Nouveau by Zaw Thet - Interesting New Stuff

Great moments in advertising...

Kudos to Virgin (courtesy of textually):

Goodbye 2007 and Welcome to 2008

I haven't had a chance to update this blog lately. Sorry readers, but I'm sure most of you didn't notice.

No bold predictions for 2008, I haven't had time to pull my heads out of the weeds at 4INFO long enough to think objectively about anything outside wireless and advertising.

I'll leave you with some quick thoughts on starting companies and entrepreneurship:

• If you're going to read one book next year, read Bill Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management.
• My biggest take-aways from Swanson's book:
  
  • When you ask for somebody to do something, also remind them why you are asking for it. That way if they hit a roadblock and you are not around they can come up with a creative solution.
  • Always ask for confirmation that people understand what you are asking for or what they to-do's are.
• Paul Soros once told me: "Starting a company is easy, getting it to break-even is the hard part."
• As a leader, your job should be to try and make yourself obsolete: that means you hired well and all the gears in the company are working...allowing you to focus externally and on big picture strategy.
• Culture, culture, culture - this starts the moment you start a company and is never not important.

Have a great 2008!

$5 for every friend you tell about 4INFO!

We just launched a cool referral program for 4INFO. As you know, all our real time SMS/text alerts (NFL, MLB, weather, stocks, etc.) are all free. Now, you can also get $5 in Amazon gift certificates for every friend you tell about 4INFO and our cool mobile services. Link to send invites is here: http://www.4infoalerts.com/referral/alerts/

Spread the word people! Help your friends stay in the know, on the go.

First Google billboard I've seen

Interesting move from Google. I first read about this in Tech Crunch. I just saw one of these billboards in San Francisco, right on the 101 by the 4th/Harrison on-ramp.

Makes sense to me. Google is flush with cash and offline media (billboards, newspapers, etc) is the best way of driving mobile voice/text traffic since a person is not in front of a computer and needs the info right away! This Google service competes with Free411, which happens to be a 4INFO partner.

Pic from Tech Crunch below:

More Sadness

see this picture from NY times story.

This is really sad...

Myanmar Troops Kill 9 More Protesters - http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6954593,00.html

As a Burmese American I'm glad to see that the world news is covering this, but it is pretty sickening.

Mixx gets nice coverage in TechCrunch

My friend Chris McGill formally launched his new company (mixx) today. Nice bit of coverage in TechCrunch. First, I love the name "mixx". Second, I think the company has a great product the masses can use and has an innovative distribution strategy that will make it not have to depend on pure viral growth. Third, the team that Chris has assembled is phenomenal. Look for big things from these guys!

Get in the mixx....

Digg this please: Laptop kicks off press about 4INFO NFL alerts

Laptop magazine just released a list of the top ways to follow live football anywhere. 4INFO was top of the list!

Help spread the word and Digg it here.

For you NFL and fantasy junkies out there here are the direct links to get free team and player alerts.

Phil Hellmuth is a member of the Stanford Federal Credit Union

I was doing a public service announcement for Stanford and look who pops up on the same website. Phil Hellmuth! Awesome!

Pollution Levels in China are Scary

Very sobering article in the NY Times today. More here.

It says that China was only supposed to pass the US as the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases in 2010. But, some agencies think it has already happened this year! Just like currency on the world market, pollution on this scale affects us all at a global level.

I was thinking about heading to China for the Olympics, but seems like the right thing to do is pass.

Facebook down?

I haven't been able to log in to Facebook tonight (12 am PST). Anyone else experiencing similar problems?

Such huge traffic is both a blessing and a curse.

A new miracle material...better than spam

I thought this was pretty cool:

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

BTW, not sure if the "silica" gel this originates from is the same as that for breast implants...but that would make it even funnnier. More here.

4INFO funding announced! ($10M)

It's been a big week for us. We just announced a new $10M round of funding led by Gannett (includes existing investors DFJ and USVP). Also, Sand Hill Capital has joined us as a new investor. I'll link to the press release as soon as it goes up.

What does this mean for all our 4INFO users, partners, and advertisers?

• Our Mobile Search users - we will continue to provide the best mobile search and alerts service via SMS (44636 shortcode) and WAP (http://m.4info.net). We've got a lot of new content coming in the next couple of months. Look for stuff like NFL services that tells you not only the score, but also who scored! We strive to be the most trusted and useful mobile company in the market. We never share information on our users and we never send ads by themselves. Our philosophy is that consumers want free content on their cell phones (not premium). We have transitioned all of our major premium services to free ad-supported. Unlike most mobile companies we make it easier for users to opt-out than to opt-in. If you don't want alerts you don't get them.
• Our SMS Publishing Partners - as has been quoted in the press, there are now over 700+ publishing partners using 4INFO to send SMS alerts and set up search services. How have we managed to do all of that in the past year? First, we make it super easy for publishers like USA TODAY, Tribune, TV Guide, and others to use. No set-up fees, no per-message fees, and a revenue share on all ads we serve in their content. What's not to like about that? It's very low risk and helps with both user retention and monetization. Look for a lot more big partner announcements in the upcoming weeks.
• Our SMS Advertisers - Here's what we've learned: users don't hate advertising, they hate irrelevant advertising (and any ads that are sent to them like SPAM). What works on the web for folks like Google works better in SMS. We have all the tracking metrics advertisers have come to expect on the web plus we know unique users (tied back to the phone number). While that phone  number information is never shared with advertisers we can use it to target ads much more effectively. Response rates to ads have been great and we've got a great line-up of big brand advertisers now in the network. Look for new stuff in the upcoming months like the ability to purchase directly through your phone and also mobile video ads with some great partners.

