Stop The Hate: Daily Deals Aren’t All Bad, And Here’s Why

There's a lot of hate out there these days from the press when it comes to the daily deals industry. I'm looking at you, TechCrunch. Sure, Groupon has become the whale in this industry, but that doesn't mean Groupon constitutes the entire industry. Sure, while Groupon may sometimes structure lousy deals for merchants, it doesn’t mean the entire daily deal business model isn't sustainable or beneficial for small businesses. When done right, the daily deal can actually be very lucrative for everyone involved: Merchants, customers and the daily deal sites themselves. So why should you take my word for it? It's true, I've got my biases.  But so many people have quickly elevated themselves to “experts” on this space that it’s hard to filter truth from the noise. My company, KASA Capital, started Crowd Cut in May 2010. We are now a top player in our markets, generating eight figures of profitable revenues. So, when I talk about the daily deal space, I do so with direct experience. I talk to merchants and customers every day. I have numbers to back my claims. I’m a player in this game, not a self-proclaimed expert who sits on the sidelines.

Stop The Hate: Daily Deals Aren’t All Bad, And Here’s Why

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Why We Love And Hate The Smartphone

It's hard to remember what life was like before the smartphone – but for better or worse it's revolutionized the way we communicate, work, search the Web, and of course, settle trivial debates with our friends.

This cute graphic from Matthew Inman of "The Oatmeal" illustrates our fascinating love-hate relationship with the mobile phone that's transformed all of our lives. 

Republished with permission from Matthew Inman aka "The Oatmeal," a former web designer turned comic artist. You can see more of his work on The Oatmeal. Matthew is a one man operation, so be sure to check out posters and prints from his shop or order a copy of his book.

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Why We Love And Hate The Smartphone

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Here's One Reason To Hate Amazon's Android App Store (AMZN, GOOG)

Here's a great example of how user experience is more important choice.

On the iPhone, you can only buy apps from one app store -- Apple's.

But a selection of Android marketplaces are popping up to fill holes in Google's own Android Marketplace.

For instance Amazon's Appstore for Android offers a curated selection of apps that Amazon has confirmed will work well. It also has better search than Google's Android Marketplace and lower prices on some apps -- Amazon even gives some paid apps away for free. Those are good reasons to check it out.

But once you've got the Amazon App Store on your phone, you have to keep it there forever. If you don't, then apps you've downloaded through it might stop working.

A mobile developer pointed this out to us this morning. He stumbled across the problem because he noticed that the Amazon App Store was running some sort of process in the background all the time on his phone, eating up resources. He couldn't even get it to shut down manually. So he got rid of it completely.

Suddenly, all the apps he'd downloaded through it -- including Angry Birds -- stopped working. Instead, he now gets this error message:

We confirmed the behavior on the Nexus S we keep around the office.

This developer suspects that Amazon is collecting usage data through the Appstore app -- that's how it can afford to subsidize apps.

Another more mundane possibility is that the app has to send some kind of signal back to Amazon to prove it's not pirated, and does this through the Appstore app.

Whatever the reason, it's annoying. And not good for the Android platform overall.

Once Amazon makes its own Android tablets, this bug probably won't matter -- you probably won't be able to uninstall the Amazon Appstore from them. In fact, it may be the only approved way to get apps. Just like Apple.

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Android Gets Huge Opportunity In Absence Of New iPhone Launch This Summer
• Microsoft Windows Phones Are Getting Buried At Carriers' Stores
• THE APPLE INVESTOR: iPhone Expected To Lose Smartphone Market Share Over Next 4 Years, To Microsoft!

Here's One Reason To Hate Amazon's Android App Store (AMZN, GOOG)

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Meet The Man In Charge Of Making Hollywood Not Hate Google (GOOG, NFLX)

Robert Kyncl is VP, TV and Film Entertainment at Google, which means he must convince the Hollywood studios that Google doesn't want to destroy them, and thereby get them to license their content to YouTube.

It's pretty interesting to see how he does, because before that he did the same job superbly at Netflix.

The LA Times profiled Kyncl and here's what we learned:

• Like so many in Hollywood, Kyncl got his start in the mailroom, and then worked up his way to dealmaking;

At Netflix, he was the guy behind some of the big content partnerships that got Netflix's streaming service off the ground, and since joining Google eight months ago he got studios to sign off on YouTube movie rentals;

YouTube sees its strategy as resting on three legs: user-generated content, content produced for the web, and licenced media;

One of the ways YouTube wants to get people to watch longer and highlight more content is to "create themed channels that combine original online content with a curated selection of amateur videos," especially on niche topics you might not get to see on TV.

Click here for the full profile →

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See Also:

• THE GOOGLE INVESTOR: Users Upload Two Days Worth Of Video To YouTube Every Minute
• Does It Suck To Be Steve Ballmer? -- The SAIcast Discuss
• With Mobile Payments, Now We're Going To See Who Really Has The Power In The Mobile Industry

Meet The Man In Charge Of Making Hollywood Not Hate Google (GOOG, NFLX)

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