Being Peter Kim

Google Checkout vs. Paypal - $100 is the magic number

Lots of posts today about Google Checkout - best analysis by far from my colleague Charlene Li.  For a more tactical angle, by breaking out some algebra - unlike Shaq's game, which is hard to figure out - it's easy to see what this means to your bottom line vs. using Paypal.

Google Checkout is free up to 10x of your monthly Adwords spend.  Thinking realistically about a business budget, this should pretty much seal the deal, assuming that you're spending money on paid search placement.  Focus on net margin, not revenue and expense separately.

So if you don't buy AdWords (ignoring the fact that integration is the whole point) - say you're a niche seller with great organic results - what to do?

If you do under $100,000 a month, use Google.  Otherwise, solve for x in this equation:  $0.20 + 0.2x = $0.30 + 0.19x.

If your average selling price is above $100, then you should use Paypal instead.

Two likely actions:  Someone will develop a user-friendly FAQ on how to integrate implement Google Checkout with  into eBay auctions now that it's banned.  Then the Paypal fee structure will change to be more competitive.

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Your car can SMS

adland reports today that Sony has applied for a US Patent allowing inter-car communication as well as stoplight-to-car as well.

Remember when you were a kid and fogged up the windows to draw a smiley face?  Or on a never-ending family road trip to Disney World, made signs to passerbys like "HELP ME"?

This takes it to a whole new level.  Fewer missed connections on craigslist.  Cars more like KITT.  The rise of location-based marketing.

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MySpam: Shootout at Henry Blodget's Blog

I followed a link to this story on Henry Blodget's blog about MySpace.  All in all, it was a waste of time, with no news (almost the same story from paidcontent last quarter), analysis ("traffic should not necessarily be viewed as a good proxy for business value"), or recommendations ("show us the money" how, Henry?).  BUT I stumbled across something else that made the post totally worth it.

You have to scroll down to the comments.  The first one is from victor - who comments "first" about 15 minutes after the post went live.  Then King Troll comments, "F*** Second You are becoming a strong opponent Victor" six minutes later.  I thought this was strange, but then checked out some more posts and comments.  billy is another formidable opponent, along with trollkiller as well.  These guys are having a shootout to see who can comment first on posts.

To get the full surreal effect, you have to read these along with some of the other commenters trying to get down to serious financial business.  It looks like this is a typepad blog, so I'm not sure why Blodget doesn't turn on moderation or ban IPs.  Tough to have a serious (?) financial discussion with all the noise.  Even funnier because these guys turn around and post about their investment strategies - the game isn't even about getting linkie winkie with search ratings.

Sometimes social computing is just about some senseless "Dude, Where's My Car" fun.

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Do comments make the blog?

A couple days after the conclusion of the NBA Finals, Mark Cuban put up a great stream of consciousness post ending with the notice "For the record, Im not turning on comments, they have devolved to the point where they add no value."

Some big name bloggers picked up on this.  BL Ochman found it odd that Cuban didn't respond to an email asking for comment.  Steve Rubel speculated that it might be because comment moderating and mining tools were weak.

One tough guy blogger even had this to say:  "Mr. Cuban, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" and was then shocked to discover someone had actually read his post.

Well, comments are turned on again for Cuban's latest posts.  Where's the followup/update?  Where are the kudos for turning away from the dark side?

How much do you think Cuban cares anyway?  The reason he's so great to read is that he says what he thinks and is not afraid to speak what's on his mind - read his post on Ozzie Guillen and you wish that more people in this world would just be "for real."

There aren't any rules to blogging, only conventions.  Comments, while valuable, are obviously optional.  Three of the top four Engrish language blogs as ranked by Technorati - Boing Boing, PostSecret, and FlickrBlog - don't have comments turned on.  So should they be booted out of the "official" blogosphere, along with Seth Godin?

Who makes the final call on what is and isn't a blog, anyway?  Just remember that social computing is about power to the people and you'll be fine.

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Owning WOM process: StoryCorps vs. JetBlue

The WSJ reports today on a brewing dispute regarding the collection of word-of-mouth information.  At issue is the use of mobile booths to record stories from people.

JetBlue is doing this for commercial purposes as part of their "Sincerely, JetBlue" campaign.  StoryCorps is doing this for humanities purposes as part of a cultural mission.

Unlikely that this will become a big issue as the process isn't core to JetBlue's business and StoryCorps is a non-profit.  However, as word-of-mouth marketing gains traction, it's likely we'll see business models and techniques patented like Amazon's 1-click.  Perhaps agent networks or feedback mechanisms...?

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BzzAgent to Pests: BzzOff!

In two related moves to make its agent network more attractive to advertisers, BzzAgent announced that it would expel up to 10,000 "pests" from its network (roughly 5%) and re-engineer its rewards system to attract and retain valuable agents.

For most companies, a housekeeping move like this wouldn't be publicized - but BzzAgent isn't a traditional company.  The company has already demonstrated a great deal of public self-awareness, examples being the "90 days" blog and political manuvering within WOMMA.  The need to clean up the agent network was inevitable and BzzAgent's announcement pre-empts the predictable ensuing backlash.  In a good show of listening to their stakeholders, a healthy discussion is in progress on the BzzAgent blog.

The decision to re-engineer the rewards system however is curious - when it should just be eliminated altogether.  A low rewards redemption rate (13%) can be attributed to many factors and it's in BzzAgent's best accounting interest to quickly dissipate its accrual for unused credit.  BzzAgent states that agents value "experiencing new products" as the highest benefit of participation and while earning rewards ranks next to last. 

