Why 'commoditization' and 'productisation' of social video is nigh impossible

And why Vine and Instagram Video are on course for epic obscurity...

On our recent vacation trip, upon seeing me take photographs of whimsical proportions (click click click...), APS confronted me as to why don't I shoot videos from our Canon 550D.  It was a good proposal, since these days most cameras will record 1080p video at 30fps.  Throw in optical image stabilization chops, and you've got a potential winner, ain't it?

If photography is painstaking calligraphy, video is the gay abandon of broad-brushing a canvas.

Here's a product manager's perspective of why treating video as a commodity is tough when compared to still photography.      

FLY IN THE OINTMENT #UNO - PICS ARE ABOUT CAPTURING THE MOMENT, VIDS ARE ABOUT CREATING ONE (OR MANY):
This alone is perhaps the most critical aspect of my larger argument.  With photographs, owing to their inherent nature of static objects (nothing moves, unless you're seeing a GIF), embellishing it with a handful of design filters and layers is easy.  Just look at Instagram's mushrooming photo service (thereby distinguishing it from it's recently-announced video service - more on this later).  All of a sudden, that guy you know who couldn't click for his life now suddenly has an enthralling collection of photographs (selfies, please excuse) on his Instagram feed.  These days, nothing is cooler than Instagram-ming your food, pets and flowers.  Guess what, video isn't so forgiving.  There is a ton of post-production processing that goes into typical video feeds that you see on YouTube, even the simplest of'em.  That's the stuff of pros and takes a long time and lots of complex software tools.  'nuff said.     

The earth hasn't become more beautiful, neither have the earthlings become more artistic - though Instagram would like to make you believe otherwise. 

FLY IN THE OINTMENT #DOS - BIG DATA (NOT THAT ONE, I MEANT LITERALLY BIG DATA):
Arguably, most camera sensors on our point-and-shoots and DSLRs are only getting better at capturing image quality and detail.  Goes without saying that video shot from these devices is data-heavy and poses 2 basic constraints - firstly of storage size for such immense data files, and secondly of data bandwidth to upload and share.  Samsung is trying to tackle these constraints through it's Galaxy range of high-end point-and-shoot camera, but that's for a different day.                

FLY IN THE OINTMENT #TRES - USER-GENERATED SOCIAL VIDEO SHARING THROUGH THE MOBILE IS TAKING OFF:
Yes, but as explained in point #uno, post-production on mobile is kind of tough right now. Neither do we have such high computational power onboard these power-sipping processors, nor do we have the adequate software to manage this.  Sure, Apple, Samsung and most notably, Nokia, are taking giant steps in this direction.  But I'd say we're still ages away from the day when all post-processing would happen natively. 

Ok, so the million $$ question - what happens to Vine and Instagram Video???

This is where the productisation dilemma strikes.  How do you create a strong and sustainable usage case out of something which is so difficult to produce and easy to botch up?  How do you ensure it doesn't turn into a gigantic mass of badly-shot video clips with poor audio and dull lighting conditions?  And how do you monetize this?  Google's YouTube division is yet to answer this question. Will advertisers come?  Will users stay and proliferate? 

As innovative as the idea of shooting a few seconds of video of your dog running in circles chasing it's tail might sound, Vine wasn't the first vendor to come up with this concept. 12 Seconds and many others during their time came up with the idea of community-based video sharing and had to shut shop eventually due to some of the challenges I highlighted above.  At this point, I am struggling to form my faith in Vine's business model and am very clear that Instagram's intent behind launching Instagram Video was purely defensive rather than trying to gain / grow market-share from Vine.  Why - because nobody has a clue as to how to create something that isn't crap from social video sharing on mobile.  

You may ask yourself what Vine was 18 months down the line - and you shall be excused.  

In the meanwhile, I shall continue to click, click, click...

P.S.: Grammatically-speaking, 'productisation' as a word doesn't exist, but then I never assumed responsibility for your grammar, did I?

Image credit: http://rack.1.mshcdn.com/media/ZgkyMDEzLzA2LzI3LzIzL3ZpbmVpbnN0YWdyLmVmNWQ2LmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTk1MHg1MzQjCmUJanBn/9282fd37/7af/vine-instagram-video.jpg         

Techquilla Sho(r)ts: BlackBerry's totally awesome sense of humour

BlackBerry doesn't have a killer app these days, but man do they have a killer ad agency or what!!!

BlackBerry - RIM for those who haven't been paying attention - reported it's Q4'13 results last week.  Surprise surprise... NOT - they bled another 3 million users on a sequential quarter basis - i.e. 3 million previous BlackBerry users moved to other competing platforms in the past 3 months.  That's roughly 33k users / day!!!  

Given the doom-and-gloom surrounding the Waterloo-based handset maker, one can't help but wonder at the amazing sense of humor it's ad agency possesses.  Imagine the best tag line you could come up for your new flagship product in these tough times...

The BB Z10 - built to keep you moving.   

Oh dear, 3 million BB users have moved already.  Users In Motion???  

Image source: www.rottencards.com   

Techquilla Sho(r)ts: Good artists copy, great artists steal

When one looks at the above image, it's not too difficult to understand why Apple prefers to go after it's competitors on device ID infringement.   

