Pinterest-Expands Visual Search

          The photo saving and sharing site, Pinterest will expand their product by adding a feature in which users will not need words to search for their desired object, but rather take a photo of it and send it into the search engine. By doing this, the user will allow Pinterest to show them similar sizes, colors, and styles of the object. Pinterest is regarded as a social network, but reportedly has longed to be seen as a search engine as well. By launching this feature Monday, it would appear they would be far ahead of their competitors in the visual search engine industry. The app is mostly used by women, as a global poll in 2012 found that 83% of users at  the time were female. This has generated the direction for Pinterest, while they attempt to get ahead in the visual search market. Both Google and Amazon have been attempting for years, but none of their attempts have taken off. One of Google's first was the inception of Google Goggles, an image- recognition app introduced in 2009 lets users retrieve information about landmark or building downtown by taking a photo. More recently, many of these major databases have been attempting a method known as deep learning, or a technique used to recognize patterns sifting through big data.

           With Pinterest launching this new visual search, the company has a high upside in the advertising industry. EMarketer expects the market for United States search advertising to over $29 billion in 2016, which would account for about half of digital advertising. Pinterest has been fast growing since its beginnings in 2010. By the end of 2011, it had already become one of the top ten social networks, with over eleven million views per week. In May 2012, Pinterest was valued at $1.5 billion and three years later, the company is valued at over $11 billion. Now, this quick ascendance certainly comes from paving the way in their respective segment of social networks. This is a company that knows to survive it has to constantly create and expand. It is for this reason that they have developed the visual search engine. If successful, this would be an example of brand extension as a company reaches outside of its formal function to offer a different service in a new market. They first got serious about visual search in 2010 when buying the image search startup, Visual Graph, created by Kevin Jing. Mr.Jing used deep learning technology similar to Facebook's face recognition to create the visual search that would eventually be snatched up by Pinterest. Pinterest already has a good stake in the social network industry, but it would be revolutionary if they managed to claim a share of the search engine industry as well. Facebook has been trying to do it for years, and has failed at doing so. Monday is a big day for not only Pinterest, but the direction and path for visual search.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/pinterest-sharpens-its-visual-search-skills-1447015155

Star Wars- The Force Awakens

         Merchandise toys are expected to be very popular leading up to the holiday season for the Stars Franchise, with their new movie 'The Force Awakens' coming out in December. The movie hits theaters the 17th, a little over a week before Christmas. Career collectors have already begun to buy the action figures for the upcoming movie, regardless of the fact that they don't have a background on the majority of the characters in the sequel of the dynasty. The 40 year old saga has recently been bought by Walt Disney Co. for four billion dollars, a seemingly absurd price tag that looks like a bargain given the revenue already being created in the preliminary excitement leading up to the first product of Star Wars coming from Disney. In most cases, merchandise are released anywhere in the range of six to eight weeks prior to the main event, but Disney launched the product line a full fifteen weeks before the release of the movie. They have done an excellent job re-establishing the franchise under the company brand, as almost all Star Wars fans are quite aware that Disney is now fully in charge of the destiny of the galaxy. The trailer had just the right amount of ambiguity, showing the former mask of the legendary Darth Vader, as his self-proclaimed successor looks upon. For the September 4th launch, Star Wars fanatics bought a plethora of both Halloween costumes and toys figures to grow the already strong excitement for the unveiling of the plot. Disney has had great execution in preventing the plot from being leaked. The company notes they have to use caution as a tool to avoid the internet's malicious tendency to spoil movies before they hit theaters. 

           It is projected that the worldwide gross box sales of the new expansion movie will fall between the first film 'A New Hope' and the first prequel released in 1999, 'The Phantom Menace'. The first film grossed $2,016,000,000 in inflation adjusted dollars, while the new film is expected to reach two billion in sales. Of course, the first film didn't have a book released prior to it, and didn't have the expectations that this movie does. For the time, 'A New Hope' was considered revolutionary in the futuristic genre, but the first six Lucas films have created a dynamic fan-base that makes the process for Disney that much easier. By buying Star Wars for four billion dollars, they are obviously expected to meet at least half of that expense with this first movie. One would expect Disney to expand the franchise in any direction they can, while many have speculated that they will in fact, remake the entire series. Steph Wissink, a Piper Jaffray Cos. manager director, expects retails sales of Star Wars toys to reach $1.5 billion within a year of the movie's release. Overall, between the overwhelming box office and merchandise sales projections, 'The Force Awakens' should be great start for Disney, as they position penetrate a completely new market from the one their accustomed to. Chances are, they will make back the investment and some, as they usually do.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-toy-marketing-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens-1447180464