Air NZ lousy promotion

Great: AirNZ runs a giant charity Auction each year

Dumb: using Sellmefree as the vehicle.

Here, for example, is 2 month’s worth of Business Class travel for two people. It was added 3 days ago, and should be attracting a bunch of traffic.

The value of this to the right buyer is big. It costs about $8,500 to fly return to London. If you and someone else had to fly return to London twice in two months next year then the value is about $34,000. If you wanted to add some other flights, then it would be even more.

But the auction is flawed.

First – the text of the auction states that the travel is for 3 months, not two, and although there are three questions checking. with replies, that the original text still stands.

Secondly the auction is on SellmeFree. Last time I checked AirNZ was a publicly/Govt owned company, and so has no corporate reason to use SellmeFree.  Here’s why using sellmefree is stupid:

– The traffic to Sellmefree is tiny – this great auction has, after 3 days, just 1137 visitors, and that’s after Mauricio linked to it

– The banding and user interface is horrible  – the photos don’t scroll, the page is ugly and there is no co-branding of the AirNZ material. Look at the view – would you be happy as an AirNZ marketer?

sellmefree

– But most of all, nobody buys on Sellmefree. There is trivial active membership compared to that other site, and, well, people just don’t trust Sellmefree. There are just two bidders so far on this auction, and the price is shamefully low. Moreover there are only 4 questions to what should be an entertaining auction, and three of those are the same.

sellmefree

I cannot fathom that this comes from the same people that delivered Pimp my Plane and the Pink flight of Fabulosity. I can only make an educated guess that the folk who do the charity stuff are not at all connected to the very cool folk who do the domestic marketing stuff.

Time to get a cluestick and make that charity stuff work for you Air NZ.

How to launch a succesful blog

It’s simple.

First – Use the giant NYTimes as your blog vehicle, and be part of an existing blog

Second- Be a well known and followed writer – Pico Iyer

Third – Pick a topic we all love to hate – Airlines

and finally – start your blog by telling a bunch of Americans that we are in a Golden Age of Travel.

It helps if you are a diminutive Indian chap living in Japan, and so travel on international airlines almost exclusively, while your audience suffers the horror that is US domestic travel.

If you are considering traveling to the USA, or through the USA, or even on a USA flag carrier, just go ahead and read the comments on that blog entry. When you have finished examining those hells, go ahead and change your flights.

Oh – and don’t even think about upgrading out of it on a US flag carrier, instead  switch to single class Jet Blue or Southwest.

The vote is in: Housing prices are overvalued

I know internet polls are unscientific, but it seems that Stuff poll voters are pretty clear on housing prices these days:

stuff pioll

I agree. Just check your rent versus buy numbers. Over here in Perth I’m paying rent of a third of the mortgage payments required to buy this place. I should know – it is on the market.

I’ve said it before – if you have investment property in any market in the world – sell now.

eBay re-enters Japan

As with New Zealand, eBay failed to make an impact in Japan, and exited the market after Yahoo! established the dominant auction site. (eBay still talks about NZ as an eBay market though, which is pretty amusing)

Now eBay and Yahoo! have announced that they are linking forces to give Yahoo! Japan auction members access to eBay worldwide auctions and vice versa. Translation is part of the two services.

This is an interesting development, as there are plenty of hot electronic and media items available in Japan and only in Japan, and it opens the world up to Japanese buyers. I’d imagine that many of the bigger Japanese traders would already have dual accounts, but the sheer scale of sellers on both sides will now be unleashed.

The devil will be in the details of how the sites work – seamless integration is the key here.

Fairfax Digital – new head

MEDIA RELEASE

6 December 2007

FAIRFAX MEDIA APPOINTS NEW DIGITAL HEAD

Fairfax Media has appointed Stephen Smith to the position of Group Head of Digital.

Prior to accepting the Fairfax Media position, Stephen headed Vodafone’s media and entertainment operations.

Stephen will be responsible for Fairfax Media’s Online division, which includes stuff.co.nz, rugbyheaven.co.nz, and the online sites of the company’s newspapers and magazines.

He will also liaise closely with Trade Me and Fairfax Digital in Australia.

Mr Smith is a high profile media executive, and was for eight months Acting Chief Executive of Television New Zealand. He spent 16 years with TVNZ in a variety of positions including Assistant Chief Executive and Head of Programmes, Head of Online Operations and General Manager of TV2.

He will report to Fairfax Media’s Chief Executive Joan Withers.

Ms Withers said Fairfax Media’s Online division had enjoyed rapid growth and development over the last two years, and was already the most significant in the country.

“Stephen has a wealth of experience and expertise in online operations, and senior leadership roles and brings to Fairfax the skills to make our business even more successful,” she said.

“He will play a significant role as our newspaper, magazine and online platforms provide even greater integrated news, information and entertainment services to New Zealand audiences, and provide cost effective ways for advertisers to reach those audiences.”  He will also be a key participant in the senior management team.

Mr Smith said “I am looking forward to joining a great company with a proud record of innovation and an appetite for embracing the future of the digital media.”