BzzAgent already keeps a public top agents list - and should enhance their entire network with public rankings and profiles.  Let the bees hunt and gather, linking into personal blogs and other personal artifacts, giving even more data for advertisers to use.  BzzAgent would do well to let the benefits of membership and participation speak for themselves.  Recognizing prolific agents with a system like eBay stars or Amazon badges would make sense - along with a higher frequency of access to campaigns.  Eliminating the rewards system eliminates perception of bias in agent participation - along with pests who are only in it for the points.

In the long run, both moves make the network a more attractive resource for marketers, which results in wins for campaigns (e.g. better sample sets), agents (e.g. more access), and BzzAgent (e.g. more revenue).

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Web 2.0: hope vs. hype

Two sites tracking the rise and fall of web 2.0:

- Rise:  The Museum of Modern Betas.  Lists the latest and greatest apps.

- Fall:  TechCrunch's Deadpool.  We'll probably only see the larger and more public flameouts here, but what goes up must come down.

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You are worth $0.02 on MySpace

A blogger in Brooklyn reports an offer to buy MySpace profiles with 20,000+ friends.  At prevailing rates, a 20k friend account should net about $300.  How do I know?

eBay.

For 7 successfully completed auctions on "myspace account" - the highest being $960 - the average selling price per name is $0.015.  The CPM is $15.09...pretty high unless you consider friends as "quality" leads.  But how close can someone be with 69,000 friends?

Searches on eBay for "facebook account," "friendster account," and "bebo account" come up empty.  So how much does this sell-out matter?  Not to marketers who create character accounts - that's pretty much free.  Or marketers who buy display ads - that's here today, gone tomorrow.  Or even partners like Helio or Cingular - those deals end, too.

No, the biggest potential loser here is News Corp - as the value of its network and users becomes suspect while bots and scripts take over.  The best thing to do would be to sell it now to a desperate media company who might feel that they missed out on a huge opportunity...

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Paying for Google Analytics

You probably know that Google offers a pretty good free web analytics tool called Google Analytics.  And if you can use web analytics, you've probably signed up for an account.  Hopefully you're off the waiting list.

If not - read on.  Before I got my code (which took considerably longer than spreadsheets or calendar), I searched around for invite pools and other sources where excess inventory might be distributed.  The one place with a lot of action?

eBay.

It struck me that the scarcity of this free product had driven some people to pay for an invite - the highest recent price for a successful auction was $46 on June 5th.  With the clear imbalance of supply and demand, and an available secondary marketplace, watching the equilibrium price of a Google Analytics invite has been a great microeconomics experiment.  It looks like codes are going for about $1.00 now.

Given the drop in average selling price for successfully completed listings, it looks like Google has increased the available supply and/or people are finding substitutes, e.g. Performancing or Sitemeter.

The creation of a market here makes me wonder - how long until Google turns on a business model for premium consumer services?

Oh - and if you need an analytics invite - try one of these:  M2AA-DZBJ3-HMDS or KWSN-EBKGJ-KIAS.  If you claim one successfully, please post and I'll strikethrough.

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Agency CEO says his brand isn't a brand

Maybe this is what's wrong with agencies today - they don't see their own brands as brands.  According to AdAge, Interpublic's CEO said "We are not a brand. We don't pretend to be a brand, and frankly we shouldn't be a brand" at the AAF conference yesterday.

What is a brand?  A summary, tag, or shorthand for what a company IS - the products and services it delivers, the features and benefits communicated to buyers, and the personal experience of consumers pre-, during and post-purchase.

Another interesting quote:  "Right now we are so focused on cost and where those costs are that we are losing sight of the real value we are bringing to our clients."  Brands allow companies to move beyond price competition - increasing margins and aligning to meet consumer needs of a higher order.  The fashion industry is all about brands.  Even the ball bearing industry has brands - e.g. Timken is a "premier manufacturer".  Procter & Gamble is a brand, although none of its product lines bear the corporate name.

If the holding company truly isn't a brand, then it should disband and act as an investor in the newly independent agencies.  And not in a Soviet-style CIS way, either.  Let the kids loose and show the world what they can do as nimble independent shops.

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campaign for real beauty vs. the axe effect

In the world of FMCG and personal care in particular, Unilever has two of the strongest brands:  Dove and Axe.  It's also tough to come up with two more diametrically opposed advertising campaigns:  Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty and pretty much any Axe creative, e.g. The Axe Wearers Handbook.

Although the Axe marketing communications are all in good fun - doesn't the fact that the Unilever corporate umbrella ties the brand to Dove take some steam out of the latter's "self-esteem" message?  I'm sure good media placements keep the messages fairly separate from one another, so there isn't too much consumer conflict.  But the brand and its message seem so out of place from the rest of the Unilever brand portfolio.  Keep an eye on the direction of P&G's Gillette creative in the future and how it fits in with "home made simple"...or not.

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Google completes 3 of 4 pieces in its web office suite

Various sources report that Google will announce a web based spreadsheet application on Tuesday.  This means that they offer a free web-based version of 3 of the 4 components of the standard version of Microsoft Office:

• Spreadsheets:  Excel vs. Google's 6/6/06 app Spreadsheets
• Email:  Outlook vs. Gmail
• Word processing:  Word vs. Writely
• Presentations:  Powerpoint vs. [The Missing Link]

Given the challenges that many people have with good ppt usage, the 4th link could be grounds for a true revolution.  In the meantime, there are resources like Presentation Zen to help us make the best of what's around.

Looking forward to one hell of a product announcement tomorrow.  Get it?  6/6/06?  Anyway, at least it's not my birthday tomorrow.

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