All posts by karimkanji

social media

itunes and beatles – does it matter?

“Who cares?”

This is what millions of Beatles and iTunes Apple fanboys asked when Steve Jobs announced that the most popular boy band of all time, the Beatles, were finally coming to iTunes.

And at first look they may have been right.  Just this past decade, The Beatles have appeared on the BillBoard Top 200 for 5 of these years.  So, sales and airplay have never been a problem.

So why bother FINALLY going into the iTunes store:

Here are some stats from Reuters:

  1. More than 2 million songs sold.
  2. 450,000 albums sold.
  3. Abbey Road was the top selling Beatles album and ended the past week on US iTunes charts at #6.
  4. The Beatles Box Set was #10.

So maybe some people didn’t think this was big news at the time of the announcement.

However, after almost 2.5 million paid digital downloads both Apple and The Beatles think this does matter.

Which brings up an important question:  Does this all matter in the age of people and pixels?

Yes.  And here’s why:  It’s about content.  Content that matters.  Content that  is good.  Content that is timeless.  And after decades of not making new music as a band their content is still timeless.

So here’s the takeaway:  When it comes to creating content (blogging, online video, making a product, writing a book or song, etc…) understand that one thing will “keep it alive”.  And it’s not the tools (The Beatles are a prime example).  It’s content.

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Please feel free to comment below.

Uncategorized

mobile money

This past summer I had the glorious opportunity to travel to East Africa for 6 weeks.  I would highly suggest this to anyone who wants to take a break from Canadian life and see how the other side is doing it.

While in Kenya I hooked up with someone I first connected with on Twitter, Soud Hyder.  Soud is a mover and shaker in the technology and innovation space in Kenya.

Recently, Soud wrote an article about a product called M-Pesa which is a mobile money solution that first launched in Kenya.  With his permission, here is that article:

M-Pesa is a mobile money transfer service conceptualized in Kenya by Safaricom/Vodafone and funded in part by the UK government. M-Pesa has since grown exponentially with a user base of over 50% of Kenya’s adult population, throughput of over 11% of the country’s GDP and higher transfer rates than those of Western Union globally. The service has slowly expanded to Tanzania, South Africa and Afghanistan in Vodafone networks. Other operators in the region have also deployed similar services.

If there is anything better than sliced bread for the average Kenyan, it has to be M-Pesa. A money transfer service that proves that endogenous growth of an economy mainly populated by the bottom of the pyramid is possible. All human beings are endowed with certain unique skills which can be monetized in a market oriented world. For Kenyan micro entrepreneurs M-Pesa has been the right lubricant that has catapulted them to be active participants in the economy. Growth in mobile telephony has allowed millions of people in the informal economy to connect and communicate with each other to render products or services. M-Pesa has allowed the same people to receive and send money to each other, thus greatly enhancing the velocity of money moving around the system.

M-Pesa’s success can largely be attributed to its open business model that allows local entrepreneurs and organizations to serve as M-Pesa agents. They pretty much act as rudimentary bankers that exchange hard cash for virtual cash stored in mobile phones. The virtual cash is transferable to all Safaricom subscribers who can withdraw the same as hard cash at any of the over 20,000 agents countrywide. The mobile operator charges a commission for the service, part of which is shared with the agent. An agency model such as the one used by M-Pesa has exponentially expanded the service and has allowed the service to permeate across all sectors of society across the country. A seasoned salesman would say “sell to people how they like to be sold to” and M-Pesa has done exactly that. By partnering with local shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, banks and other formal as well as semi-formal organizations, M-Pesa has piggy backed on established social and business networks to create a service that is very convenient with huge customer satisfaction. The thought of a recipient receiving money hundreds of miles away within five minutes of the transaction being executed creates an air of solid trust in the service. Never before has this been possible in a developing country such as Kenya plagued by challenges in infrastructure development and a relatively under developed financial sector that only served a certain segment of the economy.

The success of the service naturally would attract the likes of micro-finance institutions. Commerical banks have also jumped into the bandwagon creating symbiotic relationships and partnerships with Safaricom. The biggest so far has been with Equity Bank on a product dubbed M-Kesho. This service allows M-Pesa account holders to register for a virtual bank account that enables them to transfer their M-Pesa balances into a virtual bank account that would accrue returns on savings. All this is done without filling up more forms, as the data that already exists with the mobile operator is shared with the bank. These meet all regulatory requirements including KYC rules and regulation of deposit taking institutions as the money is moved to the bank and M-Pesa just facilitates the transfer of money from one point to another. Credit and debit cards may possibly never really work in the developing world, but mobile money certainly is.

social media

how ali asaria uses social to succeed

One of the great things about social is that is doesn’t really depend on technology as much as it depends on people.  And of the Canada’s entrepreneurs who gets people is Well.ca’s Ali Asaria.

