Channel 0203 Internet | Website

eBay and KBank Offer Joint Promotion to K-Web Shopping Card Holders

2010-02-07T04:21:00.001-08:00

Buy & Sell Securely on eBay without Credit Cards, Top Five Sellers Will Win Blackberry Curve 8520

eBay and Kasikorn Bank (KBank) today announced a new feature to the K-Web Shopping Card, an Internet shopping card by KBank that will help facilitate buying and selling on eBay. As part of the launch, eBay and KBank are also offering K-Web Shopping Card holders exclusive incentives and a chance to win attractive gifts when they use the card on eBay.

The K-Web Shopping Card is a virtual card with a 16-digit card number, just like a regular credit card. Users can simply fill in their K-Web Shopping Card number, Card Verification Value (CVV) number and expiration date to pay for goods and services at online stores. As an added form of protection, users will also be able to set a spending limit of up to 100,000 Baht for the K-Web Shopping Card, depending on the funds available in their bank accounts. Interested individuals can apply for the card via K-Cyber Banking without having to submit additional documents.

“We are pleased to work with KBank, Thailand’s leading commercial bank, to provide Thai users with a payment solution that will enable them to trade more effectively on eBay. Thai eBay users are among the most active in cross border trade in Southeast Asia—buying from and selling to over 90 million active eBay members worldwide,” said Allis Ghim, Director at eBay, who oversees Southeast Asia and Japan.

“With the K-Web Shopping Card, Thai eBay users who do not own a credit card will still be able to perform various tasks on eBay such as registering their new eBay and PayPal accounts, verifying their eBay accounts for selling internationally, paying their selling fees or making payment for their online purchases,” she added.

During the promotional period, which lasts from now until May 31, 2010, the first 1,000 new eBay sellers who register with PayPal using a K-Web Shopping Card can receive rebates on eBay insertion fees and selected feature fees for their first 50 completed eBay listings. The first five participants who achieve the highest total sales amount (in US dollars) from selling on eligible eBay websites during the promotional period will stand a chance to win a new BlackBerry Curve 8520.

Additionally, KBank will be giving out exciting gifts to customers who spend either 8,000 Baht or 25,000 Baht with their K-Web Shopping Card on eBay.

To register for the promotion or find out more, please visit http://export.ebay.co.th/kbank/.
About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) connects millions of buyers and sellers globally on a daily basis through eBay, the world's largest online marketplace, and PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive online payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, and eBay Classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and our global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.

Facebook users hacked with direct messages forwarding to suspicious site

2010-02-07T01:57:00.000-08:00

Facebook users have reported receiving direct messages which includes a link to a suspicious website.

In what could be the first major Facebook security story of the year, users have reported receiving a message that encourages them to visit the ‘binsservicestore.info' website after a friend's recommendation.

According to DomainQuery, the website was created on 15th September 2009, last updated on 29th December 2009 and is due to expire on the 15th September this year. The sponsoring registrar is GoDaddy.com Inc and the administrator and registrant data provide contact details in India.

Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro, said that binsservicesstore.info lands on a 'work from home scam page' that uses geo-ip to look like a local (to you) online newspaper.

Andy Thomas, commercial director of Garlik, warned at the end of December about a scam on Facebook where a user is offered a free £25 iTunes voucher. The scam, which came via an invitation and involves sending the group administrator a message with the user's name and email address, had around 464,000 respond.

Thomas said: “Some simple maths and logic says this is going to cost someone over £12 million. That is Hooveresque in promotional scale and we all remember what happened to them, the truth is this is a well timed scam that plays on people's trust of the iTunes brand and love of a bargain (it's called social engineering).

“The only gift members will get is a nasty surprise in an email (probably the one containing your iTunes ‘gift') or a permanent place on a phishing attack list sold, much like direct marketeers buy email or physical addresses. If you or a friend joined this list make sure they know what to expect over the next few days, weeks, months.”

Jetstar set to transform airport experience for customers via efficient self-service check-in model USD $3.5 billion deal

2010-02-05T22:47:00.001-08:00

Jetstar set to transform airport experience for customers via efficient self-service check-in model USD $3.5 billion deal with International Aero Engines (IAE) signed

Low fares leader Jetstar will set about transforming the check-in experience for its Australian and New Zealand domestic customers during 2010 by unveiling a new approach towards the airport experience for customers with a target of 100 per cent customer self service.

The proposal builds upon existing customer self service technology now in place for Jetstar’s domestic passenger base including Web Check and Self Service Kiosks at some Airports.

This will be complemented by the introduction of world-first SMS Boarding Pass technology during the first 2010 quarter and automatic Web Check and pre-enrolment for flights at time of booking.

Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan announced the airline’s plans during an address to the Low Cost Airlines World Asia Pacific 2010 Conference in Singapore.

In a series of announcements the Pan Asian carrier also secured Agreements valued at up to USD $3.5 billion with the International Aero Engines (IAE) consortium to have the latest V2500 SelectOne™ engine power a new fleet of 50 additional Airbus A320 family aircraft for the Jetstar Group, with options and purchase rights on up to 40 more aircraft.

The major deal, one of the largest in Jetstar’s history, includes an Engine Purchase Agreement valued around USD $1.5 billion if all options and purchase rights are exercised to be distributed amongst the mainline Jetstar fleet based in Australia and New Zealand, as well as with Jetstar Asia/Valuair of Singapore and Jetstar Pacific, based in Vietnam,.

A long-term USD $2 billion Aftermarket Services Agreement will cover these new engines and those installed on 40 IAE-powered aircraft that the Jetstar businesses currently operate.

Mr Buchanan said over the term of the Agreements significant savings would be generated and solidified a long term strategic commercial relationship with IAE to help support Jetstar’s continued growth, including its Pan Asian network plans.

“The Agreements reflect Jetstar’s continued focus on cost-competitive outcomes and fostering long term partnerships that help deliver sustainable low fares and growth,” Mr Buchanan said.

Jetstar’s move to help put people back in control of their airport experience during domestic travel will incorporate a more streamlined and hassle-free customer airport experience supported by:

Doubling the number and footprint of Self-Check Kiosks across Jetstar’s Australian and New Zealand domestic networks. Kiosks will cover all domestic ports in Australia and NZ;

Introduction of world-first SMS boarding pass technology across Jetstar’s domestic Australian & New Zealand ports during 2010 and fitted to all Jetstar Self-Check Kiosks;
Enhanced web tools such as Automatic Web-Check at Jetstar.com;

Redeploying existing Jetstar staff from primarily check-in duties to customer service and revenue generating activities.

Mr Buchanan said the airline’s fresh approach towards allowing its domestic customer base greater choice in self service prior to their travel would balance the efficient application of new technology for air travelers with strong customer service outcomes.

“Through our growing suite of innovative new customer facing applications at Airports we are seeking to ensure that the airport experience is increasingly convenient, easier and more hassle-free than before,” Mr Buchanan said.

“The approach we are taking is firmly designed around improving, not reducing, the customer service and airport experience at increasingly busy terminals, and of empowering both regular and irregular Jetstar flyers to use technology to take control of the airport experience.

“This is an extremely positive and exciting step forward for our airline as well as for our employees that will greatly enhance customer service levels.

“There will be no change in our Airport staffing numbers under this model, meaning our Airport Customer Service personnel can move beyond the check-in counter to spend more effective time directly with our customers prior to flying.”

Jetstar passengers who Web-Check for Australian domestic flights will soon be given the option to have their boarding pass and unique boarding code sent to their mobile phone via a standard text SMS message.

The SMS technology has been developed by Melbourne-based company Sissit Group with which Jetstar has a Research and Development arrangement.

Unlike some other airlines who have introduced this technology to WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) or internet enabled handsets, in a global first, any mobile phone will be able to accept the Jetstar boarding pass on a domestic flight via the common text message.

This will allow customers who purchase fares via Jetstar.com to request at the time of booking for the airline to automatically check the passenger(s) in 24 hours prior to their Jetstar flight departure with the boarding pass to then be sent via email or SMS text message.

Mr Buchanan said SMS boarding pass technology would be further trialled on Sydney-Melbourne (Avalon) flights from late February 2010, with a staged roll-out across Jetstar’s domestic Australian and New Zealand networks during the 2010 calendar year.

He said automatic check-in when purchasing a fare at Jetstar.com had commenced earlier this month.

“Automatic check-in for the airline’s Australian and New Zealand domestic services allows passengers at the time of booking to choose to check-in and have their boarding passes automatically sent to them via email 24-48 hours before flight departure,” Mr Buchanan said.

“The new technology will be further enhanced when SMS boarding pass technology is fully activated, meaning a boarding pass can then be delivered direct to the future passenger’s mobile phone.

“By introducing applications such as Automatic Web-Check and SMS Boarding Passes, Jetstar saves real costs, which we are able to directly pass on to our customers with our low fares.”

eBay Introduces Free Auction Listings and the “3-Cent Store” Lowest Rates Ever for Sellers to Build Their Businesses on eBay

2010-01-30T02:01:00.000-08:00

eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), the world’s largest online marketplace connecting 90 million active buyers and sellers, today announced free auction listings and dramatically reduced listing fees for fixed-priced items sold to buyers in the United States, making selling on eBay.com simpler than ever for sellers of all sizes. The pricing changes, which take effect March 30, more closely align eBay’s success with its sellers, dramatically lowering – and even eliminating – the upfront costs of selling on eBay.

“Free—and practically free—is great news for anyone wanting to earn extra cash or build a business on eBay,” said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. “Our new success-based pricing makes eBay more attractive and competitive than ever. We are focused on helping sellers win and giving buyers the best deals online. So whether you want to turn the stuff in your garage into vacation money, become an eBay entrepreneur or scale your business, we are there for you with selling formats, tools and pricing that offer choice and opportunity.”

Beginning March 30, eBay will offer two pricing packages sold to buyers in the United States:

For sellers who list items occasionally, new “eBay Everyday” rates. Auction-style listings with a start price of 99 cents or less will be free (with no insertion fees for up to 100 listings per month). When an item sells, the seller will pay a flat final value fee of 9 percent of the sale price – and never more than $50. If an item doesn’t sell, the seller pays nothing. Auction listings typically are the ideal format for people who sell occasionally on eBay. Regardless of item or price, auction listings offer maximum search exposure based on time-ending-soonest auction-based search results, and the format helps sellers with occasional listings get the best value.

For sellers who list often, new “eBay Stores” subscription rates offer insertion fees as low as 3 cents per listing for 30 days—a 90 percent reduction over current rates. Larger volume sellers with this “3-cent store” premium rate can move thousands of items at high velocity with full search exposure. Subscription rates offer basic, anchor and premium store pricing options, depending on the size of a seller’s business.

With the new pricing a seller with 250 listings per month would save $80 or $960 a year in insertion fees. In addition, with these changes eBay’s current store inventory format will be discontinued and will no longer have separate search functionality from core fixed-price listings. With the new eBay Stores rate package, all fixed priced inventory on eBay will have exposure through eBay’s main search functionality, increasing visibility for sellers and improving the search experience for buyers.

Sellers who want to determine which pricing option will work best for their listings when the changes take place in March can use eBay’s Fee Illustrator: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/FeeIllustrator2010.html.

Along with the simplified pricing changes, eBay announced that, effective today, it is expanding to all buyers its eBay Buyer Protection program, which the company has been piloting over the past year. eBay Buyer Protection adds an unprecedented level of customer support and trust to the world’s largest online marketplace. Along with eBay’s Top-rated seller program, which was introduced in October 2009 and helps buyers easily identify sellers who consistently provide great service (as rated by other buyers), eBay Buyer Protection offers buyers even greater confidence that when they buy on eBay, they’ll be covered.

Through eBay Buyer Protection, buyers will have access to customer support specialists seven days a week, as well as a money-back offer for most purchases should a problem arise and the seller is unable to resolve the issue. eBay Buyer Protection covers items paid with PayPal or any other approved payment method. This program, along with Vehicle Protection Program and Business Equipment Protection Program, covers almost every item purchased on eBay.com. Customers can see the specific coverage for an item on the “view item” page or can read more at http://pages.ebay.com/coverage/index.html.

“We’ve made enormous progress in creating a great customer experience on eBay.com,” said Norrington. “Buyers already benefit from the highest quality service offered by our Top-rated sellers. With eBay Buyer Protection, customers can shop with confidence as they take advantage of the great deals and selection eBay sellers offer. We’ve now got you covered on eBay every day.”
About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) connects millions of buyers and sellers globally on a daily basis through eBay, the world's largest online marketplace, and PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive online payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, and eBay Classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and our global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.

VocaLink buys out joint venture partner in OneVu

2010-01-30T01:03:00.001-08:00

VocaLink, the international payment transaction specialist, today announced that it has bought out its joint venture partner, Fiserv, to become the sole owner of OneVu, the consolidated electronic bill and data presentment service. Miles Quitmann, OneVu’s Managing Director has taken the decision to leave the company at the end of January to pursue new opportunities. Fred Bar, Managing Director Euro Services will take functional responsibility for OneVu and complete the integration into VocaLink’s service portfolio.

OneVu is a critical online banking service for many of the UK’s leading corporates and banks including Lloyds Banking Group and The Royal Bank of Scotland. OneVu already has 280 million bills under management and is supporting its corporate customers in their move away from costly paper bills, reducing their impact on the environment. By consolidating a number of online bills, UK consumers can benefit from reduced prices and the convenience of having a number of household bills in one secure place.

Marion King, Chief Executive Officer at VocaLink, commented “By integrating OneVu into VocaLink we can deliver greater efficiency to our banking customers and expand our retail service. VocaLink is well placed to help OneVu grow and launch new services that benefit both corporates and consumers. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Miles for his considerable contribution in leading OneVu and successfully building the customer base and service portfolio.“

KTC’s online community flourishes and invites the fan page to find “KTC Travel Master” the best travel webmasters for travel-bound.

2010-01-29T23:39:00.000-08:00

Mr. Staporn Sirisinha, Senior Executive Vice President - Leisure Marketing Department, “KTC” or Krungthai Card Public Company Limited, said “Our online travel community KTC World website has been very successful. So far more than 15,000 people have signed up as members. To celebrate the third anniversary of our travel portal site, we have decided to introduce our latest campaign titled “KTC Travel Master” to identify two travel-bound webmasters –one male, one female— from candidates who pitch their stories to online community members via www.ktcworld.co.th. The two webmasters with greatest number of votes will be presented with travel package to the destination of their choosing worth over 200,000 Baht each.

Recently, KTC already selected 12 candidates –six males, six females- finalists. Members of the online community and the general public can vote for their favorite webmaster from now until February 14th, 2010 at www.ktcworld.co.th. One person may vote twice. Results will be announced on February 19th, 2010 at www.ktc.co.th.

PayPal Goes Mobile PayPal Users Can Now Send Money[i]or Check Their Accounts On The Go

2010-01-24T05:25:00.000-08:00

PayPal announced today that its new mobile application is now available to mobile users in APAC. iPhone, Blackberry and Android phone users can download the PayPal application for free via the respective app stores. Users of other mobile handsets can access it via their WAP browser.

The PayPal mobile application allows users to quickly and securely send money for personal payments such as paying back money owed to a friend or splitting the cost of a dinner bill, etc. PayPal members can also check their account balances and view their past transaction history whilst on the go. To ensure mobile payments remain secure, each transaction is confirmed by a password.

Additionally, to celebrate the launch of this new service, PayPal is offering a 10 percent rebate on purchases made via PayPal mobile at this year’s Singapore Tat2 Show (http://www.tattoo.com.sg/). Attendees who pay for their tattoo using PayPal via their mobile phone at the show can qualify for the rebate.

“Consumers today want fast, secure and convenient methods of conducting their online financial transactions,” said Rahul Shinghal, Regional Mobile Manager for PayPal Asia Pacific. “With a mobile penetration rate of 131 percent[ii], it is clearly evident that the mobile phone is an essential part of daily life here in Singapore. PayPal’s availability on the mobile is a natural development for us as we strive to provide our users here with the most convenient and secure online transaction experience available. With PayPal’s new mobile application, users can now securely manage their money online and send money for payments quickly, both locally and around the world.”
The PayPal mobile application is free to download at:
BlackBerry App World: www.blackberry.com/appworld
iPhone: www.apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone
Other phones: m.paypal.com/sg

For more information on PayPal mobile, please visit https://www.paypal.com/sg/cgi-bin/webscr cmd=xpt/Marketing/mobile/MobileiPhone-outside

PayPal is a leader in safer online payments with more than 78 million active accounts[iii] in 190 markets around the world. This global reach, paired with the growth of mobile phone penetration, will enable a safer and easy way to send mobile payments. Users can send personal payments to anyone in their contact list, eliminating the need to remember email addresses and phone numbers. Users can also check their recent history and account balance directly from their mobile device.
About PayPal

PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without disclosing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances and credit cards. With more than 78 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce. The company's open payment platform, PayPal X, allows developers to build innovative payment applications on multiple platforms and devices.

In the U.S., PayPal is the most preferred payment service on the Web after Visa. In the UK and Australia, PayPal is the most preferred payment service on the Web[iv].

PayPal’s Total Payment Volume, the total value of transactions in 2008 represented nearly 9 percent of global e-commerce[v].

PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California. Its international headquarters (PayPal Pte. Ltd.), is located in Singapore.

PayPal is an eBay company. More information about the company can be found at www.paypal.com/sg

Consumer advisory - PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPal's stored value facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Users are advised to read the terms and conditions available at www.paypal.com/sg carefully before use.

eBay Community Gives Record $50 Million to Nonprofits in 2009

2010-01-24T02:53:00.001-08:00

In a year that brought decreases in consumer spending globally, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) buyers and sellers rallied to raise a record $50 million for U.S. and U.K. nonprofit organizations so far in 2009. eBay Giving Works, eBay’s marquee online fundraising program that allows individuals to donate while using eBay, has enabled users to contribute more than $162 million to their favorite causes since 2003. The program, called eBay for Charity in the U.K., has provided a new online fundraising channel to more than 21,000 organizations, from small, community-based parent-teacher associations and animal rescues to nationally recognized nonprofits like Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Oxfam, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

“The eBay community has proven time and again that small actions, when brought to scale, can have a big impact,” said eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe. “It’s what makes the eBay marketplace so unique, and what enables our community to do good things for causes they believe in. I want to thank every single buyer and seller who connected through eBay and gave back to their communities through eBay Giving Works. Your generosity this year, especially in such a tough economy, isn’t just impressive – it’s inspiring. We’re looking forward to helping you do even more good next year.”

