Spring break !

After a pause on blogger for couple of months, today I got some time to speak out again. Yeah, its spring break. Nope.. no plans !! ( was that the question just popped up in your mind? :) ) My roomiz are off for different places already. Many of my frenz have already out for vacation.

So why I am still in the best place in this world, College Station !!! For people who do not know what this place is, it is the town where I am living. It is a campus town of Texas A&M University and you find it empty when its break !! It is known for some weird things. It is the town having highest alcohol consumption per person in the US !! (people like me may get this rating down !! Yeah, i dont drink !! :) ) and a place called Dixie's chicken (I hope I spelled dixie correctly !! ) is the palce having highest consumption of beer in the country.

OOPZ !!! am I off the track ?? so what are my plans? Here is the list...

1. Novels -> I didnt get time to read a single after landing here, will go to library and read couple of them

2. Pool -> I am not a very good player, will try to enhance my skills so i can play against some very good players of my class !! :)

3. Sleeping -> At least 9 hours a day !!

4. Class Assignements -> LOL.. I never have started assignements and homework early. But would try to do it this time.

5. Phone -> I spend at least 2 hours a day on phone, it may go up to 4 hours for next couple of days ... too much ? na na na na na

OOPZ !! I am running out of time... These are top 5 priorities.. apart of this, would make prepare some good food and improve my culinary skills !!

Cheers !!

Case Study : Multi Jurisdictional Compliance: Yahoo ! Inc.

Case Study: Multi-jurisdictional Compliance, Yahoo Inc.


Introduction:

Yahoo! Inc. is a company running multiple websites in different countries offering various services including search engine and auction places. On its French auction site some third parties posted Nazi related documents and books which were considered racist and anti-Semitic. Two non profit French organizations working against racism and anti Semitism warned yahoo and asked it to remove those postings. Yahoo removed such postings from its website hosted from France but those organizations found similar postings on yahoo’s website hosted from the U.S. which was accessible even for French people.

For yahoo it wasn’t 100% technically possible to block French user accessing those postings. French organizations filed lawsuit against Yahoo for those postings but yahoo claimed that French court cannot enforced in the US under the laws of the US.


Jurisdiction by foreign courts over e-business:

It’s matter of debate since a long time for the new medium of internet in context of jurisdictional issues. Foreign courts can assume jurisdiction over e-business apparently on a few reasons mentioned below

• Website or e-commerce Company is offering product, material or publication which hurts feelings or beliefs of foreign residents.

• The material published on the website is an offense as per the laws of the foreign country.

• The website is hosted from the foreign country itself or is solely established for the people of the foreign country.

Here, third consideration is quite significant while foreign court decides to file lawsuit against an e-commerce company. It’s possible that the website is having material which is not suitable for foreign nationals. Though foreign nationals are able to access that website, if the website is not hosted from the foreign country and it’s not explicitly meant for the foreign nationals, it cannot be the base for the foreign court to file a lawsuit against the company provided that the country from where the website is hosted has no restriction for such material. The reason being for the same is that internet is a global open place and such restriction could harm rights of nationals of so many other countries.


Should the French court hold Yahoo Liable?

While Yahoo has removed controversial material from the website hosted from France, French court should no more hold yahoo liable because of the reasons mentioned below.

• Website having Nazi material is hosted from the US and it is not meant for French nationals.

• The US laws do not restrict Yahoo from publishing the material and French court cannot enforce lawsuit in the US
• Now when the material is not solely for French nationals, it is up to the person whether he/she wants to access it or not and yahoo doesn’t force anyone to access that material.

• Such jurisdiction can harm freedom of internet if every country starts enforcing its laws for the websites as internet doesn’t belong to any country and it’s a global open place.

Alternatively, France has an option of blocking any website from its gateway if it finds that the material is offence to the country rather than asking the e-business company to remove or block French nationals from accessing the same.


Recommendations for Yahoo:

Though Yahoo could get clean chit from the US court, company should have taken care when the very first time it let the third party publish offensive material on company’s website hosted in France.

