Google is a household name all over the world, probably even in the fields of agriculture here in Tianjin.  Gone are the libraries; gone are the people who hand down ancient practices.  Today, if you want to find out something, you go to the Internet.

There really is no avoiding the implications or the sheer need for such a creation.  However, the Internet has become a force of its own.  Bringing down newspapers and magazines, supporting huge networks of people, and creating giants who control information, the Internet is hungry for more power.

There is a huge gap between who wants advertising space, and how much there is to give. Anyone logging on to the Internet will be overwhelmed by the gigantic supply of adverts, which pop up almost anywhere you look.

It is this gaping hole which is creating problems for the advertising industry as a whole. This is because the gap is being filled by sneaky, sometimes underhand methods. It seems that most people don’t understand how this is being done or how it will affect them.

An example of this is “behavior tracking”. This is the Internet’s ability to generate targeted adverts based on the web user’s personal details. While 92 percent of young adults believe behavior tracking is against their needs, the practice is on the increase. http://bit.ly/2IGHT8 In fact, with Google leading the way with targeted adverts for Google Mail users, it is becoming a big problem not only in America but also here in China.  The biggest problem is that most people don’t realize it is happening – or what they can do to avoid being advertised to in this way. In the meantime, they will continue to receive adverts which have been generated based on their sex, location, and age. It’s no wonder that people are starting to become wary of the Internet advertiser’s increased power.

It is particularly when you put advertising into the mix, that the implications for the media become clear. Currently, advertising is the sole model for growth of all media. Figures show that on the web, only 8 per cent of all users account for 85 per cent of all ads clicking. This is down by half through this year alone. http://bit.ly/2IRICw

While it was once the model for tracking, clicking is becoming outdated and new methods of cookie tracking are in force and taking hold.  Now your presence online can be targeted from your initial search query, all the way to your brick-and -mortar purchase, and used for profiling.

Who is King? Display, Search, Print?

The Internet accounts for over 50 billion dollars in advertising every year, with the US alone accounting for 20 billion. This figure is continuing to grow.  Premium online ads are going up 32 per cent year over year with no end in sight. http://bit.ly/2fvISY

Nowhere is this better exemplified than here in China, where some sites are so heavily overloaded with advertising you wonder what content is actually being provided.  Have you ever tried logging on at an Internet café and felt frustrated by the number of pop-up adverts blocking your way?

However China also puts things very much in perspective for advertisers.  This is because for brick and mortar stores selling their wares, the print media is still the most effective vehicle for advertising. http://bit.ly/9nFtB It seems that the Internet has created a strange void between national advertisers and your corner bakery.

This is not stopping the Internet in China.  Sina, China’s leading Internet portal is expected to grow by at least 35 per cent in this year alone. http://bit.ly/htkZb This is like nothing else around the world.  The reason for this is that Asian countries are dominated by display advertising over the Western-preferred search method.  Display here is expected to grow by 60 per cent by the end of 2010. http://bit.ly/3kDJ1a If I were a surfer, I would call that a dangerous reef.

Part of the reason for this phenomenal surge is that display advertising has found a home on social community and networking sites. http://bit.ly/2G8yS3 However, social community sites only hold about 15 per cent share of all online advertising.  In fact the dominance comes from search engines.

Search engine Baidu (which is up from $100.50 to a yearly high of $439.90) is now garnering new power as it integrates its new search results system, known as the Pheonix Nest System. http://bit.ly/QymgF

According to Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt: “Five years from now the Internet will be dominated by Chinese-language content.”  This might be a free pass for Baidu to start leading the way in which search is created and delivered to the world, while Google continues to focus on its operating system and mobile technology.

My phone is their life!

