, increased 50 per cent to 130,000 a month, while circulation rose 10 per cent. This was beyond our expectations in this tough year. We expect to experience the same response from Praew and other magazines," Rarin said.
At present, advertising revenue from the websites accounts for only 2 per cent of the company's ad revenue. It expects this to increase to 5 per cent next year and 10 per cent within three years, she said.
Advertising contributes 30 per cent of the total revenue of the Publishing Business Division. The rest comes from magazine sales, book publishing and event organising, at contribution rates of 30 per cent, 30 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
Rarin believes the company's revenue growth this year may fall to a single-digit rate. Last year, it recorded revenue of Bt1.87 billion. The performance is expected to improve next year, due to the economic recovery and the company's new business strategy.
As well as increasing advertising revenue through online media, she said Amarin would also focus more on its event-organising business next year by expanding to serve outside clients. It now organises only its own events, such as a Baan Lae Suan fair. It will recruit more event-business unit.
"We have enough experience in this field and are confident we can do this. Organising events is a business that generates greater gross-profit margins than publishing, because we don't have fixed costs. This could publishing business, which relies mostly on ad revenue," she said.
The plan is the company's main business strategy to boost sustainable growth amid the changing of lifestyles towards the huge popularity of social networking. Rarin Utakapan Panjarungrot, managing director of the Publishing Business Division, last week said one way to create greater connectivity was to improve the magazines' websites to give them more content than in the past and provide interactive online columns, such as questions and answers on beauty topics.
Some content unable to be published in the magazines will be posted on the websites. This, as well as interactive articles, will differentiate the websites' content from that of the magazines. It is hoped this will attract more readers and website visitors.
This model is quite new for the Thai magazine market but recognised abroad, Rarin siad.
Amarin began to create online social networks with two magazines-Baan Lae Suan and Room-last year. The next is Praew, Amarin's flagship magazine for women, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
"After we fixed more attention on online media, Baan Lae Suan's website visitors, for example, increased 50 per cent to 130,000 a month, while circulation rose 10 per cent. This was beyond our expectations in this tough year. We expect to experience the same response from Praew and other magazines," Rarin said.
At present, advertising revenue from the websites accounts for only 2 per cent of the company's ad revenue. It expects this to increase to 5 per cent next year and 10 per cent within three years, she said.
Advertising contributes 30 per cent of the total revenue of the Publishing Business Division. The rest comes from magazine sales, book publishing and event organising, at contribution rates of 30 per cent, 30 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.
Rarin believes the company's revenue growth this year may fall to a single-digit rate. Last year, it recorded revenue of Bt1.87 billion. The performance is expected to improve next year, due to the economic recovery and the company's new business strategy.
As well as increasing advertising revenue through online media, she said Amarin would also focus more on its event-organising business next year by expanding to serve outside clients. It now organises only its own events, such as a Baan Lae Suan fair. It will recruit more event-business unit.
"We have enough experience in this field and are confident we can do this. Organising events is a business that generates greater gross-profit margins than publishing, because we don't have fixed costs. This could publishing business, which relies mostly on ad revenue," she said.
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