Sharon van Rijn

No ratings yet.

Next month, Netflix will launch a pilot for a new streaming plan. For about $7 per month, users can use the basic version of Netflix but with advertisements. This is about $3 cheaper than the cheapest ad-free version of Netflix. This new version provides access to approximately 90-95% of the streaming platform’s content and shows per hour 4-5 minutes of advertisements. To me it sounds like the Netflix hell, voluntarily adding advertisements to you Netflix account but investors apparently see a future in it. Since the announcement of this pilot, Netflix’s share price is up with 5.4% where it decreased 62% in the six months before the announcement. Not only investors but apparently also competitors of Netflix consider it a promising plan. Disney+, HBO Max and several other companies have created similar plans.

The question is, why do I, as a Netflix user, perceive this as a very bad plan while they still see it as promising? Customers’ needs and preferences differ and that is exactly why this strategy can work. Customers can be divided into various customer segments. This segmentation can be done in several ways: companies can assign customers to a particular segment or customers can assign themselves to a segment. The latter technique is the one that Netflix is exploiting with this plan. Netflix uses ‘versioning’ as a pricing strategy. With this strategy, a company offers different versions of the same product or services for different prices. In this case, the versions consist of either a cheap Netflix account with ads or a more expensive account without ads. Customers self-select themselves to the ad or ad-free version based on their willingness to pay.

So, promising days are coming for Netflix where they hopefully expand their customer base with lower willingness to pay customers. And me? As part of the opposite customer segment, I will happily keep paying $3 a month more to avoid those ads.

https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/netflix-ad-supported-plan-to-launch-in-november-at-dollar-7-a-month-8207620/

No ratings yet.

A soil scientist prefers to stand in the mud and a data scientist prefers to sit behind a computer, both sound very different but Claudia Kamphuis got these parties around the same table. In a project for Wageningen University, she and Thomas Been are trying to solve the nitrogen crisis in a digital world. Since agriculture is a major contributor to nitrogen emissions (Hofstede, 2022), they want to focus on this initially. They are planning to do this by developing a digital twin of a farm. But for we continue, what exactly is a digital twin?

According to Kimberly Borden and Anna Herlt (partners in McKinsey’s Operations Practice), a digital twin is a digital representation of a physical object. This object can concern a product, but also an entire office building. What is important is that data from the physical environment of the corresponding product provides real time data to the digital twin. Let me give you an example of a well-known application to make it a little less abstract: Google maps is the earth’s digital twin. Data sources on the earth continuously link real time data (like traffic jams, accidents, weather conditions etc.) to its digital Google maps twin to optimize your traffic route (Borden & Herlt, 2022).

In addition to optimizing your route, an application we are all very grateful for by the way, this technique can thus also be used at the environmental level. By representing a farm in a digital form and continuously combining this with real time data, various scenarios can be examined digitally. This is exactly what Kamphuis and her team are trying to do. For example, by placing sensors in barns that measure nitrogen emission in real time, it is possible to find out, without conducting physical tests, where and with which farming and land management techniques the most results can be achieved (Mailer, 2022; Wageningen University & Research, n.d.; Kloppenburg, Kok & van der Voort, 2021).

We are still at an early stage for developing digital twins for agriculture, but it is a promising technique and when it is fully developed, it can also be used for other organics as water and even diseases (Wageningen University & Research, n.d.).

References

Borden, K., & Herlt, A. (2022, October 10). Digital twins: What could they do for your business? McKinsey & Company. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/digital-twins-what-could-they-do-for-your-business

Digital Future Farm. (n.d.). Wageningen University & Research. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.wur.nl/formsession-expired-27.htm

Hofstede, S. (2022, October 5). Lijst met 100 grootste ammoniak-uitstoters telt 90 veebedrijven. De Volkskrant. Retrieved October 12, 2022, from https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/lijst-met-100-grootste-ammoniak-uitstoters-telt-90-veebedrijven~bfe80b23/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Kloppenburg, S., Kok, E. J., & van der Voort, M. (2021, January 1). Digital twins in agri-food : Societal and ethical themes and questions for further research. NJAS: Impact in Agricultural and Life Sciences, 93(1), 98–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/27685241.2021.1989269

Mailer, S. (2022, October 10). Digital Twins – Simulating Agriculture for Climate-Positive Farming and Land Management. Lexology. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=25585a38-417d-41ab-b238-f9767099d6cb

Are we actually going to voluntarily look at ads?

16

Please rate this

Solving the nitrogen crisis in a digital cow barn

12

Please rate this