To prevent such law suit in future, yahoo should

• Do prior research about the country’s culture and regulations before hosting its website in the country.

• Prevent third party to publish offensive material on company’s web space located in foreign country.

• Though it is not technically possible, Yahoo should try its best to block foreign nationals accessing its US website’s material which is not suitable for them or which can harm their feelings. Though it is not required by US law, would help Yahoo in maintaining good relationship with foreign country for its future endeavors.

Case Study: Next Card

Case Study: Next Card

Introduction:

NextCard was founded by Jeremy and Molly Lent in 1996. It was an innovative, internet oriented credit card issuer. The credit card issuing bank was known as NextBank and was fully owned by NextCard Inc. NextCard provided fastest credit card approval. They collaborated with companies like Amazon and provided its customers with promotional offers

Competing for customers:

There is stiff competition among credit card issuing companies for customer acquisition and retaining. Companies occasionally come up with promotional offers, incentives and rewards to attract customers. Here are a few attractions credit card companies offer.

Rebate: Rebate on certain products purchased using company’s credit card
Frequent flyer miles: Customers can collect frequent flyer points while flying through certain airlines using credit card and later those accumulated points can be used to get discounted or free air traveling.

Extended warranties: Credit card companies tie up with certain other companies and offer its customers extended warranty on those products provided that the customers buy those products using credit card.

Rewards: Credit card companies affiliate with some other companies and offer its customers reward points which could be spent while shopping with affiliate.

Cash Back: Credit card companies offer 1 to 2% cash back on the amount spent using credit card. Companies use fees earned from merchants for this cash back.

Annual Percentage Rate: Credit card companies offer 0% APR for first several months to attract new customers. Companies also compete by offering low APR later to retain their customers.

Instant Loans: Instant loan approval to the customers who have good credit history.

These offers reflect the fact that the customers have to spend money to save money and that is how credit card companies retain their customers and earn profit.

Analysis: NextCard

Strengths:

NextCard was innovative; it provided online applications and approval to the customers signing up. It had a consistent mission of providing internet oriented credit card service.

NextCard offered fastest credit card approval, less than two minutes to get balance on credit card and to transfer of balances from other accounts.

NextCard offered varying Annual Percentage Rate for different customers according to their credit profile. This way, customers with good credit profile were benefited and retained by NextCard.

NextCard was technology enabled and used it to track customers from the websites on which NextCard advertised. Ongoing assessment of the sites on which it advertised, NextCard could decrease its customer acquisition cost by 70% in 1999.


NextCard had earned recognition by its technological approach and was awarded with No. 1 internet credit card by Gomez

NextCard received approval from premiere site like Amazon.com and offered the Amazon credit card which helped NextCard in generating trust among its customers.

NextCard’s low charge off rate and Amazon deal kept it on a good financial position and its stock price went over 50%.

There was an increase of 22.1% in U.S. ecommerce market which was in favor of the company.

Reasons for failure:

NextCard was approving almost one in every four credit card applications online with low APR offering which was having higher level of risk involved than traditional channels.

Because of ease of application on internet, so many people with bad credit history took advantage of getting credit card from NextCard, many of them were potential frauds.

Economy started weakening in year 2000 which resulted in reduced demand of consumer credit.

NextCard had to tighten its criteria of eligibility to limit new account origination because of being announced undercapitalized by regulatory board and at the same time company pretended that the losses were related to fraudulent account origination and not credit or loan losses.

NextCard ran out of capital relative to the credit losses incurred in third quarter statement of 2001.

Company tried to find out some entity with large capital to sale the business but it couldn’t succeed.

A class action lawsuit was filed against NextCard for violating GAAP requirements by publishing materially false and misleading financial statements in year 1998, 2000 and 2001 showing credit and loan losses as fraud losses.

Aggregation of credit and law problems led NextCard to decline of 84 percent in its stock price.

