Irresitible

The problem
Traveling by air creates enormous pollution in the air and is a direct cause of global warming. Moreover tourism encourages deforestation while focusing on building complex infrastructure.
Only the tourism industry benefits from this business while so many other people are left on the roadside without any hope and help to better appreciate their own country.

The opportunity
Catch the attention of the travelers with a green conscience and who would like to care more for the destination they visit. Show them that by their action we can support sustainable development at the destinations and show much more respect to people and nature.
Let’s challenge the values of an industry designed to appeal to a society which promotes a me-first, instant-gratification attitude in its citizens.
Tourism can be a huge force for fighting human and environmental exploitation, and an excellent vehicle for transferring wealth from the rich nations to developing countries.
The deal we are offering is “Become a better traveler and make a difference as an ordinary holiday maker”.

Our contribution
To combat pollution we will be planting and encouraging the distribution of trees, cleaning of beaches,
To control waste and use energy more efficiently we will encourage hotels to communicate on how to avoid waste of water, food,… and save energy besides information on the use of renewable energy,…
We will be funding green education among the population,
To restore equality between the people at the destination we will be funding old people, handicaps and orphans vacations.

The concept




As a holiday operator, "Irresistible" will be giving 5 % of our benefits from the sales of our travel packages to our foundation “RESTORE” whose main objectives are:
- To plant trees and talk about the green revolution and respect for life
- Inform of the damages and urgencies threatening the planet,
- Show examples of small and easy actions to restore the environment, save water and energy and better manage waste and renewables,
- Promote renewable energy solar and wind energy among the partners (ex hotels) and “restoreangels”,
Thus by targeting the community of travelers with a green conscience, we will be creating a win-win-win-win-win situation for the travelers, the TO, the partners and the planet and the population at the destination respectively.

Success and growth
- The social network (green conscience and social awareness) which we are targeting will grow with sponsorship and mouth to ear effect in the whole world community.
- As more travelers choose us and adhere to our program without any extra cost, we will be reaping the fruits of more commissions (bigger margins from partners willing to share their image with the Restore action), more publicity from our partners (ex hotels and other local TOs), more opportunities like eco-tourism packages, social and cultural tourism, trees planting expedition on government negotiated lands,…extending to equip hotels with solar energy system which might prove to be a competitive advantage in the end !
- Our portfolio of destinations can be broadened meaning more opportunities, more travelers, more partners, larger growth.
- Partnership with distribution channels, luxury shops, other holiday operator to sell their theme packages and their last minute packages with the difference that we will act and restore at the destinations chosen,

- The impact of our new concept and our constructing and clean image will help to further enhance growth and opportunities. So buiding and controlling this image locally and internationally is vital for success.
- Extension of our services to provide a platform for exchange between "restoreangels" and hotels at our destination and thus a percentage on future transactions and projects,

Please note that this concept can be extended to other goods like furniture selling, clothes selling,…,

Unique business value
Our TO will be the first to care and act for the destination we serve. Just by traveling with us the traveler will be participating in the restore movement and will be showing respect to the people and environment visited. With no constraints on the travelers, we will inform him on the simple reflex of the respectful traveler thus restoring hope for a better future
Competition is only selling and making the most of the system without any care for environment and the people out there.

Our customers
Those with a green conscience and social awareness willing to repair, restore and help our earth and life in general.
That is almost everyone from luxury traveler to globe trotter.

Attract these customers
Through online web site (very design and modern)
Through the blog on the site (suggestions to improve the destination social and environmental fate). The best suggestion every 4 month gets a free ticket to one of our destinations.
Each traveler can sponsor someone else (through mail or mouth to ear effect). Each traveler gets on a frequent flyer basis a credit for a number of trees (which we promise to plan for him or let him plant the tree when he arrives at destination. The more people he sponsor the more trees he gets and the more discount he can get on his next travel with us.
Partnerships can be established with other sites, search engine and shops in order to increase the number visit to our site.
Travelers can subscribe and become member to receive special offers and news on investing in the renewable energy in the destinations or any green projects.



Revenue sources
Revenues will come from:
- Sales of packages (from Irresistible and from other TO operating on the same destinations),
- Complementary packages (excursions, theme outings, theme packages, culture based, religion based, eco-tourism),
- Commission from partners (hotels and TOs) participating in the “Restore” action,
- Publicity for partners and sponsors on Web site,
- Subsidies from governments and EU,


Ways to fund growth
Profits from sales, commissions, publicity

iTunes

1) Electronic snacking?
It corresponds to a new lifestyle (quicker and quicker, best deal, opportunist, à la carte)

2) How does the iTunes business model work?
iTunes offer a combination of an easy-to-use interface which as well as giving you access to music, lets you organise it, burn CDs (with a copy protection called DRM) and copy songs to a portable player especially to the famous and trendy iPod.

