Black Mirror: The Devil’s Advocate of Future Technology.

7

October

2020

5/5 (4)

Every millennial has experienced the time-consuming and exhausting moments wherein you have to explain to your (grand)parents how to send a proper WhatsApp message, use google maps, or what to and not to post on social media. The technological innovation cycle has shortened at such a pace that even we as millennials struggle to cope with the newest developments. As de benefits of these developments are very clear, the fast innovating tech-industry might cause a blind spot for some of the dark sides on these developments. The Netflix series Black Mirror plays the devil’s advocate towards future technological developments, and some examples of episodes even show their power of prediction.

Dating apps are completely hot these days and should help us to find “the one”. Based on our preferences, algorithms can find people who might be the best fit. According to the people you like or not like, machine learning will become better in finding the perfect match for you. In Black Mirror’s S4E4, dating apps are taken to another level. When two individuals are matched, the system brings them together and gives their relationship a due date. After that due date, they both move on to the next relation up till the perfect match is found. In the meantime, the system analyses behavior and uses machine learning to better predict the perfect match. However, the dark side of the story is in the fact that whenever your relationship has a due date, people start to behave differently and the system decides whether you can stay together. Imagine yourself falling in love but a system is not sure about the match and forces you to leave. What does love even mean then?

Another perfect example of the dark side of technology is to be seen in S3E1. This episode illustrates a social media system wherein everyone can rate (scale 1 to 5) each other based on their interaction. Your average score decides the way of living. The idea is that high average ratings give you perks in your daily life. This would stimulate people to improve their life by working out, being kind, and reach their personal goals. However, this also works the other way around. If you interact with very low-rated people or act inappropriately to people, it will be hard to get access to places where high-rated people live together. This episode might seem a bit over the top and unrealistic, but guess what?: we are already living this life.

Take Instagram as an example. The number of likes, comments, and followers influences the lives of people on a daily basis. It is no coincidence that whenever there is a conversation about someone, people first ask to show them their Instagram profile. Social media has become a platform of justice and impressions, causing people to pretend to have a great lifestyle while all they do is editing photos and interact with people online.

Besides the part of self-awareness and judgment of social media, rating systems are already a fact of society. A couple of years ago, some places in China started to work with social credit systems. Starting with a certain amount of credits, people could gain or lose credits based on their behavior monitored by public cameras. Yes, the cameras have face recognition and record every step and move the inhabitants make. Losing credits could be a result of public scandals like polluting public areas, but could also derive from not visiting your family enough or hanging out with people who are having low credits themselves. Having a low amount of credits can exclude you from buying airplane tickets or usage of public transport. In the region of Xinjiang, this system has already led to increased surveillance and discrimination towards the geographical minority of Uighur people.

It is time for us to wake up and become aware that the fast-evolving tech industry does not only give us benefits, but also has some really dark sides. Is this a new field of expertise? Should we be educated on the dangers of technology? Who is responsible for writing ethical codes or laws? It is for humanity to decide whether we use technology as a tool or that we are falling short in our expectations.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/black-mirror-episode-dystopian-tv

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/episodes?season=4&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_pv https://theconversation.com/black-mirror-the-dark-side-of-technology-118298

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/arts/television/black-mirror-netflix-interactive.html

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/china-surveillance-xinjiang.html

https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rip/33/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444815604133

Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole

7

October

2020

5/5 (1)

Over the past few weeks, a lot has been said (including on this blog) about how social media has been impacting the offline world in a negative way. After watching “The Social Dilemma”, which launched on Netflix last September, we started to think about how these platforms are selling our attention as a commodity and leading to an increasingly polarized society, harming democracies around the world. Some people decided to take it one step further and deleted accounts, turned off notifications and stopped clicking on recommended content – just as suggested in the documentary by the whistleblowers who helped creating these platforms. I was one of those people – until I wasn’t anymore!

Interestingly enough, shortly after watching the documentary I started to receive tons of recommendation of content that addressed the same issues, especially on YouTube and Facebook. Isn’t it funny how the algorithm can work against itself? In the beginning, I was decided not to click on any of the suggested videos even though the content seemed quite interesting. Instead, I decided to do my own research on topics such as data privacy, surveillance capitalism or ethical concerns when designing technology. However, the more research I would do the more recommendations I would get – unexpected, uh?