Another cunning advertising-dominated strategy comes from HTC – the company that makes the nine different Google Android powered phones. By launching its new Quietly Brilliant ‘YOU’ ad campaign, they are promoting the idea that: “You don’t need to get a phone. You need to get a phone that gets you.” http://bit.ly/3jy3cf Of course, they aren’t doing this just to impress upon you their new little toy; this is again an advertising dominated strategy.  Lenovo is even buying back its mobile phone business to pursue mobile Internet technology. http://bit.ly/54jD8Q

While most people are not going to buy a phone with the thought: “Wow! My telephone is now the new ad rag!”  There are many people who would gladly see ads as helpful if it meant that in return they could lower their costs of purchasing the phones or even the service charges. http://bit.ly/6BnSNT People would probably get used to it very quickly – you may have noticed how most phones here in Tianjin are inundated with ad text messages every time you hang up or send a message.

For some people this doesn’t matter because they delete the messages every so often. However, you may be the owner of a new smart phone, which takes several steps to acquire the message and provides you with that dirty little message-notification bleep that won’t go away till you look at the message.  These days there too many able capabilities to deliver full screen MMS messages to your phone while the phone is idle. http://bit.ly/7rvdpj Therefore that is the first thing you see when you click your phone on from the black screen.

Like the movement in the US to stop dinnertime telemarketers, many hope there will be movements to remove these developments in stealth advertising.  Although nifty in concept, after a while the most noticeable thing about them is how annoying they are.  This is a story where again the percentages are low and most people, if they had the chance, would never opt-in.

Hey executives, I’m my own company

But what if you’re on the dark side? Perhaps you’re an advertiser looking to utilize the Internet for your business? The good news is that there are several ways to turn the world of Internet advertising to your advantage.

There are millions of bloggers in cyberspace telling you how you can make money by monetizing your blog.  With so many people claiming to be in the know, how come there are still so few who are actually reaping the benefits?

The bright spot is in the creative.  This year there was a man in the US who made $83,000 broadcasting himself on the Internet.  What he did was go to consumer product companies and said he would wear their company T-shirt for a day. http://bit.ly/1IoWDg Then he got out there, into the sunshine, and took videos of himself wearing it. At the end of a day’s catwalking, he would get on Facebook and share his thoughts, write something on his blog, keep everyone up to date on his Twitter, and basically become a one-man billboard.

This idea has also been demonstrated in effect here in China.  Thousands of girls are online on Taobao promoting the clothes that they buy.  These skinny little things have themselves followed around by amateur photographers as they pose and primp themselves, creating beautiful pictures that the other girls online just simply can’t get enough of – adoring them for all those pretty little pink dresses and haute couture jeans they wear.

This is the new content: Blogging and news feeds.  Whether it’s fashion, how to use makeup, or providing a fresh take on the news, social content makes up 40 per cent of all online traffic – outstripping community, communication, e-commerce and search. http://bit.ly/9m4n5 This content sharing is the premium space on the Internet and the giants are trying to control it.

However, the giants are having a tough time trying to create fair competition in terms of asset prices in the difference between online sales and brick and mortar establishments. http://bit.ly/48zdSS It’s certainly the case that many people now go out shopping with the sole intention of window-browsing and then returning to the Internet to buy.  This creates an even larger supply side window, as more people try to fill the small portion of demand accrued by the big retailers and girl’s shopping sites like Hers.

The ad focus is tried and true and will be

This is a very narrow view on the whole topic, because in reality the Internet population is spread roughly equally across all social economic backgrounds and age groups. http://bit.ly/1HEzxT This comes from better-developed Internet markets. However, eventually this will take place within all cultures. Yet even with the wide swath of consumer interest, advertisers tend to pick on the younger more affluent customers.  The power of the Internet should develop to accept this swath of population, unlike magazines and television have done.

In China advertising is very family-centric with the young heavily influencing the older generation.  Many Chinese adverts try to pull families together.  But in social economic struggles, as we are experiencing now, advertising should associate their product with positive emotions of calmness rather than happiness. http://bit.ly/14cquu China’s advertising is still a little giddy and focuses much on the happy family unit a little too much.  By diversifying the mother from the father from the daughter, advertising will become more effective.