Not only is iTunes itself free, but it offers a catalog of albums, user reviews, album art, Internet radio, and podcast listings for free as well. Consumers can benefit from iTunes' content and services without ever making an online digital purchase. Apple even gives away new content every week, so users can expand their music collection without any commitment to buy anything. (kind of freemium model)

Music tracks are downloaded and paid “à la carte” rather than on a subscription basis or rent or full album buying.

Customers want the opportunity to pay for content they enjoy. Few companies are targeting this demand. Apple is positioned well to offer a diverse market for paid TV content from iTunes, and its performance over the last year indicates the iTunes model is working well.

By offering free services and making desirable content available for sale on the side, Apple is able sell to people interested in the convenience of digital downloads without demanding the regular rent payments that turn off casual buyers.


Of the 99 cents of a download, Apple keeps a portion and the rest goes back to the label, which is then responsible for distributing back to the artists, songwriters, publishers, and so on according to the existing terms between the labels and their bands. This makes it really simple for Apple to acquire content because they don't have to deal with stuff like licensing agreements or paying publishers -- all that stuff is the labels' responsibility. There's no cost for labels to join the store and, conversely, Apple isn't paying any upfront advances for content (a method that has been used in the past by other digital download sites to attract certain labels to make exclusive deals with them).
The arrangement between Apple and labels is considered a "reseller agreement". It's a simple, user-friendly and egalitarian one. That means they're not licensing content from any labels but instead buying songs "wholesale" and reselling them to consumers -- a lot like a terrestrial retail store that purchases CDs wholesale and sells them retail.

If Apple can stick to its mantra that "it's just about the music" they may have designed a business model that will truly provide a legitimate and accessible platform for all musicians to distribute their music.

Unlike traditional retail sales with the iTunes Store there is:
- No overstock
- No breakage
- No returns
- No packaging costs

Apple is using the right marketing strategy, and praises Apple's strategy of achieving as high a profile as possible, through advertising and setting up alliances with AOL and Pepsi that would not be reached simply by promoting the product through its website.

Apple’s strength is in the integration (ex everything from iPod support to the store is part of one logically organised application owned and mastered by Apple).
Apple insisted that "it's all about the music" and that they're not interested in accepting advertising, banners, or any types of payment for placement on the website. Once again, Apple has a unique position in this. As a technology company with lots of assets they don't NEED to accept advertising money to make this work, and they've never done anything like this in the past (like selling space for icons on their computer desktops)

Apple is pioneering ad free, paid content on the web while others are trying to subsidize the expense of hosting free content by using ads.

ITunes Store: Benefits for Labels and Musicians
- Music is available through Apple's iTunes store as either a single track or as an album download. - Singles are all 99 cents and albums are usually $9.99 (with some exceptions made for double albums or EP's).
- The Store's interface makes it very easy for folks to browse, search and buy music.
- No limited shelf space like in a terrestrial store, and no restocking required. Once it's encoded and sent to Apple, it's up there forever and available 24/7.
- This is not an exclusive deal, so labels are free to make arrangements with other digital distribution systems or retailers.
- Easy to direct possible purchasers from your labels' website to the Apple iTunes store with the click of a button.
- Great sound quality with use of AAC compression format, and strong but invisible digital rights management.
- Labels get the strength of Apple's brand name, promotional efforts, and leadership in this field. They're running print and TV ad campaigns to support the launch of iTunes.

3) How is it different from traditional models for the music industry?

Apple is different from the traditional models in that:
- it does not use subscription (Real Networks' Rhapsody and by MusicNet),
- it uses à la carte method (track or albums),
- it does never used the peer to peer method like Napster / KaZaA, Gnutella but instead an online music store,
- it is proposing software (iTunes for free) offering easy to use services like music player, CD ripping & burning, an interface to iPod, free internet radio stations for Windows and Mac users,
- it selling hardware (iPod portable player) and selling music à la carte
- it has an agreement with the 5 major labels but not only and it does not do publicity to give the impression of caring for music only,
- it uses a digital protection DRM allowing limited copy to PCs but unlimited copy to portable players.
-


4) Another interesting model (Magnatune)
Except now there's a daring young Web site called Magnatune that's asking some interesting questions about ways to finally create harmony between the Internet, music artists and consumers.

Magnatune was launched in May by John Buckman, who is otherwise CEO of e-mail software company Lyris. At its core, Magnatune is an effort to create the first real Internet-era record label.

Magnatune doesn't have all the answers. But its model reveals how the Internet, CD burners and inexpensive digital recording technology are undermining the music industry's economics to a greater degree than most people realize.

