Great News. Okay, so how much for 400+ million loyal Skype users worldwide? And for the the market leadership position in VOIP? Lots of value for sure. Will it be more than the $2bn they paid for Skype? That’s we can’t say yet. But we can say this: its probably a good time to buy EBay stock, because they will surely earn back a good amount on Skype.
Here are the details. Continue reading
Posted in Business Strategy, Innovation, Internet, Market News, Start-ups, Web 2.0
Recession-hit restaurants in Britain have started offering free food and major discounts to entice customers, many of whom have stopped eating out frequently following job losses and salary cuts.
Offering free food was one of the ways of beating recession in the 1980s, and restaurant owners are hoping it will work this time too. Hundreds of restaurants have closed in the recent months.
The offer of free food is premised on the belief that customers would be too embarrassed not to leave behind money after dinner. Restaurants owners believe that except students, most customers would not leave without leaving money behind.
For example, the menu card at The Little Bay in Farringdon, London (featured in the photo) does not mention prices for dishes. Customers pay only for the drinks. Restaurant owner Peter Ilic said, “You can leave 50 pounds or nothing; it doesn’t matter, I will treat you the same,” he said.
Btw, if you are in London, you can visit the Little Bay restaurant at:
171 Farringdon Road
Clerkenwell, London EC1R 3AL
Tel: 020 7278 1234
And now the Lesson for those of us in other businesses, including the online business.
Its called the 5% rule, ie. before you ask for anything, offer your customer at least 5% worth of sample or value or product or service or whatever that you sell. We have seen this working in both B2B and B2C businesses.
In fact, a money back guarantee or performance guarantee of some sort also achieves the same result as above.
They make it difficult for the customer to refuse the offer, by removing all possible barriers.
In our experience, too many companies don’t want to try any of the above because sometimes things will fail, and majority of managers are risk-averse. So if you say your company can’t do it, that’s fine too. We are sure someone else will do it and go on to win the sale. Nobody is forced to give us a sale, we have to win it. This recession will test the best. So give it a serious thought.
Yahoo has reported a loss in the final three months of 2008 as the economic downturn hit sales of online ads.
It reported a loss of $303 million compared to a profit of $205 million last year.
The results come as Carol Bartz takes over from Jerry Yang as the firm’s new chief executive.
Some analysts feel Yahoo has weathered the downturn better than expected, with the loss mainly due to one-off costs.
We don’t think so. The downturn is far from over, and Yahoo will see a very aggressive Google in the coming months, because Google is also facing pressure on their revenues.
Yahoo has a similar global people reach as Google, of about 450 million people, or 30% of global Internet user base, but the lack of revenue producing assets makes the difference. Yahoo has no strong answer to Google Adwords even today after 3 years.
Yahoo does have a few strong assets:
But on the advertising side, Yahoo has difficult times ahead as Google continues to eat into its user base worldwide — both English and non-English. Their ad network doesn’t work anywhere near Google’s quality, and that explains the lower revenues.
Yahoo has to make some hard decisions on revenue generation and partnerships.
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Hi Folks, how are you doing? As we near the end of year 2008, I am happy to share this star project of MyOrbit with you. It has been in the works for a while, and now getting ready to go live soon in 6-8 weeks.
GSIBM: Graham School of Investing & Business Management
It could be considered as an online b-school that’s very practical in its approach, and aims to build business leaders. The program is based on successful business teachings by Ben Graham (and followed by Warren Buffet to produce financial results we all know).
The program has been carefully designed after extensive market research on the business knowledge needs of working professionals at various levels, and it will address a large unmet need.
The program will help working professionals in their career growth with the wide coverage planned: from Finance & Investing, to Sales & Marketing, and Legal Contracts, etc.
You are the among first to get this news, and it will be great if you can share it with others who may be interested, and also bookmark the website: http://GSIBM.com
Best Wishes,
Shankar AVSB for MyOrbit Team