For instance with the various super novas, Google is trying very hard to take over the mobile phone industry by attracting younger generations who understand more how to utilize smart phones.  Apple is hoping to come into China to reach the mature wives market with its advertised ability to help the home become a place of prestige.  In addition, Microsoft is focusing on the business end, looking mainly at the older generation with their Software as a Service (SaaS) and helping the businessman of the house create value in their business. http://bit.ly/Z6kex

You are there and I will reach you

The Internet is the key to all of these changes and ChinaNet (CHNT) a full-service media development has already shown third quarter results in an increase of 21.7 per cent. http://bit.ly/3uGBcc It seems strange that companies similar in the US are at such a disadvantage.  The US currently wants everyone to pay for their content and only 50 per cent of US citizens would be willing to pay a fraction for their media content. http://bit.ly/aW9us

In addition, the US is currently thinking of using tax-payers money to finance journalism. http://bit.ly/Aomdf There are now even algorithms that generate story ideas, which in turn predict the revenue they will generate, and determine how much they are worth. http://bit.ly/8zBqkY Where China already has government regulation on content, the US is now stepping in to see whether this area needs regulation.

This could sound a death- knell for Internet advertising and cause it real harm.  Recently there have been privacy hearing and briefings. http://bit.ly/2auIjL This is mostly due to the usage by the adolescent age group who are now picking up the Internet heavily.  The line between what adults use as content and what children explore is becoming more blurred, especially here in China.

In the US KidZui is a new web browser that maximizes parent and child computer time to connect and converse through shared content online. http://bit.ly/e4H1w Here in China it is all too obvious that the children own the computer and the parents watch television.  There is almost no interaction at all.  High school students can spend endless hours after school staring at the computer while parents cook dinner, clean up and make themselves ready for bed.  There is almost complete separation between the family members.

However, while the students are busy studying at school, the parents are busy developing their new business models around advertising.   In the US, 42 per cent of SMBs have websites. http://bit.ly/25Ld80 In contrast to those that build websites the smaller businesses advertise more.  It is difficult to say whether this will come to Tianjin.  While the small guy sees the need to advertise, or otherwise the family network is soon to run out, many of the smallest businesses do this by using stickers or plasters.  The Internet is seen as a domineering component in advancement.

Small families with small time shops see traffic as the people who pass by their shop, not the people who see them as part of the local online community.  It is the children in the family who are building these neighborhood bonds.  How to maximize them as an integral part of the family business, most likely dismays them, let alone their parents.

That’s mine: Give it back!

As for television in China, $1.6 billion will be spent next year on China Central Television – an increase on previous years. http://bit.ly/2yzE4C There is no doubt that China will watch television in the future, but the dynamics of television are limited.  This again only allows national television sponsors and major foreign influences to enter.  The message will be clear: Following the age-old tradition – family is always first.  The market is huge and the focus is limited, for this reason supply is low and demand is high, therefore higher prices.  This is a good strategy if you are in the television business, but proves to be a bad buy if you are in advertising.  There are alternatives but there are also other things taking place.

In the US there have been eight quarters of double-digit drops for the advertising industry in newspapers. http://bit.ly/8VQppo Here in China, newspapers are still easy to get, and much is the same online.  For some reason, online newspapers are not cannibalizing the printed version.  They are almost one in the same.  It is like reading the printed version, simply transformed online.  There is not an overload of spotted advertising and the screen is left resilient enough that you are free to browse your e-paper.

However, China seems to be one of the more outstanding economies when it comes to context.  In most areas of the world, content is copied between four and 15 times around the Internet.  That means that the same story is just copied over and over.  With this in mind, how does the Tianjin newspaper fare when the locals can find the same content on most of their favorite sites, without ever going directly to the news channel site?  The reason is that it really takes that much to reach that many people.

However, in the US the FTC has claimed that newspapers have lost $20 billion over the last year. http://bit.ly/6ySRUu This is not happening in China at all.  Newspapers are so easy to get and they come in morning and evening editions, and people have so much time to break open the paper, that advertising is still a very strong medium here in Tianjin.

Hey hey hey, you figure it out

Tianjin is not worried about advertising.  In fact it is accepted and well reputed here.  The age-old saying of breaking through the clutter is almost dust in the wind here.  Clutter provides a promise that people will notice it.  And yet people try so hard.

