The biggest names in the tech industry seem to have collectively decided it's time to make the billions. Sure Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have sold some ads and Foursquare brokered some promotional deals. But with the second wave of IPOs on the horizon and investors' eyeballs getting as round as the tech bubble, the time is nigh for tech demigods to show that they can make money off all those users they've spent years accumulating. And hopefully not alienate them in the process. Today, Mark Zuckerberg inched closer to that dream of a trillion dollars by offering streaming movies — and tanking Netflix's stock. Meanwhile, YouTube closed a deal on a production company presumably to make its very own content. Intel cast a wide net to examine tech companies' latest money-making ventures. Then we looked into our CrystalBall app to see what they might try next.
Facebook
Moneymaker: Warner Bros. just became the first Hollywood studio to stream movies directly on the social network. Facebook has been making a big move toward e-commerce lately, and the fact that you have to use Facebook Credits to buy movies and TV shows could be the tipping point to get users to hand their credit card info over to Mark Zuckerberg. Plus, studios looking for a way to stop Netflix's growth might not make Facebook suffer the same 28-day waiting period for new content.
Downside: At 30 credits (or $3) for a 48-hour rental for The Dark Knight, it will cost you. Plus, you have to "like" the movie or the director to get the privilege. Do you really want hundreds of your Facebook friends to see you "liked" and watched Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day?
What's next: Why should you use a credit card to buy Facebook Credits when you can use Zuckerbills (coming to a U.S. Treasury in 2020)?
Twitter
Moneymaker: In order to make money off its free iPhone app, this weekend Twitter introduced a number of new features, including Quickbar, a "forced trending topics bar" that includes promoted tweets — negating the idea of a service that quickly shows you what's actually trending.
Downside: Pundit John Gruber quickly dubbed the feature "Dickbar" after Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, but Gruber issued the unfortunate nickname on Twitter and it was widely retweeted. Advantage Costolo.
What's next: Can we pay someone to monitor our Twitter feed for us? It's getting overwhelming. Either that or design personalized lists of the best people to follow based on what's important to us, like updates on Libya and breaking bear-cub news.
Foursquare
Moneymaker: At SXSW this week, Foursquare is set to announce a partnership with American Express that will link users' credit cards with their Foursquare accounts. The incentive to consumers? Deals like "spend $5, save $5" at participating merchants. Although Foursquare said its motivation is to increase membership and loyalty and that it won't charge Amex for the privilege, it's hard to believe that will stay the case if it catches on.
Downside: We don't have an Amex card. And (confession) although we use the app for recommendations, we've never actually checked in anywhere. Sorry, Dennis and Naveen! But if they add other credit cards, we would.
What's next: How about a service that warns you beforehand if you're about to friend one of those compulsive people who check in with handfuls of people at name-dropping locales?
YouTube
Moneymaker: YouTube just closed a deal to buy Internet video company Next New Networks, the producers behind Auto-Tune the News, for less than $50 million. Although rumor had it that Google was trying to get into the video-production business, Business Insider reports that the move is actually designed to help existing YouTube partners make "more and better content." Which then leads to more users and, subsequently, more expensive ads.
Downside: Isn't YouTube's strength either grainy weird viral videos or pirated television, movie, and music content? The second could definitely use better quality, but does it even matter for the former?
What's next: How about veering into Hulu territory?
Skype
Moneymaker: Just regular old advertising on the Windows version of its paid video communications service.
Downside: Although Skype says it won't show ads during the video conferencing yet, this could devolve into a Minority Report-style advertising assault.
What's next: Would it be possible to embed microphone/receiver in our brain so we don't have to use the special headset? Just curious.
Update: TechCrunch makes an important clarification. Facebook hasn't announced its own streaming movie service. Rather the movie offering comes from Warner Brothers app that uses Facebook Credits' payment system. But if it proves successful and other studios follow suit, Zuckberg can still count on more personal credit card info coming his way. Someone better go tell Netflix's shareholders.
Smart grid and smart meters are an inevitable part of America’s energy future, but at least when it comes to consumers, it has gotten off to a bumpy start.
