Paying with your Mobile Device

I personally think this is a genius move by Starbucks and I would imagine that many other companies in many different industries will follow suit. It is convenient for everyone involved, if done correctly. It makes things easier on Starbucks, the customer, and even the customers waiting in line behind the paying customer. If this trend continues, it may actually make the need to carry a wallet obsolete. Now I am sure we are years away from the wallet becoming non-existent as there are going to be questions and concerns over this payment method, but who knows what could happen if it proves successful?

As far as the transaction time, it makes perfect sense that paying with your phone SHOULD be faster. The issues probably arise when the person paying with their phone hasn't even pulled it out of their pocket yet. If they have their phone out, with the bar code up on the screen ready to use, it should be faster than a credit or debit card, and definitely faster than cash, with the exception being exact change. Although even exact change is probably a slower process for the Starbucks cashier. But this mobile device has to be faster than a card simply because they won't have to ask "credit or debit?" before they even swipe the card. And as I said before, with cash, the cashier has to count out change.

However, as this article points out, Starbucks themselves admits that it doesn't speed the process up on their end as they still have to make the coffee. But even if you save just a few seconds per customer in transaction time, this will add up over the hundreds of customers per day.

I think this is a great idea for Starbucks that will translate well, maybe even better, in other industries. It is a win-win considering it increases convenience for all parties. I do believe this is the future of the "flow of compensation." I do not see too many downsides to it. I think whatever the downsides may be are easily outweighed by the positives.

Music Piracy on the Internet

I don't think there's anyway to stop music piracy. In Dr. Miyazaki's blog, he writes about the "old days" where there were shady vendors selling CDs on the street. Well this continues on today. Go to any large city in the United States and you can find black market CDs, DVDs, etc. The simple fact is whether it's vendors on the street or someone stealing music on the internet, it can't be contained. Even if it were possible to monitor everyone on the internet to see who is sharing files, it would be far to costly. And frankly, there are way more important things law enforcement agencies need to be working on than a college student downloading some music. Also, even if you stopped say, people in the United States from downloading files, what about all the people in Europe, Brazil, India, China, etc. that can download the files just as easily?

I do feel for the musicians who are losing out on money because if people stealing their music. This article from USA Today explains how Eminem's most recent album, which was the #1 selling album of 2010, sold less than half of what his previous #1 album sold in 2002. It's got to be frustrating for them but unfortunately, it is what it is. Like I said before, it can't be contained. However, I think there are some positive effects of file sharing on music. The music is obviously promoted in a highly efficient way and reaches a much larger audience than it did 15 or 20 years ago. The outcome of this (hopefully) would be an increase in ticket sales to concerts, which is really where the musician makes most of his or her money anyway.

I do not believe legislation will be able to keep up with technology. The people creating software to get around current legislation are always one step ahead of those passing legislation to stop new technologies. I think legislation will be able to walk the line between violating basic U.S. freedoms, however even if they do, what about the rest of the world?

Why would Google even consider buying Groupon?

If Google were smart (and I thought they were until I heard they were considering making a bid on Groupon), they would not try to buy out Groupon, but instead create their own internet coupon service. Of course it would take a lot of groundwork to get it up and running, groundwork that Groupon has already done such as getting clients, but come on it's Google. All of their potential clients can be found through a Google search to begin with. Google is so large and has so much power they could probably work out a deal with major companies to offer more than just one daily coupon. Some companies may even be willing to offer coupons all the time on Google. For example, say you search for Starbucks on Google, a coupon comes up offering $.50 off a coffee, or something along those lines. Some people would probably think this is a ridiculous idea, due to the fact that so many people would be willing to go after these coupons. I don't necessarily agree with this. For starters, some people would simply be too lazy to print off these coupons, especially everyday. But even if people were willing to print the coupon and go to Starbucks to buy a coffee every single day, wouldn't it be worth it to Starbucks? Anyway, this idea of Google starting their own coupon company instead of simply buying out Groupon is probably a little bit of a stretch. But if anyone can do it, Google can. And I can almost guarantee that it has been discussed amongst executives at Google.

I think that Groupon is a viable business method. It's the basic concept of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." Groupon promotes a product or service, if the product or service is purchased, they get a cut. It is relatively cheap advertising for the business, and for Groupon, it's a business with very low overhead costs. As long as people are willing to print out and use the Groupons, they should continue to be successful.

Groupon seems to have a stranglehold of the industry. Before researching for this blog, I had no idea that there were any other online coupon companies similar to Groupon (I was well aware of Groupon). If Google does indeed purchase Groupon, I personally think it will only tighten their grip on the online coupon industry.

Groupon should ABSOLUTELY sell out to Google. Though it is unclear at this point, Google has reportedly offered $5-$6 billion to Groupon. Anytime you can sell a 2-3 year old company for billions of dollars, YOU DO IT. It's a no brainer.

Social media... good for business?

The answer is simple. It depends. Awhile back I worked at a bar called Bamboo Willies which had its own Facebook page. For the bar it was an almost totally free way of advertising (the only real cost was the fact that someone was 'on the clock' whenever they were updating the Facebook page). The Bamboos page had a few thousand 'friends'. So imagine... Friday night there is an event, say a live band and drink specials. Bamboos writes about it on their wall and they know they are going to get the word out to AT LEAST 75% of their 'friends' (that's a conservative number, it could be 90% or more, it just depends on how many 'friends' check their Facebook everyday). In the bar and restaurant industry, social media sites are easily the least expensive and one of the most effective ways to bring people in. They can connect with hundreds or even thousands of people, essentially for free.

On the other hand, take a company like Coke. They are actually paying Facebook and other social media networks to do legitimate advertising on their websites. While the cost of advertising is not an issue for large companies like this and they are effectively able to reach millions everyday,  some users may find the advertisements annoying. According to this LA Times article, nearly half of all advertising dollars ($1.68 billion) spent will go to Facebook. Obviously that is an outrageous amount of advertising and we can expect products to be pounded into our heads on Facebook and other social media sites in an almost subconscious way, with absolutely no end in sight. These advertising companies have found that this is an effective way to advertise... for now. Only time will tell whether or not people will become annoyed by constantly seeing ads, and if so, what effect it will have on purchasing.