Who is this guy and what the heck is Well.ca?

Ali Asaria is the founder of the largest Canadian online health and beauty store that no one has ever heard of, Well.ca.  You can get everything including dry goods, cashews, glass water bottles and even board games like The Settlers of Catan.

So where does social fit in all this?  If we remember it’s all about the people then its easy to see how this all comes together.

More than anything Ali focuses on people over product.

Ali does his utmost to create a culture based on giving both his employees and customers reasons to come back to Well.ca.

It can be something like a morning catered breakfast for all staff.  Or something simple like a toll-free number on every page on their website.

Lesson:  It’s all good and well (see how I did that?) to have a cool business powered by an e-commerce site.  But what makes business work in this age of word of mouth and social marketing is when we focus on the people.  It’s what makes pixels profitable.

Well.ca employees
social media

will there ever be a Deep Throat again?

I finally did it.  I watched All the President’s Men on DVD.  It was this movie that popularized the code name Deep Throat.  Deep Throat was the insider who fed Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein with enough information, leads and clues that led to the downfall of American President Nixon.

It was an interesting movie to watch for me.  And not just because of the historical significance of the movie.  It was interesting because of how far technology has come since then.

There are no more rotary phones (except at my parents house), we have smartphones, the internet, Google, Twitter and Facebook.  We also have citizen journalists and WikiLeaks.

Which brings us to the title and question of this post: will there ever be a Deep Throat again?

Will there ever be an individual who will stay unidentified for decades yet be able to feed such valuable information to the media?  Does the popularity and ubiquity of free online social tools make it virtually impossible to stay undercover?

You would think that people would like to stay anonymous online.  Wasn’t that once one of the selling points in the “early days” of the internet?  Not anymore it seems.  Social tools like Twitter have given rise to people looking to cash in on their 2 tweets/seconds of fame.

Here’s my opinion:  I don’t think we will ever see a figure like Deep Throat again.  Why?  Everyone’s lives are on a search engine near you.  Seems like almost everything can be found online.  But then again, a site like WikiLeaks makes public that type of information which people would want to remain anonymous.

Your thoughts?

social media

from the walkman to digital downloads

Sony just announced that they are discontinuing their popular Sony Walkman.  Are you kidding me?!  I’m not outraged.  I’m surprised that they were still making those things.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love(d) the Sony Walkman.  I actually own(ed) an original Sport version of the Walkman.  Big, fat, yellow, water-resistant and unbreakable.  I even played my first mix tape on the Sport Walkman.  But now it’s gone.

Now we put tiny ear buds or oversized earmuffs into/over our ears to listen to digital downloads.  The music we listen to comes in bits and bytes.  Sometimes we download from an online store.  Sometimes we listen to pirated music.

We have even started watching  concerts on YouTube.

The way we consume, listen to and interact with music has been an ever-changing story.  And it will continue to change.

This is the premise for MusicConnectTO.

MusicConnectTO is an event that a trio of us have organized for the Toronto community.

Taking place this Thursday evening at Toronto’s famous Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, we will be discussing the Canadian music industry’s response to social media, digital media and new media.

Here’s why I’d love for you to come:

  1. You can win cool prizes like a trip to Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
  2. You will learn about a couple of Toronto tech startups, Mediazoic and YouPhonics, that will take the industry by storm.
  3. You will have an opportunity to learn how record labels and independent bands have approached the utilization of these new tools and technologies.
  4. You will have a great time with some great people in a great venue.

There are many more reasons for you to attend.  But if you’re a fan of music (and who isn’t) and a user of these new tools (I know you tweet!) MusicConnectTO is the place to be.

I hope to see you there.

For more information visit MusicConnectTO.  To reserve a spot (hey, it’s free!) visit our Event Page.

Thanks.

Uncategorized

what’s the story, morning glory?

This past week I had the chance to finally meet the guys behind StoryGuitars.com.  I’ve known about Ricardo and Ujwal and their unique business for a few months.  But to hear their story was quite interesting.  And to see the relationship musicians have with their instruments is something to behold!

