Four Click Freedom

Actually it was a pretty productive meeting.  Starting out he liked the Clickboard.  He thinks its a great new media and has more applications than just coupons.  I see his point and we both agreed that it could be copied by anyone.  That was not a qualm.

We also talked about the difference between SMS and MMS.  It seemed common that this idea worked better through MMS and that most phones are capable of receiving MMS.  We did argue about the potential plagiarism rights an SMS creates.  He was saying that people can simply send themselves coupons, thereby creating cause for theft.  He was saying that waiters can simply send themselves a bunch of messages, or even in the first place not tell that the SMS was used and pocket the money.  This led me to the validation step.  Currently his process does not have a validation system.  I suggested that once the coupons have been sent to the user, that they would be required to validate the coupon in front of the waitstaff thereby expiring the coupon from use by that user.  The total validated coupons received for that client could then by submitted at the end of the week or month for their records, eliminating theft from waitstaff.  But he saw that people would not pay the extra money to send one more message to validate their coupons.  This led me back to the fact that I wanted to change his model to be free to the user.

Regardless each message is locked in to costing RMB1 under his model so this would not work or change.  However he said I could have my own number to use for RMB3000 a month.  So the Clickboards on his site or others around the Internet could be accessed through my number.

He kept explaining that the mobile coupon market is still very young and has not taken off.  He has seen little success with this type of business model.  Something that can not support itself.  And charging the client for giving away the coupons is very difficult.  Alvin sees the light that the Clickboard has but not necessarily through coupons and believes charging clients RMB12 per acquisition of coupon will be difficult.  Getting any money out of them would be hard.  So he sees value in the Clickboard but not for this.  This is a conundrum.

He followed up his argument with a colleague he helped try to take print coupons to the mobile media for use.  He said there was little success.  However I am going to follow up with this person Andrew Collins of MailMan.com to see if he sees the light in what I’m doing.

We concluded by saying that I need to do my own stand alone website that would act as the hub for Clickboards and that I could on a trial basis use his website as an extended portal.  And again use my free number in which these discounts would be accesses through MMS.   This he said he would do on the basis of a friend.  However to build this standalone website with full Java applications could take three months with ten people working solely on the project for a grand total of RMB300,000.  This is currently what his mGuanxi.com website is worth.

I then asked what he is doing with mGuanxi.com and he said it was simple the social tool of his service.  I began to understand that not too many people are that involved with this site as their choice for a social media.  We then went into behavioral advertising and that kind of tailspinned as he did not see people interacting heavily enough with the site to truly allow it to work for the clients.  I see that and asked why there was no advertising on the site now and he said he did not want it to be overbearing to the user at this point but that is in the plans.

Currently Alvin is working more in Search Mobile Advertising which I agree is where most people see the potential for the mobile devices in the future.  He is working with some big names and I think that is where his aim is.  Maybe he will apply the Clickboard to this service in the future.  He liked the idea and I’m sure he is thinking of ways to utilize it.  One day I hope I still get credit.

He left me feeling encouraged that the idea has potential but told me the more you do the more pitfalls you will discover.  He is reluctant to change, that is one of the number one pitfalls that occurred during this meeting.  However if I was to start he would go with the flow and help me out.  So as he said keep talking to investors and get their advice.  So keep talking about it!

I guess I haven’t mentioned why I am so interested in mGuanxi and why I switched my focus from Jin Magazine.  First thing is first i guess, Richard, my current boss here at Jin Magazine, had the opportunity to review my proposal, well at least I put it in front of him.  Whether he looked at the numbers or not, I can’t say, but he refused the new project based on the fact that he is not looking to invest any more time or money into the Jin Media and rather focus on his logistics business.

So that said I needed new options, I was going to re propose to him but now that I think about it, that would have been futile.  So as the opportunity came to my attention when talking to Don Stewart, an indirect colleague of mine here in the office, who at one point offered himself as an angel investor, he brought to my attention several services that are in the same field I am pursuing.  One of which was mGuanxi.  Unlike the other text discount services he put before me, this media had a very unique web portal.

This web portal had the ability for people to come together and add contacts and join groups, take polls, blog, and send messages.  Much like other social media sites.  However this had no connection to their mobile outlet and the benefit to the users over Facebook and local forum websites was quite minimal.  But to me, this was a perfect platform to develop Clickboards.

By adding another tab which would represent Clickboards, using the clicker icon, users would enter a section of the website where they could manage their mobile coupons and acquire Clickboards.  Here they could share with their groups or contacts and friends and redeem points for luxury vouchers.  Really this is the high dive that could really put Clickboards on the map.  These are the top four reasons I had Don tell Alvin of mGuanxi why he should listen to me and my proposal:

Gives a reason for people to interact (to share their coupons, rewards, freebies and earn more)

Makes service free for user and adds performance for clients

Advertisers can decide what and to whom they reward

Breaches the gap between behavioral marketing and static impressions

So far, I have no response and neither does Don from Alvin Graylin from mGuanxi owner of the parent company mInfo.  He may think he is a little taller than me in his high heeled boots and can’t see the relevance of a Jin Magazine editor having come up with a good idea for him because he is a dual major MIT graduate.  But if he could stop himself a minute and so could the rest of you to review what I keep going on about, he may see the true validity that my project has.  Or maybe he is just on vacation and I need to sit back myself for a second.

The real reason I am going after my boss and mGuanxi is so that I don’t have to develop my own brand image.  Jin has a name which would make the Jin Card more recognizable here in Tianjin, and although mGuanxi isn’t a true silver dollar in terms of user interaction, it does have some strength in its name, something that I could definitely build upon.

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Searching for ‘social savings’ I only found Smartypig.com, this actually has to do with putting money in the bank and saving it and people can help you by contributing to your savings.

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.

So here is my plan.  The customer when finished eating or shopping at a store will send a text message with the stores name to Clickboards.net phone number.  The website will then transmit data to the store computer and its personalized software that this user is waiting to connect via bluetooth along with the coupons available for that store that the user has acquired.  The website will also send back a passcode via text message back to the customer to connect to the store bluetooth device.  The computer will then send a bluetooth message to connect to the phone and acquire pass code  and then display the coupons that the customer has to choose from.  The customer will select the coupons and bluetooth back to the store computer their selection.  The store computer will then catalog the information for the store and the discount will be applied.

I need to do more research but sounds like a plan to go after.