Top donors like eBay Top Rated Seller Elizabeth Bennett have been able to use the program to donate thousands to causes that they believe in; 10 percent of the final sale price of goods bought on her eBay store, Africa Direct, goes to charity. To date, Bennett has raised nearly $40,000 for charity through the eBay Giving Works program.

eBay Giving Works enables eBay users to support their favorite causes whenever they buy and sell. Every minute, over $91 is raised for good causes on eBay. Eight nonprofits in the U.S. have raised more than $1 million with eBay Giving Works. The most money raised for charity from a single listing on eBay was $2.1 million in 2008, for a power lunch with Warren Buffett benefiting the Glide Foundation. The same auction in 2009 went for $1.68 million. In November and December of 2009, eBay Inc. matched $230,000 in funds that were committed via Give at Checkout.
About eBay

Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) connects millions of buyers and sellers globally on a daily basis through eBay, the world's largest online marketplace, and PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive online payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, and eBay Classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and our global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.

eBay Community Gives Record $50 Million to Nonprofits in 2009

2010-01-17T04:34:00.001-08:00

Philips re-defines picture performance with its latest LED TV 9000 series (models: 40PFL9704H, 46PFL9704H, 52PFL9704H).

2009-12-16T18:58:00.001-08:00

Philips Electronics (Thailand) Ltd., introduces its latest truly LED TV 9000 series, a full HD LCD display, with a 1920x1080p resolution featuring with direct-lit LED backlighting technology and offering pure performance in picture sharpness, motion and contrast and features the latest innovations in LCD technology – including the latest in internet TV.

Consumers enjoy breathtaking pictures and use up to 40% less energy with Philips award winning LED Pro. Over 1000 LED's are operated selectively in a grid as a backlight for the display. They generate brilliant light in bright image areas, and are dimmed completely in dark areas, saving energy. Combined with the powerful Perfect Pixel HD Engine, the result is a stunning picture with extreme contrast, sharpness and vibrant color. With LED Pro black is black and white is bright.

The Perfect Pixel HD engine deliver unrivalled sharpness and detail. It is also the world’s fastest LCD courtesy of 200Hz Clear LCD and an unbeatable 1 millisecond response time which banishes the motion blur problem common with LCD TVs. 200Hz Clear LCD creates extreme motion sharpness for clear and vibrant images even with fast on-screen motion. It results in a powerful dynamic contrast ratio up to 5,000,000:1.

Perfect Colors is the combination of new color sources, advanced color processing for both existing and new sources, and a Wide Color Gamut display. The powerful 17-bit Color Booster technology pumps out a mesmerizing 2,250 trillion colors, producing brilliant life-like images with natural skin and white tones.

Perfect Natural Motion results in smoother and quieter pictures with excellent sharpness surpassing even the motion performance in a cinema.

Philips immersive Ambilight Spectra 3 technology, which accurately identifies dominant on-screen colors and generates accurately-matched ambient lighting from three sides of the screen onto a rear wall.

As pure performance includes both sound quality as well as the picture quality, the 9700 series sports 2x15W high-efficiency speakers. This provides leading sound performance.

Another highlighted feature is Net TV, which enables simple and quick internet access to a wide range of sites from a start page on the TV screen.

It is also equipped with both Ethernet and WiFi connectivity, allowing them to stream data directly from a DLNA-compliant computer. Additional features include give HDMI 1.3 inputs, integrated subwoofers and tweeters, and full 1080p video output.

Secret For Success in the eBay Market: Grab the Right Opportunity at the Right Time

2009-12-15T03:59:00.001-08:00

eBay Member: Orawin Nantasen (Poon)
Story at a glance: eBay generates a 5-figure monthly income for Poon.

Her tip is to focus on international markets during festive season offering Thai high-quality handmade products

Today we would like to introduce Orawin Nantasen, nicknamed Poon, who has found online treasure after giving up her career as an office employee to become a full-time housewife.

“I used to be an office employee. It was a very secure job but also left me with very little spare time to spend with my family. Finally, I decided to become a full-time housewife and started looking into running my own

e-commerce business on eBay. I am very proud I took the significant step to become an eBay seller, as I now regularly generate 5-figure monthly revenues. More importantly, I can work from home and have time to look after my children according to my own schedule,” said Poon.

Poon started her eBay business in early 2007. “When I first began listing products on eBay, I had no clue about analysing market demand. Instead of making a huge investment, I began to test the market by offering a wide range of products, starting with fashion accessories. Some items sold well while others didn’t, but I wasn’t discouraged. I valued this time as an opportunity to become more familiar with eBay’s trading platform while honing my photographic skills and product listing techniques.”

Poon’s eBay business has gone from strength to strength, especially during the holiday season in late 2007. “A few months before Christmas, I found out that with a little imagination, many products such as home decorative items and party items were a perfect complement to festive celebrations. Since then, I started growing within the eBay marketplace by offering premium, hand-made Thai products including ornaments, home decorative goods and silk items from Thailand that are popular among foreigners.”

The key driver for Poon’s success on eBay is grabbing the right opportunity at the right time. This means choosing products that are suitable for festive occasions in overseas countries, especially major celebrations such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sellers should also list new products rapidly and consider the right time for closing bids in each country.

“Many of my customers are in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, so they often buy things related to major festivities. Beforehand, I will list colorful products ideal for that particular occasion, using the name of the event as a keyword to make it easier to find my products. On average, I list 400 items on eBay per month to give my products greater visibility to customers,” added Poon.

For new eBay sellers, Poon suggested that their first priority should be establishing the credibility of their own eBay shop. Buyers need to have the confidence to order products from sellers they have never met. New sellers must ensure their listings have clear, colorful images that accurately show what the products look like along with detailed descriptions. Products should be properly wrapped and shipped right away as soon as customers make their payments. Customers also need regular and sincere communications.

“What I have learned from my earlier working experience can be applied to my eBay business today. This includes my belief that credibility and a customer-service attitude are the key success factors for an eBay seller,” concluded Poon.

Thai SMBs Take the ‘Hero’ Approach to Running Their Business

2009-12-15T03:53:00.000-08:00

PayPal survey reveals that Thai SMBs rank creativity and imagination as top start-up skills

Thailand, 14 December 2009 – According to a regional PayPal study released today, when it comes to the way Thai SMBs conduct business, more than a fifth (21 percent) liken themselves to ‘heroes’ – committed to meeting any challenge before them and leading their business through all types of conditions.
Keys to success

Over a third (32 percent) of Thai SMBs consider creativity and imagination as the most important skill when starting your own company, followed by self-confidence (30 percent) and industry expertise (30 (percent).

The Internet is also playing an increasingly important role in the success of Thai SMBs, with over a third (37 percent) of annual turnover derived from online sales, equating to US $182,000. Global reach, additional sales revenues and staying ahead of the times were cited as the top three drivers for going online. Currently, 66 percent of Indian SMBs have a company website and 52 percent are engaging in e-commerce activities such as offering online orders (89 percent), online payment (56 percent) and online delivery (9 percent).
Potential roadblocks

Almost three quarters (73 percent) of the SMBs surveyed in Thailand intend to grow their business steadily in the next two to three years. However, they are encountering some challenges in meeting their goal. Forty-seven percent are concerned about surviving the current global downturn, 43 percent are facing increasing competition in their industry and 37 percent are having trouble building an online business.

Thai SMBs see e-commerce as one way to overcome those roadblocks and believe it will provide an additional avenue for more sales (71 percent), help them to increase global reach (53 percent) and keep up with the times (51 percent).
The future looks bright

The average annual sales turnover for SMBs in Thailand is currently US$492,200 and the majority of Thai SMBs (80 percent) are either very or quite optimistic about business growth in the next 12 months, with more than 2 in 5 looking at up to 20 percent growth. With over 1.6 billion Internet users worldwide, it is clear that e-commerce will play a very important role in Indian SMBs achieving that growth.

“Our research shows that Thai SMBs clearly recognise the value of ecommerce with the highest proportion (over 50 percent) across the four countries surveyed already engaged in ecommerce activities,” said Mario Shiliashki, General Manager of PayPal Southeast Asia and India. “Convenience, security and minimal set-up costs will help Thai SMBs to overcome their current roadblocks and satisfy their desire to grow internationally and drive additional sales revenues. With over eleven years of experience connecting buyers and sellers across the globe, we offer merchants a cost-effective, convenient and secure way to get started online and grow their business. Plus, research has shown that SMBs can receive an average sales increase of 14 percent when they add PayPal to their site. ”
About PayPal

PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send and receive payments without disclosing financial information, with the flexibility to pay or get paid using a variety of secure payment options, including account balances, bank accounts (in approved countries), credit cards or promotional financing. With more than 78 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce.

In the U.S., PayPal is the most preferred payment service on the Web after Visa. In the UK and Australia, PayPal is the most preferred payment service on the Web .

PayPal’s Total Payment Volume, the total value of transactions in 2008 represented nearly 9 percent of global e-commerce .

PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California. Its international headquarters (PayPal Pte. Ltd.) is located in Singapore.

PayPal is an eBay company. More information about the company can be found at www.paypal.com

Consumer advisory - PayPal Pte. Ltd., the holder of PayPal's stored value facility, does not require the approval of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Users are advised to read the terms and conditions available at www.paypal.com carefully before use.
About the survey

The PayPal survey was conducted by BlackBox in August and September 2009 in India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. In each country, 300 small-medium businesses (SMB) with 5 to 50 staff and either an existing ecommerce site or plans to implement one in the next 12 months were surveyed. Respondents were either SMB owners, decision-makers or managers with financial authority or influence.

KFC Has Brand Appeal for International Mobile Internet Users

2009-11-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

Global survey uncovers most popular brands across a variety of categories

BuzzCity, the mobile media company has today released the findings of its latest study of mobile internet users across the globe. The study investigated which brands have the most appeal among the mobile internet audience, why this audience prefers these brands and how likely they are to recommend their favourite brands. The aim of the study is to help brands from all sectors and the agencies that work with them to better understand the mobile internet consumer and how to influence their purchasing decisions.

The study found that the brands most favoured by mobile internet users across the globe were as follows:
1 KFC
2 McDonald's
3 Sony
4 Nestle
5 Samsung
6 Nokia
7 LG
8 Coca-Cola
9 Panasonic
10 Philips

The survey also revealed that users typically base their preferences on brand performance first followed by style and then price. Quality, reliability, value and trust all also influence choice.

“We have been carrying out regular studies in to the mindset of mobile internet users for the past few years,” says KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity. “It is clear from this study that mobile surfers are ardent brand advocates and will regularly make recommendations to peers. To encourage this, there is the potential for brands to share more product information through the mobile platform. This would be especially potent in the food sector where domestic brands dominate. Brands such as Arab Dairy (Egypt), Amul (India), Indofood (Indonesia), Mama (Thailand), San Miguel (Phillipines) and Simba (South Africa) operate in markets where the mobile internet is, most likely, the only access users have to the internet.”

The study found that although 54% of mobile users would recommend a brand to their peers only 4% would in reaction to a specific sales promotion. This finding offers brands significant insight when it comes to the type of campaigns to run over a mobile platform.

“Consumer behaviour on mobile is different from that on the internet,” continued KF Lai. “Our research shows that although some brands are starting to develop mobile strategies, there is still much work to be done. Simply producing a mobile website will no longer cut it with these savvy consumers. The provision of m-banking services and the development of mobile widgets and feeds that make content discovery and consumption easier and more accessible, are two very good places for brands to start.”

New twist in book-scan deal

2009-11-12T23:54:00.001-08:00

       A judge has given Google Inc more time to revise a legal settlement that has drawn government scrutiny because it would give the Internet search leader the digital rights to millions of out-of-print books.
       Under a change approved on Monday,Google and groups representing US authors and publishers now have until Friday to change an agreement reached more than a year ago. It marked the latest twist in a copyright lawsuit that the authors and publishers filed against Google's digital book project four years ago.
       The revisions to the settlement were supposed to be filed by the end of Monday, but Google and its negotiating partners told US District Judge Denny Chin they still needed to address objections raised in September by the US Justice Department. Chin signed off on the extension without comment.
       The Justice Department has warned it probably would try to block the current agreement from taking effect because antitrust regulators had concluded it threatened to thwart competition and drive up prices.
       Some of the Justice Department's preliminary findings echoed concerns from a chorus of critics that include Google rivals Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Amazon.com Inc.
       Google had insisted the settlement merited court approval until the Justice Department raised red flags.
       In its current form, the settlement would entrust Google with a digital database containing millions of copyright-protected books, including volumes no longer being published. The Internet search leader would act as the sales agent for the authors and publishers,giving 63% of the revenue to the copyright holders.
       The Justice Department believes the arrangement could lead to collusion that would raise the prices for digital books a format that is expected to become increasingly popular with the advent of electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle.
       Google contends its plan to make digital copies of so many hard-to-find books would benefit society by making more knowledge available to anyone with an Internet connection.
       For that reason, the Justice Department has said it hopes an acceptable compromise can be worked out.

FINALLY, EQUALITY ON THE INTERNET

2009-11-08T05:49:00.002-08:00

       More than half of the world's 1.67 billion Internet surfers will find their life online getting a little easier soon, because they will no longer need to use English or any other Latin script to find Web pages. Users will be able to find sites by typing or searching for Web addresses in their own script such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or Korean.
       Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, decided last week to support full addresses in non-Latin characters. Countries can apply to register tehse internationalised domain names from November 16. Other top-level names, including those ending in.com,.net and so on, will similarly be available in the coming years.
       The faster-growing non-Latin user community can no longer be neglected. Beyond the ease of use and convenience, benefits will include at least symbolic equality on the Net. For them it promises a world of difference. For Latin surfers, however, not much will change. They will not, in any case, type non-Latin addresses to access content in languages they do not comprehend.
       Cyberspace, nevertheless, is as dynamic as it is unpredictable. The social, cultural and commercial ramifications of what Icann called "the biggest technical change" in Internet history will become obvious only in the long term, if not in hindsight.
       An immediate consequence is that it will promote communication among, and therefore attract more, non-Latin users. Sheer numbers are what are often needed to drive Internet innovations. Take Google for instance, it gets a cut every time a user clicks on advertising appearing alongside results from searches they make through the billions of Web pages it indexes.
       Chinese domain names might enable Chinese to overtake English. If so, they will help the virtual economic epicentre to move eastward, the same direction that the real economy is going in the current global realignment. The Chinese market will be hard to ignore online as well as off-line. Singapore is favourably placed linguistically to compete. Singaporean enterprises should not neglect building Chinese e-commerce sites if they want to communicate with and sell to that market. For added customer convenience, they should also adopt Chinese Web addresses.

DEVELOPERS TURNING TO INTERNET

2009-11-08T05:49:00.001-08:00

       Thailand's property firms are adapting their marketing strategies to meet the new information-technology era, and are cementing an image change from property market operators to lifestyle businesses.
       Although they have not abandoned traditional marketing media, many firms are using integrated marketing with increasing emphasis on new online channels.
       For example, Land & Houses (L&H) has launched an Internet homepage, www.my1sthome.in.th, aimed at attracting first-time homebuyers. The company is reaching out to a younger market, such as new members of the workforce, who expect to use the Internet to obtain information.
       Sansiri has begun using the wildly popular social-networking power of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as a means of attracting people to its main website www.homeandicom. It hopes to be able to create a social network between the company and its customers.
       Meanwhile, LPN Development plans to bring an online social-net-working atmosphere to its new website, www.30happydays.com. The company has now developed more than 60 residential projects, and it hopes the website will become a centre for communication between the company and its customers.
       Property Perfect launched its latest marketing tool via a social online network after 15 per cent of its customer were found to visit its projects through Facebook and Twitter, said project-planning director Thongchai Piyasantiwong.
       The company also launched a miniseries that can be viewed at www.thehappylivingstory.com, to help drive its sales, he said.
       LPN Development managing director Opas Sripayak said his company's website would create a close relationship between the company and its customers, providing a channel through which the company could learn by direct contact what its customers wanted in order to suit their lifestyles.
       Suparat Veerakul, vice president for communications at L&H, said her company's homepage was aimed at tapping customers aged 25-35 who were probably first-time home-buyers.
       The page includes tips on how to buy houses. It also provides games to test people to see whether they are ready to own a home. Other content includes promotions and details of L&H products. LH Bank will also provide online consultation services to people on home financing, she said.
       People who sign up as members of the homepage will receive a special loan rate from LH Bank when buying residences advertised on the site.
       She said it should fit with the lifestyle of the "young adult" group.
       "We think the Internet is the most effective way to reach them," she said.
       Samatcha Promsiri, senior marketing manager at Sansiri, said after opening its digital-era marketing media earlier this year that integration between new media channels would help the company to respond faster and provide information directly to customers.
       Research by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce shows demand for Internet access has become increasingly popular, especially among college students, who these days do their research and seek information on the Internet for their papers and careers.
       The number of Internet users in Thailand reached nearly 13 million at the end of last year, according to a survey by TT&T.

Magnificent seven

2009-11-08T05:47:00.000-08:00

       In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
       Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
       Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
       Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
       Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
       The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
       The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
       Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
       The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
       The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.

Halloween scares up sales on eBay marketplace

2009-10-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

       Halloween presents business opportunities for Thai sellers on eBay, the world's largest online marketplace and online shopping destination for holiday gifts.
       According to eBay, Thai sellers are taking advantage.
       Most of the products offered by Thai sellers are costumes for parties and events, such as vampire capes, thematic costumes and latex masks.
       Allis Ghim, the Southeast Asia director of eBay, said Halloween-related sales amounted to $4.3 million, or about 144 million baht, in September.
       She noted that buyers typically started shopping for Halloween items on eBay in early August, with the strongest buying activity in the middle of October.
       "Prior to festive celebrations like Halloween, we see spikes in sales of related products on eBay two weeks before the actual day," she said.
       eBay provides such potential for entrepreneurs by connecting to international markets such the US where festive periods such as Halloween and Christmas are highly celebrated events.
       The total September listings for eBay.com topped 450,000, with almost half finding a sale. The most popular words used by shoppers to search for items were Halloween, costume, witch,pumpkin, and black.
       Popular categories for Halloween items listed by eBay sellers are clothing,shoes, accessories, collectibles and crafts.On average, the price of Halloween items sold on eBay was $17.
       Interestingly, the most expensive item sold on eBay in the past month was a "complete Halloween haunted house",which went for $6,001.

