31 December 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized
2008 goes down as one of the most gruelling and challenging years ever for me. But all in a good way.
I knew 2008 was a revalation when…
1. I woke up one morning realising that your Vespa is more reliable than your BMW or Jeep.
2. I suddenly find myself competing with Google, the ‘do no evil’ company that embraced us as a partner & in the background tried to poach yellow Pages – when they couldn’t win the account they attempted to bully us off the account with threats.
3. I bought the dream home I never thought possible, against the current economic backdrop.
4. I discovered my first Apple Mac.
5. Google posts abusive comments on my blog commenting on how great Google is and how bad I am, and the posts originate from IP addresses that point directly back to Google South Africa head office at The Campus, Bryanston, Johannesburg.
6. My wife moved jobs after 9 years at the same law firm. Well done gorgeous!
That’s it! All the best to every one for ‘09. May your mountains become mole hills & may you climb them effortlessly!
Sean Riley
26 December 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged low traffic
For those trying to market online during the festive season – don’t panic if you’re not getting the traffic you expect. We are seeing as little as 10% of the traffic on the ads we are running.
Enjoy the time out with friends & family & things will recover early in the New Year!
20 December 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged 2008, Vespa
You know it’s time to review your preconceived ideas when…
you wake up & realise that your Vespa is more realiable than your BMW & Jeep!
17 December 2008
· Filed under News · Tagged international payment gateway, jobs, recruitment
Entelligence’s online recruitment solution, BIG TIME Recruitment, recently went global. Read about the challenges of driving a South African business into the International market place.
Entelligence launched BIG TIME Recruitment aroudn July ‘08. The online recruitment website offers advertisers the ability to instantly advertise new jobs & gain immediate exposure. The website has enjoyed a high amount of success & in October we introduced free job advertising to advertisers in order to help gain critical mass in terms of the number of jobs advertised. BIG TIME Recruitment currently has 235 active advertisers & 4,000 job seekers.
In our bid for world domination, we had to integrate with an international payment gateway so that we could process $ – Rands tend to scare off international customers. Note to the Reserve Bank of South Africa: if you want SA businesses to be internationally competitive ECommerce websites, this legislation preventing local companies from receiving foreign currency needs to be addressed!
Anyhow, we chose a provider in the UK that we had used before. It wasn’t easy but we are finally active with international. payments. One of the positives that we can take away from the experience is that South Africa’s online payment industry meets & in many instances exceeds international standards of service! I have heard a rumour that you can get a company, $-based payment gateway, & bank account setup in one package by the State Bank of Mauritius – and Mauritius also happens to be a tax haven. I need to look into this – I left a message for them to call back 3 weeks ago but no reply yet…
Since the launch of the International pyment gateway, we are enjoying a high number of foreign advertisers coming on board – let’s see what happens….
by Sean Riley
15 December 2008
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged instant messaging, mix it, mobile software, mxit
I recently took the time to discover MXit for myself. Being a skeptic, I expected to be blasted by messages from teenagers looking for dates. Fortunately that wasn’t the case. I invited a couple of friends from work & we now use it to keep in touch when out & about. The software, is free to download & offers a great instant messaging solution for real time chatting. But MXit gives you access to so much more, and many consider it to be a virtual world…
I was surprised to find that MXit is, firstly, so much more than a instant messaging tool. MXit offers its users access to:
Music, Music Videos, Dating, Chat, Cards, Skinz (pimp your phone), Outpost (meet people), Ring Tones, Wall Papers, Videso, Games, Virtual Friends (known as MXit Companions), Horoscopes, Soundz (alerts tones for your phone), Emoticons, Animations, and Cartoons.
Compatability
The software supports most phones & installs quickly. The easiest option is definatley just installing direct to your phone from http://www.mxit.com/wap – the software is stable & simple to use. Best of all, MXit also runs on PC so you can chat from your PC to friends on their mobile phones! I’ve also heard a rumour that it’ll be Mac-ready shortly…. holding thumbs!