So, one lazy Sunday afternoon I gave in to temptation and clicked on a video that was recommended to me by YouTube – it was a really interesting Ted Talk by techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci, which dug a little deeper into some of the question raised in “The Social Dilemma”. Needless to say, one hour later I had already watched 5 more Tedtalks – I admit it, I felt into the Youtube Rabbit Hole!

However, I cannot say that I regret my decision as I gained really interesting insights from these recommendations. After all, that’s how this recommendation system is supposed to work, right? In particular, I was a able to find some answers to a question that had been in my mind for a while: “But what can we do to stop the negative effects of social media while still valuing freedom of speech as a pillar of the internet?”

Even though a lot has been said about the threats arising from the widespread use of social media, I haven’t come across tangible solutions for this issue. Sure, we can turn notifications off, but that won’t tackle the problem at its core! But in two very enlightening Ted Talks by Claire Wardle (misinformation expert) and Yasmin Green (research director a unit of Alphabet focused on solving global security challenges through technology) I was able to find some clarity. According to them, there are three areas that we can act upon to create a better digital and physical world:

Tech Companies – first of all, if any advances are going to be made, we need technology platforms to be on board. As an eternal optimist, I do believe that tech leaders are aware of the challenges they face and are certainly trying to find solutions. As Yasmeen Green explains, Google already successfully developed what they called the “Redirect Method”, which targeted people who made searched related to joining terrorist groups. For example, when a Google search about extremist content was made the first result would be an add inviting them to watch a video about more moderate content. Furthermore, the targeting would not be made based on the user profile, but on the specific question that was asked. What if we could use the “Redirect Method” to stop the spread of conspiracies theories or misinformation about climate change? It would be great for society, although probably not so profitable for the tech giants ?

Governments – Although tech companies have their fair share of responsibilities, at the moment they are “grading their own homework” and regulating themselves, making it impossible for us to know if interventions are working. That’s where governments come in place. But a challenge this big doesn’t simply call on local or even national regulators. What we really need is global response to regulate the information ecosystem. Or, as Brad Smith (Microsoft’s President) puts it, we need a “Digital Geneva Convention” that holds tech platforms accountable and prevents coordinated social attacks on democracy.

We the People – While we would love to place our hopes on Governments to solve this situation for us, it is undeniable that most lawmakers are struggling to keep up with a rapidly changing digital world. From time to time, a US Senate Committee investigating tech companies will originate a few memes as we see that lawmakers have a difficult time understanding what they’re talking about – I will leave you my favorite down below! That’s why we need to take the matter into our own hands and a way to do it is, as Claire Wardle puts it “donate our social data to science”. Millions of datapoints on us are already collected by social media platforms anyway, but what if we could use them to develop a sort of centralized open repository of anonymized data, built on the basis of privacy and ethical concerns? This would create transparency and allow technologists, journalists, academics and society as a whole to better understand the implications of our digital lives.

Overall, I recognize that these solutions are not perfect or complete. But I do believe that they provide a starting point to “build technology as human as the problems we want to solve”.

Sources

Smith, B., 2017. The Need For A Digital Geneva Convention – Microsoft On The Issues. [online] Microsoft on the Issues. Available at: www.blogs.microsoft.com [Accessed 6 October 2020].

Shead, S., 2020. Netflix Documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ Prompts Social Media Users to Rethink Facebook, Instagram And Others. [online] CNBC. Available at: www.cnbc.com [Accessed 6 October 2020].

Green, Y., 2018. Transcript Of “How technology can fight extremism and online harassment”. [online] Ted.com. Available at: www.ted.com [Accessed 6 October 2020].

Wardle, C., 2019. Transcript Of “How you can help transform the internet into a place of trust” [online] Ted.com. Available at: www.ted.com [Accessed 6 October 2020].

Tufekci, Z., 2017. Transcript Of “We’re building a dystopia just to make people click in ads” [online] Ted.com. Available at: www.ted.com [Accessed 6 October 2020].

How the pandemic is transforming the global luxury sector

5

October

2020

No ratings yet.

