Will Snapchat Spectacles succeed or fail like Google Glass?

1

October

2016

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Snapchat has rebranded itselfs recently as Snap Inc, presenting itself as a camera company. The company renamed itself to reflect its expansion into consumer hardware. Spectacles will be the first product from Snap Inc an will cost $130. Spectacles are Sunglasses with a camera. Spectacles let you tap the glasses rim to instantly record 10 seconds of video, with a maximum of 30 seconds by tapping three times. The video is captured with an 115-degree wide view lens in a format that can be watched full-screen on a phone in any orientation.
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The video made by the Spectacle is automatically stored  and can be wirelessly sent to to a phone over Wifi or Bluetooth so the user can edit and share via Snapchat later
Snap Inc is not the first company to offer such a product. Google offered such a product by releasing Google Glass, but their product faced a lot of criticism over privacy concerns, and people who weared these glasses were viewed by many as nerdy and annoying people. Google Glass users are branded as“glassholes.”
Google Glass failed to take off for many reasons. First off all the price. Google Glass debute price was $1500 dollar which was unafordable for most of the Google fans. Secondly the Google Glass looked very nerdy and most of the young people did not  liked the design and lastly the privacy issues, most people did not liked the fact that someone with a google glass could record them without knowing.
Google-Glass-geek
So what is the difference between Google Glass and Spectacles and will Spectacles succed?
Functions
Where Google failed, and where Snap may succeed, is in how the public perceives the product. Google Glass was an attempt at putting the experience of a smartphone inside a pair of glasses. Spectacles are designed for one thing, and one thing only.Filming short, throwaway clips from one’s own view-point By deliberately limiting what Spectacles can do, Snap Inc has streamlined the product and kept the price tag low. Spectacles retail at $129.99, less than a pair of designer sunglasses and much less than a pair of $1500 Google Glasses. This price is affordable for most comsumers.
Design
Another difference is the design. Spectacles look cooler and less nerdy than Google Glass. The spectacles are available in black, teal and coral, and are basically looking like sunglasses you can buy at popular sunglasses webshops  Cheapasszonnebrillen and Ikhebeenbril
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Charger
Snap Inc has come up with a very creative idea and design to charge the Spectacle. The Snap Spectacles charger is like a case of sunglasses, it keep-safes the sunglasses so they don’t break and it also charges the spectacle. The battery should last a day and you can get up to four full recharges from the portable charging case.
 Charger
Privacy
Snap spectacles have a unique feature which indicates that it is recording a video.
The glasses have a light on the front alerting people you’re recording. This feuture was indicated due to the privacy criticism Google getted.
Conclusion
I think the Spectacle will be a success since it is affordable and it looks nice.  Most of Snapchat users are young people (13-16 years old) who are willing to buy these kinds of products
http://www.wsj.com/articles/snapchat-releases-first-hardware-product-spectacles-1474682719
http://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2016/09/24/snaps-spectacles-may-succeed-where-google-failed/#1aacd6528dd8
https://www.cnet.com/news/snapchat-spectacles-glasses-camera-snap-inc-evan-spiegel/
http://www.businessinsider.com/snap-is-doing-something-i-havent-seen-since-the-1970s-2016-9
http://www.techtumor.com/2016/09/27/why-snap-spectacles-will-succeed-over-google-glass/

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Technology of the week: Platform mediated networks WeChat Vs Alipay

30

September

2016

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Platform mediated Networks are taking over conventional business models. In our blog and video, we want to compare one the biggest platforms in china; WeChat and Alipay. Alipay and WeChat are global lifestyle super apps offering an extensive online ecology and creating positive cross-side network effects.

Alipay is a third party online payment platform with no transaction fees. And was founded in 2004 by Alibaba group; currently the biggest online retailer in China. And the app has 400 milion of active users
Due to the low confidence towards existent payment companies in China by their customers, Alibaba group has started its own payment service in order to give their customers a trusted way of making online payments. Alipay keeps the custody of the money during a transaction in order to guarantee that the product is delivered before releasing the money to the supplier. They ensure user’s payments are always protected and user information is never passed on to any other parties for commercial use.