The questions about current models start with pricing. Why, in this era of eBay, is all music priced the same? A new track from White Stripes can't be worth the same 99 cents online as an old Bread recording of Baby I'm-A Want You. (No quips from the peanut gallery about which is worth more.)

The Internet makes dynamic pricing possible — prices that change depending on demand. EBay's auctions are one way to do it. Magnatune is trying something a little different, and it includes playing on a buyer's conscience.

When you go to Magnatune, you find a list of a few dozen artists the company has signed. They are not famous. (About one in 300 artists that send music to Magnatune get signed — the idea is to maintain a level of quality.)

Click on an artist such as Falik — who plays electro-Indian music and may or may not intend his name to be a homonym — and you can listen to his album for free by streaming it over the Internet. It works like an on-demand radio station: You're not downloading the music onto your computer's hard drive, and you don't own it.

To download an album so you can play the songs any time or burn them to a CD, you have to buy it. When you click to buy, you see a "suggested" price of maybe $8, but you can choose to pay as little as $5, or as much as you want. Here's what's fascinating: "Everyone assumes we're just getting $5," Buckman says. "The average is $8.93."

Buckman is convinced his customers are willing to pay for — not steal — his artists' music, and even pay more than is necessary, because Magnatune pays artists half its revenue from selling music.

Which brings into play another layer of the Magnatune model. In decades past, it cost a lot to get recorded music to the public. Studios and equipment were expensive, so recording an album took a lot of upfront money. Then, manufacturing thousands of LPs or CDs and shipping them around the country cost a ton.

It all meant artists had to sign with a record label that would advance the money to launch an act. The price to artists has often been restrictive contracts that pay little royalties.
But every part of that model is changing. PCs, digital gizmos and software can be assembled into a high-quality basement studio for a few thousand dollars. Former Byrds legend Roger McGuinn is recording his next album on his laptop while on the road. And with high-speed Internet, CD burners in most every PC, and blank CDs that cost 30 cents, it makes little sense to manufacture and ship pieces of plastic. It's like, in the 1940s, when the first refrigerator/freezers made home ice delivery irrelevant.

Bottom line for Magnatune: It can sign artists who have already recorded their albums, advance them nothing, then split all purchases 50-50. If you pay $8, the artist gets $4.
The 50-50 deal is spelled out on the Magnatune site. Consumers, Buckman says, want to support artists.

But they don't want to support the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the music industry, which they see as the enemy. People are willing to steal music from music companies but not from artists, Buckman says. Considering the outrage in 2003 over the RIAA suing a 12-year-old girl for downloading music, he's probably right.

Magnatune is taking advantage of this zeitgeist with a certain glee. Its slogan: "We are not evil."
Buckman is even embracing some of the more radical aspects of Internet culture. One is open source. Because music now is digital code, why not allow people to take it apart, improve on it, use it to make something new? Magnatune's contracts with artists allow for certain kinds of sharing. "We want to be the Linux of the music world," Buckman says.

Now, nobody suggests Magnatune is going to overtake iTunes or the major record labels. "It probably won't get past a certain point because the music is obscure," says Mark Coleman, author of Playback: From the Victrola to MP3, 100 Years of Music, Machines and Money. But the model should make the music industry take notice.

Yes, compared with the lame attempts to sell music online before, iTunes is a breakthrough, and it is popular.

Still, it sells music from major labels that operate much the way they have since Elvis recorded Blue Suede Shoes. Jobs admits iTunes loses money. Consumers still steal: BigChampagne, a service that the music industry itself uses to monitor file swappers, reports a 35% increase in illegal traffic in 2003. And the RIAA threatens another round of lawsuits against consumers.


4) What other products or industries could adopt the iTunes business model to become successful in the Net/snacking marketplace?

The video / film industries on the internet
The TV stations (pay TV)


Efforts by traditional media distribution companies to make more of their shows available for free on the internet - including the Hollywood-backed film service MovieLink (www.movielink.com)
and Amazon.com's Unbox service are also working against paid services.
Led by ABC.com, US TV networks including News Corporation (publisher of AustralianIT) 's Fox are offering some hit shows online for free.
News and NBC Universal also launched a joint venture to distribute a combined archive of shows over the internet.
Cable TV service executives and set top box makers are also seeking to make online videos easier to watch on big TV screens - a major topic of discussion at last week's cable industry trade show in Las Vegas.
Earlier this year, AOL struck a deal to make its videos available directly on Sony flat-panel televisions.

Social networks: Trendy or e-business shift

I believe it’s trend right now though some are already doing e-business with it.

Is it going to be an e-business shift ?
I’m not so sure since being part of a community or network is a MENTALITY which not all people adhere easily or rapidly. If we take luxury travel or luxury goods it’s probably not quite adapted. It has a market but it will not set the pace for EVERYONE in ANYTHING. It has to prove AUTHENTIC and TRUSTWORTHY for the social network to work in a particular e-business company.

