Tag: mike walsh

If there's a mistake an SME can make online, I've made it in the last five years. My ecommerce site was hacked for reasons that will soon become apparent. My blog disappeared on the very same day and I avoided joining Twitter until last Friday because, “bloody hell -- I already have enough to do!”

As a new generation of Gordon Gekko's fry under the blowtorch of angry shareholders and world leaders brace themselves for the bill from mass bailouts, it's easy to answer the question, "What is the future of finance?" by simply asking another: "Is there a future for finance?"

The very conditions that make Asia such a disruptive market for consumer behaviour - lax copyright, fast broadband, urban youth subcultures, advanced mobile devices - are also fast becoming global trends. As the rest of the world joins the party, you can rest assured, the future of TV will not be far behind.

Trends are useful - but in my view, anything beyond 2-5 years is pure fiction. The seeds of mass market change are always with us, percolating away in the background - you just have to pay attention. Here are five I'm tracking right now....

First off, let's be clear. We have to kill the phrase 'online classifieds'. At best, it has the weary note of strained metaphors, like moving staircases and horseless carriages. At worst, it's symptomatic of a dated way of thinking about the world. These days, winning in classifieds really means winning in markets. And that, dear readers, is a much tougher job.

Online video has hit prime time. YouTube now claims to be streaming 100 million clips per day. Viacom and Google are experimenting with delivering short TV clips through online ad inventory space. Most of the major US networks are delivering traditional programming via iTunes or their own download service. And social networks like MySpace are adding rocket fuel to the explosion in viral video distribution. Is this TV 2.0? I don't think so.

Online video has hit prime time. YouTube now claims to be streaming 100 million clips per day. Viacom and Google are experimenting with delivering short TV clips through online ad inventory space. Most of the major US networks are delivering traditional programming via iTunes or their own download service. And social networks like MySpace are adding rocket fuel to the explosion in viral video distribution. Is this TV 2.0? I don't think so.

Lists. Endless lists. The latest curse of the web are those endless swimming pools of customer data - most popular, most active, most tagged or downloaded. Personally, I hate them. They tell me nothing, other than other people's aggregated bad taste. Worse, they miss one of the internet's most subtle and powerful features - the discovery power of networks.

Lists. Endless lists. The latest curse of the web are those endless swimming pools of customer data - most popular, most active, most tagged or downloaded. Personally, I hate them. They tell me nothing, other than other people's aggregated bad taste. Worse, they miss one of the internet's most subtle and powerful features - the discovery power of networks.

After nearly a decade of protest, Show Business has discovered the web. Whether it is Disney selling episodes of Desperate Housewives on iPods, Fox screening prime time TV shows on the web or Hollywood Studios selling full versions of their movies online, this year has seen a major turning point for the titans of Tinseltown. Now everyone is scrambling to unlock new networks and future fortunes.

Lists. Endless lists. The latest curse of the web are those endless swimming pools of customer data - most popular, most active, most tagged or downloaded. Personally, I hate them. They tell me nothing, other than other people's aggregated bad taste. Worse, they miss one of the internet's most subtle and powerful features - the discovery power of networks.