Sunnyside Up 5.17.12

fab introduces social shopping features

• What’s new? Fab introduces social shopping features.

• How does it work? Go to the Feed tab—which shows you who is buying what now—and enable the integration. You will then be able to see which Facebook friends bought or favorite what items. Other users can comment on the purchase, an interaction that will appear both on Facebook and on Fab.

• Why does it matter? Retailers have had difficulty encouraging social shopping (which, theoretically, if consumers are influenced more by their friends than by ads should encourage sales and customer loyalty), but Fab’s Facebook integration is one the most elegant attempt to date.

• One problem with the process is that when a user clicks through to a friends’ recently purchase product, he may find that it is no longer for sale (Fab is still on a flash sale model). • Fab could solve this by allowing the user to pre-order that item

(to tip another production round) or buy it at full cost (if the manufacturer still has supply), which would be more satisfying for users who covet what their friends buy.

• Implications: A health social shopping environment will still be to duplicate: Fab’s successes are built a strong insight (design-minded people are wealthy, repeat consumers; designers are willing to drop their prices for exposure) and a strong community that has been highly nurtured (via good web design, CRM, and community management). That said, individual retailers may band together form their own version of Fab.com for their vertical (jewelry, shoes, T-shirts), and enabled social shopping there.

fab introduces social shopping features

google adds ‘knowledge graph’ to search• What’s new? Google is adding semantic

context next to search results. • How does it work? Google has a number of

database that associates meaning to search term: to Google, “new york” isn’t just the word “new” plus “york,” but a major city in the US, home of the Yankees, the Empire State Building, etc.

• Why Does it Matter? This improvement doesn’t wildly transform how users use Google, but it may save them some typing: instead of typing “Taj Mahal band,” to specific the band, one could just type “Taj Mahal” and then click an image of the band on the right to specify that search.

• For Google, “Knowledge Graph = More Time on Google, Less Time Surfing the Web,” which means more search ad dollars.

• Read More/Source: http://mashable.com/2012/05/16/google-knowledge-graph/ and http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2175783/Google-Launches-Knowledge-Graph-First-Step-in-Next-Generation-Search

facebook tests highlighted posts• What’s new? Facebook is testing a highlighted post

feature.

• How does it work? Much like Facebook’s Reach Generator ad product (guarantees your status update is seen by all of a brands fan), highlighted post will gurantee that all of your friends will see your post (if you were subletting your apartment, or promoting your band’s concert)

• Read More/Source: http://mashable.com/2012/05/11/facebook-highlighted-posts/

ZIMBABWE ADOPTS AIRTIME AS CURRENCY• What’s new? Hit with hyperinflation, Zimbabwe abandoned its

currency in 2009, leaving most people to pay with US Dollars. Small change is short in the country, and retailers often force customers to buy more or accept a credit note if the purchase doesn’t come to a whole dollar amount.

• A start-up called Yo-Time lets retailers offer change in the form of airtime (anywhere between 10 to 50 cents worth of airtime) that can be transferred in seconds to the shopper’s phone.

• Why does it matter? The currency problem in Zimbabwe and Yo-Time is a reminder of how many consumers in developing countries make do—in remarkable circumstances—with the little they have, and that a entrepreneurial business that pays close attention to these infrastructure gaps, can turn a profit and provide a much-needed service.

• Read More/Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/05/02/cellphone-airtime-becomes-currency-in-zimbabwe/?mod=WSJBlog

mIG33, south east asia’s mobile social network• What’s new? MIG33 is a mobile-only social network that’s

popular in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia (but also Nepal, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia). It currently has 47 million members (half of them live in Indonesia). This is a small figure when compared to Tencent’s 650 million social network members, but is still relevant to marketers in S.E. Asia.

• What’s so great about it? MIG33 is designed to be lightweight and to run on feature phones (think the old Nokia phones), which are the most affordable phones in S.E. Asia

• MIG33 is fairly powerful, though: users can perform all the basic social networking actions, including creating profiles, sending photos, friending and messaging. It’s expanding into micro-blogging by offering a Twitter-like feature and into mobile games through partnerships with Japanese game-developer GREE.

• Why does it matter?: Roughly a quarter of the world’s population lives in Southeast Asia, and thus technology developments there remain relevant. After China, this region is the next to significantly develop mobile internet penetration.

• MIG33 & Virtual Goods: “Mig33 has evolved over time and found that virtual goods are one of the most popular things users buy on its social network. More than 40 million virtual goods were purchased on Mig33′s network in 2010. So the company is now getting developers to create the games and social apps that spur further demand for those virtual good.”

• Read More/Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/17/mig33-launches-twitter-like-miniblog-for-emerging-mobile-markets/

• and http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/20/mobile-social-network-mig33-launches-game-developer-platform/

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