Identify key elements
Communities = segments => YES
What’s important with communities is SHARING and probably here not all segments of the population are eager to share experience and information. It’s more “common people” “easy going”, “technology friendly” “network oriented”,…who are more adapted to this approach though others might follow if all the conditions are met !


As a conclusion:Companies can benefit from Social Network as long as the social network is loyal to their values and standards of quality because if the community diverts away from their core values then it will be probably a negative approach which will not serve their interests.
Authenticity and trust are vital for the model to succeed !

Social networking v/s social shopping

1) What is 'social networks'
(From Wikipedia)
A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes.


2) How the following sites work

- Retail sites
Zilo ,
Zlio.com is a service by Centralcast Co. since November 2005

Zlio provides the possibility to create one’s one shop with products from its broad catalogue of products

Thus one:
creates one’s Ziloshop
publishes one’s favorite products according to a preference theme and specific target (new moms, video games fans, rap music lovers,etc)
offers the service to one’s network (friends, relatives, neighbors, colleagues, on one’s blog, via messenger, on online forums, just like a professional vendor)
is referenced as a search engine and a virtual online shop,
will not have to bother about deliveries or customer service since Zilo will be there !

Wists ,
Wists (weblists allows one to share image bookmarks for any page on the web).
One just signs up, surf on the web, add preference page from anything on Wists.com, by clicking the 'add' links below the pictures.


Deal Plumber

Bringing every deal to every user, to build the largest community-driven deals database, while allowing the community to share deals and get incentives.
So the deals are grouped by categories (computers, car,..) and by posters.
For each deal one can add comment, share it with others or find similar deals.
Dealplumber give a score to each poster according to success of his postings.


- Travel Sites
City Therapy ,


CityTherapy brings together the people, their interests, the locations in the spotlight, the happening events, the music, the fashion and the parties.
CityTherapy is the interactive “GPS locator”, dynamic tool that connects it all in one big network!
With CityTherapy one can find where people of interest, of same interest are, go and meet and also tell others what one likes and one’s interests. Everyone writes comments, suggestions & ideas and posts them to the whole community for sharing and better matching out !!
When one’s signs in one describes one’s:
Location profiles (bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels, and shops) + attached events + view other fans
Event profiles (music, fashion and other events) + events + view other fans
City profiles (bars, restaurants, hotels, and shops for various reasons of living a city) + schedule
Personal profile (lifestyle, music & fashion interests) + picture + favorite events / locations
People search / interaction (find people based on their cities, gender, age, interests, hang-outs) + invitation to people.
Recommended events (based on personal profile, music interests & fashion interests, CityTherapy makes real-time recommended selection of events for the signer) + calendar.
Group therapy (other people sharing similar interests and where they hang out
Fellow therapists (create your community and network of relations + events / birthday)
City blogs (create, edit, comment and view blogs for the different cities)
Social card (receive offers and discounts to a selection of like-minded venues across Europe's most vibrant cities)


Gusto ,

Gusto gives all the tools you need to experience better travel through better information.

Traveling is only part of the fun - planning your trip and sharing your experiences when you get back are also vital parts of the travel experience. Travel reviews, hotel reviews, hotel reservations, travel photos, travel blogs and destination information call all easily be shared with friends and family.

You can read and write reviews and blogs, upload and store your photos and check out others' photos, and use the Gusto! Grabber to bookmark Gusto content and other Web sites. And while you're traveling, you can use Gusto as a handy resource that you don't have to haul along with you!


Trip Hub

It’s very challenging thing to be an organizer of a vacation with extended family, reunion, wedding, get-away with friends, retreat, or any other group trip or event.
The challenges (headaches!) involved are keeping track of who's coming, making group decisions, and coordinating plans.
Today, TripHub (free service) makes it easy to:
- Create a central "hub" for all trip information and discussions
- Invite people to join your trip and track who is coming
- Research and discuss travel plans and activities
- Collaborate on decisions and keep people informed
- Create a shared trip map and schedule of events
- Share travel itineraries from any source or supplier


3) Another example of a social network site (http://www.travellerspoint.com/)

Travellerspoint is an online travel community (also with membership) that went live in 2002 and currently has over 90,000 members from 242 countries. It is owned by Tupela Ltd. AS, which also owns Travelblogs.com and Dutch student travel site Studie-Punt.[1]

Travellerspoint has been mentioned and recommended by BBC World, [2] The Guardian,[3] USA Today,[4] The Washington Post,[5] The Sydney Morning Herald,[6], The Age[7] and the MX[8]. In 2004, it was named the "Best Online-Only Agency" by Travelmole in their annual Travel & Tourism Web Awards, winning out over Travelocity and Opodo.