Mail-order company goes bust

2009-10-30T23:37:00.000-07:00

       The venerable German mail-order company Quelle is shutting down more than 80 years after revolutionising the country's retail landscape, having missed customers' move to online shopping.
       The unit of insolvent German retailer Arcandor failed to find new investors and would be closed down, Arcandor's insolvency administrator Klaus Hubert Goerg said on Tuesday.
       A Quelle employee who took part in a staff meeting at the company's headquarters in Nuremberg said October's salaries would still be paid but beyond that nothing was certain.
       "It's over, crying doesn't help," Quelle employee Marianne Thieg told Reuters.A colleague added:"Quelle is dead."
       At least half of the 10,500 employees of Arcandor's Primondo unit, which Quelle is part of, could lose their jobs,but no official figures have yet been given.
       Marco Atzberger, retail expert at EHI retail institute, said Quelle's downfall was a result of the company's own problems rather than an industry-wide malfunction."Quelle is a tragic story,because the mail order business in general works quite well. They failed to integrate the online business properly and relied too strongly on the catalogue business," he said.
       The Quelle catalogue used to be a common feature in Germany's letter boxes and fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld even offered his collection "KL by Karl Lagerfeld" in the autumn/winter 1996-97 catalogue.
       Quelle was founded by Gustav Schickedanz in 1927, naming it after his business idea to sell products directly to the customers right from the source, or "Quelle," in German.
       But the emergence of the Internet took shoppers online, rapidly boosting sales of online retailers like Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc.
       "While the catalogue is not obsolete,it is not the main sales driver either, any more," EHI's Atzberger said.
       The German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (bvh)expects online shopping will for the first time this year make up more than half of the overall sales in the mail-order industry, which it estimates at 29.1 billion ($43.6 billion) for 2009.

Twitter on the look for translators

2009-10-20T22:15:00.001-07:00

       Twitter, the fastgrowing service, is seeking volunteer French, German, Italian, and Spanish translators to render its website into other languages.
       Twitter's website, Twitter.com, is currently only offered in English or Japanese.
       Biz Stone, a co-founder of the San Francisco-based startup, said in a blog post on Friday that Twitter was planning versions of its website in other languages,starting with French, German, Italian and Spanish.
       He invited a "small group" of Twitter users to become "volunteer translators"to suggest translations for the Twitter website.
       "We will distribute the translations to Twitter platform developers making it easier for them to offer multiple language support as well," he said.
       "We're very excited that more people will be able to use Twitter in their native language!" he added.
       Twitter, which allows users to pepper one another with 140-character-or-less messages known as "tweets," has grown rapidly in popularity since it was launched in August 2006 and claims to have topped 50 million users.

Facebook to boost tourism

2009-10-20T22:14:00.002-07:00

       Tourism should take advantage of social networking as a tool to attract new visitors while carefully monitoring bad corporate image, said the president of the Tourism Technology Association (TTA).
       Apichai Sakulsureeyadej, president of the TTA, said that the increasing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as using YouTube and blogs as marketing tools allows tourist to share their experiences and suggestions about the country.
       Currently, at least 50 percent of travellers do their research over the Internet prior to embarking on their trip. Many of these travellers also plan, book, and pay through various websites. The rate of online information for users and buyers of tourism products is increasing at an alarming rate. Around 80 percent of those tourists who use the Internet use social network sites.
       Use of social networking sites is going beyond normal e-marketing that uses the Web as a new channel to sell or send email marketing. So if the country uses networking sites it will be easier to reach those travellers and have a beneficial effect on Thai tourism.
       For example, if a tourist takes pictures of a beautiful place and posts the photos on Facebook and connects with their network of friends, those pictures may be more effective than if the TTA or the hotel operators had posted them.
       There are successes in some countries that already use social networking sites such as Australia. Activities on Twitter and Facebook are getting those who have visited Australia to talk and tweet about their experiences.
       Moreover, new research by academics at Bournemouth University in the UK showed that Information Acquisition obtaining up-to date information - was found to be the most influential factor for users of tourist social networks, followed by Social-Psychological factors such as seeking identity, forming relationships and seeking a sense of belonging, and hedonistic benefits including having fun with content, entertainment and being amused.
       The research was carried out on Internet users in South Korea, which has one of the largest populations of Internet users in the world.
       However, the country and tourism operators should be aware of carefully monitoring feedback and responding to negative opinions rather than ignoring and deleting negative views.
       Early next year the TTA will collaborate with the National Statistics Office (NSO)on the first "National ICT for Tourism Survey" done within Thailand. Apichai believes that the information will give the ICT industry a better idea on which areas of technology to focus when catering to the tourism industry.
       It will be easier to transform the tourism industry to become a knowledge and information rich industry, giving the operators in Thailand the edge over competition from other countries in marketing, internal management, service levels and technology-savvy staff.
       "In today's economic environment,the tourism industry relies heavily on Information Technology. Technology is embedded within every stage of the travel life-cycle. It is important that the tourism operators have the knowledge of how technology can empower their businesses to do better,"Apichai said.

YouTube to broadcast UK TV shows

2009-10-20T22:14:00.001-07:00

       British independent television network Channel 4 last week announced a "pioneering" deal to broadcast its shows on YouTube after first being viewed on TV.
       "YouTube and Channel 4 have signed a pioneering content deal that will make the broadcaster's original programmes available on demand, in full and freeof-charge via YouTube in the UK in the coming months," said a statement.
       "The strategic partnership marks the first time a broadcaster anywhere in the world has made a comprehensive catchup schedule available on YouTube."
       Neither group disclosed financial terms of the deal that would run for at least three years and be supported by advertising revenue.
       "Channel 4 was the first broadcaster in the world to make all its commissioned content available online," said Channel 4 Chief Executive Andy Duncan.
       "This is another important milestone for us and we're delighted to be combining the power of the '4' brand and the appeal of our content with YouTube's unrivalled reach and reputation online."
       The number of views on the videosharing website has surpassed one billion a day, the co-founder of the site Chad Hurley said last week on the third anniversary of its acquisition by Google.
       YouTube's director of partnerships Patrick Walker said the deal was in reaction to calls from the site's followers for it to broadcast full-length shows.
       "This demonstrates our commitment to bringing an even greater range of content to YouTube," he added.

GOOGLE WOOING RIVAL FIRMS' CUSTOMERS

2009-10-20T22:13:00.001-07:00

       Google on Monday ramped up a campaign to convert businesses worldwide into users of e-mail, calendar, document and other software programs it offers online as services on the Internet.
       "Gone Google" advertising was expanded to Britain, France, Canada, Japan, Australia, Singapore and other countries.
       Ads are being displayed in places such as train stations and airports "to help companies, schools and organisations learn all about the benefits of going Google with our enterprise products".
       Google has been enhancing and expanding online software services as a trend toward Internet-based cloud computing has gained momentum.
       Companies hustling to survive the grim economic conditions have been attracted to cost savings that stem from renting software instead of buying, installing and maintaining it on their own machines.
       US software giant Microsoft has responded to the trend with a "software plus services" model that combines its core pakcaged products with programs hosted online.
       Google Apps programs hosted on the Internet giant's computers are used by more than two million businesses in more than 100 countries, according to a blog post by Vivian Leung and Tom Oliveri of the Google Enterprise Team.
       "Each day, thousands of companies choose to 'go Google', that is, switch to Google Apps,' Leung and Oliveri said. "These companies no longer have to deal with the hassles of managing e-mail servers or rolling out software updates, and their employees now enjoy the convenience of shared documents and calendars, Gmail and more."
       Konica Minolta, Rentokil Initial, and TOTO are among firms that have recently "gone Google", according to Leung and Oliveri.

Google adds automatic translation

2009-10-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

       Internet giant Google added automatic translation to Google Docs on Thursday allowing users to translate documents into 42 languages.
       The "Tools" menu on Google Docs now includes a "Translate Document"feature which provides a list of the various languages offered, which run from Albanian to Icelandic to Vietnamese.
       A translation is done "in a matter of seconds," Google said in a blog post,and formatting and layout is preserved whatever the language of the document.
       "Translations aren't perfect, but we are continuously working on improving translation quality over time," Google said. Google Docs provides word processing, spreadsheet and other programs hosted on the Internet.
       The Mountain View, California-based company has already built automatic translation features into its popular email program Gmail and into services such as its blog reader.

Students get second chance

2009-10-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

       The National Institute of Educational Testing Service will spend four million baht to arrange catch-up tests for students who missed the third round of the General Aptitude Test and the Professional Aptitude Test, Niets director Uthumporn Jamornmarn says.
       The Niets website was attacked by hackers last week, causing students who applied to sit in the third round of GAT and PAT, running from Thursday to Sunday, to miss their exams.
       Mrs Uthumporn said Niets had to close down its website for three days after the attack. Many GAT and PAT applicants could not print their identity cards from the website or check the time and places of their exams.
       Niets decided to organise make-up rounds for the GAT and PAT.
       Two groups of students are eligible to take the replacement exams, Mrs Uthumporn said. Those who missed the exams because of the website hacking problem and those who could not apply for the third round of GAT and PAT are eligible. These students could apply to sit the make-up exams via Niets website at www.niets.or.th from Thursday to Oct 22.
       The names of those eligible to take the catch-up exams will be announced on Oct 25.
       The make-up exams will be held from Oct 29 to Nov 1 at test centres in seven provinces -Bangkok, Chiang Mai,Phitsanulok, Ubon Ratchathani, Khon Kaen, Hat Yai district in Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
       Exam results will be announced on Nov 10, also via the website, Mrs Uthumporn said.

Exam chaos after hackers attack site

2009-10-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

       Computer hackers have attacked the website of the National Institute of Edu-cational Testing Service (Niets), prompt-ing about 40% of students applying to sit in the General Aptitude Test (GAT)and the Professional Aptitude Test (PAT)at test centres to miss the exams yester-day.The third round of GAT and PAT tests ran from Thursday to today at 314 test centres nationwide, including at Sukho-thai Thammathirat Open University.
       Deputy Education Minister Chaiwuti Ban-nawat admitted yester-day that the GAT and PAT had been targetted by hackers.
       They have written a computer programme to manipulate the web-site of Niets, an agency responsible for organ-ising the GAT and PAT,blocking students from accessing the website for three days. Many stu-dents have not been able to check the time and place of their tests since Wednesday.
       Niets closed down its website,www.niets.or.th , to fix the hacking prob-lem for three days. Its operation resumed only yesterday.
       It was the first time that university admission tests have been troubled by hackers.
       "We never thought this could hap-pen," said Mr Chaiwuti.
       He said hackers in the past have derailed university admission tests in Russia and South Korea, but this kind of incident has never happened in Thailand before. In the case of South Korea,authorities had to cancel the test.
       However, Mr Chaiwuti said Niets did not have to cancel the ongoing GAT and PAT because the hackers could not steal or damage information stored in the agency's data system, they only blocked students' access to the website.
       He said the incident was a lesson for authorities that they need to be prepared for future technical problems and hacks.
       Niets should have a back-up website or a back-up system in which students may telephone to ask for their test in-formation, he added.
       There were 400,000 students regis-tering for the tests yesterday. At Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University alone,1,994 students sat tests but another 1,300 students, or 40%, did not show up.
       Niets is checking on the amount of students missing this round of GAT and PAT at other places.
       During the second round of GAT and PAT,only about 20% of stu-dents missed their tests.Officials have asked about 10 students at the university test centre about their friends who missed the tests. Most of them said friends missed the tests as they could not access the in-formation on the time and places of their tests,according to Mr Chaiwuti.
       If the website attack caused students to miss their tests, Niets might have to consider organising make-up tests, the deputy minister said.
       Niets director Uthumporn Jamorn-marn confirmed that the agency will arrange make-up tests for students who missed the tests.
       The agency has filed a complaint with police, asking investigators to search for the hackers and take action against them, said Mrs Uthumporn.
       Niets has also sought help from the Information and Communication Tech-nology Ministry as well as private detec-tives in its attempt to find the hackers.
       If arrested the hackers will be obliged to pay compensation for Niets' expenses related to the organisation of make-up tests for affected students as well.

TWITTER - THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET

2009-10-11T02:05:00.001-07:00

       Times are tough for the "tweet before you think" crowd. Courtney Love was sued by a fashion designer after she posted a series of inflammatory tweets, one calling the designer a liar and a thief. A landlord in Chicago sued a tenant for US$50,000(1.67 million baht) after she tweeted about her mouldy apartment. And Demi Moore slapped back at Perez Hilton over a revealing photograph of the actress' daughter.
       A growing number of people have begun lashing out at their Twitter critics, challenging the not-quite rules of etiquette on a service where insults are lobbed in brief bursts, too short to include the social niceties. Some offended parties are suing. For others, extracting a public mea culpa will do. In some cases, the payback is extreme: Mark Cuban,the owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association, was fined $25,000 for criticising a referee in a tweet after a game.
       Blogs, of course, have long been rife with the discontented heaping abuse on foes. But academics and researchers who study online attitudes say that same behaviour has been less common on Twitter, in part, because many people use their real names. Now it is migrating to the service, attracting lawsuits and leaving users to haggle among themselves about what will be tolerated.
       Complicating matters, there are few prescribed social norms on Twitter like those in more closed communities like Facebook.The service has attained mass popularity without much time to develop an organic users' culture. On top of that, with tweets limited to 140 characters, users come right to the point without context or nuance.
       "It's the same reason why schoolyard fights don't start out with,'I have a real problem with the way you said something so let's discuss it'," said Josh Bernoff, a researcher and an author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies ."You get right to the punch in the nose.Twitter doesn't allow room for reflection. It gets people to the barest emotion."
       The same laws of libel and defamation when someone knowingly says something false that causes harm- that apply to traditional media and the internet also apply to Twitter, according to free speech experts.What is likely to shift, said Floyd Abrams, the well known "first amendment lawyer", is what language is considered acceptable and whether it is deemed harmful. In the 1950s,he explained, it was libellous to call someone a communist; today it is not.
       "The basic law will be the same, but I would think that a defendant might argue that the language used on Twitter is understood to not be taken as seriously as is the case in other forms of communication," said Mr Abrams, who has represented The New York Times ."We will have to wait and see how judges and juries figure out how to deal with this."
       Bryan Freedman is the lawyer in Los An-geles who is representing Dawn Simorangkir,a designer who markets clothes under the Boudoir Queen label, and who sued Love for libel in March.
       The lawsuit contends that Love "became infatuated" with the designer, asking her to create costumes using vintage material the singer owned.
       When Ms Simorangkir asked to be paid,Love balked at the price. Ms Simorangkir, in return, refused to return Love's vintage material, according to legal documents filed by Love's lawyers. The singer accused the designer of being a liar and thief (among other things) in a number of rambling, misspelled tweets.
       "You will end up in a circle of corched eaeth hunted til your dead," read one tweet from Love in March.
       Love and her lawyers, Keith Fink and Olaf Muller, declined to comment on the lawsuit.But in August Love's lawyers sought to dismiss the case, saying it would violate and inhibit her right to free speech. Mr Freedman maintains, however, that Ms Simorangkir's business has suffered because of Love. A hearing is set for this month."I find with this kind of communication you will always end up saying something that will get you in trouble," Mr Freedman said.
       Mr Freedman's perspective is interesting because he also represents Perez Hilton, the gossip blogger known for taunting celebrities with embarrassing posts. In September, Hilton was involved in a public spat with Demi Moore on Twitter after he posted a link on his website to a photo of Moore's 15-yearold daughter in a low-cut blouse.
       In a series of tweets, Moore accused Hilton,whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, of flouting child pornography laws. Hilton went on the attack, posting tweets that said Moore was an inept mother.
       Both parties' lawyers exchanged threatening letters. Through Mr Freedman, Hilton accused Moore of defamation. On Sept 4,Moore's lawyer, Marty Singer, responded in a letter, calling Hilton "regularly crude, insulting and cruel".
       No lawsuits were filed. As Stephen Huvane,Moore's publicist, put it:"No one wins in these situations."
       In defence of Hilton, Mr Freedman said that as long as his tweets reflect opinion, it doesn't matter if his targets think he is cruel.But he conceded that much of the tension arises from the unthinking way that some people use Twitter."I'm not saying it is right or wrong," Mr Freedman said,"but I think we are seeing a blurring of lines between nastiness and free speech."
       According to legal experts, much of what is said on Twitter is opinion - even nasty name-calling - which means it is protected speech.
       "When you look at a lot of the things people are complaining about it is not actual defamation, it is a statement of opinion,"said David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University."In many cases, it's about two people who had a breakdown in a relationship and took that online."
       Twitter has made a choice not to become involved in such disputes."We don't want to be a mediator," said Alexander Macgillivray,Twitter's general counsel.
       In June, though, the company began verifying accounts after complaints from celebrities about others falsely using their identities.

Consult the sommelier in your pocket

2009-10-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

       Shopping for wine is a lot like parenting a teenager. You feel stupid when you're in the middle of it,and when you finally emerge, you're desperately ready for a drink.
       There is, alas, no app for raising teenagers. But mobile software developers have begun aiming at oenophiles, and in so doing, they have established one of the more useful categories of wireless apps.
       Appropriately enough, choosing the right one can be puzzling and tedious.Some of the refined entries in the current vintage include Cor.kz, Wine Enthusiast Guide, Nat Decants Food & Wine Matcher and Pair It!. I'd give them a rating of 85,with an asterisk. They're fairly good now,and they should age nicely.
       Before digging into the details, though,consider the overall value of these services for a moment. Let's say you're at your favourite wine shop with about 15 minutes to spare, and you want a bottle that will make your dinner guests coo,without maxing out your credit card.
       The shop owner is helping someone near the Mouton Rothschild, and the other employees are 23-year-olds with extensive beer-stocking skills. Rather than choosing a random bottle or asking the beer guys, you can now just reach for the sommelier in your cell phone.
       From there you have a couple of options. Some apps, like Wine Enthusiast,let you find the most highly rated wines at specific price levels, so you can quickly browse the store - or, if you're in a restaurant, the wine list - for suitable matches.
       If you have Cor.kz or, to a lesser extent,Nat Decants, you can reverse the process,and look through the wine list or shelves until you find a promising label. Then it's a matter of doing a quick check on its rating.
       The second approach has limits, simply because it takes too long to type in,say,"2003 Hochheimer Koenigin Victoriaberg Riesling Beerenauslese," to say nothing of the time it might take to click through the ratings and then move onto another bottle.
       Smartphone mavens are already wondering why you can't just use the phone's camera to scan the bottle's bar code and have the app display the wine's rating? In the coming weeks, you'll be able to get fairly close to that bit of grape-soaked geekery, thanks to a new feature from Cor.kz.
       But first, more about the core features of this app, which will soon be available to BlackBerry users and owners of Android devices like T-Mobile's MyTouch 3G.
       Cor.kz stands on the shoulders of an Internet giant, cellartracker.com, which houses more than a million reviews by roughly 82,000 wine aficionados. Cor.kz can also help users manage their wine cellar inventory, but it is perhaps best used by those who just want to buy more intelligently.
       Type in the name of the wine you are considering - Del Dotto, say - and Cor.kz retrieves everything in CellarTracker's data base about the wine.
       This can be a blessing and a curse.Wines from Del Dotto, a small but muchbeloved vintner in Napa Valley, California, yield 581 tasting notes. If you type something more specific into your iPhone, like "2005 Del Dotto Cabernet,"Cor.kz returns 95 matches.
       Some of these results include a numerical rating. To save yourself wasted clicks, choose those listings. The rating represents the average from CellarTracker's reviewers, and those entries will also include detailed reviews and retail prices.