Due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus many luxury retailers and wholesalers had to close doors during the lockdowns. The implications for the industry are brutal: In the best-case scenario global luxury sales will decline by 18%. However, the worst-case scenario ranges around 35% (Bain & Company, 2020). This implicates a loss of around $50 billion to $100 billion for the industry, which has been growing around 3% (CAGR) annually (PRnewswire, 2020). In a market where only around 10% of sales are made online, the impact of the pandemic was particularly dire. The dependency on wholesalers and physical shopping experiences are only some of the challenges that the industry faces now. The reluctance and inability of the large chinese customer-base to travel is particularly problematic, as they make up 35% of global demand and half of chinese customers make their purchases abroad. While these tough environmental conditions certainly imply bankruptcy for many beloved luxury brands, they also embrace creative flexibility (McKinsey & Company, 2020). As many luxury retailers were forced to close physical doors, many opened new virtual sales channels. The following will highlight some of the most promising and creative digital sales strategies luxury companies have adopted amid the pandemic.

The main goal of many new digital strategies was to reproduce the luxury sector’s most important feature: personal and emotional experiences. Many brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci launched livestream selling experiences, where goods are presented and customers have the opportunity to interact directly with a salesperson. Furthermore, many companies focused on serving the top 1% customers, sending free samples to their most valuable customers and arranging personal video chat meetings to showcase the products (Lazazzera, 2020). Recreating personal experiences and delivering valuable content online will definitely be a key criteria in defining which brands will sustain the new challenges (McKinsey & Company, 2020).

The global watch industry has been hit especially hard from the pandemic’s impact. As only 5% of sales happen online, many luxury watch brands became creative. For instance, Omega and Zenith launched new social media campaigns to stay in touch with their communities. The fondation de la Haut Horlogerie, which is an organiser of watch fairs, built a new digital platform to host online watch fairs. According to them, it was a huge success with more than 44,00 visitors on the first four days. While the digital pattern of these new strategies is striking, many also engaged philanthropic pursues, such as giving away watches for front-line workers and volunteers in the pandemic (Lazazzera, 2020).

How do you think brands will overcome customer’s hesitancy to buy luxury goods amid the pandemic?

Sources:

Bain & Company, 2020, Global personal luxury goods market set to contract between 20 – 35 percent in 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.bain.com/about/media-center/press-releases/2020/spring-luxury-report/

Milena Lazazzera, 2020, How virtual stores became a reality in the world of luxury Financial Times. Retrieved from: https://www.ft.com/content/ca6bb85f-9af7-4df7-a606-828ceeea5a97

Alicia Esposito, 2020, How Luxury Brands Are Responding To COVID Tension With Innovation. Retrieved from: https://retailtouchpoints.com/topics/retail-innovation/how-luxury-brands-are-responding-to-covid-tension-with-innovation

McKinsey & Company 2020, The State of Fashion 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-state-of-fashion-2020-navigating-uncertainty

The spread of fake news

5

October

2020

5/5 (1)

Social media networks allow us to be constantly connected with each other, share information with our followers and receive the latest news as it happens (Vinnakota, 2017). We have never been more connected than today. However, social media does not only connect, but also divide us. Google is not just a search machine and Facebook is not such a platform to see what other people are doing. Social media networks are designed to create addiction and manipulate our behaviour (Kennedy, 2020). The social media platforms are competing for consumer attention (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020). Their business model is to keep people engaged on the screen. The platforms are free for users, but the user’s attention is the product with is sold to advertising firms (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020).

One of the main issues of social media platforms is fake information. A study has shown that fake news on Twitter spread six times faster than real news (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018). “False news travels further, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in every category of information” (Stokel-Walker, 2018). The concept of fake news is not a new phenomenon, but it has become a large problem in recent years due to the ease of spreading information via social media platforms (Alington et al., 2020). Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen how fast fake news are spreading and how many people believe in conspiracy theories. Therefore, it is important to be aware of false information and critically assess the authors and sources of the information (West, 2017).

This blog post is inspired by the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ by Jeff Orlowski. I highly recommend all of you to watch this documentary. It is very relevant not only to our studies but also for our daily life with social media. It made me realize how manipulative social media can be and how easily we can get addicted to it. After I watched this documentary, I deleted Instagram (however, it only lasted 3 days). Feel free to comment below and tell me what you think about the topic and how you felt after watching ‘The Social Dilemma’. My main takeaway from the series is that former tech leaders, who invented social media platforms, do not even allow their children use social media.

References:

Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (2020). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological medicine, 1-7.

Orlowski, J. & Rhodes, L. (2020). The Social Dilemma. United States: Netflix.