Consumers have sued PG&E and Oncor over smart meters that they felt overcharged them (both suits were found to be without merit). Consumers in Illinois have claimed smart meters cause headaches and impotency. Recently, protesters in California’s West Marin County tried to block smart meter installers in an incident that resulted in two arrests. While there are plenty of industry watchers and executives who will say media reports of these snafus have blown the issue out of proportion, the incidents show there’s sometimes tension between consumers and utilities when it comes to the smart grid.
With all that in mind, it’s interesting to see that one pilot happening in the U.S. is coming at the game with a new approach: Focus on the making the consumer happy about the smart grid. In particular, it wants to demonstrate that the smart grid can improve the quality of consumers’ lives, much in the same way apps add value to the lives of iPhone and smart phone users.
Brewster McCracken, director of the Pecan Street Project in Austin, Tex., says its smart grid demonstration project is unlike any others in that is most concerned with the value to the customer, and not the utility. Part of the project’s goal will be to study how — and whether — the smart grid can provide value to the customer.
“The customer will have final say about whether the smart grid is a smart idea,” said McCracken in a recent statement. “The truth is that we – those working on and advocating for the smart grid – need to learn a lot more from customers than they need to learn from us. Before anyone starts prescribing solutions, we must develop a much better understanding of what customers value and how they’re using energy now.”
In smart grid rollouts so far, there’s “not much of case made for what the value to customers will be,” McCracken told me when we met at the project’s offices in Austin recently. Of course, a smart grid-enabled home could save you money on your energy bill, but he doesn’t think there’s been enough of a value proposition made yet. A smart grid-enabled home isn’t as buzzy or hotly in demand as the latest iPad.
So Pecan Street wants to focus on “the great applications that people want,” McCracken said. What’s more, the applications aren’t likely to come from the utility, but third-party providers, he argues. (“Do you get your apps from Apple or Verizon?” he asks.) McCracken sees the energy industry as comparable to the telecom industry, noting that it has transformed from a highly regulated, conservative industry into a competitive market filled with innovative, cutting-edge approaches. And in the same way that cell phone service providers offer free or discounted phones for subscribers, McCracken thinks utilities could one day offer free or discounted smart grid devices to ratepayers.
Point is, there is no killer application yet for the smart grid, a refrain I heard over and over again at the Smart Energy Summit in January in Austin. It’s true. There is no energy efficiency equivalent of Evernote or Instagram, Angry Birds or Twitter, though developers and entrepreneurs are trying to create them. And comparing the smart grid to the smartphone market makes sense for what smart grid hopefuls are trying to do.
Control4, for example, last year offered a developer’s kit so that third parties could design Flash-based apps for its home energy display. Intel’s recently debuted home energy management dashboard (pictured, above) that is sleek and colorful, with iPad-like touchscreen traits. In addition to thermostat and energy efficiency offerings, the dashboard has non-energy applications like video memos, package tracking, home security, weather and traffic monitoring tracking packages, home security, and yellow page searches.
Pecan Street’s first 100-home phase of the project went live last month, with an installed cost per home of $341. It’ll be interesting to see whether Pecan Street’s app-store approach yields creative apps for smart grid users.The project takes place in Austin’s Mueller community, is a recipient of the Department of Energy’s stimulus funding and has attracted partnerships and collaboration from local utility Austin Energy, GE Energy, Oracle, GridPoint, Cisco, Dell and IBM. It will eventually expand to include 1,000 homes.
Smart grid investment will total $200 billion worldwide by 2015, according to a forecast by Pike Research. This represents billion-dollar opportunities for startups and major companies in everything from home energy management to building controls to lighting systems to demand response. Companies like Siemens, GE, Schneider Electric, LG and Intel are expanding their business to include offerings in home energy management and electric car charging. As the smart, tech-savvy home becomes an increasingly important part of energy and technology companies’ products, Pecan Street is right on one thing: Getting homeowners to like the smart grid will be key.
[Top image via Flickr/Kevin Saff]
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