Is Road Safety a value for our Police Force?

Dave Moore writes on the motorcycle vs Police Car crash in the  Buller gorge. A police car did a three point trn on a narrow incredibly curvy road to case a motorcycle, and 2 more crashed into him.

There is a systematic safety culture failure that really scares me here.

First – what made the Police Officer think he had a hope in hell of safely pursuing the first bike? It’s extremely hard to speed over the speed limit on that road, and the sorts of bikes these chaps were riding can safely use all of their lane to straighten corners like a car cannot. A Commodore has no show, and even the Subaru Legacy’s that Police used to use would have no show. A pursuit would be incredibly dangerous and involve cutting corners, and in a car that frankly is marginal even in big straight West Australian roads.

stuff

Secondly – the three point turn. There is just no way that was remotely safe, and the Police driver is lucky that a decent sized SUV without motorcycle quality brakes wasn’t the next vehicle to come around the corner.

Thirdly – the attitude after the bikes hit of  “they were speeding”. That’s clearly not taking personal responsibility for lowering the road toll.

The first and foremost duty of everyone on the road it to ensure safety – that of ourselves and that of other drivers.

A Police Officer has an even higher standard. They are held to account for helping everyone increase the safety on the roads – which means reducing hazards on the road and helping us reduce our own idiotic behavior that leads to hazardous situations.

This Police Officer clearly put ticketing before safety. This much we can glean from the above three points.

Through his actions he created a life threatening situation – he was not thinking Safety First. He was not believing or living Safety First.

Note – this all applies even if the motorcyclists were speeding, or even more so as he has a duty of care to help them slow down safely.

So – where was the duty of care? Where was the safety first value?

This is more than just a single Police Officer, but a sign of a system that is placing tickets before safety, at least in one geographical area.

I, for one, want an enquiry as to how this situation could ever occur, and how we can ensure that Road Safety is a value not an afterthought for our Police Officers.

The mobile web is irrelevant

Deserving of a separate post I think – those mobile browser stats show one important thing:

Nobody cares about the web on mobile phones.

The top 3 mobile browsers added up to a paltry 0.16% of web traffic, which for most Websites is approximately nothing. Of course if you are Google it’s a lot of pages, and they do have a mobile version.

Interestingly, if you look at the full stats, the iPhone has over four times the share of browsers than Windows 95.

But it all means that the whole mobile web thing is essentially irrelevant right now, though the growth is strong in the US/Europe.

However, we should recall that the iPhone and other newer phones have full web browsers, so there is no need to make pda versions of those web pages going forward.

Why the iPhone matters: Mobile internet that works

It’s simple – just look at the stats.

After just 5 months on the US market, the iPhone browser is showing a 0.09% browser traffic share.  (and that’s with 2.5G not 2G)

Compare that with Windows Mobile devices – rating 0.06% of the market, with about 14 times the number of handsets out there.

Why?

Simple. or more to the point Simplicity.

The iPhone is easy to use –  you turn it on and go.

The iPhone includes free data, so you don’t have to worry about usage.

The iPhone has a larger screen, and a great browser, so browsing is actually useful.

Other phones (and my Nokia E90 is included) are hard to figure out, both for individuals and for telcos.

For example, my E90 is still, after months here, unable to connect to the Vodafone network in Australia. The problem is on the VF end, and any number of trips to the very helpful local store have made no difference.

More importantly, pre-pay phones in Oz and in NZ are not web-data connected, denying the web to over half of the market. And that half of the market is probably the most web-savvy.

Meanwhile, data charges for traditional telcos and phones are not just sky-high, they have the ability to go super-stratospheric.  Start traveling and browsing overseas, and wait for the extra two or three zeros on the bill when you get home.

Online ads over $60bn by 2010

ZenithOptimedia has just made the prediction that global online ad spend will be 11.5% of all media spend in 2010.

That’s the average – they reckon online will acccount for over 20% of media spend for Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK, which is already at 15%. However they also predict that most of the global growth will come from the developing world – apparently Kazakhstan is the place to be for percentage growth.

All in all it will mean, apparently, that online spend will overtake radio next year and magazines in 2010.

Goodbye payphones…

At least in chunks of the USA. AT&T is getting rid of them by the end of next year.

The USA had 2.6m payphones in 1998 and about 1m now.

Apparently, the story goes, AT&T (or someone else) commissioned McKinsey years ago to determine the demand for mobile phones.

The answer that came back was that the demand for mobile phones would be tiny, as folk were almost always within a few metres (ok – probably feet) or minutes of a pay phone.

I guess that study’s methodology could actually work these days – and even come up with the right answer.

Why Slashdot still rocks – Earth as a billard ball

Digg, Reddit, kiwi wannabe Scoop and other news-commentary sites may come and go, but the forefather of them all is Slashdot. Here’s a post that may go somewhere to explaining why Slashdot appeals so much to the nerd community.

Bear in mind these are small differences: if you could make a perfect scale model of the sea-level surface the size of a billiard ball, it would be rounder and smoother than the ball.


