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\n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n The Dutch national broadcasting foundation NOS and live video-streaming startup Ubideo have collaborated on a pilot that will bring a new and innovative dimension to the Tour de France. The pilot will provide a more comprehensive, interactive and impressive experience of the Tour de France in the city of Utrecht on July 4th.
\nIt is expected that Ubideo streamers scattered throughout the city and along the route will be covering the 102nd Tour this year. Streaming from various locations in the city of Utrecht, they will provide a comprehensive live view of the record-breaking 6th “Grand Depart.” Ubideo’s app allows fans to request a live shot of a specific location, or their favorite cyclist, just kilometers away from their current location.
\nHaving the option to jump from one stream to another at different locations while the event is unfolding brings an exciting new dimension to the Tour for the viewer. Ubideo, a spin-off of startup factory Node1, is empowering with this new app, cycling fans – as well as people interested in the setting surrounding the Tour — to experience the city of Utrecht during the opening, all live from different perspectives, as it’s happening. NOS will offer a vivid live compilation of the streams during the event on NOS.nl.
\nSo if you also love the Tour, join us and share with the rest of the world the most exhilarating moments of the Tour de France. Download the Ubideo app from the App Store, and visit ubideo.com for more info.
\n \nAlbert van Veen, CIO of Schiphol Group, announces that the international airport is going to build an open API platform. The announcement is made just a week after the successful airport hackathon Hack & Fly organized by Schiphol and Aéroports de Paris. (more…)
\n \nRecently Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite, wrote an article on the current rise of live video streaming apps. Holmes argues that the recent flurry of live streaming apps, led by Periscope, are the biggest things since Twitter itself.
\nLive video streaming platforms have been around for well over a decade. But despite the existence of companies like Livestream and Ustream live video streaming hasn’t taken off. In his article Holmes first identifies three reasons why this time it’s different for live video. (more…)
\n \nIn the last 15 years there has been an increasing interest in the so-called ‘Internet of Things.’ The expectation around this next iteration of the Internet reached a peak last year. So much that Gartner placed the IoT at the top of the hype cycle or the so-called ‘peak of inflated expectations’, last summer.
\n![\"gartner_2014-2\"](\"http://www.node1.com/wp-content/uploads/gartner_2014-2.jpg\")
Cisco, dubbing it as the Internet of Everything, calculated that there is a staggering $19 trillion ‘up for grabs.’ The key premise here is that if everything imaginable is connected and smart the level of value that can be created is 10x and maybe even 100x the current value.
\nThough everybody agrees that IoT provides a tremendous opportunity the break-out use cases didn’t present themselves, yet. At least not by the plethora of startups that are feeding the expectations and contributing to the hype.
\nThere is one company, however, founded almost a century ago, that has captured the magic of IoT. It seemingly provides on the promise of IoT, such that Cliff Kuang writes:
\n“If you want to imagine how the world will look in just a few years, once our cell phones become the keepers of both our money and identity, skip Silicon Valley and book a ticket to Orlando.”
\nIn an insightful Wired article Kuang describes Disney’s $1 billion bet on the Disney MagicBand. He elucidates the intricacies of the technological feat that Disney garnered during the development of the wristband. Never forgetting along the way it’s core objective: providing an amazing customer experience.
\nHere are a few factors that coporates and startups alike can learn from Disney and why IoT in this specific instance – the Disney MagicBand – works.
\nRespect the first rule: the rule of first interaction
\nAt Disney you’re welcomed by a host as you would be welcomed when you would be visiting a friend’s party. Like your friend the Disney host, knows your name and welcomes you similarly. That experience is golden. Because it respects the rule of first interaction. Every interaction point – how seemingly insignificant – should be great enough to seduce the customer to engage in the subsequent interaction point(s).
\nDon’t forget that it’s all about emotion
\nDisney understands probably like no other that the customer journey is all about emotion. Even things that have a clear utility feature – like eating food for nutritional support for the body – are all about emotion. Therefore a guest says ‘it’s like magic’ when the foods finds her instead of the guest waiving and waiting for a waiter.
\nMake technology invisible
\nThe MagicBand technology and the sensors in the park are made as invisible as possible. The objective is not to show off technological zeal, but to make the customer experience as frictionless and enjoyable as possible. Again, it’s not about the technology, but about the experience. The average customer is not interested in how something works, but that it works.
\nThink in systems if you’re building systems
\nBy it’s very nature the IoT needs system thinking and only proves it’s full potential in seamlessly connecting the nuts and bolts of a system. Disney did exactly so by turning the park into ‘a giant computer streaming real-time data about where guests are, what they’re doing, and what they want’, as Kuang points out. Thus enabling it to provide enhanced – magical – experiences.
