Michael J. Wolf tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1810760 2011-01-31T08:09:23-08:00 Infotainment Economy TypePad Davos: Gearing Up to Stay Geared Up tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010536eaafc3970b0148c83206cb970c 2011-01-31T08:09:23-08:00 2011-01-31T16:33:12-08:00 Much of what we read about Davos comes from the official panels, speeches and interviews. The real discussion, however, is unplanned, with people you get together with or meet at private events. And it’s in that casual atmosphere -- among... Michael J. Wolf

Much of what we read about Davos comes from the official panels, speeches and interviews.  

The real discussion, however, is unplanned, with people you get together with or meet at private events.  And it’s in that casual atmosphere -- among a mix of people that range from government officials to company heads to private equity investors –– where I get a small glimpse of what people in the media and technology world are thinking.

More generally, throughout the conversations I had this year, the common themes were: the economy, health and sustainability and overall optimism about how technology will impact all of these.   

People in the media and technology businesses were upbeat and believe that the recovery underway will boost advertising sales.  And, they’re excited about the opportunities from social media,  tablets and cloud computing.   All of which I would hope and expect. 

What’s new and exciting is that they now realize that they’re going to need to gear-up to stay geared-up.   They now understand that media and technology companies are never going to get back to a place where their businesses will be at  “normal” state. Conversation after conversation, they’re coming to a point of view that they just can’t buy someone else’s innovation, that they need new ways of generating content (capturing professional and user-generated content) and that piracy is a reality they’re going to have to manage (versus just demanding governments enforce copyrights).   They know that their organizations are going to need to keep moving and they're not going to stop.  That was my most exciting takeaway from this year's Davos and a sentiment I think we’re going to see playing itself out in our industry.

At the same time that media and tech execs were excited about social media, every dialogue somehow turned to the condemnation of a government turning off the Internet.  But there was also lot of debate about what’s going on in Egypt, and a possible Facebook-enabled rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

One of the most curious things about Davos is how you get to meet and talk to people.  Whether it’s at a dinner or a standing up at an event or just hanging around in one of the cafes in the congress center, there’s a consistent way people introduce themselves.  My friend Kal Patel, who runs international and new ventures for Best Buy, aptly describes it  as 'physical tweeting.'  Essentially you tell your name, your company and what you do in less than 140 characters.   Then you can jump into a discussion about a topic relevant to the 'tweet.' While it does feel a little bit like speed dating, for me it ends up as the best way to get insight from every conversation.

 MySpace Party Moves On tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010536eaafc3970b0147e1c1cda6970b 2011-01-19T17:04:48-08:00 2011-01-19T17:04:48-08:00 My comments in Tim Arango’s front page article on MySpace were chosen as the New York Times’ “Quotation of the Day”. Yes, MySpace’s popularity and traffic have crashed. What nobody mentions is that the site has already created a huge... Michael J. Wolf

My comments in Tim Arango’s front page article on MySpace were chosen as the New York Times’ “Quotation of the Day”.

Quoteoftheday

Yes, MySpace’s popularity and traffic have crashed.   What nobody mentions is that the site has already created a huge amount of value for NewsCorp.  This is a deal that has already been paid for.  In bold strokes, the three-year $900M contextual search deal with Google and the hundreds of millions of dollars in display ads MySpace sold itself, far exceed the $580M deal price for Intermix (MySpace’s parent company.)   As importantly, the acquisition served as a catalyst for NewsCorp to take the dive into digital across all of the company’s businesses.

For years, people will talk about why MySpace has declined while Facebook has ascended.    To a large extent, the problem is similar to what anyone who creates media faces: the fleeting nature of cultural popularity.  MySpace was more than a social network, it was really an outlet for people to connect with eachother around entertainment.  Music was at its foundation but so much of what drove its later growth was the first large-scale way for people to share video (by embedding YouTube clips) and then a new way for its users to enjoy their own moments of fame.

As a side note, it’s been interesting to see how many people took notice of the article because it appeared on “A1” of the Times.  Despite the fact that so many of us are getting our newspapers without paper, the front page still carries so much prominence.

 Wall Street Journal Report with Maria Bartiromo tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010536eaafc3970b0134897d3a1a970c 2010-12-06T04:25:35-08:00 2010-12-06T04:28:09-08:00 Michael J. Wolf

 

 

 

 

 Monaco Media Forum tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010536eaafc3970b0134897d04bc970c 2010-11-24T11:07:16-08:00 2010-11-24T11:07:16-08:00 Mobile and online video were the central themes this year. I moderated “Cloudy With Apps” which focused on making money from content in an apps environment. I purposely got Chris Ahearn and Eric Hippeau to mix it up about premium... Michael J. Wolf

Mobile and online video were the central themes this year.  I moderated “Cloudy With Apps” which focused on making money from content in an apps environment.   I purposely got Chris Ahearn and Eric Hippeau to mix it up about premium versus free news models. Scott Dinsdale from Warner Music defined premium slightly differently: as fan-based experiences, which will get music lovers to want to pay for content.   This was a fun panel.  After Spencer Reiss (who heads the MMF Conference) gave us the timeout sign, we all chatted for a while – realizing that we could have continued the conversation for the rest of the day.

 

 

 

 Bloomberg Game Changers: Mark Zuckerberg tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010536eaafc3970b0147e020a2d3970b 2010-11-24T11:03:41-08:00 2010-11-24T11:46:55-08:00 Bloomberg profiled Mark Zuckerberg as part of their “Game Changers” documentary series. Yuri Milner, David Kirkpatrick and I talked about our experiences with Mark and our perspectives on how he built the company. Amazing to see how much importance a... Michael J. Wolf