Prediction Market at Google

This week’s article is very interesting with a new level of forecasting and predicting practices in Google’s world. This predicting practice that uses collection of people to bet on future happenings created an amazing result of forecasting with larger crowd. Even though its applicability is widely different in different companies, the system used in Google may not able to be duplicated easily. However, I don’t understand why big trading companies are not interested in setting up such a system, so that they minimize their margin of errors in their trading activities.

Threadless case

This is another very interesting business idea. This company goes well beyond a conventional business organization. Threadless is a company that is able to take advantage of external but close community. This online organization created a power house of innovative T-shirt designers. The creators of the company were able to have employees (the external community) who work for them with no written employment agreement and salary. What an awesome idea!

The company is different in its unique culture of communal decision making. If it is not for an online organization, it is unthinkable to make half- a- million people vote for a potential product on a regular basis.

This unique business process is facing a challenge. Although the company is tapping into unexpected opportunity, it has put the management in a big dilemma. As exciting it is, growing for this company might jeopardize its very identity. The management has to answer many questions before jumping into commitment. Are volume and deadlines compatible to the current culture of Threadless? What would be the reaction of the community? Will the new level of demand be catered with out disrupting the current production procedures?
I think the management has to see every possible ways to keep the current success of the company intact. If the danger outweighs the benefits, it is worth declining the offer

Facebook

Facebook has demonstrated its strength by correcting all the shortcomings of former social networks. Its creators made decisions that kept the network evolve by coninusely catering the need of its customers. Many other social networks,such as Linkdln, tried to target a certain niche markets. However, Facebook stood out by gradually minimizing the gridlock of restrictive approach which helped the site to grow faster and bigger.

Facebook’s approach to host other applications propelled the popularity of the site by creating a win-win situation for both Facebook and the application program providers. I believe that Facebook’s ability to create a huge online community has made it the most powerful online platform.

Wikipedia

The birth of Wikipedia created a big pool of free articles in the Internet community. These articles with a vast array of information touch every little part of our life. It is really amazing how this media grew this big with no investors’ exorbitant cost. This collaborative media is a real Cyber community with a representation of every walk of life. Even though its weakness in terms of authenticity is highly criticized, I believe its benefit out weighs the harm. Some errors, which would eventually be cleaned up by the community anyways, are less concerning than getting an access to an ocean of knowledge.

Bzzagent

This is a very interesting case that tells us how creativity takes business to an absolutely unique dimension. Bzzagent is using word- of -mouth to promote products by just letting people like you and I participate in reviewing products. In return you and I get free stuffs such as gums and cookies and companies like Bzzagent pocket millions of dollars. That is really neat.

Apart from its uniqueness, It is interesting to see how the creator of this marketing idea is gravitated to another strong marketing tool -“blogging”. I am not quite sure if “blogging” will reinforce the business process that the company is following currently. Regardless, the management is taking an effort to make blogging an integral part its marketing effort. This shows that despite Bzzagent’s strong marketing stand, the management does not want to take a chance of being left out in the “blogging” arena. Just to be at a safer side it is good to be part of groundswell in good time.

Brightcove

From this week’s case, I was able to know who the major player is in the online TV and video ad industry. Undeniably, Brightcove is leading the market with better consumer and user experience. However, the company has missed a big opportunity of creating “YouTube” way early before the current “ YouTube” was launched. Although, Brightcove is leading the market in the online TV idustry, competitors such as Joost could take a significant market share using a cost effective business model that minimizes bandwidth costs for companies.

The competition is getting strong, especially with Google acquisition of YouTube. Brightcoves has a challenging future yet with enough funding that could be used to execute its future strategy. I believe that the company needs to evaluate every angle possible to maximize its competitive advantage. Hence placing multiple bets would be the best option

Google Inc

Google is one of the most successful internet based companies in the world. Within few years, it was able to takeover a big portion of the market share of search engine industry. Although, Google’s strategy is to benefit from the wide spectrum of market opportunity, it seems that the company is stretching itself a little too much to keep its dominance. Despite all challenges of expansions, it is amazing to see how this company controlled the market with its neat product that is not limited by international boundaries. Quite interestingly, this company is able to create a global family under a single umbrella. My native language “Amharic” is one of the 110 languages that Google has included in its service