\nTechnology is a means to an end, the end is zero friction
\nAt Disney the focus was not on doing ‘something’ with IoT, because ‘it’s the future.’ The focus was instead on reducing friction for customers at every single touch point. Upon the inception of the project Meg Crofton, president of Walt Disney World Resort in 2008, told her team ‘to root out all the friction within the Disney World experience.’
\nPrototype the whole experience, not just the prototype
\nNot only the MagicBand, but the whole experience was prototyped enabling Disney’s board to understand and feel how it would effect the customer user experience in its entirety, its grand implications and why it was worth a staggering $1 billion in investment.
\nOne of the key reasons for Elon Musk’s success in building great companies is his method of thinking from first principles. For service industries thinking from first principles entails taking the transaction or ‘the job to be done’ as the unit of analysis. The core objective is then to provide (near) zero friction at the granular and systems level. If you do that and succeed in it, than indeed magic will happen.
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For the last 25 years the Internet has been the single most important (meta) driving force of innovation. As an information systems the Internet is on its way to allow for near-perfect competition breaking down friction in transactions in every single domain and every part of our lives.
\nA key area where this networked software value chain has and is providing tremendous opportunity by reducing friction is online market places.
\nToday’s best of breed startups and tech companies Ebay, Etsy(commerce), Facebook (social networking), Uber, Lyft (transportation), AirBnB (Hotel & Travel), Homejoy (cleaning) and Zillow (real estate) come into mind.
\nOnline two-sided marketplaces are platforms where one group (buyers) is brought together with another group (sellers). The most fundamental principle for achieving marketplace eminence is reducing friction. Everything flows from there. From the user’s (buyers and sellers!) perspective this means making the experience of using the platform as seamless and pleasurable as possible. If a marketplace achieves this and network effects kick in then magic happens as Bill Gurley outlines in this seminal post.
\nTaking hence the reduction of friction in transactions as the basis one can analyze how to improve many different aspects of an online marketplace.
\nThough every touch point is important there are aspects that are relatively more important than others. We believe companies trying to build a successful online marketplace should pay special attention to the mobile imperative, an ‘invisible’ payment system and creating a level playing field.
\n![\"Two-Sided](\"http://www.node1.com/wp-content/uploads/Two-Sided-Market-Places.jpg\")
The mobile imperative, for now
\nMind here that the focus on mobile isn’t because ‘mobile is everything and everywhere’, but because it makes perfect sense. Currently mobile is the best iteration of the Internet for the reduction of friction in online marketplaces. Mobile enables marketplaces to offer a user experience that is smooth, logical and coherent that was impossible 10 years ago. It amplifies, as Gurley outlines, Internet’s connective tissue. Making it possible to deliver value to buyers and sellers at the time they want it, at the place they want it. Case in point is the exemplary ease of use Uber offers both the consumers as well as the drivers on its platform.
\nThe next step in the evolution of the Internet is the iteration from mobile to the IoT. And again this is also what the promise of IoT holds: reducing friction in transactions. The breakout use case of IoT might be very well an IoT-enabled online marketplace.
\nFrictionless financial transaction
\nA transaction is at it’s core whenever an item of value is exchanged. Because the deal is closed with a financial transaction it’s absolutely critical that the payment process is seamless. In other words, once users and sellers have come to agreement on the online two-sided marketplace they should be able to close the deal instantly and on the fly. As Anand Iyer outlines in this article the more technology can be leveraged to make payment an invisible process, the better.
\nLevel playing field
\nFor online marketplaces it’s a matter of life and death to achieve liquidity a soon as possible. Meaning a critical mass of users and sellers to keep the platform afloat. If the platform keeps providing value network effects start kicking in as it becomes more valuable for every single participant if more users are using it. Case in point is Uber: the more drivers Uber has the more interesting it will become for consumers.
\nThe most important strategy to achieve this is to maintain a level playing field on your platform. Every participant on the platform, whether a buyer or a seller, should have the opportunity to succeed. You should in addition be utterly transparent about how you’re providing everyone the same chances and opportunities. This will enable you to build trust, the cornerstone of every online marketplace.
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In the previous blog post ‘Why product innovation is dead’ we talked about the imperative for business model innovation. But how do you carry out fast business model innovation and which tools should you use?
\nThe impetus for business model innovation is provided by a rapidly changing global market space that is characterized by shorter product life cycles and omnipresent competition. (more…)
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