NEW SANOOK SERVICE MAKES ONLINE SHOPPING SAFER

2009-10-02T21:30:00.001-07:00

       Shopping.co.th, a two-year-old online market place run by Sanook.com and eBay, has added a "TRUST by Shopping.co.th" service to make buyers more confident and protect its merchants from fraud.
       Veerawat Hongsitthiwong, a vice president at Sanook Online, said the service offered six applications for merchants and buyers, namely an enhanced payment system called PaySure by PaySbuy; Track & Trace from Thailand Post; Buyer & Seller Verification; Feedback Score; Buyer Protection Program, and Education Program.
       He said the TRUST service was added to increase security and give its 2,000 online merchants and the 100,000 or so visitors it gets every day more confidence in purchasing via Shopping.co.th.
       "The main benefit is that online transactions will become more secure because the TRUST option will verify buyers' identification number, which will protect our merchants from fraud," Veerawat said.
       Consumers, too, will be protected from fraudulent merchants via the PaySure option.
       "When buyers pay for products, the money will first be left within the PaySure system, which will pay the merchants only when the product has been delivered. This will make shoppers more confident," Veerawat explained.
       Somwang Luangphiboonsri, general manager of PaySbuy, said PaySure now allows customers to use either their credit card or their PaySbuy eWallet, an online deposit account.
       "Under this system, transaction fees will be a little higher, with Bt20 added on to 4.5 per cent of the total transaction value," Somwang said.
       He said the TRUST service should also help double the total number of transactions from the current Bt15 million-Bt20 million per month to between Bt30 million and Bt40 million per month within the next 12 months.
       "We have made these improvements to increase the confidence of online buyers and sellers, and hope this will encourage people to purchase expensive products online," Veerawat said.
       In addition, customers will be able to track where their purchases are through the Track & Trace service provided Thailand Post.
       The Feedback Score and Buyer Protection Programs were added to Shopping.co.th to ensure that customers are protected and remain happy while shopping at the site.
       The Education Program, meanwhile, will teach merchants the tricks of remaining competitive.
       At present, Shopping.co.th provides around 90,000 items, which are listed for 15 days at a time.
       The top five best sellers are women's clothing, jewellery, Buddha statues, stamps and beauty products.

Japanese firm buys stake in TARAD.com

2009-10-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

       Rakuten Inc, a leading Japanese internet company, has acquired a controlling stake in Thailand's largest e-commerce portal to cash in on the growing local market.
       Rakuten has completed the acquisition procedure to take a 67% in TARAD Dot Com Co Ltd. Established in 1999,TARAD.com is an online shopping service with about 160,000 participating merchants offering 1.4 million products, from fashion items to electronics.
       The website claims to have a mem-bership of 2 million users.
       Rakuten plans to use its experience and management style to expand TARAD.com by introducing new functions and services for both merchants and users from early 2010.
       Three senior Rakuten executives will manage the Thai operation.
       "We selected TARAD.com because it is a suitable partner for pursuing growth opportunities in the Thai e-commerce market," said Hiroshi Mikitani, the founder, chairman and CEO of Rakuten.
       In Japan, Rakuten operates the portal www.rakuten.co.jp and has approximately 60 million registered members. The site offers more than 40 million products from some 30,000 merchants. Last year sales totalled US$2.7 billion.
       It has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming the world's leading internet service company.
       The Thai acquisition is its second move in the international market after last year forming a joint venture with Taiwan's President Chain Store Corp.

Violence on video clips "making society violent"

2009-10-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

       Academics yesterday called for an official watch on violent and obscene media, warning that Thailand is entering the state of a so-called "online criminal society".
       Repeated presentation of video clips could affect children and oversensitive or depressed people to use violence against others or themselves, they told a seminar on the impact of violent videos on Thai society, organised by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation.
       The foundation's media-watch group manager Tham Saicheu said the community had entered a time when crime and the Internet were converging and becoming easily accessible.
       Video clips were a new cultural trend allowing people to produce and publish the content themselves.
       Tham warned the convergence of crime and Internet-including computer and IT advancement, social circles, a tendency to use negative words as searching tools, and crime - was leading to an "online criminal society".
       Young people were equipped with the ability to share information, but lacked maturity in using media, which could lead to social problems.
       He urged controls on the repeated presentation of violent content, which could change society by causing people to be too familiar with it, he warned.
       Youth mental health expert, Dr Kamol Saenthongsrikamol from Bangkok Hospital, said that seeing violent images repeatedly affected small children and those who were oversensitive or suffering from depression. He said small children would respond with no regard to other's pain because they lacked maturity, while those suffering depression could act out the violence, such as killing or injuring themselves.
       "The media has a job to present the facts but every time they show repeated images of violence, they stimulate people's mood for violence. The media should present such images moderately," Kamol said.
       The Thai Broadcast Journalists Association vice-president, Patchara Sarapimpa, said the profession this year has drafted guide-lines for news presentation and complaints could be filed if there was a violation.
       He said the association had tried to oversee a professional code wihtin an appropriate frame. If the media didn't present news at all, society would have no standards of what was right and what was wrong.
       A youth representative, Nareelak Pradabsil, said the violence factor often came from families in which parents beat each other in front of the kids until the act was regarded as normal, leading to a tendency for kids to use violence to solve their life problems too.

HK journalists slam Beijing for press gag

2009-10-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

       More than 1,300 Hong Kong journalists yesterday joined in a signature campaign accusing China of "blatant trampling on press freedom".
       The campaign, featuring full-page advertisements in Hong Kong newspapers, follows the detention and beating of reporters from the former British colony sent to cover news events in China.
       Three television journalists were detained and beaten up as they tried to cover ethnic unrest in the western city of Urumqi in September and were later accused of inciting unrest among protesters.
       In a separate incident, another Hong Kong TV journalist was accused of possessing drugs in what she claimed was a ploy to prevent her covering the trial of an anti-corruption campaigner.
       Advertisements condemning the actions have been taken out by the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Foreign Correspondents Club in Hong Kong one day ahead of Chinese National Day celebrations.
       The advertisements, carrying the names of 1,300-plus signatories, said journalists were "angered by such violent stoppage of news coverage and blatant trampling on press freedom".
       They call on both the Sichuan and Xinjiang provincial governments to investigate the incidents, stop repression,pledge themselves to uphold press freedoms and punish guilty officials.
       The advertisement also calls for the Chinese government to abolish rules requiring journalists to apply for press permits to cover news in China and to open up dialogue with front-line journalists.
       A poll by the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday found support for the Beijing government in the city of 7 million had fallen to its lowest level in almost two years following the incident.
       Meanwhile, internet users in China have found more and more online roadblocks and dissidents have reported increased surveillance as the authorities nervously prepare to celebrate 60 years of communist rule.
       Social websites such as Facebook and Twitter that were blocked after deadly riots in Xinjiang in July, and sensitive sites including Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International were inaccessible in China yesterday.
       Some web users have seen their free proxy services, which allowed them to access sites blocked by government censors, wiped out in the run-up to Oct 1, China's National Day.

Throw the book at them

2009-09-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

       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.

Yahoo launches media blitz

2009-09-29T23:00:00.001-07:00

       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.

Twitter valued at a billion dollars

2009-09-29T22:58:00.000-07:00

       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.

More users getting the instant message

2009-09-29T22:57:00.001-07:00

       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."

Have your say on web page content

2009-09-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

       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".

"Should Obama be killed" poll yanked

2009-09-29T22:54:00.001-07:00

       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."

Major firms in online advertising battle

2009-09-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

       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.

MARKETING TRANSFORMED BY SOCIAL NETWORKING

2009-09-29T22:50:00.001-07:00

       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".

Officials probe Twitter "leaks" before polling sites closed

2009-09-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

       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.

STRENGTH IN SCRUTINY

2009-09-29T22:47:00.001-07:00

       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.

Merkel flash mob protest becomes cyber hit

2009-09-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

       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.

VN ruling party website fined for China item

2009-09-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

       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.

Military goes on web alert

2009-09-29T22:43:00.001-07:00

       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.

Club to protect online news content

2009-09-29T22:41:00.001-07:00

       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.

US PEER-TO-PEER LOAN WEBSITES PROVING A POPULAR ALTERNATIVE

2009-09-29T22:39:00.000-07:00

       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.

Yahoo! to spend $100m in bid for more brand buzz

2009-09-29T22:38:00.001-07:00

       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.

Rights group urges govt to stop harassing news website

2009-09-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

       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.

US PEER-TO-PEER LOAN WEBSITES PROVING A POPULAR ALTERNATIVE

2009-09-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! to spend $100m in bid for more brand buzz

2009-09-25T06:27:00.000-07:00

A piece of the action

2009-09-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

       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.

The IT gap widens again

2009-09-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

       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.

Thailand urged to get tough on pirates

2009-09-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

       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."

Companies utilise social sciences to fill tech jobs

2009-09-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

       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.

Joint venture to boost Thai SMEs online

2009-09-25T06:15:00.001-07:00

       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.

New rules to protect Internet neutrality

2009-09-25T06:12:00.000-07:00

       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.

A picture speaks a thousand text-only search results?

2009-09-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

       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.

Web users to help digitise faded books

2009-09-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

       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."

Technology helps shift fashion sales power base

2009-09-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

       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."

iMusic turns to digital albums

2009-09-22T19:58:00.002-07:00

       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.

AMARIN'S MAGAZINES SEEK WEBSITE BOOST

2009-09-22T19:58:00.001-07:00

       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.

JUST LOG OUT, TURN OFF AND EXPERIENCE LIFE

2009-09-22T19:56:00.002-07:00

       Online preoccupation in a virtual world is denying today's youth the real thing Today's youth and some adults may be spending too much time online and ending up losing opportunities to develop other skills and have meaningful off-line experience and face-to-face relationships. In Bangkok, schoolchildren and some adults spend an inordinate amount of the time at Internet cafes or in front of their notebook computers playing online games, checking out Facebook or literally Twittering their life away on their mobile phones.
       A more balanced approach is needed lest these people end up treating their online virtual life as more important or a substitute to their off-line real life.
       There is no debate about the merits and marvels of the Internet. Wikipedia and Google have opened access to a treasure trove of information in ways unimaginable to people two decades ago. Twitter has changed the face of revolt in Iran and will likely play a more crucial role in future political struggles elsewhere. And the seemingly less-hi-tech e-mail has managed to make inter-continental relationships possible as well as affordable. Facebook and MySpace have also reinvented virtual social networking. Today, one can also play online games with multiple others from various parts of the globe in real time.
       Nevertheless, despite the obvious merit of these technological innovations, one must recognise that too much of anything is always harmful. Some people have ended up becoming addicted to online life and relations and fail to nurture their off-line life as a result. Others have ended up having less time for serious book reading and contemplation, preferring the easier way to google up everything.
       The virtual world, to some, has become a replacement for the real world's face-to-face interaction and relations. No one should doubt that no matter how hi-tech and dazzling these new Internet technologies are, they can never replace the real-life experience of our five senses. Looking at any number of pages of snow online can never replace the real-life experience of being physically exposed to snowy winter. Google as many maps as you like about different parts of Rome but it cannot compensate for taking a leisurely stroll in that majestic old imperial capital by foot. Also, none of the sweet words online sent through e-mail can ever replace a real embrace and kiss of lovers or the joy of having a real face-to-face chat with friends while having lunch or dinner together.
       Parents should spend more time with their children, face-to-face and enjoy the here and now. Often time, online activity distracts people from the present. Their minds drift far away and unfortunately are no longer rooted to the present, not mindful and contemplative about the moment.
       In the US, a string of books have been written about the possible adverse effects of spending too much time online. Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University and author of the 2008 best-selling book "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardises Our Future", asks if digital diversion of the young has cut kids off from history, civics, literature and fine art.
       Bauerlein answers in the affirmative.
       "Teenagers live in the present and the immediate. What happened long ago and far away doesn't impress them. They care about what occurred last week in the cafeteria, not what took place during the Great Depression. They heed the words of Facebook, not the Gettysburg Address. They focus on other kids in the English class, not leaders in Congress," the author wrote. "These young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. Or a better way to put it is to say that they are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond - friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook."
       His suggested remedy is that children need a reprieve and a retreat. "For them to grow up into mindful citizens and discerning consumers, then, adolescents must break the social circuit and think beyond the clique and the schoolyard. But they can't do it themselves - peer pressure is too strong - and so adults must help draw them away."
       Do some people see a parallel of sorts to some youth (and even some adults) in Thailand? One may not need to totally agree with Bauerlein to appreciate his concerns.
       Some Thai parents and adults may do well to think about the issue. In fact, teenagers and young adults should be encouraged to discuss and debate the pros and cons of their digital dependency, if not addiction, in the hope that they may eventually develop a less euphoric and more realistic view of what an online-dependent life really entails and what repercussions it has for not just themselves but society as a whole.

AD AGENCIES "NEED TO ADOPT HOLISTIC APPROACH"

2009-09-22T19:56:00.001-07:00

       Local advertising agencies need to adopt a holistic approach to cope with the challenges in this new era of integrated marketing communications, experts said last week.
       "It's downhill for mainstream media advertising as vendors have shifted part of their budget to other communications activities, such as public relations, event marketing, seminars and the use of IT, such as Twitter, blogging, message boards and Web communities," said Seri Wongmontha, a marketing communications professional.
       Nowadays, the image of advertising is that of manipulative, intrusive and misleading, he told a seminar on "Advertising and Social Responsibility in the Business Sector" held by the Thai Soap, Detergent and Personal Care Manufacturers' Association.
       Advertising is also low in taste, vulgar and a victim of zapping. Many works are unethical and interested only in getting sales. They have no responsibility to society, he said.
       "The popularity of mainstream media advertising among business vendors will decline gradually and be shared by other channels of marketing communications," he said.
       Public relations firms for instance would play a larger role in brand and marketing communications, as they can provide messages at less cost, but with greater complexity and credibility.
       "Business vendors need to find PR agencies that are creative, and doing communications things beyond just giving press releases or hosting press conferences," he said.
       To deal with the new challenges, ad agencies need to adjust to provide, not only advertising work, but fully integrated marketing communications to their clients, he added.
       Niwat Wongprompreeda, secretary-general of the Advertising Association of Thailand, said most local ad agencies had adjusted their business portfolio by moving up to brand agencies.
       No ad agency provides a purely advertising service in the marketplace anymore, he said.
       "The way of marketing communications has been changed substantially. Ad agencies now have become companies that can provide full marketing communications services. All communication tools have been used by them to build brands," he said.
       Niwat, who is the managing director of The Searcher, a local marketing research house, said that all ad agencies would no longer do advertising spots and spend money. They have created holistic approaches to make those products successful in the market.
       "I myself however believe that mainstream media advertising will not totally disappear and business vendors still allocate a certain level of budget to mainstream advertising," he said.
       To promote ethics among business organisations, including in advertising, all vendors should group together to monitor all of the ethical issues and such self-regulating activities, he added.

Police arrest B100m web gang

2009-09-20T20:40:00.001-07:00

       Police have arrested six foreigners believed to be members of a transnational gang that has conned victims out of more than 100 million baht in an online investment scam.
       Interpol previously alerted the Thai authorities about the group of foreigners who have allegedly set up fake investment firms to lure internet users into putting their money into a non-existent investment programme.
       The arrest followed a joint operation of the Central Investigation Bureau, Crime Suppression Division and Tourist Police.
       The suspected gang members included four British nationals, one French man and a Filipina.
       Pol Maj Gen Panya Mamen, deputy Central Investigation Bureau commissioner, said that local officers discovered that the gang had constructed fake company websites in both Thailand and the Philippines.
       It also imitated real websites and lured victims into transferring money for investing in fake stocks via their fake websites.
       The six people were discovered working on computers in a house in Soi Thong Lor 25 after police raided the property. Seven desktop and six notebook computers along with 31 mobile phones were seized from the house.
       Based on the information gathered from the seized computers, the gang had managed to get a number of victims to transfer more than 100 million baht into its accounts.
       The gang members claimed that they knew nothing about the scam and had been hired by a man identified only as Paul for 30,000 baht to 50,000 baht per month to type information into the computers and answer the telephone.

SIX FOREIGNERS ARRESTED FOR INTERNET SCAM

2009-09-20T20:39:00.001-07:00

       Four Britons, a Filipino woman and a French man have been arrested for allegedly deceiving foreigners to invest in stocks of bogus firms through the Internet and taking their money, a senior police officer said yesterday.
       The six were arrested last week while carrying out the scam at a rented house in Bangkok's Thonglor Soi 25, said Central Investigation Bureau deputy chief Pol Maj-General Panya Mamen.
       Police seized seven desktop computers, six notebook PCs, three computer servers and 31 mobile phones as well as some documents from the house. Interpol had contacted police about some Thai-based and Philippines-based "bogus firms" that were tricking foreigners to invest in stocks via Internet, he said.
       The Thai police investigated and learned about this group of foreigners carrying out the scam at the house, so police asked Phra Khanong Court to issue a search warrant.
       Information from the seized computers showed the group tricked victims into investing over Bt100 million in stocks in fake companies, he alleged.
       The foreigners claimed they were hired by a man identified only as "Paul" for Bt30,000 to Bt50,000 a month to key in data and make phone calls.
       The six were initially charged for putting false information on to the Internet and knowingly distributing false data in a bid to earn money from others, as well as working in Thailand without permits.

MORE LOTTERY TICKETS, PRIZES TO BEAT THE OVERPRCING PROBLEM

2009-09-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

       The board of the Government Lottery Office yesterday approved a plan to issue four million additional tickets and split the first prize from 1 to 25 prizes, to ease the overpricing problem.
       The additional tickets, which will boost the number in each round to 50 million, will be issued on behalf of charitable agencies. New tickets will be printed from November onward while the prize split will start in January, said Nakarin Mektrairat, a member of the boardA subcommittee will also be established to oversee the overpricing, empowered to terminate distribution contracts with violators.
       Also chairing a team to sound social responses on the two and three-digit lotteries, Nakarin said 53 per cent of the respondents supported the scheme while 24 per cent opposed. The board may convene in the next few weeks to finalise the issue, after the Council of State ruled that the online lotto scheme is legal.
       "We're not buying time, but it is an issue of readiness of information. We want it to be complete. Moreover, it remains unclear how to ease the social problems deriving from lotteries," he said.
       Thawat Sathitwithaya, president of the lotto distributors association, yesterday issued a request to the office, asking for it to speed up the online lotto scheme. He said in a letter sent to all newspapers that the lotto-distributing machine is getting old and further delay would deprive the government of additional revenue, worth Bt784 million per round based on the estimated lotto sales of Bt2.8 billion.

Google offers its digital books for printing

2009-09-20T20:37:00.002-07:00

       Google is giving 2 million books in its digital library a chance to be reincarnated as paperbacks.
       As part of a deal announced yesterday,Google is opening up part of its index to the maker of a high-speed publishing machine that can manufacture a paperback-bound book of about 300 pages in under 5 minutes. The new service is an acknowledgment by the internet search leader that not everyone wants their books served up on a computer or an electronic reader like those made by Amazon.com and Sony.
       The "Espresso Book Machine" has been around for several years, but it figures to become a hotter commodity now that it has access to so many books scanned from some of the world's largest libraries. And On Demand Books, the Espresso's maker, potentially could get access to even more hard-to-find books if Google wins court approval of a classaction settlement giving it the right to sell out-of-print books.
       "This is a seminal event for us," said Dane Neller, On Demand Books' chief executive, as he oversaw a demonstration of the Espresso Book Machine on Wednesday at Google's Mountain View,California, headquarters.
       In the background, some of the books that Google spent the past five years scanning into a digital format were returning to their paper origins.
       "It's like things are coming full circle,"Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson said."This will allow people to pick up the physical copy of a book even if there may be just one or two other copies in some library, or maybe it's not even available at all." On Demand's printing machines already are in more than a dozen locations in the United States,Canada, Australia, England and Egypt,mostly at campus book stores, libraries and small retailers. The Harvard Book Store will be among the first equipped with an instant-publishing machine to have access to Google's digital library.
       The books published by The Espresso Machine will have a recommended sales price of US$8(270 baht) per copy,although the final decision will be left to each retailer. New York-based On Demand Books will get a $1 of each sale with another $1 going to Google, which says it will donate its commission to charities and other nonprofit causes.
       The high-speed publishing machine itself sells for about $100,000, although On Demand Books is willing to lease the equipment to retailers instead.
       For starters, Google is only allowing The Espresso Machine publish from the section of its digital library that consists of 2 million books no longer protected by copyright.
       These "public domain" books were published before 1923- an era that includes classics like Moby Dick and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as very obscure titles. The paperbacks churned out in Wednesday's demonstration of the Espresso included Lathe Work For Beginners
       Lathe Dame Curtsey's Book
       MOf Candy Making , and Memoirs Of A Cavalier , a Daniel Defoe novel that never caught on quite like his most famous work,Robinson Crusoe .Millions more titles could be added to On Demand's virtual inventory if Google gets federal court approval of a classaction settlement that would grant it the right to sell copyrighted books no longer being published. Google estimates it already has made digital copies of about 6 million out-of-print books.
       The settlement terms includes a provision that could authorise republishing the books with a machine like the Espresso. Some of Google's rivals and a long list of other critics are hoping to block the settlement, mainly because they believe it will give Google a monopoly on the digital rights to out-of-print books and make it too easy to track people's reading preferences.
       The US Justice Department is investigating the monopoly allegations and is scheduled to share some of its preliminary thoughts with District Judge Denny Chin in a brief due today.
       Mr Neller is thrilled just to have the right to publish selections fromGoogle's digital library of public domain books.
       He thinks it could help him reach his ambition to turn the Espresso machine into publishing's equivalent of an ATM.
       "It's more efficient for everyone and readers are the biggest beneficiaries,"Mr Neller said.

Australian website offers to send messages from beyond the grave

2009-09-20T20:37:00.001-07:00

       The fear of dying suddenly,without the chance to mend wrongs or say goodbye, has prompted an Australian entrepreneur to start a website where people can contact loved ones from beyond the grave.
       Peter Ingram, a security systems retailer, watched as within just two weeks of being diagnosed with a brain tumour an aunt lost her ability to speak, write,or even smile. She was 100% conscious and able to understand what was happening around her, but remained silent until her death, taking her secrets, thanks and regrets to the grave.
       "I'd known her for 20 years and to me that was devastating," said Mr Ingram.
       So he recently launched Australia's first virtual time-capsule site,FromBeyond2u.com, where the living can leave videos, photographs and documents to be sent out to loved ones after death. For a fee users can store their "cherished digital memories" and programme farewell messages for the time of their death and on fixed dates such as birthdays or anniversaries into the future.
       "It's not a new concept, leaving things,letters, videos, messages, but the internet has changed what we can do with it,"Mr Ingram said. Subscribers can write their own eulogy and create a multimedia tribute for use at their funeral, and bequeath their photo and video files.
       Whilst living, they can use the site as a place to store and share their files with friends and family all over the world. A certificate with an activation code in the event of death is given to every user to be left with their will or next of kin.
       Part social-networking hub, part memoir project, FromBeyond2u is one of just a handful of such sites worldwide,and its appeal lies in creating "everlasting love" for generations to come. Far from being morbid or narcissistic, Mr Ingram believes the site encourages sharing.
       "I think the number one aim is definitely sharing the love with loved ones and being there for them, and not to be forgotten," he said.

GOOGLE TESTING NEW FORMAT FOR READING

2009-09-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

       Google is testing a new format that is supposed to make reading online stories as easy as fliping through a magazine-a shift that could even-tually feed more advertising sales to revenue-starved publishers.
       The Internet-search leader unveiled the experiment called "Fast Flip" this week at a conference hosted by Tech Crunch, a popular blog.
       The service is meant to duplicate the look and feel of perusing a printed publication. The stories are displyed on electronic pages that can be quickly turned by clicking on large arrows on the side instead of waiting several seconds for a page to load, like on a standard Web link. Readers can sort throuht content based on topics, favourite writers and publications.
       For now, Fast flip will only show the first page of a story. Readers who want to continue will have to click through to the publisher's site, where the display reverts to a traditional Webpage.
       More than three dozen publishers, broadcasters and Web-only outlets have agreed to share their content on Fast Flip. The participants include two major newspapers, The New york Times and The Washington Post, as well as large magazines like Newsweek and Business Week.
       Publishers providing stories to Fast Flip will get most of the revenue from the ads that Google intends to show in the new format. That is a switch from Google's main search page and its news section, where the company keeps all the money from ads shown alongside headlines and snippets from stories.
       Fast Flip is Google's latest step to improve its relationship with newspaper and magazine publishers, many of whom have railed against the company for profiting from their articles without sharing the wealth.
       The acrimony has escalated as a three-year decline in the print medium's ad revenue accelerated during the past year.
       The newspaper industry's ad sales plunged 29 per cent in the first half this year while Google's crept up 4 per cent.
       In another example of cooperation, Google recently offered to help newspaper publishers set up a system to charge readers for access to parts of their websites.
       While the notion of Google funnelling more sales to publishers is appealing, news executives also want to ensure that Fast Flip does not become too popular. Publishers still want readers to come to their websites, where they can sell adswithout giving Google a piece of the action.

Facebook reaches financial milestone

2009-09-16T21:05:00.002-07:00

       Facebook is making enough money to cover its costs and now has 300 million users, the worlds largest social networking site said on Tuesday, proving the Internets newest star industry can be a viable business.
       Facebook is now generating enough cash to cover its operating expenses, as well as the capital spending needed to maintain its fast-growing service.
       Analysts said this shows the financial viability of Facebook, which has faced questions about its underlying business model, despite its popularity, and was a good sign for a potential initial public offering.
       Its certainly meaningful to show that this is absolutely the real deal,said Broadpoint Amtech analyst Ben Schachter.
       They are executing. People are spending money on the site.
       Since its creation in a Harvard University dorm room five years ago, Facebook has emerged as one of the Internets most popular destinations and is increasingly challenging the Webs established powerhouses like Yahoo Inc and Google Inc.
       Facebook unveiled a revamped search engine last month and is currently testing an online payment system. Facebook users have tripled from about 100 million a year ago.
       Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post on the company site on Tuesday that Facebook reached its goal of being free cash flow positive in its most recently ended quarter.
       The company had previously projected reaching the target sometime in 2010.
       This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term, said Zuckerberg in the blog post.
       Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu said the free cash flow metric did not include any cash from private investment.
       In May, Facebook announced a $200 million investment from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies in a deal that valued the companys preferred shares at $10 billion.
       DST valued Facebooks common shares at $6.5 billion in a subsequent deal to purchase shares from Facebook employees.
       Facebooks becoming cash flow positive ahead of schedule provides another nugget of data to back up the lofty valuations, and according to one analyst,makes Facebook a more attractive candidate for a potential public offering.
       They can command higher confidence from investors now, said Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, who noted that he believes Facebook could go public in the second half of 2010, or in 2011.
       Zuckerberg said in May that any IPO is a few years out.
       Facebook did not provide any other financial details on Tuesday. The company has previously said its revenue was on track to grow 70% this year.
       Facebook board member Mark Andreesen told Reuters earlier this year that the company will surpass $500 million in revenue this year.
       Zuckerberg said in his post that the company is exploring ways to make the service perform faster and more efficiently as the number of Facebook users continues to grow.

Adobe snaps up web analytics specialist

2009-09-16T21:05:00.001-07:00

       Adobe Systems Inc said on Tuesday it would buy the Web analytic software company Omniture Inc for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content.
       San Jose, California-based Adobe,which makes Flash, Acrobat and Photoshop software, said it would buy Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash, a premium of 24% over Omnitures closing stock price Tuesday.
       The announcement came as Adobe said it earned $136 million, or 26 cents per share, in the fiscal third quarter that ended in August, down 29% from the same time a year earlier.
       Excluding one-time items, Adobe earned 35 cents per share, a penny above what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting.
       Revenue fell 21% to $697.5 million,inching past analyst expectations of $686.2 million.
       The recession has slowed demand for Creative Suite 4, the most recent version of the software package that brings in the bulk of the companys revenue. But analysts say this will likely mean more pent-up demand for Creative Suite 5 when it launches.
       For the fourth quarter, Adobe forecast earnings of 23 cents to 29 cents per share and adjusted earnings of 33 cents to 39 cents per share. The latter compares with analyst expectations of 37 cents per share.
       Adobe expects sales of $690 million to $740 million for the quarter, bracketing Wall Streets estimates of $719.2 million.
       Omniture, based in Orem, Utah, offers a variety of Web traffic analysis and other products for companies to improve their marketing over the Internet. Its customers include Apple Inc, Time Warner Inc and Walt Disney Co.
       The acquisition would marry Omnitures services for figuring how to best deliver messages with Flash and other Adobe tools for creating websites and ads. Omniture services could then be used to monitor how effective the messages are.
       Adobes Creative Suite products and Flash platform help customers create and deliver engaging experiences. The addition of Omnitures online marketing suite will help customers measure, analyse and optimise the impact and value of those experiences, said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in a conference call.
       Trip Chowdhry, an analyst with Global Equities Research, said the planned acquisition would allow Adobe to create new streams of revenue even as its existing businesses decline.
       Though he called the deal very timely, Chowdhry believes Adobe is overpaying for Omniture, especially because that companys paid products have been losing market share to Googles analytics service, which is free.
       He said $12 to $13 per share rather than $21.50 would have been a fair value for the company.
       Adobe expects the Omniture deal to close by November. The company will operate separately under Adobe as a new business unit, with Omniture CEO Josh James working as senior vice president reporting to Narayen.

Google lets readers flip through news

2009-09-15T19:05:00.001-07:00

       Google Inc is testing a new format that is supposed to make reading online stories as easy as flipping through a magazine, a shift that eventually could feed more advertising sales to revenue-starved publishers.
       The Internet search leader on Monday unveiled the experiment, called "Fast Flip", at a conference hosted by the popular blog TechCrunch.
       The service is meant to duplicate the look and feel of perusing a printed publication.
       The stories are displayed on electronic pages that can be quickly scrolled through by clicking on large arrows on the side instead of a standard Web link that requires waiting several seconds for a page to load. Readers can sort through content based on topics, favourite writers and publications.
       For now, Fast Flip will only show the first page of a story. Readers who want to continue will have to click through to the publisher's site, where the display reverts to a traditional Web page.
       More than three dozen publishers,broadcasters and Web-only outlets have agreed to share their content on Fast Flip.
       The participants include two major newspapers, the New York Times and the Washington Post , as well as large magazines like Newsweek and BusinessWeek .The publishers providing the stories to Fast Flip will get most of the revenue from the ads that Google intends to show in the new format.
       That's a switch from Google's main search page and its news section, where the Mountain View, California-based company keeps all the money from ads shown alongside headlines and snippets from stories.
       Fast Flip is the latest step that Google has taken to improve its relationship with newspaper and magazine publishers, many of whom have railed against the company for profiting from their articles without sharing the wealth.
       The acrimony has escalated as a threeyear decline in the print medium's ad revenue accelerated during the past year.The newspaper industry's ad sales plunged 29% during the first half this year while Google's crept up 4%.
       In another example of co-operation,Google recently offered to help newspaper publishers set up a system to charge readers for access to parts of their websites.
       While the notion of Google funneling more sales to publishers is appealing,news executives also want to ensure that Fast Flip doesn't become too popular. Publishers still want readers to come to their websites, where they can sell ads without giving Google a piece of the action.
       "It's a balancing act," said Martin Nisenholtz, who oversees the New York Times Co's digital operations."(Fast Flip)has a richer interface, which is part of its appeal. But creating a powerful new aggregator is not in the Times' interest."
       The Times Co's online operations are among the newspaper industry's most successful, with Internet ad sales of $136 million during the first half of this year.
       Fast Feed won't be a big moneymaker right away. As a test service, it's starting out in Google's "Labs" department, a part of the website that doesn't get heavy use like the main search engine and the standard news section.
       Google, though, is hoping Fast Flip will make reading online more enjoyable."If that happens, Google should be able to show more ads to more people, with most of the money going to publishers,"said Krishna Bharat, the inventor of the search engine's news section.
       "The publishing industry is facing a number of challenges right now, and there is no silver bullet," Bharat said."We think increasing the viewing engagement is part of the solution."

THE COST OF MAKING A SOCIAL NETWORKING GAFFE

2009-09-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

       Today, a cellphone and a couple of e-mail addresses are no longer considered adequate tools by most of us to maintain our active social lives.
       Regardless of age, Internet - based social networking is the new way to stay in touch.
       Unless you've been living in the Sahara for the last few years, you'll have heard or read about Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Friendster, MySpace and LinkedIn.
       The websites have their respective rules and regulations on, among others, membership, mesage content and procedures in sending and receiving messages.
       And with minor vairations, the membership process requires the applicant to give relevant information about him or her self , his desired website identification and the password he will use to send andreceive messages.
       One accepted, a member may post a photo to accompany his website ID. He can use his best looking pictures (baby or high school photos included) or, if he prefers to be incognito, those of his favourite dog or ca.
       There is no reliable way of verifying the accuracy of the data submitted by the members. Any information posted must be taken at its face value and at the peril of whoever relies on it.
       Unless reuired to keep to a particular subject matter, members are free to express their thoughts and comment on anything and everything.
       Inevitably, access to such freedom of expression has resulted in some members releasing pent-up emotions and venting anger and frustration about their lives.
       Taking advantage of the perceived anonymity that the Internet offers, disgruntled employees feel secure in sending messages that are critical of the company, that are critical of the companyt, their bosses and, worse, their products.
       Some social networking websites have even become venues for unscrupulous parties to slander businss competitors.
       By the time the adversely affected party gets wind of the unfavourable material (assuming it does) and requests its removal, the message has already circulated within the website community.
       So what can the "victim" do after critical comments are removed or if the administrator turns down a demand for the removal of a rant from the messsge board?
       Short of going to court, his only remendy is to post his side of the story on the same website and pray that the readers believe it.
       In an effort to minimise and put a quick end to such underhanded tactics, some companies in the US and other countries now have people closely monitoring the traffic on popular social net working web-sites.
       If the culprits can be identified, the company can file a complaint for damages to deter others from doing something similar.
       While far from easy, it's not imposssible to trace the identity and location of networking members who post libellous or disparaging messages.
       If the sender gave his true name and address when applying for membership, there's virtually no sleuthing. It's like picking up a clenan fingerprint at the crime scene.
       But using an alias or submitting false information does not mean that the errant poster or mailer can rest easy.
       According to computer forensic experts, all e-mail material leaes a trail to its original source, regardless of the number of times it has moved form one site to another.
       Even deleted messages leave tracs or footprints in thier servers which, through painstaking efforts and with the aid of high-tech equipment, can be reconstituted and read.
       So becareful with that message to your social netowrk links that badmouths your company or manager. Someone you may have wronged a long time ago may stumble on it and forward it to your supervisor.
       Playful banter about pranks or petty crimes committed in school or at work, including youthful escapades, may accidentally be read by the staff of the company to which you have applied for a job.
       And always bear in mind that once a message or photo is uploaded in the Internet, that material can be read, not only by its intended receiver, but by anyone who has access to a computer.

       "Even deleted messages leave traces or footprints in their servers which, through painstaking efforts and with the aid of hi-tech equipment, can be reconstituted and read."

SET, TRUE LINK UP TO TARGET IPHONE USERS

2009-09-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

       The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has teamed up with True Move to launch a new financial application called "Settrade Streaming" for iPhone users, free of charge.
       Santi Kiranand, group head of SET's marketing department said the collaboration is aimed at enabling retail investors to catch up with real time market price, portfolio, and order status as well as to make trade orders easy and quick.
       To be able to use "Settrade Streaming", iPhone users must have a stock trading account with brokers who have this application. First, they have to download the application from iTune store. After that they can take part in stock trading activity as is done on through a PC.
       "There are 26 leading brokers who account for 90 per cent of total trading transactions," said Santi.
       He said there had been a continuous increase in Internet trading transactions at www.settrade.com via mobile devices, of which about 65 per cent are from iPhone devices. This led the SET to develop a specific application to serve this user group as a complementary service with the Internet trading that they have used.
       Total Internet stock trading value through Settrade.com during the eight months (from January to August) is around 20.51 per cent of total stock trading value of SET. -from total 224,842 trading accounts - increased from only 16.12 per cent of the Internet trading portion last year -from total 189,348 trading accounts-
       "Settrade spent six months conceiving and working on this project with True Corp. But the application has been developed in just a month," said Santi.
       Currently, there are around 220,000 Internet trading stock accounts. Settrade expects that at least one of three of these accounts will download and use 'Settrade Streaming' application by the end of this year.
       "The portion of Internet trading as only 20 per cent of total stock trading means there is a big room to grow," Santi said. He added: "We expect the portion of Internet trading will dramatically increase because Internet trading will be a major and vital channel for the new generation of investors."
       In the next five years, the total stock trading accounts will increase 100 per cent from the current 2 million accounts. Most of these new accounts will be Internet trading accounts.
       Adhiruth Thothaveesansuk, convergence managing director of True Corporation, said that currently True Move has already deployed around 30 iPhone-based applications registered in iTune application store in three main categories - game, information and news, and utilities. "Settrade Streaming" is the newest application and is expected to be a big hit among iPhone users.
       "iPhone users can apply for this service free and if they are True users they will also get free stock SMS alert service free of charge for three months," said Adhiruth.
       He added that of its 30 applications, around six applications are listed among the top 10 with a total of 700,000 downloads.

