nz.yahoo.com (why call it yahooxtra when that’s the site url) is now up, and substantially better than the msn offering. Meanwhile msn.co.nz fails to deliver the main news photo in Safari, and much of the content does not work. Firefox shows a much better site for msn.co.nz. Round 3 to Yahoo! but wait – the …
Category Archives: Business
msn.co.nz – round 2
so the seek search links don’t work, the weather search (for wellington) doesn’t work, the advertising link isn’t a link…. well – maybe I’ll just let msn.co.nz keep working on things and have another look tomorrow. Meanwhile it’s is pretty pathetic. so round 2 to yahooXtra – they at least have not launched something that …
msn vs yahooxtra: round 1
well msn.co.nz is up, but it is a pale imitation of ninemsn. A lot of work to do there people, including some senior hiring it seems. But as at 00:10 there is still no YahooXtra.co.nz….. so – round one to Microsoft/PBL
msn.co.nz launch – the players…
Telecom has ditched Microsoft for Yahoo. What do Microsoft do? Launch msn.co.nz of course. (and note, YES, there was no redundant ‘www’ in the press release) Without even seeing the site Telecom should be afraid – very afraid. As should Fairfax and APN. Microsoft are linking up with PBL – that’s Packer Broadcasting Limited, who …
Technology versus law: incandescent lights ok after all
Seems that GE will manage to develop incandescent lights that are as efficient as fluorescent ones. Perhaps lawmakers, as Slashdot points out, should stick to mandating efficiency levels rather than technologies.
Ferrit as a price comparison engine – not good
Adam points out the Ferrit serves a purpose as a price comparison site, and Peter Wogan chimes in and agrees in the comments. Unfortunately Hitwise numbers (which I am the first to admit are not the most reliable) show that Ferrit is ‘far behind’ price comparison leaders Pricespy and Smilecity. Those sites are both, as …
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Ban incandescent bulbs – not a no brainer..
No Right Turn suggests we follow Australia’s lead and ban incandescent bulbs. While I think this is a clear case of Government intervention helping consumers reduce total cost of ownership it is not a total ‘no brainer’. While the short term increase in spend will eventually be matched by reduced electricity bills, this will be …
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Ferrit – $36m flushed….
I missed the money quote… “Mr Brayham says Telecom expects to spend about $12 million on Ferrit in the next financial year, matching its contribution for the past two years.” That’s $24m dropped on a site that delivered $12,500 in revenue in the busiest shopping month of the year. Alternatively that $24m dropped on 2,700 …
Ferrit – It’s worse than I thought
Some interesting Ferrit stats from this article (thanks Q). Firstly only 1.2% of the visitors in December bought anything, secondly Ferrit makes “between 4% and 8%” of each sale. (Let’s be nice and say an average of 6%). Thirdly the average order size was “more than $100”. Let’s call it $110. So in December 2,700 …
Online retail: Ferrit sinks
Let’s see how the online retail market is going…. After a dip over Christmas/New Year Trade Me is back on track, while all of the other players are still not making any impression…. Ferrit’s pre-Christmas promotion gave a leap in traffic (this page impressions chart has two scales), but January and February to date are …
Food miles
New blog Celsias makes a point about food grown locally being more beneficial to the environment as it reduces ‘food miles’. A catchy phrase, but one that avoids much of inputs into the energy or carbon balance of providing food, as he alludes to. To be fair to farmers in NZ, for example, the total …
The Vibe of Vista and Apple…
Interesting wandering around the electronic shops in London today – several had Vista promotions going on, with laptops loaded with a demo. I ran it and while the graphics were slick it was really un-interactive, and had a annoying voice-over. Suffice to say there was not a lot of excitement generated by the Vista launch …
Private Equity in NZ
NZHerald has a piece on private equity (PE). Several things stand out. Firstly there are apparently no NZ based PE funds looking for investors at the moment, secondly you can apparently get into PE with $10-20k and thirdly PE will get you returns of 20-30% per year. There may well be funds being raised – …
Wishbone
Great little success story from Wishbone. $10m turnover, 100 employees, 13 stores, great supermarket distribution and, most importantly, a great product. (Terrible, out of date, single page website though) Their business model is interesting – they manufacture yummy ready to cook food, and sell it through 3 channels – supermarkets, takeaway stores (either ready to …
More leaks than a…
So much for confidentiality – Most if not all of the Yellow Pages bidders have been identified by three(!) insiders. At least 9 companies are bidding, apparently, and KKR, CCMP Capital Asia, Pacific Equity Partners, Carlyle, Bain Capital, Providence Equity Partners, CVC Capital and TPG are eight Private Equity firms interested along with Sensis – …
Lance Wiggs 