What the future holds for DVD rental stores
Posted on September 23rd, 2010 by Richard Catto 2,864 views
There’s a story today on BBC news that Blockbuster video, a major US video rental franchise, has filed for bankruptcy. This does not surprise me at all, because the writing has been on the wall for a long time now concerning the viability of DVD rental outlets.
The current business model for these stores has been under threat ever since the world got the Internet. The CD, DVD and Bluray disk formats have no future. It is more efficient and cheaper to distribute content online via digital download. The mass market that currently supports these formats and makes them viable now will evaporate over the next 10 years. As more and more people access content via online distribution channels, the need for physical DVD rental stores and physical media to distribute content will vanish.
I have a DVD rewriteable drive in my PC which I bought 3 years ago. I don’t plan to purchase a bluray drive because I don’t need to. I am already able to access bluray disks. Instead of purchasing a physical bluray disk, I can download an iso image of one and mount it using virtual drive software. So right now, today, I don’t need to purchase either a bluray drive nor bluray disks, but I can still access the content stored in this format. I’ve just avoided the obsolence trap of physical hardware in respect of disk formats.
So if you were thinking of opening a video rental store, don’t. It has no future. You will lose your shirt. Don’t even open an online video rental store, because the middleman is no longer needed. The function of a video rental store was to bring the physical disks close enough to you to make it convenient for you to arrive in person at the store to rent a copy. The Internet blows that away. Now movie studios in California can rent direct to anyone anywhere in the world without needing any intermediaries.
Filed under Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Call phones from gmail
Posted on August 26th, 2010 by Richard Catto 2,953 views
So today, I got all excited because gmail introduced this new facility where you can call phones from within gmail using their chat facility. I installed the necessary plugin and fired it up. Google generously credited me with a whole 10 US cents of airtime. I called my South African cell phone number, and it rang! So now all I needed to do was buy some airtime and I could start calling, and that’s where it all fucked out.
When I clicked the link to add airtime, google informed me that my country was not yet supported. So, there’s this wonderful VoIP facility right there in my gmail but I can’t do shit with it until google decides to get off its fat ass and take my money.
Check out the google blog entry.
Tags: Google
Filed under Google | 6 Comments »
Open letter to iBurst asking for a standard monthly subscription fee
Posted on March 2nd, 2010 by Richard Catto 3,474 views
I object to your wirelesss pricing structure as published here.
Specifically I object to your varying monthly subscription fee which starts at R35 pm for a wireless Start 80MB package and increases to R369 per month for a Wireless 15 15GB package.
If you compare this with ADSL pricing, Telkom charges a varying line fee based solely on one criteria: speed of connection. However, in your case, connection to your network is at the same speed regardless of data package chosen.
It therefore makes logical sense to charge the same monthly subscription fee irrespective of which data package is chosen.
I would appreciate you amending your wireless pricing structure at your earliest convenience to reflect the same monthly subscription fee across all your data package options, whatever you deem it to be.
A 15G account holder, such as myself, should not pay a higher subscription fee because I’m already paying more for the higher volume of data I transmit across your network. I should not be penalised twice.
Tags: iBurst
Filed under iBurst, Internet Access | 2 Comments »
Social Media online marketing cheat sheet
Posted on February 12th, 2010 by Richard Catto 3,742 views
As part of my job, I come across a lot of half baked online marketing initiatives.
Online marketing is not rocket science, but you just need to know what to do. Here is a quick cheat sheet off the top of my head.
1. Firstly, whatever you publish online MUST be published at some url (i.e. on a web page)
2. For best results publish ONE thing on ONE web page, rather than combine multiple things onto one page
3. Email what you have published to your mailing list (you do have a mailing list, don’t you?) with a link back to the web page where it was first published
4. Create a link to your page in bit.ly and use bit.ly to tweet a short announcement about your web page (bit.ly tracks clicks)
5. Link your twitter account to your Facebook wall (you do have a Facebook account, don’t you?)
6. Link your twitter account to your Google Buzz account (you do have gmail, don’t you?)
7. On your web page, if you want people to take some action, such as fill in an order form, use Google Analytics to track your goal, of submitting the form (you do use Google Analytics, don’t you?)
8. Then monitor how many clicks your campaign got, and with Google analytics, discover what your conversion rate is. If your campaign is not resulting in conversions, see if you can find out why.
9. Keep everything you publish as concise as possible – people don’t have a lot of time to waste reading your flowery prose.
If you’re doing all above, you’re on track, if not, get with the program already. If you need help implementing this stuff, call in a consultant to make it happen for you, and train your staff in the new ways.
Tags: bit.ly, facebook, mailing lists, Online Marketing, social media, twitter
Filed under Online Advertising, Online Marketing | 2 Comments »
25th anniversary of captive Nelson Mandela speech
Posted on February 10th, 2010 by Richard Catto 4,497 views
On February 10 1985, Nelson Mandela asked his daughter, Zindzi, to read this speech to the South African nation at Jabulani Stadium. At the time he was incarcerated in Pollsmoor Prison. President PW Botha had offered to release Mandela if and only if he renounced violent struggle. Mandela declined to agree to conditions. He demanded to be released without conditions. Five years and one day later, on February 11 1990, Nelson Mandela walked free out of Victor Verster Prison in Paarl and a new era in South African politics began.