New tour firm enters e-commerce

2009-09-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

       4P Plus, a newly established tour operator, is moving into e-commerce by launching four websites to capture the fastgrowing Free Individual Traveller (FIT) and corporate groups.
       The company was formed in the middle of last year by Pruet Narathuschan, youngest son of Vithaya Narathuschan, who has been running the Dynasty Hotel Bangkok for more than two decades and is also a jewellery exporter.
       With Bt3 million in registered capital, the company began operations by concentrating mainly on inbound business from the United Kingdom and China, where Pruet's school friends are.
       However, the business was hit hard by the airport closures in Bangkok late last year and the general political turmoil in the Kingdom. the number of clients dropped significantly.
       "The company is revising its strategy to focus on domestic tourism, FIT and outbound instead," siad Pruet.
       The company has set up a telemarketing team to approach companies and organisations for small-group and outdoor meetings and conference trips and other types of activities such as promotions, public rrelations, educational seminars and staff parties.
       Meanwhile, it has launched four websites: www.tforthailand.com support inbound business, www.thehipexperience.com is aimed at high-end group, www.mushroomtravel.com is for outbound business and the latest www.tourscan.com is designed to draw FIT travellers.
       "We're one of the few tour operators providing one-stop services for information, air tickets, hotel rooms and tailormade packages with a lowest-price warrantee to fit the client's budget," Puret said.
       "Our philosophy is to render the highest quality service to our clients and offer a full range of services t meet their travel requirements."

Getting the most out of Twitter

2009-09-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

       There's more to the micro-blogging novelty than meets the eye, writes Jay Dougherty in Washington
       Twitter (http://twitter.com) is all the rage in social networking these days, but that doesn't mean it's easy to use effectively.
       In fact, unless you're addicted to faceless Internet chatter, you may have already written Twitter off. Its 140-character limit on individual messages, after all, seems designed more for those with short attention spans and lots of time on their hands than for,say, a busy professional.
       But there's more to Twitter than meets the eye.
       Plenty of serious businesspeople,news junkies, and well connected professionals of all stripes are turning to Twitter on a regular basis to promote their businesses, expand contacts, or simply to keep abreast of subjects that interest them.
       It can, in fact, be one of the best platforms on the Internet these days for keeping up with the deluge of information that comes at you - or, if you're a newsmaker yourself, for keeping others abreast of the latest. But to get the most out of Twitter, you need to scratch a bit beneath the surface. Here's how to start.
       Ditch the interface
       Soon after you create your Twitter account, spend some time looking around to understand what it's about.You'll quickly learn that Twitter is a kind of a micro blogging tool. A "tweet,"for instance - the word used to describe an entry - is a maximum of 140 characters long, forcing you to be succinct - very succinct - in describing what you're doing. The social networking aspect of Twitter kicks in when you "follow" other people who are discussing topics of interest to you. They, in turn,might "follow" you, either to reciprocate or because they're interested in what you have to say. The number of followers you have will ultimately become a source both of pride and influence.
       But once you become familiar with Twitter, supercharge it by using a third party interface. Among the most popular - and powerful - are TweetDeck (http://tweetdeck.com), Seismic Desktop (http://desktop.seesmic.com), and Orsiso (http://www.orsiso.com). All three are small downloads, easy to install,and they are all vast improvements of the Twitter interface. That's partly because they allow you to keep track of multiple conversations, mentions of you,and direct messages, and they offer many other niceties as well.
       There are also third-party mobile phone interfaces for Twitter, applets that allow you to post pictures, and more. You'll find a fairly complete list of the best third-party twitter applications at TechCrunch's Top 21 site (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/the-top-20-twitter-applications). One feature that's particularly important for any Twitter application is a "shorten URL" box. Because Twitter restricts tweets to 140 characters, it becomes vital to provide a shortened form of Web addresses, or URLs. Many Twitter users rely heavily on the TinyURL site (http://tinyurl.com) to provide the shortened URLs. Good third party Twitter applications do this work for you,however, allowing you to paste the full URL into a "shorten URL" box after you type your tweet. With one click,you can send both the tweet and shortened URL - a huge time saver.
       Search Twitter
       Even if you don't plan on using Twitter as a micro blog, it's probably important for you to know what people are saying on Twitter about you, your company,or a subject in which you feel you have a stake. That search, ultimately, in fact,may be what pulls you into Twitter as a contributor - and what keeps you there.
       Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com) is your official gateway into every subject discussed on Twitter, but the third-party Twitter interfaces all offer a search feature as well. Type a term whether it's your company's name, your name, or a subject that interests you,and you'll quickly see who's discussing it - and you'll be able to "follow" those who are and respond, if desired, to their tweets.
       Learn Twitter etiquette
       As with any community, there are rules of etiquette - either spoken or unspoken - at Twitter, and you should know them if you want to cultivate or preserve your reputation. Chief among them is that you should not overtly use Twitter as a means to spam others - to brazenly promote a website, cause, or product.
       Twitter users can often spot a spammer by looking at the ratio of people following you versus those who you are following. If you're following thousands of people and only a few are following you back, that probably means you've used the site primarily as means of selfpromotion. Spam is unwelcome on Twitter, just as it is in your inbox.
       The partial exception to this is if you've created a Twitter account named after the product or company you represent.In such cases, it is expected that updates you provide will be about that product or company. Those who follow you will be expecting such updates.
       You'll also want to limit the number of tweets you do in a given time period.Whenever people "follow" you on Twitter, your messages appear on their home page. If you are twittering dozens of times each hour, your messages overrun their home pages, which can be annoying to most.
       Have an identity
       Your Twitter profile is crucial in legitimising you or your cause to other Twitter members, so once you understand Twitter and have an account set up, you should spend some time on your profile. Others will use it to determine whether they wish to follow you.
       Pay particular attention to the URL,biography, picture, and design of the profile. A link to your website or blog can be helpful, and a real name is important if you're expecting to attract a community of respectable followers. As with any other real-life community, you'll find the most success on Twitter if you fully and accurately represent who you are and why you're there.
       Be useful
       To make Twitter work for you, your cause, or your company, you'll need to learn how to cultivate a following that matters. To do so, you must take the time to get involved in some con-versations on Twitter. When you create your own tweets, concentrate on the quality of your Twitter posts.
       People who use Twitter constructively are there to gather information, so you should contribute and compose your tweets with an eye toward their usefulness to others. A good way to figure out what to say is to answer the questions "what has your attention" or "what is important to you" rather than the standard Twitter question of "What are you doing?".
       Pointing other Twitter users to resources, tips, articles, presentations,ideas, or people of interest will help you to cultivate a large Twitter following.
       Don't disappear
       If you drop out of a group or community in real life, you'll lose that resource and all it has to offer. The same holds true for Twitter.
       You don't need to be a slave to Twitter but it is important to show up on a regular basis. If you use Twitter for legitimate purposes - because you're interested in a topic or you'd like to keep people informed about your company, your profession, or your cause then incorporating Twitter into your life should not be too much of a hassle.
       Twitter's 140-character limit on tweets and its opening question of "What are you doing?" has given many people the impression that the service is for the most superficial among us. But that's not the case.
       On Twitter today you'll find some of the most influential thinkers, newsmakers, and professionals, and many of them are turning to Twitter as a preferred method of communication in keeping a busy digital lifestyle. Use Twitter to your advantage.

Social networking websites attract vast audiences

2009-09-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

       One might perhaps recall one's first love during the '70s: when you and your beloved had to part after finishing college, and she was sent abroad by her parents to pursue higher studies.The wait for a letter from the States took up to two weeks. It was real torture.
       But one could still be considered fortunate, when compared with other throbbing hearts living apart in rural areas where there was no transport other than the elephant, a bicycle or, if lucky, perhaps a motorbike. Communicating took so much longer.
       Imagine after the long wait, the postman finally turns up to deliver what you've been waiting for. Surely it's not a power bill but that letter from the one you've been pining for? How satisfying!
       Such moments of joy (after the long torture) are never experienced in this digital age by Generation Y, or what we dub Generation Next, the group of young working people with skills in internet browsing, who have access to a PDA phone, iPhone, who listen to an iPod and drive sports cars paid for by their parents.
       This group of youngsters has high self-confidence, the courage to speak up and comment, and high hopes of getting higher salaries. But they have less tolerance. Relationships among Generation Y people are just a click on "Add as Friends" in My Space, or Twitter, or Facebook social networking systems.
       In today's digital world, computer technology is evolving so fast that you can communicate with others or your loved one with just a click on the computer, or MSN or a short message. No hours of heartache or a long wait as in days of old.
       Technology now allows you not only to hear voices from the chatroom on the web but also see images in real time. It also keeps you in touch on mobile inter-net via smartphone. In the analogue era, a person walking about seemingly talking to himself with nobody else around, would have been assumed to be mad. But this is quite common in the digital age: you see someone walking ahead of you speaking aloud to no one in particular, with a Bluetooth plugged in one ear, listening to an MP3 gadget with another, and whose hand also holds a touchphone.
       This digital change has brought about a change in lifestyle, too. Digital technology has introduced social networking,which brings together millions who otherwise would never meet in real life,but who are now sharing views and feelings virtually.
       Take a look at leading local websites like Sanook.com, Kapook.com, and Pantip.com. Though they have web boards for logged-in members to chat,they do not really provide virtual social network services that allow audiences to interact. However, these sites help a lot in terms of social services.
       Pantip.com plays a successful social service role. One poster on Pantip.com raised the flag on a seller at Thaisecondhand.com who was offering via mail iPhone, Blackberry and several other items at prices up to 30% lower than that quoted by authorised dealers in Bangkok. The seller claimed he was celebrating the opening of a new shop.
       One person asked members to help check the location of the shop, which turned out to be in a small rural town in Phatthalung province, about 900km south of Bangkok. It was all a hoax.
       Today, social networking websites are drawing vast audiences. They have become popular because these websites allow users to generate and manage their own content.
       Then there's the world's most favourite social networking website, Facebook.com, with more than 250 million users now. It is followed by Myspace.com,Twitter.com and Fixster.com. Hi5.com comes in at 15th rank. But here in Thailand, a survey conducted by the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre of Nectec from August to September last year showed Hi5.com head-ing the list of the top five social networking websites. Others are Wikipedia, You Tube, MySpace, and MyFriend.
       Hi5 is a favourite among teenagers,with almost all students having accounts on the website. Most say they use the site to share their photos and to chat.
       Twitter is also a favourite, but among the Generation Y group. But the trend might be changing, with the use of many entertainment and political celebrities who include Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, former Bangkok governor Apirak Kosayodhin, Education Minister Jurin Laksanavisit, Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey, and Chaturon Chaisaeng, former leader of the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party.
       Mr Abhisit uses Twitter to acquaint himself with supporters and other people.Now he has more than 14,000 followers.He tweets government policy and other projects.
       From unknown locations, Thaksin also tweets. Mainly he tweets on his latest business interests such as a venture into the diamond and helicopter businesses,as well as his support for his red-shirted backers.
       Meanwhile well-known Thai entrepreneurs are jumping on the bandwagon of social networking for their marketing and advertising.
       Giant property developer Sansiri, beverage tycoon Singha Beer and retail giant Central Group also use Twitter to update their marketing promotions and sales,or to advertise their products and activities in the microblog.
       Kbank Research Centre says social networking could become a cost-effective channel for growth in online advertising.Its reasons include a clear customer target, capability to penetrate a variety of complex social network communities,the use of word-of-mouth on product quality.
       But there is the negative aspect as well. Social networking tools are a twoedged sword. Without proper control by service providers, they could be used as a tool to advance the interests of advertisers or manufacturers. If that happens, it could spell a socialdotcom burst rather than boom, and could end up meeting the same fate as the dotcom bubble in 2001.

Google Books moves to reassure EU

2009-09-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

       Internet search leader Google said yesterday it is making concessions to European publishers to try and soothe worries over its Google Books project, which aims to put hard-to-find books online.
       Google's digital library has raised hackles among rivals such as Microsoft, yahoo and Amazon and raised fears among European copyright holders that their exclusive rights could be eroded.
       Google spokesman Bill Echikson said the company would take these concerns on board and would appoint two European representative for authors and one for publishers. He also said that Google would do more the check that English-language editions of books originally published in a European language weren't wrongly listed as out-of-print in the United States. Publishers feared that adding such books to the Google library would lose them sales.
       The European Commission yesterday held a hearing to examine the effect of Google's 10-month settlement with US authors and publishers on copyright holders in the EU. Unlike the US deal, Google is only right European books over 150 years of age to avoid infringing copyrighted material.

THE NEW NETWORK BATTLE

2009-09-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

       Politicians tap into Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites to keep their views in the public eye. By Chatrudee Theparat
       Thaksin Shinawatra in exile seems to be a step ahead of his political opponents including the incumbent government when it comes to using fastgrowing digital social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to stay connected to his supporters.
       Social networking media have allowed the ousted former premier to remain fully in touch with his supporters wherever he roams, from Dubai or Liberia to Swaziland.
       However, the government and the Democrat Party are rising to the challenge.
       The Democrats have had www.democrat.com and www. abhisit.org, for years and have now expanded to popular networking sites such as Hi5,Facebook and Twitter as channels to connect to the new generation and existing and potential supporters.
       Tech-savvy Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has his own account on Hi5 but since he became PM he has been too busy to update it. Now, his staff do updates for him, including his Twitter account.
       As of Sept 2, Mr Abhisit's Hi5 site had 138,089 friends and 443,778 visitors.
       Some of the top "tweeters" among the Democrats are Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij, Deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu, PM's adviser Apirak Kosayodhin, and PM's Office Minister Satit Wongnongtoey. Earlier, the Democrats' tech-smart team had chatted mainly via BlackBerry.
       Through Twitter, Mr Abhisit and the embattled Thaksin seem also engaged in fighting for new followers. Mr Thaksin was ahead with 20,245 to Mr Abhisit's 14,295 as of Friday.
       Mr Abhisit seems to be following other people much more than Mr Thaksin.The premier was following 3,516 other people while Mr Thaksin had only four he was interested in following.
       Apart from social networking sites,the prime minister launched www.pm.go.th early last month as an open platform to communicate with Thais about the government's work, policies and the progress of budget disbursement and stimulus measures.
       Visitors can ask the premier questions and post their opinions on the site. The PM himself will answer the best questions every Sunday on Channel 11.
       The site itself also links to various social media including Flickr, Twitter,and Facebook."The government and the Democrat Party perceive this as one significant tool apart from TV, billboards,and community radio to gain access to a new generation who average 18-25 years old and working people aged 30 to 40 years," said Mr Satit."However, it's unfortunate that internet users in Thailand total only 15 million people right now, a marginal portion compared with our 65 million population."
       Mr Satit said the party was now restructuring all of its online offerings to make sure that the party-related websites are linked closely and build up their own social networks.

GOOGLE EXEC QUITS TO SET UP DOWN FIRM IN CHINA

2009-09-06T05:47:00.001-07:00

       The executive who led Google's expansion in China after being hired away from Microsoft following a high-profile court battle is leaving to start his own business, the US search engine announced yesterday.
       Kai-Fu Lee will step down as president of Google Greater China in mid-September, the company said. It said he would se up a new venture in Beijing but gave no other details.
       Lee was hired by Google in 2004 and oversaw development of services meant to help the search giant expand its share of China's search market, which is dominated by local rival Baidu.
       Google hasadded market share but trails Baidu, which has 61.6 per cent of search traffic, while Google has 29.1 per cent, according to Analysys International, a technoogy research firm.
       Google said Boon-Lock Yeo, director of its Shnghai engineering office, would take over Lee's engineering responsibilities, John Liu, who leads its Greater China sales team, is to assume his business and operational responsibilites.
       Lee worked for Microsoft from 2000 to 2004 and helped develop its MSN Internet search technology, including desktop search sofetware rivalling Google's.
       He left to lead Google's China operation fter being offered a $10-million (Bt340 million) compensation pack age.
       Microsoft sued Lee and Google, conending his job would violate a non-compete agreenemtn the prohibited him from doing similar work for a rival for one year. Microsoft also accused lLee of using indiderinformantion to get job at Google.
       Google countered with its own lawsuit against Microsoft and the companies later reached a settlement, the details of which were not released.

eBAY HANGS UP ON SKYPE

2009-09-03T22:58:00.002-07:00

       eBay ended its troubled marriage with Skype on Tuesday, agreeing to sell a majority stake to a group of investors in a deal that values the Web communications service at $2.75 billion (Bt93.8 billion).
       The online auction giant, which will retain a 35-per-cent equity investment in Skype, said it will receive $1.9 billion in cash upon the completion of the sale and a note from the purchasers for $125 million.
       The buyer group, which will control a 65-per-cent stake in Skype, is led by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, whose portfolio includes Ameritrade, Intelsat, Nasdaq, Travelocity and Seagate Technology.
       Its other members are London-based Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital firm founded by Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen.
       Andreessen, whose investments include LinkedIn and Twitter, is a member of the boards of eBay and Facebook and is chairman of the board of Ning, an online platform for creating social networks.
       The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year.
       eBay purchased Skype in 2005 for a price tag that eventually exceeded $3.1 billion, including pay-outs to Web entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark, who founded the company in 2003.
       But eBay has acknowledged that Skype was not a good fit with its core auction and online payments business PayPal and announced plans in April to spin off the company with an initial public offering in 2010.
       At the same time, the San Jose, California-based eBay said it would entertain offers for Skype.
       "This deal achieves our goal of delivering short-and long-term value to eBay and its stockholders, without the possible delays and market risk of an IPO," eBay president and chief executive John Donahoe said in a statement.
       "Selling Skype now at this great valuation, while retaining an equity stake, makes sense for the company," he said. "This is a great deal, unlocking both immediate and long-term value for eBay and tremendous potential for Skype.
       "We've acted decisively on a deal that delivers a high valuation, gives us significant cash up-front and lets us retain a meaningful minority stake with talented partners," Donahoe said.
       "Skype is a strong stand-alone business, but it does not have synergies with our e-commerce and online payments businesses," he said.
       Skype bypasses the standard telephone network by channelling voice and video calls over the Internet.
       Its allows users to call others free of charge and provides the ability to connect with landlines or mobile devices at low rates.
       Skype's revenue rose by 44 per cent in 2008 to $551 million and its number of users increased by 47 per cent to 405 million.

