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Facebook – Network Marketing Genius

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Facebook has been to date the world’s fastest growing businesses EVER! The reason? They have taken the principles of Network Marketing or Multi Level Marketing (MLM) and leveraged it in a marketing strategy that has delivered incredible results. It’s truly is a modern phenomenon that is worth a little study. We are going to look at how Facebook achieved such success and see what lessons we can learn from it.

Let’s not forget some of the Facebook history moments that most hardened business people would struggle to comprehend. First, Facebook was designed and developed Mark Zukerberg and when he started working on Facebook he was barely 20 years old. Next, Facebook went public in September 2006 and from a standing start has grown to over 400 million active users by the start of 2010, a little over 3 years. At one stage it was theoretically valued at over $15 billion US dollars after Microsoft bought a 1.6% share in the business. Finally, their success has been entirely driven by their customer’s word of mouth. Facebook is the best example of viral marketing available anywhere. It has leveraged the Internet and the networks of people to spread at a rate never seen before.

The first thing we need to understand is that the conditions needed for this explosion in social networking where ripe for the first time ever around 2005 / 2006. The reason for this is that accessibility to the internet was now past a critical mass of 50% in many developed countries and levels of always on high speed broadband were around 20% and increasing by 3-7% per year. WiFi was becoming more available everywhere and young people, especially students, were buying WiFi enabled laptops, or being given them by their parents as their price crashed through the floor. These factors removed the key barriers to the rapid growth of a viral networking business model and Facebook evolved into the superhighway to stardom. Was it all part of the plan or was Facebook willingly pushed on the near frictionless surface of technology?

Over 400,000 new Facebook logins are created every month and this shows no sign of slowing down yet. People now spend more time on Facebook that they do on Google or Yahoo each month. 55% of the users seem to be women, 45% men. This is hardly surprising as Facebook has become the cyberspace garden fence over which you chat to your neighbour or friend next door. Facebook’s genius is that they have provided the tools to network. Its users have done the rest. It is a very similar story to Google, who provided the tools to search. The users have built the business for Facebook. It’s actually mind blowing when you think of it. If each of us in life had just 5 Facebook friends and family that we connected to then this would mean that our possible network at one level from us is 5. The network size two levels from us would be 5 + 25 = 30 and at three levels it would be 5 + 25 + 125 = 155. At ten levels from us there would be 9.7 million Facebook friends and at 20 levels the number in our network would be about 100 billion. Such is the power of the multiplication on multi level marketing that this number far exceeds the current 6.8 billion population of earth by some way. The average Facebook user, according to their stats page at March 2010, has 130 users in their level 1 network and each user adds on average 8 new users to their network each month. Clearly the growth has to stop somewhere and sometime, but where? In India and China internet usage continues to grow rapidly and this is where the market for Facebook like products is currently growing most. Facebook had over 300,000 users help translate its site for new countries during 2009 so you can see they know where their new market is going to come from.

What are the great lessons to be learned from Facebook? First, the conditions for your online business offer have to be right. For them the technological conditions were perfect, they created a near frictionless launch and they were propelled like a rocket into the stratosphere. Next, let the users ‘own’ your brand and within reason, give them control of it or at least its content. They will not only provide the content in the form of the chat, photos, uploads and applications but because of the trust you give them and their need to stay in touch with more friends than they can normally handle they will bring you more customers than you can handle. Ensure you have a way to earn money from the network you have built. In Facebook’s case it is advertising and I am sure over time we will see other revenue generating methods to come from them. After all, they are only a very young company, barely out of kinder garden. There is much, much more to come from the Facebook.

Source by James T Flynn

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The Phantom Growth of China's Ghost Cities

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Bloomberg has a new video series out called "China's Ghost Cities."

The reporter, Adam Johnson, describes how the Chinese government is building massive cities that no one lives in yet. The expectation is that China is going to "grow" into these cities.

