The Week in Geek – It’s a Girl! edition – June 26, 2009
If you will permit me some fatherly indulgence, my lovely daughter Lily, our third child, joined us on June 23rd. Mama, baby, and the rest of our family are all doing well. And in the tradition of siblings Ian (now 9) and Maya (now 3), we offer Lily’s goofy, tech-centric birth announcement. How amazing she was able to Facebook from the womb (be sure to scroll – updates at each of 5 stages)!
The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Advantage
The 11th draft chapter in my forthcoming book is now online. This chapter covers the managerial value of the data asset. Also introduces how data is organized, how it’s created, how it’s stored, and how it’s used. Mini-cases highlight data leverage healthcare and private sector use, while longer cases, rich in current information, are provided: Wal-Mart (for product retail) and Harrah’s (for service industry data leverage, and where a BC alum is CMO). For those interested, the response. Here is a download map of the first 24 hrs. after the first draft of The Google Case was posted online. We’re very much worldwide! Thanks SO much to all who have written. Your support & feedback are much appreciated.
Data Center Overload
Like fight club, the first rule of data centers is: don’t talk about data centers. Well, it seems some folks have – to Tom Vanderbilt of the New York Times. Follow him past biometric hand scans and through the sensor-laden multidoor man trap to get inside Microsoft’s Tukwila, WA data center. These centers are big! Microsoft’s Quincy, WA facility could hold 6.75 trillion photos. Among the interesting facts: “the electricity on a low-end server will now exceed the server cost itself in less than four years”. Microsoft’s Gen 4 data center in Dublin will be built entirely of containers – no walls or roof – using the outside air for much of the cooling. Interesting info for those teaching with the Cloud Computing section of the Software in Flux chapter. Great slideshow to the left of this link!
Zappos Way of Managing
Inc. recently ran a cover story of the rabidly customer-focused Internet shoe selling giant. The firm booked $1billion in sales in ’08, up 20% from ’07, and has been profitable since ’06. And it’s moved beyond just selling its own stuff. In ’06 Zappos launched an outsourcing program to handle sales, custom service, and shipping for other companies (even more direct competition with Amazon). The last December the firm launched an educational website for small businesses that charges $39.95 a month to tap into Zappos execs for advice.
The firm’s shipping center is impressive, with 70 brand new robots allow the firm to ship a pair of shoes in as little as 8 minutes. Says the firm’s CEO (and relentless ‘Twitterer’ Tony Hsieh (pronounce Shay and tweeting @zappos), the firm’s entire business revolves around happiness. Zappos is regularly voted one of best firms to work for, even though it often pays employees below market rates. Trainees famously offered $2,000 to quit after two weeks of training. Managers are required to spend 10-20% of their time goofing off with the people they manage. The customer-focused Zappos prominently displays its toll-free customer support number, offers personal buying service, throws in free socks – anything to put a skeptical customer at ease and generate the best form of advertising – positive word of mouth.
Zappo’s isn’t Hieh’s first success. When he was 24, he sold LinkExchange to Microsoft for $265 million. His Venture Frogs firm also helped start Ask.com and OpenTable (which went IPO earlier this year).
CraigsList Revenue Said to Top $100 Million
That’s a 23 percent jump from the firm’s 2008 take and up hugely from the firm’s $9 million revenue just five years ago. The firm is still mostly free and not at all interested in going public, but with the majority of content free (it charges for some corporate job listings and some real estate ads), CraigsList has been killing conventional newspapers. Newspaper classified ad revenue dropped 29 percent last year.
Digg’s Amazing Business Model Explained
Video clip of Digg CEO Jay Adelson on Digg’s model. Among the info revealed: “We are getting 10-20 times the price for an ad that a social network will get”. “1.5 billion impressions of those Digg buttons across the Web every month and they are growing by 100 million to 200 million a month.” Digg sends 80 million visits a month to major newspaper websites and is helping them to understand how to leverage social technologies to better monetize these users. Jay also talks about funding and having cash. Highland Capital (where two partners BC alums) led the firm’s Fall ’08 round, and Jay kindly spent time with my undergrads last spring.
Dude – Dell’s Making Money Off Twitter!
Dell claims that it’s netted $2 million in outlet store sales referred via @DellOutlet (>600,000 followers), and another $1 million from customers who have bounced from the outlet to the new products site.
How Twitter, Cell Phones, Facebook Make History
In a week when Twitter and Facebook have been a major tool to organize and disseminate information from Iran, it might be interesting to check out Clay Shirky’s TED video from earlier this year.
Microsoft Sues Over Click Fraud
Using techniques described in our Google chapter, Microsoft uncovers click fraud and takes the perps to court. I do have strong reservations over the article’s claim that 1 in 7 clicks are fraudulent, though. Google’s provided academic papers disputing this (referred to at the end of my chapter). Surprising major media hasn’t challenged some of the high rates they’re hearing from fraud auditing firms.
Sales of iPhone 3G S surpass the 1 million mark in 3 days
Headline says it all. So did the press release – made by Steve Jobs, who is back on the job!