       "eBay has acknowledged that Skype is not a good fit with its core auction and online payments business PayPal."

VIRAL-VIDEO CREATORS OFFERED YOUTUBE

2009-09-03T22:58:00.001-07:00

       YouTube on Tuesday offered a way for creators of videos that "go viral" - that is, spread with the exponential speed and effect of a virus - to cash in on their success.
       The Google-owned video-sharing site wsaid in a blog post that it was expanding its YouTube Partnership Programme to the creators of successful "one-off" videos.
       The programme had previously focused on what YouTube described as "prolific users who regularly produce videos that reach a wide audience".
       "Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that accumulates lots of views, we may invite you to monetize that video and start earning revenue from it," said TouTube product manager Shenaz Zack.
       YouTube said a user whose video was eligible would receive e-mail and an "Enable Revenue Sharing" message would appear next to the video.
       "Once you've chosen to enable revenue sharing, YouTube will sell advertising against your video and pay you a revenue share," it said.
       YouTube did not reveal a breakdown of the proposed revenues share. It said individual video partnerships would only be available in the United States for now, but that it hoped soon to extend the programme internationally.
       Google bought YouTube in 2006 for US$1.65 billion (Bt56.31 billion), but the Internet search and advertising giant has not yet managed to turn a progit with the site despite its massive global popularity.

LOVE CHILDREN WEBSITE EXPANDS INTO ONLINE BUSINESS

2009-08-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

       Bangkok-based Rakluke Group has expanded into online business via its website www.momypedia.com and plans to provide personal information to users.
       The group's president Subhawadee Harnmethee, said Rakluke (love children) intended the website to create a community of families and parents who wanted to communicate and share experiences and knowledge via an online network.
       The company is also keen to sell advertising space on the website to companies wanting to promote their business on a family-based network, and is open to application for membership registration from Internet users who are prepared to pay for its services.
       Subhawadee said the website would provide online media and solution services and business services such as online research and surveying.
       The marketing manager of www.momypedia.com, Vatayos Atvisejsiwakul, said that in a "next step", the website planned to provide Web 3.0 - creating a large collection of databases that could be connected on demand. This will enable users to access information on demand, providing them with knowledge to support their lifestyles.
       Www.momypedia.com will also provide live chat facilities with experts such as doctors next year, as well as producing online television programmes and radio over its online network. It will also begin marketing commercial businesses to customers next year, Subhawadee said
       Rakluke Group's managing director Chanida Intaravisut said the website was not only a Web-based community for families, enabling members to create activities together, but was also a new marketing channel for businesses.
       It has already won three international awards, including bronze awards from 8th Annual Horizon Interactive Awards and the 2009 Summit Creative Awards, both in the United States. It also won an Award of Distinction at the 15th Communicator Awards, Chanida said.

Vietnam paper fires blogger

2009-08-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

       One of Vietnam's most popular and boldest bloggers has been fired by his newspaper after the ruling Communist Party complained to editors about his writings.
       Huy Duc, who writes his blog under the pen name "Osin", was dismissed this week because his postings did not reflect the editorial positions of Saigon Tiep Thi , said Tran Cong Khanh, an editor at the newspaper.
       Mr Khanh cited a recent Osin posting that praised the fall of the Berlin Wall and criticised the former Soviet Union's Communist leaders, saying their rule had led to years of misery for the people of Eastern Europe. Mr Duc referred to the wall as "the wall of shame".
       "The attitude of his entry did not reflect that of our newspaper, and we can't use him anymore," Mr Khanh said.
       Mr Khanh said the newspaper made the decision to dismiss Mr Duc on its own, without direct pressure from the government, which strictly monitors Vietnam's state-controlled media.
       But he acknowledged the Propaganda and Education Commission, the Communist Party's media watchdog, had complained about roughly 100 of Mr Duc's blogs and newspaper stories.
       Mr Duc's Osin blog has tested the limits of free expression in Vietnam, frequently featuring articles critical of government leaders and their policies.
       He has chided leaders for chartering Vietnam Airlines planes to fly abroad,and criticised a controversial bauxite mining project in Vietnam's Central Highlands.

High hopes for TAN Network launch

2009-08-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

       Thai-Asean News (TAN) Network, Thailand's only 24-hour English-language TV channel, aims to become a major broadcaster in Asean countries over the next five years.
       Though the channel has been broadcasting news and variety programmes through the ASTV satellite dish and on its website for five years, it was only officially launched yesterday.
       The channel's managing editor, Chadaporn Lin, explained that the official launch was a marketing tactic to attract more sponsors.
       "As everybody knows, the cost of producing English-language programmes is high, so we need sponsors to cover these expenses. We hope the sponsorship will help us break even next year," she said.
       She explained that the station's top priority was not earning profits in the near future but creating brand awareness within Asean countries.
       The station, formerly known as Thailand Outlook TV, changed its name last year in order to expand its audience base. She added that the station was also planning to set up news bureaus in several Asean nations from next year.
       It is also hoping that more people, especially those living in foreign countries, will view the channel via its website, www.tannetwork.tv.
       "Local viewers need to purchase an ASTV satellite dish or watch the channel via cable networks, which keeps the number of viewers limited. We hope more people would access the channel through the website," she said.
       The channel is currently viewed by some 2 million people, 80 per cent of whom are foreigners, she said. TAN Network also hopes to tap audiences in the provinces through its website.

MICROSOFT, AMAZON, YAHOO! ATTACK GOOGLE BOOK MOVE

2009-08-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

       Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo! joined an alliance on Wednesday oppoing the legal settlement which would allow Google to digitise and sell millions of books in a move the Internet giant dismissed as "sour grapes".
       The three technology heavy-weights are maong the members of a coalition called the Open Book Alliance which expressed concern about "serious legal, competitive, and policy issues" surrounding Google's book-scanning project.
       In a statement, the alliance said its members, which include the nonprofit the Internet Archive, publishers and library associations, will counter the Google book settlement "in its current form".
       Google reached a class action settlement in October of last year with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers to a copyright infringement suit they filed against the company in 2005.
       Under the settlement, Google agreed to pay US$125 million (Bt4.3 billion) to resove outstanding claims and establish an independent "Book Rights Registry", which will provide revenue from sales and advertising to authors and publishers who agree to digitise their books.
       Alliance co-chairs Peter Brantley and Gary Reback said in a blog post that the settlented monopoly and price fixing cartel".
       Google, whose book project is already facing anti-trust scrutiny from the US Justice Department, a court review and privacy concerns, dismissed the move by the coalition.
       "This sounds like the Sour Grapes Alliance," it said in a statement. "The Google Books settlement is injecting more competition into the digital books space, so it's understandable why our competitors might fight hard to prevent more competition."

Terror police swoop on "Prince of Jihad"

2009-08-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

       The owner of a radical Islamist website who calls himself the "Prince of Jihad" in his blog postings has been arrested in connection with the Jakarta hotel bombings, police and a lawyer said yesterday.
       Counter-terror squad officers arrested Muhamad Jibril Abdurahman, alias Muhamad Ricky Ardan bin Mohammad Iqbal, near Jakarta on Tuesday and also raided the office of his website, Arrahmah.com, a police spokesman said.
       Police believe the Pakistan-educated suspect helped channel funds from abroad to finance the July 17 twin suicide bombings on the JW Marriott and RitzCarlton hotels that killed nine people.
       The source of the funds are not known,but police are investigating the possibility the money came from al-Qaeda brokers in the Middle East, among others.
       Muhamad Jibril is well-known in Indonesian radical circles as a publicist of extremist material, and is the son of a firebrand Islamist cleric who has been linked in the past to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) regional terror network.
       In addition to the website, he edited a publication called Jihadmagz which espoused jihad or "holy war" against the West.
       "He chose his jihad path through working in the media. He felt that there were many Muslims who were being suppressed everywhere and there was a war of thoughts," Indonesian extremism analyst Noor Huda Ismail said.
       "Through Arrahmah and Jihadmagz he felt that he could counter one-sided news on Islam. His media has been productive in its work."
       Police said Muhamad Jibril was an accomplice of Saudi national Al Khalil Ali, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of smuggling money from abroad to pay for the attacks.
       Muhamad Jibril, believed to be in his mid-20s, is the son of Indonesian cleric Abu Jibril who was arrested in Malaysia in 2001 on suspicion of being a JI member.
       He now runs a website, Abujibriel.com,which also supports radical Islamist groups and spouts jihadist ideology.
       "Jihad and terrorism are not something to be afraid of or avoided, because to cause terror to Allah's enemies is the instruction of Islam," said an article by the "Prince of Jihad" which appeared on both websites after the July 17 attacks.
       Abu Jibril's lawyer, Yusuf Sembiring,confirmed Muhamad Jibril was the author of articles on Arrahmah.com and Abujibriel.com attributed to the "Prince of Jihad".

Ill wind blows no good

2009-08-26T00:08:00.000-07:00

       Morakot was no Emerald; it was an ill wind that whipped up seas and cut or damaged six separated fibre-optic cables carrying Internet traffic to Thailand; the typhoon itself never hit Thailand, but while it killed an estimated 500 Taiwanese,Morakot caused deep-sea landslides that severed three cables and disrupted three others, including the SWM-3 (Southeast Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3)and both APCN (Asia Pacific Cable Network) that carry Internet and telephone traffic to and from Thailand; the Net slowed noticeably, but picked up after a couple of days when engineers managed to quickly repair the APCN2 cable between Singapore and Malaysia, while traffic was re-routed to other systems.
       The top three yuppiephone networks announced a convoluted "solution" to SMS spam, now estimated at nine million annoyances a day; starting next Monday, if you get an unwanted commercial message on your mobile phone,call your network's anti-spam centre,explained what happened, and they will try to block any other calls from the spammer - the AIS number to call is 1175,DTAC is 1678 and True Move is1331, and the theory is that the 30-million-baht software they have installed and the highly trained staff they have hired will combine to block the spam across all three networks; Thana Thienachariya, chief commercial officer at DTAC, said blocking spam would cut revenue at all three yuppiephone firms, who have profited by selling SMS time in blocks to advertisers; in other words, he already knows where the calls are coming from.
       Bangkok telephone provider True Corp and their yuppiephone subsidiary True Move began advertising "revolutionary" international phone rates of "only" three baht a minute to mostcalled countries; the rate, cheap at half the price, is about half what the telecoms duopoly of your TOT and your Cattelecom charge, but about twice the cost of the most popular long-distance specialists like DeeDial and ZayHi ; the True rates only will last until New Year's Eve.
       If corporate diversification is a sign that the recession is ending, then we got good news from Delta Electronics (Thailand); president Henry Shieh said the Taiwan-based electronics firm is about to acquire solar-power equipment makers in the US and Europe to get out of traditional electric sources and into larger technology areas; he bragged that,"Our cash on hand of over 8 billion baht also supports our investments,"and while Thailand plants are running at only 65 percent capacity making fans and converters, profits in the second quarter were still a healthy 301 million baht.
       Also upbeat: CEO Watchai Vilailuck ofSamart Corp , who said business was looking up, with revenues increasing by 17 percent year on year in the second quarter to 4.44 billion baht; although profit remained stagnant at just under 125 million, Mr Watchai said he sees clear economic skies ahead, and expects to introduce 20 new yuppiephone handsets before New Year's Eve to feed what he is certain is growing demand in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and Cambodia, as well as Thailand.
       Not everyone was bragging and sunny; No 1 yuppiephone firm Advanced Info Service of Shingapore announced major changes at the very top of the firm's food chain to try to adjust to negative growth and increased competition; AIS tried to spin the changes as restructuring, but in fact the major changes were personnel; Singaporean Hui Weng Cheong was promoted from deputy president to the newly created position of chief operating officer, where he will take over marketing, customer management and handset distribution;president Wichian Mektrakarn was moved to CEO and the president's position was dissolved; AIS has recently realistically changed its revenue target from 4 percent growth to minus-3 percent, bizarrely blaming oil prices and the flu pandemic; chairman Somprasong Boonyachai said you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking the changes at the top were because of poor operating results, it's just all part of a careful,long-planned succession plan.
       The company formerly known as Shin Satellite insisted it will break out of its habit of losses and break even this year,thanks to higher bandwidth sales from its iPSTAR broadband satellite; it's not all rosy for Thaicom , however; Tanadit Charoenchan, executive president of vice, revealed that,"We expect iPSTAR's bandwidth usage to reach 15 percent this year, up from 10 percent currently."
       Then there is Grammy Entertainment , which reported no harm, no foul in its first-half results, a profit of 314.2 million baht on slightly increased revenue of 3.95 billion, boosted almost exclusively by TV programming, while music sales fell four per cent.
       Finally, consider the case of bank employee Nawanit Noichana,; he posted a message on the Sanook.com forums soliciting readers to have sex with a certain Ms Som, and providing her real phone number; it was all a prank or something worse, because Ms Som was certainly not that kind of woman; the Criminal Court judge found him guilty under the Computer Crime Act, but then sentenced him to just 12 hours of community service and a one-year suspended imprisonment.

Game of denial

2009-08-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

       The Malaysian government announced then denied it intends to set up filters to block undesirable Internet content like its northern neighbour; on Friday morning, Information Minister Rais Yatim told newsmen he planned to put in filters to block all that "undesirable content";the following Thursday, after talking with Prime Minister, Najib Razak, Mr Yatim announced that existing laws were plenty strong enough to find and to prosecute actual sedition, fraud and child pornography, and he cancelled the country's calls for bids to supply an Internet filter system. China announced that it no longer planned to demand that all personal computers must have the flawed and official censorware program Green Dam ; Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology,said only schools and Internet cafes would be compelled to install the software; he actually said with a straight face it was only "to protect the children".
       A week after fixing 18 security holes in Mac OS X,Apple Inc issued a security patch for the Bind Internet server standard, which allowed remote hackers to crash servers; Apple also issued a passel of security patches for the hackerfriendly Safari browser, Apple and Windows editions, including a nasty bug whereby a hacker could get Safari to list his malicious website as a Top Site.
       Number 1 operating system peddlers Microsoft of America and No 1 yuppiephone tinkers Nokia of Finland announced a joint venture to port Microsoft Office to Nokia phones under the Symbian operating system; it's hard to imagine why anyone would want an office suite on a 2-inch screen, but apparently Nokia executives have convinced Microsoft they need the system to stomp and kick the nice BlackBerry maker Research In Motion .Microsoft announced that Office 2010 for the Apple Mac was on schedule,sort of, and should be ready for sale for the New Year's Eve shopping season next year ; well, that's 2010, right?A judge in Texas told Microsoft tostop selling editions of Word that use custom XML tagging technology; Microsoft lost a patent lawsuit over the XML format to the nice I4i firm, but it will appeal the ruling and won't stop selling Word for a day.Microsoft showed some photos of its new Zune HD, the music player that will certainly crush the Apple iPod; in a huge, shock surprise, the Zune prices will be held under iPod prices; it will have a web browser and the ability to copy high-def video to an HDTV (dock not included).
       A British politician who would be prime minister wants to fine every person sharing a file illegally on the Internet to be find ฃ50,000, or 2.8 million baht in real money; Business Secretary Lord Mandelson of the Labour Party said he was "persuaded by the argument for tough laws" against all that piracy that's going on by seven million of his countrymen - after a dinner at the Greek island of Corfu, paid entirely by his close entertainment buddy David Geffen and the Rothschild bank.US President Barack Obama and his government ordered government-run Internet sites to resume dealing cookies to surfers, spurring major privacy concerns from serious civil liberties groups including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation; the groups also blamed private companies, principally Google ,for forcing government sites to use cookies in exchange for permission for the government to use its sites, such as posting videos on YouTube ; Vivek Kundra, the government's chief information officer, explained that the new policy is to improve customer service,but he was in such a hurry he forgot to explain what advantages the government was getting out of suddenly resuming its tracking of users.
       Sara Morishige Williams, wife of Twitter CEO Evan Williams, provided graphic examples of "too much information"when she tweeted the birth of her child,minute by minute to 14,000 followers;things we didn't really have to know included "My water broke. It wasn't like Charlotte in Sex and the City . Now,timing contractions on an iPhone app"and "The Contraction Tracker was fun until the contractions got painful";thankfully her husband tweeted nothing.
       The World Trade Organisation told China it had to stop censoring films,DVDs and books by funnelling all imports through state agencies; ruling on a suit brought by the United States, the WTO ordered China to open market access; the US claimed that by controlling such imports, China was increasing the demand for pirated goods.
       In a report by OECD, the "developed"countries named and shamed the countries with the world's highest mobile phone charges: Canada, Spain and the United States, in that order; the lowest charges among the 30-member OECD were in Finland, with Holland and Sweden a tad higher.Toshiba moved to the dark side; after years spent inventing and championing the losing HD DVD format for high-density disks,Toshiba became a gracious loser and started making Blu-Ray players, now the standard but not yet fabulously popular.

Nintendo updates DSi software

2009-08-26T00:06:00.002-07:00

       Nintendo said recently that it is updating DSi software to allow users to upload pictures from the camera-equipped handheld videogame devices to hot socialnetworking website Facebook.
       The Facebook photo-sharing feature is now usable with a free system update to be available online.
       "Facebook and Nintendo DSi build on the trend of personalisation that is so important to consumers," Nintendo of America executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway said in a statement.
       "We're giving people the tools to express themselves in creative new ways and show off the results to their friends and family on Facebook."
       DSi users will be able to tap an onscreen icon to send photos from DSi camera albums to Facebook profile pages by means of wireless broadband Internet connections, according to Nintendo.
       The Japanese videogame titan has sold more than 1.7 million DSi devices in the United States since the thirdgeneration of the game system was launched here in April, according to figures from industry-tracker NPD Group.
       Nintendo reported last week that sales of its Wii consoles have plunged, triggering a sharp drop in recent-quarter profits after years of spectacular growth.
       The company had been riding high in recent years after trumping rivals Sony and Microsoft in the battle for dominance of the multi-billion dollar home videogame industry with its familyfriendly Wii. series.

