So here’s my hypothesis…

Koos Bekker’s a smart dude, he realises - like pretty much all other smart dudes - that the future is in content, or more specifically, video-on-demand.

Now Koos has a great vehicle for VoD in DSTV, but he recognises a huge constraint - bandwidth, not the speed of it, but the cost (or perceived cost). A month ago, the biggest consideration when downloading a movie was not the speed of the download, but the amount of data it would take from your valuable bandwidth cap. 

So how does he play it?

Well he sees that he has a ace in his sleeve in Mweb. So a few weeks ago Mweb were the first to market with an uncapped product. Nice. Of course it doesn’t solve Koos’s problem just yet, as of course not all DSTV subscribers are on Mweb. However he just had to sit back and wait (and not for long at all).

Enter his Mweb competitors, they immediately jumped on the bandwagon, not only going uncapped - but driving prices even further down.

Does Koos care? Hell no, he’s ecstatic - even if Mweb doesn’t make a cent profit from the move they have absolutely served their purpose. Basically, SA’s ISPs just became Koos’s new bitches.

It makes me laugh really, hahahaha <– see.

Six months from now (or a year, who knows?) when Koos is ready, he can launch his constraint free VoD product because all connected South Africans, regardless of their ISP, have ceased to have a bandwidth cap problem.

It makes me respect the players like the Skyroves and ISs of the world that have had the patience and smarts not to jump on the bandwagon. If history is anything to go by, I imagine when guys like that do make their move, we’ll see something different and ass-kicking.

Anyway, like I said, Koos Bekker; smart dude…!

Sorry about the brief hiatus.

Anyhow, a bunch of us from CP are working on web-based businesses/initiatives and, therefore, several posts in the months ahead will focus on what we’ve learnt. We have not announced any of these projects yet but we will when the time is right.
A few observations:
1) Whilst the barriers to entry are virtually non-existent, the primary side effect is that getting through the white noise is significantly more difficult.

2) Whilst A web-based business (a web-based anything, actually) can exist and develop a reputation exclusively online, I’ve found it makes a ton more sense to promote the initiative offline as intently as you do online. SEO and Adwords is great, but is no replacement for “check out this thing we’re doing online”.

3) Whilst juggernauts form very quickly in break-through web-based businesses, ‘reverse niching’ is a very good tactic for success. Facebook starting out as a social network for colleges before expanding… what’s to stop someone from reversing the project and building a social network for college students only?

4) Building an identity independent of your core project before deciding on the core project helps a lot.

Using Twitter, Capitalist Punks and Project Badass (the code name) as case studies, I’ve learnt the above.

The observations are not unique to online businesses, which is kind of the point. People often fall into the trap of believing because it’s online, business is conducted differently, yet I’ve found the reverse to be true: if it’s online and you conduct your business with a level of service and accessibility brick-and-mortars (should all) strive for, you’re more likely to get my money.

And here in sunny South Africa, where internet penetration and online literacy pales in comparison to the European and North American countries who make up the bulk of the web-published content, we have to be significantly smarter about how we blur the lines between the online and offline world when targeting South African consumers.

I must start this post by saying that Green Day are one of my favourite bands of all-time, possibly even the favourite. But when I saw this on their myspace page, I got kinda bummed.

Just because I’m from South Africa, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be included in the video festivities, does it? Like, why would Argentina and Chile of all places be part of the elite? Seriously, I’m asking.

Things like this should never, ever happen. Everything on the internet today is so fully accessible. Someone in either the US, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Argentina, Chile or Japan is gonna rip the video, upload it to their own site or YouTube and get hits for themselves from guys like me who have been treated like second-grade music fans. I know it’s not the band themselves, for sure, but whoever runs their online presence has pissed a few people off no doubt.

Really. Uncool.

…or I’ll delete you from my following list!

That’s what some people are getting at, thanks to FriendOrFollow.com.

FriendOrFollow allows you to insert your Twitter username (or anyone else’s for that matter) and it’ll access the readily available ‘following’ and ‘followers’ info on your user. It removes duplicates from both lists, which leaves you with people you follow that don’t follow you, and the people who are following you but you’re not following. My feeling is this:

If you’re not generating good stuff, you won’t get a following. More importantly, though, it’s not just about good stuff, it’s about relevant stuff to the consumer, the follower.

I had a tweetversation (or whatever the geeks are calling it nowadays) with someone yesterday morning, it went as such:

Him: Hmmmmm. Http://friendorfollow.com (friendorfollow.com) is very enlightening. I’m following LOADS of people who don’t reciprocate.