Kennedy, M. (2020). Review: Put down that phone, urges doc ‘The Social Dilemma’. ABC News. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/review-put-phone-urges-doc-social-dilemma-72875929.

Stokel-Walker, C. (2018). Fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter. New Scientist. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163226-fake-news-travels-six-times-faster-than-the-truth-on-twitter/#ixzz6Ztmr0kwg.

Vinnakota, R. (2017). How Social Media Divides Us. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/social-media-divides-us/.

Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.

West, D. (2017). How to combat fake news and disinformation. Brookings. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/.

Is Instagram the new beauty standard?

28

September

2019

5/5 (3)

Do you also catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram whenever you have got some time to spare? Believe me, you are not alone. But have you ever wondered how all these images of other people’s bodies may affect how you view your own body? No matter whether these pictures are your friend’s holiday picture, influencers’ gym selfie, or a celebrity’s beach photoshoot. You may think by yourself: “I wish I looked like her”.

Nowadays, the usage of social media is gradually growing and has already infiltrated into our daily lives. Instagram creates the illusion of perfection which is perceived by many as the beauty standards. In contrary to these beauty standards, our normal non-perfect lives seem somehow abnormal. As a result, some people may resort to drastic measures, or even eating disorders as their dissatisfaction with their body grows to try to achieve these unattainable goals as “beauty standards” (Dakanalis et al. 2014).

As we are scrolling through Instagram or posting pictures of ourselves, negative thoughts about our own body may arise (Holland & Tiggermann, 2016). A harsh comment by someone may result in dissatisfaction with our own body as many of us tend to interpret our social standing through comments or social comparison (Toma et al. 2008). A nice example is a video I encountered a few years ago by Cassey Ho, a social media fitness entrepreneur. Please watch the video below.

This video reflected how the comments by others on social media may affect how we feel about our own body. It made me start wondering how much of what we see are real on Instagram. Nowadays, there are numerous apps for altering your face and body as well as beauty filters to cover your imperfections (Fallon, 2014). Many of the pictures we see online are altered to enhance their features before it goes online. Even if I do not want to admit it, I will often find myself comparing to these influencers as well. I believe many followers of these Insta-celebrities do as well and what these followers think, actually becomes the new beauty standard.

This is just how trends work; they are going in and out like a fast fashion. Back in the day, flat chest and slim waist were in and now curvy body, thick lips and big booty are in. What is next? What do you think about the current beauty standard that is defined by altered pictures as the result of the current technology? Are you able to catch up with the current trend or will you rather alter yourself just to fit in? Let me know in the comments below!

Sources:

Dakanalis, A., Clerici, M., Caslini, M., Favagrossa, L., Prunas, A., Volpato, C., & Zanetti, M. A. (2014). Internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty and disordered eating behaviours: the role of body surveillance, shame and social anxiety. Journal of Psychopathology, 20, 33-37.

Ho, C. (2015) The “Perfect” Body [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsL7W-GHhJA

Holland, G., & Tiggemann, M. (2016). A systematic review of the impact of the use of social networking sites on body image and disordered eating outcomes. Body image, 17, 100-110.

Fallon, K. (2014). Streams of the self: The Instagram feed as narrative autobiography. In Proceedings of the interactive narratives, new media & social engagement international conference (Vol. 101, pp. 54-60).

Toma, C. L., Hancock, J. T., & Ellison, N. B. (2008). Separating fact from fiction: An examination of deceptive self-presentation in online dating profiles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(8), 1023-1036.

Instagram to put an end to bullying

15

October

2018

5/5 (1)

Social media platforms bring us closer and bridge geographical differences, but sometimes they can be pretty dark places. Cyber-bullying is an important and alarming phenomenon that is on the rise as social platforms become more and more popular among teens.

For us, millennials Facebook might have been the go-to platform, but today’s generation Z have switched to Instagram. According to recent studies about 70% of US teens are using the platform daily. There are several cyber-bullying practices that have spread on the platform. In order to combat the cruel practices about a year ago Instagram introduced a filtering mechanism for offensive comments. Nowadays not only comments but among others, finstas aka fake instagrams have been used to post embarrassing or harassing pictures of others. On the 9th of October, the new head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri announced that they are expanding Instagram’s filtering tool to photos, captions and comments on live videos. The AI enhanced tool filters out offensive or potentially bullying images and texts and sends it to Instagram’s moderators, who then investigate the cases.

