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!

The first slide will be of course a Clickboard.  I will specifically make one just for these slides, so it will be fully capable and all aspects that I have for the Clickboard will be incorporated into this one.

The second slide will be a mock-up of the mGuanxi page that will be the Clickboard page.  I will incorporate buttons that are already present throughout the site and put them into this one visual.

The third slide will be a graph and pictorial representation of the money to be made.  This will include three lines.  The CPM, Billing per month, and the CTR for the Clickboard.

The fourth slide will be a representations of the phone app and store app that will be needed to create the full effect of the Clickboard at point of sale and maybe a mock up of a receipt.

The fifth slide will be a representation showing the possibilities if Clickboards was incorporated into multiple local sites and all were to use the mInfo mobile service to activate all the Clickboards.

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.

This is really where the ‘social’ part comes into the social shopping networking utility.  As much as you would like to use all the coupons that come to you via Clickboards.net and all the ones you save to your account using Clickboards, you are probably going to get more than you need.  They do expire, but why not make the most of them?  In this format you can forward on coupons to friends and people in your network, earning you points.  You can also get points from using the Clickboards around the Internet, and even each time you use the Clickcard when you purchase items.

So what do these points do for you and why should you take the time to manage them and share them?  Well you can use these points for special discounts.  It is like a store where you purchase coupons using your points.  The more points you hand over, the bigger and more special the discounts you can select.

Advertisers can give you points for using the Clickcard on their site and basically the more you get involved with Clickboards.net the more points you get.  So the more you control your account and the better the targeting and more sophisticated your filters and the more you open your privacy settings, the more benefit there is for you.

For instance if you sign up your phone with the account you could earn a designated number of points each month.  Imagine going grocery shopping and paying for half your items with preferred customer points.  With more people in your network and the more integrated you become with them, the more potential there is to acquire shared savings.

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