Simplicity
I guess what makes MXit work for me is the simplicity. It’s quick to install & it just works. Explore the MXit world if you like, but the beauty is that you can be chatting with friends within a couple minutes of starting out. And best of all – the fact that the instant messaging uses your data connection to transport messages, the cost of messaging is virtually free (less thatn 1 cent per message) – so even if you hate tech, it’s worth trying just to save a few bucks.
by Sean Riley
9 December 2008
· Filed under News, Regulatory · Tagged antitrust, monopoly
A recent article in IT Web raises valid conflict of interest concerns within the industry about the merits of Google servicing customers directly. Whilst they are quoted as being committed to working with agencies, there is growing evidence that, in many cases, Google is happy to engage customers directly & compete head-to-head with the very agencies it seeks to embrace.
The key point is – how would one entity service two (or more) major competitors without a conflict of interest arising? The answer is simple – this cannot & should not happen. For example, if Hollard & Telesure – 2 of South Africa’s biggest insurers were hypothetically managed by the same entity – how would they receive a competitively differentiated offering? They wouldn’t.
by Sean Riley
5 December 2008
· Filed under Regulatory, Search Engine Marketing · Tagged competition commission, google, yellow pages
Entelligence recently filed a complaint with the Competition Commission of South Africa against Google South Africa. We contend that Google is guilty of breaking fundamental laws within the Competition Act, and that Google SA has been guilty of inducing a supplier (Entelligence) to not deal with a customer (Yellow Pages). The original press release can be found here. It is surprising that Google, the company that has ‘dismissed Entelligence’s claims as being without merit’ has actually resorted to censoring the negative publicity within its Google News platform.
Google News Censored?
A quick search on Google News for ‘investec moneyweb’ presents a host of articles by MoneyWeb on Investec. A quick search on Google News for ‘entelligence moneyweb’ returns no results, even when ‘all dates’ are selected on the archive option. Despite many articles being available across the world wide web in recognized ‘news websites’, Google’s incredible technology seemingly fails to find the word ‘entelligence’ – in the very places where it once did prior to us filing against them with the Competition Commission. Whilst I acknowledge that Google has the right to censor Google – after all – it’s their platform, I do find it a little surprising considering that Google has historically supported freedom of speech and expression with so much vigour. Google provides users with access to porn, gambling, and obscure cult blogs, but they have censored negative publicity about themselves – which is even more surprising considering that they have dismissed our allegations in any event.
Competition Commission Latest
Entelligence’s complaint to the competition commission has been dealt with & although they acknowledged that Google ‘may be guilty of inducing a customer to not deal with a supplier’, they have been unable to establish that Google’s attempt to poach Yellow Pages would have a negative impact on the market place. Where the Competition Commission is an investigative body that makes decisions based on the information at hand, the tribunal is an adjudicating body, where we hope to win a ruling in our favour as we will be able to access otherwise private information to help demonstrate (a) the negative impact on the market that Google’s ongoing disintermediation of its own so called partners will have and (b) that Google’s actions are not isolated to the Entelligence/Yellow Pages debacle.
We have now formally filed with the Competition Tribunal, an environment in which we are able to force full disclosure of the market place by Google, and where we can subpoena our fellow SEM agencies who have also fallen foul of Google’s ethically challenged South African office, but are too afraid to speak up. Entelligence will publish all evidence furnished to the Competition Tribunal on this blog, where the world wide web can decide for themselves whether or not Google’s actions constitute abuse of dominance – we sure do!
To address the apparent Google News defect that prevents Entelligence related subject matter from being found, here are some of the articles relating to our competition case:
Google SA faces competition trouble
Google’s “don’t be evil” mantra tested
Google rubbishes competition claims
Google SA picks fight
Google SA probed for abusing its dominance
by Sean Riley
