Crowd-Source Video by You

Crowd sourcing is where a platform gathers from a crowd or crowds of people, enabled virtually most of the time.  The product is the result of the crowd.

Kickstarter is one example.  Crowds of people have the ability to "support" a project that can then go to production and release an actual product.

Streaming video is being crowd-sourced in a suddenly pervasive way without the knowledge or explicit permission of those capturing the video.

If you install a "Ring" door camera and system you may be providing your video stream to local law enforcement without being aware of it.

Read more here:

https://xconomy.com/seattle/2019/08/28/ring-confirms-report-revealing-firm-works-with-400-police-agencies/

Should this alarm you?

I don't care for anything I pay for being used without my permission.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Disney is the New Netflix

Serious competition has finally arrived for Netflix.

Disney

That is ...

Marvel

Star Wars

Disney Animation

all of that jazz all combined in one big offering.  Disney TV has tons of original content and it is all coming up for streaming.

Here is a story that describes the service:

https://www.cnet.com/news/disney-plus-streaming-service-preorders-release-dates-prices-shows-and-movies-to-expect-d23-discount/

Think this won't be big?

Disney offered a big discount to sign up early, if you sign for 3 years at the start.  Their service crashed upon open because demand was too big.

:-)

Here is a story on the impact to Netflix:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenmcbride1/2019/07/08/netflixs-worst-nightmare-has-come-true/#6393a921396d

Happy ... streaming.  Let the streaming wars begin!

J.W. Gant

BRotD - Entry 0262 Digital Dashboards

Best Reading of the Day

Data driven is the way.

Right?

Yes.  Of course.

How we do it is very important though.  Data can tell you anything you want if you try.

Take a look at this read:

https://econsultancy.com/what-are-digital-dashboards-challenges-best-practice/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

There are two factors that have driven the recent meteoric rise of digital dashboards.

Firstly, the concept of data democratisation; wherein all data is available to everyone within an organisation. In a data democracy, there are no gatekeepers, and everyone has the tools to understand and act on what the data is telling them. This idea and its potential benefits are now well established. And the technology to power it is evolving fast – complex machine analysis and processing of big data is giving users the power to draw insights automatically, in ways that were never possible before.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

B2B Startup Growth Strategy

Great read over on TechCrunch.

The startup world has been very heavy with B2C or Business to the Customer companies such as UBER.  The B2B world is heating up as I've written about.

Similarities are easy to find but are there differences?

This article addresses the question of growth.  Well worth the read:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/16/how-should-b2b-startups-think-about-growth-not-like-b2c/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

The best growth strategy for your company ultimately depends on whether you’re in an incubation, iteration, or scale stage. One of the most common mistakes we see is a company acting like they’re in the scale phase when they’re actually in the iteration phase. As a result, many of them end up developing inefficient growth strategies that lead to exorbitant monthly ad spends, extraneous acquisition channels, hiring (and later firing) ineffective team members, and de-emphasizing critical customer feedback. There is often an intense pressure to grow, but believing your own hype before it’s real can kill early-stage ventures.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Can Only Top-Tier Retailers Compete?

Figuring out the space for retailers that are not a part of the "super tier" as I have dubbed them, those retailers very good at physical retail and ecommerce and mobile and the digital experience, has been a question I've been interested in for some time.

The bankruptcy announcement by Barneys in New York is interesting to me for this analysis speaking to the competitors Barneys was dealing with:

Scale allows these competitors to invest significantly in long term growth initiatives around customer-facing elements like websites and store remodels, and infrastructure like robust supply chains.

Barneys was at about $800 Million while those competitors were at the Billions level.

I think there is a lot of space for B2B companies providing these services the Barneys of the world cannot afford on their own.

Read the whole story here:

https://www.retaildive.com/news/how-barneys-new-york-lost-its-cool/560356/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant