PayPal Now Processing $315 Million In Payments Per Day

PayPal is processing around $315.3 million in payments per day. On average, the payments platform is seeing upwards of over five million transactions a day. PayPal also has raised its estimates of the amount of mobile payments transactions, doubling the estimate to $3 billion in mobile total payments volume in 2011.

PayPal says that the rate at which people are using the payments technology to buy items via their mobile phones is growing rapidly and this is actually the third time the company has had to update its numbers. At years end in 2010, PayPal predicted $1.5 billion in mobile payments and in February, the company revised this to $2 billion. PayPal Now Processing $315 Million In Payments Per Day

Is Google is a Monopoly? If So, Are Consumers Harmed?

Oddly enough, whether Google is, or is not, more or less a monopoly, might not matter. How does it not matter, in terms of classical antitrust thinking?

One can argue, since Google provides its services for free, that whether Google competitors are at a disadvantage or not is not the real issue. How one can prove that consumers are harmed is the issue, and one might question how consumers are harmed by Google's dominance in the search market.

For purposes of assessing whether Google in some way violates U.S. antitrust law at least, the issue is less "monopoly-like characteristics. The issue is whether Google has acquired that monopoly by nefarious or anticompetitive means, or is using that dominant position in a way that harms the market for those services.

The problem with applying that to Google is that even if you assume it has a monopoly and is being anticompetitive, it’s not at all clear how that is bad for consumers.

Whether Google is a monopoly isn’t the point

Kindle to Get eBook Lending, Periodicals

It looks like Amazon is going to be adding newspaper and magazine subscriptions for iPads and iPhones. The Kindle for Android app and other apps will get the same update too later down the line. Kindle to Get eBook Lending, Periodicals

Will the new Amazon tablet also get e-book lending?

Print Industry Disruption Drivers Not There for TV, Telcos

Some might argue that among the primary reasons for the disruption of print industry business models were high fixed cost, high debt loads and inability to satisfy new end user demands for content formats. Some might think those same issues will affect the video subscription business. Some might say such issues will have more implications for communications service providers than cable TV and other video distributors. Traditional TV disruption

The argument that the same "high fixed cost, high debt load, new application" pressures will afflict the subscription TV business, as the Internet has reshaped the print industry, is an argument some of us might consider too glib. Execs don't agree.

Time Warner Cable executives are right to point out that people really do want to watch professionally-produced video. TWC executives also are almost certainly right that abandonment of video subscriptions specifically for the purpose of consuming professional content online is not happening, much. Little evidence of major cord cutting

But high debt and high fixed cost, as well as an inability to keep up with new application creation, does sound more like the telecom industry, some might argue. That is not to say the need for broadband and Internet access ever "goes away." But some might argue that the better historical fit is "print industry and telecom," rather than "print industry and TV."

Execs Don't Agree on Whether A La Carte Means Lower Consumer Prices

“Don’t sell products into a platform where you end up with less money than when you were selling it to the previous buyers," says Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. That bit of advice suggests why consumers might not save much money, if any, as professionally-produced video and movie content distribution shifts from current channels to new channels. Cordcutting Hasn’t Arrived

Over-the-top programming could help moderate rising programming costs in the future, Cablevision Systems chief operating officer Tom Rutledge has said. Lower content costs?

69% of Businesses Say Blogging Increased Leads

The 2011 HubSpot ROI Study, conducted by two MBA students from MIT and Babson, found that 69 percent of businesses surveyed attributed their lead generation success to blogging.

The study also found that 75 percent of businesses believed search engine optimization was a primary factor. Social media came in third with 47 percent, just a hair shy of triple that of paid search.

69% of Businesses Attribute Blogging to Increased Leads

15X Growth for Social Commerce by 2015

Social shopping is a bit like "mobile money," including a number of distinct market segments, value chains and ecosystems. Some would say daily deals are "social shopping," while others might include the other ways social mechanisms shape and then drive retail purchasing.

In the former case, the social element is the end user demand process, where a certain number of people might have to agree to buy something before the deal is triggered. In other cases the social element further extends to social distribution of the offers, as when people let others know an offer is available on Facebook or another network.

Some might also include within the social shopping or social commerce realm restaurant and other consumer ratings features and services, such as Google Places or Yelp. Others are looking at ways mobile payment services will incorporate social elements and socially-created content into merchandising efforts.

Dish Network Could Partner With, or Buy Sprint or Clearwire

Dish Network Corp. , the second- largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, may consider partnering with or buying a wireless carrier such as Sprint Nextel Corp. or Clearwire Corp., Chief Executive Officer Joseph Clayton said.

“We’ll look at partnerships, acquisitions, all of the above,” Clayton said. Asked whether that could include buying or partnering with Clearwire or Sprint, he said: “Could be.”

Dish needs a wireless network to utilize the spectrum it has acquired in its deals for DBSD North America Inc. and Terrestar Networks Inc. announced this year. Dish filed for U.S. government permission to offer mobile high-speed Internet service to its customers last month. Government approval would allow the company to build a network.

Dish ’Could’ Acquire Wireless Company, CEO Says

Dish’s Blockbuster Movie Pass is no Netflix Killer

Though there had been some speculation that Dish Network might position its Blockbuster assets in a way that challenges Netflix, Dish Network has taken more of a "TV Everywhere" approach, unveiling Blockbuster Movie Pass as a complement to its linear video service.

That might happen some day, but for the moment, Movie Pass is strictly tied to the satellite operator’s subscription video service.

Movie Pass will provide its subscribers access to more than 100,000 DVD titles and 4,000 streaming titles at a cost of $10 a month. The DVD by mail service is included.

Dish subscribers with IP-connected set-top boxes will be able to stream movies and TV shows from the Blockbuster MoviePass service along with their on-demand offerings.

That said, Dish Network could be in position to introduce a wider program at some point, as its content library is extensive, and compares most closely with that of Netflix DVD by mail offerings. 

Dish’s Blockbuster Movie Pass is no Netflix killer

Blockbuster Movie Pass Illustrates Streaming Business Model

For those of you wondering about the business model for streaming video services, the launch of Dish Network's new Blockbuster Movie Pass suggests one important fact. The actual revenue model for an online streaming service might be another business with a significant revenue stream. In the case of Dish Network, the business model is subscribers to linear video services.

As with the case of "TV Everywhere" services offered by cable subscribers, the revenue model actually is that the service provider attracts and keeps customers for a linear video service.

The Blockbuster streaming content adds Starz, Epix, Sony Movie Channel, and Encore to Dish’s on demand library that includes Fox, TBS, TNT, Discovery, AMC, CN, DIY, HGTV, FOOD and History. The combined content can be streamed only from DishNetwork.com. Blockbuster also will integrate DVD by mail offers as well.

The service launches next Saturday, October 1,2011, and is available for $10 a month only for Dish Network subscribers.

This service requires a Dish Network satellite TV package and is not available separately, in other words. New subscribers who buy Dish’s "Top 200" programming package for $39.99 a month will get Blockbuster Movie Pass for free for one year.

The Blockbuster service will be billed with the Dish Network TV service, on one bill.

Blockbuster Movie Pass

Can HP Afford to Abandon Consumer Markets?

As the new HP CEO, Meg Whitman faces a difficult situation, as have all recent HP CEOs. HP has a strong set of enterprise and consumer products, with a brand that is known both in consumer and business markets.

One might argue HP should give up on the consumer markets. But that might be as dangerous as straddling the market. Consumer technology is strongly shaping enterprise computing and application trends. If HP gives up its consumer focus, it might be at a disadvantage.

Virtually nobody thinks HP can afford to give up its enterprise focus, so that isn't an issue. The issue is how strategic a consumer focus of some sort might be, for success in the enterprise markets.

HP: Keep PCs, consumer units

Google+ has 43 million users?

There is a wide divergence of opinion about how well Google+, Google's new social network, is doing. One issue is that available methods of tracking traffic do not capture all, or much, of Google+ engagement, since the service is designed for more-private communications between users.

If the algorithms are all working right, Google+ has continued to grow at a rapid rate. Google+ “unofficial statistician” Paul Allen believes that Google now has over 43 million users. Allen, whose name you might know as being the founder of Ancestry.com has a method whereby he estimates the total number of users on Google based upon uncommon surnames.

In the past, according to PlusHeadlines, Allen has been startlingly accurate:

July 4th – 1.7 million users
July 9th – 4.5 million users
July 12 – 10 million users
September 9th – 28.7 million users
September 22nd – 43.4 million users

Google+ traction matters because most brands investing in social networks do not have unlimited time and resources. As Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn already are getting attention, Google+ success means a fourth network to support, or a hard choice about refocusing attention formerly given to other networks.

Google reportedly passes 43 million users

Creators of "Angry Birds" as Angry Birds

Global Internet Speed Study

The average worldwide download speed is 580 Kbps. Average U.S. speeds are about 616 Kbps. South Korea has an average speed of 2.2 Mbps. In the United States, Verizon Internet Services provides the fastest service, averaging 1 Mbps.

In Great Britain, Virgin Media is the fastest choice with average speeds of 612 Kbps while Dacom Corp. takes the top spot in speedy South Korea with an average of 5.2 Mbps.

Over time, such measurements will have to reflect widespread use of wireless broadband, with generally slower speeds, though.

The study was based on 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries from January through June 2011.

Global Internet Speed Study

Is Meg Right for H-P?

LightSquared Comments at Communacopia

Michael Montemarano, LightSquared CFO, and  and Frank Boulben, Chief Marketing Officer, talk about the company at the Goldman Sachs 20th Annual Communacopia Conference. The executives provided an overview and update of the LightSquared business a well as a recap of yesterday’s announcement of the company’s solution to GPS interference issues. You can listen to the presentation here: LightSquared presentation

Facebook Launches "Timeline"

It's more visual, and historical.

 

Was Einstein Wrong?

Scientists at CERN say they have recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light, a feat that Einstein said was impossible.

If the findings are proven to be accurate, they would overturn one of the pillars of the "Standard Model" of physics, which explains the way the universe and everything within it works.

Einstein's theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometres) per second.

Proof that something had travelled faster would pose major questions about our understanding of the laws of nature because, for example, something that travels faster than light would in theory arrive before it left.

Speed of light 'broken' by scientists

Google Wallet Launches

Right now, Google Wallet only works with Citi-Mastercards and the Google Prepaid Card. Visa and Google announced a worldwide agreement to support the Visa payWave app, but it will still be up to the financial institutions and banks to add support.



Google Wallet

DOJ Antitrust Chief: AT&T Merger Lawsuit Not Negotiating Tactic

The Justice Department's chief antitrust enforcer flatly rejects speculation that the agency's lawsuit to block the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile USA is a negotiating tactic.

"I wouldn't call it a preemptive lawsuit of any kind," Sharis Pozen said. "The department's antitrust objections to the $39 billion deal "couldn't be clearer."

AT&T Merger Lawsuit Not Negotiating Tactic