Recommendations:

Though NextCard came up with innovative and technology enabled services, it should also have tightened its criteria of approving credit card applications. Though it could attract large number of credit card holders through its internet channel, not all of them were loyal and some of them never benefited the company.

While approving customers and defining their credit limit, company should have mapped its capital with potential credit consumers which would have helped the company in predicting consumer balances and it wouldn’t have become under capitalized.

Company should have been honest in its financial statements. Since 1998 the company knew that it is becoming under capitalized. It had enough time to sale the firm or gaining some capital by selling stocks, but it kept practicing the same way and finally when the fact opened up it was too late for NextCard to gain some capital.

Case Analysis: Rakuten Inc.

Case study: Rakuten

Introduction:

This Japanese company was founded in 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani with the name MDM Inc. Later in 1999, it changed its name to Rakuten Inc. Rakuten went through a fast growth, starting with a small e-commerce company in 1997, by 2004 Rakuten has diversified itself into portal, auction, community, lottery and many more services like these. Rakuten is also a leading company in the field of online travel and securities brokerage. With its rapid growth and revenue generation, now it is time for the company to decide its next moves.

Rakuten’s Business Model:

Rakuten started e-commerce business with Business to Consumer model. It created a portal having a number of stores selling their products and / or services online. Affiliates had to pay a fixed monthly charge to Rakuten regardless of what sales they made. In return, Rakuten allowed merchants to list up to 1000 products on their virtual stores. Rakuten never went short of cash because of its fixed charge policy.

Rakuten also provided its merchants with an easy to use software called Rakuten Merchant Server (RMS) which allowed them to edit their online stores. The company also set up a support center which could be contacted by the merchants for troubleshooting the problems they come across while using this software or other features of the online store.

Case Analysis:

Strengths:

A huge portal with around 16200 merchants and 8.4 million product generating yearly revenues of around 18.1 billion yen and operating profits of 4.8 billion yen.
An excellent experienced management team with an MBA from Harvard leading it.
Low initial investment as inventory is managed by merchants and not by the company.
A well designed merchant server software designed exclusively for Japanese market characteristics.
Low web space rental cost compared to other online malls.
Rakuten has generated trust in affiliated merchants by giving them education for improving their competitive and technical abilities, holding their retreats to discuss marketing strategies, publishing electronic magazine for keeping them updated and by helping deciding strategies for the merchants who are struggling to increase sales.
At the same time Rakuten also has generated trust in their consumers by taking regular feedback from them about purchases they made and screening the merchants according to that.
Standing second among e-commerce portals of Japan with a huge clientele of 20.6 million unique consumers.
An up to date corporate culture. Mikitani motivated his employees and generated sense of responsibility in them by establishing a stock option plan for them at the time of its IPO.
Rakuten has also generated additional source of revenue by jumping into travel and financial services by acquiring huge shares of Japan’s biggest online travel booking services and third largest online securities Brokerage Company.
Japanese internet connections have increased to 77.3 millions and usage charges have gone down. Rakuten could acquire more and more consumers at this time.

Opportunities:

· Rakuten can diversify its business in more categories and products and can attract consumers by offering everything under one roof.
· Rakuten can start its business in new countries by contracting with international merchants and consumers and can obtain global identity.

Challenges:

Obtaining global identity
Maintaining the business and achieving the target of 100 billion yen profit.
Competing with companies like Yahoo and Amazon which are much more experienced and are doing business globally.
Retaining merchants and consumers in e-commerce industry where new companies are coming up with new technologies as there is no long term entry barrier and initial investment is quite low.

Recommendations:

According to data of past five years, Rakuten’s high profit growth rate is result of its e-commerce business. With rivals like Amazon and Yahoo in the market which are providing both B2C and C2C services with its well established brand names, it would become tough for Rakuten to maintain its profit rate in Japan itself. Thus, Rakuten’s first step should be diversification. Rakuten should concentrate on strengthening C2C services and expand its business in as many categories as it can.