Travellerspoint Goal
The goal of Travellerspoint is to create an international meeting point for travellers worldwide, whether they are planning their travels, currently travelling or have returned from their travels and want to stay in touch with (or find) those travel friends they met while travelling in the past.


- Does the site add value for users, how?

Travellerspoint's objective is to enrich the travelling experience by offering numerous services, content and products that have significant perceived and added value for travellers worldwide. To travel means to meet other people, experience their cultures and to make, but also to keep good friends. By bringing more people together - albeit before, during or after travelling - Travellerspoint will create more understanding for different cultures and countries and ultimately a better world for everyone to travel in.


- What are the unique characteristics of the site

It starts with real experiences sharing (blogs, statistics, links), and ends probably with real and firm reservation of an accommodation, trip, insurance, hire…


- What are the revenue streams?

- Cheap accommodations and hotel bookings
- Air tickets
- Ads and publicity
- Insurance,
- Hire,
- Travel passes and cards,
- Travel sites related to searches.


Some articles on social networking:

Social Networking’s Next Phase
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/technology/03social.html?ex=1179028800&en=34cb285109dd4273&ei=5070


SAN FRANCISCO, March 2 — Next week Cisco Systems, a Silicon Valley heavyweight, plans to announce one of its most unusual deals: it is buying the technology assets of Tribe.net, a mostly forgotten social networking site, according to people close to the companies’ discussions.

=> bringing their customers online to share !!!!



Like Shopping? Social Networking? Try Social Shopping

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/technology/11ecom.html?ex=1315627200&en=a2b527b20d0aaa0c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Gordon Gould, who likes to surf, said his Web site ThisNext.com, gave social shoppers buying choices they might not get from most retailers …

Green conscience

Fly with a green conscience

WHAT do you do if you're a keen traveller but also passionate about saving the environment? Stay at home? Travel everywhere using a donkey that consumes only organic carrots and water from natural springs, and rely on beaches and hedgerows for your accommodation?

Each of us can, even at our microscopic level show some RESPECT to our environment thru simple actions (water, consumption, waste, energy,...). I agree with Julia that we should care about what we buy or do it with respect to energy and environment since this is one of the few things that we still have control on unfortunately !!

Let's not be selfish and preserve our precious yet endangered environment and life at least for our children and future generations.

Solving global climate change, poverty challenges

Just think, it's possible, if tourism can do it, we can do it !

Wine versus Tea

If Europe has wine-tasting tourism, India's answer to that is a tea-tasting tourist circuit.

Low cost airlines business model

Certainly low cost airlines have changed the nature of consumer behavior not just for airlines, but the entire travel industry.

Low cost companies (ex Ryanair and Easyjet) provides limited service at a price that is attractive to the cost-conscious consumer.
They have had an important progression during the last years especially in the EU airports.
Greatly inspired by Southwest (US), low cost airlines have targeted the “100 % internet” (ex EasyJet et Ryanair) in order to reduce distribution costs and thus propose low prices.
It’s quite adapted to « smart shoppers », those young travelers from above average socio-cultural and educational background and spending a lot of time on internet looking for cool and best deals.


Among the advantages of the low cost model are
For the customers:
- Low price for a minimal and satisfactory service,
- No overbooking problem since the booking online is immediate,
- No tickets issued (Ticketless). Customers can print boarding pass at home and thus reduce cost of service and transactions
- Low online registration fee of luggages


For the low cost companies:
- Internet remains the most rapid and cheapest media for transaction with no important workload or workforce associated,
- Important use of technology to deliver efficient and rapid service,
- Reduce number of intermediaries just like the “dell model”
- Due to online business they can have very efficient and up to date accounting system,
- Important growth (number of passengers, frequency, territory, routes, airplanes deal, ….),
- High brand awareness,
- Additional revenues (see examples below)

However some low cost companies still work with travel agencies where profits are made on call center service and treatment of dossier,


List of the revenue streams:
- Food / beverages and shopping onboard,
- Insurance for luggages and “rapatriement”
- Partnership with TO and hotels for hotel rooms bookings and car rentals,
- Transfer reservation fee (ex bus services),
- Access and usage fee for airport lounge during transits for example,
- Airport parking,

Thus commissions on the additional transactions are new source of revenue for low cost companies.

A few comments :
1. "low cost" can represent a danger for traditional airlines in Europe in the long term

2. To be on same traditional routes from international airports, low cost companies will have to face cost considerations

3. As a large number of low cost exists, it seems that a consolidation will occur at some time with only a few remaining. Till then cost and investment will be important issues to compete.