Other guy: @him why do people have to follow you back? I follow lots of people who don’t follow me. Couldn’t bother me less.

Him: @otherguy There’s no ‘have to’. It’s solely about conversational reciprocation. I’m surprised by some of the people in the list.

Me: @him have to agree with @otherguy dude. People that follow to be nice are silly. Follow those you want to follow. Simple.

Him: @me Spot-on, dude. At the same time, Twitter’s about a two-way convo. Not just an eavesdropping tool.

Me: @him Agreed, but it starts with good posts. Silly posts that don’t interest me waste space in my timeline.

Later that evening…

Him: Loads of people I’m following followed me first, but now aren’t, according to http://friendorfollow.com. So I’m unfollowing and refollowing.

Me: @him Lol. You still on that, dude? Do you really keep up with all 622 people you’re following? You’re bound to miss some gems.

Him: @me Nah. Don’t really keep up at all! WAAY too much to follow! But seriously perturbed. Some people DEFINITELY follow me. But DON’T!

I stopped right there.

There was a plan for conversations, but because there’s too much coming in, you can’t keep up because there’s way too much to follow. Bizarre.

Take @BarackObama for instance. He’s currently following 4000 more people than are following him. Since Apr 29th, 2007 (his first tweet) he hasn’t replied to one single person. I can imagine, because if I was following 106150 people (to date) I’d also not wanna have to read through it all, when will he have time to do whatever he does? It’s all about being nice. Making people feel like he gives a rat’s ass about what they have to say, so they reciprocate.

I’d rather have people following me who care what I have to say, rather than feeling obliged to.

Your twitter user, just like an author of a blog, will have a following of people that think you’re interesting, and interested in what you’re saying. That’s why they’re there. I tend to follow people who put up good links, although I personally have a half-and-half approach to random things that I do during the day and finding good shit online. Some people like it, some people don’t.

That’s just how it works. So go ahead and follow me, or your name in my following list is toast!

About a month ago I tweeted about PMSbuddy.com being a site that will save lives. And I still believe this is true, although a recent reminder-mail from them burnt some questions into my mind about who they’re actually out to serve here. Here’s what it said:

Your X will begin having PMS on approximately X.

Now, I don’t know about you, but this seems awfully like it’s women who have created this, trying to get all men to buy them things. Lots of things. Or just advertisers preying on men who don’t know any better.

Lingerie? Vacations? Wine? Flowers? If this was done once a month, we’d all be broke.

I still reckon the most effective is the ‘Leave her alone and don’t make her angry for this week’ approach. It’s served generations well.

I challenge you to refuse a hug from our good friend Carlos Francisco. Not only does this Portuguese Malawian have a heart of gold, he also wants to save the world one rural community at a time.

His latest project? Zulu Surf Riders.

From 24.com:

3 reasons to watch it:

1. Tells the story of individuals who overcome huge obstacles

2. The footage is beautiful and the soundtrack striking

3. It writes off the myth about Zulus and the sea

Here’s a sneak preview:

ZULU SURFRIDERS extra from Carlos Francisco on Vimeo.
The premiere for the movie is on 23 June. The Capitalist Punks have been cordially invited, and we can’t wait for what will no doubt be an awesome flick.

The use of net-made stars in adverts and music videos is getting to be quite a common thing, one that I think won’t last too long (holding thumbs).

Weezer got in early with this music vid including quite a few of the vids we’ve all seen more than once.

South African internet star Vernon Koekemoer has been snatched up by Vodacom, Nando’s(including a fake Chuck), and more lately for the SA band Evolver music vid, Pretty thing.

Crazy how, for most of them, being an idiot makes you famous. Although, one certain idiot did make president of the US…

Hahaha.

Hahahahahaha.

SA Reunited just announced the following:

I got this tonight, seriously. Hahahahahahahahaha!

The gap’s been filled lads. The party’s over.

Welcome to two years ago…!

I love the Nintendo Wii. The fact that you can box without the blood, fish without the scaling or shoot ducks from the comfort of your living room chair is awesome. It’s all very lazy and keeps you indoors, for sure, but the Wii Fit takes it to a whole new level.

This parody vid, with added voiceover, accurately explains (IMAO) the Wii Fit.

Original full trailer here.

Found this on The Editblog.

Being involved in TV and web vids over the past few years, this is too true. But we don’t give a crap, do we?