Of course, the practice works on creating a safer online environment, but a potential risk lies in false positives. What do these mean for our generation’s meme factories or harmless banter among friends? In order to account for these errors, the personal relationship between the account owners is also factored in the algorithm, as well as previous interactions. This could lead to another potential backlash on the practice: privacy concern?

Instagram has started to roll out the new tool in honour of National Bullying Prevention Month in the US and the Anti-Bullying Week in the UK, during the month of October. Although it is definitely no silver bullet, hopefully Instagram’s efforts to fight cyber-bullying will result in social media being a bit safer and kinder place and it will not restrain free content creation and raise privacy concerns among users.

Carey-Simos, G. (2018). Instagram Introduces New Tools To Limit Bullying On Instagram • Featured, Instagram • WeRSM – We are Social Media. [online] WeRSM – We are Social Media. Available at: https://wersm.com/instagram-introduces-new-tools-to-limit-bullying-on-instagram/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Foster, A. (2018). The disturbing new cyber-bullying trend. [online] NewsComAu. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/the-disturbing-new-cyberbullying-trend-gaining-popularity-with-students/news-story/b03a9e27ef8ef00d4d9195867fc2adfd [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Lorenz, T. (2018). Teens Are Being Bullied ‘Constantly’ on Instagram. [online] The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/teens-face-relentless-bullying-instagram/572164/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Mosseri, A. (2018). New Tools to Limit Bullying and Spread Kindness on Instagram. [online] Instagram. Available at: https://instagram-press.com/blog/2018/10/09/new-tools-to-limit-bullying-and-spread-kindness-on-instagram/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Thompson, N. (2018). Instagram Launches An AI System to Blast Away Nasty Comments. [online] WIRED. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/instagram-launches-ai-system-to-blast-nasty-comments/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Vincent, J. (2018). Instagram is using AI to detect bullying in photos and captions. [online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/9/17954658/instagram-ai-machine-learning-detect-filter-bullying-comments-captions-photos [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

The Rise of Messaging Apps

13

October

2018

No ratings yet.

The way we use social networks is continually changing: just 10 years ago, MySpace was on the rise. Back then, the idea of disappearing messages used by Snapchat and Instagram wouldn’t make much sense to anyone. Lately, a new pattern has emerged: it seems like social networks as we know them are taking a step back, while various messaging apps are on the rise. In 2016, four most popular messaging apps (WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger and Viber) surpassed four most popular social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter) in popularity ( Business Insider Intelligence, 2016). In response, more and more social networks started integrating and transforming its messaging functions, like Instagram introducing its direct messages or Facebook separating Messenger from its main app.

But can messaging apps replace social networks? In short, yes, at least for some people. It is easy to understand those who decide to give up traditional social networks. These networks often force you to keep up with people you would otherwise take no interest in. They create so-called ‘information bubbles,’ which can result in bias confirmation and political polarization. In contrast, messaging apps allow you to have full control over the information we receive and in what volume. This makes communication more personal, and, to look at it from the utilitarian perspective, more valuable.

So, what is the future of messaging apps? According to the report from Business Insider Intelligence (2016), we already witnessed the first stage of the chat app revolution: rapid growth. The next stage would involve monetizing this growth ( Business Insider Intelligence, 2016). More and more companies will integrate services into the messaging apps: the way that WeChat started offering functions that allow users to order food delivery and pay bills – all in one integrated app (Mittal, 2017). Soon, more marketers will shift their focus on messaging apps, which, in turn, will give messaging apps an even greater boost ( Business Insider Intelligence, 2016).

Sources:

Business Insider Intelligence, 2016. Messaging apps are now bigger than social networks. [Online]
Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-messaging-app-report-2015-11?r=US&IR=T&IR=T
[Accessed 13 Oct 2018].

Mittal, M., 2017. WeChat — The One App That Rules Them All. [Online]
Available at: https://medium.com/harvard-business-school-digital-initiative/wechat-the-one-app-that-rules-them-all-38a876d04f3b
[Accessed 13 Oct 2018].

Image: atebits.com

4.5/5 (8) 50k views and counting, how to get MASSIVE views!!!