Where does that leave us? In addition to being the best mobile search company, we are also the largest SMS Ad Network in the US. The end goal here is to build 4INFO into a mobile media company: mobile search for consumers, SMS publishing for partners, and mobile advertising through our SMS Ad Network. We've got a big vision for future, so there is still lots to do.

A big thanks to all our users, partners, and advertisers. Without you, your feedback, and your support we wouldn't be able to keep making cell phones that much more useful.

I also want to extend a special thank you to the 4INFO team. I am humbled to come to work everyday and be around such smart, dynamic, and passionate people. Thanks team!

VentureBeat just broke the story here.
Be sure to Digg it here!

When is the last time you got a MySpace friend invite?

I get about 5 Facebook and 5 LinkedIn invitations to connect every single day. I can't remember the last time I got a myspace invite. Sign of the times?

Don't Overlook SMS (Reposted from VentureBeat)

I had the pleasure of being a guest contributor on VentureBeat. Thanks Matt for asking me to write! Here's the link to the article entitled: "Don't Overlook SMS". Don't forget to digg it!

I'm reposting it here for your reading pleasure. Also, short update at the end about 4INFO that does not appear in the VentureBeat website.

Don't Overlook SMS

In the U.S., the promise of the future in accessing mobile information via WAP or a rich client application casts a shadow on SMS, better known as text messaging or “texting”.

According to conventional wisdom, WAP and downloaded client applications are the holy grails of mobile, with their ability to deliver splashy, colorful landing pages, images and videos to consumers on their mobile phones. Companies like AOL are snapping up WAP advertising startups like Third Screen Media with the belief that, as devices and networks improve, increased consumer adoption will follow.

But SMS is no underdog. It has huge adoption now, is very versatile and useful and is going to persist, even if the handsets and networks catch up to the hype being created around WAP and clients. It’s not like the industry is slamming text messaging, most just ignore it for the razzle-dazzle of newer technology. But some are realizing where the real volume is. Maybe more importantly, SMS has the highest overall usage rates in the US (37%) compared to WAP (14%) or rich clients (6%).

Why are people going to keep using SMS?

1. My mother can use SMS

SMS is simple. My mom can text message, but she doesn’t have a clue how to go to a website on her cell phone or download a client application. As much as people think they want the cutting edge technology, when you want information right now, you’re going to go straight to the quick and easy feature that you know how to use, which is text. Answers come quick, efficiently, and on any device, not just the newest and hottest.

2. People (including my mother) are using it NOW

I think the market’s default assumption is that it will eventually be able to replicate the web or a desktop experience on a cell phone. That assumption overlooks the widespread adoption of what’s already in most people’s hands. Unlike the new, and more expensive technologies, text messaging works for almost everybody, right now. People don’t change when they have a tool that already works. Eighty-eight percent of US Internet users said they used text messaging; WAP and clients didn’t even make this list.

3. SMS is asynchronous

That’s fancy talk for being able to do the following (not possible with WAP or a client): You can send an SMS, then turn off or put away your phone and get the response later. You don’t need to keep your phone open to wait for a page to download. You can also store the information from an SMS permanently in your inbox

4. Check out Europe and Asia

Take a look at how SMS has taken off in Europe and Asia. In the UK, you can get local election results via SMS. You can order a pizza or a taxi via SMS. Despite access to faster networks and more advanced handsets, in Asia as much as 72% of mobile revenue comes from text messaging.

5. Pushing the Possibilities

The fact that SMS is the only true “push” mechanism for mobile information makes it quite powerful. Want sports updates or traffic information sent to you automatically? The only mobile medium for this type of service is SMS. Although users can visit WAP sites or receive email on their phones, SMS has both the simplicity and the immediacy to encourage ongoing usage and wide adoption. Also, anyone can receive a text message alert. They can set it up on the web and still get the value of staying in the know on the go. They don’t even have to know how to send a text message!

Today, SMS accounts for approximately 75 to 80 percent of non-voice service revenues worldwide. Despite all the noise around WAP and the latest technologies, most of the action is in SMS. Traditional media companies (online, print, TV) and advertisers are taking notice. I’m not saying that browsing the web on your phone isn’t going to become better and that new handsets won’t continue to offer great experiences. You absolutely need to be able to browse for some things. Just don’t overlook SMS: this technology isn’t going away.

4INFO UPDATE: For those I haven't talked to in a while, there is lots of big news at 4INFO these days. We've expanded from being a pure "mobile search" company to becoming the leader in SMS/Text mobile advertising. We've got over 700+ publishers on the platform sending out SMS alerts (promoting both our content or their content). We turn mobilizing content via SMS from a cost center into a revenue stream. On the advertising side we've got some of the biggest brands in the world getting response rates 15-20 times higher than they would on the web.

There is lot's of noise around mobile advertising these days. AOL's recent purchase of Third Screen being the highlight. I just want to clear up one misconception: we are a mobile advertising company, not a mobile marketing company. We don't spam our users or our partner's users with text messages, we only deliver free, relevant content and attach an ad. That's mobile advertising. Those companies that send marketing messages on behalf of companies are mobile marketing (otherwise known as CRM). We serve ads in SMS messages. Mobile marketing companies can't serve ads in their messages because their partners are trying to keep users, not attract them.