4. The low cost has created an awareness for customers in that they are now more used to seeing lower price for a satisfactory service

5. In this context it seems that the big companies are quite forced to adjust and reduce price deviation from "low cost" while preserving the characteristics proper to their business model (time management, global service, development of customer loyalty).

Additional revenue, customer development
Development of customer loyalty and membership

Other opportunities:
- Service sector providers, including mobile network operators and Internet Service Providers, could be the next to adopt a low-cost model.
- Others may follow like advertising agency (ex TVLowCost)

Innocentive

What is it? Innocentive ( innovation and Incentive)
InnoCentive is a market place, renting brains of scientists, web-based community matching top scientists to relevant R&D challenges facing leading companies from around the globe. They provide a powerful online forum enabling major companies to reward scientific innovation through financial incentives.
Reduce costs of R&D with more capabilities.

2. Who owns it?
Elililly, Pharmaceutical company (business model)

3. What is the business model?
Community of scientists with leading companies, for competition
A fee is taken by the company,

4. What problems does it solve?
Scientific problems, research problems

Quiz eBusiness 08/03/07

OTHER than core revenue sources:-sale of goods and services-advertising-subscription
Please list 3 additional revenue sources in e-commerce.


Benefiting from the « Long tail eBusiness model »
You sell some star products which you use to attract customers on your site. But customers coming to your site have also access to similar products less known or services or other people’s preferences. As a matter of fact they become exposed to a whole lot of unknown, interesting probably products and services. So the total sale of these products account for an interesting part of the company’s business. That’s what’s called the long tail effect.

Benefiting from the Vente-privée concept
You can also create network of chosen customers who are looking for discounted brand products. These customers will in turn recruit others to the network with the possibility to register online to become a member. So membership is important here in this model and brands just push the products to vente-privée businesses without stock problems or image damage on discount operations. No competition with offline business where full price is practised. Brands pay to be there with their logo published. Also retailers do not need to have discounts and are preserving image and retail pricing on offline businesses.

2. If "market segments are dead", how are segments replaced? Why is it important to the digital economy?

Today on the internet we see new waves which have replaced segments:

- Community of customers is created according to tastes, common points, preferences, motivations, hobbies, habbits,…

- Referral network of users (mouth to ear, sponsorship, recruitment, ) are generated

What’s important today is who buys what, who is clicking, who is referring,….


3. How can 'free' generate revenue for an online business? Please include your favorite example.


By offering for free some services and products you can acquire a lot of customers.Once they become “addicted” or loyal to the service and knowing that they would want more you propose them for a premium price some value added services / products, more sophisticated / enhanced version of the free service, or an extension (functional or quantitative). The initial customer loyalty and attraction is very important. This is how he will be willing to pay for extra service since he know the quality of the basic product and has been using it for some time. The psychological effect is “Now I’ll pay for it since I used to benefit from it and I can see the real value !”In this way you have a return on investment for both the basic and the enhanced servicesShareware or open source software (Linux) use such a model. For example anyone can download a version of Linux from the internet. But once you are using the software you may need support and maintenance services as well as add ons.
Free tend to attract and keep loyal customers.Then the customer base composed of loyal customers start to pay off for extra service. Revenue is then generated which covers the company initial development effort. They see the value and is willing to pay now.I work for an IT company (CA) and we used to have such practice. We give limited, trial copies for free. We also give free pre-sales service to install the software in the customers environment to have proof of concept on our solutions. But once the solution is tested and approved and the customer want to enroll it on a larger basis or functionnal perimeter then full price is charged with access to upgrades, support and maintenance !Examples of online businesses that are successfully using this model.1) Boursoramahttp://www.boursorama.com/palmares/palmares.phtmlPeople go on boursorama to look at stocks behaviour and day to day rates.However loyal users are ready to pay subscriptions for extra services like volility studies, to have an expert view on stock rates (oeil de pro – Eyes of a pro), advice, or pay the service of a broker online to do the job for them2) Freewarehttp://www.ca.com/CA, a software company used to put trial version of its products on line ( these are limited either by the time or the number of users). If such a software is of an interest to someone or a company he can choose to transform the transaction into a professional paid one.3) Lettings service (Arguslogement.com, Meilleurtaux.com)/http://www.meilleurtaux-patrimoine.com/index.phpOne can look at advertissements for renting for free on the internet.However in a view to sell one can pay to have one’s property estimated before putting it on sale.4) Les echos,http://www.lesechos.fr/abonnement/index.htm#Newspaper offering free articles summary to internet users.They also offer for some subscription fee more advanced and specialized articles on particular subjects or the full paper.