9

October

2017

Hello fellow BIM students,

Some of you might have noticed that certain posts are getting massive amounts of views.

all time high

The first thing that pops into your mind might be that these guys are actively sharing their content on social media. This is unlikely though because getting this many unique views on one post in one day (see images below) is really really hard to accomplish through that method.

13k views one day

The next possibility you might think about is that they are hiring a group of people through some view boosting website like the one below.

viewbotwebsite

However, we are all students, meaning that we have low budgets and would rather spend our money on partying, Netflix/Spotify subscriptions and other more rewarding activities. So I don’t consider this option viable in our situation.

So how do the top posts get their crazy amount of views? Did they press F5 non-stop for a couple of weeks in order to reach the top?

f5 broken

There must be some sort of secret method to their success. In this post, I would like to share my easy method with you guys to help boost YOUR view count up to 5k, 10k or even 50k! Let’s go!

Step 1: Decide the post that you want to boost!

This is obviously a very basic step, in order to get views on a post, you need to have posted at least some content. In this example, I use a very basic article I wrote about IBM’s supercomputer Watson (check it out: http://bit.ly/2y71SxK).

IBM watson article 2

Step 2: Download the Opera browser and open the blog post in multiple tabs!

Viewbotting on 5 tabs

Step 3: This is where the magic comes in, download the Super Auto Refresh extension for Opera!

Super Auto Refresh extension Opera

Step 4: Start the Extension and make it run on all tabs at a speed of 30 seconds!

Super refresher extension Opera browser

Why do I give you guys the advice to run it on 5/6 tabs max at a speed of 30 seconds? Because I encountered many many errors on the first days using this method running it at faster speeds. These error messages, see below, cause not only me but every other user trying to access the website to experience problems.

Internal Server Error

Service Unavailable

So if you don’t want a group of angry students chasing you because they couldn’t upload their blog posts please take this advice.

IS blog troubles

Step 5: Get some spare laptops, plug them into their chargers and don’t touch them for a couple of days/weeks!

This will help you feel like a real hacker and boosts the feeling that you can join Anonymous because you know your computer stuff.

3 laptops setup

Step 6: Watch your article reach some magic milestones! You are finally reaching the top of the list!
1000 views mark

2000 views mark

9999 views

20000 views

30k views

WAIT FOR IT…. 50k VIEWS WOAH!

50k views

Step 7: Sit back and relax, you did some really awesome hacking and can now enjoy your success for the rest of your life! You will always be remembered as that BIM student that knew how to reach the top!

all time high

As much as I enjoyed abusing the view count system behind https://digitalstrategy.rsm.nl// I would like to give some quick advice to the website admin. As soon as I realized that F5 views were counted as unique views although they came from the same IP-Address I started to look for ways to maximize my view count. I think that this in no way reflects the quality of my blog post and can actually destroy the intention of this web page. So to prevent things like this happening in the future please try to cap the number of views per IP-address or find some other way to achieve this.

Thanks for reading guys and enjoy your road to success!

The Winner Takes It All – WeChat

4

October

2017

5/5 (1)

In September 2016, the messaging app WeChat had more than 768 million daily users. 50% of these users use WeChat for at least 90 minutes a day and 35% of their total mobile use was spend on the WeChat application (WeChat, 2016). In recent years, WeChat has become one of the largest platform communities in the world. WeChat is currently dominating the mobile internet in China and will continue to do so in the future. In order to understand WeChat’s long-term strategy this informative article will mainly focus on the recently introduced feature of WeChat: the WeChat Mini Programs.

But first, for the people who do not know WeChat that well, you should know that WeChat has become more than just a messaging app. Besides its messaging feature, WeChat’s other main features are (Bhagat, 2017):

WeChat Moments – WeChat’s main social media feature
WeChat Pay – WeChat’s in-app pay feature
WeChat Game – WeChat’s games feature

There are many other features (fun fact: there is even a “Go Dutch” feature that allows users to easily split bills and pay using the WeChat Pay feature), but they will not be covered in this article.

This article highlights the WeChat Mini Programs functionality, because it has the potential to disrupt the application industry. In short, the WeChat Mini Programs enables (third party) apps (so called mini programs) within the WeChat app. One of the main advantages is that users do not need to download or install the mini programs. This will lead to phone storage and time savings for the users. Furthermore, the development of a mini program is faster and cheaper (Brennan, 2017). In the following video this new feature is further explained:

The mini programs can also be extremely powerful for SMEs. For example, a restaurant chain could develop a mini program that allows customers to browse through the menu, order food, pay the bill and “Go Dutch” all within the same app. This new feature offers endless new opportunities for companies (for more examples click here). However, there are also some limitations for the mini programs. For example, the mini programs have fewer possibilities than normal apps. Also, the use of QR codes is very common in China, but not outside of China. Therefore, it would be harder to implement this system outside of China.

