Facebook Looks to Reinvigorate Their Search Tool

          Since Facebook's launching in 2004, founder Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear that one of his main goals is to keep his users on Facebook for as long as possible. To do this, Facebook would have to serve multiple functions in terms of information, and it has. People get their information about their social circles on there, and they have begun to get information about world events through their news-feed. The company reported this past Thursday that it had indexed over two trillion posts, in an attempt to allow users to monitor discussions of events as they occur. As Facebook looks to reinvigorate their search tool, they will need brand their company as not only a social network, but also a search engine. It has long been a search for people and places, but people have shifted away from this notion in recent years. About 1.5 billion searches are made a day on Facebook, compared to about 3.3 in 2012. This is obviously a huge blow to the brand, as they fail to compete for Google in the information industry. To keep users on longer, the company has to find a way for customers to have access to world events, as well as giving them a review channel for both business, products, and places. When users tap into Facebook's plethora of information, they are looking for reputations. Reputations of businesses, of people, schools, musicians, movie stars, etc.
        When people think of Google, they think search. Google has created this dominance of the internet with consistency and efficient pathways towards relevant information. Their reputation for treating employees well, in addition to leading the wave of new technology in Silicon Valley, has led to people's trust and reliance on the company. Facebook has a similar stronghold, but on a different market. Yes, Twitter has dipped into Facebook's business, but Facebook still remains the giant of social networking and has propelled the industry toward more information-driven pursuits. Companies want to pay Facebook for advertisements, but also for their information. Collecting information on billions of users allows Facebook to sell this data to large companies who can better understand people, and break them down by demographics and psycho-graphics. If Facebook wishes to become a dominate search engine as well, they will need to provide information that Google doesn't offer, or at the very least make the information more accessible  than its rival.

            Obviously, this graph depicts that Facebook's search queries are indeed on the decline. This is something that is vital to not Facebook's expansion, but it's maintenance as the dominating social network. When people aren't searching, they likely aren't online as long as thus there is less information for companies to snatch up. When there is both less information and less uers available, it is the domino effect of people not being able to reach their friends and/or find out what's new with them because people are no longer publishing their information on the network. Zuckerberg has forecasted this, and it may not be time to hit the panic button yet, but that time may be near.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-takes-aim-at-search-again-1445552264

Google Releasing Ad-Free YouTube Service

             Google will be releasing a service free of advertisements on YouTube. YouTube Red will cost android users who subscribe $9.99 per month, while those equipped with IPhones will be charged $12.99 per month. This price difference is due to the 30% charge that Apple applies on in app purchases. This is a critical development for both Google and the music industry alike, as it has become more common to stream music for no charge. Because of this, we are seeing sales decline in the both the CD and downloaded music industries. Many on the wrong side of this trend have been calling for paid subscriptions for quite some time. Currently, Spotify holds a following of over twenty million, while Apple Music has six and half million subscribers after only three months from launch. 

Of course, this would be large for the music industry as well as Google, creating an entire new stream of revenue that would expand the face of the brand as well as forging an alliance with many lucrative record labels that are looking for a greater profit than what they are receiving from these other streaming and music playing services. 

             If Google can use YouTube to gain more access to the online music industry, this could greatly affect both the direction of the industry as well as that of Google. As course, it will be difficult to sell this premium product, given the free accessibility to both video and music on the internet. The plethora of interconnected communities sharing information has made it difficult for business whose products are very easily electronically shared without any legal consequences. 

             The music business has certainly been going in the wrong direction for profit purposes, but giving people incentive to pay is what will drive them toward YouTube Red. CD's and downloaded music are both declining, as streaming becomes more and more popular. Offering customers a service that provides them with something they cannot get access to without the subscription will be the cornerstone of the launch. 

              The question is; why is Google interested in investing in the premium music industry? YouTube makes their capitol from leasing advertisements over the website to keep it free, as does Google. Why take such a drastic turn to get people to pay for music when they haven't for so long? Google is attempting to create a personalized journey for the customer, allowing them to hit play and sit back. Starting next year, they will also have access to YouTube originals and will be able to download videos and music onto their personalized device so they can listen to it at their own leisure, without being online. This service essentially gives the user access to all YouTube creations, with absolutely no advertisements. While Spotify and Apple Music have seen good days, this service could render them obsolete, given YouTube has almost monopolized the music video industry and unseated MTV in that regard. This service has very high upside for YouTube and therefore Google. As we already know, Google doesn't fail very often. 