Compared to traditional advertising, product placement can arouse the least unpleasant feeling from the audience because it is naturally merged into the scenes of a movie or game and does not interrupt the user’s enjoyment.  Integrating commercials into games can create more influence to users because movie product placement is static while in games it is interactive. In fact, when a user finds a new ad in a game in China that they are familiar with and used to playing with it, the first reaction is to not to ignore the ad but to click on it and see what bonus one can get by acquiring this product because such a product always possesses some properties that can give a hand in the game.

So advertising in China is well accepted.  The rest of the world should watch as China takes over the first initiative to incorporate advertising into everything that is online.  It is admired as well as empowering.  The overwhelming presence of the fad will not leave China.  The rest of the world will find it difficult to leave these fads unnoticed.  Millions of people are being attracted to seemingly simple advertising tools.  Although they may be cloaked in games or cinema, it does not matter because this country prides itself on the incoming of gigantic pulls in seemingly unnoticeable emotions, like joy.

Advertising is a giant, so it must have a purpose.  In most countries, critics cry out that there should be none.  But the true-to-heart know that advertising is likely to be here forever.  It seems safe to say that advertising will drive the economy in 2010.  Advertising will be the first notifier for every industry that will once again re-emerge. When people have the money to spend on advertising, it means that things are looking up for public spending. However this time, advertising is no longer the indicator but the master. It creates a cycle: Advertisers spend money trying to get people to buy their products – thus granting them more money to spend on advertising.

Google, as always, is at the forefront of this wave. The company is always trying to develop and innovate their adverts. They want them “Bigger, Better, more Interactive. We’ll keep trying new things until we discover the ‘perfect’ ads.” http://bit.ly/5OFXjB And this is all going to happen in a blink of an eye – or the click of a mouse.

Searching for ’social shopping’ I found several sites listed here.   They basically use words like Rave, Impartial Advice, Recommend, Community, Wish list, where people in the community act as promoters for products they bought.

Searching for ‘networking discounts’ and ‘network savings’ I found that networking basically means on the web or saving on getting your computer onto the network online.

All have nothing to do with a Social Savings Networked Utility.  The second search I did was the most relevant.  However it requires user interaction after the sale, which I would have to argue is a weak platform.  Even Wikipedia defines ’social shopping’ as making informed decisions from information about products posted by the community.  However, coupons and deals are usually researched or collected prior to the sale, so this system relies on people finding the deals and then becoming self promoters of the products they bought.  And none have anything to do with creating a network where you begin to save more with the more people in your network and the common characteristics in shopping behavior you all share regardless of whether or not you actively promote your shopping behavior.  Network here still just means a group of people not actually webbed together.

One site had the ability to pass coupons to friends where you gain commission from the sale if your friends buy the product.  There was also a site that rewarded you for using the coupons with bigger coupons that you can cash in your points for.  There is still only one degree of separation in these methods.

None of these integrated mobile possibilities.  In the mobile media playground here in Beijing, China, there a system where you buy a card and get access to the discounts around the city as well as 1200 points.  Each time you buy the card you get 1200 more points. These can be used at some locations like cash.  The discounts you recieve are obtained by texting the store code and price of purchase to the number.  A confirmaion text is sent back and you show that to the teller.  There are several similar services.  Again no mobile media has anything to do with a network.

But when I start talking to local restaurants and stores and say you need to pay me to make you a Clickboard and pay for the space on the websites it will be posted, and make some sort of discount for the customer (and rent the portable receipt printing machine); well that begins to sound like a long shot.

The machines I will probably have to give to them, or like in the conversation I had last night, find a way to get rid of them and use something else.  Not only that try to find a way to get rid of the card.  Yes I want to do this, but the fact remains that although most stores already have their static discount cards for themselves, their cards don’t do what mine do; connect ads on the Internet to the users purchase.

So my model is probably not going to make money, at least not enough to pay for the machines.  And that is a big thing to think about.  How much online advertising can I give to a store that purchases the machine.  $400 dollars is quite a lot of advertising and also quite a big sale to sell to a small restaurant or store.  Although the machines are an easy way to prove my model works.  I need a simpler method.  Without the machine I’m afraid my idea is still long in advance.

