Collaboration of two giants

For one of the courses we have an interesting topic of discussion. It is not a secret that Nokia and Microsoft made a collaborating agreement.  From my point of view, it was the only decision for a finish company to keep up with the competitors on the market of smartphones.

The new concepts of these two companies were announced on 11th February 2011 sounds quite wise and logical. Each company is going to concentrate on the field of its competences.  In general it is good and promising, but some features of the partnership look like a fail. Nokia is going to use Bing as a search service across Nokia devices and services. Honestly, have you ever used it? Yes, may be, but only to get to Google page. What is more, I have never heard about Nokia`s Map service or Microsoft adCenter. It could be because of my little knowledge and thousands of people around the world would laugh at me, but as a general potential customer I will not be attracted by such a statement. Speaking about imaging and marketing, there is no doubt that collaboration of Nokia and Microsoft could make people aware about their future product and concentrating on the severe advantages could give a good output. Thus, Nokia will get back to the market and strengthen its positions. However, I do not believe that it would overcome the popularity of Apple or Android, which are at the top nowadays. Especially taking into account the fact, that Apple is going to announce a new device in a near future.

I think that collaboration with Microsoft was a clever step in terms of saving the brand and development of the products. It is even possible that the result will enable them to come closer to the currents “market kings”. But still, I don`t see a great opportunity in investing money in this enterprise, the outcome would average. However, you may not listen to me, it is always up to you, how to spend your money.

Finally back in Mikkeli

It was quite exciting hollidays, full of activities, but it`s time to come back to study!

Holiday post)

I am finally I Russia! Yeah! Holidays! So, before I left my hose to go out and rock I would like to briefly tell about services that offers some well-known organizations.

First of all, Amazon tries to use people as advertisements. If you have blog or web site of a certain topic you may post link to a product or a banner of category, so that people will go through it right to the certain product on Amazon. For example,  in your blog you are tell the story of you trip to China, post photos and mention that they were made by new camera that your daughter/son gifted you. In addition to this post you add a link from Amazon or a banner to this camera. If someone who went to Amazon through your link will purchase any product-you will get a certain present of the revenue. Of course you have to be a signed member of Amazon community.  This is a good way of promotion product for Amazon as long as people post these links, paying nothing and possible could earn something. Easy money is attractive. From my point of view, this service is suitable almost for any company; no matter they sell service of products. If bloggers are actively involved in a process it is possible to increase the awareness of people significantly. The main thing is to attract active and talented people, so that these advertisements were naturally implemented in a blog or web site.

The second service is offered by Yahoo and gives an opportunity to create your own web store. All you need is to have an account on Yahoo. If it is so, you may start to construct shop in a flash designer right away. For your help there is a help o expert if needed and even a possibility of optimization of content. The company gives opportunity for start ups and requires only monthly fees; what is more, first 3 of them are with discount! What I didn’t like is that you can create only one shop under one account. So, if the first try will be abortive I will have to create a new account. Not good.

The last, but not the least is service provided by Apple! These guys offer an opportunity to download apps you developed for Mac. As I think they managed to create a good environment for active and loyal people who are developing apps by themselves for their own interest. Of course, Apple gives a lab, construction tools and resources if needed for development group. All you need is to pay 99$/year and do your hobby, share ideas with other developers and enjoy the idea that one day your app will be on iTunes. Of course, they will get 75% of purchase price after every download, but if you want your apps to cost something-pay first. Great use of outside individuals! This service is targeted on people with certain skills and knowledge, but I think nowadays it is not a problem to find one. From the company`s point of view, the service attracts talented developers who work with their own inspiration and enjoyment-thus the outcome of work and product is higher. It is good for software companies with great amount of loyal and interested customers with certain abilities.

I guess that about all, now, I am sorry to say but I have to go.

Fap Shop

There is another Sunday and another task here. As you could see, all of them are posted at the end of the week and it does not mean that I am too lazy to on it on time, no! The thing is that there must be at least some system at my posts, don’t you think?

So, today I would like to please you with an interesting research.  I am going to create a google adword to promote a web shop. It called Fap Shop and it offers anything you want in a range of Asian cosmetic. This shop was created by a Russian girl, who are half Japanese and live in Japan.  The main idea is that Japan an South Korea produce high qualified cosmetics that does not cost really much and just can`t be found in Russian shops. So, this girl decided to fill the niche. To support her web store she has twitter, blog and accounts in several social networks. Well, lets help her a little bit?

First of all, we are targeted on Russian market and as it is cosmetics then our target customers are women of all ages. In addition to this, store sells some stuff related to Asian culture (costumes, and accessories) so a big number of customers are likely to be teenagers.