After getting control over its domestic consumers, merchants and profit rate, Rakuten can think about expanding internationally. Rakuten’s present strategies are highly specific to Japanese market. While Rakuten is diversifying its business in Japan, it can start observing characteristics of other countries. Rakuten should also keep in mind that expanding internationally means direct competition with many more companies like Yahoo and Amazon. Rakuten will have to provide at least all the services currently provided by them as consumers would not like to switch their favorite online store if they are not getting something new and reliable.

Thus, Rakuten should make a long term strategy. It should first diversify its domestic services, retain consumers and after doing proper study of international market, it can expand internationally.

Google Inc. : SWOT analysis

Hey frenz... m back after long time. In fact my first post after reaching the US. Here I have come up with a post which is actually my assignment. Its due tomorrow. We had to analyze Google's case and recommend some changes for Google. I m done with my analysis part. Just makin up recommendation. I would welcome your suggestions for google as comments on my posts.

Case Study: Google, Inc.

Introduction:

Google was started as a research project by two Stanford PhD students named Sergey Brin and Larry page. They registered the domain name google.com in the year 1997 and in September 1998, it became a privately owned incorporate Google Inc. With its extensive research on search algorithms and use of state of the art technology, Google successfully established its brand name in internet search engines market. By the year 2004, Google came up covering over 75% of US web search market. Though Google is a dominating player in internet searching market, it has to compete with its rivals in this field where there is no long time entry barrier. Google can expand / change its business model to survive in this best search engine race.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths:

• Google – Already number one search engine has established a brand name, in which its users trust. It’s dependable, reliable and fast.
• Google needs very little end user marketing as the name itself is getting word by mouth publicity.
• Google has a simple interface and it gives comprehensive results without confusing its users.
• Google has low operation cost as it uses low cost UNIX web servers for indexing millions of web pages across internet.
• Google has hired PhDs who are continuously working hard in order to enhance search algorithms and make searching faster, efficient and relevant.
• By 2003, Google has already powered over 75% of the 300 million searches conducted daily in the U.S. and 300 million plus outside the U.S.
• Google provides an interface to 88 languages to make it comfortable to search for its users in different countries.
• Google uses state of the art search technology to index pages regularly in order to give most updated results to its users.
• Google also weights the votes and ranks web pages with its PageRank technology to give its user access to most important pages first.
• Google is not biased towards advertisers. It clearly separates relevant advertisements and actual results by giving “Sponsored Links” tag to sponsored results when user searches to get information with some keyword. Moreover, it also ranks sponsored links to keep most relevant sponsored links on the top.
• Google offers localized search called “search by location” where users can get results showing vendors, products and services nearby their areas.
• Google also has a range of innovative additional services like Images, Groups, Directory, and News. Google didn’t complicate its website by making itself a portal; rather it kept tabs for these services on its homepage so users can easily navigate and that also keeps the website as simple as it was earlier.
• Google has also come up with solutions for wireless handheld devices, personalized toolbars, catalogues which are added essence strengths.
• Google quickly routes the user to the webpage and doesn’t linger for ad revenue.

Weaknesses:

• Many spammers manipulate Google’s ranking technology by creating dummy sites with thousands of links to pages that they wanted Google to rank highly.
• Google’s link based ranking did not employ actual traffic analysis.
• Google’s Cost Per Click advertising charging and ranking policy is confusing and makes it difficult for marketers to predict where their ads would be positioned and how much they would cost.
• Google’s contextual advertising was perceived by marketers to be less effective in generating sales because visitors to web pages showing editorial content were less likely than searchers to be ready to buy.
• Contextual search algorithms are not 100% perfect and many a times make mistakes.
• Google’s localized search algorithms too sometimes result in errors due to automated indexing.
• Google’s business model is complex, depending upon both google.com and mass market portals for its revenue.
• Although Google is a dominating player among search engine websites, only 50% to 65% of web search queries are answered accurately by it.
• Google doesn’t have “sticky” like Yahoo! And MSN have which can attract users.
• Google doesn’t have highly personalized search by which it could charge users with switching cost if they decide to leave Google’s services.

