In late 2011, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was widely criticized for the way in which he decided to separate the Netflix DVD-rental business from its Web streaming service. Some customers were confused by the new pricing strategy; others were angry. But, in this era, things sure turnaround quickly.
In the most recent issue of Businessweek, Reed Hastings is on the cover, with the caption: “The Man Who Ate the Internet” (a title bestowed because of the amount of bandwidth consumed by Netflix and it customers).
As Ashlee Vance writes: “On a normal weeknight, Netflix accounts for almost a third of all Internet traffic entering North American homes. That’s more than YouTube, Hulu, Amazon.com, HBO Go, iTunes, and BitTorrent combined. Traffic to Netflix usually peaks at around 10 P.M. in each time zone, at which point a chart of Internet consumption looks like a python that swallowed a cow. By midnight Pacific time, streaming volume falls off dramatically.”
One of the big challenges for social media companies is generating significant revenues and meaningful profits. With this in mind, YouTube is always on the look out for new revenue streams. Here is the latest idea. What do you think about it?
As reported by Brian Stelter for the New York Times: “YouTube this week will announce a plan to let some video makers charge a monthly subscription, according to people with knowledge of the plan. The overwhelming majority of videos on YouTube, a unit of Google, will remain free to all, but the plan will let the company’s partners try out a second source of revenue, analogous to the flexible pay walls that some newspapers and magazines have adopted. There will be subscription channels for children’s programming, entertainment, music, and many other topic areas, according to the people with knowledge of the plan, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had been asked by YouTube not to comment publicly yet. Some channels will cost as little as $1.99 a month. These won’t be channels in the television sense of the term; rather, they will consist of libraries of videos on demand, much like the thousands of free channels already on YouTube. Some of the video makers who have worked with YouTube on the subscription option want to convert existing fans to paying customers; others hope to distinguish themselves by selling archives of old TV episodes.”
In the good old days (think two years ago), it was relatively inexpensive to launch a new app for a smartphone. While this is still possible, some app firms are finding that the cost of a launch is much higher than they were anticipating.
For example, as Jessica E. Lessin reports for the Wall Street Journal: “Mobile-game maker ZeptoLab UK recently released ‘Cut the Rope: Time Travel,’ its first major title in the popular ‘Cut the Rope’ series since 2011. The launch won’t be a quiet one. The company has been building buzz for the game through a six-week promotion with Burger King Worldwide, which began featuring the game in its kids’ meals in March. Overall, ZeptoLab says it will spend around $1 million launching “Cut the Rope: Time Travel,” which traces the adventures of the green monster Om Nom as he meets versions of himself in time periods like the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. On top of that sum, which includes the costs of animation, the company is counting on some free help by promoting the game inside its other titles. By contrast, the company spent almost nothing to promote the first ‘Cut the Rope’ game when it was released in 2010. It gave the title to a third-party publisher to distribute, then sat and waited.”
Click the image to read more and then watch the video clip.
Brandon Steiner (http://www.steinersports.com)is a marketing genius. He can take even the simplest item, such as a brick from the old Yankee Stadium, and turn it into a collectible that people will buy. Recently, he spoke at Hofstra University about “Finding Your Entrepreneurial Spirit.” Below, four video clips from this presentation are embedded.
In this presentation, Brandon Steiner discusses his own career and offers a lot of career advice. Boy, is he enthusiastic and upbeat.
As a poor kid in Brooklyn, Brandon Steiner scrounged up the money to make the subway trip to Yankee Stadium and buy the cheapest ticket available. Raised in Flatbush with his two brothers by a single mother, Brandon attended John Dewey High School in Coney Island, NY and from there went on to Syracuse University, graduating in 1981 with an accounting degree.
Brandon started out in food service and hospitality, managing a hospital cafeteria inBaltimore. From there, he moved to a new Hyatt in that city’s refurbished inner harbor. Then, Brandon moved back to New York and was manager at the Hard Rock Café in the late 1980s. It was there that Brandon began meeting athletes he would later represent professionally. Brandon met more athletes at the next restaurant he managed – the Sporting Club – which was New York City’s first full-service sports bar; and he made his first foray into sports marketing – hiring athletes as “guest bartenders” for charity events and to be guests of honor to “Fight Nights,” where the bar would air satellite broadcasts of big-time boxing matches.
As he got to know the athletes, Brandon learned that they did not have anyone to represent them for speaking engagements and corporate appearances. To fill that void, he started Steiner Associates (later renamed Steiner Sports) in 1987, with only $4,000, a one-room office, and an intern. Over the years, the business slowly but steadily grew, and by the late 1990s, Steiner Sports comprised dozens of employees and represented many big-name New York athletes. It was also around this time that the company expanded to collectibles.
In 2004, Steiner Sports’ made a deal with the New York Yankees, which provides Yankees fans with authentic Yankees memorabilia and one-of-a-kind fantasy experiences at Yankee Stadium. Steiner Sports followed this with similar partnerships with Notre Dame Football, Syracuse Athletics, and Madison Square Garden. In 2008, Steiner Sports created yet another unique market, by buying the exclusive rights to the disassembled Old Yankee Stadium. Steiner created an entire, authentic Stadium product line; fans now have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take home seats, signs, bricks from Monument Park, and hundreds of other unique pieces which give the old stadium new life.
Outside the office, Brandon has become a permanent fixture in the media and is a regular on ESPN Radio 1050, along with his co-hosting duties on Yankees-Steiner: Memories of the Game, prominently featured on the YES Network. Additionally, Brandon has been an expert commentator for a wide variety of media.
In 2012, Wiley & Sons published Brandon’s second book, You Gotta Have Balls, which chronicles his long career, and the life and business lessons he learned therein.
Brandon devotes most of his free time to several charities, including Family Services of Westerner, which helps provide quality social and mental health services to strengthen families and children.
