Sunnyside Up: Fab's Social Shopping, Google adds 'Knowledge Graph,' Facebook Highlights Posts, Airtime as Currency, MIG33

1. Sunnyside Up
5.17.12

2. fab introduces social shopping features
• What’s new? Fab introduces social shopping features.
• How does it work? Go to the Feed tab—which shows you who
is buying what now—and enable the integration. You will then be
able to see which Facebook friends bought or favorite what
items. Other users can comment on the purchase, an interaction
that will appear both on Facebook and on Fab.
• Why does it matter? Retailers have had difficulty encouraging
social shopping (which, theoretically, if consumers are influenced
more by their friends than by ads should encourage sales and
customer loyalty), but Fab’s Facebook integration is one the most
elegant attempt to date.
• One problem with the process is that when a user clicks through
to a friends’ recently purchase product, he may find that it is no
longer for sale (Fab is still on a flash sale model).
• Fab could solve this by allowing the user to pre-order that item
(to tip another production round) or buy it at full cost (if the
manufacturer still has supply), which would be more satisfying
for users who covet what their friends buy.
• Implications: A health social shopping environment will still be to
duplicate: Fab’s successes are built a strong insight (design-
minded people are wealthy, repeat consumers; designers are
willing to drop their prices for exposure) and a strong community
that has been highly nurtured (via good web design, CRM, and
community management). That said, individual retailers may band
together form their own version of Fab.com for their vertical
(jewelry, shoes, T-shirts), and enabled social shopping there.

3. fab introduces social shopping features

4. google adds ‘knowledge graph’ to search
• What’s new? Google is adding semantic
context next to search results.
• How does it work? Google has a number of
database that associates meaning to search
term: to Google, “new york” isn’t just the
word “new” plus “york,” but a major city in
the US, home of the Yankees, the Empire
State Building, etc.
• Why Does it Matter? This improvement
doesn’t wildly transform how users use
Google, but it may save them some typing:
instead of typing “Taj Mahal band,” to
specific the band, one could just type “Taj
Mahal” and then click an image of the band
on the right to specify that search.
• For Google, “Knowledge Graph = More Time
on Google, Less Time Surfing the Web,”
which means more search ad dollars.
• Read More/Source: http://mashable.com/
2012/05/16/google-knowledge-graph/ and
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/
2175783/Google-Launches-Knowledge-
Graph-First-Step-in-Next-Generation-Search

5. facebook tests highlighted posts
• What’s new? Facebook is testing a highlighted post
feature.
• How does it work? Much like Facebook’s Reach
Generator ad product (guarantees your status update is
seen by all of a brands fan), highlighted post will
gurantee that all of your friends will see your post (if
you were subletting your apartment, or promoting your
band’s concert)
• Read More/Source: http://mashable.com/2012/05/11/
facebook-highlighted-posts/

6. ZIMBABWE ADOPTS AIRTIME AS CURRENCY
• What’s new? Hit with hyperinflation, Zimbabwe abandoned its
currency in 2009, leaving most people to pay with US Dollars.
Small change is short in the country, and retailers often force
customers to buy more or accept a credit note if the purchase
doesn’t come to a whole dollar amount.
• A start-up called Yo-Time lets retailers offer change in the form of
airtime (anywhere between 10 to 50 cents worth of airtime) that
can be transferred in seconds to the shopper’s phone.
• Why does it matter? The currency problem in Zimbabwe and Yo-
Time is a reminder of how many consumers in developing
countries make do—in remarkable circumstances—with the little
they have, and that a entrepreneurial business that pays close
attention to these infrastructure gaps, can turn a profit and
provide a much-needed service.
• Read More/Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/
2012/05/02/cellphone-airtime-becomes-currency-in-zimbabwe/?
mod=WSJBlog

7. mIG33, south east asia’s mobile social network
• What’s new? MIG33 is a mobile-only social network that’s
popular in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia (but also Nepal,
Bangladesh, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia). It currently has 47
million members (half of them live in Indonesia). This is a small
figure when compared to Tencent’s 650 million social network
members, but is still relevant to marketers in S.E. Asia.
• What’s so great about it? MIG33 is designed to be lightweight
and to run on feature phones (think the old Nokia phones), which
are the most affordable phones in S.E. Asia
• MIG33 is fairly powerful, though: users can perform all the basic
social networking actions, including creating profiles, sending
photos, friending and messaging. It’s expanding into micro-
blogging by offering a Twitter-like feature and into mobile games
through partnerships with Japanese game-developer GREE.
• Why does it matter?: Roughly a quarter of the world’s population
lives in Southeast Asia, and thus technology developments there
remain relevant. After China, this region is the next to significantly
develop mobile internet penetration.
• MIG33 & Virtual Goods: “Mig33 has evolved over time and found
that virtual goods are one of the most popular things users buy
on its social network. More than 40 million virtual goods were
purchased on Mig33′s network in 2010. So the company is now
getting developers to create the games and social apps that spur
further demand for those virtual good.”
• Read More/Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/17/mig33-launches-twitter-like-
miniblog-for-emerging-mobile-markets/
• and http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/20/mobile-social-network-mig33-launches-game-
developer-platform/

8. Thank you.
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