WeChat is a cross platform instant messaging service. That has been founded in 2011, and recently has started offering WeChat payment and has about 800 milion of active users.
WeChat works in the way that it makes a connection with the bank account of the user in order to make the payments. Integrating this feature into the app makes payment faster for users and offers a lot of other services like shopping, hotel reservation, taxi and financial services.

Instead of using cash money or expensive credit cards, users of WeChat and Alipay can now pay with their smartphone. The selection of the product or service that is required and the payment now work on the same device. Users can also transfer money to other members and share or split bills among them using QR codes. Alipay and WeChat can be used to pay utility bills, top up mobile phone credits, buy train tickets or check the balance of a connected bank account

Both platforms are open platforms meaning that they give away some of the platform value to third parties who develop apps and other services that run on the platforms of Alipay and WeChat.
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Alipay doesn’t sell data from consumers to third parties, Limiting on all kinds of technology and missing revenue.
WeChat on the other hand has the information privacy dilemma, so users may make a consideration whether the platform is worth enough to sacrifice their privacy.

The market is suited for multiple companies because of a high network value, low multi homing costs (it’s no problem of having both apps, and cancellation and starting is easy) and a high demand for new features makes this market a multi homing market.

Although more platforms can co-excist in the market but because of the better integration of features into the WeChat app, and the potential of selling customer data. Our prediction is that WeChat will have a better chance of becoming the most successful global platform for all kinds of services.
Team 55

When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China

9 Ways WeChat Can Improve Your Day

www.ru.nl/publish/pages/769526/z01_rongbing_liu.pdf

http://www.marketingfacts.nl/berichten/wechat-meer-dan-alleen-een-mobile-messenger

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21703428-chinas-wechat-shows-way-social-medias-future-wechats-world

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38uLiIQmgIk&feature=youtu.be

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WeChat: imagine doing everything with just one single app

24

September

2016

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Just imagine doing everything with one single app. Waking up and reading the news from your favourite newspaper, checking out social moments, grab a breakfast and pay by scanning the vendors QR code, order a taxi, chat with friends, order Nikes or a new laptop, making a reservation for dinner and splitting the bill by using just one single app. WeChat makes it possible to do all of the above and even more!

While such an app sounds very futuristic, WeChat has become already one of the most popular social communication app around the world with more than 800 million active users within and outside China. WeChat was launched just 5 years ago by Chinese investment company Tencent, fourth largest internet company in the world (after Google, Amazon, Ebay and Facebook).

WeChat’s pioneering model is an apps-within-an-app model. Millions of so called lightweight apps live inside WeChat, it’s much like the same as webpages on the internet. Google Chrome is the app and webpages are the lightweight apps. Here’s an example for ordering a taxi using WeChat. People can order a taxi via the wallet menu and can easily pay by scanning QR codes. WeChat is simply linking users from the wallet menu to webpages from within the app. In case of the taxi, Dididache (a Chinese ride-sharing service) is providing the actual service. This service is actually quite popular with over 22 millions booked taxis in 2015.

So why has WeChat become so popular over the last 5 years? First of all, I think that WeChat’s payment system is the cornerstone of its business model and its success. The payment process is flawless. It takes only 30 seconds to order and pay goods. While normal payment could rack up to several minutes through the time you spent on searching online, opening a mobile web browser entering your information to paypal or ideal all the time while opening several tabs. WeChat makes life much more convenient . Secondly the mobile commerce market grew rapidly over the past years. In 2015 mobile commerce was already 50% of total e-commerce market, with projections of mobile commerce payments of 71.5% of all e-commerce. Combining the flawless payment system en China’s growing mobile commerce market WeChat became one of the biggest platforms of the world.

WeChat already exists in most countries (also the Netherlands) but not all the functions like the wallet and ordering a taxi are in app. But WeChat recently stated that it will expand their market to western nations.

So do you think WeChat will become a success in the Netherlands?

When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China

‘In China you have to use it’: How WeChat is powering a mobile commerce boom

 

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