Next option: create apps for phones that could bluetooth information to store computers and give the stores the software to run in the background.  Paperless transactions would be nice, but small shop owners may be wary of this type of coupon redemption.

So now, do I prove the model works, or do I proceed to the next step?

At this link you can see how one website is embedded in another.  The secondary site is completely functional within its embedded location.  The only thing that refreshes is the embedded site.

Now imagine a site that is made up of several embedded sites.  For easy understanding take the ads as my first example.  All the ads on the site will be there own websites.  When I sell advertisements I will give the buyer a list of sizes for the Clickboard spaces on my site as they will change depending on interaction.  Then the advertiser will create various websites based on those sizes able to transform if the workspace transform but continue with their current operations where it left off from the last interaction.  They will be completely functional all the way to acquisition of coupons or even redemption of coupons and sale.  All without disturbing the rest of the site.

Now imagine all the coupons you will be receiving.  They will all have to be filed and organized for better use and sharing.  Part of the window will be a file folder system that one is instructed to create to categorize coupons into various folders as business, shopping, groceries, and leisure to name a few.  Then to manage the folder the contents can be exported to the main platform, again a different website, in the middle of the screen.  There you will have options to tag, find out more, share, extend expiration dates, etc.

I really need to draw a picture.  But the seperate windows all have to be able to take on different sizes as users switch between contents.  It is much easier to explain in person.

So if there are three websites all making up Clickboards.net, they will all share the control panel platform.  Each linked and able to update themselves based on input from other parts of the control panel.  Even actions in multiple zones will have an overall effect within the control panel.  This allows for much more accessibility, ease of use, and immediate results upon your actions.  I even want a drag and drop option so files and folders or coupons can be placed in desired locations easily without file location menus like on a normal desktop.  The working area is flat.  I think that is the biggest difference from the desktop of most computers.  But the working area can be guided through multiple actions at once, that is the biggest difference than your browser.

And the work area continuously changes. Transforming certain sections in size depending on your current operations.  For example the mail can be listed as to what you are reading, down to in box, down to in folders, down to a menu item on your screen, thus taking up half a page, to a quarter page, to and eighth page, to a one word link.  Thus the rest of your operating control panel also shifts with the information displayed.  This may seem common place actually, and I really hope it is,  basically the changes are a compilation of several operations.  I hope to have a drawn representation soon to post.

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* Call-to-action via SMS, votes, polls, sweepstakes, contests, promotions, coupons, call-back request, text4info, surveys
* The ability to redeem mobile coupons (bar codes), unique PIN numbers (drive2web), ticketing
* Rich content, ringtones, wall papers, games, videos
* Mobile applications such as mobile Internet sites (WAP)
* Smart phone applications

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103974

*Well the first point is all fun and games.  Very little commitment required from the user to say,  ‘yea you can give me that’ or, ‘yea I think I would vote for that person’ or, ‘put my name on the list so I can possibly win that’ etc.  However, I would find these little games completely annoying if I was notified ten times a day of some new crazy contest that I needed to enter.  I would opt out completely for any of those services.  However a lonely teenager might find this pretty amusing.

*Redeemable coupons with barcodes is excellent.  I’m totally on board to see how they pull that off.  My theory is that most of the coupons will be wasted efforts no matter how they manipulate their targeting.  But using PIN numbers and driving people back to the web is also not what you want.  You actually want to drive people off the web and to the stores.  Brick and mortar establishments aren’t just big fitting rooms where you try stuff on and then go back to the web to buy it.  Stores need traffic, and giving them a coupon when they pass the store on their phone so they can go home and get a discount is counter productive.  I do like having mobile tickets, very functional.

*Rich content, ringtones, wall papers, games, videos: a bunch of junk to me.

*WAP: anything new here?

*Applications: good can’t get enough good ones.  If they keep trying they are bound to come up with a few I like.

There are many ways to define yourself.  And there is no one way that best describes you.  But there are various parts of your life that you share with various different groups of people.  If you could somehow share these distinct traits with these people in your shopping behavior then you could all share mutually.