The ad text will be like this: FAP SHOP

                                                   PROFESSIONAL ASIAN COSMETICS

                                                   REAL BB CREAM

                                                   www.fap2.ru

Now it is time to make our mind about the key words.  One of the most needed products that are presented on the site is BB cream (don’t ask me what is it, my gf told that it is a great thing). Analysing the key words we can say that the level of competition is really low, even though there are about 12000 requests every month.  Thanks to this information we can state money\click at a rate of 0.35€ and still be the leaders. Taking it into account I would state the budget at around 60€\moth.

•             Number of clicks (clicks),

•             Impressions (impressions),

•             Clickthrough rate (CTR),

•             The average cost per click or per thousand impressions

•             Average position

•             Conversion rate

•             Cost-per-conversion ratio

Web Publisher can itself generate reports with statistics of interest to him from the campaign level to the level of the site. You can also use the service Google Analytics, which analyzes the pages visited by readers on the website publisher.

Therefore, Google AdWords offers all the necessary tools and forms data to monitor and change the course of an advertising campaign to achieve its maximum efficiency.

So, evaluating all this data it is possible to see the progress of our adword, change it when it is needed( due to the changes in environment) and make it better.

Evaluation

To begin with, there is a new assignment for eBusiness where we had to test a bank web site that is under construction. In other words there was absolutely nothing except WORDS! For me as a person that perceive a world from visual point of view it was awful. But I fearlessly finished all the tasks and now writing to you. What I would like to point out is that the navigation system is considerably simple. The first task did not create any difficulties, while purchasing the stock made me a little bit confused. I don`t consider myself retarded or something, but I could not make my mind, firstly about the searching of the certain stocks and then price limit of purchase. But still, after a few trials and errorseverythimg was done.

Apart from it I don’t have anything to mention.  For guys from development team-well done! I they will managed to create a good looking  visualized site)

Internet shops

Unfortunately all parts of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings took too much of my time and I forgot to tell you, my dear followers about eCommerce.

Our University gave us an interesting task to describe two examples of successful and unsuccessful web shop.  From our personal point of view, of course.  So, not to be too long, obviously, one of the best examples of a good internet shops will be eBay. BUT! I would like to compare two web stores from a little bit another fields. I am happy to present you a software web store that offers an internet shop builder- Fortune 3.  What I like the most is that it is simple and easy to navigate. There is a big menu that makes search easier; has fast connection to different parts of the site (buying, special offers and etc.) right from the main page. The text is easy to read and pleasant for the eyes. There are no videos or commercial, but it makes it even better to perceive.  Very convenient, as I think.

On the other hand, there is a web store of software called Antares.  The first thing that comes to my mind is why it looks so small? It does not cover whole screen and the text almost unreadable. It is simple and have understandable navigation, I agree, but sometimes it is a bad thing. The site looks really pale. From my point of view, it would be nice to work a little bit on the appearance and especially colors and text format.  Page should be pleasant to see and read.  If web store sells software it does not mean that it should be ascetic. Speaking about Fortune 3 I would suggest implementing a searching engine to make the navigation even easier.

File sharing networks

Long time not seen my dear blog, sorry for almost forgetting about you. My life was quite generous for activities and I had no time to share with you. But don`t be upset! There is a new course appeared, called eBussines and I need you help again!

My dear friends tell me honestly, have you ever downloaded music via internet without paying?  I bet you do. Nowadays there are hundreds of file sharing networks such as Piratebay or one of the most well-known, but already closed, Napster. They enable to download music, videos, games and software for free using P2P (Peer to Peer) concept. It gives internet users a possibility to share files and computer resources without having to go through a certain web server. The question is how they manage to get money if all the actions are free? There are several ideas about this:

• ·         First of all, it is possible to do with the help of contextual advertising and getting interest for every transition.
• ·         Secondly, there is nothing difficult to track from which region people download music. This can provide information about music preferences and can be sold to companies which are interested in statistics.
• ·          What is more, it is possible even to say which browser was used and what the OS on the computer is.

The problem that occurs is that recording companies are suing file sharing networks for illegal distribution of music. They argue that it affects executives` rights of musicians and decreases their profits. In case of copyright issues they are doing a right thing, but for me, as a general user, who is not belong neither musicians of record companies it does not matter. I enjoy downloading favorite music and videos and do not care about the difficulties it cases to corporations. That is why I strongly concerned that file sharing network will not disappear, even though there is a threat of SOPA on the horizon.