Opportunities:

• Google can increase switching cost by tracking users’ search histories with their permission and could remind users through emails for the relevant search updates as per their personal interest.
• Google can become a mass-market portal like Yahoo and MSN and can increase switching cost for its users.
• Google can add “sticky” like chat rooms and email systems to attract users and survive in tough competition.
• Google can enhance personalized and localized searching and can also add localized paid listings of advertisers.
• Google can start new services like multimedia, product search, private database, and print media.
• Google can also merge with an established mass-market portal to lock in large number of users and advertisers.
• Google can start giving full fledged services on hand held mobile devices to capture market beyond conventional internet.

Threats:

• Google partially depends upon some portals like AOL. Getting those contracts terminated, Google would lose considerable share of its revenue.
• There is no long time entry barrier in this business. Many competitors can emerge in coming years with same services, better interface and names and can catch up Google’s market.
• Google’s confusing Cost Per Click ranking and charging policy could disappoint its advertisers and company would start loosing many of them.
• Competition and rivalry:

1. Portals like yahoo provide more services and solutions with conventional search than Google do. Google would start loosing its users due to added attractions in such portals.

2. MSN is coming up with its new operating system called “Longhorn” which would be having “implicit query” feature. Longhorn search will be able to search the web, blogs, news sources, hard drive files, email plus attachments all from a keyword search without a browser. Users will be able to search directly from already established Microsoft programs like MS word. This would handcuff users and ultimately it would harm Google’s market.

3. Overture has been Google’s old competitor. Though Google has acquitted more advertisers than Overture, Google’s share of market revenue lags behind overture by 20% and there is always competition for getting collaborated with well known mass-market portals like AOL, Yahoo and MSN.

• Google’s scale might also become a liability in order to cop up with new and enhanced search techniques if company’s ability to modify its algorithms and database architecture was constrained by its server infrastructure and the size of its index.
• If Google comes up becoming portal, it may lose its simplicity and comprehensiveness because of which it is favorite among its users.
• Google can get trapped in issues regarding privacy if it decides to go for highly personalized search for which it has to capture user’s personal information.
• If Google decides to merge with some already established mass-market portal, it will start loosing its well earned brand name.

Recommendations:

• Google’s core competence is its strong search technology which gives accurate results to its users and that also at the right place without misleading them. Google should concentrate on making its search engine much more accurate, relevant and dependable which is most important thing as far as the user’s objective is concerned. Getting more users would also help the company in getting more advertisers and ultimately earning revenue.
• Google should start giving services like print, multimedia, travel, mail, Instant Messaging etc. to compete with one stop portals like Yahoo and MSN, but without changing its simplicity and comprehensiveness. Google can navigate users by putting simple links on its homepage and at the same time it would be able to sustain its traditional looks.
• Google has already started contextual and localized search solutions. It should improve the quality and relevance of results of these services as well as should start gathering revenues from advertisers who are covering certain areas and willing to pay only for the results which are accessed by the users of the area in which they are providing services or products.
• Google should also put in efforts to improve its search algorithms and stop spammers from spoofing and getting their pages ranked high.
• Google should also start providing personalized search solutions by storing users’ information with their permission and making web search comfortable for them when they come back. This would help the company in generating long term relationship with the customers.
• Google should regularly take feedback from its advertisers and should make changes in its charging and ranking policies if it is appropriate for both the parties as well as in favor of search engine users.
• Google can also generate revenue by indexing database of large organization and providing them private search solutions.

Conclusion:

It is not recommended for Google to merge with mass-market portal. Though that would help Google in securing users and advertisers but it would also harm Google’s independent growth. Google has cutting edge technology and excellent minds behind it and it should use that in providing users with 100% relevant search results. Though rival portals are coming up with strategies to handcuff users but finally users would choose the one who gives most accurate search results. As far as profit is concerned, locking in maximum market from quality services would automatically help Google in attracting more number of advertisers to make revenue from.