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/21/youtube-red/#.ehwht6:qlid

http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-to-launch-ad-free-youtube-subscription-service-1445472241

Ad-Blocking- Marketing's Growing Issue

Advertising week is kicking off tomorrow morning, when the biggest names in the advertising industry will be congregating in New York to discuss the latest and biggest trends of the business. Currently, the online ad-industry is almost sixty billion dollars a year, and is expected to grow another 17% in the next year. A recent problem that many of these advertisers have been facing is ad-blocking. Because of the thousands of pitches, products, and brands placed in front of consumers every single day, people are beginning to sicken of the entire process. Because of this, ad-free streaming and ad-blocking have increased in popularity over the past year or so. Marketers are also worried about the possibility of piracy and the assurance that their ads are actually being viewed on the websites they put them on. 

Thousands of marketing, tech, and media executives will be meeting at the twelfth annual conference in which companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Twitter will be releasing some of their new advertising products and services. Facebook will also be showing how Instagram is an effective tool to market products. Hundreds of millions of people are on these internet tools every day, and companies such as Nike, General Electric, and Bank of America need to find the most effective way to spend their money to reach the largest amount of people possible. However, it is not only about reaching the largest amount of people; it is also about the image of the advertisement sticking in the consumer’s mind. To draw in the customer, an advertisement’s placement is crucial, as well as the color in relation to rest of the page, and even the font. Unfortunately for many companies looking to advertise on the internet, people are blocking ads and companies developing ad-blocking software that could accelerate the end of the advertising age.

Of course, there is no such thing as free. Facebook is free of charge because their benefit is your information. They trade this information to advertisers for profit. While we believe that Google, Twitter, and Facebook are free internet outlets, really they are the intermediary between us and the company that wants to sell us their product. When peoples’ information is no longer rendered useful, many internet sites are going to fall out of the profit range and may have to start charging for access at some point. Of course, the business is currently a sixty billion dollar industry; as such we are far away from that point. However, the conference is a critical one for these internet sites to show these fortune five hundred companies that information is useful and advertising on their sites is still very profitable. Companies have become wary of the patience that consumers seemed to have lost. Of course, this fast pace society has created much of this problem. The internet has made everything faster, and we process so much information every day, it does not take us very long to render the advertisement useless and to swipe it away with a touch. It is not up to the companies selling us products to find the solution to ad-blocking, it is really the social media and interface companies that need to overcome this constant need to swipe away advertisements.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ad-blocking-is-a-hot-topic-for-marketing-media-executives-1443259981 

Post 1: Targeting Consumers in Emerging Economies

Back home in the United States, I would go to the internet or television network to advertise a new product that I planned on releasing to the public in the upcoming weeks. However, across the world in India, this is not the case. It is not a well-kept secret that India is an arguably the second largest emerging economy behind China, and one of the repercussions of this is a larger middle class. A formally mid-sized newspaper called the Hindi-Daily has recently installed additional printing presses to increase its production by one third. Since 2011, the paper’s circulation has risen 64%, to around 2.3 million. One of the more critical talking points, ad sales are up 61%. Now in most developed nations, the newspaper industries are tanking as the younger generations turn to the internet to find their information on both domestic and world news. Why buy a paper do get the sports section when you can look it up on your mobile device or your laptop in seconds?

However in India, most consumers are buying physical copies of newspaper due to the inaccessibility of smart phones, computers, and consistent internet access. Since the middle class has grown, many of these consumers want to be updated the world around them and seeking newspapers first hand for that. Of course companies looking for the most efficient way to target people in the second most populous country in the world will use the media outlet in which most consumers are diving into. Newspapers received 43% of the market share in advertising in 2014, compared to television at 38%. Even Amazon and Apple have begun to advertise in the Indian newspaper market because of its attraction to the general populous of the country.

Now, why has the newspaper industry seen such a growth in such a sudden capacity? Much of it has to do with the literacy rate in India. In 1951, less than 10% of females in India could read. That figure has jumped to 65% in 2011. In 1981, approximately 55% of males in India can read. The figure has increased to over 80% in just the last thirty years. This recent bump in literacy has resulted in a thirst for knowledge, which makes consumers more accessible to advertisers using newspapers as their faculty.

India’s newspaper industry is one of the fastest growing in the world, and marketers need to be aware of this to reach the largest market that they can with the least amount of expense possible. Of course, as more companies try to place advertisements in these papers, the outlets gain value and thus can raise their prices accordingly. I think it is a very positive sign for newspaper companies everywhere that there still is a market for it in some places. The industry has just been displaced by the internet in many of backyards. Companies need to know how large the reach is, and where to put there advertisements where their desired target market will see it. Jumping on the right media outlet gives companies the competitive edge, but also creates brand recall and thus makes their competition forgettable. This is the goal we need to have as marketers and salesmen alike.

http://www.iipsenvis.nic.in/WriteReadData/UserFiles/image/Literacy%20rate%2001-11.jpg

http://www.wsj.com/articles/india-ink-newspapers-boom-where-the-internet-doesnt-reach-1441740780?tesla=y