Geographic system services open up

2009-08-26T00:06:00.001-07:00

       The world of Geographic Information System (GIS) is promisingly opening up so users can enjoy using a range of software products, as ESRI has announced free web service of ArcGIS.
       It is somewhat a new dimension in the industry, with ArcGIS offering the web service opening as an alternative for GIS professionals so they can create programs and develop add-ons for existing data and applications, according to ESRI (Thailand) general manager Krairop Luanguthai.
       Speaking at Thai GIS User Conference 2009 last week, Krairop said rich Internet applications are going to be a new trend. Platforms like Javascript and Silverlight are new technologies for creating these interesting mashups; intuitive lightweight applications. These rich Internet applications are also going to be free for non-commercial users, NGOs,education and government agencies.
       This will boost the GIS society and encourage a number of users to further develop and share applications. The Thai version of ArcGis Online is scheduled to launch in October.
       "This offers many opportunities for creativity with this new media environment, with creative carto-graphy, spreading geographic knowledge everywhere," said Krairop.
       "Many creative people can take those APIs and create interesting new approaches to create maps that are prolific on the Web."
       He added that the result of Web APIs in Thailand would be more apparent a year from now.
       ArcGIS Online, which is so far known only for content services, introduced a facility to have users share their layer packages and services in an integrated,free, online storage site in the cloud.They can take their data and define how it belongs to their group. Or they can choose to share it over the open Internet.
       Krairop added that the ArcGIS online will probably not affect Google Earth because the user groups are distinct.Google does not concentrate GIS and users just view the map, while GIS online will evolve the GIS society leading the users and professionals to be GIS creators as they can thoroughly deal with the data. Those professionals can develop such programs as land management, natural resource management, goods delivery, and so forth, for free on the Web.
       Krairop added that the GIS market continues to expand, with 20 percent growth this year. The company has a target this year of 12 billion baht, with GIS database system services being the major revenue generator. So far ESRI Thailand has developed GIS database for the public sector. Most customers -70 percent - are government agencies.
       Having dealt with GIS systems in the public sector for 20 years, Krairop noted that they are often "on and off",leading to a problem of data accuracy.The policy has always changed in accordance with the shift of heads of organisations. Consequently, the operation lacks continuity."Databases are the most important of GIS systems and they need to be updated all the time so that data remains accurate,"he said.
       ESRI Thailand, meanwhile, will file a lawsuit against two companies at MBK shopping centre who violated the company's software copyright.

"Worst of the worst" sites identified

2009-08-26T00:04:00.002-07:00

       Symantec last week unveiled a list of 100"worst of the worst"websites, nearly half of which used porn to lure people to pages booby trapped with viruses.
       The US computer security titan's list of "Dirtiest Web Sites" discovered in recent months included names such as firstsexyteen,schoolbad,and cheatsarchive.
       Videogame players sometimes search online for "cheats," software secrets that let them change game play.
       While 48 percent of the websites on the list featured adult content, the remaining tainted locales ran a gamut of topics including deer hunting, catering,figure skating, legal services, and retail electronics.
       People visiting the websites face risks of having their computers infected with malicious software that could mine personal data or give cybercriminals control of machines, according to Symantec.
       "There has been exponential growth in the number of online threats that are constantly evolving as cybercriminals look for new ways to target your money,identity or assets," said Symantec consumer business unit senior vice president Rowan Trollope.
       "Armed with this information, consumers are empowered to make informed decisions about which sites to visit."
       Websites that made Symantec's "dirtiest" list were crammed with "staggering" numbers of virus threats, according to Trollope.

Yahoo extends its reach to Mideast

2009-08-26T00:04:00.001-07:00

       Yahoo! Inc, owner of the second- most popular US Internet search engine, has agreed to buy Arabiclanguage Internet venture Maktoob.com Inc as it seeks to enter the Middle East market.
       The company, which announced the acquisition in a press conference in Dubai on Monday, did not disclose the value of the agreement.
       Yahoo!, which agreed to join forces with Microsoft Corp last month to challenge Google Inc, is investing in its own Internet-search service and the purchase of Maktoob provides it with an entry point to a market that includes 22 countries.
       "Maktoob is the ultimate Web-based company of the Middle East region because it started before the dot-com boom of the 1990s and survived the crash,"Maktoob co-founder Fadi Ghandour said in an interview.
       Founded in 2000, Maktoob is the largest portal in the Arab world and owns on-line auction, search, entertainment and matrimonial websites, and sells on-line payment cards.
       In 2007, Abraaj Capital Ltd, the Dubai-based buyout company managing more than $6 billion, sold its 40% stake in the Amman-based Maktoob.com to Tiger Global Management LLC, a US-based investment company.
       Maktoob is ranked as the 156 most popular website in the world over the past three months with about 0.47% of global Internet users visiting the site,according to Alexa Internet Inc, a Web traffic-monitoring company owned by Amazon.com Inc.
       There were about 37 million Internet users in the Arab world at the end of 2008, according to Arab Advisers Group,a research, analysis and consulting company focused on communications and media.
       "An acquisition by Yahoo may make sense because it would add a large base of Internet Arab users to whom it can sell ads and tailor services to further cement its leadership in the region,"said Jawad Abassi, founder and general manager of Arab Advisers Group.
       "Yahoo may even help solve Maktoobs ongoing problem of not being a leader in any of the segments its involved in."

Teen answers online

2009-08-26T00:03:00.001-07:00

       A web site is now up and running with an ultimate goal of tackling teenagers' problems.
       Developed by Assoc Prof Somthawin Thanasopon, www.woundwhy.com offers online games through which visitors will learn about the dangers of drugs, liquor, sexually transmitted diseases, etc, and also how to avoid them.
       "We use the games to attract teenagers' attention. Learning from the games won't be boring," Somthawin said.
       After playing the games, the visitors will also be asked to fill questionnaires.
       "We will collect the information for researching purposes. The information will also be used to develop the web site's content," she added.
       She said the web site targeted children aged between 12 and 15 years old.
       However, she said the web site would also prove useful to children from different age groups or even parents.
       "Our web site teaches about sex education and adolescent emotion as well," Somthawin added.
       She believed the web site would be able to reach out to a large number of teenagers because Internet was now popular.
       Her web site offers prizes like flash drives, pens and Tshirts for visitors who have played all the games and filled all the questionnaires.
       www.woundwhy.com was launched yesterday.
       Present at the launch event were Basic Education Commission secretary general Khunying Kasama Varawarn, National Research Council secretary general Dr Anond Bunyaratavej and Kasetsart University president Vudtechai Kapilakanchana.
       Kasama hailed the web site as a good medium for youths.

MYSPACE BUYS ONLINES MUSIC SENSATION ILIKE IN US$20-MILLION DEAL

2009-08-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

       MySpace has announced it is buying online music discovery hotspot iLike and plans to expand the service to other forms of entertainment such as games and films.
       Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but technology blogs said inside sources had valued the deal at about US$20 million (Bt683 million).
       "The iLike acquisition advances our relentless pursuit of innovation and the need to create new distributed social experiences in music and beyond," said MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta.
       Since being founded two years ago by brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, iLike has become a favourite way for people to find new music, live performances and concert tickets.
       "MySpace is trying to recapture relevance from Facebook and attempting to use iLike to broaden its potential customer base and create a more viable future," said Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle in Silicon Valley, California.
       "It isn't a bad idea. iLike is a well-regarded property, and catching Facebook organically is likely not in the cards."
       It appears iLike was under pressure from investors eager to reap profit, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for strategy and analysis at market-research firm Interpret.
       "It was a way for them to get out," Gartenberg said of iLike's backers.
       "These guys were the high-flying Web 2.0 company, and they sold for a lot less than their perceived valuation not long ago."
       The value of iLike had recently been pegged at more than $50 million. People can visit iLike's website or install the start-up's applications at Apple's online iTunes shop or social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5 and Orkut.
       iLike says it has 55 million users.
       Gartenberg believes iLike's dependence on other websites as stages for its applications proved to be a weakness.
       "It's a problem any time you are totally dependent on someone for your core platform," Gartneberg said. "The dependence on Facebook really was an issue."
       MySpace expects to close the iLike deal quickly land said there were no plans to yank the service from archrival Facebook.
       "iLike is a great application across many social networks, and we expect to extend that," Van Natta said.
       iLike will remain based in Seattle, Washington. MySpace indicated it was eager to apply iLike discovery and sharing technology to other entertainment areas, such as video grames and film.
       "It's humbling moment for Ali and me," iLike's founding brothers said.
       "Having built the most popular music services on the other social networks, we never imagined that we'd someday team up with MySpace, and we're excited to see what we can accomplish as one team."
       The iLike.com website and applications will continue to operate as they always have "except that we'll be working to make them even better," the brothers wrote.
       iLike said it would continue testting a service selling digital music downloads and that its goal was eventually to enable people to "impulse buy in-page" from anywhere they could access the Internet.
       "Launching another store is going to be challenging in a universe that is so dominated by Apple and iTunes," Gartenberg said. "But we are still in the early stages, where no one is willing to roll over and concede the market to anyone." News Corp-owned MySpace has focused on connecting music-makers and song lovers since being eclipsed last year by Facebook as the world's most popular social-networking service.
       "By itself, this donesn't do what MySpace needs done, but as par;t of a larger acquisition strategy and blended with targeted inprovements, this could eventually work," Enderle said. "I worry, however, that this may be less a part of a broader strategy, which hasn't been articulated, and more of a Hail Mary pass to make it look like they are doing something strategic. If it is the latter, this won't end well at all."

THE HACKER WHO STOLE THE DETAILS OF 130 MILLION CREDIT CARDS

2009-08-24T00:25:00.000-07:00

       The man who agreed to help nail his accomplices is now accused of the greatest identity theft spree in history By Mark Hughes

       He is handsome, he is rich hereportedly splurged US$75,000 on his own birthday one year - and has the kind of charm that could dazzle the hardest of men,says a US federal secret service agent. But it's not your daughters you need to be locking up - it's your credit cards.
       We have all known for some time that the electronic identity-theft business is burgeoning. The US Treasury Department says it knows of 55,000 cases in only 10 years. But as of now, it has its official poster boy. He is 28-year-old Albert Gonzalez, a man who allegedly has a special talent in this particular line.
       That, at least, is the contention of the authorities in New Jersey, who late last Monday unveiled criminal charges against Mr Gonzalez identifying him as the leader of a three-man ring which, between October,2006,and May,2008, successfully siphoned off the data from no fewer than 130 million credit and debit cards in the US by hacking into the networks of several retail and financial giants,including the 7-Eleven corner-shop chain.
       The charges against Mr Gonzalez and two other unidentified men apparently working out of or close to Russia are causing considerable consternation for a multitude of reasons. For one, this may be the biggest criminal case involving the theft of credit card data ever uncovered. Second, some of the details of the alleged criminal career of Mr Gonzalez are raising eyebrows. For example - why didn't the Feds cotton on to all of this before?
       It turns out that Mr Gonzalez was first detained in 2003 in connection with alleged nefarious hacking operations, but was not prosecuted after he agreed to assist the secret service in trying to nail some of his accomplices. The authorities also agreed to allow him to move from the New York area to Miami.
       Since May last year, Mr Gonzalez has been a resident of a jail in Brooklyn awaiting trial on charges of hacking into the computer system of Dave & Buster's, a national restaurant chain based in Miami. He was allegedly trying to steal card numbers.
       But later last year, the police were pointing to Mr Gonzalez again. In a separate case now pending in Boston, he was accused of being the ringleader of yet another data breach involving a series of companies, but most notably TJ Maxx retail in Massachusetts. On that occasion, prosecutors said, the ring had successfully purloined the details of 40 million cards and their activities had cost TJX which owns TJ Maxx - about $200 million.
       The new set of charges eclipses all that came before, however.
       It also opens the window on a netherworld of electronic crime that will set off new alarm bells in capitals around the world. If one man can be responsible for this number of breaches, the problem may be bigger than anyone imagined.
       If Mr Gonzalez is guilty it is also his chutzpah that shocks. He is "a very important player in a sophisticated ring that has real results at the street level of bank, retail, debit and credit card fraud", acknowledged Seth Kosto,an Assistant US Attorney in New Jersey who specialises in computer fraud.
       According to court documents filed in the TJX case in Boston, Mr Gonzalez instigated what he called an "operation to get rich or die tryin"', which involved identifying some of the biggest companies in the US and setting about assessing how vulnerable their payment systems were to being hacked.
       It is alleged that once Mr Gonzalez and his team had successfully penetrated a particular company's system, an electronic "back door"would be installed that in theory would allow them to return at any time to harvest even more credit card numbers.
       The value of data from stolen credit cards depends on the market. But, according to the latest documents filed in the case, once the information was stolen it was immediately relayed to computers controlled by the ring in different parts of the world, including California and Ukraine.
       Of course those least happy to hear details of Mr Gonzalez's alleged capers are the companies whose names feature in the latest charges, including a supermarket chain called Hannaford."We're pleased that the authorities have aggressively pursued this case to be in a position to bring an indictment against the alleged perpetrators," said Michael Norton,a spokesman for Hannaford.7-Eleven declined to comment.The Independent
       The technique
       Gonzalez allegedly used a technique known as a "SQL injection attack", a form of computer hacking which is designed to exploit security vulnerabilities in databases. This type of attack is said to have started in Russia, China and North Korea, but has become increasingly popular in the US. So much so that computer giant IBM will later this month publish a report that shows that instances of SQL injection attacks have increased by 50% in the first quarter of 2009, compared with the final quarter of 2008.SQL injection requires the hackers to gain access to the computer networks they wish to hack. The hacker would do this by somehow breaching the computer's firewall and then "injecting" software into the database, using SQL (Structured Query Language), which is a database programming language. What type of software is not known, but it would search for PINs or passwords or transaction records. The stolen data is then sent to computer servers to sell on.

THE HACKER WHO STOLE THE DETAILS OF 130 MILLION CREDIT CARDS

2009-08-24T00:24:00.000-07:00

www.hellofromearth.net

2009-08-24T00:23:00.000-07:00

       In the early days the Internet was believed to be the ultimate equaliser - the information super highway that would revolutionise the way we live. Because of the net,15-year-old boys no longer need to sneakily raid their father's secret Playboy collection anymore; instead they can get their pornographic fix electronically.
       Likewise, lame 16-year-old girls all have the chance to get their 15 minutes by singing away on YouTube.
       And now, any idiot with access to the Internet can project their messages to Gliese 581d, the nearest Earth-like planet outside our solar system.
       Simply log on to www.hellofromearth.net , register, and you're one step closer to to pissing off aliens!
       The deadline to submit messages is 2pm on Aug 24. Don't count on getting a reply any time soon though. Gliese 581d is 20.3 light years away and last time we checked, that's pretty far, even for troll/prima donna transmissions.

ARE WE SOLVING PROBLEMS OR JUST CREATING NEW ONES?

2009-08-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

       A FEW weeks ago, our Ministry of Culture delivered a piece of bad news to our teenagers - again.
       This time it's a new regulation on the time per day that each teenager in Thailand is allowed to access online games, both from home computers and at Internet cafes, and the authorities can verify this by asking them to key in their national ID number before having fun.
       At the moment, another online activity is under close surveillance - namely a few local websites that offer sex services by a membership system. Clients can even pay a monthly fee for a certain amount of "dates".
       What the authorities may have overlooked, though, is the fact that our teenagers, apart from online games, still spend too many hours in the cyberworld, without really taking advantage of this worldwide web of information. At the top of the current list is Facebook, which some have used as their secret photo album, and others as the space for their daily statement issued to the world. Then, of course, there are many time-consuming computer games that are neither online nor restricted.
       As far as I understand it, culture can also refer to ways in which people live and enjoy their lives. And apart from shouting, "No, you can't do this," our cultural authorities could perhaps also promote "Do you want to try this?" as well.
       However, it seems that most of our tax money, in this cultural management matter, is going to the preservation of our national heritage and the prevention of certain modern lifestyles that are deemed improper for this eight-century-old country.
       Instead of working closely with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in this matter, maybe Ministry of Culture officials should sit down with their Ministry of Education counterparts in order to better understand how teenagers spend their days, and come up with better alternatives than staring at computer screens for six hours a day.
       Despite my age, I can still recall secondary school days when I spent most of my school evenings on basketball courts, football fields, and in movie theatres. It was the pre-Internet, pre-O-NET, A-NET, GAT, PAT, and pre-Ministry of Culture era. I'm not even sure what it's called now, thanks to its frequent changes. Back then, my friends did not feel that it was a must to go to tuition schools in the evenings - we had had seven or eight hours of class already, and our teachers made sure that they were enough to get us into good universities.
       I can also remember that often our teachers loaded us into buses to go to watch films or performance art outside the school. Interestingly enough, most of these were not programmes that were deemed traditional (and thus highly recommended by any cultural authority). Rather, they were what the teachers - who repeated to us that we could gain knowledge and experience not only in classrooms - found relevant to the content of some classes. The school administrators believed in this extra effort to organise such activities.
       By working together, and perhaps combining their budgets, maybe the ministries of Culture and Education could devise a master plan to promote cultural extra-curricular activities for our teenagers, so that they have more activities to choose from, in addition to the online ones.
       Let's look at an example here. In many countries, including a few in our region, schools receive extra funding from their ministries when they organise such extra-curricular activities. Meanwhile, arts companies also receive more funding from their relevant ministries when they host afternoon or evening activities for students. But of course, the Ministry of Education and schools must prove first that students do not need to attend tuition schools in order to be admitted to good universities. After all, we want the next generation in the work force to not only know how to work efficiently, but also to enjoy arts and culture.
       This issue of problem-solution reminds me of a memorable experience at Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre last Thursday. Entering the playhouse, I was happy to see that there were four lines, instead of the previous two, for the audience to pass through the security check - in other words, metal detectors to make sure that we didn't bring in cameras to take still or moving images of the performance. I was shocked, though, that each member of the audience was asked to have their body temperature checked with an ear thermometer, which would be cleaned after each check. The theatre management team claims in the programme booklet that this is a precautionary measure for type-A(H1N1) flu. Well, I think they forget about ear infections. My job requires me to watch many live performances in different countries in the region, Since the breakout of swine flu, I've never seen such a precautionary measure anywhere else.
       At the intermission, when nature called, I found that the gentlemen's restroom was also available for women. This innovative measure was to make sure that all female audience members could return to their seats in time for the curtain of the second act.
       Twelve years ago, when I first visited the Stratford Festival of Canada, a volunteer staff member informed me that the main playhouse, called the Festival Theatre, had three times the number of women's restrooms than men's, to make sure that there'd be no long queues for women. That Canadian playhouse is more than a decade old, while our Muangthai Rachadalai Theatre is a little over two years old. So what's happening here? Did our Thai investors hire the wrong architects and interior designers - if I'm not mistaken, foreign ones - and now they have to solve these problems Thai style?
       If they can spend scores of millions to bring over an international touring musical production, why can't they spend a few hundred thousand on temperature scanners, like those we see in some airports, and a few hundred thousand to rebuild toilets for more privacy?
       Let's look at these problems carefully and thoroughly, and wisely solve them; otherwise, more relevant problems may arise and, now that our heads and hands are full, we will never be able to deal with them.