A remarkable idea, really. The authoritarian planners in Beijing or where decide it would be good if, say, a million people or more could relocate to a pre-planned area.

Then they build out the infrastructure – or rather the entire metropolis, skyscrapers, stops and all – and wait.

Stop for a moment and ponder how nutty this is. The last time your editor checked, central planning was not a huge success. According to history, bureaucrats wielding directives over long distances tend to allocate resources poorly.

But are ghost cities a recipe for a bust? Some say no. The Bloomberg reporter, for instance, assures us that China's economies are different – that is to say, "it's different this time." (Where have we heard that before …)

It is supposedly OK that these ghost cities, built for millions of refugees, have only tens of thousands of people living in them – because all that deserted square footage will eventually be put to good use.

As a bonus, building ghost cities is great for economic growth.

Via running superhighways out to the middle of nowhere, erecting steel and glass towers in the boondocks, China generates new jobs in construction, civil engineering, city planning and the like. All this construction looks fabulous on paper. The ghostly infrastructure gets counted as productive output, and the super-aggressive GDP target is maintained.

But what is wrong with that picture?

For one, there is the central planning problem. Growth and development are free market forces, with signature marks of trial and error. Successful cities are built from the ground up, not decreed by bureaucrat stamp. So how does the government know where a new metropolis should go, or what its optimal size should be?

Then you have the accounting problems. Should the promise of tomorrow be so read reflected on balance sheets today?

Imagine if a public corporation said, "We are going to grow 20% per year by building idle factories in the middle of nowhere, that no one is going to use for quite some time. will show up. We'll make a profit on them ever. Just do not ask when. "

Such a plan would be brutalized by the market, because public companies are held accountable for profits and return on investment (ROI). (At least most of the time – in bubble times investors will happily suspend their rational faculties.)

The Chinese government, of course, does not have to seek profit in its actions. Or it can measure results in some entirely non-traditional way, via "how many jobs did we create" or "how do the GDP numbers look."

At the end of the day, the "ghost city" mandate is directly channeling John Maynard Keynes, who once suggested digging holes, then filling them up again as a way to put men to work.

China is being more sophisticated. Rather than digging holes, it is putting up buildings. The effect is the same though. "Some day" the empty skyscrapers will have value – if they are not condemned as worn-out structures first – but until then they are just holes.

China bulls are not bothered by the ghost cities for at least three reasons.

First, they have convinced themselves (with more than a bit of faith) that the empty metropoli will one day (sooner rather than later) be full.

Second, they figure China has a lot of money to burn even if the ghost cities do not work out.

And third, as the old saying goes, "a rolling loan growers no loss." As long as the specialized music is playing, the property developers can keep dancing.

The trouble, as always, comes when the music stops. If China turns out to have built, say, 20 years of excess capacity by the time that happens, then hundreds of billions' worth of stagnant projects will have to be written off.

Tougher still is the idea that China's "economic miracle" is actually a heavily leveraged bet on mercantilism … propped up by runaway construction … with the tail end of the boom pushed recklessly from pie-in-the-sky projections for future growth.

That is another favorite tactic of investment manias: Along with the empire of forever skyward growth curves, mortgaging tomorrow (and borrowing against it) for the sake of today.

Even if China can write checks to cover the write-off costs of all those cities, there is a big multiple built in to the global economy right now on the assumption that China growth is the real deal. When it sinks in that much of growth is actually "ghost" or "phantom" growth – in keeping with these empty monuments to now – the collapse of that multiple could hurt.

Source by Justice Litle

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The Chinese Water Lantern Festival

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The Chinese have designed and crafted lanterns that can float in water and glide in the air. Though sky lanterns were initially crafted as a device, to send signals, today they are used as decorative articles. Water Lanterns in Chinese festivals have its own importance.