Swicki

What is a swicki?
A swicki is new kind of search engine (scan data indexed in Yahoo Search, additional sources specified).
It allows U to focus and go deep into areas of interest to U.
What's interesting is that U and your community choose what's interesting of not (vote for or against). In this way U access valuable, scanned and chosen information by people of your community
A buzz cloud is created which gets updated by further searches in the community.
Their is also a swicki directory where U can find swicki search engines of interest to you.

Just wondering how the community is built though. Probably one has to advertise one swicki to others in order to determine the community and the common interest...

I would appreciate to have more info on this community constitution...

Freemium Business Model

What is the model?
Offering for free some services and products with the main objective of acquiring a lot of customers.
Once they become “addicted” or loyal to the service and knowing that they would want more you propose them for a premium price some value added services / products, more sophisticated / enhanced version of the free service, or an extension (functional or quantitative). The initial customer loyalty and attraction is very important. This is how he will be willing to pay for extra service since he know the quality of the basic product and has been using it for some time. The psychological effect is “Now I’ll pay for it since I used to benefit from it and I can see the real value !”
In this way you have a return on investment for both the basic and the enhanced services
Shareware or open source software (Linux) use such a model. For example anyone can download a version of Linux from the internet. But once you are using the software you may need support and maintenance services as well as add ons.
How does 'free' in fact generate revenue?
Free tend to attract and keep loyal customers.
Then the customer base composed of loyal customers start to pay off for extra service. Revenue is then generated which covers the company initial development effort.

I work for an IT company (CA) and we used to have such practice. We give limited, trial copies for free. We also give free pre-sales service to install the software in the customers environment to have proof of concept on our solutions. But once the solution is tested and approved and the customer want to enroll it on a larger basis or functionnal perimeter then full price is charged with access to upgrades, support and maintenance !

2 examples of online businesses that are successfully using this model.

1) Boursorama
http://www.boursorama.com/palmares/palmares.phtml
People go on boursorama to look at stocks behaviour and day to day rates.
However loyal users are ready to pay subscriptions for extra services like volility studies, to have an expert view on stock rates (oeil de pro – Eyes of a pro), advice, or pay the service of a broker online to do the job for them


2) Freeware
http://www.ca.com/
CA, a software company used to put trial version of its products on line ( these are limited either by the time or the number of users). If such a software is of an interest to someone or a company he can choose to transform the transaction into a professional paid one.

3) Lettings service (Arguslogement.com, Meilleurtaux.com)/
http://www.meilleurtaux-patrimoine.com/index.php
One can look at advertissements for renting for free on the internet.
However in a view to sell one can pay to have one’s property estimated before putting it on sale.

4) Les echos,
http://www.lesechos.fr/abonnement/index.htm#
Newspaper offering free articles summary to internet users.
They also offer for some subscription fee more advanced and specialized articles on particular subjects or the full paper.

5) Etude du marché par un cabinet de Conseil (Gartner, IDC,…)
http://www.idc.com/
Some consulting company can put summaries of their studies online for free.
Companies willing to have a view at the complete picture should however pay to have the complete story and analysis.

6) Viadeo.com (job search, contact, network)
http://www.viadeo.com/connexion/
It’s a collaborative network built by registering online to the site. Its objective is to bring employers and job seekers together on the same network. You consult advertisements but once you want to advertise your own profile, you have to pay to get to be known.


A new article about Freemium (Why It Pays to Give Away the Store)

Your customers will do the publicity for you if your products quality is good and provided....
Here are nine tips from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/10/01/8387115/index.htm

Video: U2 Beautiful Day

Beautiful day:

Weekly article source

My sources are mainly from:

JournalDuNet (through personnal research and RSS link)
Google Alerts

Vente Privee business model

www.vente-privee.com/

Description of their business model

In “vente privée” there is “vente” (sale) and “privée” (private target).
They sell brand articles online at low discounted price (stock of articles bought at low price from luxury suppliers)
They are mostly in textile articles but also in others like wine, plants, food for dog,…
Their success is really to convey the feeling of Exclusivity around the goods sold and private selection of their target, private community of customers,
They organise sale through events (occasional, flash)
They like to give also an impression of “must benefit from it now since you are the privileged !”
Their members can sponsor new members and obtain X € on next sale
Their invitation can be through e-mailing
They do not show any need to do publicity, instead they recruit a few customers who will eventually recruit others and so on.
By surfing on impulsive sale they can transform new customers into distant e-buyers.
They have a strong privileged partnership with luxury brands
They were pioneer in this business model and are now attracting many others
They do not have a real market segmentation
They have no shops as such but just stock warehouse with delivery operation.


Benefits of the model
Customers
They have interesting reduction in price for branded products
They choose their exclusive articles online and receive their articles at home

Luxury suppliers
They get rid of their unsold stocks of article (seasonality problems or change, fashion trend which did not work, color unsuited,…)
The luxury suppliers are not embarrassed with unsold articles or bad image through sale operation.
They exploit a new channel of distribution to reach customers conscious of their brand image but not willing to pay full price..