Willful trade dress or just a design coincidence?  The jury is out - no pun intended.    

About Facebook's monetization and our flirtations with privacy

If you're in the field of mobile advertising, mobile payments and social networks, some of the recent developments might be of interest.  I'd like to articulate a couple of these developments which may have significant industry ramifications.

MANNA DEW FOR MOBILE ADVERTISERS?
Last week, Facebook unveiled the Facebook Card.  There's quite a bunch to read (scroll right to the bottom of the post for details), but let me save you some time and get to the heart of the development.  Simply put, Facebook Card is a gateway which will allow Facebook to 'farm' the enormous amount of user data that's sitting in it's servers.  Google does it through serving customized ads by tracking user activities, Amazon does it by cross-selling you it's wares based on things you've purchased from them in the past / pages viewed.  

You don't make a billion friends without farming them for some dough

All these years, and especially since it's IPO last year, industry pundits have been wondering how effectively will Zuck and team monetize the tremendous groundswell that has been generated.  For many, if not all, today's Facebook represents the entirety of the internet - photos, videos, messaging, email and most recently, voice calling (currently available only in the US).  But let's face it, 'likes' and 'shares' don't pay salaries, money does.  Facebook's primary source of revenue has been the banner ads.  But here's the problem - more Facebook users connect from their mobile phones these days than the desktop site.  Advertising through the cramped mobile UI is tough and ineffective, not to mention the universal problem of ROMI (return on marketing investment) - how do I ensure my marketing $ spending amounts to something.  

This is where the Facebook Card comes handy.  In principle, Facebook has tied up with a handful of retailers cum advertisers to start with - Sephora, Target, Jamba Juice and Olive Garden (US only at present).  With time, it's not very difficult to expect the retailer list to expand (I'll come back to this in a bit).  Facebook will be able to push relevant offers to you based on what you've liked and shared (hello Social Graph).  Fan pages liked by millions of users are kicking in invaluable marketing data about user preferences which Facebook hopes to cash through it's Facebook Card.  How difficult is it to imagine a Pizza Hut fan 'liking' it's page on Facebook and lo behold, Facebook pushes out a $30 gift card to the user.  You can count on Facebook to thrown in some deal-sweeteners to ensure product differentiation from other gift cards.  And when the card-holder uses it at the store-front - voila, there's an instant linkage between the marketing / promotion and sales.
      
TALKING ABOUT PRODUCT DIFFERENTIATION...
Gift cards aren't anything new.  According to First Data, the gift card industry in the US alone was worth US$43 billion in the 2012 holiday season.  That said, there is some serious differentiation which could work for Facebook - brand connect.  My mom may not understand the business models of Amazon, Google or Apple, but she connects with the Facebook brand much easily.  

I believe this point is self-evident and hence I'd like to draw your attention to something even more intriguing.  There's something about Facebook which not only creates but also sustains user engagement.  

Of all companies I can remember, Facebook must have the best user engagement quotient - most companies would kill to have something like that.  

How many times does it happen that you observe a profound / weird / bizarre / funny incident during the day and have a sudden impulse to post it on Facebook?  What explains this phenomenon - why do we continue to broadcast what would've been mostly considered private conversations less than a decade ago, on to the Wall at the slightest opportunity and intent?

A recent study at Carnegie Mellon University suggests that internet users tend to deal with privacy more loosely in a social networking context (think Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) than in a setting with much higher privacy protection.  We shun modern day browsers to track personalized search histories so that those results can be used to optimize future searches.  On the other hand, we don't mind sharing almost fanatically-detailed developments of our personal life on Facebook.  

SO, WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE FACEBOOK'S MONETIZATION POTENTIAL
There's little doubt that Facebook Card represents a huge opportunity for Zuck to convince his shareholders that Facebook's future holds more than being merely a glorified photo gallery.  I'm convinced that mobile is definitely going to be a big strategic cornerstone of Facebook's chances to survive.  Facebook Card's business model is geared up to embrace mobile wallet in the future - a future which may be closer than we think it is.  Mobile wallets have struggled to take off commercially so far, but that could change soon.  

The thing with cutting-edge technology is that it requires a random industry player to make it work and then everything suddenly makes sense - look no further than the iPod.  

In the banking industry, there's already a talk about this model expanding into the realms of P2P transfers and micro finance.  You'd expect Facebook to figure this all out.  As long as we continue to flirt with our privacy, Facebook's future is secured.  Having said that, the strategy comes with certain pitfalls.  Facebook has met with severe public and industry pressure each time it tinkers with it's business model.  Why, because it's built entirely on monetizing our private conversations.  Till Menlo Park's hoody-clad prodigy figures this out, the jury will have to wait outside.

P.S. Your mileage may vary with the Facebook Card's announcement page link above, so here's the full link: http://newsroom.fb.com/News/569/Introducing-the-Facebook-Card-a-New-Type-of-Gift-Card

Image courtesy: 
http://www.netedgemarketing.com/Images/facebookimage.jpg
http://blog.shareaholic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/megaphone-guy.jpg