There is an interesting story to the History of Chinese lanterns. It was believed that these lanterns, both the sky lanterns and the Water lanterns used in Chinese festivals were initially created out of necessity rather than artifacts for decorations. The Chinese have a history of inventing several new things and also leading the way in several new technologies. But, initially, the Chinese did not have access to or the knowhow to make a vital building material – Glass. Hence they did not have glass lanterns or glass windows. On the other hand, they had the skill of making paper. The paper industry in china was so advanced that it could produce paper that was very thin, to let light pass through it. They could also add beautiful colors and embellishments to the paper. Thus was born, the world’s first source of portable light – the lantern.

These lanterns were then gradually adapted to float in water and glide in the sky. Such was the skill of the Chinese craftsmen that these lanterns were used for lighting public places, homes and even battlefields. There is a story of a military strategist Zhuge Liang, having used paper lanterns to help the army march by night and attack by the day.

Over time, this battlefield beacon turned into an epitome of hope and wellbeing and festivity. The origin of the Lantern festival can be dated back to the Han Dynasty. During this time, the city is decorated with lanterns that are beautifully crafted in different shapes and sizes and then displayed with wishes or riddles written on them.

Water lanterns in Chinese festivals like the Moon Festival are a major tourist attraction. People from all over the world come to witness this event. On this day children and adults make or buy Water lanterns and write wishes on them. They then set these lanterns afloat in the water under the moonlight and watch them float away.

Water Lanterns in Chinese Festivals alongside other lanterns are used to light up the way to guide the spirit of their ancestors to come and bless them. Even today this tradition is followed, and people decorate their homes and public places to welcome their ancestors.

Source by Edward Zhang

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Keemun Black Tea From China – Caffeine Content, Health Benefits, And Other Properties

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Keemun is a type of Chinese black tea, originating in Qimen county of Anhui Province, China. This article gives an overview of the caffeine content, health benefits, and other properties of Keemun.

Keemun is primarily produced in Anhui province, but teas in this style have also begun to be produced in nearby Hubei, as well as in Jiangxi, and even in Taiwan. Keemun is usually described as having an earthy aroma, and its overall character is quite different from Indian and Ceylon teas. My personal perspective is that Keemun has a richer, warmer quality, often reminiscent of dried fruit, and in higher grades, a pleasing hint of wood or wood smoke. These teas are rich and full-bodied, and are among my favorite black teas.

Caffeine content:

Although you may be looking for more concrete information, it is hard to generalize about the caffeine content of Keemun. Even though it originates primarily in one region and shares certain aspects of production, Keemun is fairly diverse, coming in different grades. As a general rule though, Keemun is often in the moderate to high end of caffeine content, among teas, which means that it still has considerably less caffeine than a typical cup of coffee. Keemun has historically been used in breakfast blends, where strongly caffeinated teas were desired

Health benefits:

Keemun has actually been the subject of direct scientific study., in association with weight loss in animal studies. There is only a small amount of research referring specifically to this variety of tea, however, so most of what can be said about Keemun must be inferred from general studies about black tea.

Although green tea has a stronger association with supposed “health benefits” in the public consciousness in the United States, this association may be skewed by historical factors. Much of the early research on tea and health was conducted in Japan, where tea is synonymous with green tea. Subsequent research has found substantial evidence that black tea is healthy as well. In the absence of more reserach specifically looking at Keemun, it seems reasonable to conclude that Keemun is likely to have a similar amonut of health benefits to black tea.

Locating high-quality Keemun:

My recommendation, if you want to buy the best Keemun, is to buy exclusively loose-leaf. My experience is that the best Keemun is usually sold by companies that specialize in Chinese tea. Because they store relatively well, Chinese black teas, even those of considerably high quality, tend to be relatively inexpensive, with all but the highest grades (Keemun Hao Ya A and B, and Keemun Mao Feng) costing well under $10 for about 1/4 pound or about 100-125 grams. A few companies, including Rishi Tea, Arbor Teas, and Little Red Cup, sell fair trade certified Keemun, produced in Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces, respectively.

Source by Alex Zorach

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