The company
Make a lot of clients through the “bouche à orreille” phenomenon, sponsor or online registration
No great marketing efforts
Make interesting profit margin on valued brand products through volume sales
Infrastructure cost is minimized (ex no shops but only stock deposits and website and web masters)


Target customers
Those invited by a friend and colleague
Those registered online at the site after having heard the good news
Those invited by online ecommerce company working with and for the vente-privée company, partners of the company or the vente-privée company itself
Those who have heard in discussion forums and blogs about the phenomenon and who happen to obtain some sponsorship code


Article on the company

Vente-privee is going abroad (Spain, Germany)
Vente-privee has reached 100 millions € in six month with 290 employees, 260 sales event, and is launching in Spain and Germany in September, is acquiring one more logistic center (20000 m2) in addition to their existing 30000 m2. Vente-privee is aware of competition but is betting on its experience of “destockage”. They work in direct with the luxury brands while others work with wholesales and as real shops. Brands are becoming more conscious that place where their articles are sold is important and that exclusive partnership will probably be the solution. Vente privee says that they are helping brands to keep the reputation of their image, to sell a lots more through them than on regular sale operation and finally that they are bringing the stock directly to the customers.
http://www.journaldunet.com/0608/060821-granjon.shtml

Vente-privee is broadening its public
http://absolufeminin.nouvelobs.com/mode/mode0065_041.html

Vente-privee is defending his success story in justice against followers
http://www.lexpansion.com/art/134.0.139855.0.html

Additional business opportunities
It seems that there is no limit to the type of products that can qualify for vente-privée as long as the brand is a known one.
Ex Selling cars online through vente-privee. Peugeot is experimenting the phenomenon.
http://www.journaldunet.com/0701/070118-peugeot-vente-privee.shtml


My comments:
It is important that vente privee keep the its sale or rather continue to give the impression of “exclusive”, “secret”, “selected”, “once in a while phenomenon”,… because its success has been built on those values and perception. If the phenomenon gets too much copied or common to the public, then it will be probably the downfall of vente privée and alikes since there will be no difference between them an a regular ecommerce company.

Ideas for extending the Long Tail

Pandora / myspace

For each type of music it can be interesting to understand and explore the universe around each of them (ex Disco, jazz, rock, soul, rap, reggae,...) and propose products which reminds the spirit and ambiance of that period:

Some examples are
- clothes used by the group and the fans during that period,
- accessories (necklaces, rings,..),
- films (ex Elvis presley's films),
- cars used,
- shows and exhibitions, radios links,
- voyage (ex jamaica for reggae),
- furniture and decors,
- implement own blog where sharing will be encouraged,
- newsletters about artists,
- petites annonces (ex dating),

These examples can extend the long tail effect of music distributors and can be applied to other fields

The Long Tail effect (Pandora & Nintendo)

Pandora: Your personnal DJ that helps you discover more music that you like
Pandora (www.pandora.com) is surfing on the long tail phenomenon. By chosing an artist (ex U2) it creates a radio for you which is going to play U2 songs but also proposes other similar artists (known and unknown artists) SugarBomb, Skin, Pink Floyd on whom one can switch to have a try !!
Of course if you like you can also buy the track through itunes or through Amazon.

For Norah Jones it also gives me a hint about people that listens to her and other artists
Ex People Listening to This Artist

dantila(also listening to: SheDaisy, Michelle Branch, Travis Tritt, undefined)
jeff@jefw.com(also listening to: The Jazz Crusaders, Dilated Peoples, Hank Mobley, undefined)

By doing so it's giving alternatives and choices to the user though the first choice was guided by a hit or a known and prefered artist.

Nintendo and Video games
The Wii console propose a "virtual console" that made it backwards compatible with Nintendo's entire back catalog.
From the annual report more than one game from the back catalog sold per connected Wii representing more than $10 million in Long Tail sales for the Wii's first month.
Former hits such as Mario 64 and Zelda are are today's niches. The reason they still qualify as Long Tail content is they're typically unavailable through the traditional distribution channel, whether that means out of print or just no longer stocked by retailers.
Nintendo is going to release loads more games through its online store, as well as all the other microcontent
Nintendo's new console will not only be backwards compatible, it will be way backwards compatible. As the release puts it, "The console also will have downloadable access to 20 years of fan-favorite titles originally released for Nintendo 64, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and even the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)." Thanks to the fact that the original Nintendo Generation is now in their thirties and into 80s nostalgia, retro gaming is hot.
Archives = Long Tail.
See more interesting long tail phenomena and new trends for video games (Long Tail of videogames)