LagrangePoint - Brad Howarth

Everything I know about online marketing I learnt by looking at porn ...

Well, not really ... but now that I have your attention ... am working on a project looking into the contributions that the porn industry has made to e-commerce and e-marketing. At the recent Smart Internet seminars in Sydney, media commentator Peter Cox made the observation that the only things that really make money on the internet are sex and gambling. I've often heard it said that many of the techniques and systems that are common on the internet today were pioneered by the online pornography industry ... if anyone has any pointers as to whether this is true, I'd love to hear them.

13th Annual AIMIA Awards

AIMIA has announced that entries are now open for its 13th annual Awards. This year there are 13 categories, and entries will close on November 10. The winners will be announced on Friday, March 2. For more information, click here.

Google buys YouTube - is that a tear in the bubble?

Will Google's $1.65 billion stock swap deal for YouTube be the moment when we realised that no one learnt anything from the dot-com crash of 2000? Google has rarely put a foot wrong so far (well, not so wrong that the average person would notice), but handing over US$1.65 billion in stock for a company that makes practically no money at all (despite claiming to serve 100 million videos per day).

Yes - right now YouTube has almost 50% of the online video market ... which is akin to have 50% of nothing. There is not a lot of money being made out of online video today. Will there be in the future - possibly - but how ...? Video has featured prominently in the plans of Google of late, in terms of serving video ads to websites, so it is possible there is a tie-up there. Or perhaps Google just bought it because they can afford to, and it blocks anyone else buying it.

The tricky thing (well, there are probably more than one) about YouTube is that it relies ENTIRELY on other people's creative energies to sustain it. And consumers are very fickle. Put too much advertising on YouTube, and they may very well walk. There is also the potential for someone to develop something that is better. Revver has tried this, with a model that pays people if viewers click and ad after their video has played. They are hardly a dent in the side of YouTube at the moment, but then no one had heard of YouTube either 12 months ago ...

What is really worrying about the acquisition tho is the sheer size of the valuation, which is based entirely on un-monetised traffic. Ridiculous numbers were also thrown around regarding Digg.com recently by BusinessWeek, leading Red Herring to question the magazine's its journalistic methods. Arguments will no doubt continue, but in the meantime anyone who pulls in a good number of viewers must be rubbing their hands together with glee. Watch out now for a rash series of mergers and IPOs as wily start-ups look to cash out before everything crashes down again.

Australian Anthill Issue 18

The latest edition of Australian Anthill is now on the stands. My column this week is likely to invite all sorts of pain - it's a set of tips for entrepreneurs who want to gain greater media exposure. For Anthill subscribers, you can follow the link here. For everyone else, I'll post up the draft article in a few days.

Next - Global show for tiny technology

One company that I have been keeping an eye on since the ANZA Technology Network showcase in November last year is Adelaide-based start-up Digislide. Rarely do you meet a company who's technology truly has the potential to revolutionise the way that we interact with devices - in this case by significantly increasing the amount of information that can be displayed by a mobile phone.

Of course, Digislide faces all the usual problems of a small Australian tech developer, and is certainly not alone in what it is doing. But their recent announcement as a finalist in the World Technology Awards, against competitors such as Lenovo and LG Electronics, has certainly been a huge boost in confidence for the fledgling company. You can read that story here.

Story in development - beyond technical returns

Am working on an article looking at IT implementations where the integrator/vendor is rewarded on the basis of genuine revenue/profit targets being reached for the client. Have found one example where the integrator was paid 100% of their contract only after the client had received the expected reduction in traffic volume to its call centre that the solution was promised to deliver.

If anyone knows of anything that fits the model, please let me know ...