What PW Botha refused to do, FW de Klerk did – he released Mandela, unbanned the ANC (and all other banned political parties) and began to dismantle the hated apparatus of Apartheid that had denied civil rights to 80% of South Africans.
Here is a look back into history, courtesy of Zinzi Mandela:
‘I am not prepared to sell the birthright of the people to be free’
On 31 January 1985 the State President of South Africa, PW Botha, speaking in parliament, offered Mandela his freedom on condition that he ‘unconditionally rejected violence as a political weapon’.
This was the sixth offer of release reported to have been made to Mandela. Previous offers were conditional on his going to live in the Transkei bantustan. He rejected them all on the grounds that he rejected the bantustans and all who collaborated in their establishment and maintenance.
Mandela’s response to the latest offer was read on his behalf by his daughter Zinzi to a mass meeting in Jabulani Stadium, Soweto, on 10 February, 1985.
This text was published by the ANC in London.
On Friday my mother and our attorney saw my father at Pollsmoor Prison to obtain his answer to Botha’s offer of conditional release. The prison authorities attempted to stop this statement being made but he would have none of this and made it clear that he would make the statement to you, the people.
Strangers like Bethell from England and Professor Dash from the United States have in recent weeks been authorised by Pretoria to see my father without restriction, yet Pretoria cannot allow you, the people, to hear what he has to say directly. He should be here himself to tell you what he thinks of this statement by Botha. He is not allowed to do so. My mother, who also heard his words, is also not allowed to speak to you today.
My father and his comrades at Pollsmoor Prison send their greetings to you, the freedom-loving people of this our tragic land, in the full confidence that you will carry on the struggle for freedom. He and his comrades at Pollsmoor Prison send their very warmest greetings to Bishop Desmond Tutu. Bishop Tutu has made it clear to the world that the Nobel Peace Prize belongs to you who are the people. We salute him.
My father and his comrades at Pollsmoor Prison are grateful to the United Democratic Front who without hesitation made this venue available to them so that they could speak to you today. my father and his comrades wish to make this statement to you, the people, first. They are clear that they are accountable to you and to you alone. And that you should hear their views directly and not through others. My father speaks not only for himself and for his comrades at Pollsmoor Prison, but he hopes he also speaks for all those in jail for their opposition to apartheid, for all those who are banished, for all those who are in exile, for all those who suffer under apartheid, for all those who are opponents of apartheid and for all those who are oppressed and exploited.
Throughout our struggle there have been puppets who have claimed to speak for you. They have made this claim, both here and abroad. They are of no consequence. My father and his colleagues will not be like them. My father says:
I am a member of the African National Congress. I have always been a member of the African National Congress and I will remain a member of the African National Congress until the day I die. Oliver Tambo is much more than a brother to me. He is my greatest friend and comrade for nearly fifty years. If there is any one amongst you who cherishes my freedom, Oliver Tambo cherishes it more, and I know that he would give his life to see me free. There is no difference between his views and mine.
I am surprised at the conditions that the government wants to impose on me. I am not a violent man. My colleagues and I wrote in 1952 to Malan asking for a round table conference to find a solution to the problems of our country, but that was ignored. When Strijdom was in power, we made the same offer. Again it was ignored. When Verwoerd was in power we asked for a national convention for all the people in South Africa to decide on their future. This, too, was in vain.
It was only then, when all other forms of resistance were no longer open to us, that we turned to armed struggle. Let Botha show that he is different to Malan, Strijdom and Verwoerd. Let him renounce violence. Let him say that he will dismantle apartheid. Let him unban the people’s organisation, the African National Congress. Let him free all who have been imprisoned, banished or exiled for their opposition to apartheid. Let him guarantee free political activity so that people may decide who will govern them.
I cherish my own freedom dearly, but I care even more for your freedom. Too many have died since I went to prison. Too many have suffered for the love of freedom. I owe it to their widows, to their orphans, to their mothers and to their fathers who have grieved and wept for them. Not only I have suffered during these long, lonely, wasted years. I am not less life-loving than you are. But I cannot sell my birthright, nor am I prepared to sell the birthright of the people to be free. I am in prison as the representative of the people and of your organisation, the African National Congress, which was banned.
What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? What freedom am I being offered when I may be arrested on a pass offence? What freedom am I being offered to live my life as a family with my dear wife who remains in banishment in Brandfort? What freedom am I being offered when I must ask for permission to live in an urban area? What freedom am I being offered when I need a stamp in my pass to seek work? What freedom am I being offered when my very South African citizenship is not respected?
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Herman Toivo ja Toivo, when freed, never gave any undertaking, nor was he called upon to do so.
I cannot and will not give any undertaking at a time when I and you, the people, are not free.
Your freedom and mine cannot be separated. I will return.
Tags: FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, PW Botha, Zindzi Mandela
Filed under South African politics | 1 Comment »