Mind if be pedantic? Not quite true. The difference between pole and equatorial radii at sea level is 22 km. Add in the height of Mt Chimborazu and the depth of the ocean near the South Pole, and we find that Earth deviates from a sphere by about 33 km, and so it’s spherical to within +/- 0.26%.

The Billiard Congress of America [pool-table-rules.com] requires billiard balls to be 2.25″ in diameter, to an accuracy of +/- 0.005″, or +/- .022%.

So, the Earth doesn’t quite pass muster as a billiard ball.

Wanted: A CTO for our well-funded start-up

My cousin here in Perth is launching his mobile application start-up in earnest, with solid VC funding all but finalised from a group that has a successful track record of delivering mobile start-ups to market.

The mobile application itself complete, and it is currently being tweaked offshore for the hundreds of phones out there. Now we need to arrange the logistics of distribution (think UI, databases and interfaces) and extend the product – and we need someone to make that happen.

This includes getting a basic eCommerce website up and running, ensuring distribution through our partners is seamless, working with the programmers to improve the mobile application itself and launching related mobile and web applications.

You don’t necessarily have to have the experience in, say, the mobile space, but you should have demonstrated ability to pick up and run with this rapidly growing company. We’ll pay well enough and you’ll get pretty decent options.

We’d prefer you to be Perth based, but we will consider anything reasonable for now. It’s a lovely warm place to be for a few months – but we may relocate the company closer to market or to Silicon Valley when things get too hot.

I’m a shareholder in the company, and will likely be a director as well. I believe this is going to be an excellent ride over the next two or more years.

Here’s the shorter version of the Seek ad. You can apply through there to my cousin Richard, or through the contact me above. We’d also love to hear from you if you know somebody who would be great for this.

An opportunity exists for a dynamic individual to join a funded start-up in the mobile and web technology space. Reporting to the CEO, you will be an integral part of the strategic team charting the future if the company. You will recommend appropriate web and mobile technologies, and be responsible for design and development of various Internet and mobile systems and applications.

1) Assist in Identifying Areas of Opportunities for Growth
2) Assist with Prioritising Features and Channels
3) Prepare scope of work / work-plans for prioritised initiatives
4) Engage vendors / employees to perform work
5) Manage development of company products and distribution mechanisms
6) Product Maintenance and Continuous Improvement
7) Reporting

Kiwi botnet creator – criminal mastermind or bit player?

The WSJ – famed conservative organ – says the following about the Kiwi lad Owen Walker interviewed for his alleged internet deeds:

The arrests make good headlines, but will have little real impact.

Over the last several years, cyber crime has become organized. Arresting the guy who writes the code or who sent the emails that bilked businesses is the equivalent of arresting the Mob foot soldier. He’s replaceable and removing him won’t make a dent in the overall organization.

I have to agree.

I also have to really wonder at the inflation level of the ‘damage’ caused by the bot attacks. I seriously doubt the US$19m being bandied about. Can someone point to the missing cash?

And then there is the blame game. Is it the teenager’s fault, or were the candies left outside the shop?

You could blame the bot-net host computers for not having adequate security, you could blame the ISP’s that allowed the bot-net to prolifferate when they had the information to shut it down, and you can blame a large software vendor for the holes created in their OS software that allows script-kiddies to  penetrate it.

I’ll let the WSJ have the last word:

In fact, the people who write the software and build these botnets are so commonplace that the price to rent a botnet network has dropped to about 5 cents per computer per week. There are so many of these botnets available on market that hackers now have to distinguish themselves through customer service, according to tech-security company McAfee.

once again The Onion speaks the truth

Entire blogosphere stunned

NEW YORK—In what is being called a seminal moment in Internet history, a rare weekend post by 25-year-old blogger Ben Tiedemann on his website bentiedemanntellsall.blogspot.com rocked the 50 million-member blogosphere this Saturday. The landmark post, which updated nearly every member of the global online community on the shelf Tiedemann was building, was linked to by several thousand sites, including Daily Kos, Digg, and The New York Times.  

US housing crisis – more evidence

The October US new house sales statistics were revised after official release from 735k to 727k, and the September ones from 770k to 716k. Those are big differences, and signs that all is not well in housing land.

So via the WSJ blog, a few tasty tidbits about the stats:

It isn’t just the bottom end:

The median price reported for October is 8.6% lower than the September median and 13% below the year ago level. This is especially remarkable, since the collapse of the subprime segment of the housing market should skew the median price upward. (Subprime buyers are disproportionately at the low end of the market. If they can’t buy homes, then the median home sold should be a more highly priced house.)

–Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Some think the bottom is close…

..the revisions seem to have been unusually large for the past few months… The pace of new home sales is now close to where it was in the late-1990’s – before mortgage credit standards were lowered and before speculators jumped in with both feet. Thus, we are probably getting close to a bottom in sales. However, prices may need to come down a bit further in order to achieve the type of affordability levels that would be consistent with a sustainable equilibrium. –Morgan Stanley Research

but meanwhile cancellations are high and rising.

These revisions reflect sales cancellations that builders now acknowledge have been unusually high — and growing.

David Resler, Nomura Securities