StoryGuitars came out this week at Toronto’s monthly SproutUp held during Small Business Week.

I encourage all of you to check out their website.  Here’s a sneak peek:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=904FM-nsO2k]

What’s your story?

social media

TEDx [video]

On September 30th I had the good fortune of being present during the second installment of TEDxToronto.

Many of you are familiar with the popular TED conferences and podcasts.  However, some of you may not be familiar with TEDx-branded conferences.

Here’s a description from the TEDxToronto website:

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxToronto, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxToronto event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

During this conference I was asked to help out in the green room.  The green room was where the speakers and volunteer staff would huddle throughout the day.  Some  came there for conversation.  Others to relax and get prepped for their talk.

I took my handy FLIP camera with me to capture some special moments. Here is a video I made. (If YouTube allowed more than 10 minutes per video I would have taken advantage of it.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQP6BQgVlU8]

Appearing in the video are: Bruce Poon Tip, Drew Dudley, Dr. Catherine Zahn, Neil Hetherington, Sol Guy, Trey Anthony, and Neil Pasricha.

social media, twitter

malcolm gladwell almost got it right

So Malcolm Gladwell has an opinion on “social media as saviour.”  Seems he has been reading the wrong people because I don’t know anyone who believes that.

Gladwell recently penned an article in the New Yorker titled Small Change: why the revolution will not be tweeted. In it he argues that social media has not been responsible for social change and in the future won’t be responsible for social change.

A few things first.  No one really has argued that point.  Well, maybe a few people.  But nobody who anyone takes seriously.  Second, the article is not the first time Gladwell has spoken about social media’s role in society.

Back in April, 6 months ago, Gladwell spoke at the F5 conference in Vancouver.  In his keynote presentation he outlined 3 main points:

  1. Social Media connections are made up of many “weak ties” and very few “strong ties.”
  2. Social Media does not build trust.
  3. Social Media will not change society.

In his New Yorker essay, Gladwell builds on a couple of the same points.  His main argument is that social media has never, and can never, create change in society.

So let’s discuss this.  One example Gladwell continues to come back to is the Iran Election and the influence Twitter had on any protests.  Here’s the deal, some pundits may have said that Twitter was a catalyst in these protests but after reading Gladwell’s piece, I have to be honest with you: It’s the first time I ever heard of it.

In my opinion, and I’m no Gladwell, Twitter was used in a few other ways.  First, it was used by sympathizers to message other supporters outside Iran on activities and progress of the movement.  It was also used by those outside Iran to keep in touch with what was happening inside Iran.

Gladwell also fails to mention the impact YouTube had.  I remember images of a young woman dying on my screen after being caught as an innocent bystander in the Iranian protests.  This and other images helped to strengthen the resolve of those inside Iran as well as their Western supporters.

Gladwell also fails to point out the election of American President Barack Obama.  If you read David Plouffe’s book, The Audacity To Win, you will come to learn the massive role technology and social media had in creating and mobilizing a movement.

Here’s the point, social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, even SMS and IM) are mediums for the message.  They are not the message itself.  I agree with Gladwell in that its people who will be the catalyst of any future change.  And most social media “pundits” will agree, too.

What social media does is allow more people to become involved.  And when more people are connected, then the chances of identifying people who can help spread the message is increased.  And that’s the power of social media:  it’s people driven.  Just like the next social movement.

I would love to know what you think. Feel free to comment below.

podcast, social media

fashion and technology – beyond social media: sms episode 9

Yesterday afternoon, Jas Banwait joined me live as did Aditya Shah via Skype to chat about Fashion and Technology.  Again?  Can you believe it?  Who would have guessed that fashion would make a return to SMS before sports?  Don’t worry, my fashion un-sense will not improve.  I do have an un-image to uphold. 😉

On to the show! It was great.  We actually (as the title would suggest) talked more about technology and not just social media.  One of the topics we discussed was how would technology help independent designers and boutiques attract more customers.

Here’s my question to you, do you know of a mobile app or website that designers and boutiques could use to drive traffic to their stores?  If you do,  please share them here!

One that I can think of it www.MyCityLives.com.  Running in Toronto, My City Lives uses videos to help maps come to life.  Imagine visiting the website and entering “independent clothing store”.  Up would pop up all the independent clothing stores that people have posted videos about.  Simple yet effective.

Anything else?