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Late yesterday astute investor Warren Buffett’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway, bought $5 billion in Goldman Sachs stock – a move that many will no doubt see as reckless or foolish. One of the things that has made Buffett the world’s richest human being is that he zags when the rest of the market zigs. The scared are running for safety. The savvy are looking for gains.
Smart companies that zag when other companies zig can reap similar benefits. Many firms would say, “There is a downturn; we need to cut our marketing budget.” Yet business pundits have suggested for decades that increasing your marketing and advertising during a recession –when everyone else is hunkering down – is one of the fastest ways to increase market share.
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Since the great Web Standards revival, we web developers have sworn off presentational mark-up. Strict HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1 have exorcised presentational tags, such as <font> and <center>, completely out of the spec. Now, we bold with <strong> and italicize with <em>. There doesn’t seem to be a need for <b> or <i> anymore. So why are they still part of the spec?
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If there was ever any doubt that Google could breath life into the new mobile platform Android, today’s announcement should put the debate to rest. T-Mobile held a press conference this morning in NYC to officially announce the release of the world’s first handset powered by the Android platform. The simply named G1 will be in T-Mobile stores around the world on October 22nd selling for only $179. The two data plans mentioned at today’s event appear equally affordable at $25 for unlimited data and limited messaging or $35 for unlimited data and messaging. Factoring in the required voice plan put this phone at a similar price to the iPhone and other smartphone options.
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How would you like to buy music online and make money for doing so? Popcuts, an innovative new online music store, offers such a deal. Recently launched, the Popcuts music site allows customers to pay 99 cents for DRM-free (digital rights management) music. Once customers purchase songs, they subsequently get paid every time someone else buys the same song. Right now the company pays customers in store credit, but hopes in the near future to actually pay cash.
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The power of social networking – and why astute businesses need to learn to embrace it – is all in the math.
What governs the power of old media (broadcast or one-way communication) is Sarnoff’s Law. There is a proportional relationship. If a broadcast network doubles its viewers, it doubles its value.
What governs social networks is Metcalfe’s Law and Reed’s Law. These are exponential relationships. If a social network doubles its participants its value grows by the square of its increase.
Considering what companies and investors have been willing to pay for high-growth social networking start-ups, it appears Wall Street and Main Street believe in Metcalfe’s Law.
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