For instance if you have a Spanish cooking clan, then you could share coupons and recipes for various dishes.  Maybe save the next time you buy chorizo.  Maybe you are a jeweler you could save on tools and supplies by adding members in the community to your clan.

The reason I call them clans is because you all share a common interest and intents.  Unlike groups where you share the same basic general description, group members usually have different interests for joining groups.  It could be to show off, get some information, get connected, meet someone.  These are interests not intents.  A clan has a sole purpose and in this case it is mutual savings.

The reason it is easier to target a clan and not a group is because clans are able to define themselves.  Groups are defined from the beginning.  A clan may start at one point and end up in another.  This movement is what defines them.

When there are general people who may share common trafficking, and maybe they have done things more similar to you than anyone else in the clan, you would be responsible for inviting them into it.  The clan has no leader or developer, initiation begins from within Clickboards.net.  The life of the clan is then derived from the members actions.  The more action, the more interest, the more defined the variables, the better the concentration of savings that are offered to the clan.

群组，您可能知道，朋友搜寻器，所有这些都是团体。那么您需要他们，因为他们可能帮助您联系到与您自己很相近的人。通过和他们联系可以拓展您的人际圈。现在有很多惊人的方式去帮助你联系到其他的人。在Clickboards.net上，这些您想联系到的人都在您的团体里。

有许多方法来界定自己。没有一种方式能够最好的描述您自己。但您的生活里也有各种各样的部分是您想和不同人群分享的。如果您能通过您的购物习惯与这些人以某种方式分享这些不同的特点，那么您们就都可以互相分享和帮助彼此。

举个例子，如果你有一个西班牙美食团体，那么你可以分享优惠券和各种菜肴的做法。也许您同时就省下了一些下次购买香肠的钱。如果您会做珠宝，那么也许这可以通过增加社会成员到您的群中而为您下次购买工具和用品节省了一些钱

我将他们称之为团体的原因是因为大家有共同的兴趣和意图。不像其他的群组，人们只是在那里共享一些基本相同的普通描述，组成员却通常有不同的兴趣和爱好。那也许是为了炫耀，或得到一些信息，或为了与别人取得联系，或和某人见面。这些只是兴趣并非意图。一个团体只有一个唯一的目的，在这种情况下，它是互助储蓄。

它更容易瞄准团体，而不是一个群组。是因为团体能够界定他们自己。群体是指从一开始就被界定的。一个团体可以开始在一个点和而结束却在另一个点。这个进展定义了它们。

当人们普遍在分享他们的交易或买卖的时候，也许他们做的事情与别人相比更接近于您，您将负责邀请他们进去那个团体。这些团体没有领导或开发商，是在Clickboards.net网站内部开始的。团体的衍生来源于成员的行动。更多的行动，更加关心，定义就更多变，更好地为团体提供集中的节约。

However there is organization to some degree.  I still have yet to fully understand this but my concept work under this reality.  If Clickboards.net was to be started in the US there would have to be extreme order and too much emphasis on simplicity and ease of use.  But this idea is more like chemistry.  It is developmental in its fundamental theory.  For reactions to happen things need to be mixed.  Typical western sites don’t allow for this.  Everything must fall into one category and you must see only what is pertaining to the exact nature of your direction.

But Chinese websites offer options upon options to the consumer.  For this idea to become a reality this is what you need.  You want them to make choice after choice.  Therefore the database grows faster and the information supplied to them becomes more natural.

If you think this idea for personal shopping guide can be implemented in the west, I think you are wrong for two reasons.  First the basic technology for point of purchase sales is so entrenched that it will never become a reality, be it online sales or registers at stores.  Too many clients will waist your time waiting for everyone to conform, therefore no one will conform.  Here, China is still in its infancy of card use or any other non-card methods of payment.  Second, information gathered from consumers in the west is too narrow to make conclusions from.  You need mass amounts of data to transform into real evidence of purchase cycles and trends, even on the individual level.  The Chinese use the Internet much differently than the west.  The information here is freedom of exchange and they love this.