Thus, Google should keep updating its technology and services with the same simplicity and comprehensiveness as it has been providing since its establishment.

Er. Harsh Acharya

OOOPS.. .. my last post was in December, writing a new post after such a long time but with a great news

Yeah.. gave my final presentation of my final semester project which i carried out at Space Applications Centre of Indian Space Research organization. So now became an Engineer :) A good experience overall.

I observed a premiere government organization so closely. Some points I can make

:)

1. Great research work
2. New emerging concepts
   
3. Great enthusiasm in scientists
   
4. Good team work
5. Good Cooperation
6. Disciplined
7. Clean and neat premises
8. Well maintained services like water and canteen places
   

:(

1. Slow processing
2. Slow providence of resources
   
3. Poor command and control

I worked on design and development of a new two way communication standard from European Telecommunication Standards Institute, France. The standard is called Digital Video Broadcast - Return Channel via Satellite ( DVB - RCS) .

DVB - RCS is a twao way audio, video and data communication standard with 45 Mbps forward channel and 2 Mbps Return Channel.

I worked on this project with two more guyz from Ahmedbad studying in L. D. College of Engineering. Shouryamoy Das, basically from Delhi and Deepesh Nambiar. Both were from Electronics and Communication Branch and were too enthusiastic to learn software development concepts.

We worked on Linux platform and GNU C complier with POSIX multithreading and Message Queues as our tools for multiprocessing and Interprocess Communication respectively.

I worked with ISRO from 9th January to 30th May. Had my final presentation and viva on 30th May. My viva lasted for 45 minutes. I was asked pretty good quetions for which i had my answers ready :).

So now, a new life's gona start. I m flying to US on 8th August for my Master's, joining Mays Business School of Texas A & M University at colllege stationm, gonna carry out my Master's in Management Information System.

So, m having two months vacation, gotta spend my first week at ISRO to finish off fine tuning of my project and then i will start my shopping, packing, meeting family/frenz.

Jus in 2002, I had joined my colg. Time went so fast that i cant still beleive that i am done with my engineering. Can't forget the days when we were searching for the road to our canteen and seniors taking our ragging in college bus. In Second year, feeling like grown up babies goin ahead on our knees. Later in third year, giving advices to our juniors and in last year harrassing our teachers and taking punga with them by compalining bt some of them to our Head of Dept :).

Hey SVIT !!! I am gona miss u !!!!!!!!!!!

Ciao

Zeest the Band

A fren of mine came with a song in his ipod and jus was excited to let everyone listen to a song, the song named BC Suttah...!! wohoo... the song was having great vocal, cool guitaring, but the low side was its explicit lyrics. I doubt whether this band has revealed its identity or even any other song by this band has been released yet.

The name I came to know by googling the song for the band was "Zeest The Band", some people said its from pakisatan and one of my peers was quite sure about the the band being from one of the top notch technology institute of India. Well, even if you don like explicity lyrics the tune of the song will remain on your lips once u'll listen to it.

News is that the band is coming up with a new song of it by this month end and its gona rock again more than BC suttah one. The song is almost done and finishing touches are being given to it.

I just got its so called official website address Here

Is there any clause in the country forbiddin such band and whether such songs can harm the band. For now, I have loved this song too much that i wont like the band to be banned. :-)

If u ppl havnt yet gone through the song.. here is the song for u BC Suttah

And here is the lyrics if u cant figure out what does the song say.. :0-)

Well, i repeat that the tune is the thing I loved to hear not the words, they could hav made the tune with some great lyrics still ppl would have liked it that i m sure about.

Lets c what its nxt song gets us.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I wrote a really really long post with the heading FLOOD FESTIVAL ..describing the flood in my town but when i clicked publish the post without saving it....it didnt work as my net had got dc..and now i hav lost the whole post...!!!!!

Not writing again...!!

DeMnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

bye