In the lecture of yesterday we saw some examples of companies opening up to third parties. This led to an enormous increase in market cap. With WeChat opening up to third parties by allowing them to build apps within WeChat, it has a great potential to grow as well. Especially when you take the network effect into account (more users using mini programs will lead to more mini programs, which will lead to more users etc.). With the introduction of this new feature, WeChat is also taking on the App Store and Play Store, because probably less (especially Chinese) people will download apps from both stores. Creating the mini program platform WeChat also has a new source of income. In this triangular platform (between users, companies and WeChat) WeChat could charge companies to increase their revenue. In conclusion, Mintor (2017) argues that WeChat is transforming into a new mobile operating system (OS) and could even compete with the IOS and Android OS in the future.

I agree with Mintor and believe that this could be WeChat’s long-term strategy. Please let me know your thoughts about WeChat’s mini programs in the comment section!

Bibliography:

Bhagat, R. (2016, 29 september). 5 WeChat Features That WhatsApp Should Really Use. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/rahilbhagat/2016/09/29/5-wechat-features-that-whatsapp-should-really-use/#1806fc837eea

Brennan, M. (2017, 1 februari). WeChat Mini Apps by Matthew Brennan, China Marketing Summit 2017 [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjBc_3bHbJQ

Minter, A. (2017, 19 januari). WeChat’s App Revolution. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-01-19/wechat-s-app-revolution

WeChat. (2016). The 2016 WeChat Data Report. Retrieved from http://blog.wechat.com/2016/12/29/the-2016-wechat-data-report/

News on the move

3

October

2017

5/5 (25)

Are you unsure which newspaper has the best content, or fits the best to your interest? Are you unable to decide which subscription you should take? Do not worry, Solutions are on the rise!

Times are changing. The expansion of digital technology has enabled media to use fixed and wireless network connectivity to reach users with new methods. Altering the industry structure in production, distribution and the methods to monetize content. Existing competitors have initially adopted some of the technological changes trying to cope with it. Now however, new entrants are disrupting the industry completely.

Rising stars like Blendl are centralizing most media stories and interviews in one application (Blendl.com, 2017). Also the rise of intelligent personal assistants Amazon Echo and Google Home who are able to consult online sources for news and other information. This broadens the offer of one single Platform giving the possibility to reach niche markets and the general public with one platform. These smart personalized solutions open the door to long tail strategies adding value to the industry as a whole (Brynjolfsson, 2011).

Accessing all information through one platform has decreased the switching costs between different news media. Increasing the power of customers and decreasing the power of suppliers who have to participate in applications and systems like these. Changing the direct web channels of media partly back to centralized platforms. The suppliers will have to change dramatically to adapt (Hagiu, 2014). It seems certain that the revenue from the traditional market will shrink, shifting from multiple sources towards more centralized platforms with contributions of different parties.

I think, and I follow therewith the general opinion, that due to these developments the news industry has become a vulnerable market. Where the scale-based advantages of incumbents are weakened and new entrants possibly have great opportunities to succeed. Currently the different companies within the industry are experimenting with pricing strategies. Varying from versioning, to group pricing and personal pricing or even completely free. Only time can tell whether the news industry will regain it’s profitability, by changing the prevailing Information Strategy while adopting the newly developed technologies successfully within new sustainable business models.

References
Blendl.com (2017) via Blendl.com

Brynjolfsson, E., Hu, Y., & Simester, D. (2011). Goodbye pareto principle, hello long tail: The effect of search costs on the concentration of product sales. Management Science, 57(8), 1373-1386.

Evans and Wurster (1997). Strategy and the New Economics of Information. Harvard Business Review. September-October, 70-82.

Hagiu, A. (2014). Strategic decisions for multisided platforms. MIT Sloan Management Review, 55(2), 71.

Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole

7

Please rate this

How the pandemic is transforming the global luxury sector

5

Please rate this

The spread of fake news

5

Please rate this