May 2005
Treo650: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king
Thursday - May 26, 2005 Filed in: Mobile | Consumer
Technology
Attended the Churchill Club
seminar under the same name. Interesting
speakers were Chuck D (Public Enemy), Roger
McNamee (Integral Capital Partners, Silver Lake
Partners, Elevation Partners) and Blake Ross
(Firefox creator). It is becoming clear that the
old rules of how to create or tap into large
media markets have changed. To own these markets
one must provide a large selection. MP3 music
sharing has given listeners a taste of virtually
unlimited supply they are not willing to give up
on. The Long Tail roars its head yet again.
Tivo1, Mike Ramsay added that 50% of programs
recorded on Tivo are non-popular programs. Roger
quoted the Death of the Pareto principle. The
Palo Alto library has known this for many years,
more than 75% of its purchasing budget is for
non-popular selection. Mobility and locality
were mentioned as important side effects of Long
Tail markets. The ability to serve up that wide
selection on a wide variety of devices is
crucial. Arbitration of content (the way record
companies enforce The Pareto principle) is no
longer accepted by buyers. Buyers want to find
any creative material they are interested in,
and in some cases, want to have the ability to
get in touch with the artist directly. New
search capabilities become important to weed
through large selections, Google capabilities
were considered insufficient. Scanning type
search, "I know it when I see it", provides
interesting new browse capabilities for buyers.
Blake added that as a technology industry we
have the responsibility to make things easier to
use before we move on to another golden
opportunity. We agree with Roger that media
should become the new Consumer Packaged
Goods.Seismic changes in Digital Entertainment
Friday - May 06, 2005 Filed in: Media | Consumer
Technology
Getty Images, the self proclaimed market leader in
the $7B stock photography market, recently posted an
impressive $622M in 2004 revenues. Our in-depth
analysis of the market actually shows a 2004 decline
in Royalty Free and Rights Managed images sold
compared to 2003 and Getty making it up by increasing
ASPs significantly and a small increase in editorial
sales. Royalty free images were sold at an ASP of
$210 compared to $150, Rights Managed images moved up
to $585 from $560 in 2003. While the company boasts
an impressive 70M images on file, our analysis shows
Getty Images sold no more than 1.5M images in 2003, a
3.5% market share of 43M images sold each year in the
stock imagery market. Hardly a gorilla, want to know
what are they are really selling?
Our opinion: Agency & distribution model are in conflict, restricting organic growth.
Our opinion: Agency & distribution model are in conflict, restricting organic growth.